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I live in Australia but am considering returning to the UK. We have been through all this nonsense here. I was the guy who was mapping the registration exempt model flying fields for the Australian Miniature Aerosports Society. Commercial drone registration happened. And then recreational drone registration was cancelled. No reason given. We aren't getting it. Reading between the lines of discussions with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, they realised it would be a huge workload for zero return and would be unpoliceable with much unregistered use expected. Also all commercial drone licenses were for piloted flights for surveying, photography etc. All the autonomous drone delivery trials which were operating in some towns for years, have been scrapped. There were loads of noise complaints. Privacy complaints. Drones and payloads going missing. Drones found smashed up and stripped for parts. It turned out drone delivery is a way to deliver something tiny with zero security. So it has to be tiny in weight and value. The dream has died. Also rather pleasingly CASA now understand there is a difference between drones and model aircraft and have become very easy to work with. I hope things go so well for my British friends.

It's taken quite a while but finally I was able to maiden my Sea Hawk at last weekend's PSSA meet at the Great Orme. The launch went well (thanks to Harry Twist) and she was soon climbing away, in fact I had to feed in a considerable amount of down trim in order to maintain level flight but much of that may have been attributable to the strong winds we had over the course of the weekend. I did find it to be quite sensitive in both pitch and roll for my liking but managed to limit that with my rate switches. I didn't get to attempt a proper landing because I had a moment of complete disorientation and ended up making an enforced belly flop landing into some gorse. Amazingly no damage was incurred other than a broken pitot tube! I was VERY lucky! Since returning home I revisited my CG calcs and found an error meaning my CG was further back than I thought at around 7% static margin so I have now added another 50g in the nose to bring it forward by 10mm and giving a 10% margin. Hopefully that will make it a little less twitchy in pitch for next time. I have also upped the expo on the ailerons and elevator too for good measure. Hopefully we'll have favourable conditions for our return to the Orme next month and I'll get to fly her again Here's a couple of photos for the record: Launch photo courtesy of Phil Cooke:- In-flight photo courtesy of Dave Gilder

Byron and I had a great day on Saturday when we attended a float fly event. The Catalina had its first outing since being painted and flies very well but has poor water handling. Lucky it has plenty of power to get it onto step. The S6 was built over 25 years ago and was never flown as the builder said the wing loading was too high for the thin wing section. He came out to see it fly and could not believe just how good it is in the air.

Some photos just edited from our first PSSA event of 2024 this weekend (13/14th April) upon The Great Orme, Llandudno. High strength SW winds resulted in a lot of good flying over the two days and a big attendance as always after the Winter break. Link embedded in the image.

Have a reply from the BMFA and Andy was a great help .It is going to be sorted now .The Flying Club Committee are on safety grounds going to enforce no flying on Kart racing days and thosee members that do not like that will be told maybe they should find a different club to fly at We might lose a few members but at least we will still have a flying club

Its all about creating a model that looks far more detailed than it really is . That suits these two entry level kits because they are supposed to be quick build, no fuss models , but that doesn't mean they have to look ordinary . Im still waiting for exhaust stacks before I call it a day . Also got to give the rudder an impression of fabric covering .

Too windy for the flat field yesterday but perfect for sea cliff soaring. We made some new friends too.

The little girl had recently attended a funeral and was looking very thoughtful as she came into the kitchen. "Mummy ..." she said "is it really true that people come from dust and return to dust?" "Yes Darling, that is true. Why do you ask?" The little girl looked very serious as she replied: "Well I've just looked under my bed, and I reckon somebody's just coming or just going."

Little Jane asked her father "Daddy, where does my intelligence come from?" Father replied "You must have got it from your mother, ................... because I still have most of mine!" .... and .... A bloke and his wife were driving through the country and had not spoken to each other for over an hour after an argument. As they drove past a farmyard with a full pigpen and a few donkeys the bloke remarked "Relatives of yours?" His wife replied.................."Yes, in-laws." * Chris *

As long as I am still breathing, there will be IC-powered models flying in our skies.

I'm building a detailed model of mount Everest and my wife asked if it's to scale............No, I replied, it's just to look at!!!

Forgot to mention ....... there was one dodgy moment. Flying into the sun a bit and lost my orientation. My mentor stepped in to rescue the situation. No issues. It does show however that you can fly all the circuits and landings that you like but you are just a second away from a crisis. All good experiences though as you can only learn to cope with it if y9u get into a pickle now and again. My ability to correct myself is usually pretty good though and getting better with less reliance on my mentor. Here's to next week. Toto

Another great day. Four flights in total. Three take off's and four landings. My mentor did the first take off to demonstrate the intended circuit as this was a new site for me. I took over from there. So .... apart from taking off, some circuits, some procedural turns, I had a couple of attempts at aborted landings which went OK. Had to be told that my initial approach speed was a little too slow though. The landings were mostly good ( on grass ) with the last one of the day being the best. Quite happy. Next session, more of the same but with more procedure turns, some figure eights and some circles. Coming on great now ...... I smell the possibility of Solo approaching ..... Toto

Finally got the maiden flight done on my Flair 1/4 scale DR1, i have been waiting for the wind and rain to ease and the grass at the strip i do my maiden flights on to have dried out and been cut, the track across to this strip has been unpassable due to the standing water for several months. A bit of a hurried session as the full size gliders here were getting ready for a day of thermal hunting so only the one flight but it was enough to tell me i need to add a bit more weight to the tail end to counter balance the Zenoah 26 mag engine up the front. Full up elevator trim was needed which didn`t quite give hands off level flight, 36g more lead has now gone on the tail end, i think more will be needed but i will try it like this first to see how much up the up trim i can remove. Thoroughly enjoyed the flight once i had sorted the trim out (needed a bit of right aileron as well) and to cap off a good first flight i managed a greaser of a landing, not always easy on these Trip up Tripes i`ve been told, left with a smile on my face. Next job is to work on the silencer to try and get down to the noise limit at my other club, i have some ideas and if they work out i will post on here to help others overcome the problem.

It may be a little while as sourcing is currently ongoing but watch this space.

Think that is the route we will have to go down.Trying to please everyone does not work .I have emailed every members saying if we fly on kart racing days we will lose the flying field Most member now realise.that now and are coming round that it is better to lose 10 weekends a year then 52 weekends a year A few member are still insisting they want to fly on kart racing weekends but they will be told to find a different club to fly at

This is my take on fitting the radiator on the underside of the wing. first I added some extra width to the base that gets glued to the wing. Instead of sanding a V shape on the underside to fit the dihedral, I cut it in half and sanded the top flat. Then I added some extra width to the radiator and sanded to shape. Here I really struggled to get the angles right to blend with the vac formed front scope - it just didn't look right. So I tried gluing on some scrap balsa and sanding to shape. I think I will go with this option. More later...

Another day at the field with the Warbirds FW190 and Hurricane + the BT Corsair 9.30 am till 4.30. Not as warm as yesterday but good flying weather. A good turn out again quite a lot if banter, 16 batteries to charge, took more but it started spitting on to rain which stopped when we reached the car park.

Realised at the field this afternoon it was the first time I’d taken more balsa models than foam. Had a few great flights and finally got comfortable flying the TN Hunter (after switching today to a much lighter battery). As ever the Warbird Replicas Focke was flown the most, but all three were great despite the wind!

Down in London, went to Gordon Ramsey's for lunch, picked the cheapest item on the menu....Boneless chicken...£48.00!...waiter brought it to the table....a fried egg!! ken anderson...ne....1...... egg dept.

I eventually removed the bubbled covering on one wing and replaced it. What seems to work is using Balsaloc on the wing skin veneer prior to applying the PVA coated, brown paper. I am also convinced that the Gorilla PVA is not the best for this job and next time I will buy some cheaper PVA from the builders merchants. I have got to the painting stage now and will final fit the flying control surfaces prior to the finishing paint coat. I have used Halfords white primer on the lower surfaces and grey primer on the upper surfaces.

If the clus rules are NO FLYING while karting is going on then thats the club rules and members should adhere to the rules at all times and they cannot or shud I say should not feel they have the right to ignore them as they see fit,,, Nor can they over rule the committee..... What they can do is ask for the rules to be chaged either at the AGM at the end of the club year or ask for an EGM to be called which it will then be put to a club vote which if the club as a whole decide to keep the rules as they are including any/all no flying at stated times then the rebelious members basicly have 2 choices,,,, Accept the club rules as they are and follow them or go find another club or failing that face the the consiquences of breaking the rules and being kicked out the club specially when it comes to the safety of others A blunt answer im sure but a correct one i feel

That would be a first for Paul 🤣

Nooooooooo. Toto has already had bad experiences with ic - the last thing he needs us to bolt his unfamiliar engine to a bench, and 'see how he gets on'. He has no real experience of starting, running in, or adjusting such an engine. And, in fact, is a way off being able to fly the model in question. His highest chance of avoiding more disappointment (when toto can fly such a model safely) has to be to mount it into his model, take it to the flying field, get his petrol-experienced chum to check it out, then work together to start it, run it in, and make any adjustments. Hopefully, it's staying in its box for a while. Other opinions are, obviously, available.

Another useful tool here . The sanding drum . Makes lightwork of the edges and tidies up nicely . Just fits in a standard drill chuck . That is pretty much it . Apologies for mine looking rough , but I'm sure you appreciate I dont really have time for hanging about . I reckon you could do the whole lot in an hour if pushed . But to be fair .......Ive done a few . Any questions?

While he has popped to the loo , Ive been painting his adversary . My little fella is in a home defence squadron and as they were quite worried about being mistaken for an allied flyer in the event of a bail out , they wore a lot of arm bands etc stating clearly what they were. He looks more like a Cylon than a 1940s pilot . They may have been the baddies , but they definitely looked cool . I suppose having your tanks designed by Porsche and your outfits by Hugo Boss helped .

The mounting plate is 're-assembled' and a further cut made to allow for the body of the retract unit. A Mock up retract unit with the U/C wire is then placed in position to ensure fit. On top of this a drawing is made to create a cut out template to make your lives easier to cut out the wheel well. the unit is designed to be fitted up to the top skin and up to the leading edge.

So much more fun if there are 2 of you trying to fly formation. Challenging but that's why we like it.

Likewise for a Whirlwind.

So I turned some scrap aluminium from a skip and bits and bobs lying about into…..

the last few weeks we had some oke weather to go out flying @ our field emcr in Rozenburg Netherlands. after rain comes the sun!