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Sunny day not a cloud in sight, wind about 15 mph strong gusts . Four flyers leaving, too windy, I was advised not good for a Maiden flight. I walked over to the flight line with Terry who arrived with me and after some deliberation I decided to give it a try. After checks Terry pointed it into the wind and a gentle launch seen it climb away straight and level, elevator a bit sensitive needed 3 notches of down, ailerons OK on low rates but need high for a decent roll after 4.5 minutes brought it in to land, a bit tricky with the gusts but OK second time round 45% left in the battery. On landing the motor mount came loose so advise beefing it up with triangle balsa. Very pleased with the results, another winner from Richard.

Well, we only opened our pressies this morning after being so busy yesterday hosting, but Father Christmas came true with his promise with a nice big box of goodies along with an Airfix one to go with it, what a lovely chap! Must say I am very impressed with the quality and contents of the kit. Seems to have everything needed except the glue, covering and electrics - excellent value, Thank you Richard for your hard work in putting the package together. Love the hand drawn plan as well, such a pleasure to look at. Not sure when I will start, but will get onto it soon and look forwards to it. Hope you all had a great Christmas, cheers, Simon

Some people have an awfully complicated life😄

Half a dozen of us took advantage of the 'calm before the storm' today. Took these two with me again. Probably the last flights of the year if the weather forecast is to be believed! Tom

Well done Eric, first of the many (excluding the prototype) a glass of something appropriate is in order.

Wings almost done.

How NORAD's Santa Tracker started...... "A local Sears store in Colorado Springs ran a dial Santa ad in 1955. However, the number was a misprint. Instead of listing the number for Sears' Santa hotline, it posted the number for the Continental Air Defense Command Center. On Christmas Eve 1955, Colonel Harry Shoup began receiving calls while working at NORAD from kids asking to speak with Santa Claus. Instead of telling the kids that they dialed the wrong number, Shoup said that he wasn't Santa Claus, but he could track him on radar. All night, Shoup and his team fielded calls, giving kids details about Santa's location as he and his reindeer flew through the sky to deliver gifts to children." This is how a tradition was born. NORAD opened its lines for Santa Tracking every year since.

Manage to complete and carried out maiden flight on my birthday. Other than some up trim, it flew beautifully. Thank you Ton Von Munteren for sharing your design! My next project Mustang P-51B.

Bit more done on the Elf, as somebody said it’s built like a tank and I imagine no two are the same. I’ve decided to fit a Saito 40

Looking very realistic Eric. Congratulations!

This is probably going to be a build thread for a Warbird Replicas FW190 kit - unless that box by the tree is a new pair of wellies. In which case it’ll be quite a short thread. I’ll find out tomorrow. Merry Christmas!

Plan built by me, powered by an OS 40 FSR. Only had a couple of flights but I now need to make space for a new project. £ 100 buyer would need to collect from South Glos.

Gordon, I am using a 4s 3600 battery which fits diagonally from behind F1 to F2, it is a tight fit once the hatch is fitted and can't move. A smaller battery may need some restraint to stop the c of g movement. I have started adding some detail. A gun cover done with oil pastels

Pretty straightforward Chris, don't sand the elevators too thin as the joiner goes back quite away and I broke through when drilling mine, not enough to be a problem. Don't forget the doubler for F2, it can be retro fitted but it is easier put on before the cowl wrapper. Hopefully most people will study the template sheet, it is marked F2 bottom doubler but not shown on the plan.

Hope that's not a fire hazard there..I use old lead acid batteries as they have more weight to volume. Then again if the ammo box does have 7.62 cal a lipos might be the least of your problems! Appreciate the posts there Lipoman, 🙂

7 flights today, mostly WooHoo, but squeezed a couple of Habu flights and 1 P38 (UC mount issue). Previous Habu flight gave me a low LIPO voltage, but I was on WOT quite a bit. No such problems today as I only needed WOT for take off and the odd loop. Still moving the liop back so I don't have to put so much compensating elevator in when inverted, but it work in progress. The P38 is a really nice flyer, but its problems all the way (mine must have been a Friday job or Monday morning when all the glue guns are gummed up!). I had the one and only elevator horn come off (lack of glue) earlier in the year and today the starboard retract mounting plate came loose. Only needed the right amount of UHU-Por putting in the right place!. Getting cocky with the WooHoo with down wind take offs although with its power to weight it makes easy work of getting up to speed!

Jonathan, The Ben Buckle Galahad 54" could be right for your engine. Although it was designed with excessive dihedral, it doesn't have to built that way. Originally for single channel and 10 to 15 size engines a 30 would be perfect especially with mods by the original designer to flatten out the wing, adding ailerons and making the wing section semi-symmetrical.

2 OS 40 FSR engines.Nice clean engines,recently stripped and bearings replaced by me,then run and tested. Only one has a silencer. Probably the most powerful 40 sized engines produced. £110 plus P&P or I will split if required.

Well done Eric.You don’t mess about do you?

Changing my avatar to Speedy Gonzales, that's what my wife used to call me.

Ahem , well, that was fast ! Your first post on this build was Dec 16th . Ten days later he has painted and test flown it . I think we can put the phrase "Quick Build" on the box . However , given Eric's avatar , perhaps "Quack Build " ?😄

Look what I got from my Lad for Christmas.....a triplane !

Good grief. I’ve got club mates who take longer than that to put an ARTF together. And the end result looks brilliant! Good luck for the maiden.

All set up and batteries charged, Fingers crossed for the weather, very windy right now. To all 190 builders sand the plastic parts before painting plastic primer alone is not enough.

RC Modeler Digitrio- a bit of nostalgia! Can't believe that I built this, my first true proportional system from scratch in 1965 (Ok, I'm older than most of you!), from the instructions in RC Modeler magazine (really the top RC magazine in it's day), spread over some nine months, just as the digital/ proportional era started for RC systems. Before then, it was single channel or reeds. I built the whole system, including fabricating the transmitter case and control sticks- unbelievably it worked first time! Looking at the dates, I started it in August 1965, while studying to be an Architect, finished some nine months later, in accordance with the magazine chapters! With a lot more electronic knowledge than I started with! I then had to start learning to fly proportional!) Digitrio_Construction_Manual.pdf Details are in the RC Modeler section of the online RC Bookcase. https://rcbookcase.com/categories.php?publisher_id=2&page=2 This site has a vast number of old magazine titles. The RCM site on RC Bookcase has a huge amount of classic planes and articles as well. ps- I'm still flying- so far, so good!

🙄 The correct response was "I'm not..."

Dedication to the cause Eric, pushing on with it on Crimblemass morn 👍.

Merry Christmas to all at RCM&E and Modelflying.co.uk.

In Essex that's a big gherkin, sold in fish and chip shops,,,

Well spring is almost here so just about the last opportunity to call it Dark Nights Fix-up. My combat Gremlin has given brilliant service for at least 10yrs with an OS46 up front but finally the fuz has given up, gone brittle and disintegrated - 10yrs hard life so absolutely no complaints so time for a new one. With the interest in using different/unusual materials I thought I would share the use of a length of 3"/76mm plastic drainpipe used for the fuz. Broken front end. Blank new fuz Shaped Re-assembled

Not quite old airframes, but it's what has been keeping me busy for the dark of winter... Two 40 Surpasses, fresh bearings all round, valve gap set and they run like butter. Clearly too easy... Two 46 SF-P, put together from four (!) motors of varying tidiness, plus bearings and o rings swapped. Both run lovely. Pipe (novarossi 50350) on the first one is being bench run to get the length set for target prop, 11x8. Two 61 SF-P, again from a collection of four second hand units. First has run, the second has just had a bearing swap but should go just as well as the first does. Last two early irvine 46s. The first has been in the family since new and once had an embarrassing encounter with terra firma but a dead mk1 40 donated a front end which sorted most problems. Runs like a (very noisy) watch. The second is a mish mash of spares from the popular auction site. Yet to run. Got another 46SF-P to assemble from the leftovers, maybe another 61, neither will be tidy but both should run. Long live glow!

No, I'm suggesting that if all model flyers belonged to clubs, and those clubs were regulated, the authorities would not pursue them. The same way as the police don't harass the average motorist but go after people who ride unregistered bikes on bridle paths and uninsured motorists on public roads. I'm just thinking pragmatically- I'd rather not be restricted to planes under 250gms, (but I do think these smaller planes may have possibilities for the hobby in the future). Let's face it, life is changing, in 2030 or 2035 all new IC cars will be banned- with all the upheaval that will cause I don't think any government will be worried about model flyers. We are very small fish in the scheme of things.