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How do you get the cigarettes into the glow plug hole ?.

I bought my last lot of 10 Type F from RC Japan a couple of weeks ago, £8 each, delivered. And yes they are genuine OS.

The next area that can be a pain , as I mentioned before , Is painting yellow over camo . The mid war British fighters had yellow leading edges to aid recognition in head on attack . They look rather jazzy , so as the eye is drawn to them , they need to be pretty good . So Ive ordered quite a few sheets of solartrim , so that you dont have to ! Lets face it , each strip is 300mm x 20mm . Hardly worth buying a whole sheet and paying the postage . As you're all good lads , I'm going to pop a pair of pre cut leading edge stripes in the decal sets as they go out . Now here is the best way to apply them . Coat the area in PVA first . On the first one , I thought I would cut little snips in the edge every 2" so that the solartrim would accommodate the slight curve . Well, that didnt go well as when I pulled the tape taught it ripped very easy where the cuts were . So , back to super simple : Peel off the back for the first 20mm . Like applying a medical plaster to a cut , align the exposed sticky bit on the inner end of the wing where the invasion stripes stop . Rub it down firmly . Ignore the underside for now and just concentrate on pulling the strip outward as you lay it down while pulling the backing away like a medical plaster . It should only have 10mm roughly showing on the upper surface . The other 10mm can be left hanging in the air out the front. The tape goes on really easy and stretches round the long curve with no problem , a lot like electrical tape . It wont split . Rub it down hard when aligned . It sticks extremely well . Finally flip the wing over and roll you finger round the leading edge to smooth the remaining 10mm under the wing . Doesn't have to be great as people don't look at that bit . You can do all of the above in five minutes , so way longer to explain than do . End result looks crisp and punchy .

Back after a holiday to find the weather hadn't improved greatly, still, there's always the hill and I had plenty of company yesterday.

Not raining - yet. Not windy - yet. Took advantage and having some quiet fun. Just me, the tractors, sheep and birds. The Buzzards really couldn't care less about my pathetic attempts at flight... Not sure about everyone else, but although I really enjoy flying my Parkzone SE5, it always feels like the CofG, incidences and thrust line are fighting each other!

My much rebuilt/ modified Warbirds Hurricane comes out at 6.5 lb with a 4s 3600 battery, as Jon's the c of g is further back, the 3" wheels manage our still uncut strip without nosing over. It flys very well though slightly under powdered it loop from level flight.

It's mine, I've just finished it tonight. Everything in, there's a slight nose down dip at the plan CoG. But she is chunky at 5.2kg/11.4lbs. Great big DLE20 at the pointy end, swinging a 15x7x3, has extended the nose by about 10-15mm with the stock firewall position, which means it's balanced with no nose weight. Lots of engine running in to do whilst I wait for short grass, a dry field and a perfect wind (and another clubmate to finish his Cambrian 109).

The extra bits have now been painted and attached to the cowl. This is as far as I can get until the engine has been returned from repair. With the uncertainty about how long it would be to get a replacement crankcase, if there was one of the imperial thread type to be found during the Laser Engines clear out, the decision was taken to get one of the experienced LMA machinists to clean up the damaged front face and, if necessary, fit a shim to make good again. Should a replacement crankcase eventually be found, it could still be used. The model will now gather dust again for a while but with the weather now more suitable for painting its on with the next project...........

My only reason for bumping this blog from BEB is that following his passing I acquired the model and has sat boxed in the workshop awaiting an opportunity to complete. Now in fairness I was not even aware of this blog and only came across it whilst seeking some information about the model on line. It seems that some bits have gone astray but nothing too serious all the major components are still there and included the RCV four stroke motor that Dave had selected. Now as a friend, colleague and fellow club member I will endeavor to get the model completed and flown in the near future to complete the blog in tribute. Linds

Temperatures touching 25C in the northern Creuse with light winds. I flew my Big Guff twice, my Ukrainian Baron twice and my British Baron once. Bertie, my British Baron is just about set up perfectly for La Coupe Des Barons in June. Another club member who used to fly in the Eighties but who has lacked confidence to get back into flying, finally found the confidence to fly his expensive ARTF 3D model powered by a 60cc engine. He managed to take off, fly about and execute some aerobatic manouvres successfully. This will make him more confident in future. My dog was a bit uncomfortable in the heat.

Groan... Master is always sweeping 'stuff' in the cupboard under the stairs.. just ask Harry

The weather has actually been nice for the last two days , so Ive been out and not in the workshop . However I plan to get the Tempest finished in the next few days . I have been adding a few things which are worth a mention . The rear fuselage has a "sky" coloured band around it, about 1.5 " wide . I am going to try and get the decal providers to add a strip of the sky vinyl they use for the squadron codes (which I like and think is pretty accurate ) . As I dont have that option and I'm interested that if say somebody wanted a matching sky spinner, then I needed a paint match that was cheap and easy . These colours are useful for any mid war British aircraft . I think ive cracked it . B&Q do a Dulux tester range that includes a matt paint called "Willow Tree" . You can see in the picture below that its very close to pour decal colour . It was only £2.40 . Comes with a little roller on top which just unclips and then you can squeeze the paint out like toothpaste . I used the super green masking tape again and had no creep at all . It was warm yesterday and the paint almost dried as it went on . You can see that Ive also added the black aircraft serial numbers which come as part of the decal set . They are on a clear transfer sheet , so you dont have to align them individually , they just go on as a set . The clear comes off last and you are left with no nasty shine around the numbers . As before , I took the precaution of lightly sanding the area and coating it with a light coat of PVA first . I even brushed a little PVA over the number after . I don't want them coming off when rough handled .

I'd been wanting to build one of these for ages. I had the plans printed out and was intending on doing it over the winter, but then shifted it to the back burner for a bit. Then, I saw the recent article in RCM&E about it, so I thought "why not?" I ordered the power setup from 4-max and started chopping bits of Depron a couple of weeks ago, but really got down to it last weekend. Looks OK so far. Need to fit the firewall and cut out the control surfaces, as well as install the guts and finally paint it.....

Beautiful job on the Hurricane Eric 😎 Like Spitfires, you can never have too many Hurricanes......

For the last three years I have been trying to teach my Belgian mate Frans both how to build how to fly. He's built a Ben Buckle Junior 60 and a Radio Queen but I was on the point of suggesting that he had a few sessions with another instructor when he went solo this morning for the first time on the Radio Queen! The weather was perfect, he flew the first two flights with me on the buddy box but I did not have to intervene at all from take-off to landing so I persuaded him to go solo on the third flight which he did. We had a beer afterwards to celebrate the occasion! 😆

The weather..!! Strangely, when the weather is cold and miserable - traditionally the best time for building new models - I tend to stay out of the workshop. When the weather is good, I go flying during the day and spend hours in the workshop during the evenings. 🙄

Just finished another free-flight model, this time it's a Vic Smeed Tomboy. This was my first attempt at tissue over mylar covering (many thanks to @PatMc for the mylar) with Eze tissue applied using acrylic floor varnish on the wing and some cheap tissue paper on the fuselage. Engine is a Boddo Mills 0.75 Mk2 with Kavan 7x4 prop which should be plenty. First flight will be soon hopefully, once this run of bad weather (must 6 months now!) is finally over.

Hopefully this will solve the problem of numerous noseovers due to landing gear being too straight. The local engineering works did a great job in breathing new life into the old gear. I will soon find out soon enough when i take the plane to the club flying field at the next available opportunity.

Nice vid!

ok clearly you did understand my post at all. You cant say a model is tail heavy just because it needs lead to balance it. You can say its tail heavy without ballast, but its not tail heavy per se. No, it dosent. This is a starting point to guarantee the model is controllable and to cover off inaccurate balancing. It is not set in stone and you can move it and i would imagine that even 110mm would be fine. Not that you need to measure it, just keep removing weight and making adjustments. As a said before, i took over 1lb out of my large hurricane and about half a pound out of my smaller Hurricane. Both fly better for it despite being 'tail heavy' if measured according to the plans. This is a half truth at best. There is a perception that cg is a fixed entity perfectly measured at 95mm in your case and that is where it has to be. This is flat out false as any ic model looses several oz of nose weight over a flight as you burn the fuel off. Generally, this has no appreciable effect on the model and its performance. With this fact in mind we can say there is a cg range where the model is controllable, becoming less so at each end of the range. My suggestion is to have the cg as far aft as stability will allow as you end up with a model which is lighter, handles better on the ground and wont sniff the dirt on taxi.

Final piece of the jigsaw on this build - I decided to gather my thoughts in a video review. Not done one of these before, and there was a lot of annoying background wind noise, but production values aside it's an accurate reflection of my thoughts about the kit - its' design, the build experience and of course how it performs in the air. It's quite long, so if you just want the highlights - I think it nailed the brief almost perfectly. I'm impressed!

Well, Given the brownie points I have earned ( still earning ) decorating .... and shelling out for one daughters wedding in June, I went on a bit of a spending spree. I bought 3 petrol engines as I have other models I can use them in as well. There will be choices. All are 2 stroke petrol. ... a DLE 20cc RA petrol .... and two other Stinger 2 stroke petrol. One a 26cc RA and one 20cc twin cylinder petrol. Some of the models are probably rated at 15cc but underpowered 20cc petrols should fopit the bill. They won't go wrong. I did look at 4 strokes and will probably end up trying at least one but that's for later. As mentioned, my first allegiance is to electric for the time being until I get my head ( and flying experience ) around all things IC. That's the update for now .... I dare say the selection won't suit all but they are all to a budget for now. Toto

Well ..... as predicted ..... zero flying. The weather was threatening all day then mid afternoon ..... the downpour from hell Not bothered .... the decorating has had a serious fright today with only undercoated and gloss to the wood work and doors left for tomorrow. Serious brownie points earned today which is just as well as I've been on a 2 stroke petrol engine spending spree. 1 x DLE 20cc RA 2 stroke petrol and a 26cc RA 2 stroke petrol ( stinger ). ..... and .... a 2 cylinder 20cc 2 stroke petrol ( stinger ) just for a bit variety and a play around with when the time comes. Plenty to fill some of the models that I have earmarked for petrol going forward with the remainder staying electric and probably the sale of what glow engines I have later. ( undecided on that yet ). Decorating ain't that bad after all. Toto

I did try moving my Tx further away no use. So I guess it would be V2 / LBT but no info in that regards. My Radio FW is opentx-x9d+ V 2.2.3 don't really want to update it and lose connection to all my existing receivers.

Sunny today, but very windy. Good news is just 30 mins ago parachute man arrived so I can begin to finish off the fusi and figure how I'm going to eject him! It 's almost looking like a C130 too!

I don't use it but it doesn't look like there is a uni version of the firmware for that RX but no doubt Mike B will provide a better answer like whether one is available or in the offing or not.

For me, it's always the ritual of opening that big box. It's such a magic moment, and no matter how things progress, it only happens once. So it gets put off, sometimes for many years ernie

The very limited flying over the winter means I need to get in some practise with EDFs as I hope to get the rather "extreme" Douglas X-3 flying. The better my flying skills are the less likely it will might not get any more damaged that it already has been. I decided to fly some of my EDFs that have spent most of last year "hanging on the wall", quite literally. First was the 50mm EDF DH "Swiss" Venom although on this occasion it was flown without the tip tanks. 44" span, it is a Depron job and light at 520g but with a 1300mAh 4s and a clean airframe it is no slouch. Those twin booms are delicate so a belly landing needs concentration and accuracy. Next calm day it was the exact opposite. The Depron Douglas Skray . 36" span and a similar weight to the Venom but with over twice the wing area. A gentle slow flyer but like all delta the drag rises rapidly in any sort of manoeuvre. Flown bank and yank nose drop in a turn is pronounced. Pull too many g and it almost stops flying! Next was the Hawker Hunter F6. 50 mm EDF 33" span and made entirely from 5mm XPS sheet (no balsa or carbon!). At 385g a bit heavier than the Venom although not quite as fast but flies very nicely. Decorated as a Black Arrow of 111 squadron who managed to loop 22 of them together in formation. Today late on (17:20) the weather improved considerably so it was the turn of the P1052 better known as the prototype swept wing Sea Hawk, Still a "portly" Sea Hawk fuselage with a modest power 55mm EDF. Like the Hunter made entirely from 5mm XPS sheet This was my second Hawker, the first was a Sea Hawk. I made a better job of the complex bifurcated inlet and exhaust duct so it had more thrust from just a 1500mAh 3s. Two were built. One still exists at IWM Cosford. The other was modified with a bit more thrust but broke up trying to go supersonic in a dive. The test pilot did not survive. Hopefully at the next calm day I will be able to try the Douglas X-3, again and be a bit better prepared to not break it.

Some weeks back on one of the calmer days I flew my sub 250g 40mm EDF Depron DH Venom. Unfortunately I briefly lost sight of it when end on (it is small) and ended up woth a nose plant! It has been hanging on the wall since but as the weather has terminated flying such light weights or even middle weights I spent some time putting is back together. First the damaged planking was cut back to a clean edge and a suitable Depron former added on the end of the battery compartment. Then came the tricky job of adding planking "extensions" to reach the former and all done with small 2mm Depron pieces carefully "formed" to give the right fuselage shape. With a bit of sanding & light weight filler. This time the nose cone was printed in LW-PLA. Even with a double wall thickness it was no heavier than the single wall PLA of the original. It is a great deal stronger. Two light coats of acrylic purple on the rebuilt part. It is ready to go even if the weather isn't.☹️ Maybe I will get some more EDF practice soon, although not for a week or so according to the forecast.

She's a runner, and survived her first taxi across my terrible lawn without nosing over. VID_41780807_075158_023.mp4 VID_41780808_113856_456.mp4

I'll just go bin the thing now then, thanks for your valuable input.

Jon, I have that plane 13 years now and it's always been very tail heavy. So a lot of lead weight needed at the front. No, this is just an experiment I'm carrying out with the gear raked forward at this acute angle. If it doesn't work out its just a simple process of raking it back an inch or so. Thanks for your reply.

Only a limited number.... SFHSS is supported.

And this is my sixth FT Spit, intended to be a model of Spitfire Pr.IV AA810, currently being rebuilt to fly. After this, I actually intend on building something else!

Sorry John, there's a misunderstanding. Your engine should have the dish-shaped prop driver like my photo. This driver has a square hole that locates on the crankshaft. On your engine, the prop driver has been lost and replaced by odd washers with square holes cut to match the shaft. Those washers aren't original! All Comp Specials have a dish-shaped prop driver with a square hole, no exceptions. And all prop washers, that go on the front of the propeller (only one per engine!) have normal round holes. Like I said, your engine's original prop driver and washer have been lost and replaced by several odd washers with square holes. In fact, I think the reason you have several washers is simply to cover the square length on the shaft. No Comp Special ever had a front end like that.

I’m happy with 2nd batch thanks. 👍

I think this is what you want, the FAI Scale Sporting Code, this covers all scale competitions so you might want to skip to F4C and F4H which is the scale RC Planes sections, schedules and judging criteria are covered in here. sc4_vol_f4_scale_24.pdf

All continental breeds, Cow is a Belgian Blue x Simental and dad a Charolais bull. Despite the rubbish weather calf is ragging it around the field this morning. Cattle are tough. Sadly local sheep farmers suffering many lamb losses, this time last year we were into a mini heat wave. Crazy weather and no flying for me yet.

It was a lovely day yesterday in the middle of France. I took both of my Barons, Bertie and Boris, with me to practice low level flight for La Coup Des Barons in June. The wind was a bit stronger than forecast and unfortunately I was too low and too slow when executing a downwind turn with Bertie. The model stalled and hit the deck damaging the fuselage. After thirty-six years of flying these things you'd think that I would have learned something! It's certainly repairable and it will give me a chance to make a better job of an old repair. I may change the elevator actuation while I'm at it. Quite a bit of rain has beeb forecast for the coming week so I should have the time. Both models flew well but the thread in the exhaust port of the Thunder Tiger 54 in the Ukrainian Baron is on its last legs. I have some Liquid Metal which I could use but even if it's a successful repair it will lock the exhaust in one position. If the worst comes to the worst I have at least four OS 52 and 48 Surpasses which would do the job. The Ukrainian Baron is 100 grammes (3.5 ounces) heavier than the other one but I could detect no difference in their flying chacteristics. At full power both models climbed like hell and I was having to hold in some down elevator to achieve level flight. I thought about introducing some down elevator at full chat but don't know how to do it. I use a Spektrum DX9. I also flew my World Models Super Frontier Senior, an ARTF copy of a SIG Kadet Senior but that was so boring that I didn't bother taking a picture of it. Despite the fine conditions only five of us turned up and one of those didn't bring a model with him. All of the others flew electric ARTFs, all but one were foamies. C'est la vie et un signe des temps.

My Hurricane looks like that after belly landings on our strip. Wall to wall rain again today.

Didn't have any photos on Sunday, but my pal Steve did take some whilst I was flying, which I received last night, so here's a couple, featuring the remaiden of my wee 18" span VMC Hurricane and Durafly P-51. I particularly like the one of my P-51D Candyman, with John's homebrewed F-82 Twin Mustang in the background. The post processing is very evocative of contemporary grainy colour slide film from the 1940's, so looks like some of the rare colour footage of the time that I have in print.

Maidened my new xfly F22 Raptor EDF today. Two words: Gutless & Disappointing. Not me, the model 🤣 It's nearly 100g heavier than my Strange Quark prototype, has less grunt and speed and only flys for 4 mins versus 4.5 mins on the same 4S 2200 (leaving around 25%). To be fair, I did have the u/c fitted. It is awkward to hold for a hand launch.

I inadvertently modified the Hurricane due to a heavy landing wheels up first flight. It now fits on the dolly and looks OK in flight, I had 5 flights with it like this

Another test flight for Pinky. She has a tendency to drop that left wing, which I think is because of a twist that occurred on a previous test flight a few weeks back, when the battery fell out and she fell out of the sky!