Nightflyer

Ton, Further to my earlier email I would really appreciate a pdf of the parts. Thanks Paul.

Hi Peter, Yes I am planning on building one as soon as I have built a Black Magic. I loved the original design of Clive's from back in the early 80's. I built mine originally with an OS 10 in it. I had all but forgotten until your design came along and as I have been one to like Pete Nicholson's electric warbirds this would fit in nicely for me. Love the plan and am looking forward to building mine.

Ton, Loved the article and the posts on here. I am definitely going to have to build one. I built an Enya 19 powered one when the original design was published and enjoyed it, but I am sure from the video that your electric version is probably better still.

Hi again Pete, Your blog was very good I may well end up posting the build of mine. What size prop have you used and what kind of flight time with the 2200's, I am guessing in the order of 8 minutes? I am looking to hit about 10 or 12 minutes which is what I was able to achieve with my old model but I expect a more lively take off and climb performance with brushless. The geared 600 used to fly around nicely on about 2/3 throttle.

Thanks for that Pete. Yes there is something about the Black Magic and in electric form looks even better.

Yes I had a couple of Replikits for the Cub and the Spitfire, but downloaded the plan for the Phantom from Outerzone.

I am not new to the Black Magic. I wanted a vintage model back in 1986 and got one of these kits second hand at my model shop (someone had started building the wings and got bored). I duly built it fitted an OS25FP and had years flying it before I decided to convert it to electric in 1997. At this point the model was largely unchanged other than to accommodate a Speed 600 on gearbox, modify U/C to fit 7 cell sub-c pack and she flew. I had a number of very pleasant flights which because of weight were marginal on take off but in the air was pleasant. I decided that winter to strip and overhaul the model put it on a diet but retain the same power set up. The model looked the same but flew so much better, and had several more years until a house move and some bad hangar rash saw the model's demise. Now to the point of this post. I am about to build another Black Magic but aside from being built at the outset for electric I am looking to use a 3S Lipo pack and outrunner brushless set up and wonder what anyone else might have used that works well?

I found this video on You Tube the other week. It was really fascinating to see. Living and working in the area and also having been an avid Keil Kraft fan since my childhood in the 70's. How different factory life was in the 60's to today. Somehow the models seem to have withstood the test of time. My own teenage son has now happily joined the ranks of aeromodelling through.. building a Cub glider, Spitfire rubber powered model, and Phantom c/l models. I tried talking him into building a Junior 60, but he likes the Black Magic more. It would be nice to see Keil Kraft range of models and accessories (and some of the other old names) in active production again.

I started using a second hand set of Skyleader Clubman in 1977, but have used Futaba since 1981, and had several sets that have all been very reliable, and good quality. However, I am about to make the change to Spektrum. I think there are two things that work against Futaba sadly. The first is the number of propagation formats used especially with 35MHz, and with 2.4GHz. The second is that Spektrum seems to offer more features and hence provide better value for money. I have also noticed that Spektrum is now almost the only type used in my club.

I think a number of aspects are covered by others but after some 35 years in aeromodelling from what I have seen at the AGM's is that aside from the interest shown by key movers ie committee members, trade, and flyers at the forefront of our hobby that aside from distance and the high cost these days trravelling about that the following have had an impact: 1. hobby has changed a lot over the years with fewer model aeronautical engineers, and more 'hobbyists' and buy and fly members who have less time or interest in the matters of managing and safeguarding the hobby. 2. the number of forms of model flying has expanded and hence arguably has increased the scope of the organisation and maybe diluted some of the body of interest in some areas. 3. in general I think that even at club level (and in life in general in other activities) there are fewer hands on people than used to be (personally those people who do put themselves forward are the ones who make the hobby, and those that don't should not complain if they are not happy, collectively we can make or break the hobby). The BMFA is our national body and voice and without it fighting our corner over the years, we would be in a far weaker position over flying fields, frequencies, professional standing, competency, etc.

This indeed sad news. I thoroughly enjoyed his S & L columns since the mid 70's, when as a youngster I started model flying and especially liked his STOL and Delta designs. His columns were very informative and helped demystify some of the aspects of aerodynamics and also some useful hints. He is one of the 'legends' that our hobby has created, admired, and sadly is no longer with us. The aeromodelling world and world in general is a little bit the worse for the passing of Peter. My sincere condolensces to Peter's family and friends.

If anyone does know of a successful and legal way of circumventing this rule I would love to know. In my experience it has been the cause of much grief to a number of clubs activities and sadly two clubs I belonged to lost their site in the end off the back of this. One field had only had a confirmed 9 years use (it had been used for more but not by the club) outside the 28 day rule. Otherwise that if you do operate outside the 28 day rule hope that it has been so for a period of 10 years or more (which can be confirmed). The other way round this is to have a friendly landlord who has a second field which you can fly from once the 28 days has expired on the first field. This was how another club got round the problem. The club concerned later got round the issue by highlighting the fact that they had been flying from the field for some 15 years and thus planning permission was granted (they were fortunate that the council forgot to check whether the period was or was not in excess of 28 days a year).

The Bullet was probably the first low winger I loved when I first started flying in the 70's. My instructor had one with that was finished in black and red Epoxycote paint with an HP40 and tuned pipe, with Skyleader Clubman Super gear. It looked great and flew pretty well.