Peter Jenkins

I too managed to get out and after about 45 mins was on my own. I've been trying to take on board what the Flight Coach trace tells me I'm doing wrong! Of course, you do something else wrong as you fix one problem! However, I can see that my geometry I'm flying is improving - not on every flight I have to say! The Adverrun motor that I'm using in place of my late lamented TMCR does not have the level of braking when the throttle is closed and this is making landing easier to achieve. Two of the four landings I made today fell into the greaser category. Now need to make that 100%! Dreamer! The new Anthem has now accumulated 23 flights and trimming is almost there. I am still trying to find a nice compromise with the rudder while the vertical climb is almost hands off. Needs a gentle tweak on either down thrust or increased wing incidence.

Master Airscrew are good as paint stirrers!

Got out this afternoon to find that I had the field to myself despite there being very little wind, sunshine and warmth! Was able to get in 5 flights with the Anthem covering final tweaks to the trimming and setup and a couple of schedule practices.

Just reading through your thread reminded me of how alike my Gangster 75 build was to yours. If you are interested, you'll find it here

Only 10 made it to the start line at the second last UKF3A Aerobatic competition today at the Leicester MAC. The wind at ground level turned out to be very misleading as it was very gentle. Once you got airborne though, the full strength of a quite strong wind at 90 deg ish to the flight path had a few ending up in the next county! However, despite some interesting turbulence on approach there were no landing accidents. Today was my first competition flying my new Anthem, it's in the foreground of the photo. The aircraft is still part way through it's trimming journey so I'm hoping that finalising that issue and getting more practice with the aircraft - I'd only managed to notch up 13 flights before today - will help me to improve from my consistent position in the 5 competitions I've managed to fly in this year - last!

Got out fhis afternoon and zlthough there was a strkngish wind blowjng in mansged to fly 4 practices for tomorrow's competition. On the patch we tend to be shielded from the full force of the wind - see photo of the wind sock. However, as you can see from the model's position, the approach gets very close to that big tree and thar does cause a few problems!

Is that what we are missing in many of today's teachers of STEM subjects?

Apparently, the Romans also bequeathed us the Railway Standard Gauge of 4 ft 8 1/2 inches. Used to the the size of the ruts in the roads that were made by Roman horse drawn chariots/wagons. Two horses arses wide apparently!

Fascinating to see how much effort SW has put into the manufacture of this kit. It is a good deal friendlier than the stuff we get in the F3A world! I've just stumbled across this Adrian and will be following along.

Thanks Adrian. I have to say I was the tensest I've ever been on the maiden flight given the incidents that bedevilled my first Anthem.

Two of us maidened our BJ Craft Anthems today. It's spooky seeing two identical aircraft sitting next to each other. Mine's the far one. Mark hadn't managed to cut the prop slots in his carbon spinner so flew without the spinners. In case you are wondering what happened to my first Anthem, I'd used the JR X-bus system to control the 3 servos in the tail i.e. 1 rudder and 2 elevator. On the 3rd flight of the day at my second and smaller flying site, as the Anthem came level with me it appeared to be having difficulty wanting to lift off. As the 4 ft high crop was getting closer by the minute, I applied full up elevator and the Anthem leapt off the ground and despite applying full down elevator there was no response from the elevator! It appeared to be stuck in full up! As the Anthem approached the top of a very low loop, it was clear there wasn't going to be a good ending. I closed the throttle and that responded but the aircraft impacted almost in the middle of the patch and was pretty much destroyed up to about 3 inches into the wings. Aft of that there didn't appear to be any damage at all! There was no response from either elevators or rudder but the motor clearly responded and the ailerons worked. After removing all the kit from the wreckage, I connected up all the components of the radio system and.......everything worked! So, I suppose the conclusion one could draw is that the X-Bus converter - it turns X-bus signal into PWM for non-X-Bus servos - must have suffered a glitch! My new Anthem has forsaken X-Bus and uses standard JR PWM control. Both maidens were uneventful. In my case, apart from needing a dose of down elevator, it was the same with the first Anthem, there was no need for either aileron or rudder trim - clearly the time spent in set up was worth it. There are a few more bits of trimming to do before the aircraft is ready for prime time.

Especially if ARTF foamies!

Quite right Ron, F3A skills help most other types of flying.

You know what they say Ron - more practice needed! Even then, I'm still propping up the list!🤣

That's Lassi for you. Exact!

Sounds like another successful F3A setup from the word go with the exception of the need to tweak the tail plane to lose the elevator trim. That seems to be a disappearing feature in the BJ Craft range. You just have to put up with a deflected elevator. At least the aileron trim can be taken out with the incidence adjusters.

There certainly were Adrian. We hadb2 buplanes there. There was the Glacial, a design by Lassi Nurila, the current World and European champion, and my Citrin of 2014 vintage. Citrins were flown in this year's European Championships so they are still competitive - sadly, not in my hands!

We had a small but very enjoyable F3A aerobatic competition on Sunday. We had wall to wall sunshine but a gradually increasing wind that had a slight component blowing outwards. We tested out the Club's new club house and it was universally praised. The inside kitchen was greatly appreciated by our stalwart catering couple. We even had one spectator fly in to watch proceedings!

Very nice Phil. Hope the maiden is uneventful.

If you specify that finish it will look professional and ...... desirable. Needs to look a bodged job that you'd be embarrassed to be seen driving.

Perhaps Range Rover owners might take note Chris and spray their cars matt black? 🤣

They used flush rivetting so there are ni drag inducing rivet domes. There was no other way of securing panels in those days. The Hunter, a slightly later design than the Sabre used the same technology. If the aircraft is newly painted then you are unlikely to see the rivets. However, after a few months they tebd to become visible as oul and dirt streaks show them up. On a polished skin, they are dead easy to see.

If my memory serves me correctly, the C140 had 40 deg of flap available and could get into a field that was too short for take off! Consequently, the C152 was restricted to 30 deg flap maximum. I remember a check ride in the C172 where I was told to overshoot after an approach with full flap. The nose up pitch on applying power required a pretty hefty shove with my left hand to prevent a disastrous nose up pitch. He had not warned me of this before hand and it has remained a clear as bell in my memory ever since! He told me that there had been some fatalities with light female pilots who were unable to push the control column forward sufficiently to avoid a low level stall and crash. Sobering!

Jolly glad you're doing this build Phil, I'm almost at the end of my 2nd Anthem build and it's nothing like as complicated! Good for you to take up the challenge thrown down by Lassi!

Yes! At least we won't miss a story that is split across 2 threads.