Chris Freeman 3

We finally got around to flying the workshop ornament again, it has been a while since last flown. It was quite windy and not down the main runway but we elected to fly from the main anyway. The air was also quite bumpy but we had 2 good flights so the successful flights now outnumber the no landing flights! I need to spend time sorting out the retracts as they have a lot of play in them, they drop quite a bit in the up position. Surprising to see how much sky it covers and how much power it has with the small electric motors.

Very Nice, great workmanship

Very nice work David. Many hours of work invested in this project. The weathering looks great but is always a challenge to get it right as you have shown the lighting changes the look and then the clearcoat will also change it again.

Some more pictures, the DC3 flying was from the previous weekend.

Byron and I got an invite to a club in Secunda which is 135km from our house but not a bad drive. The club is on a farm so lots of space and the runway is also used for crop spraying so it is large. lots of fog early which then cleared and we had a great days flying. The MB5 enjoyed the outing but the DC had some vibration issues so it could not be flown. The Chipmunk was on song and did many tough and go's. Wessie had his big Mustang and was getting used to the handling, it covers a lot of sky!

Hi Chris Thanks, Byron has enjoyed the detailing process. Hen we looked at the structure of the booms we saw that some of the balsa stringers had been replaced with spruce so this should help strength in critical areas and additional glassing was done the help strengthen the areas just behind the wing and in front of the stab. The pushrods were made up by the original builder and were Sullivan 1/4 scale snakes which I know are a problem as they expand with heat. I will replace them with 4-40 wire pushrods supported by the original snakes. The servo's will be in the plan position as the booms do not have much space and structure the further back you go. This is not an airframe that will handle hard landings very well. The rudders are on push pull cables.

More progress

Work is continuing on this project, this is more a case of perseverance and survival! There are just so many bits and pieces with lots of joins and fillets. all coming together well though but also gaining weight as it takes a lot of primer to get it done. Byron also has sanded his fingers raw witch might not be a bad thing as he has a much more delicate touch now. .

From what I can see this is a 25cc, the stamp on the mounting lug of the motor confirms this. Very nice motor.

Wessie did this for us

If only!

Byron and I saved on our gym fees this weekend as our field had been flooded so we managed to get in on Friday and start cutting the grass and no ride on mower is used, just 2 normal mowers! Managed to get some good flying in on Saturday and again on Monday which was great. The Beaufighter is flying quite well but you need to fly it all the time, plenty of power which does help. Wessie brought out his Mustang again which flew very well until the motor started acting up and Byron had to quickly bring it in for a good landing. They were very lucky as it had developed a fuel supply issue and would not start after that. The porter was fun, the OS 220 has no problem pulling it around with most flying a less than half throttle. The Telemaster is electric and normally only gets an outing when the kids are at the field and is used to drop marshmallows!

I tend to buy stock on a regular basis and keep it in the cupboards so that I do not have to buy stuff when I need to build as I do not really want to know how much the aircraft cost. My one friend used to say that his flying ability was reduced by the cost and the prettiness of the aircraft.

Byron has completed the things that he wants to do so the Spitfire needs to move up the road so that I can do all the equipment fitting. Need to clear some space for it first as I have been working on a Midwest AT6! The Spitfire Airframe looks good and quite different from the more normal razorback versions

Stunning aircraft, very nice. I built one many years ago and still flew it on the Robbe motors and nicads and it still flew very well. I like the color scheme, must have been a lot of work.

I can still get wood and servo's

More detail and also some inspiration! Whilst doing some additional research on Google and YouTube we found a counter rotating version that was done in the States, fitted with a Shackleton Griffon and Prop, very impressive in flight. If you read the Alex Henshaw books you will be surprised at some of the things he did in a Spitfire. He managed to get a good talking down after doing an inverted pass at lamp post height down the main road of Birmingham at an event to raise funds for Spitfire production. A light Spitfire with a counter rotating unit could be an idea!

After all the sanding, Byron is now enjoying himself and adding all the detail. He seems to be improving all the time as each airframe does have additional detail. Nice to see the detail as this is an all balsa airframe so the lumps and bumps seem to be in the right places!

I have enough issues with a day job So I will stick to that, Modelers can be a pain as you found out! Byron has been very busy in the workshop as the flying field is flooded. Primer was done along with all the sanding and more sanding. A scale finish is always hard as the nicer it is the heavier it is so you need to decide how much time and weight you want to invest in the finish. As we do not fly competition and attend very few events we tend to go for the lighter finishes. Great job so far, the biggest disappointment with this kit is the very poor canopy, not sure what we can do to improve it.

Byron has made good progress and has been getting all the bits done so that the airframe can be primed. Gear doors were made from 4 layers of 163 glass cloth on the wing so they are the correct shape. The gear is an original pair of Yellow aircraft units that are the correct angles and very strong. The wheels are also Yellow items.

Why not finish the one bottle and then use the other?

I have been flying the big ST motors for more than 40 years and owned more than 60 of them using many liters of fuel. The early Italian versions of which the 30cc is one was a high compression motor that did not like Nitro and would become an unreliable beast if run on any nitro. My standard fuel mix is ( don't let Jon see) 4%m, 8%MMSR and the balance is methanol. I have lots of M and still some MMSR so I use it! 10% oil will be fine as even 12% leaves lots of oil on the airframe. The later Chinese motors were made for the American market and had less compression so could use Nitro. I found the Taylor RC long to be a very good plug as a hotter plug is an advantage. My 45 cc ST's use a OS FS plug for the best idle and transition. The motors are not designed for high revs so 18 x 8 or 18 x 10 prop will work the best. I will look to see if I still have the do's and do not do sheet from Mick Wilshere who was the ST agent and very passionate about his engines. I do not like the smell of petrol and would rather use electric of glow motors so I still have about 20 big ST's in regular use

The Spinner is home made as they are scarce items now. The mold was made from an original Yellow spinner many years ago.