David Davis

I agree with Paul's analysis of your motors Hooch but I would add that I have had excellent service from Irvine and SC engines. As for the venerable Merco 61 they were fine engines with a good carburetter but not so powerful as the Scneurle ported engines introduced by OS and Super Tigre.

I needed four sheets of 1/16" (1.5mm) balsa to cover the leading edges of the wing. Unfortunately I had none in stock so I bought some from the club. Each sheet was marked with the Solarbo logo. Unfortunately this wood proved to be rather brittle and I put my thumb through the wood when handling it. If you look closely at the last picture you'll see where I have repaired the sheeting with an off-cut near the centre section. This afternoon, while covering the port wing I did it again further out on the span. I have not seen Solarbo balsa wood for at least sixty years! Does anyone know whether balsa wood becomes more brittle as it ages?

That picture was taken last summer Murat! I was wearing my NCB overalls over three layers yesterday with a flat 'at. Apart from the hat I would have looked something like this.

I suppose this counts. I regularly participate in an annual competition La Coupe Des Barons. I have two Barons, one in British and one in Ukrainian markings, picture below. Last year I broke the Ukrainian Baron's wing in practice. I have buit a new wing for "Boris." Rather than use the standard construction I have used carbon fibre for the leading edge, carbon fibre tow to reinforce the main spars, depron wing ribs, a built-up trailing edge and balsa sheet between the leading edge and the spars. Pictures of the standard wing and my own design below. The standard wing is the second picture. I have recycled the centre section from a damaged Baron.

The weather here was fine but cold yesterday afternoon so I took my Kyosho Calmato Alpha ARTF low wing sports model, powered by an OS 46 AX, which I bought for a song at a table sale without the silencer. I have a box full of two-stroke exhausts and found a silencer to fit it! The model flew superbly and after a long flight doing all of the aerobatics of which I am capable, including vertical climbs to the limit of visibility, I brought it into land. The engine cut on the landing circuit and I had to dump it into the adjoining field without damage. My fault for not adjusting the tick-over to suit the new 8% nitro fuel. This fuel is a mixture of some French 16% nitro fuel and some British straight Southern Modelcraft fuel which must be at least eight years old! The OS seems to like the fuel but the Enya 50SS in the club's trainer did not run reliably on this mix. Certain Enya enthusiasts have suggested using fuel with more oil in it, preferably castor. Fortunately there is no demand for i/c training at the moment. I could buy another 5 litres of fuel containing more oil but I am making economies at the moment so I'll put that on hold. ARTFs are not really my thing but that Calmato flew superbly and I was very impressed. PS. I was not wearing the club's summer uniform yesterday! __________________

I used oil-based glaze, sometimes called scumble glaze, avaiable from all good painter and decorator stores, mixed with white oil-based eggshell paint, undercoat would do, white spirit and artists'oil based colours to obtain the brown streaky effect on my Baronette. It's supposed to be a replica of Hans Weiss' aircraft. He was one of the Red Baron's flight leaders.

The wings and tailplane look identical to the Telemaster 40 to me.

Boris's wing is finished all but a little making good. It's very rigid.

Spilt blood on my models? All the time. Everyone of them. I'll try the kitchen steel on Swan Morton blades. I have two. One was a wedding present for my parents' when they married in 1946.

I flew the club's trainer yesterday. It's a well-flown and repaired Boomerang powered by an Enya 50 SS, however, despite several days without rain, the van got stuck in the mud and had to be pulled out by the chairman's 4WD! 😩

Thank you John for reafirming my thinking.

Boris reported at breakfast time this morning. He was full of tales of derring do whilst flying F16s over Ukraine. The Ukrainian Government has given him extended leave to fly in La Coupe Des Barons. However, he has lost his machine gun. I have sent a report up to the Wing Commander and given him the job of supervising the final stages of the construction of his aircraft's new wing. He will report to the Tall Fellah pictured on the right below, who would have flown in La Coupe if Boris had not returned. Picture of Boris in his aircraft shortly before the 2023 Coupe below. He crashed in practice and the Englishman had to fly.

Picture of my experiment below. Last year I made up two rectangles, one covered in doculam the other in clear film, please do not ask which is which! Yestrday I applied a piece of red and a piece of grey tissue to each rectangle using Mark Robinson's method in which the tissue is attached to the film with water. Wrinkles are smoothed out by hand, excess water is removed using kitchen towel and a coat of matt water based varnish is applied over the top. The red De Luxe Materials EZE tissue held its shape but the grey tissue started to disintergrate at the edges while I was smoothing it down with my fingers. Maybe if I'd used a finer spray all would have been well but I'm leaning towards buying some more red EZE tissue and finishing the model in red overall. Please ignore the scrappy remains of red tissue on the edges of the frame. They are remnants of the previous experiment and I was too lazy to remove all traces. Apologies also for my slippered feet.

I have almost finished the Baron's new wing. It is very rigid and sure not to flex in the high G turns of the pylon race. It just requires the hard points for the dummy wing warping wires and a little more sheeting to be fitted as well as some filling and sanding, but Boris the pilot has not yet reported for duty. He has twenty-four hours to turn up otherwise he'll be replaced by an eager volunteer!

Brief update on the progress of the Junior 60. I have built both sides of the fuselage and I'm just waiting for the glue to cure properly before removing them from the building board. Having made up a couple of test pieces I decided to test the strength of the grey tissue I had bought from a French supplier applied wet over doculam. It proved not to be as robust as the Asuka Japanese tissue I had bought from Mike Woodhouse of Free Flight Supplies which I had used on Uncle Ivor's Outlaw. Perhaps if I'd used a finer spray it would have been alright. However, I also had an unopened packet of red EZE Tissue which is made by De Luxe Materials. This went on no problem so perhaps I will order some more red tissue and finish the model in red overall. Blue, yellow and white EZE Tissue is also available but I think I'll stick with red. I have generally been impressed by the quality of De Luxe Materials products and have used their Super Phatic glue through much of the construction of the model It's not as if orientation is a problem with something as slow flying as a Junior 60!

Talking of using carbon fibre in the wing structure of Barons, at the 2023 event there was a beautifully built Baron finished in transparent orange film so you could see the structure through the covering. The builder had made extensive use of carbon fibre rod or tube throughout the structure. However, when the model took off it was dangerously unstable and continued to perform all sorts of uncontrolled gyrations mostly over the crowd while drifting downwind. Eventually it crashed, fortunately without injuring anybody. I suspect that the centre of gravity was too far to the rear and perhaps the model had not been flown before in which case it's not good practice to fly a model for the first time in the heat of a competition. If the pilot was a member of a club, I'm surprised that no-one had advised him about the necessity of having the cg somewhere close to the recommended position. Perhaps the pilot was inexperienced and/or incompetent but I was very concerned at the time because quite a crowd had gathered behind the safety fence to watch the flying. Now I'm no Wolfgang Matt but I am reasonably competent. Mind you, the standard of piloting at La Coupe never ceases to amaze me, it varies from the experts who fly with metronomic precision to the downright dangerous. Fortunately the second category usually crash in the first round, so far without hurting anybody.

I know what you mean Nigel, I had an HP VT20 in the orange one which was later replaced by a VT 25. The 25 barely flew it, the 20 needed a hand launch! Come to think of it, I still own the 25 and an HP VT49 as well. I should sell them to a collector. 😉

While searching through my souvenirs I found this OS 26 Surpass. It's a little jewel and I don't think it's ever been run! I'm going to fit it to the Junior 60. I will make up a paxoloin plate for the OS 15 to see whether I can build it the model light enough for it to fly with such a little engine.

The basic structure of the wing is complete. I have used carbon fibre tow to reinforce the balsa main spars and I have boxed them in with interspar webbing. The wing ribs are from depron and the leading edge is carbon fibre tube. I have recycled the centre section from the Baron which crashed and have used Gorilla Glue, De Luxe Materials Super Phatic and UHU Por as adhesives. There's stil a bit to go of course, sheeting the leading edge for example and building the Baron's characteristic raked tips.

I glued a coin to the front of mine!

Welcome from me too Mark/

Welcome to the forum Finlay. I'm a Shropshire Lad but for the last ten years nearly I've lived in La Belle France! You don't say which part of Shropshire you are from and it is England's largest inland county but the BMFA Club Finder page will you to identify the nearest BMFA club. https://bmfa.justgo.com/clubfinder.html I used to be a member of the Shropshire Model Flying Club which flies out of Forton Aerodrome near Montford Bridge to the north west of Shrewsbury. There is an active club in Telford too.

I have seen a Junior 60 fly on an ED Racer. I intend to to power the new model with an old OS Max 15 for which I paid 30€. If that engine proves to be too feeble I have an OS 26 Surpass and an ASP 30 FS, either of those should power it.

I have a soft spot for the Junior 60 because it was my first successful radio controlled model. My first r/c model, in the days when you had to build your own trainer, was a St Leonard's Models "Gemini" designed by Jim Baguley who mainly designed gliders. It was too small and fast for me at the time. Years later I built another Gemini just to prove that I could fly it. I got bored with it and gave it to a clubmate! Pictures of the second Gemini and my Junior 60s below for those unfamiliar with the design. The orange one was my first Junior 60. Originally the fuselage was covered in Olive Drab parachute nylon and the flying surfaces were covered with Neutral Solartex with decoration in black! It must have been the drabbest looking Junior 60 ever made! Fortunately it was never photographed. Years later I gave it a make-over, covered it in Orange Solartex and at the insistance of my trainee pilot, to whom I had sold the model, I converted it to electric power. It met its end when all power was cut to the receiver and we watched it helplessly as it glided magnificently into an adjacent wheat field. Despite extensive searches we never found it but the combine harvester did! Thered and yellow one was my first model powered by an electric motor, a Graupner Speed 600. Someone made me an offer for it which I could not refuse ! The photograh was taken by my mother in her back garden. Given that she died nearly twenty-five years ago I no longer look like that! I also helped my Belgian mate Frans to build one from a Ben Buckle kit. It's the dark red and white one in the pictures below. I intend to cover my new Junior 60 in tissue over doculam. I have been practising on my Uncle Ivor's seventy-six year-old Keil Kraft Outlaw! I am building the J60 off a single channel plan probably the 1955 version which has a wider fuselage and a stronger wing than the 1946 free flight original. I have spent much of the last week building a new wing for my Baron, a three channel French trainer. Every year I participate in a competition called La Coupe des Barons and I have two Barons in case I damage one in practice. One of the most satisfactory stages in building model aircraft, in my opinion, is when you can remove the plan from the building board and put the plan away! This happened at lunchtime so the Junior 60 plan is now in its place on the work bench and some of the longerons and uprights have already been glued into position. I keep my spare balsa in three old kit boxes. One contains strip of up to a metre in length, the second one contains sheet of the same length and the third, dating from the time when I lived in England, contains both strip and sheet in four foot (1.22 metres) in length. I found that I only had thirteen metres of 1/4" (6mm) square strip wood but they are all medium grade balsa wood. I miss being able to specify hard, medium or soft wood as I could in England. Nevertheless I plan to use the wood that I have and I sorted out the four hardest strips which will be reserved for the main longerons. After 37 years of flying r/c aircraft I think that I can now land a Junior 60 without damaging it! We'll see!😉 I'll post picturesof the build when I have something worth photographing.

I'm not sure when my OS Max 15 was made. I only paid 30€ for it including P&P. It's a plain bearing job I can tell that. If it's not powerful enough I have an an OS 26 Surpass and an ASP 30 FS which should fly it.