Alec Turnbull

Good video Gary, the weather up here in the North West has been atrocious, yesterday (Sunday) was the worst very strong winds and sideways rain, so no flying for me! Settled down now tho........

Well done Nick, that's brilliant, so there are at least 3 Centurions flying now, any one else on here have one ? Let us know !

Well Nick that is very impressive....excellent effort. Yes a big car is required. Unfortunately I do not have an station wagon or a van ( could do with one, but my wife says its too utility!) So it just about goes in my Merc E class saloon with the front seat folded down and the wing across the back seats, not ideal but its what I've got! Looking forward to hearing how the maiden goes

Not so much as a money saver as a time saver. Recently after a heavy ish (clumsy!) landing the tail on my Rex glider came adrift and snapped the inner part of the control snake, which was a SLEC lightweight, the one with a yellow outer and a white inner. I didn't have a spare long enough so as it was a straight run I just substituted a length of thin piano wire a bit stiff but as it was straight no problem. Fast forward a couple of weeks and this morning I was replacing the strimmer line on my electric strimmer, when finished I replaced it in the garage where it lives near my models and spied the old bit of snake lying on a work table and I suddenly wondered if the strimmer line would fit and work on the SLEC outer......well it does. This is what I used 1.6mm, bought on E Bay as i was too lazy to go to the garden centre Fits in the yellow outer and slides with no resistance A bit curley but when warm does tease straight, it needs to be cut with a sharp blade rather than side cutters. These snakes are quite expensive someone on e bay wanted £10 ish posted for a SLEC, now there are no model shops left I cant pop down the road and pick one up.

Thanks for sharing!

Nice one Gary, David Boddington really knew what he was doing! Who needs ailerons!!

As I know that all the forum readers are waiting with bated breath to find out if the Rex 1a motorised glider actually flies, I can report that it does and very well indeed! The weather has suddenly looked up here in Lancashire so I have had the pleasure of two sessions with the Rex, no other glider fliers in my club so I felt a bit of a loner, tested it on a hand launch a couple of times just to make sue that it even had a glide no problems there, deep breath and first powered flight, the prop promptly flew off! I had forgotten tighten it properly, prop fell to he ground and Rex went off on a long glide and landed in the long grass, no problems reattached he prop, whilst refitting the prop a couple of members asked if I had a problem as it seemed that there was a lack of power, no I said , it was an unpowered test hand launch! Prop back on and off the Rex went no shortage of oompf in fact no need for more than half throttle to ensure a steady climb, my guesstimate of 3 degrees of down thru thrust appear to be about right. It climbed to nice high altitude very steady, cut the motor and straight into a thermal it would have stayed up for an age if I had let it, landing not so easy as it did not want to come down, the glide on approach goes on for ever, no spoilers....... but reapply the moto rand go around on a low circuit and a nice greasy landing on our lovely freshly mown and rolled patch.. To say I am delighted is an understatement.

I knew that Shaun....The prop seems to fold back Ok, not as much as if the nose as round but near enough no matter what position they stop. Have checked now Grumpy, had not thought about that, but as soon as the blades move they are clear of the corners, close tho!

Very funny!....... I am surprised one of you wags had not come up with this earlier ! I would have loved to have arranged a more streamlined nose section, the motor I have used is quite fat, there is no meat at all in fuselage sides to carve away, I did consider getting a thinner inrunner which would have allowed to redesign the nose section, but that would have changed my original concept of a quick build, I did knock this off in a few days after all. No one will notice the blunt front at a few hundred feet up there (on the assumption it does get up there of course). What I was really after was a replacement for my old Radio Sailplanes Wildflecken and I have found actually something similar now, (coming here soon)so this Rex will be a practice model, blunt nose nor withstanding I am quite pleased with it!

Finished all the little tyding up jobs, wing bands arrived so I put it on my Multiplex c of g balancer thingy. With the lipo pushed forward as far as it can go it balances right on the money, so its good to go, roll on a bit of sunshine...... Total weight 3lbs 10ozs, not sure whether that is good or not, no recommendation in the build article,but it is what it is.

Whilst I have been meddling with my Rex glider I forgot to take some pictures of the finally completed Unicorn. I had some flourescent covering film (Profilm I think) that came to me in a job lot, seemed ideal for this model and should make the Unicorn plenty visible to these tired old eyes, so here they are.... Weighs 6lbs 1oz, so here is another model waiting for the weather to improve........ while I get on with yet another!

Well....finished target missed as I underestimated the amount of covering film required and had to order some more, any how all done now, one final mock up before I finish all the little bits and pieces. plus I need to obtain some 6'' wing bands, the only ones I have in stock are far too big, but... nearly there now. Looking forward to some nice weather, whenever that might be......!

I have been doing a bit of covering today, we are nearly there but only so much covering in one day so finish tomorrow, maybe..... A mock up to see how its coming along With a bit of luck may be finished by the weekend

I have now covered the fuselage, in fact back in January, but pushed in to one side in frustration. I attempted to attach a clear acetate canopy as shown on the plan and exactly as I did for my first model all those years ago. I had some acetate sheet left over from my Centurion build so used what I had, but it seemed just a bit on the thick side and I had difficaulty in moulding it to the correct shape even with a little bit of heat, so ordered some thinner sheet from SLEC but had similar difficaulty, tried a couple of times using ZAP canopy glue and clamping overnight but when removing the clamps it all sprung apart. This is the glue I used Either the glue is useless or I am! On the instructions it does mention to not freeze, it has been in the garage on the shelf over the winter (while I bought all the other adhesives indoors) so maybe I have ruined it. So I gave up and pondered what to do next My next build was a glider, the plan called for a solid balsa canopy, suddenly the penny dropped, no reason why I could not use the same method on my Unicorn, quickly knocked up a shape out some scrap balsa block I had kicking about. That was a few weeks ago, I had to start covering my Rex glider so whilst I had the covering iron out and some black film in use I took the opportunity to cover and then attach my new canopy. I did cut away the film where the canopy sits so wood is glued to wood So glad to finally get that little problem solved, now I think it looks better than clear plastic anyway!

I must have missed that one! Well done