David Davis

Matty B. Pm sent.

ARTFs do not do it for me, I'm Old School.

My first model was a Keil KraftAjax when I was eleven. It was not a success! My inadequate carpentry skills resulted in the noseblock falling off as the rubber tension slacked! It was followed by an Invader which had a penchant for landing in trees. My first successful r/c model was a Flair Junior 60 which was originally a Keil Kraft design. I've also built a couple of Keil Kraft Super 60s

Flew the Calmato on Sunday. It flies well enough but I feel that my Irvine 46 is a bit feeble. I picked up an OS 46AX minus silencer at a car boot sale last year. I am going to try it in the Calmato. The Guidato in the background was not flown owing to a defecctive O ring in the carburettor.

I built the wing of my 2024 Baron with depron wing ribs but otherwise it was a conventional balsa build with a D section leading edge.

Doesn't time fly! Nearly thirteen years since I started this thread and nearly ten years since the last post! However, I have decided to restore Uncle Ivor's Outlaw as a single channel model powered by the ED Competition Special in order to teach free flight trimming techniques to younger members of my club. I also intend to cover the model in tissue over doculam which will be a first for me. However, I need the help of the cognoscenti in choosing a servo to actuate the rudder. I have the following small servos in stock: 1. A Savox SH-0255mg. 2. A Hitec HS55. 3. A Hitec HS5055MG. 4. A Hitec HS-225BB. The first three servos are probably designed for use with electric models because they are supplied without any rubber grommets. Would they be suitable for a model powered by a diesel engine?

I am planning to build a Junior 60 covered in doculam with tissue applied over the top with a water based varnish. I've never done this before but it's certainly an option for your Southerner Major Steve. A variation on that theme would be to used dress lining or chiffon on top of the doculam. This material is available in a very wide choice of colours. https://www.abakhan.co.uk/fabric/dressmaking/dress-linings.html. Chiffon is apparently a bit lighter. Mark Robinson has posted a video showing the technique of fixing the tissue to the doculam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSi81sbQQK4&t=32s. He also states that water based varnish has proved itself to be fuel proof provided that you give the tissue two or three coats. I'll let everybody know how I get on with covering the Junior 60 when I get to that stage.

In the end I chose Option 1. I found some lead amongst my souvenirs. One piece, weighing about 100 grammes already had two holes drilled into it. It must have been bolted below some other engine in some long dead airframe. So, out with the supplied M3 socket bolts, fit a couple of longer ones, thank you Model Fixings, two nuts to secure the engine to the mount and two more to fit the lead in place and now it balances. I will try the club's more sophisticated cg jig before flying this afternoon.

With the Enya engine and the silencer fitted the model is still tail heavy. Both of the 46s have seen service in the club trainer.

I can't say that I've had a problem with the aileron control horn screws, they are short certainly, but they are long enough to engage with the holes in the backing plates and to protrude a little above them. Where I do have a problem is in getting the centre of gravity right. Even with a five cell rx battery up against the firewall, the model balances on the main landing gear at least 10mm too far to the rear. I found this quite surprising especially as I'm using an over-size engine, it also means that I cannot use the fuel tank which comes with the kit but a six ounce red SLEC tank will fit. However, according to Enya's official website, my engine is at 315 grammes is 63 grammes or 2.2 ounces lighter that the OS Max 46AX which is the engine of choice for this model amongst my clubmates. I'm left with a number of choices: Fit longer screws to the engine mount and bolt some lead to the underside of the mount. Choose from an Irvine 53, an Irvine 46 or a Thunder Tiger 46 which are all languishing unemployed in my cupboard. At 514 grammes the Irvine 53 is 99 grammes or 3.5 ozs heavier than the Enya. The Irvine 46 is 75 grammes or 2.7 ozs heavier than the Enya and the Thunder Tiger PRO is a whopping 150 grammes or 5.3 ozs heavier than the Enya.

Very tempting but I already have too many projects and too little time to get them all finished!

I don't generally "do" ARTFs, however, my club had bought a Kyosho Calmato Alpha as a low wing trainer for beginners and the committee decided to sell it as most of the beginners seemed to be happy with electric powered foamie models. I got it at a 35€ discount. I had never assembled a Calmato but I had had a few flights with other people's models albeit, the larger version of the model and I found them very pleasant to fly. Those who had flown both versions felt that smaller one was the nicer aircraft. It is intended for a 40-46 two stroke engine and I was pleasantly surprised to find that the firewall had built-in side thrust. Such attention to detail is impressive. I generally prefer four stroke engines but I have a number of nice two strokes, including a new Irvine 53, a new OS 40 V and a very nice OS 61SF, all waiting for their turn to be installed in a model. For the Calmato I decided to use my beloved Enya 50 fitted with a genuine Enya Q silencer. This combination produces a very pleasing sound. One thing that I can't abide is the sound of a noisy two stroke. One of my former lady friends described them as "flying chainsaws!" The assembly was pretty straight forward, the instructions consisting of a series of drawings with text in both English and Chinese. All of the parts provided in the kit were of good quality, metal clevises for the rudder, elevator and ailerons for example. The parts were also supplied in re-sealable plastic bags with all of the parts for the various parts of the model in their own dedicated little bags so that you don't get the bits mixed up. The push rods to the tail control slide through pre-fitted plastic tubes with very little friction. I have deviated from the kit instructions in only two respects. Instead of using the supplied fittings which clamp the servo to the pushrods, I have used z bends and I have given the tank bay a couple of coats of solvent based exterior varnish. I still have to fit the tank, switch, battery and receiver and to carry out all of the pre-flight checks, but I will get that done this morning. I am organising an Open Mic Night tonight so I'm going to be rather busy this afternoon. I plan to fly the model tomorrow. My camera is "hors service" but I'll see if I can get someone else to photograph it. That said, most of you know what a Calmato looks like and since Covid only the red colour scheme is available. There used to be a blue and a mauve option. I have attached a picture of my model lifted from the box art below. I have been impressed by the quality of this kit. I trimmed out a few Kyosho trainers for beginners in the past; does anyone remember the pink ones? They flew very well and if this Calmato flies as well as they did, I'll be very pleased.

The SE5a looks very nice in silver.

Having bought an old Laser 50 in order to participate in next year's Coupe Des Barons with a British engine, I treated it to two Gavin Carter piston rings and a new pair of teflon pads. It really didn't need them as the engine appears to have done very little work,there are no carbon deposits on the piston or cylinder head. Having run it up on the test bench a couple of times, I decided to install it in my Big Guff vintage model, replacing the Laser 62 which was originally fitted. Externally these two engines seem to be identical. The weather was gorgeous yesterday afternoon but I was the only flier at the field. I had two twenty minute flights with the engine operating at all speeds. I'll fly again tomorrow. The engine should be well run-in after another couple of flights.

I doubt that they are fuelproof because I used cellulose dope. According to Mark Robinson, two or three coats of WBPU varnish resists glow fuel containing 15% nitro. As I shall be using a similar fuel in next year''s Coupe Des Barons so I will be interested to see whether this is true. I'm not going to be too concerned if it doesn't turn out to be the case, the model has a 60/40 chance of being damaged in the competition so I may just used two pack fuel proofer in areas likely to be affected by fuel or exhaust residue. My aim for the Junior 60 is to build a model capable of being flown by a 15 two stroke. I will probably run that on 5% fuel.

payneib pm sent.

Don, I built two test panels a couple of years ago and covered one of them in docualm and the other in colourless transparent film. I then doped on a piece of De Luxe Products red tissue onto each panel. Both look fine and the tissue adhered very well to the substrate. I look forward to using Mike Woodhouse's tissue on the new model once it is built and covered in doculam.

I will be using Asuka tissue which Mark Robinson used on his vintage model. He used ordinary water based polyeurathane varnish. He claims that it's a fuelproof finish with up to 15% nitro fuels. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSi81sbQQK4&t=1289s

In that case when I next go to the DIY Superstore I'll buy some! 😏

I already have several metres of doculam which I have used on test panels. I'll order some Eze Dope and some Japanese tissue from Mike Woodhouse.

I would be grateful if someone could check my calculations, maths was never my strong suit, Grade 6 O Level 1964. A Grade 7 was a fail! The wingspan of a Baron is 155cms, the chord is 24 cms therefore the wing area is 3720 square centimetres. As you need to cover both the upper and lower surfaces of the wing you will need 7440 square centimetres of covering or about 3/4 of a square metre. Litespan weighs between 28 and 32 grammes per square metre (gsm). Solarfilm weighs 50-68gsm, the new Kavan covering weighs between 63 and 70gsm. If we take the lightest Litespan weight and the heaviest film weight and multiply them by 0.744, the weight of the Litespan covering for a Baron's wing would amount to 20.83 grammes and the weight of the film covering would amount to 52.08 grammes a difference of 31.25 grammes. 31.25 grammes is just over one ounce in old money! Of course I would also have to cover the fuselage and tail surfaces. If we allow the weight of the covering for the fuselage and tail to be half of that of the wing, I would save one and a half ounces by using Litespan. I don't think that one and a half ounces would make a significant difference to the flight performance of a Baron. I am currently using Flair vintage wheels on my Barons. Does anyone know of a source of lighter wheels? The 2018 champion used very light looking wheels on his model.

Lack of speed in my view.

Sorting through my souvenirs last night I discoverd two packs of silver Litespan and one pack of dark green. If I could find another pack of silver Litespan, that would be enough to cover the new Baron's wings and tail surfaces and with silver wings and a dark green fuselage it would look very smart!

I have used Lightspan on this Veron Cardinal which I've never got round to flying. The Veron Cardinal was my first successful model aeroplane, free flight in those days of course and covered in doped tissue. The man who made the ptfe pads is called Paul James. He sent them off to me yesterday. He seems to be doing quite a few repairs on Lasers now that they are no longer made. PS. On checking with Solarfilm Sales, they only have Litespan in orange or red seconds. I have an unused roll of yellow Micafilm which looks awful but could be pressed into service for next year's competition.

I also found out after I'd posted the above, that one standard servo like a Hitec HS 311 at the tail also balances. I think I'll use one standard servo at the tail operating the elevator via a short carbon fibre pushrod and two mini servos on the cg to operate the rudder and throttle. I use a close loop system on the rudder of nearly all of my models. I'm also toying with using tissue over doculam but will probably go with Trainer Yellow film!