MAAA Wingspan - Quarterly Magazine

8 Member Story: ANDREW HERZFELD Having worked in a variety of roles at Perth Airport for almost a decade and subsequently achieving a commercial pilot licence, Andrew Herzfeld has continually been immersed in an aviation environment. The Darlington-basedmember of the WA Model Aircraft Sports Club also comes froma long line of aviators. This includes his grandfather, Cyril Gare, who was one of the pioneers of the aviation industry in themid-1900s- during the days of MMA (MacRobertson Miller Airlines). Commencing with paper planes and basic radio control models and evolving to sophisticatedmodel jet aircraft, Andrew has steadily advanced his craft for building and flying model aircraft for over 40 years. It’s safe to assume, however that his own built 747-400 Jumbo Jet, the largest jet model aircraft constructed in the country and the biggest radio control Boeing 747-400 in the world, is his pièce de résistance. “I have always held a fascination with the jumbo jet due to its colossal size and have always believed in challenging myself withmy hobby to build new, different and exciting models,” said Andrew. Andrew’s jumbo jet model is 5.615 metres in length, weighs 65 kg and has a wingspan of 5.2 metres. It is powered by colossal 4,140 size jet turbine engines that produces a total thrust of 56 kg. It uses JETA1 fuel that carries 20 litres on- board that allow for an anticipated flight time of around 15 minutes. Themodel took two years and thousands of hours of work to complete and was totally scratch built frommaterials (including polystyrene, balsa wood, plywood, fibreglass and carbon fibre), sourced both locally and nationally and scaled down froma plan of the full-size aircraft. Most of the electronic components were obtained internationally. “There wasn’t one part of the build that wasn’t a challenge and therefore the saying that ‘instructions are only for people that don’t know what they are doing’ is not always true,” said Andrew. “I had to overcomemany challenges during the build to WING SPAN FEBRUARY WITH A LONG FAMILY HISTORY IN AVIATION, AN AEROMODELLER REVEALS HOW HE CAME TO BUILD THE LARGEST RADIO-CONTROLLED 747 400 JUMBO JET IN THE WORLD