Mike Freeman

Hi Paul, Sorry for the very late reply, I've been away. I ended up moving the CG 15mm behind X-Fly's recommendation! As spec'd I found the model almost impossible to fly!! I know manufacturers quote "safe" CG's but this was way too far forward!! I found the take off run extremely long, even with the better CG so I upped the elevator throw by 2mm and linked it to a flight phase to help get the model off the ground. Once airborne the recommended throws were ok for me. In the end I took the u/c off, whipped the nose wheel servo out and now hand launch it. It looks so much better without the gear dangling down!! Good luck Mike

Hello All, My Weston Park 2023 article is in the September issue of RCM&E, out today. I hope you enjoy it!! Al and I had a great time in amongst all the fabulous models and talented pilots and took over 4000 photos over the two days we were there. We managed to whittle them down to around 90 which we sent in with the article. Kevin and the RCM&E team used 34 of them and I thought I would share a few of the others that we are proud of here..... Luke Oliver’s Hanger 9 MB-339 performing a lovely knife edge up the strip. One of the CARF Models Havard duo on a fly by. Gary Oliver's Yak110 on a traditional Farnborough Pass. Piloted by Gary's son; Luke. The CARF Models GeeBee on a fast flypast. The CARF FlyBaby about to touch down after a lovely display. George Shone's 19ft wing span Boing B50 beats up the strip. Dave Franks’ 1:5 scale F-16 gets away for another super display. A Dawn Patroller’s Sopwith Pup makes a safe return. The colour scheme of Steve Kilbon’s FlyEagle 1:4.5 scale F-16’s looked fabulous against the dark trees that surround the strip at Weston. The AZAerosports F-86 Sabre duo pair looked fabulous in the Saturday evening sunset slot. Finally, a small correction to the "On the cover" caption on the contents page of the September issue.... I am part credited for the photo but the photo is All Al's work, I had nothing to do with it!! He's dead chuffed to have one of his photos on the front cover!! Cheers Mike

Oh, and the white wing tip flashes are solid white Oracover! Cheers

Hello, The covering is transparent red Oracover. I thought about using the light weight stuff but a quick calc showed it would only save a few grams and as I sometimes fly off thistle covered slopes in Derbyshire I went for the full fat version for added strength and protection. I think it's essential to use a transparent covering to show off that fabulous geodetic wing construction!! I'd love to see some pics of yours when it's finished. Where do you fly? Cheers and a happy new year!!

Thanks Zflyer, That's a good idea, I'll try that on the 2nd prototype. I've got a list of things I'm going to try differently next time. It's been 28 years since I last dabbled in foam board and I'm really enjoying the "different" design development and building a model from something other than balsa and ply. What other hobby can throw up a whole new avenue of techniques and ideas for someone to try and enjoy after 28 years!!🤣 Being a flying wing my model has quite a steep wing taper so I used another implement found in the Kitchen drawer.... a pizza wheel 🤣 to score lines in the foam on the inside of the top sheet at the leading edge. I scored 6 grooves in the foam which follow the taper from root to tip. It's surprising how hard you can press without fear of cutting into the foam but you get some lovely deep grooves which helps bending the top sheet immensely. Do this on a hard surface and the grooves don't show through the top skin but the leading edge folds nicely round the ribs. This is a small model with some quite tight curves and I've been using a wall paper edge seal roller to good effect to form them. I like the idea of a rolling pin though. I'm sure we've got one but it's not been used in years.... maybe another 28!! Cheers, Mike

Thanks Ron, Martin and Eric. I'll be keeping all the joints water free then! 😁😁 Gorilla glue expands quite a lot without any water and gives a very good bond, I'm impressed! I'm enjoying building with this new ( to me) material. I recon I'll have the whole model built out of 2 sheets of Hobbycraft foam board costing £8. If I'd built it in balsa it'd be 2 or 3 times that!! Cheers

I've made a bit more progress, the wings are now built and I've been experimenting with fuz corners to try and achieve radiused corners rather than a square box shape like my last attempt 28 years ago!! I've been using the original brown Gorilla Glue which works a treat!! I tried to find some of the white stuff recommended by Martin but can't find any at the usual places!! A question for the seasoned foam board builders please.... The Gorilla Glue instructions say wet one surface to activate the glue. I was a bit worried about wetting the card so just glued the wings together "dry" in the hope the moisture in the air was enough to set the glue. It seems to have worked but what do others do please? I've drawn the fuz up on CAD and I'm hoping the EDF unit arrives tomorrow so I can get cracking on building the fuz. Cheers Mike

Thanks Martin. It was your foam board posts that gave me the inspiration to have a go. Thanks, it's quite exciting!! I've just spent a satisfying few minutes with my film iron removing the paper surface on the inside of the top skin. It's surprising how much weight can be saved, plus it makes the skin easier to bend over the top surface. The wing section on this model is about 8% thickness and I was a bit anxious about folding the LE over along the 450mm long wing panel but it went ok and is currently on the building board weighed down while the foam compresses on the inside of the LE. Once the tension has gone out of it I'll glue the spars and ribs on the bottom skin and roll the tip skin over. I was planning on using UHU POR mainly but I like the idea if Gorilla Glue. I have the usual brown stuff. Is the white more suitable or will the brown do? Cheers

Haha! I hope you enjoy it. I was flying mine at the weekend. Great fun except a blade just clipped a gloved finger on launch! 😬😲 No damage (except a snapped off blade tip) but it fired my enthusiasm for an EDF version!

Hello All, Back in 1994 I designed the fuz for a model built from foam board. The model was called "Omnibox" because the fuz was a basic box shape! It appeared as a free plan in the June 1994 issue of Radio Modeller. 28 years later and having found some very helpful info on this wonderful forum (thank you very much!) I'm having another go, hopefully with a bit more design development and more shape this time!! It's a flying wing based on my Hi8us design featured in the July 2022 issue which I'm enjoying flying but this new flying wing will have an EDF unit rather than a prop. I've been talking to George at 4-Max and one of his 50mm EDF units has been ordered! Two A1 sheets of 5mm foam board have been liberated from Hobbystore costing £8 and I recon I'll use 1 1/2 sheets to build the whole model. There'll probably be a some balsa/liteply too but only a small amount from my scrap box. Covering will probably be coloured tape. A complete airframe for under a tenner.... can't be bad!! I've done some experimenting with the wing section, doing a mock up of the root and tip sections and this went well so I'll get cracking with the wings and start the fuz design when the EDF unit arrives. I'm quite excited at this new building experience and I'll post more details as things develop. BTW I've discovered I haven't got a copy of the June 1994 Radio Modeler with the plan in it. If anyone has a copy in good nick looking for a good home I'd love to here from you please!! Cheers Mike

I've enjoyed a summer full of happy "Boo" flights after my review in the March 2022 issue of RCM&E and I was wondering if anyone else in the UK took the plunge and got themselves one? It would be great to see some photos of other examples! Cheers Mike

The nosecone is quite vulnerable on this model and I must have repaired the original 3 or 4 times before I remembered an article I wrote in the May 2002 issue of Q&EFI (can I mention that here? 😬) where I made an EPP spinner covered in a balloon. I did the same thing on my Su-27 and the result works fine so far and is a few grams lighter too. I need to find a slightly darker balloon but this will do for now. The following photos should give you the idea, reply to this post if you need any further info.

And now, the confession... The following paragraph was originally in the article but subsequently removed to save space. I told Kevin I'd 'fess up once the article had been published so, here goes... "Sadly the maiden flight ended in disaster! Club mate Pete was on the sticks whilst I was on the camera and after a rather long 40 metre roll out the Su-27 hit a small bump and was safely away. All was well until Pete moved the ailerons… “The ailerons are reversed”, he shouted and the Su-27 ploughed in, snapping the nose off at the back of the cockpit. The nose wheel and one of the mains was also ripped out. Pete had no chance! From the nose wheel back there were just a few scuff marks and wrinkles. This is one strong model!! I was sure I’d checked the throws and directions several times whilst setting up and I can’t believe I had been so stupid! Thankfully the model was quickly repaired (with just 12g added weight) and soon back on the patch… with the aileron directions correct this time!!" To this day I don't know how I missed this fundamental error but seconds after this photo....... it all became too clear!! The next photo shows the resulting damage which, considering the speed she ploughed in, isn't really that bad!! I glued the nose back on with UHU POR glue and pulled it up tight with a former and strings working like tent guy ropes to hold the nose in line. I fitted the canopy to make sure everything was aligned properly. I also glued in some 1/64" ply doublers to strengthen the joint. Finally I got some match pot paints mixed at B&Q which match pretty well!! The flying shots in the review are the repaired model!!

I've been flying the Su-27 reviewed in the Sept '22 issue quite a bit since I sent the review in and thought I'd update everyone on a few mods and a confession! First up, here are a few more flying shots that were taken too late to be considered by Kevin for inclusion in the article. The photos included in the review were taken with the recommended CG which turned out to be waaaaay too far forward. Clubmate Pete Searle was on the sticks whilst I was photographing and he had a terrible time with the nose digging in whilst banking and was reluctant to fly too low for the camera. Once the CG was moved back the Su-27 became a joy to fly and on a subsequent meet up with my brother, Al (who lives in Derbyshire) we got some more flying shots which are included here. We were flying "Mach Loop" style fly pasts up from the valley below our flying field. Great fun it was too!! Al also took a short video clip of a hand launch which shows how easy the Su-27 is to hand launch. VID-20220707-WA0001-edit.mp4

Thanks for the replies and the reality check. I've decided to leave it as it is. As Peter says it's hardly noticeable when nipping back and forth along the slope and if anyone asks; there is a story to tell, as Don suggests. Cheers.

Hello all, I have an old but still perfectly flyable Baudis 2.4m Salto. Its a lovely model but I found the GRP V-tail way too heavy and the incidences were all wrong too so I made a new V-tail out of balsa and covered it with white Profilm. All was fine but 10 or so years later on and the GRP has gone yellow/cream coloured and the pure white tailplane sticks out like a sore thumb now. Is there a way of treating the Profilm to match or does anyone know of a covering which would match the fuz? I tried to polish the GRP but it looks like the off white colour isn't just skin deep!! ? Many thanks. Cheers Mike

Thanks GG and David. I'm really pleased with how Kevin Crozier has used the info I sent in. I sent him a LOT of photos as I was so fascinated by the design and assembly detail. It was obvious he wasn't going to be able to use them all and I said I'd include any that didn't make it on the forum. Here they are: Tolerances are a little tight so it is important to ensure the Kevlar string doesn't overlap. The joiner and joiner boxes need to be shortened to fit. I angled the ends as seen on the right hand end to marry up to the rib rather than just cut the ends off. Totally unnecessary but I did it anyway!! The leading edge of the ribs has a slot which is perfectly shaped to locate the 1mm diameter carbon fibre leading edge rod. This shows the components for the wing joining and fixing lugs..... ... and this is them shown in place on one wing. There is a triangular jig included to ensure the ruddervator control horns are glued..... .... in exactly the right place and at the correct angle. Finally, here are a few finished and flying shots that didn't make it... Cheers, Mike

Oh dear... I've just seen my original post on my phone and it's all disjointed now!! It looked fine, full screen, on my laptop when I posted it and I'm unable to edit it now! ? Sorry!! Post a question if anything is confusing and needs explaining.

Hi Stephen. Yes, it'll be perfect for a small slope. How lucky you are to have one so close!!

My March issue of RCM&E including my review of the Vogel-Fly BOO dropped through the letter box this morning ? It’s been a while since I sent it in and I’ve been thoroughly enjoying flying my BOO more and more since then, it has become one of my favourite slope soarers. I just love the geodetic wing construction, the cute looks, ease of transport and, of course, the fabulous flying performance. I think Christian has come up with a real winner!! During many enjoyable trips to the slope I’ve done lots more testing and tweaking and thought I’d start a thread here to share…. First things first, the latest kits have evolved a little since I did the review and there are a couple of additions that need mentioning. Vertical webs are fitted between the spars in the first rib bays outside of the joiner boxes. Early versions of the manual say use scrap material in the first two bays but the latest kits have laser cut webs which just need cutting to fit in the first four rib bays. The webs are slightly tapered; the little hole on the left indicates the root end. There is an additional part to the building jig to hold the fuz perfectly level while the V-tail is glued in place. Back to the flying….I was a little worried about the tiny LiPo packs capacity with four servos and an Rx to keep happy so I’ve been checking the capacity left in the 280mAh 2S pack after a flying session. I recon the radio gear is consuming around 70mA per hour so I’ll be quite happy flying for a couple of hours per pack and still have around 50% left as a contingency. My 41mm CG feels just right to me so I’ve kept that. I slightly modified the CG balance frame included in the kit by adding a 2mm spacer in each leg to move the CG back to 41mm when BOO is loaded into the CG balancer. Whilst flying some more, I’ve tweaked the throws a little as follows: Rudder throw increase from 4mm to 6mm helps coordinated aileron/rudder turns in light lift and improves wing overs/stall turns. The elevator throw feels about right to me, giving nice tight loops. I tried various amounts of snapflap to see if it made any difference to the performance. Around 50% snapflap has a marginal effect, slightly tightening an already rather tight loop and producing slightly snappier pylon turns if F3F slope racing is your thing! TBH I don’t use it much though! Increasing the aileron throw by 15% adds a little more sparkle to the rolls! Setting the aileron / flaperon throws is a bit tricky with such a small wing – we’re talking fractions of mm!! As a result I made up a little throw indicator jig which fits into the fuselage building jig and is held in place with a clamp or tape. o When using, first set the ailerons so the underside of the wing and the ailerons are perfectly flat and level – this sets the neutral. o Fit the model into the building jig with the underside of the wings firm against the seats and the aileron indicator positioned against the throw indicator jig. The tolerances are so close it might be necessary to adjust the positioning with the clamp/tape until the neutral lines up. o The throws can then be adjusted. Once done, move the jig onto the second wing and repeat. o Hopefully the attached pdf can be printed off if you would like to do the same.Aileron Throw Template.pdf Ballasting the BOO has a noticeable and beneficial effect. Especially in wind speeds above 15mph. I cut three ballast sheets from 2mm thick lead which are sandwiched between the wing and the fuz as seen in the photos. One, two or three are used depending on the wind strength. Slightly longer wing bolts are required if all three are used. Each sheet weighs 20g and, thanks to the shape, they don’t affect the CG when fitted!! With all three added the weight increases by about 35% which turns BOO into a proper pocket rocket!! The extra weight adds valuable inertia to enable energy sapping manoeuvres like bunts to be completed. Following one over exuberant but thoroughly enjoyable fully ballasted flight in a 20mph wind I noticed the wing was loose!! I can’t be 100% sure but I think the extra weight and higher G forces had caused the wing bolts to slip a thread!! As a result and purely in the interest of “belts & braces” I have now drilled out the original tapped holes and glued in a pair of captive “T” bolts. This is totally unnecessary for a dry airframe and possible is with the ballast too but I like to air on the side of caution!!

Thanks jrman, I did look at Mikes website. I've used him in the past for repairs and parts and been very happy but his site says he is no longer able to service Spektrum gear. I'm hoping there is a DIY fix out there somewhere! Cheers Mike

Hi All, Out flying with my ancient DX6i transmitter at the weekend and I had a momentary loss of control. I quickly landed and flew other stuff and when I got home took the back off for a peak and with just a light touch the aerial separated from the connector. ? I tried to find a replacement on line but to no avail - everyone is out of stock (not surprising I suppose for such an old tranny!!) so I wondered if anyone knows a DIY fix to get it up and running again please? I know it might be time to retire it but it works fine and it'll be a shame to bin it for the sake of such a potentially simple repair.... here's hoping!! ? Cheers Mike

Afternoon All, I use the small 12-14Ahr 12V sealed lead acid batteries in my flight box just to charge my packs back up at the patch. They are just large enough to last a session and relatively light to cart about. The latest is a Yuasa REC14-12 which is about 2.5 years old and is supposed to be good for around 600 deep discharge cycles. I usually use about 75% capacity once a week on average and always charge it back to full capacity when I get home using a 3-step charger. I recon this one has only had around 130-150 cycles yet it now only holds around 6-7Ahr charge - half what it should!! Before forking out for a new one I'd be interested to hear if anyone has had better success with an alternative manufacture please? Cheers Mike

Ohh! Yes please! Yuletide felicitations to all, here's to a better 2021! Cheers.

A few more favourites from the White Horse Model Club patch....