Cliff Bastow

After a good few flights now I have to say that its not half as bad as I expected, I have quite a bit of aileron differential set. Also I have both ailerons set a couple of degrees down when at neutral to try to help with tip stalling. As long as you do not slow it up too much and do not overbank it flies fine. It is a heavy bomber after all! If you do stall it the stall is nasty! I think for the money its good and looks great in the sky so overall I am more than happy.

Thanks for the warning Flying Squirel, I have checked and it looks like I have not signed up for prime. Many thanks.

I have just done a quick test on various servos I have and they seem fine, nice firm connection but not so much that they are too hard to disconnect. I put the plug of one of them in the vice and gave the cables a firm pull and the crimped connections were fine, no tendency to pull away with quite a firm steady pull.

I ordered a pack of these on Thursday with free postage as it was my first order from Amazon. They arrived Friday and on first inspection the quality looks good. I will post again when I have trial fitted them in my Whirlwind build.

Here is progress to date, Its not the easiest kit I have ever built. The Tailplane to fin mounting is quite fiddly to assemble and there is not much room to work. The elevator is worked by a snake which goes through quite a sharp bend which I did not like so I tried to fit a servo in the fin but there just was not enough room. Also I was worried about tail weight as the model has quite a long moment arm, so in the end I went with the snake and it seems to work fine. I found the plastic mouldings hard to get both sides aligned correctly on the nacelles but they worked out in the end with lots of trimming and sanding. The top of the fuselage is a one piece moulding and I could not get it aligned around the fin so I ended up cutting it just in front of the fin and then cutting the rear portion in half lengthwise and fitting each around the fin separately. Looking at it I think I should have thinned the fin halves more but it will have to do now!

First impressions on opening the kit today? Nicely cut and sheeted foam wings, Good mouldings for the cockpit, fuselage top and engine nacelles and the wood parts are nicely cut and seem accurate. On the down side the fuselage is slab sided and flat bottomed which is a real shame. Sport scale I would say. I think it looks a straightforward build and will look good in the air.

There are a couple of Whirlwind blogs on here at the moment. It has always been one of my favourite aircraft and for Xmas my wife bought me this.

Rip Johnny, What you and your comrades did was inspirational. The way Bomber command was treated after the war was shameful. Not many of this special generation left now but we must remember them.

Men never grow up Paul, they just get bigger and more expensive toys!

Relics from my childhood!

Trust me its only tidy because it has just been finished, it will not be like this in a couple of months!

Its a converted single garage Tim.

Hi Kevin, Thanks its not always this tidy especially when a build is in progress. The floor is chipboard over foam insulation but I do plan to get some cushion-floor at some point.

Hi Leccyflyer, Thanks for the comments. The wooden drawers came from The Works, they are sold as advent calendars and are not cheap, but I buy them in the new year when they are on sale or ask for them as Xmas presents. The paint trays are home made Yes, the record cards are for detailing repairs needed to models. I started this after taking a model flying once forgetting I had damaged it on a previous outing.

And here is the walkaround bench folded away when not in use.

Having moved house last year and been busy with alterations and decorations has kept me from work on my new workshop. Now thankfully I have been able to get on with it and thought I would share some photos now it is complete.

Thats brilliant, many thanks Robin.

Thanks all for that useful info. the model has a 3foot wingspan and was originally rudder and elevator only. I have reduced the dihedral and will fit ailerons. It looks like it had a small IC engine but mine will be electric. Here are a couple of pics in the hope someone can identify it.

Hi all am hoping someone on here can help. I am restoring an old model I aquired from my club which unfortunately has no tailplane. It is a small high wing cabin style monoplane but I have no other information on the model. Does anyone know please is there a rule of thumb about tailplane size? Percentage of wing area perhaps? Many thanks. Cliff.

Watching this with great interest. I have his smaller Avro York and found it well designed and goes together well. Quite a lot of sanding to shape though! It flies really nicely. Cliff Bastow.

A few more pics.

Just thought I would add a flying shot to finish this blog. The sharp eyed amongst you may notice that she lost a spinner during this flight but I did manage to find it in the grass on the edge of the field. Also she was flying with the gear down as I forgot to take my air pump with me!

Shaun, That is what I did with mine, I went the brushless route but then to get the cg right I ended up with two 3s 2200 lipos right in the very nose of the model. As I got the model already built it meant some careful keyhole surgery inside the nose to make enough space. As Leccyflyer says the model was designed for heavy brushed motors and nicads. Also the cg seems to need to be quite well forwards on the wing. Having said all that it does seem to be quite a nice model to fly.

Yes it is Warbouys, a credit to our maintenance team. I was simply making a comment and not trying to stir up the lone flyer debate again. For my money too many people want to impose rules on others. Because of my work shifts I often fly alone and I accept the risks and act accordingly. Lets leave it there please chaps.

The models by the way are, a Great Planes Tiger Moth, A SF Piper Cub, a Taft Hobbies Cessna and a home built Blohm and Voss BV212