Leaderboard

Here's my scratch built Cessna GC-1, a not so famous 1929 air racer. It spans 1.57 meters, is powered by a Saito 72 and weighs 3 kg. I built it for the controlline events I visit once a year to compete in Scale and in Basic Carrier Deck flying - a nice diversion from my RC flying. The throttle is controlled by 2.4mhz RC, covering is hobbyking film, and it has sprung landing gear. Maiden flight soon. Karl-Georg

My Miles Magister maidened 1stMay. Full build here and there is a thread here.

Club mate Mick King test flew his De Havilland 71 Tiger Moth yesterday

We had a really wonderful Nationals at Walsall, and there will be more in the magazine in the coming month. This was the first time R/C has been flown at Walsall, the Free Flight guys have been using the venue for some time, but its always been too pricey for the low entry that R/C attracts, not sure why, I guess indoor R/C is too difficult ? Anyway congrats to Graham Smith for taking Gold in scale, just pipping Andrew Whites Vulcan, both very impressive models. I took bronze with my Cub. Kit scale was won by Ian Pallister flying a 33 year old Veron Tiger Moth. I would like to say I came a close second but I was miles behind, but at least I did get highest static score with my VMC Se5a, shame my flying was so rusty. Andrew White was third with KK Se5a In Flying only a win for Graham Smith again, this time with an FB8, second place was Al Foot flying a box kite. Third was last years winner Brian Seymour with a MicroAces Fokker DVII The venue is brilliant and has transformed the event, decent pictures for a start, a different funding method meant sponsors covered a good chunk of the Saturdays cost, hopefully the sponsors got good value for money and will do it all again next year. Why don't you join us?? Cheers Danny PS my Jack Savage Se ended up second to last, said my flying was rubbish....

I have no axe to grind here. I might buy an electric car at some time in the future but with the relatively low mileage that I do with my (formerly environmentally friendly) diesel with £30 annual road tax, it would take many years to break even (and see my penultimate paragraph). Charging, while not impossible for me, would require some major reorganisation of my parking/vehicle storage arrangement plus complex (and no doubt expensive) electrical installation work - and I certainly sympathise with the increasing number of people with properties in unsuitable locations. Some major infrastructure changes needed to accommodate flat dwellers and on-street parkers… Green? Maybe not as much as it would appear at first sight with significantly more environmental impact in manufacturing electric cars and batteries but I agree that city dwellers will benefit from removal of pollution at the point of use. The elephant in the room though is how long will it be before a method of taxing electric car use will be implemented - either direct taxation or via stealth means such as smart metering of electricity. Lots to consider before jumping in to make the switch.

Now that you have your "A", try being slightly more adventurous with learning some new manoeuvres. Just remember that the sky is NOT the limit. . . . The ground is the limit, so practice at a height which allows a couple of mistakes. Importantly, have fun. .

Hi chaps, hope you can help. I’ve acquired this 3-channel glider from a dec’d club member’s model sale, but don’t know the name. It has a glass fuselage and foam/veneer wings. I’d guess it’s 1980s vintage, but perhaps you’d know for sure. All-moving stab, span is 100”. Tow release on the underside.

More work on the Mossie . Nacelles very simple and notice my "fake motor" in order to see where the prop driver and spinner will be . The ply doublers should spread the landing impacts through the lower wing skin and ribs while a further 1.5mm ply leading edge doubler (not yet shown ) will make sure the front of the nacelle doesnt kick downward .

A few more pics.

I don't know about the environmental cost of the panels i bought Nigel. From memory, they're branded as Spanish, but what their origin is I don't know. Regarding payback - a long time! In our case, payback wasn't the driver. We are in our mid-sixties and have capital sitting in accounts earning almost nothing, so it seemed sensible to use some and reduce our regular outgoings. The installer calculated 12 years but it depends on many variables of course. The way energy prices are going, that 12 years may reduce.

Very nice David. The tailplanes are on upside down, there is a cut away section at the front that allows clearance to the fin at full up elevator. I have two flying Centi-Phases (one with foam wings, one with built-up wings), one wooden fuselage build in progress and years ago I was given a CP but wrote it off on the slope (bottom landing). From a scrap CP fuselage I built a Hi-Phase, later Hi-Phases had their own fibreglass fuselage. Cheers Gary

At least Tesla's have working indicators fitted !

I bought a Nissan Leaf a year ago. 11,000+ miles later I think it is brilliant. Plug it in my wall charger at night, - 240 mile range in the morning (OK 180 miles on a frosty morning with heated seats, windscreens, et all on!) No road tax, cheap insurance and servicing. Oh, and nearly 500 miles per gallon, equivalent cost. 0-60mph in 6.9 seconds linear acceleration. 217 Bhp equivalent. Yes, the National charging network is woefully inadequate but then I have never needed to charge at a public charging point, despite regularly making 200mile round trips to see my grand children. (I do top up at my daughters house from the garage 13A socket in the wintertime however!). A basic Leaf is now £28k (I bought my range topping model for £32k a year ago (Tesla, eat your heart out). The important bit is that is a joy to drive, clean, quiet, refined, stable and fast. My three Labradors love it too, as there is plenty of room in the boot! EVs are not for everyone, especially if you can’t charge at home but if you can they make a lot of sense, for some people at least.

Hi folks this is going to be my first review on here, I hope modellers will find it interesting. Just got this kit a couple of weeks ago. I did order the kit in 2018 and its been on order for 4 years, so its finally arrived, (not original price though its slightly different). Please feel free to comment on the build as it progresses. A big thankyou to RapidRc for finally getting the kit.

Hi – I am in the process of completing my Dennis Bryant DHC1 Chipmunk build (two years in the making) and have been looking for suppliers of bespoke decals/rub downs etc. The model is ic powered and will be finished using satin/matt Klass Kote from Fighteraces. This is my first plan built model, any help would be much appreciated.

It's not uncommon on full size aircraft whereas side thrust is very uncommon.

It's deflection, as throttle comes off it'll pull the model that way, a bent model.

Actually brake wear should be less due to the regenerative braking putting charge back in the battery, so the brake pads don't see as much use as in an IC car. But yes the heavier weight will increase road wear, but then again everybody seems to want to drive round in a big heavy SUV.

Better not let my wife see the VW IDBuzz or she will want one. ?

Seems I goofed trying to upload the pics from Fully Charged, quite how I could see them and everyone else couldn't seems a bit bizarre. So anyway we'll try again one at a time. First up my dream future model carrier, the VW IDBuzz. Given the length of the queues just to sit in it I think it will be a bit popular. idd

Just thought I would add a flying shot to finish this blog. The sharp eyed amongst you may notice that she lost a spinner during this flight but I did manage to find it in the grass on the edge of the field. Also she was flying with the gear down as I forgot to take my air pump with me!

Contact Chris. If he does not pick up the phone, leave a message and he will call you back if you leave a contact number. He does not list all his plans. I have just got from him plans for an all wood CentiPhase and also the Hi-Phase together with a couple of canopies. The plans he has supplied are probably the best plans I have seen - very clear and well drawn.

There's some info here, possibly a little biased in favour of PV. But as more PV is installed then less carbon is used in the manufacture of the panels so they become even cleaner over time. And at the moment China is installing PV just about quicker than anywhere else. We have a few fields near us with a PV array, the grass cutting is done by the 4 legged version, so woolly jumpers and food are a by product.

Thanks David, it was a grand weekend. We wont mention how much the lens cost to enable me to get these snaps lol

Here you go. chilli breeze wing rev1.pdfchilli breeze rib outlines rev1.pdf Steve

No, the wings were just plugged in on a thin piece of wire, I made a wing joiner proper later on.

The Centi-Phase kit (glass fuselage/foam wing) was reviewed in the May 1979 'Radio Modeller', the kit was released in February. Prior to that 'plan packs' were available, wing ribs (in a sandwich), hardware and a plan. My white CP was built using a kit fuselage and plan pack wing ribs. The built-up wing version is much lighter and is better for flat field flying, the foam wing version is very nice on the slope in a light to moderate breeze. There could be one or two main wing joiner rods, stacked. The double rod was advised for 'enthusiastic flying' and tow/bungee launches in windy conditions. My white CP has only one rod to keep the weight down and I also only launch it with thin surgical tube bungee on light wind days. If you leave out the smaller incidence pin wire it will behave very strangely, ask me how I know!! This model has self-connecting Graupner spoilers (No 93), they are operated by the white plastic fitting which is a torque tube in the fuselage.

Thanks chaps. Gary, yes, I realised the stab’ halves were upside down when I connected everything up yesterday evening ☺️. I’ve used your set up c of g and throws from your build thread ?

Hi folks Thought I make a start with the wings. Knowing problems with ARTF kits in general started to seal all the edges with matt fuel proofer ( some gloss finishes I use nail varnish) so they do not start to lift. They always seem to leave an exposed edge to the airflow which can lift up and look untidy, so going round the leading edges, flaps ailerons, servo box covers and servo bays. Its a bit tedious but is saves problems later on.

I don’t hate you Tim ❤️, even if you do drive a Tesla ? ?

Well said Piers. On top of all that, we went to the cinema yesterday afternoon, I plugged the Tesla in to a Pod Point charger in the car park and in the three hours we were in the cinema it took the battery from 42% to 87%, all for free! As a side note, a club-mate at our flying field yesterday told me that he'd read an article recently that reckoned that BMW drivers are no longer the most hated - that honour has gone to Tesla drivers!

Give us some accurate measurements of the original servos Dave, You know, there are 100s of micro servos available. E-flite would not have invented a new servo for this model, They have already used an available servo and designed straps for their model to hold them in the wing.

None on BMFA sites but they come on quite often Martin if you're not in a hurry.

Found it, pretty certain it’s CF Centiphase.

Update on p51 Getting to final paint stages... And starting to check servo and retract setup.

What do you want out of the hobby Robert? We are all different, with different aims, ambitions, talents & skills. Don't loose sight that his is a hobby and is undertaken for your personal pleasure & satisfaction. Some participants are quite content to just get airborne with a simple model, cruise about and never do a loop in their life. Others have ambitions to become a World Champion. Both are equally valid, there is no right & wrong. The hobby is a very broad church from the chuck glider to multi-engine jets. Decide what you want to achieve and I'm sure you will get plenty of help in achieving that objective.

Sorry @Peter Wedlake, I have no experience with the X10S, in fact it is one of the few FrSky TX that I have not owned!

Another of my winter scratch builds in 6mm depron all epoxy glassfibre covered. HE5, 3 seater reconaisance float plane in Soviet colours circa 1927..

My latest scratch build from three view found online and couple of old pics. AVRO 539. Originally designed as a float plane for the 1919 Schneider Trophy. After float damage returned to Avro factory and floats replaced with wheels and vertical stabilizer redesigned for Airiel Derby. As I will eventually add floats I kept the original Stab on my wheeled version. Builders perogative! 40 inch span, built from 6mm white depron (Yes I still have 10 shets left) and some blue fom. All covered with 40gram glass cloth using west system epoxy painted with own mix of ivory acrylic. 35.36 910kv motor. 3cell 2200 lipo. 12x7 woodprop. 1350 grams flying weight..

This is precisely what I am going to do with my Baron for this year's La Coupe Des Barons! I have removed the Great War Russian cockades and will replace them with Ukrainian ones. I am just waiting for my packet to arrive from Pyramid Models. Not that many people would recognise Russian WW1 markings! ?

Here's a wee bit of daft fun - one of last weekend's swapmeet bargains - a HK Sukhoi Su-35 SuperFlanker prop in a slot foamie. Once in the air the model flew exactly as expected, but a nice surprise was how bouncable it was from a couple of arrivals. Very quick roll rate, the usual high alpha slow speed manouvering of these pushers and a bit noisy. On the maiden flight I slowed the model down too much, with a touch too much sink and when I gave it a blip of throttle to clear the fence promptly flick rolled into a vertical dive into the floor from six feet, but with no damage. I'm not sure about the Russian scheme and might refinish the model as one of the recent deliveries to the Egyptian Air Force. Thanks to my clubmate Steve for the very nice flying shots. ?

Is this the motor from SLEC?

The Coyote had a brushed motor when I bought it un assembled, after a couple of years the motor was done so in went the Wasp from BRC hobbies.

I have Ripmax artf Coyote, the in runner motor is designed to be fitted to the rear of the front firewall / bulkhead. I think the motor recommended would need a former set further back or just be set out in front. Mine's setup is on the hot side, motor once pulled itself clean off the nose and fell some distance away but I was still able to glide back for a tidy landing.