Dave Milbourn 1

I'm "on all fours" with Bruce on this one, including the lifestyle and liver warnings. I've had two doses of brachytherapy and several templated biopsies at St Jim's in Leeds since 2009 and I can say that Dr David Bottomley is my preferred candidate for a sainthood. The other staff are equally wonderful and the Bexley Wing is awesome but the French Onion Soup in the 'restaurant' tastes and looks like wallpaper paste. You can't have everything, I suppose. I'm on a 3-monthly PSA regime and the only real problem I have is obtaining the actual value of the pathogen nanograms-per-millilitre from my GP's receptionist. She's been told that she's not allowed to discusss the results of tests with patients although she's quite happy to tell me that the path-lab says the results are "normal and nothing to worry about". I've tried telling her that I'm being treated for prostate cancer and that I have an intimate knowledge of the significance of the figures involved, but she's just another jobsworth and insists that I drive 4 miles each way to obtain a print-out, which she is allowed to give me... Just wait and see if she tries the "Data Protection" bullsh*t on me!! Now, where's that new bottle of tonic to freshen my G+T? Dave M   Edited By Dave Milbourn 1 on 04/05/2019 18:05:50

Posted by Percy Verance on 10/02/2019 17:47:09: Hi Dave It's going back a bit but I recall reading a test report of the T180, and the reviewer was a modeller you'd held in high regard in your youth. It all went swimmingly as I remember, and he was more than pleased with your design...... I've had both the T240 and 180. In fact I still have a battered old T180 in the corner of my loft. I also have a nice new kit hiding away too. A good solid design, well suited to the rough and tumble of sport flying. Hello Percy Yes - that man was Maurice (J M) Boddey, who made some incredible multi-engined scale C/L models. Many of his designs were published as plans in Aeromodeller magazine. I've no idea if they are still available. I met him when I was posted to the Nottingham office of HMC&E where he was a lowly messenger, and it was only a chance remark he made that made me realise just who he was. He's long since left us but my respect for his modelling skills remains undimmed. I always liked T180. It was essentially a Telemaster wing and tail with a liteply Piper-like fuselage added so that John Rudd could cram a video camera into it. They were quite big back then, you'll understand. T240 happened when he bought a bigger camera! Dave M Edited By Dave Milbourn 1 on 10/02/2019 19:49:18

Hello Ray, Geoff and Gangster Yes - Roger moved shop premises from the main street in Spondon to a bigger shop round the corner in Chapel Side, which will be the one you remember, Geoff. He flogged the business to a greenhorn called Peter Kirman, who soon found that the figures he'd been shown didn't quite add up. That was Jolly Roger at his 'best'! PK sold the business on to Dave Heaton, an ex-police Section Officer who'd recently decamped from Rhodesia to avoid being worked on by Mugabe's Zanu PF thugs. I worked Saturdays and holidays for Dave until I remarried and moved away from the Derby area. He retired from running the shop and left it to Mark. It's now a Sue Ryder charity shop, likely paying more in rent to Dave than he ever made from Super Models! I had custody of the prototype Custom Executive, which had an OS 40P up front (the P was for pylon....) and seemed grossly overpowered and very heavy - but it sure flew. Well, it didn't so much 'fly' like the Senior Exec did - more like it shoved the air out of the way! Years later I designed the best model never kitted which was essentially a bigger Custom Exec, four feet long and with a six foot parallel-cord wing for an MDF 40. If you recall those daft SLEC adverts for a fancy autopilot device which showed Precedent's Ken allegedly landing a model 'hands-off', that was the Super Hi-Boy in the photo. I wish I'd kept the plans for that one. Happy days. DM Edited By Dave Milbourn 1 on 10/02/2019 18:10:03

I've just wandered into this thread by accident and thought I might give some background. It doesn't half make me feel old, though! I worked for True Line in 1973/74 as their designer, draftsman and parcel-wrapper. The business was based in Keyworth, just about eight miles SE of Nottingham. It began with Alf Baldwin and David Townsend making foam wings in Alf's garage for the members of the Nottingham Radio Control Society, and it just grew like Topsy. The Executives were our attempt to get out from under the control of 'Jolly' Roger Hargreaves - we made his Jolly Roger kits at the time but Alf was unhappy about having only one customer. Roger had been a sales rep for Ripmax but fell out with Max Coote and set up a small model shop in Spondon,. near Derby. He was aptly nicknamed Jolly Roger for both his assertive business style and his flamboyant and aggressive flying. His favourite trick was lighting a match which had been pushed into the fin of his model by flying it inverted and striking the match on the runway! I saw this happen more than once. He was also the team manager for the Briitish aerobatic team which included Mike Birch, Dennis Hammant, Stuart Foster and Pete Waters. Yes, the Executive plan did show the side views of both the Standard and Custom versions, and the latter did indeed have a tapered wing. This was against my better judgement - I wanted to keep a parallel cord wing - but I was over-ridden by Alf and being a mere slip of a lad I was in no positon to argue! I later designed the Aggravator, QM Mustang and Low Boy for True Line and, to keep him happy, the JR Cougar and Elf for Mr Hargreaves. I left the company in 1974 but it continued for a while, developing into a modelling wholesale business before it was bought by Balsacraft International (Precedent Kits) and eventually closed down. Alf went to work for Jim Perkins as a sales rep while David Townsend (who had run the factory) went to Rojair, another Nottingham-based company formed by Rogers Hargreaves and Allton. Hargreaves soon left to work for Humbrol and Allton got into some bad company and consequent debt. He was persuaded to burn the business down and claim the insurance rather than go bankrupt, but the scheme failed and he apparently spent a while in jail for fraud. Incidentally Hargreaves' son Simon was a RN Sea Harrier pilot in the Falklands campaign and went on to be one of the test pilots for the Lockheed F35 project. I heard that Roger retired to Cottingham near Huill and ended his days hiring out himself and his fishing boat to day fishermen. I joined the civil service but kept on with model designing in my spare time, this time for Precedent. Yes, if it has a Fly, Hi or Boy in its name then it's one of mine, along with the Stampe, Turbulent, T180 and T240. Unfortunately I never retained any of the plans or artwork from those days. I am now retired and design model boat kits for Precedent's successors SLEC as well as assembling ACTion model boat electronics for Component-Shop. So now you know! Dave Milbourn Edited By Dave Milbourn 1 on 10/02/2019 14:33:41

Is that the same Martin McIntosh who used to fly with Keith Jones and Terry Cooper? Dave M