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Not a technical question, more of a thank you. Jon - Laser Engines - thank you very much. Why you may ask? Well I have had a SC52 four stroke motor fitted to a Ripmax version of the Bullet which has been nothing but unreliable. Great for increasing heart rate and dead stick practice but nowt else. Many have twiddled and fiddled and suggested fixes - no solution. So I took on Jons info that he often posts. I corrected the tank height and tweaked and adjusted as per his information. Absolutely marvellous, I now have an engine which does not cut out or stall on me and which is burning less fuel and therefore spreading less gunk over my plane. I had a full days flying on Saturday (4 flights of 10mins each on 2 tank fills) without incident which has never happened before. So Jon, there is someone listening to you, and I thank you for that. Now off to sort another SC52 in a P-51 and an older OS70FS in a Stiletto.

Some lovely shots from Phil of the Meteor doing her thing at the April 2022 Orme fly-in event. The more I fly her, the more I like her! Fast becoming a favourite. I had to change the bind back to a different TX and forgot to re-mount the antenna from the top of the fus - d'oh!

Still progressing slowly.

Some fantastic 48 hour build machines in evidence at the Orme this past weekend, 3 of which flew, and flew extremely well! All great work guys, has spurred me on to finish mine for the Bwlch event.

If the engine is upright and the tank mounted very low the engine will run ok for the most part but you might suffer a slight leaning of the mixture under high G force. This is usually only a problem at full throttle. There will also be significant richening of the mixture under heavy negative G in, for example, an outside loop. Generally though a tank mounted directly behind the engine will be no problem as the c/l of the tank will be in line with the c/l of the crankshaft. This will put the top of the tank higher and somewhere just under the carb. This is ok and while a little low for optimum performance it can be tuned out. Certainly its a far better position than having the tank higher than the carb. For glow plugs there are only 2 in the entire world as far as i am concerned. The OS F for all 4 strokes, and the OS No8 for all 2 strokes. I have never found any other plugs work as consistently or for as long as those two so i stick to them.

Small update but a lot happening. Haven’t done much this weekend as I decided to take one of the warbirds out flying (a bit rusty as well but all good). Moved the fuz so I could start on the stabiliser, again this will be another half finished job ?? I have to wait till the fuz is done before finishing the stab! Anyway. Had to open up the ribs where the tube passes through and a bit of fiddling about getting the angles right for the tube but it’s all good. Just need to get some spruce and I can start the other side. Putting out an order tonight I think.

I also managed to get a few pictures of Murat's Polaris and his excellent save when she lost power on finals - the model landed out, but I believe there was no damage done.

Maiden flight of my Flightline Hawker Sea Fury today - I'm really enjoying these 1.2M foamies at the moment, the 10cm extra wingspan belies the large difference in the volume and feel on the ground and in the air, compared to my more usual 1.1m foamies. I couldn't get the flaps operating correctly, so disabled them for the maiden flight, but the model was as good as gold. Thanks to my pal Derek for the excellent piccies.

Predictions done!!!?

The pressure on with a bank holiday weekend and perhaps nice weather. With some measuring from the original front of cowl it would appear that the FT is too long on the stand-off arrangement or a bit short from the existing bulkhead so there was only one thing to do as Jon would suggest. After a bit of hacking the stand off was removed and a ply spacer cut to shape. A few holes later and its looking ok, but I have original bulkhead to sand flat and then epoxy the new one to it. With some luck the tank, prop and spinner will turn up although I have tail straitening, lots of covering repairs and all the electrics to fit so there is still a lot to do.

Despite remembering my predictions, I managed to remain in last place! BUT......I wasn't at the bottom of the race results table. From little acorns do oak trees grow! ?

I know loads of people love the enya 3 but i cant stand them. They seem to fail in 5 minutes and they are a funny shape so none of the glow clips fit them. 2/10, must try harder.

The comment by John , that centred on job losses, immediately garnered my general sympathy. At the same time, i did not and do not have clear picture in my mind about whom was being referred to. The more I thought about the issue the greater became my perspective of who is adversely affected. It will include Traplet Press. I then thoiught there are probably a wider circle of people, potentially the existing writers, as focus will change with time, also those involved in selling advertising space, will the new owner have their existing department, the printers of the mag could be also be subject to change. I suspect that many people will be impacted, potentially not for the good, although some will eventually conclude things were for the best. IMO it is not just the obvious workers that I feel for. As for Traplet, as Kevin (and probably others ) have alluded to, the mags must not have being laying "Golden Eggs". I wonder how this will aspect the new owners are going to address? My pessimist side suggests, we trad, type modellers, are less numerous than ever, or perhaps we are spending less, maybe both, who knows? Again as suggested by a suggested tittle change, everything changes with time. IMO changing the title will not have any significant affect on who may buy it for the first time, it may be the final straw for many current purchasers, again who knows. I have seen our hobby titles disappear from the shelfs of the newsagents over the years. Perhaps a very recent surprise is that some of the places where RCM&E could be found, no longer (appeared) to stock it. On a positive note I did purchase a mag for fling scale modellers (not an awful lot in though). RCM&E still remains the best that is currently available. When I can find mags for Tractors, Land Rovers, barges, there must be space for a mag for us. A very positive aspect is I thought that Sarik would struggle with the short kits and plans. So I have often been mistaken. Hmm how will they be affected?

Oh dear, I think anymore reference to drones on or in RCM&E will definately turn many people off. Drones are best catered for by their own publications as BMFA seem to acknowledge.

I can lend you an Enya N°3 Jon, just ask,,,?

Priory bipe was the Reflection, looked at a build thread, whilst construction methods are similar, the plane looks quite a bit different.

It landed smoothly on its belly.. No damage at all.

R/C Model Aeroplane?

Despite forgetting to do my predictions, I managed to move up a place. Oh what could have been!

Indeed. I sourced a pack of the grey 6mm last year and though I found it rather painful to finish, compared to the Depron that I was used to in earlier times, it can still make a nice model. Some of my clubmates are making fantastic models with depron, which fly beautifully - as a material it really lends itself to experimentation. One of the most impressive EDF models that I've seen is John Davidson's magnificent EE Lightning, which I swear climbs faster than the real thing! John's twin EDF Phantom is another spirited performer. Another clubmate Bob has crafted a lovely fleet of the SEMFF profile depron fighters, which he's passed several on to me and I'm hugely enjoying flying them. My own Mustang III doesn't perform quite as well as his Zero, Bf109e and Bearcat, but I'm really happy with it. Likewise the several mid-wing pusher propjet Su27, Su37 and Mig 29s which are regularly tearing up the sky at the field. There are several of the STOL Tundra-like depron models at my other club - Tosh who posts here has a lovely example and my pal Derek is just completing a gigantic F104 Starfighter, having successfully flown a smaller version and a similarly huge Buccaneer.

Last flight of the day. The wind had really got up by now but I still had some fun and nearly ran out of fuel which forced a hasty landing. Completely uncut vid!

This is my 30" Scram which I flew for the first time last weekend, powered by a Redfin 020 Kompish diesel. Here is a video of one of its flights, powered backed off to try and keep it lower and closer for the camera. A full tank with a few more revs gets it to a decent height, good fun.

Thanks for the offer, but following the end of my motorcycle racing days I seem to have found myself with a spate 5 gallons of Castrol R40 as the engines ran a total loss system. I was thinking of mixing a bit in for the smell, but if I dumped a model just for that it would not be worth it. They run really clean and its only when I roll that I get a little puff of exhaust smoke which is a nice reminder that they are both running! Not sure about the feasibility of injecting the castor post exhaust valve to produce the smell/smoke, but then I would end up caking up exhausts so is it worth it when they sound as good as this (Laser 100's) ?

The Meatbox got some more air time at the LleynMAC PSSA meet, off of a slope I'd not flown before - Cim Farm South. It has a lovely landing area but the lift wasn't overly buoyant for the windspeed, which could have been down to meteorological effects I guess. Anyway, she flew well enough and landed without mishap this time! She is now 2 flights old. Many thanks to Phil for the excellent photos as always.

It's lovely smooth grass where we land Danny, or at a pinch we can chuck it into the heather if we have a misbehaving model. Even though I got it on the short grass, this still happened - oops! Shona caught this shot at the moment of touchdown.

Well, pretty close to being done now. A few day's worth of spraying, and she's ready for servo mounting, control surface hinging, pushrod manufacture, and then programming and balancing. I might do a little light weathering around the gun ports, but I won't go too mad - I know they weren't used all that much.

It's a great size for the slope, and your plans capture the shapes and character of the original really well - I look forward to seeing you and Chris testing them out this season (and perhaps starting mine shortly too!?)

Everything is now glassed and ready for primer and canopy application. The canopy was created by my faithful beta tester Chris Barlow, who also problem solved the initial design errors and put up with my wing re-design. Chris' machine is shown here in primer - a lovely size! Chris also cut his own wing rib set on his CNC laser, my kit and Chris' fuselage parts were cut by SLEC for me at a very reasonable price. Not long now and we'll have two Meatboxes ready to beat up the slopes ?

Time to start putting things together! I drew up the engine nacelles on SolidWorks, and 3D printed them as I know my planking isn't great and it produces a totally round shape - no 50p piece shapes!