Geoff S

Both drawings I have, as well as the CNC cut ribset I've indulged in, show 3 0.25" spars, so presumably it's the later version. The rudder seems tiny. Is it adequate or perhaps worth making bigger? The J60 in David's picture above has a much bigger rudder than my drawings show. It also seems to have a separated elevator (there are 2 push rods), so does the rudder extend below the tailplane as on most modern models? I've also downloaded a pdf with construction sketches that must be quite old because it describes how to put 2x30v batteries in series for an HT supply and how to fit the battery for the escapement (I don't think I'll attempt an escapement). It also says that the dihedral is 6" at the wing tips. It's interesting that the wing span is always described as 60" when it is, in fact 63".

I'm not sure. I've downloaded the drawing from both Outerzone and Aerofred (they seem to be the same) which I think are the updated ones to allow for single channel control. There's just a tiny rudder and it looks like no elevator. I assume the expected power source would be a diesel engine with a set throttle. I may make the rudder a bit bigger and add elevators, obviously. I think the tail is supposed to be detachable but I'll probably have it permanently attached. I don't think I've ever built a model exactly to plan. There's usually something I change, even if it's very minor. In any case, even kits rarely show every detail and leave some up to the builder. This will be no different - after all, no servo mounts or battery access are shown, so all that will be 'invented' by me. It'll still look like a Junior 60, though but it'll be my Junior 60 🙂 The drawings don't show the dihedral other than by using the wing brace angle as a guide but I don't suppose it's super critical as long as it's the same both sides ... and a lot more than I'm used to.

I disagree - that toast is perfect! It just needs a little marmalade 🙂 All progress is good. I was over the moon when I succeeded in opening a tin of beans with one and a half hands to go under another slice of toast.

In a weird brain spasm, I've decided to build a 3 channel Junior 60. I have a set of wing ribs and (hopefully) enough balsa in stock for the rest. I've never had a model like that (I built a standard 4 channel trainer when I started out) but, in my increasing dotage it seems to suit a more relaxed flying style (of course it may bore to extinction 🙂 ) It will be electric, probably with a 3S 2200 LiPO for energy and whatever motor seems suitable. One thing I have noticed is that vintage type models don't track very well on the ground for take-off. I put this down to a very forward undercarriage which seems to be designed to protect the propeller for free-flight landing rather than ROG take-offs - presumably they were hand-launched. So, at the risk of being criticised for modifying a perfect good old design, I intend to put the wheels in a more conventional position at about the wing l/e.

Yes, it mentions the reserve date but no contact details.

One minor problem is that the date (29 September) is published in the print edition of RCME which arrived this morning.

How did you guess? One of my Saturday errands back in the early 1950s was to fetch Dad's 200 Churchman No1 from the tobacconists. The ashtray was made from a square of copper with 4 grooves for the ciggies. I made it when I was about 12. I started smoking about 3 years later and I gave up about 45 years ago - thank goodness.

I made my Dad an ashtray at school! Yes, I am old! 🙂 Funnily enough, our village newsagent has gone cash only and doesn't take cards. There is a cash machine in the shop, though.

It would be easier if all similar sized servos had a standard number of splines so that there were fewer 'issues' when an incorrect servo arm was fitted and was apparently OK. I try to keep and label spare servo arms with their source but, I admit, not always.

The weather certainly has changed. Up to 1990 I sailed/raced my dinghy just about every Sunday (at least) for 9 months of the year and on Wednesday evenings when there was daylight. 90% of my sailing was on inland lakes/reservoirs and occasionally rivers. What typified the Wednesday evening races was that as soon as a race started at 1800 hrs, somebody shut the door and the wind disappeared. That doesn't seem to be the case now. In fact on Wednesday 1st August 1990 I had to haul my Laser over 50 metres of hard mud after a typical drifter race because there was so little water in the reservoir. That was the last time I sailed because the following morning I had the cycle accident that put a stop to my shenanigans. It was incredibly hot in the hospital and there was almost no wind outside. I can also remember winters when the roads were deep in snow for weeks. I don't think we had any snow last winter other than a light dusting that disappeared in a few hours. I once kept a record of wet cycle-commutes (27 miles total - 1.5 hours minimum/day) and it was fewer than 1 ride/week (1 in 10). That wouldn't be the case this last spring.

According to an email from Martin Lilley, the club sec, the 3 words for the gate itself are gangs.ranches.crafts. Probably only different because the W3W application is quite accurate and thus limited in area.

I had a 'shopping' pedal bike which looked rough but was actually reasonably decent, though not top quality. The main purpose was for it not to be attractive to potential thieves. It was a Raleigh Lenton Sports frame which my mate sprayed blue but it had Cinelli handlebars and stem, good brakes and Shimano SPD pedals. I built some decent wheels for it with a Sturmey Archer 5 speed hub gear. I was happy to do 50+ mile rides on it 🙂 When I lived in Coventry in the 1960s I used to park my motor bikes in a church car park opposite my bed-sitter unlocked for years. They were all magneto ignition so they didn't even need a key to start. Never had a problem. I certainly wouldn't do it now.

They'd probably nick the cameras as well! If no-one ever bought suspiciously cheap mowers etc then there wouldn't be a market for the stolen goods. Shop-lifting seems to be greatly increased, too. When we had a shop 50+ years ago, there was some shop-lifting (we sold things from TVs, cameras, air rifles and shot guns, and jewellery!) but it was rare. If there were a few in the shop and they asked for something they knew would need us to leave the counter to get we had a push button to ring the bell so someone else could watch the customers. It usually worked.

You can get battery heated fingerless mitts also on eBay which help a lot. Even though your fingers are bare, the fact that the rest of your hand is warm helps a lot. Also a warm body means the blood flow to your extremities is maintained and helps to offset the chill. I used to ride motorcycles all through the year (a sidecar in the winter, mostly) and keeping warm was difficult - now? I really suffer from the cold. (best advice is not to get old 🙂 )

I built my as yet unflown Pup to represent this trainer as illustrated in the Windsock Datafile book. Since all the photographs of the original are monochrome there must be some guesswork. In fact they state that the wing upper top may not have been PC10 but vermilion! So I chose what colours were reasonable representations (the Oratex is Corsair Blue) and who can possibly deny that my Pup is an accurate representation of the 1917 original? I think the pattern is close, but as to the colours, who knows?

Yes, that's it. Our flying site is just to the north of this picture, just beyond the end of the SE/NW runway that runs from Ladyhole Lane. It's all a bit more finished than this shows.

Yes, you're right. Our postcode is DE56 and we're near Belper. Not sure what the postcode is for the airfield but access is from a new roundabout on the A52 SE of Ashbourne (towards Derby) and not from Ladyhole Lane (about 0.5 miles nearer to Derby) as formerly.

Probably me, too, though I haven't flown for weeks and will be a mere spectator.

Wen I first got interested in aeromodelling and electric propulsion (in the days of NiCad and heavy, brushed motors) I got the idea of trying to understand how props compared by determining the volume of air moved/revolution. Assuming 100% efficiency it's simply the area of the propeller arc (pi x 0.5 length squared) multiplied by the pitch. Of course it's much more complicated than that, as I eventually realised in my ignorance, but it works to compare props and I still use it occasionally. I even (futilely) worked out the mass of air 🙂 Thus for a 15x6 prop the volume/rev is 1060 cu ins and a 14x6 is 924 cu ins so (to a first approximation) there'll be 10% more thrust from the bigger prop at the same rpm.

... and yet 99% of the population has more than the average number of legs. Averages are tricky things to use.

Dad took to stocking and selling a variety of things in what was originally a jewellery/clock/watch shop started by my grandfather back in 1878 and was primarily a radio/TV electrical shop when I was a child and we sold a few of those Mamod steam toys. I had a traction engine which barely had enough power to move itself - not very impressive.

🙂 I know. When we got married fifty six years ago I didn't realise I was agreeing to sleep with an OAP Or if you really want a shock, here's one taken in 1951

Not only wasps; there is a huge reduction in the number of insects generally. I remember perhaps 50 or so years ago when even a short drive, particularly at night, resulted in the windscreen being plastered with dead insects. In fact, back in the 1950s my dad fitted a small plastic deflector to the radiator mascot on his A40 van which was supposed to redirect the airflow away from the windscreen to reduce the number of insect corpses. I find it quite worrying - only mitigated by the fact I'm so old (and childless) it's unlikely to affect me for long. Wasp nests are beautiful structures. We found a very new one started in the roof of the garden shed a few years ago. It was like fragile brownish paper. We had to remove it, of course, and the returning wasp was obviously distraught when she couldn't find it but better that than have a horde of wasps taking over the shed.

A sailing vessel isn't ground based - it's water based and moving water at that in some cases. It is certainly analogous to flying in moving air. The only ground-based elements are the shore and, when racing, turning marks. Obviously not reservoir sailing but certainly river and tidal sailing.

Or even how would it increase? The only way would be to increase power, in which case it would likely climb or, alternatively, you could apply down elevator and increase the speed but it would dive. Or the wind-speed might increase in which case it might also climb but it would no longer be a constant environment and, as I said earlier, aircraft respond to changes in wind-speed but not to changes of aircraft direction in a steady wind.