Capt Jim

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I have recently picked up an old Brushfire pattern ship. At least we think it is a Brushfire. Does anyone know where I may be able to get some specs and general info' on this plane. I'd like to be able to make a positive ID on it, and also to learn more about its qualities and/or quirks.
Thanks

flywilly

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It definitely looks like a Brushfire. Is the Fuselage wood or fiberglass? S&W hobbies used to kit the Brushfire and the plans were originally published by Model Builder (now defunct - but plans may still be available??). I believe Steve Rojecki Designed the Brushfire. I remember him flying it at the '83 Nats at WEstover AFB. He liked to do knife-edge to knife-edge snaps. Good flying airplane - exceptional for rolling manuevers.
Happy Flying,
Will B.

Capt Jim

My Feedback: (168)

The fuse' is glass, and it looks like the heat from the pipe has cause some paint to come away in that area. It has a YS 60 size motor, which seems small, but I guess those were the motors of choice back then. It carries a three blade prop...I'm really out of my depth to try and figure out how it may perform. No servos yet, so she is some time away from flying. I'd like to learn more about her pedigree before actually finishing and flying her.
Thanks again

gltruett

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Capt. Jim,
I can say with some certainty what you have is a Brushfire. I actually have the molds for that airplane but there has been no interest in it for some time now. It was designed by Ken Bonema (spelling?) but it was Steve Rojecki who probably made the plane well known at the time. He was the most successful flier with it I can remember. I can probably get you a set of plans if that would help. There were 2 companies kitting the Brushfire. Southeastern Air Crafters who had Ken's approval and someone else who did not. I have the SAC version so there could be some variation depending on which one you have.

George T

Capt Jim

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Hey, thats great info. I sure would like to have a set of the plans, if they can be made available. This bird has been canibalized in that the retracts have been removed and a fixed gear installed. There may be other mods, but I just have not looked at it closely enough to tell. I have only recently bought this plane at a local swap meet, and I must finish up several other projects that are cluttering up the shop, before I can devote some time to the Brushfire. Having a plan set would help quite a lot, when I get into reviving this venerable old pattern ship. Please do let me know if you can generate a set and I'll be happy to cover your expenses with $ via PayPal, if that is acceptable to you. Going back to the mid eightys, while living in Maryland, I actually had a Brushfire fuse and foam cores. I had obtained them from a guy in Md, who was apparently turning them out in his shop. I have had quite a lot of experience with fiberglass, and his work appeared to be quite good. I had even gone so far as to buy contest grade balsa for the project, and was considering using sorghum glue on the sheeting of the foam cores. Well, time went by, and I never did build the plane, eventually selling the package to another flyer when I moved to Florida. So, here I am, in a sort of, Deja-vu. A little bit of history coming back to revisit me. For now, the Brushfire sits on the shelf while I gather history, and info, but soon...I'll be jumping into the project with great interest. Thanks for the note, and I hope to hear from you soon.
Jim

Ozone

That is most definetely a Brushfire. In the early nineties when I was flying pattern intensely I cut my teeth with this airplane. I can't even remember how many I went through. I can think of at least 4.

I flew many a sportsman and advanced contests with it. The plane came out of the Florida pattern guys. Rojecki designed it and guys like Tom Atkins kitted it.

Tom use to own a hobby shop south of Atlanta (Peachtree City) and I always flew his designs. Some may remember planes like the T2A, T2A MarkII, MarkIII and Mark IV. The later being a great plane for the time.

Any way the Brushfire is a great plane. Real compact. Thick airfoil which made for a very smooth platfrom.

The biggest modification was that we installed the engine inverted and routed the pipe out the bottom. Originally it was meant for an upright engine.

I'll look through some old photos and try and post some here.

Good luck.

Capt Jim

My Feedback: (168)

I'd love to see pix, and gather info on it. This one has the upright motor, and the pipe on top, but the exhaust tip is led out of the bottom of the fuse. Is that unusual for a brushfire?
Jim

Ozone

Yes. That was a very common way to route the exhaust. We use to have to locate special bent headers to route the exhaust from the engine "up" to the pipe. That is one of the reasons we made the mod. It was a real pain routing the header and pipe. Plus the engine upside down made the plane more aerodynamic.

BTW - with some real light balsa and other tricks I was able to get one of these down into the mid to high seven pound range.

Capt Jim

My Feedback: (168)

This one is probably "a brick". It has had some mods done to it...the retracts were removed and a fixed gear installed, etc, I'll have to redo all that. As soon as I get some time, I'll get into this plane and try to bring it back to good appearance and performance, but she'll probably never be real competative...but thats OK, neither am I. I just wonder if that YS60 size is enough power for it? We shall see. It looks as though the heat from the pipe has caused paint to come off the fuse in that area. Is that a common problem? Any way to avoid that in the future...insulation, heat baffle, special paint?
Jim

Ozone

I always had YS 60 long stroke in them. We did manage to squeeze in a YS 120 and then later we tried a YS 90.

It's real sweet with the 90.

Since several of us in the club had BF's we were continually modding them.

Capt Jim

My Feedback: (168)

I assume you are talking 120 and 91 (2) strokes...How is it with a (4) stroke? I just happen to have an OS91 pumped, four stroke available to try. Is it worth the change over? It seems to me that the power wouldn't be any greater than the YS60 2 stroke, but I'm no expert at this.

Ozone

I was referring to 4 stroke. I can't speak for the OS91 but the YS90 I used then was much more powerful than the corresponding YS60 short stroke.

The convenience of the 4 stroke of course is not having to mess with the pipe.

duke241

My Feedback: (5)

That plane is a EU-1A. I built three of them in the early eighties!
Had a fifth place With one in sportsman at the 83 Nats. Nice flying plane.
Don't remember who made the kits!

Capt Jim

My Feedback: (168)

I have heard that before, and also I've been told that the EU-1A has "bulges" on the fuse' sides, while the Brushfire has flat fuse sides..otherwise, they appear to be the same plane. Mine, has the flat sides. Does that sound familiar to you.
Thanks for the comment.
Jim

duke241

My Feedback: (5)

You are correct! I did not look real close! That is Not a Eu 1A! It is a Brushfire! Opps, Sorry!
But they flew even better! My first Eu 1a Came out at 11lbs! All glass& paint, Still flew good w a rossi 61 R/E!!

ElectRick

My Feedback: (2)

I looked at an EU-1A photo I have from way back, and comparing it to your plane's photo, it's a Brushfire. You're right, you'd be able to see the bulges on either side of the EU-1A. They were meant to be painted to resemble jet air intakes, as the USAF T-Bird scheme was somewhat popular at the time for the EU-1A. It appears the wing root chord is wider on the EU-1A as well, but it's hard to say for sure. I remember from the old Flying Models magazine Project Pattern series in the 80's, that it had this huge wing with a very wide root chord. Otherwise similar in looks to the Brushfire, but not the same.

Rick

Ozone

Gosh, I'd forgotten about the EU-1A. Darn ugly airplane. Even though similar to the Brushfire, there were significant differences.

We had a guy in the club with one and as I recall it was not a very good pattern ship.

gltruett

My Feedback: (23)

Capt. Jim,
I found some copies of Brushfire plans. E-mail me directly and we can make arrangements to get you a set.

George

[email protected]

wingwalk-RCU

Capt. Jim,

I can tell you 1000% that what you have is a Brushfire Pattern plane. If it is a glass fuse with the "BRUSHFIRE" molded into the glass, you have a kit that wast made by Mike Demuth out of Maryland. The plane as mentioned earlier in the posts wast made famous by Steve Rojecki in the early eighties. The plane was also flown by other well known competitors of the time at one point or another ( Steve Stricker, The Frac. , and even myself...Not that I was well known ) . It started life with an upright rear EX running over the top and exiting out the bottom. Then engine was then inverted and a "S" type header was installed to still bring the exust over the top then down out the bottom still. Then there were many of us that turned the plane into a taildragger to save weight as well as let the pipe come straight back and under the wing half buried in the wing leading edge. The plane flew welll with the engine on it's side too with the pipe under the wing. That was the way that I first saw Steve Rojecki flying it now that I think about it. The plane was a good performer on a YS60 but did have a slight roll coupling with the rudder. Todays radios can dial that out without much effort. You will have a fun plane with wonderful slow landing speeds!!! Have a ball and let us know how it goes.

PS. I was there and actually got to help lay up the glass on my plane when Mike Demuth made it. Very cool to see how it was done!!!

Kirk Wicker

Doug Cronkhite

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Oh quite the contrary.. The EU-1A was perhaps the best rolling airplane of that era.

Capt Jim

My Feedback: (168)

Thanks for the info on the Brushfire. I have been involved with many other projects layely and so the Brushfire is just sitting, and waiting it's turn. Soon, I hope. I'll post the results after the initial flights. I appreciate your comments.

Deadstik

My Feedback: (8)

HERE HERE DOUG>>>>> you are correct.... NOTHING rolls like an EU1 A...An automatic 10 on "3 horizontal rolls" LOL...This thread sure brought back some great memories. I am trying to find another EU1 A now just to have one. Anyway..

As going with the original post, I flew two different Brushfires, one glass (W/Brushfire inset) and the other was scratch built wood. Both flew very well and would really slow down for a landing. The wooden one was about a pound lighter and it really had much better response than the glass bird. One had a Rossi .61 RE and the other the YS 60 short stroke. YS obviously had way more power than the Rossi... but something about that "crackle" you could get on a Rossi piped..

Am looking forward to seeing yours when you restore it. Nice to see somebody else like to keep the old ones flying too !!

Dan

aka deadstik

EU1a

My Feedback: (1)

I have yet to see a Pattern Ship that looked as good as an EU-1A. When that thing streaked through the air, it looked like an F4 Phantom on a mission. Very capable too but you had to keep it as light as possible. Weight was it’s biggest flaw. I’ve always wanted to scale one up a little, and use new technology building methods. Maybe I’m crazy.

That’s me 15 or so years ago with 1 of 3 sister ships I had. (still have 1 and 3. Don’t speak about #2 anymore, still hurts)[&o]

GEMcLean

My Feedback: (3)

Hi, Capt Jim,

I just dusted off a Brushfire myself. So far I only have 3 flights on it trying to get engine settled in. You know how those 20 year old engines are...

Seems like it is going to be a great flyer if I can get it balanced properly. Do you know where the CG is supposed to be? I sure could use some help with that.

By the way, mine has an O.S. 61 rear exhaust in it and it has plenty of vertical. Running a Rev-Up 11 x 7 1/2 prop.

If you have the CG, I'd love to hear from you. Could you e-mail me at [email protected]?

Thanks,

Gordon

Fyg Leaf

I built two of the original balsa Brushfires and I know who designed it. Me. I'm Ken Bonnema.

George T is right that there was one sanctioned fiberglass kit, but there was more than one pirated version.

The original construction article appeared in Model Builder magazine and they sold the plans for the wood version.
I have the original set of plans in my basement.

Reading this link has been great fun for me. I never had any idea there were so many Brushfires and Brushfire fans out there.

Steve Rojecki and I went on to win the T.O.C. in 1984 with my Reed Falcon bipe and Tony F. won the Masters with my Fyg Leaf pattern bipe later on.

I'm out of the hobby now, but really enjoyed the commentary here.

Best of luck to all of you.

Ken