Nightflyer

William not 100% sure if you are referring to the Sonata glider or the Sonata E electric glider variant. However, I am sure if you give Balsa Cabin a call, and their number and website are easily googled, they can probably help you out. They have always been very helpful over the years.

The Mini Super is a great little flier, not quite as stable as its bigger brother but only to be expected being a smaller model, but the performance is pleasant and forgiving enough. I have a soft spot for the Keil Kraft and Veron designs of the day. I quite fancy building another and have the plans when I get time. Having built a Super 60 before and enjoyed that very much. Although many years ago not long after Instarted rc flying at a Hastings club auction I got a Super 72 that was a scaled up 60 built to fly across the channel, which it had done successfully. So hope that kind of gives some background of the pedigree of the design family.

Simon Piece of Cake is on You Tube should you want to see it. I saw it a while back. Some of the scenes for the flying was done from a friend of mine's farm on the Downs near Beachy Head.

The Mini Super makes a great model if you have not done much building before, and a great model to modify to add ailerons. Just reduce wing dihedral by half.

Having had other Pete Nicholson Design models Ie Balsacraft, such as Bearcat, Hurricane and FW190 with the first two built originally as Speed 600BB brushed motors 2400 nicads, that were subsequently modified to 3536 brushless power and 3s2200 lipo power. The performance difference was such the FW was built with brushless at the outset. A twin3536 motor and esc with twin 3s 2200 would be a cheap effective solution with good performance for sure.

I have same comments and experience from trying to clean off the pigment as Andy Stephenson. The staining is not much of an issue if the pigment is light such as white or yellow but if red, dark blue or black can be visible certainly if the new covering is light in colour. Sometimes after using thinners I have found a light sanding of the airframe helps.

Had numerous Enya engines and used Modwl Technics GN5 andxalso Duraglo 10 and Dynaglo 10 with no issues, but found the Duraglo gave the best performance if that helps, although I know Southern Modelcraft also make suitable fuels.

Hi Roy, I shall await the article with interest. In the interim I shall ask around the club. Bowman's as was Galaxy were local. It is important to try to save or resurrect some of these designs where possible as they played an important part in this country's rc aeromodelling history and are fun. Regards Paul

David/Roy my club is not far from Ipswich and we have a membership that stretches back over time. If you are eager for a plan I am pretty sure someone will have one. The other source you might find one is a shout for help from Hastings 1066 MFC who used to have a couple of members who were into Bowman's kits. Such a shame Bowmans and Galaxy are no more. It might be worth asking Pegasus Models if they have any knowledge, I know they are producing some of the Galaxy models. Regards Paul

I like the 148s and 3001S but there are some very good alternatives. As Nick Cripps said the Savox is a very good alternative and would use that.

I would agree with Andrew Calcutt's comments tbh from personal experience. With the state of the world currently regardless of modelling or other goods I would check first, not least because there are some real issues with supply or manufacturing of goods. That said I ordered goods from SMC week before last that were supplier stock and they were with me in 5 days using Royal Mail. I have used KLM before pandemic with no issues.

It must be an age thing as since my youth and oily diesel and glow free flight and control line models being replaced by rc, that in the last couple of years I have had a yearning for them once more. What is perhaps sad is the fact that good old DC engines - my favourite as a teenager are no more and few and far between. Let's bring back the Good Old Days.

Good video and flying session Steve. I was on holiday in Porthtowan last year and with St Agnes Head and Perranporth both are great sites to fly from.

I have used Correx for ic and electric models as well as a slope soarer. It is heavier than Depron so it is out for small or lightly loaded aircraft. Great for flying wings and is strong.

I went with my Son Saturday and tbh we enjoyed it. The weather was superb and relocation to the top end I think worked a treat. While I would agree it was not on the scale of some past events, it was a brilliant experience considering we are still fighting our way out of a pandemic that effectively stopped shows for some 18 months and people are also having to be wary. Top mark's to all concerned with the show from pilots, traders, organisers and spectators as it was as close to being back to some normality. It also gave people the chance to catch up with old friends. I would agree that while we see the wow factor models it would be good to see some diversity with some of our more standard models that we see around our clubs too, and maybe a few fun slots. All that said I still think it was a great day out with my Son who added several more models to his wishlist.

Yes Jon I would be interested to hear how you get on. Must be something about dear old Vic's designs I have been looking at building a couple one as free flight and one as RC and been looking at Tomboy, Ballerina and a Mamselle.

I was all set to go flying this afternoon and evening and typically it rained an hour before I was due to go there in not so sunny Essex.

I12fly your comments are the main reason why since the mid 70s having used Futaba gear all that time that I decided to stop buying Futaba. There are so many protocols really ever since 35 FM. Then it meant getting different rx Crystal's but since 2.4GHz there has been more proliferation in protocols. This is why more people have moved to Spektrum and other manufacturers. Its nothing to do with quality but people fed up keep investing in new receivers for all their models.

Hi Robert, if you have a search on here I did have some postings for someone else building a Somata. I an assuming you are looking to go brushless and lipo?

From personal experience over the years in most instances the auw often is an indicative figure. Wood selection plays it's part in the weight and in strength too. As someone else has said amount of glue and type of glue also does. In reality unless it's a total brick, provided you have built true and cofg is correct it should be no problem unless power is marginal. Of course a dead stick could lead to less of a floater.

Personally I appreciate the team's efforts through the pandemic and recognised early on that materialmwould be a struggle with impact on shows, fly ins, competitions et al. After all even the manufacturers have had their challenges and even at clubs have felt the impact too. Hopefully we can get flying soon back to normal and life moves to normality and then plenty of material for our scribes.

Could not help seeing others comments following It is surprising how many people had Executive's. I built mine because my dad had built one first. His was tissued and painted with enamels and fuel proofed with Tufkote while mine was tissued and painted with Humbrol Epoxycote which was newly released. Re the Big Wigs my Instructor had one which was used as a Toffee Bomber. Great model at the time.

Mine was a Trueline Custom Executive powered by a Merco 35 with Skyleader Clubman rc. That's not the Clubman Super. Model was nice looking but engine reliability led to its eventual demise.

Having been on the webinar and submitted a question I thought it was very good and agree the CAA participation worthy. I think such sessions very useful and informative and when involving the CAA can be beneficial to all developing relationships and future mutual support. I suspect there were still many questions to answer and follow on sessions would be good.

Having raced ic powered cars at National, European and World level now some years back, and still race occassionally people were often looking at fuel mixtures and Jon's comments are right. Manufacturing processes and materials means that bearings and parts in general are to a higher tolerance and quality meaning that oil levels don't need to be as high as they used to be and some of the fuels used by racers tend to be lower oil content 10-12% synthetic oils, but equally the fuels tend to use higher nitro content levels to that used for general purpose model flying. At the same time though there are a lot of model engines out in the world of varying ages so keeping to traditional ratios means they are not affected. 0ver the years I have used various fuels for my flying car racing and model power boating but there are some that are good for all three while some that are good for car racing that are definitely not so good for say power boating.