David Davis

Attached a little seasonal story which proved therapeutic to write.  You Win Some, or an Exercise in Recycling.   In September 2008, I was delivering some Jaguar spares to Adfa Motors in the remote village of Adfa, Powys, Mid Wales. To my delight the proprietor, a South African, was an aeromodeller and ran a separate little business designing and selling large model aeroplane kits. He also had several used models for sale. Amongst these was an Astro Hog finished largely in white with mauve stars as decoration. Dating from 1958, the Astro Hog is quite an attractive aircraft with curved lines and an open cockpit and it was the first successful aerobatic radio controlled model aircraft. This one had obviously been well-flown and one of the aileron horns had become detached but that was not a problem. “How much for the Astro Hog?” I enquired. “Oh you can have it,” said the proprietor, “it’s far too oily to sell.” I looked at the dried castor oil on the fuselage and tailplane and thought, “You should see some of the oily old specimens which I fly!”   So I took it home and after a brief session with some thinners and Mr Muscle the staining was largely removed and the repair to the aileron horn was the work of ten minutes. However, the previous owner had fitted the engine retaining bolts from below and had soldered them to a strip of metal to prevent them from rotating when the nuts were tightened and none of my engines matched the spacing. Now I could have cut way the balsa block from under the nose, removed the bolts and drilled new holes to take one of my own engines but the model was so well-built that I didn’t want to do that and so the project was put on hold until a suitable engine became available.   Months later I was in the model shop in Whitchurch. In the shop is a table with lots of second-hand stuff on it. Amongst the stuff was a Merco 61 model aircraft engine. The Merco was a popular British design in the Fifties and Sixties which went out of production in the Eighties, because more powerful and sophisticated engines were being produced by German, Italian and Japanese manufacturers. (Sound familiar?) This particular specimen seemed to have been well used and was seized solid. It had also gone almost black in colour probably because it had got too hot inside an inadequately vented cowling. A price of £12 was agreed; a modern engine of equivalent size will cost between £60 and £150.   So the Black Merco was mine. I took it home. I felt that it had probably seized because castor oil had solidified internally. I stuck it in the oven, (there are advantages to living on your own!) removed it after ten minutes, held it in a rag, and turned the crankshaft. It was free! A quick squirt of Three in One and the Black Merco was seized no more. Mirabile Dictu the mounting holes matched the bolts in the Astro Hog. The Black Merco was bolted in; a quick scrabble through my spares box, (junk box?) revealed a strap-on silencer and a serviceable carburettor which were soon fitted. I had some ancient Sanwa servos modified by a friend so that they fitted a modern receiver, these were installed and with freshly charged batteries the old Astro Hog was ready to fly.   Wednesday 23rd December 2009 must go down as a thoroughly Blokeish Day. In the morning, with my mate Marino, we scrapped two old Alfa Romeos and got over £100 for them. In the afternoon with the temperature barely above freezing I took the Astro Hog to Forton Aerodrome. It took me over an hour to get the engine to run properly. With second-hand engines you have to guess at the carburettor settings but eventually the engine caught and ran. A few quick adjustments and the Black Merco was running well, so with a club colleague in attendance, the Astro Hog was launched and for the first time in at least two years, it flew.   Only one flight was attempted because it was so cold. It will require a few minor adjustments to the controls but it promises to be a beauty. All for £12 and a few favours!      

A Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year from all at Telemaster Sales UK.   Spare a thought for all of those Southern Hemisphere types who are lolling on the beach and firing up the barbeques while we fit skis to our models and dig our cars out of the drive!

Hi Thomas!   Welcome to the hobby!   If you join a club you'll get lots of help in learning to fly and meet a fine group of people.   The Irvine Tutor is an excellent choice, its semi-symmetrical wing section allowing it to penetrate winds more easily than trainers with flat-bottomed aerofoil sections. It's my favourite trainer other than the Telemasters of course which are much more expensive!   I've no experience of the Wot Trainer but have flown the Uno Wot, Acro Wot and Wot 4, all of which are Chris Foss designs which fly well.

Come off it Myron!   The flying element of an A Certificate involves taking off, flying left and right hand circuits, and a horizontal figure of eight, all at a more or less constant altitude, a simulated landing and a real landing.   If you can't do that you're not safe!   You'll be banning driving tests next....Edited By David Davis Telemaster Sales UK on 19/12/2009 09:35:16

If this is only your second aircraft Ross, I would get an experienced flier to fly it on the maiden flight and to adjust the trims before handing you the transmitter. I have been flying for years but I gave the maiden flight of a Fokker Triplane model I'd built to a better flier as their ground handling is notoriously bad and in the air they have little built-in stability.   Your Calmato will have no such tendencies. There are two at my club and both seem to fly beautifully but it would be a pity to damage such a nice model on its first flight because of a lack of experience.   As for exponential, it's a matter of personal choice. I don't use it but those that do claim that it makes flying easier.

Congratulations Ken to you and to your lady who did all of the hard work!   Telemasters make excellent trainers. They're available in five sizes as builder's kits and in three sizes as ARTFs

It sounds like you are too lean. I would be inclined to open the main needle 3-4 turns from fully shut . Then close the throttle, screw in the slow until you feel resistance then open it one and a half turns. Don't force it shut! With these settings in my experience most engines will run at mid-revs.   Having got the engine to run and allowed time for it to warm up, try opening the throttle fully. If it cuts it's too lean, open the main needle until it runs smoothly. If it continues to run unevenly with lots of smoke and misfiring, try screwing the main needle in until the engine runs smoothly.   Having got the top end sorted close the throttle and adjust the low speed needle using the same principals.

I bought mine in WH Smiths but I've just noticed that there is a note at the bottom stating, "Retailer display until September 2007!" How time flies!   When I was last in the Whitchurch Model Shop I thought I noticed some on display there. The plans handbook is now entitled the "Collectors' Plans Special," and it also mentioned that it was published "in association with RCM&E" so this site ought to be able to help!   Whitchurch Models number is 01948 667766.

The Vulcan was designed by DA Russell who was the editor of "The Aeromodeller" over sixty years ago. I looked for the plan without finding it in a couple of old plans handbooks which I still have dating from the Sixties only to find it illustrated in the current edition of the plans handbook listed on page 17 as PET 206. You'll probably also find it on-line at; www.myhobbystore.com.   It's a large high wing monoplane which should fly with great presence like a Precedent T240 or, dare I say it, a Senior Telemaster   I've no experience of petrol engines but Just Engines should be able to help and I believe that interference is less of a problem with 2.4gHz equipment.

On 30th April 2007 I was riding my 955cc Triumph motorcycle from Berane to Podgorica in Montenegro. It was getting dark, it was raining, the road surface was like a scrambles track and my route took me through lots of unlit tunnels. I don't scare that easily but I have never said anything about the nanny state since then.     Oh, and girls did get pregnant in the Sixties.

In response to BB's point, years ago we were conducting noise tests. The then Treasurer picked up his Acrowot by reaching over the propeller and grasping the fuselage. However, the engine, a 61 two-stroke was running at high speed, he lost his grip on the oily fuselage and the prop took a big slice out of his forearm. Fortunately there were plenty of us at the field, we wrapped a bandage round his arm and drove him to the hospital. I drove to his house to pick up his wife so that she could drive the car back home.   Just imagine what would have happened had he been there alone.   Our club does not specifically ban lone flying but it is not encouraged.    

Field like Clives? Fit floats. Problem solved.

Whatever you do don't use your car's battery! I drive a diesel and fly fairly big models with batteries of 3000-5000mAh capacity. After one afternoon's flying my battery was so flat that the fuel valve wouldn't open and the car wouldn't start. Fortunately it went with a tow from the secretary's old Volvo. Funnily enough, I'd seen the same thing happen to someone else the previous week whilst flying as a guest down in Exeter.   Nowadays I just charge the batteries I want to use off the mains at home and don't bother recharging at the field.

Just a little rider to all of the above, Austrian aircraft of the First World War featured black crosses well inboard and red/white/red bands towards the wing tips. Such a scheme would make your model look realy distinctive. 

Hi Jozef   You've taken on quite a project for your first model aircraft. If you'd asked me for advice before starting to build the Auster I wouldn't have recommended it. Scale models are not built as strongly as conventional trainers but we are where we are.   Having criticised your choice of model, here are a few positives;   1. You have some experience of flying a full sized model and small electrics. I assume from this that you know something about how an aircraft flies and that you know that when a model is flying towards you that right is left and left is right. "Prop up the  lower wing!" I say to all of my beginners.   2.I've found that full-sized pilots soon learn how to fly models   3. You are a natural modeller, that dashboard is a work of art!   4. You've chosen a nice big model which will be easy to see and which will fly very slowly between manouvres giving you plenty of "thinking time."   You asked for advice:   The only advice which I can give you at this stage is for you to join a club and get a qualified instructor to help you to fly the model. A visit to the BMFA website www.bmfa.org.uk will tell you the location of your nearest club.   The best of luck with the project.     David    

Thank you all for your complimentary remarks.   There has been a lot of interest in the A10 Tony but so far no-one ordered one. It is likely to cost about £170 by the time I've paid VAT etc, but you'd also need two motors, two 90mm ducted fan units and a set of retracts. Then you have to build it and finish it. I quoted one enquirer £320 for the model, a set of air retracts and some Liquid Sheeting. This is not a cheap model but it is much bigger than the average EDF and has some nice proportions so should fly well.   The smaller WW2 stuff will sell for between £115 and £120 and I have the Hurricane, the Marauder and the Liberator in stock. Spares will take 10-14 days to get here but I won't be stocking them unless I get lots of sales!   Happy landings Gentleman and Seasons Greetings

Most American kits are excellent. The Yanks won't put up with rubbish. Having said that I've built a Flair Junior 60 and a Baronette and can't find anything to criticize.   I've flown several Magnatillas and have one part-built in the loft which I bought off eBay. There are lots of ways of making your Maggie different to everone elses. Try finishing it as a two seater with an observer with a machine gun in a rear cockpit. Finish it as a pre war racing aircraft. Finish it in British, Russian or French colours and pretend it's a Morane, or finish it with a blue, green, brown or yellow fuselage and chrome yellow wings to represent an American military aircraft from the 20's or 30's, red and white striped rudder and all and those national insignia with the red disc in the centre.    

Hi Everybody!   David Davis, 61 years old, 62 next March, apparently this is the average age of a member of the BMFA! I've been a member of this forum for some time but thought it about time I made a proper job of introducing myself .   I built my first model a Keil Kraft Ajax, a rubber powered free flight model, when I was eleven. (Younger modellers please ask your granddad what a free flight rubber powered model is.) My Uncle Geoff taught me how to build. He was a draughtsman by trade and built beautiful models. This was followed by a Keil Kraft glider, neither of these flew very well nor were they very well-built. Had I stopped there I wouldn't be writing this now, but having saved up my wages from my paper round I bought a Mills 75 from Henry J Nicholls of 308 Holloway Road and put it into a Veron Cardinal, a small free flight cabin monoplane. One windless day with my father and his brother who was also an aeromodeller, we flew it, filling the tank and launching it until it was a tiny cross in the sky. Then it would glide down and land a short distance away before the process was repeated. Geoof couldn't join us because he was in the last stages of cancer from which he died a few months later. He was only 35.    I didn't know it then but I was hooked.   Until I was fifteen I built control line stunt, combat and team race models as well as a few free flight gliders and competition powered models, then two things happened; I joined a rock band and I discovered girls!   For the next thirty years life got in the way of the modelling until one day I saw a man flying a radio controlled model aircraft in a field in Devon where I was living at the time. I bought a second-hand but unused radio from a chap who was setting up "on his own," was given an Irvine 21 which some kid had abused in a model car and bought a small trainer kit for £5 in an auction which was soon replaced by a Junior 60, with which I learned to fly and which I ultimately sold to my cousin, Geoff's son who was ababy when he died.   My main interests centre round vintage models, scale civilian aircraft from the Golden Age, say 1920-1960, and WW1 scale but I also own a Flair Hooligan, Flair's version of the WOT 4, and an Acrowot. At present I am finishing off a Morane, repairing a Goldberg Piper Cub and a Flair Baronette and building a Senior Telemaster, an 8ft trainer, however, mine will differ from most in having the earlier inset ailerons rather than strip ailerons. I'll put it on a build blog when I've received the wing ribs back from the laser cutter. I'm also repairing a few others with the intention of selling them because I believe that if you've too many possesions you become enslaved to them and the enjoyment you derive from them diminishes.   I also get a lot of satisfaction teaching beginners how to fly and have become a BMFA Approved Instructor.   Nearly three years ago I was made redundant from a good job owing to government cut-backs, (sound familiar?) I was better off than most having a small pension in recognition for all of the work I'd done for HMG, but I scratched a living restoring a few classic cars, then landed a part-time job working for a Jaguar agency, (you wouldn't believe the pay!) I also sank a few pounds into importing the Telemaster range of models from America. These are a range of slow-flying trainers which fly with great presence so make a good first model or a chilling-out model for experienced fliers. I've also been appointed the British representative of Wow Planes, a range of scale models made from foam, mostly WW2 stuff. I'll be building a Liberator in the New Year and a club collegue is building a B25 Mitchell. I'll put the Liberator build on a blog.   Send me a PM if you're interested in buying a model.      

BEB   The Sopwith Pup or Scout certainly was used as a combat aircraft in WW1.   Squadrons which used them on operations included Nos: 46, 54, 66 RFC and Nos 3, 4, 8, 9, 13 RNAS, later renumbered 203, 204 etc RAF.    As for dirty cockpits bear in mind that mud from the pilots'boots would have marked the cockpits!   Happy Landings!

Flair biplanes are nice models but I wouldn't recommend one as a first model. I've flown the Pupeteer, and Baronette as well as the Magnatilla. With the Pupeteer you have to use the rudder a lot and the Baronette is a little beast on the ground so not recommended for a beginner. I haven't flown the Fokker or the Legionaire so can't comment but think about it, if you crash a biplane you're likely to have to repair two sets of wings rather than one.   My advice is to start off with a high winged monoplane, three or four channels you choose, then go for something a bit faster and more aerobatic such as a WOT 4 or Acrowot before moving on to a biplane or WW2 warplane. You might get away with a Flair Magnatilla as a trainer if you've flown before but it lacks a dihedral so will not be as stable as normal trainer.   As for WW2 stuff Spitfires are supposed to be difficult to land owing to tip stalling caused by the pointed wing-tips especially in the smaller sizes. Again, I've never owned a Spitfire so can't comment from experience. The ME109, FW190, Harvard and Mustang all have square-cut wing tips so shouldn't exhibit this problem.   DB Sport & Scale offer the Hurricane and Spitire as builder's kits, Mick Reeves Models offer the Spitfire in several sizes, the Hurricane and an FW 190 which is said to be a beautiful flier, like a pattern ship.

Or the Magnatilla. Same as a Hannibal but smaller. Excellent flyer. Good at slow speeds.

Another good electric trainer is the Eflite apprentice. Very impressive and it's foam too.   I also agree that vintage models are easy to fly buit they're useful as ab initio trainers for greybeards returning to the hobby in later life or for those who try it for the first time when they've retired. Once they've mastered three channels they can go on to something more demanding.    Younger novices seem to have no trouble with a standard ARTF.    

It is essential to get the balance point correct on any model aircraft.   The Junior 60 was my first successful radio controlled model, ultimately it was rather like George Washington's axe having had two fusleages and three tailplanes before I sold it to my cousin. In it's first manifestation I had omitted to make the tail plane out of lightweight balsa with the result that it needed 1.5 pounds, yes pounds, (680 grammes)of lead in the nose to balance it!     It still flew well with an ex car racing Irvine 21 in the nose and may even have handled windy weather better than a lighter model!

Ian   Ken's response to my posting illustrates that if you ask ten different modellers you'll get ten different answers!   My post is based on the experience of teaching many elderly novices how to fly and they frequently have problems with a standard four channel ARTF trainer because they find it too fast and insufficiently self stabilising whereas a vintage model is basically a free flight model incorporating a great deal of inherent stability.   Ken's right when he implies that you will have to modify your technique when converting to a four-channel model but at least you'll have gained experience of radio controlled flight, and with experience comes confidence.   If you can manage an Arising Star fine, if you can't, I'm convinced that a three channel model is the way to go.  You pays your money...   For what it's worth, I find that the Irvine Tutor is the best of the ARTFs. Having a semi-symmetrical wing section, this model will fly in windy conditions.   David 

Just a thought concerning age.   In my experience a lot of older novices struggle a bit with a four channel trainer even when coached on a buddy lead. If you fit into this category Ian, I'd recommend a three channel model like a Junior 60. An ARTF version is available for £100 or so from Flair Models. It's expensive I know  but it will give you plenty of thinking time between manouevres and stick time in the air which will build your confidence. One down-side of a model like this is that it won't fly well in strong winds but then a beginner should not be flying if the wind is blowing the model around. Finally if your model survives the training period, you'll have a nice vintage model to chill out with as an experienced pilot   I note that the FW VT is also a three-channel model which supports my point.   Once you can fly one of these you can move on to the four channel trainer with confidence.   Happy Landings   David Davis BMFA Approved Club Level Instructor