News:  Precious Patty has gone Electric!      

Welcome!  For the last few years, I've been designing my own plans to build a scale B-25 Mitchell bomber.
The design was completed using SolidWorks, a 3D modeling  program, and WinFoil. Construction of the first
prototype began on Sunday, March 6, 2005 and our first flight took place on August 11, 2007.

Despite a few "pilot errors", Precious Patty continues to fly. Every winter, she comes back into the shop for
some design improvements.  Here's the latest news:
 

October 5, 2011 With the exception of one bent nose wheel at the Fond du Lac Warbirds show in August, Precious patty continues to fly.  She has 11 flights this season, an all time best.  We've
updated the Gallery with some great B-25 Mitchell photos, so check it out!
 
July 13, 2011 Summer is here and Precious Patty is flying electric.  She has six successful flights this year with the electric conversion.  Click here to get the the Electric Conversion page or use the links to the left. 

Oh, almost forgot - Precious Patty won "Best Scale Scratch-Built" at the Flying Electrons Scale Festival  - again.  Tom didn't want to enter her as to give someone else a chance to win, but the judges insisted he enter.
 
March 2, 2011 That's right, Precious Patty is going electric!  We have been working with Aero-model.com to provide us with the right setup, and the parts arrived yesterday.  Watch for a new section documenting the conversion from nitro to electric on our bomber!
November 28, 2010 Well, here's a first.  This will be the first season Precious Patty gets retired for the season
without us having to fix something.  Guess Tom's flying is getting better (ha ha).  We have
just finished new molds for glass parts, and are making pieces as needed.  We will be
working again with Custom Model Products to do the "production work" in a few weeks.
 
October 1, 2010 We've put several flights on the B25 this summer, and other than Tom's stupid landing at the
Astro Wings Charity event, the aircraft is flying very well.  However, right now, Precious Patty
is "grounded"  as we will be attending the SolidWorks Convention in Delevan Wisconsin on
October 6, 2010 - and we don't want Tom breaking the bomber before the show!
 
July 13, 2010 Receiving new replacement parts for the broken nose gear, Precious Patty flew at the 2010 Flying Electron's Scale Festival in Milwaukee.  Tom had two great flights and get this - no nose wheel issues!  And to end the day with a bang, Precious Patty won "Best Scale Scratch-Built".
 
June 26, 2010 Tom was conducting flight testing June 25th and ran into control problems as we tested the idea of mounting the engines with a 2 degree outward thrust (bad idea).  Almost lost the aircraft all together, and on top of that, Tom broke the nose gear (again) while he completed an emergency landing. 

The broken nose gear was temporarily fixed for the June 26th Air Show, and Tom had two good flights.  Check out the pictures in the Photo Gallery (click here).  Also, watch the first minute of this video done by Joe Fisher to see Precious Patty flying (click here).
 
June 23, 2010 Precious Patty is out of the shop and we are doing engine testing this week.  Talk about cutting it short!  The Sky Ranch Flyers Remote-Controlled Air Show is just a few days away! 

Tom told the boys "we're gonna be safe on this rollout - no sense in rushing it and loosing the bird".  We have new pictures of the plane.  Click here for a fast link to the Photo Gallery
 
May 20, 2010 Welcome to flying season!  We have a number of updates to report:
  1. The bomb bay design is done, and on the bomb bay page for a free download.
     
  2. Cockpit and Nose Glass production is on hold again as we have worn out the old balsa molds.  We are creating new ones with Repro from Freeman Manufacturing,
    a resin based product that should stand up to the pressures of vacuum forming.
     
  3. And to throw off everyone, a new paint scheme.  With some of the later repairs we
    made, we did not use the proper paint, and some of it was gumming off.  So, Precious Patty is being repainted with a scheme from the 1943 Torch Landings.
February  8, 2010 Work is almost done on the re-design for the bomb bay area.  Check out the Bomb Bay Design area.  Just pictures for now, but we should have the plans available for a free download soon.

We have cockpit, nose, and cowling parts for sale.  Click here!

A few upgrades to the bomber this winter include a Smart-Fly power extender (as we really don't like Y harnesses), replacing the 4.8 volt batteries with 6.0 volt sets, a new top turret, and a few cosmetic repairs to the starboard wing.
 
October 19, 2009 Well, we are going to call an end to the flying season here in Wisconsin.  A few updates:

The new glass molds are progressing a well as can be expected for us rookies.  Smooth molds
mean everything, so I've sent some more time sanding.

The Nose gear has been rebuilt with help from the guys at Robart.com, and it now has a 1/4 steel shear pin compared to a 3/16 aluminum shear pin.  We were concerned about the added strength to the gear and what it would do to the mounting blocks the gear sat on, so the plane went into the shop for a bit of "beefing up".
 
August 28, 2009 We have added a new feature to the website for you to download the plans directly from our website!  See the Plans/Drawings page for details.

Still working on the canopies for re-sale.  We are creating new molds that will hold up to the extreme forces of the vacuum machines at http://www.custommodelworks.com. 

Last, we are working on a design for the bomb-bay for a working system.  We've got the idea sketched on paper, and next step is to put it into Solidworks.

Those of you that have already purchased plans will receive the free updated drawings/electronic files.
 
August 6, 2009 A few more flights have taken place, and again we broke the nose wheel.  We contacted Robart.com on the nose gear issue, and they are sending parts to upgrade the nose gear from a 3/16" steering (shear)  pin to a 1/4" pin.

Also took out too much weight on the nose, and it wasn't flying right, so added 3 ounces back in. 
Lado-tech.net retrofit kit for the Robart retracts are working very well.
 
July 24, 2009 Put two flights on the bomber last night, the second of which on landing broke the nose gear - again!  We are convinced the bird is nose-heavy still, so we're going to take out a few more ounces of lead (which is strange, because it balances tail-heavy).

I do want to compliment the folks at ElectroDymanics for a great product, called GlowLite, a glow plug driver system.  We've tried other brands in the past, but this one, "hands-down" is the best we've seen.  Had over a dozen starts, per engine and still had power to spare!