martin collins 1

I love North Weald as an airfield, i still remember it from the early 70`s when my father used to compete in car club Sprints there and the only other users were the Epping gliding club who were regularly winch launching while the cars tore round the circuits laid out on the hard stands and peri track. The weather was always sunny and the sound of skylarks overhead made the picture complete, the whole site looked reasonably cared for and intact from when the RAF had left, this may be due in part to the filming of scenes from the Battle of Britain movie several years earlier. I have regularly visited over the last twenty years, Wings & Wheels was always a date eagerly marked on my calendar early in the year, it was a sad day to learn that thanks to Epping council and Google 2023 would be the last show held there. I was passing by on the M11 today having picked up a kit in Kent and thought i would pop by the Squadron cafeteria on the far side of the aerodrome, i had heard they had shut the cafeteria but i was pleased to see it in operation again under a new name and by the looks of it thriving. On my way back round the peri track i stopped to look at the C-54 which has been there since 2002 and was horrified to see it being chopped up with petrol saws, the tail lay on the ground and the tail number was being cut from it presumably as a memento. The owner was looking on and seeing me taking pictures and video he came over for a chat and to explain why he had decided that this was his only option. He has owned the C-54 for 17 years having purchased it after a failed film on the Berlin Airlift had left it un airworthy and decaying at North Weald. He said he had been trying to find a buyer for it for 17 years and no one had come forward, he had to draw the line somewhere on the money it was costing to keep it there and that day had come, the fuselage back to where the tail was chopped off has been sold as a glamping pod, so hopefully we will see more of that in the future. The wings and tail sadly will be going to the scrap yard, the engines have been removed and are apparently for sale, i asked if i could have a small piece of aluminium from the aircraft and he obliged by giving me a piece of the outer skin to remember this lovely aircraft by. There was a group who have worked wonders on this plane over the last few years, getting to the stage of having three of the engines running, their dream of returning it to the air was unfortunately never going to happen due to the costs involved and it seems both they and the owner had different interpretations of what was agreed over the ongoing ownership of the aircraft............

Broussard now sold.

As our contract with BT is out we are currently paying about that to BT John, ok it includes our land line but the only calls we get on that these days are scam ones, everyone else calls our mobiles.

We are fairly rural where we live and have suffered from poor broadband speeds and connection with BT over the last seven years, they have been called out several times to fix rodent damage to cables in a box outside our property but hanging internet and getting booted off happen on a regular basis. My wife works from home and has several Teams meetings and video calls with customers each day and getting kicked off the internet during these is very frustrating. Our deal with BT has now expired and we are reluctant to enter into another long term contract with the poor internet that we get here. My wife has suggested Starlink as an option as we are unlikely to get fibre cables installed in our area anytime soon, does anyone on the forum use Starlink, if so how have you found it so far? Or can anyone else suggest a useable alternative to solve the poor Broadband in rural areas?

Overcast day on Friday with mizzle in the morning which luckily cleared enough to enable the Friday gang to get some flying in. Three WW1 type models provided top cover over the field with Simon's foamie SE5, Richard's Flair Attila and my Puppeteer which has now had all the issues sorted which were preventing it from being a nice model. We all had a couple of sorties before switching to the back up models, a Durafly Wildcat for Simon, Flair Heron with a. 10 glow motor up front for Richard and my trusty 6s powered WattsNot, a WhatsWhat knock off. A prospective new member turned up to have a chat and look at the field but got stuck trying to leave, the friendly farmer came to the rescue with his 4x4 to pull him clear. Harldy any frosts this year but plenty of rain, my other site will be unaccessible due to the conditions i guess a number of other clubs have the same problem.

Nice to see some frost and a blue sky Leccy winter as it used to be, all we seem to get here is dull damp weather, never mind going for a fly later in between the mizzle..........

Taxing around cones is a good one, hadn`t even thought of that!

Our club is going to be running a competitions day this coming year, i am going to be co organising it but haven`t attended one before, apart from spot landing what does your clubs Competition day consist of in terms of events? Which are the most popular, fishing for ideas to help us with putting on a good day, thanks for any replies.

Message the guy selling the plans, i did that before when something wasn`t listed, he had just not got round to re listing that particular plan, he listed what i wanted and i did a buy it now....

Ribs available on Ebay and listing has a link for the plan.............M https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166330720210?_skw=kamco+kavalier&itmmeta=01JEGM9ZSC5P9GBF65RPB5CEGP&hash=item26ba155fd2:g:jEoAAOSwN0dlA1Mj&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA0HoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKnqjz2NHO1SmVKNiF8ALEa2B3LqVsqPKcV1b6zHLPehN03TBW3SPJr7ipwcCpVMTBnPefw5RXTfS6203Ljpz8AkkeUGawA95DYM%2Bcc%2BmCAsKQxyp19FFK6qE9nE5gzkk1Ri202nPs7eFgQm75DSPhOA9j6yn7EJO97bPeLsMQeAIHFq8gLvUvsEEieBMmDVU5AN5NzW%2FBJDzIFA9ZW5u78wvx7VcJ%2BxSUnVLrcGg2mLafeJlJT2KPqBj%2BpYgumRATM%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR9z8p5T0ZA

Max Holste Broussard 90" span plan built radio control model, selling as airframe with servos and fuel tank, was flown on a Laser 80 four stroke which was plenty for it, wing halves unplug for transport/storage, tail can also be removed. Model has flaps and with fixed gear makes it a very useable model, lands very slowly and looks great in the air. Only selling as i have bought a couple of new models and will be building another couple over the winter. £125 Pick up from Spalding in Lincs.

Chipmunk SOLD.

Got the maiden flight out of the way on my recently purchased SIG Wonder, i added some stripes to the top wing and the Union Jack decals to aid visibility in the air but it was very dull and overcast today and i couldn`t see either once it was up there 😏. After a few running issues with the SC15 a change of plug and a bit of tweaking on the low running needle got it singing, it has a surprising turn of speed for a model with only a 15 SC up front and it gets small in a hurry. It is going to take me a few flights to be able to firewall it for most of the flight like my pal Richard does with his Dara which is parked next to the Wonder, i have got too used to plodding round in a scale like manner with my WW1 models, this will sharpen me up a bit🤣.

Thought i would give you an update on this, the lack of down movement was due to the small wheel type servo arm and the rods from that to the bell cranks seriously binding. The servo was fitted in such a way that the only way to get the small wheel off the servo and free up the rods was to cut the plastic ends off the rods at the servo end so the servo could be removed. Having got that far i decided to strip the rods/bellcranks out and fit a pair of servos, one for each aileron. Model was test flown this afternoon and performed as expected from a Puppeteer.

Popped out late afternoon to get a flight in on my Puppeteer, i`ve had to do some mods to this since buying it as the single servo fitted for the ailerons was only giving up not down on both sides, this was due to the small wheel type servo arm and the rods from that to the bell cranks seriously binding. The servo was fitted in such a way that the only way to get the small wheel off the servo and free up the rods was to cut the plastic ends off the rods at the servo end so the servo could be removed. Having got that far i decided to strip the rods/bellcranks out and fit a pair of servos, one for each aileron. The model flew as expected now and by the time i landed the dark and mist made a safe retreat to a warm home a better option than another flight.

This is a VERY nicely built Dennis Bryant DH Chipmunk, 68″ span with flaps and dummy oleo u/c legs, this is available from Sarik as a short kit (needing more wood) for £243 so this is a bargain and it has already been built cutting out a LOT of hours to build it, more pictures on request, comes with the plan and a full size detail CD. https://www.sarikhobbies.com/product/dch-1-chipmunk-68-short-kit/ It would make a nice winter project to cover it in the scheme of your choice and finish it off ready to fly in the spring. Pick up from Spalding in Lincs, sorry no posting it. £130

The thing that makes me think it was built like this is that the ESCs are soldered in, he had another couple of models for sale which were just as nice but i.c, it is possible he wasn`t experienced with electric models.

I was told by the builder it was built from a Dragon plan, it has the squared outer wing panels, not eliptical and it doesn't have the wheel trousers/pants which are fitted on the Rapide. What specifically makes you think it is a Rapide bearing in mind the two points i have just made Eric?

Model now sold.

Sorting out a Flair Puppetter i bought recently which has a centre servo and bellcranks which give only up and no down, plenty of up movement, would it fly ok like this, i can obviously mix rudder if needed to help. Obvious mod is to take the centre servo out and put new ones in the wings but to save all the work as i have a number of models that require sorting over the winter would it fly ok set up as it is?

DH Dragon, nicely built and very light.

I am looking at buying an engine which i am told is a 150, weight is 950g but it has 12 fins, does this look like a 150 ?

Just read that Dave Johnson, the face and multi year Chairman of the LMA passed away last night, condolences to Andy and the family.

I bought a really nicely made plan built scale twin earlier this year and have just got round to checking it over before attempting a first flight with it, all looked good apart from changing the battery connectors over to suit my lipos, this one runs 2x2200 3s in parallel. However upon connecting the packs up and throttling up the motors both started at different throttle settings and the one that started first was running at higher revs all the way through the range. I then twigged that both ESC `s were playing different tunes when the batteries were connected, off with the nacelle covers to discover two different makes of ESC, one was a 30amp the other a 25 😏. The model looks unflown and judging by that it never has, i am guessing the builder was not familiar with electric models, you would have thought it would be obvious you use a pair of the same on both sides...........