Chris Freeman 3

Love to see this build, I have seen many of your other builds in the mags and they are are stunning.

I still like and use the big Super Tigre engines, 2000, 2300, 2500, 3000, 3250 and 4500. all good reliable motors that are cheap to run with 12% oil and no nitro. I have been given quite a few of them as duds but found they were fine if the right fuel was used, the 25 and 30cc motors appeared to be more allergic to nitro than the others.

Byron and I built the Chris Golds one many years ago. It flew well once we figured out how to get the motors to start at the same time. Very unusual in the air but was quite stable.

Byron delivered the airframe back to me on Friday so that I could double check all the equipment that had been refitted and also for the tapping of the bolts for the spinner. All work done on Saturday so we went out early yesterday to fly again. The question from Tim regarding the potential interference had me doubting so we did additional range checks to ensure all was well. I had also reduced the forward rake on the undercarriage as the ground handing was not as good as the MB5. I am glad to report that all went well and we had 2 flights, this is a very smooth flying aircraft with plenty of power.

We have a Futaba FAAST receiver in the aircraft with the normal spacing on the antenna's and had no problems so far. There is no Carbon in the fuselage so this will also help. One aspect I do enjoy when building a scale model is reading up about the aircraft and the pilots, this aircraft's story is quite interesting. I found it in a Flypast Magazine. We also do not fly any competition so we build and finish to what we like or want to try.

Hi Martin I like the DC3, very cute. The tip stall is a problem and I am sure at that size even more so. I am in Johannesburg which is around 5500 feet above sea nd on a hot day this approaches the equivalent of around 8500 feet so it can be a challenge. The repairs are taking a lot of patience as each time I look I find more damage. The plug in tubes were damaged on the good side of the center section so that needs to be sorted and the 1 wing panel was missing a piece so I had to make up a new piece fill the gap. Due to the size I cut a new section from foam and sheeted with balsa and then fitted. The trick was to try keep the wash out in the panel. Lucky I still had the original outers from when the foam was originally cut so I could use these to help with the repair.

Over the years I have accumulated quite a few kits as part of my modeling pension plan. I am lucky that If I do not build them I know that Byron can. Some of the kits I got from pilots who had bought the kits whilst on trips overseas so they were not freely available in South Africa and then got to the stage that they were no longer able to build them due to age or circumstances. Some of the kits I remember from the ads in magazines from when I was a kid reading my Dad's RCM and RCM&E mags. It is also a memory trip just to see how much the industry has changed, from printed wood to die cutting/ crunching to laser cut kits. I do not think we will get kits like this again as the costs must be huge to make a production run. I look at all the wood in 1 of the giant scale Top Flite kits and the x it by say a 100 for the batch to be made. I also wonder how many of the kits will actually ever be finished and flown?

Byron spent the weekend painting and got a lot done. All sprayed, no stickers used. He made his own masks for the painting. I think it looks stunning.

The repair of the center section has started, I have spiced in the new spars and have placed the ribs are in place. I hope to get most of this done this weekend as it is going to be a fiddle to get it straight and strong. Byron is continuing on the stab.

We unfortunately have another set of retracts made available for our DC 3's! Happened on Saturday at an airshow, bounced and flicked when power applied.

Should be the thin wing, A thick wing is higher lift but also in drag.

So on the eve of all this the repairs have started! Byron is busy with the fuselage and I have the wings to do. I have found that a repair is often far less work than originally thought especially if you have let some time pass. The center section parts are cut so the repairs will start. Byron is busy with the new nose and has made good progress. The retracts that we use in this aircraft are the ESM DC 3 retracts as they are the correct size for this scale. ESM stretched the center section and increased the height of the retracts to allow larger motors to be used.

Back in the Mid 90's I wanted to build a DC3 and I liked the DB kit so I started looking to see if kits were available. A friend of mine was a senior Captain with South African Airways and he often flew to London so he agreed that if I got the kit to his hotel he would bring it back for me. I spoke with David Boddington and he said that Inwood Models had a kit and a deal was done to get to the Hotel where the crew stayed. You must remember that this was sanction times for SA so it was not easy to get stuff and if you did it was very expensive due to all the restrictions and taxes! When Captain Karl Jensen got to the hotel he was horrified to see the size of the box and when he tried to get it into the crew transport for the trip to the airport it would not fit. He managed to get the hotel to keep the kit for another 4 days as he would be back then. On the return he found that the box was too big for taking on the tube and also a taxi. As luck would have it a South African Airways 747 Cargo crew was at the hotel and as they had a larger number of crew they had a larger bus so it was agreed that they would bring the kit back for me. It was old years eve when they got back to South Africa and I got a message that the kit was against the front Bulkhead of the 747 parked in front of the cargo building. It was a Saturday and I had no access to the flight line but my friend was a composite technician at SAA and he was working and had access to a SAA technical vehicle that was allowed in the flight line and he had a permit to go there. I went to the technical area and we climbed in the vehicle and drove through the security check point and drove the 2km down to the cargo section. We saw the 747, parked and climbed up the stairs in to the aircraft and there against the bulkhead was this massive box. We carried the box down, loaded into the vehicle and carefully drove back to the technical area expecting to be stopped at any time. The security checkpoint let us trough without checking what we had! Looking back it is hard to believe that we got away with all this but is why often the stories around the aircraft make them special! I am have started cutting parts to repair the broken Dak!

So once fixed it was time to do all the checks to ensure everything was correct, I managed to get handed propellors so that would cancel the torque effect. I changed the arming routine which ensure even start up of the motors and double checked the CG and control movements so no more excuses, time to fly. Byron and I went out to the club early on a weekday morning so we had no distractions. Did a range check and then time to fly. Nice takeoff and gentle climb, wheels retracted and turn started when we had a radio issue and then plane pitched up then dropped its nose and went in! damage was more this time so a bigger box was needed for the bits! When I got home the bits were moved into the shed and left! Time has now eased the frustrations and we are busy trying to decide if we will fix the old one, build a new one or both! I want a new one, Byron wants to fix the old one! 2 takeoffs and no landings is not a great record, My wife said it just does not want to fly! Watch this space!

Very nice Toto, Do you have enough space for a new shed? I have 3 then we helped Byron buy the house down the road and now have 2 sheds there!