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Another foam creation: Pitts S2A. 40" span, 2lb 11 Oz. Set up to fly on 3S 2200 packs using a 1200kv 3536 motor on a 10x5. Constructed from Diall (B&Q) laminate underlay; 3mm and 5mm thickness. Painted directly to the foam in emulsion and covered in Laminating film. Worked OK, but I'm terrible at covering at the best of times! Colour scheme as a tribute to the Ukrainian Aerobatic team.... Didn't quite get finished today in time to maiden. In any case, it's a bit parky! Graham

I scratch built this SE5a some years ago now. It is Laser 70 powered and features "scale" cable and pulley aileron control (no ugly plastic control horns!) and a sequential bomb drop operated via the "retract" servo. Throughout the construction I took photos and uploaded to another site, the intension being to hopefully provide some inspiration for other modellers to add that little extra scale detail and share the techniques I use. Unfortunately they have now started to charge for full access i.e. to see photos apart from small "thumb nails", which I am not happy about. I have all my posts and associated photos stored on my computer and would like to start a new thread on a "free to view" site. Would this be acceptable here?

It's Sunday,,,

Just a quick up date. I have now tested the P13A, not that you could really call them flights, four times so far without damage. Which shows there is now some degree of control. 😉 The latest modification is to move the battery forward about 10 mm to improve the pitch stability. The original CoG position was just a best guess. It doesn't look like there will be much calm weather for a bit but the moment I get what I would call a proper flight there will be a video.

Third post in one day !! Must be sunday ! To screw anything onto the fuse upfront , i need a former ,actually i need two ! One that's glued in and one removable that holds the light. Here is the second one (with the light) screwed to the first (glued in the fuse) with an opening to slide in the canope-pin. On the box is the nose cone with a third former glued in and holding the magnets . The magnets will attract the metal screws of the second former and keep the nose cone on the fuse Here the nose cone is trimmed to allow the ''cone '' window. Another time consuming small part !! The window is made the same way i made the tiptank nose windows. I filled the nose cone mould (holding the trimmed nose cone ) with car body filler . After curing , i sanded away 1MM (the thickness of the window ) . That 's my plug to vavuum-form the nose cone window. After a few try-out's with the vacuum box , i got a perfect cone window ! Done for now !! Tonight a tail wheel support gets born !! Thanks for watching !!

Male jewellery. (a lot more interesting than shoes and handbags)

Brass sleeved and epoxied in place turned down a bit of a old brass lorry tyre extension valve to make it look nice

This one is a bit of a departure from my normal larger outdoor RC models including a 1/4 Tiggie. It is from the Vintage Model Company kit and is 18" wingspan and weighs about 30g with rubber power. Took a bit of time to get used to handling such fine pieces of balsa, thing such as 1/16" spars were sent to test the ham fisted. Test flights at tomorrow's indoor flying.

I love the registration.

You've got a lovely pair there James! You definitely have got the hang of this

... it was a Brian Taylor Harvard which I've subsequently been too scared to fly but he said that all aeromodellers were hoarders. I've just had a look at a spreadsheet I made up some time ago for all of the engines I own. Apparently, I own four diesels but I haven't seen two of them for years. The others are: Five Irvines from 36-53. Four Enyas from 15 to 50. Three HP VTs, a 25 and two 49s Four Thunder Tigers: a 46PRO, a 54 and two 91 fourstrokes. Six OS: a 61 SF and five fourstrokes from 26-70. Nine Lasers from a 62 to a 160 V twin. Single examples of engines produced by SC, ASP and Magnum. Plus the four diesels from PAW, Mills and ED. I make that 38 engines. Of these only 9 are in models. I do not regard myself as an engine collector and I realise that my situatiuon is not that unusual but the question i would like to ask is, "Why do we have so many more engines than we can possibly need?" 😊

The UK channel4 recorded highlights must be coming to a close by now, so let's have a look at our league table after the opening race of 2023! Pos League Rank Team Manager Pts 1 1 0 Team Charles Picd Charles Pic 185 2 2 0 Iqonic racing iqon 184 3 3 0 LetsGoTotoLetsGo GrumpyGnome 183 4 4 0 GASTON Formula Chris McG 173 5 5 0 Essex Racing Tony Clark 168 6 6 0 The JP Specials johnpflyrc 162 7 7 0 Revers Racing Pete B 158 = 8 0 DMFC Racing Team Simon Webb 158 9 9 0 Hans Brake Zoonie 145 10 10 0 Pitts Specials john stones 137 11 11 0 Torque of the devil Stu 133 12 12 0 teewrex John Tee 127 13 13 0 Norfolk Flyers Kevin Fairgrieve 104 14 14 0 PSS Power Flyer 95 15 15 0 Oyster f1 Glenn Philbrick 82 Very close at the top, with just one point between each of the top three. So it's Charles who takes top spot on our podium today with 185 points. Well done, Charles. In second, just a point behind on 184 points is Iqon, and another point adrift on 183 is the GrumpyGnome. All but two of us scored over 100, and we know that Glenn didn't get a chance to do his predictions in time... Next up is Saudi Arabia in two weeks time, with qualifying and the race both at 5pm. Don't forget your predictions!

Another brilliant day's flying at the club field, freezing cold with a 7mph wind, straight down the strip. Flew my Eflite P-51D and Spitfire XIV, and we had some Spitfire formation flying, that I managed to get a few snaps of, but the most fun was to be had with the wee Volantex Bf109s, Spitfires and P-51s. We had five up at once again for some credible formation flying, even in those windy conditions, Great fun.

The basic kit comprises all the main parts in 6mm Depron so: Fuselage sides, top and bottom and strips of 6mm sq. Depron for extra gluing area when joining fuse sides to top and bottom. Wing - 2 layers of 6mm with C/F spar. Fin and rudder. Tailplane and elevator. Overlander motor. You need to provide balsa and ply for fuse doublers and formers. You need to provide all hardware and radio equipment, servos, esc. Whilst the price is slightly higher than to my club mates I've managed to keep it down to £33 plus P&P. (Got to see how much cardboard boxes are to protect parts for posting!) The 'deluxe' kit comprises all of the above plus the ply engine bulkhead, ply wing plates, balsa fuse doublers and Depron formers. Price for the 'deluxe' kit is £38 plus P&P The basic build instructions are on my club's website, BMFC but should be read in conjunction with Terry Anderson's plan which appeared in last Novembers RCM&E. On my club website there are also the rules for my Hanky Planky Wacky Races competition which means that we could make this a national comp. Who knows, it could be a laugh to combine this with the BLMRA 2023 World Record attempt and see how many Hanky Planks we can get flying at once! My finished prototype Hanky (note that the kits are in grey, not white, Depron.

Another model joins the fleet with a view to flying at the Laser 40th Anniversary event. Quite unbelievably I was offered and subsiquently bought a BNIB AcroWot XL kit from a fellow club member. It is possibly the last one still in its box, unassembled and to be seen with the original undesturbed factory packing and transit security tapes still in place. It`s 100% brand new and is completely unmolested. Something of a lucky barn find. To be fitted with my "Last in stock" Laser 180 in side-winder fashion as shown in images in my post above. More happy days. My pre-owned Wots Wot XL completed today with another side-winder 180 Laser installed. Again installation is to the same detailing a shown in my post above. The build included tail mounted servos and a 2000NiMh battery fitted mid way along the fusalage towards the tail. No extra tail ballast was needed. The images attached here show the completed used, low time WWXL and an exciting shot of the newly aquired AWXL still in its transit box! Next job....my workshop needs a desparately needed clear out. The chaos is so bad I`ve run out of useable bench build space and need to get things sorted before I begin the new AcroWot XL assembly. Mike

I don't know what you mean... 😀

Because you never when you will need one for a new project,and oh! Look,I have just the engine I need too hand best get on with it then. But of course you are right DD ,guilty as charged probably have more than twice that,although 15 or so are projects, 100+ plans,8 kits+500-600 magazines and books, do I need all of this? Heck no,but as our American chums would say 'he who dies with the most toys,wins! '

That's how I read it, John. From the game guide; "Importantly, as outlined above, this means that the cut-off for team changes and predictions will be on Friday for sprint weekends." Maybe best to get in the habit of setting a "banker" set of predictions well ahead of each race in case we miss the deadline - having something predicted is better than having no predictions at all!

I would have thought if you are concentrating on the build, with pictures, then it is a Build Blog. It is where I put my construction descriptions.

Kim for all to see I admit you were correct ! I was, as written in my post, under the impression that placing the AR631 in foam to reduce the effects of IC vibration would work .... however your query and scepticism of this was upheld by a warning of "possible unwanted reactions in the air " from Horizon Hobby Level 1 support. I also warn other readers that these AS3X receivers are better left to the electric mob. I have lodged my concern that I did not see ANY written notice of this in any of the sales blurb from Spektrum or its stockists. Once again my thanks to Kim Taylor.

Thank you both. Peter, I did plan to go, but the '1 hour's work' I needed to finish it became 5! As it was cold, I decided to press on.. Outrunner, It's an own design. I have a very simple method; I print out a 3 view and decide my scale. I then create a conversion factor so I can multiply measurements I take from the drawing to get the size I want. I then use the fuselage outline to make a 'cruciform' construction using a side view and top view. I create a number of formers and clad the whole lot in 3mm foam. I have to make some decisions how to make it strong enough at the front; I can tell you about that if you are interested. The wings are made using the outline and 3 spars at 25, 50 and 75% chord. There are no ribs as such. The front of the cowl is some polystyrene that came free with my fridge freezer; carved, sanded, filled and painted... Graham

I like that colour scheme!

Because we can.

Greg, another master of rubber flight worth a visit is Michael Kelly. Here he is with a Fw190 from start to flying:

The wind was a bit lighter this morning so I braved the cold and took Shifty out for its second round of testing with the CG roughly moved 6mm further forward. Alot more predictable this time, as confidence grows I am slowly exploring its flight envelop, it will slow right down yet gets a bit Shifty when you open it up. At full power I am getting some kind of hunting from the motor, I'm guessing it's a timing issue with my cheap esc, you can hear it in this edited video of the closer bits. Rich

Just one quali, scores we get are down to a lot of things coming together, doubt my drivers will win many races. DNFs did me in last year so I went with em again this year. Glad you're O.K Chris.

OK - qualifying highlights on channel 4 are now over! Chris - good to see you back! Glenn - sometimes 'real life' gets in the way of things... At least you had a good 'excuse' for missing your predictions. I'm sure I missed mine once last season with no excuse whatsoever - even after reminding you all to do yours! 😧

For a partially rounded Allen head screw I have taken the next size Allen key up and ground a shallow taper on each face so it just goes into the screw head. Then I hammer it in tightly. This usually gives enough grip to successfully undo it.

Very nice Jim 👍looks like a posh junior 60 ,the transparent profilm suits it ,I have used profilm and found it gives excellent torsional stability, if only it was a bit (a lot) cheaper!

Hello there are still some who practice the dark arts 🤣. Hippocket aeronautics is a great forum for more traditional modelling. https://www.hippocketaeronautics.com Theres a lot more to free flight and control line than you would think. The ‘free flight bash’ on the RC nats evening in no way represents free flight at its best. Its fun but not representative per se. As for rubber models, great fun. Bigger the better 😀 https://www.hippocketaeronautics.com/hpa_forum/index.php?topic=16809.0

A dethermalizer is a way of bringing a model down in a safe but positive way, and can usually prevent a "fly away" if it catches a thermal. It can also be used to avoid a long walk is there is much wind about. The most common way is to tip the trailing edge of the tail up at a large angle to deep stall the wing, and the model should parachute down, but not so fast as to cause any damage. The pop up mechanism is normally just a rubber band and the tail is held down with a line attached to a lightweight timer. Years ago we used to use a slow burning fuse that would burn through a rubber band holding down the tail, but that's perhaps not such a good idea with the recent dry summers. Some people use a radio dethermalizer, so they can choose when (or if) to trigger it. There are other types of dethermalizer. Some allow the whole tail section of the fuselage to tilt up. Others have the wing leading edge tip up. There's also swinging weights attached to a wingtip and occasionally parachutes, although I'm not sure anyone uses them nowadays.

Am I right in thinking that you're going to use the AR631 receiver in an i/c powered 'plane. If so, I would be careful and try to check whether it has been done before. The potential problem is mounting the rx securely enough to allow the gyros / accelerometers to work correctly, whilst at the same time isolating it from the vibration generated by the engine. I'm not saying it won't work, just be sure before committing. You'll need to update the firmware in the DX8g2 to the latest version, if it hasn't been done already, which will allow you to program the receiver via Spektrum 'forward programming' facility. It's pretty straightforward to do, follow the links on the Spektrum website. The tx will have to be registered in their system to do this. There are also downloadable setups for various (mainly E-Flite and Parkzone) models, which can be useful - just pick one that's a close(ish) match to your 'plane and tailor it to suit - can save some time and grief. hth Kim

The only cure for wing-clap must be aerobatic antibiotics, surely? Pete Edited By Pete B on 25/02/2010 09:20:08