Cliff Bastow

Sorry about the inverted image.

Here are a couple of pics of my latest build, Its an old Titanic Airlines kit I bought at the Shuttleworth Mayfly. I will be fitting brushless power units.

Thats great thanks leccyflyer I will download that. Many thanks to all for the great information. Cliff.

That certainly looks like it and the colour scheme is the same, but if it is someone has modified the ailerons to a more usual style! In that case Leccyflier what is the correct CG please and also are the outer motors correct as they have a distinct outwards thrust line? The wingspan is about 1.6m

I purchased this JU52 today and would like to know what make it is, Any ideas please? I thought it maybe VQ but having downloaded the manual I now dont think it is as the VQ one has a large hatch on the top and this one has a solid fuselage top.

I am quite tempted I must admit. I have had two canards in the past, a Candoo and a Canardex and both were good fliers. They did not stall and the Candoo in particular was a great yank and bank machine and could really be reefed around turns. I had no issues with either at high speed or orientation problems.

Yesterday I visited Chatsworth House Christmas Market and there was a stand selling small free flight aircraft kits from the Vintage Model Company and bought a Sopwith Triplane kit with the idea of converting it to rc. Does anyone have any experience of these kits? First impressions are that it is very nicely designed and executed.

I am trying to use some Solarspan 2000 which i have had for a while and do not know how old it is. I am really struggling to get it to stick and it does not seem to want to shrink! It is not a product I have used before and do not know if I am doing something wrong? I have tried a range of temperatures on off cuts but nothing seems to work. It seems To need much more heat than the instructions say and even then dos not work very well. Any help gratefully received. Cliff.

I did not say it was! Its what I think is coming.

John, £80 might not be much to some John but to some of us on a tight budget its one more cost. Most of my fleet are second or third hand or other modellers cast offs. Still to fit out my fleet would cost about £1200 at £80 Each. A not small amount for me and i suspect many other people.

Peter, I do not think I am being negative, just realistic. The best we can hope for are some concessions arranged by the BMFA but I do not hold out much hope. Some form of transponders are coming at the very least.

For what its worth I have filed my response. I suspect its another battle we have already lost. We just do not matter to the powers that be.

On trying a test fit of the outer wings I have discovered that there is no positive fixing for these, it just relies on the inner rigging wires being tensioned to pull the wings into the centre section. Really not sure if this is acceptable. Thoughts anyone?

Sorry that should read rx.

Fitted arc and flight battery tonight to try a few things. I had no elevator or rudder although I could hear servos working. Peering inside through the door I could just see that the servos complete with rails floating about loose! I don’t know if this happened in the arrival! Or if it was the cause! There is no real access into the rear fuselage so I am going to have to cut into the underside and make a hatch. it looks as if the hard wood servo rails were just superglued to balsa fuselage side rails, not good!

Yes could be, modified I guess. I am not sure about this model now the more I find out about it! Don’t want to look a gift horse and all that but!

Yes I have measured the span.

The previous owner said it was plan built but I cannot remember whose plan he said. Anyone any ideas? It is 113inch span by the way.

I am a bit hesitant about spending £200 on batteries and props if the model is no good!

Beginning to think perhaps it is not such a good gift after all. I will have to give it a good look over! This is the problem with second or third hand models.

The mystery deepens with this model! The guy who gave it to me said that the person he bought it off stated it had never flown but was maiden ready. However looking into the damage to the wing mounting I found clear evidence it had been repaired before, patches in underside wing skins and you can see where one of the wing tubes has been repaired by fitting a sleeve over it!

Looking at these photos I can see I must spend less time playing with toy aircraft and more time tending my lawn!

The previous owner said he thought it was tail heavy but it seems ok to me. To me it appeared to stall on take off. The damage includes broken top to the fin, bent u/c legs and damage to both wheel pants and worst of all one of the wing fixings is badly bent. Talking to the previous owner he stated that he had tried to fly it on two 4s connected together to give an 8s power set up which is what he had been told by the person he bought it off. However on inspection I can find no connection between the two batteries so it is actually running on 4s. I do not know if the previous owner misunderstood the builder or if he was misled. Having talked to George at 4 Max he thought it was underpowered on 4 s with the fitted motors and esc and recommended a 5 s set up. This would seem to back up my theory that it stalled on take off.

I have been gifted this by a club member who damaged it on its maiden and could not be bothered to repair it! The white areas are where I have started repairs.