David Davis

I hada similar experience! I bought an OS 46 AX second hand minus the silencer but found something suitable in my box of two-stroke exhausts. I must fit the engine to the club's trainer and remove my beloved Enya 50 which is destined to go into a Calmato Alpha. Can't have such a beautifully made engine in the clumsy paws of beginners! 😏

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.

This might be suitable for your engine. It's cheap enough but it could do with a clean. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/355534920581?itmmeta=01HTWSZWXSYGJ193VZ1JVBTGB2&hash=item52c7885b85:g:EDcAAOSwIvdl7xjg

So do I.

I had a similar experience. I used to live in North Devon. Every year at the end of the flying season, the Exeter Club used to hire a school hall and a caterer, and stage a giant auction. People came from miles around, there were usually over four hundred lots. I bought a diesel engine, I think it was a PAW 19 but I can't be sure. I brought it home, put a prop on it and squirted some diesel fuel into the exhaust ports. Casually I flipped it over and the damn thing burst into life! There I was standing in my kitchen with a model aeroplane engine screaming it's head off in my left hand and the kitchen rapidly filling with exhaust smoke. My immediate though was to chuck it in the sink but being a single man, the sink was full of dirty ditches! So I had to stand there holding the damned thing until it ran out of fuel. Of course, they get hot don't they, so it became increasingly more difficult to hold on to it. Fortunately it stopped before it became too hot to hold! 🙄

Just a little rider to all of the above about a lightweight Junior 60 powered by a 15, I have just dropped £6 on an Enya 15 which looks new but it must be very old because it has a butterfly valve over the exhaust port. If I win it, I hope it's not too noisy! I did think of using a PAW diesel but changed my mind because they're so oily.

Maybe, I've never used it before but i couldn't get the engine to run satisfactorily using old school methods.

I'm the polar opposite of you Hillclimber, I can't abide the asthmatic wheeze of an electric motor! Indeed I'm thinking of removing the electric motor from my Super 60 and fitting a small fourstroke. I love the challenge of getting an engine adjusted so that it runs spot on. For example last week I had just finished a Baron ready for La Coupe Des Barons in June. It is powered by a Magnum 52FS. Though the engine ran well, every time the throttle stick was pulled back below the half way position the engine would cut. I carefully adjusted the throttle pushrod and aligned the servo output arm and the throttle lever but the problem persisted. I tried the travel adjust function without success then reverted to using the sub trim feature on my DX9 for the first time. That solved the problem. How I ever managed all those years ago on that Sanwa Conquest, I'll never understand!

and mine.

If electric is to be the future it's a good job that I'm not going to be around for that much longer! 😏

My dirty plates are in the dishwasher.

Oh I'm not beating myself up about it Leccy but in addition to the models mentioned above I have five unstarted kits still in their boxes: a Hawker Hurricane, a Stampe Monitor, a Supra Star, a Super Kaos Junior and a quarter scale Fokker triplane. Then there's that DSM Aerostar in need of refurbishment and that Flying Flea I inherited when my best friend died over twenty years ago but as you say it's a hobby not a job. No wonder the garden's in such a state!

I don't suppose that this applies to everyone but it does apply to some of us. Why is it that if we have a model to finish, or several models to finish, that we start to build another? Take my case. I just need to fit the radio, engine and undercarriage to a Galaxy Models "Mystic," I have a DB Sport & Scale Auster in a similar condition and I need to repair the wing of my Guidato after the dog had jumped on it, and yet I am tempted to start building another Junior 60! If I build it, it will be the fourth which I have built and that's not counting the Junior 60 which I helped my protégé Frans to build. I have both an OS 26 FS Surpass and an ASP30 FS which are currently unemployed but I'm tempted to build it very light, cover it in doculam and tissue, which will be a first for me, and power it with a 15 two-stroke. I have a roll of Micafilm which I could use but that looks awful! So I have the materials and the plan and the temptation but I'm kicking myself now for having given away a brand new Enya 15 last year! Mind you those old Enyas require an awful lot of running in so the neighbours have been spared! The Junior 60 was my first successful RC model so that may have influenced my thinking. There are better trainers, not that I need a trainer these days, but I just love the way the Junior 60 just seems to hover in calm air. I'll let you know if I start cutting balsa. Two of my previous J60s below, one with my much younger self! My first one was covered in olive drab nylon. The dullest-looking Junior 60 you ever saw! PS. As for the dog jumping on the Guidato's wing, it was my fault. I had incarcerated her in the van for too long when I was in England for a few weeks last year, and she made a bid for freedom damaging the Super Sixty's wing and that of the Big Guff too. I've repaired the Super Sixty and the damage to the Big Guff's wing is only superficial. PPS. In all of the Junior 60s I have built I have used standard servos, mostly Hitec HS 311s. For this new projected Junior 60 I plan to fit lighter servos. I have a Savox SH-0255mg sculling about. If I were to buy two more, would they be suitable for the Junior 60?

I was once on the phone to Mr Eiflander, the manufacturer of PAW model diesel engines. He told me that his main business was in making parts for machines which are used in hospitals, so the engines were just a sideline. I built and flew my first r/c aircraft in 1988 having built free flight and control line models in the Sixties. In 1988 every model on the flight line was built by the pilot or purchased second hand and they all had an i/c engine in the nose. Today most of the models at my club's flying field are electric powered ARTFs. C'est la vie. However, some of us like engines for some unfathomable reason and enjoy getting them to run properly. Some of us don't mind cleaning a little oil off the side of the model at the end of the day and some of us like the sense of satisfaction you get from building a model from scratch and watching it take flight, but we are a disappearing minority. Those of us who like engines may bemoan the paucity of new ones which are available but given the fact that so many good second hand engines are available at very reasonable prices, our needs will be catered for for some time to come. I've just worked out that I have thirty-three engines ranging from a Mills 75 to a Laser 160V. Having turned seventy-six on 11th March I think I have enough to be getting on with. For the time being at least.

Model Shop Leeds is taking over the distribution of the spare parts.

That's what I was thinking! Most of my engines are like this.

Welcome from me too Chris. You've made the right decision to join a club.

Every year I compete in a daft competition for a three-channel French trainer. It is known as La Coupe Des Barons or the Barons' Cup in English. You are allowed to make alterations to the structure and dimensions of the original model providing that they remain within 10% of the original design. I have two Barons, Boris in Ukrainian markings and Bertie with the British roundels. If I were to crash one shortly before the event then I'd have a reserve aircraft. This actually happened last year! This year I built a new wing for Bertie, using depron for the wing ribs. The completed model is fully 4 ozs (113 grammes) lighter than my Ukrainian Baron which is stock and built from a kit. For the 2025 competition I am thinking of building a new lighter fuselage and tailplane for Bertie using depron for the tailsurfaces in order to save yet more weight. The stock tailplane is made up of 1/4" (6mm) balsa. The model will be powered by a 52 fourstroke because I always compete in the fourstroke class and have given a prize to the leading pilot flying a four-stroke Baron for the last few years. I guess that I am quite famous being the only British entrant and a fourstroke devoté to boot! My question is, "How do you make a tailplane, fin and rudder out of depron sufficiently robust to withstand the flight stresses ofr a Baron in competition when powered by a 52 four-stroke?" Pictures below of the construction of a stock tailplane and the depron wing, and of Bertie and Boris ready for La Coupe. My dog is such a diva that she just had to get into the act!

Both Bertie and Boris Baron are ready for La Coupe. There are a few cosmetic jobs to do but they are in serviceable condition I'm just waiting for the wind and rain to stop before flying them. Technical details: Bertie has a wingspan about 2.5 inches or 6cms bigger than standard, (my fault I changed the internal structure of the wing!) the airframe weight is 2.1kgs and the model is powered by a Magnum 52. Boris has the standard wing, weighs 2.2kgs and is powered by a Thunder Tiger 54. I'm told that my models are rather heavy. The weight of the four-stroke doesn't help of course but I used basswood for the fuselage longerons and though they have added weight, both models have crashed without the fuselage being damaged. My dog is such a diva that she has to photo-bomb at every opportunity!

I must admit that although Bert thinks that the first question is clear enough I have no idea what José is writing about. If the original text were displayed maybe a fluent Spanish speaker could give us a better translation.

"Edited 28 minutes ago by Martin Harris - Moderator Originally posted in Spanish. I have Auto translated it but the first question is unclear to me. PLEASE NOTE THIS IS AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE ONLY FORUM - please post any updates in English." Perhaps we have some Spanish speakers on this forum Martin who could do a better job of translating the original post.

While you are absolutely right in your post kc, the OP is looking for a scale/semi-scale kit of a light aircraft suitable for his Saito 49. I regret that there are none of which I am aware but there are kit cutters who will supply most of the difficult parts for just about any model you care to mention, (I hate cutting out wing ribs myself!) leaving the builder to chose his own wood as you suggest, and to bend his own undercarriage. The OP's initial plan was to build a SLEC Sky 40 for his OS 40 FP, but I believe that he has now bought one ready made. He also planned to build a glider or electric powered glider and then to tackle a Ben Buckle Super 60 which will be powered by a PAW diesel engine. By the time he's done all of that, and with the help he may receive from his clubmates, he should be able to build a model from a short-kit. Just my opinion of course.

If I were in your situation I would chose the RWD5 or the Luton Minor. Both of the designers are very well known. Nothing wrong with the Clipped Wing Cub except that they are so commonplace! 😏. Some of the models shown are designed for electric motors so you'd need to beef up the nose structure if you wanted to convert to i/c.

How about this one? I've seen one fly and it flew beautifully. https://www.sarikhobbies.com/product/cessna-120-62/

Not wishing to rain on your parade but it is quite a complex model with its eliptical wings and crutch-built stringered fuselage, besides it's a three channel vintage model and you'll already have one of those once you've built your Super 60 so it won't help you to advance your flying skills. The Barnstormer may be built as a four channel model with ailerons. I would suggest that you build a high or mid-wing model four channel model before the Cherokee. These fly well and would suit your engine: https://www.slecuk.com/funfly-kit