Pursuing Aerobatic Excellence
KAM Aero manufacturing and sales moves to Queen Creek Arizona! On April 24th Cam McCausey passed the baton to Alex Dreiling. Alex is a resident of Queen Creek Arizona where he and his wife Elise are raising three children. He’s been in the RC hobby since age 7 and his passion for RC has spanned airplanes, helicopters and drones. He’s cur
KAM Aero manufacturing and sales moves to Queen Creek Arizona! On April 24th Cam McCausey passed the baton to Alex Dreiling. Alex is a resident of Queen Creek Arizona where he and his wife Elise are raising three children. He’s been in the RC hobby since age 7 and his passion for RC has spanned airplanes, helicopters and drones. He’s currently an IMAC Unlimited pilot, a Tucson Aerobatic Shootout Invitational pilot and Vice President of the IMAC organization. Alex is excited to take on this endeavor! The website, https://kamaero300.com/ will continue to be the primary site for information on the KamAero product line. Customers and builders can reach out to Alex directly at 775-434-3538
Cam started flying radio control airplanes in the late 1980’s. He found his main areas of interests were in aerobatics and model building. In 2003 he started competing in IMAC aerobatic competition. A year later, Cam won the 2004 IMAC National Championship in the Sportsman class. He then jumped past the Intermediate class directly in
Cam started flying radio control airplanes in the late 1980’s. He found his main areas of interests were in aerobatics and model building. In 2003 he started competing in IMAC aerobatic competition. A year later, Cam won the 2004 IMAC National Championship in the Sportsman class. He then jumped past the Intermediate class directly into the Advanced class for the 2005 IMAC season, where he placed 3rd in the 2005 IMAC National Championship. Since then, Cam has earned over 15 IMAC Unlimited first place finishes in the limited time he has available for practice & competing.
Cam is a well known Master Builder having built over 150 Carden competition aerobatic airplanes, including many IMAC National Championship, Canadian National Championship, and World Championship winning aerobatic aircraft. He is well known for building lightweight, strong & durable airplanes that fly straight with very minimal trimming. Cam’s aircraft building business is recognized as “Cam McCausey Competition Built Aircraft” – you may have seen his logo decals on winning competition giant aerobatic aircraft.
Cam is an FAA licensed full scale pilot, he is an avid motorsports fan and attends several regional and national level professional races annually in several different forms of motorsports. He is an avid hunter and also enjoys fishing. Cam is a journeyman glazier but left that vocation many years ago to build giant-scale aerobatic airplanes full time and is the owner and operator of KAM Aero. He has a wife Amy, daughters Olivia and Alexa and is "Papa" to grandson Blaine. The family has a small hobby farm with goats, horses, rabbits and dogs.
Kurt started flying radio control airplanes in 1999. One year later, he started competing in aerobatic and freestyle competitions. He used the knowledge gained over his years of aerobatic competition experience to optimize the design of scale aerobatic airplanes. He is the designer of the 125.5″ KAM Aero Extra 300KK and the 124″ Carden
Kurt started flying radio control airplanes in 1999. One year later, he started competing in aerobatic and freestyle competitions. He used the knowledge gained over his years of aerobatic competition experience to optimize the design of scale aerobatic airplanes. He is the designer of the 125.5″ KAM Aero Extra 300KK and the 124″ Carden Aircraft Extra 300 Pro. Kurt has also competed and tweaked the designs of a wide variety of model airplanes including the Cap 232, Extra 330, Edge 540, Extra 260, and several versions of the Extra 300. At the field he loves to help others setup planes and teach them how to fly aerobatics.
Kurt is a professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at The Ohio State University where he conducts research and teaches graduate level courses in fluid mechanics, computational fluid dynamics and polymer composites.
Kurt’s flying accomplishments include:
Randy built all of the precision plugs that we use for laying-up each of the fiberglass parts, as well as the precision plug for vacuum forming the canopy.
Randy does all of Cam’s paint work and has painted for Cam for many years, painting all of the Carden aircraft that Cam has built (over 160 of them!).
Randy is employed at a world-clas
Randy built all of the precision plugs that we use for laying-up each of the fiberglass parts, as well as the precision plug for vacuum forming the canopy.
Randy does all of Cam’s paint work and has painted for Cam for many years, painting all of the Carden aircraft that Cam has built (over 160 of them!).
Randy is employed at a world-class auto restoration facility that restores cars worth $100k+!. He is also a modeler and loves fishing.
Jim delivers fully-built KAM Aero Extra 300KK's and kits to customers and picks up supplies for the kits all over the United States.
Jim works at a paper mill, is a modeler and enjoys boating.
KAM Aero Design Rationale – In 2015 a new Extra 300 (Prototype #1) that could be flown more gracefully through slow rolls, would snap cleaner, show clearer stall break in spins, and fly at a more consistent pace than previous planes I have flown. We also wanted to design a plane that was durable and easy to maintain. All dimensions of t
KAM Aero Design Rationale – In 2015 a new Extra 300 (Prototype #1) that could be flown more gracefully through slow rolls, would snap cleaner, show clearer stall break in spins, and fly at a more consistent pace than previous planes I have flown. We also wanted to design a plane that was durable and easy to maintain. All dimensions of this plane needed to meet scale aerobatic 10% design rules (following scale rules originally set up at the Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas). Below is a description of how we met these goals: The design incorporated a fuselage with significantly more side area than previous designs I had flown. This allows point rolls and slow rolls to be flown at a slower pace without using significant amounts of the rudder. The rolls look clean and axial with less yaw through the roll. As the fuselage becomes larger, the drag also increases. This fuselage design is taller (creating more side area), but not significantly wider which keeps drag from becoming too significant (a problem with some of the airplanes with really large fuselages). To improve stall into autorotation for snaps and spins, a new wing was designed with a different airfoil type at the root and tip (including lower percentage airfoil at the tip) as well as sweep angle. This allows the tip to stall sooner. The result is cleaner breaks in snaps and more defined stall breaks in spins. This could not be accomplished easily (or at all) without the use of the 4-axis hotwire CNC machine. Many designs have identical airfoil type and percent chord at both the root and tip because it is easier to manufacture and does not require an expensive 4-axis hotwire CNC machine to perform. We wanted a plane that had minimal mixing in knife-edge, rolling circles, uplines, downlines, etc. Unfortunately, this is rarely accomplished immediately with any new airplane design since there are a variety of different factors that can influence mixing. Thus, Prototype #1 was designed to allow for testing different design adjustments on a single platform. This included a wing that had four (4) different mounting locations through the fuselage (high/forward, high/rear, low/forward, low/rear), different angle of attack, thrust angle, CG, stab location, etc. Prototype #1 was tested during the 2016 season to determine optimum wing location, CG, wing incidence, thrust angle, CG, etc. After all of this testing phase was completed, I designed Prototype #2 (taking into account everything learned from Prototype #1). Prototype #2 has been flown throughout the 2017 season. I love flying Prototype #2 – it tracks beautifully, can be flown slowly and gracefully through rolls/point rolls, snaps cleanly, and presents well with a steady flying pace. We also wanted a plane that would be durable, easy to build, and easy to install components. The CNC router cut motor box is tab-lock plywood construction and builds straight and true. The pipe tunnel is large enough to incorporate any exhaust system size. The main fuselage has a removable ply top plate (8 machine screws hold it on) which allows components to be installed without worry of breaking any cross-braces. With the top plate removed it is possible to reach your arm and hand over 3 feet back under the turtle deck to mount extensions for rudder and elevator servos. Overall this kit has been a very rewarding design/build process. We are now excited to offer this premium kit to the aerobatic world!!
Copyright © 2023 KAM Aero - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by GoDaddy