John Hannaford

Hi Pete Glad the maiden went well - she is very impressive in the air flying scale manoeuvres - I hope you have many more flights with her. Looking forward to some video if you get a willing camera person - there is very little RC Canberra PR9 stuff on youtube at the moment. Regards john

Hi Pete, thanks for the PM with Jim's contact details. As for my GAD PR9 it is sadly no more, there are a couple of videos on youtube that I posted a few years back including one with an opps moment involving a set of rugby posts. I didn't notice at the time of repair that I had cracked the aluminium main spar, but she soldiered on for another year as the wing was covered in fibreglass and epoxy. What actually killed her was an inflight engine fire caused by running a pair of 4S motors at 5S in an ambient temperature of over 35 C - this caused the stator insulation to fail and let the magic smoke out. So apart from warning you about excessive elevator movement that can cause pilot induced oscillation, I can only wish you luck and say that I like the GAD PR9 so much I bought another one last year - but I've not had a chance to build it yet. Regards John

Hi Pete, she sure looks pretty, but I see you installed retracts - I didn't on mine and while she flew really well, I always launched with a bungee assisting a big Aussie spear chucker mate of mine. Once up to speed, great to fly big lazy loops and cuban eights and about 4 minutes later bring her in on idle for a belly landing in the sand pit. Do you have contact details for Jim Gordon? Google was confused when I asked. Good luck with the maiden. Regards John

Hi Folks, Just a quick straw poll to see if anyone else would like to build a bigger version of the WW35 West Wings BAe Hawk. I have asked them directly myself, but their response was that they needed more interest from their distributors. I interpret that as a demand from the buying public for the product to be relayed to the distributors and then to West Wings. So come on chaps lets buy British and put it together ourselves! Cheers John

I may not be able to attend the fly-in, but my Tucano will have 3000 miles on the bits before they get assembled in the sandpit. The duration of the flight thereafter may be measured in moments, but I have no fear of rekitting - as I enjoy the building. John