FEDERICO GILLI

I got the mewgull out today for the Sunday session. Sky pretty grey an no wind to slow down things but my mind was set, those cobweb need to be shaked off! So with the help of a club mate I lined up the mew and throttle up with full elevator until elevator authority achieved. Lift off uneventful and the following 10 minutes of flight with no surprises, few loops and roll and nice wide turns. Landing with no wind make for a fast and low approach the model came down smoothly but eventually stopped on the nose, no harm done. The second flight was petty much the same but just before the landing the wind picked up and the touchdown was neater and with the use of every inch of the patch I rolled to halt in a more dignified way. Third flight show sign of not good carburation since the start and circa 5 minutes into the flight the engine cut in the worst spot as usual, this time the lack of wind turned out to be a blessing and with the plane gliding directly towards me I made the patch with a roll and a gentle nose over with no damages. I was happy enough to go back with the model looking the same as when I left home so I called off the day. For anyone who want to have a go at the mew gull I have two main recommendation to make: 1) forget the spats and bend the landing gear as forward as possible, 2) remember that the elevator has virtually no authority without the propeller washout so full elevator on the ground need to be paired with the propeller spinning lively! Once airborne the stock elevator is perfectly adequate. Good luck with your mew gulls. Federico

Andrew, Graham, My one is still in flying condition but as I was out of prop for a while I had it grounded for most of the summer. Beside the poorly designed landing gear its a great plane, trick to take off for the tendency of tipping over, this cost me few props, and landing for shear speed, I tend to come in on the fast side as I'm afraid of stalling it. My one is quite heavy as I'm running a Roto 25cc petrol in the powerhouse with a large 20x8 wooden prop in the front. Once up fly very well and I've never found any issues with elevator or other control surfaces. I love the model but I find frustrating not been able to use the spats as they are a source of trouble. Anyway best of look with them!! ps Graham if you find yourself again with few spare bits think about me as a good home for them!!!! Federico

Hi Stephen, I guess I'll try that. Regards, Federico

Quick update.... despite all the odds my mew gull is still in one piece and flying!! Last Sunday I put in the 20x8 turnigy wooden prop I got from HK and without any carb adjustement I fire it up. It started cosideably better and the transit between idel to full was good too. I forgot my taco so I've no idea of the rpm. Wind was pretty strong which is good, I had three flight of circa 8 minutes each, the plane looks to have plenty of power but not a very high speed, overall was good to fligh. The engine block felt almost cold after each landing so I guess the mix was not too lean. The cowl was not fitted so mayby with the same on the engine will not cool so well. The little 25 Roto is quite a beast spinning this kind of prop with ease, the only thing i do not understand is why the manufacturer reccomend the 18x10 with the result of reeving the engine way above the manufacturer reccomanded max rpm? The only gripe I have with the roto is that I tried to undo the spark plug (still the original) to looka the color of the same and see if shown sign of too rich or too lean mix, but I cannot get it to unscrew. The light gauge tool supplied just bend and the opening between the finns is too small for a proper spark plug soket. I tried also strait after a flight with the engine warm but more of the same. Any suggestions?? Federico

Hi, one think I set up and never tried is the flaperons mix, does anyone tried this trick with the mew gull? Regards Federico

Hi Martin, Thanks a million,I'll order a 20x8 and see how goes. Regards, Federico

Hi, I was in contact with ROTO motors and in order to limit the rpm to 7000 max they are reccomanding to chnge the prop to a 19x10 or 19x12. I had to get up to 8220rpm unloaded max speed to have enough power to fly not at full throttle all the times. I do not need more speed as the plane is already a bullett so I was thinking to try a 19x10 and maybe a 20x8. Is anybody out there that has experience on gasser and can give me some advice on the prop to go for? Looks like I need to drop 1500 rpm circa. Thanks a million Federico

Hi Stephen, thanks, maybe an achievement but not a success yet!! Regards, Federico

Hi all, has been two years from my last outing with the Mew Gull. I've move house a couple of times and most of my model were in storage for this time. Yesterday here in Cork was a nice day with a gentle breeze and I decided to have a go. The MG sill has no spats and cowl. The spats are not going back for now, the cowl once I increase the bottom vent area shall go back on it. A good bit of wind help no end the take off / landig phese. The authority of the stock elevator on the ground is nill. Even if I do not like it the best way to take off in calm weather is to get an helper to hold the model and release the same once the wash out from the propeller is enough to avoid the nosing over. The wheels need to be raked forwad to help on the same issue. One the plane is airborne it is very fast and slippery but full control is available for normal pilon style and mild aerobatic manouvers. The landing withouth wind is an hand full but providing a long steady fast approach it is managable, although is hard not to not nose over at the end of the landing phase. My roto 25 should have plenty of power but I find that with a 18x10 Master Airscrew at the stated max rpm of 6500 would fly at full throttle al the time. I than leaned a bit and things got better buit with the resulting in flight max rpm of 8220 I'm afraid of damging the engine especially once the cowl goes back. Any suggestion on this?? PS the 18x10 is the only recomanded prop for this motor. Anyway I got three flights under the belt and I was quite happy to bring back nhome the model in one piece. I'll rake out the wheels this week and maybe change the prop to wood the problem here is that with the nosing over tendency I might breack it strait away. I guess at this point I got around 15 flight with this plane.... must be a record??!! I really hope Seagull at one point will ancknoledge the designg flaws and fix them. I love the model and I'll give it a second chance if they did so. I'll keep you post with next week session. Regards Federico

Time for something not too modelled before:   1) single engine biplane fiat cr32   2) twin electric fiat br 20   3) three motor electric savoia marchetti sm79   Cheers

I been in contact with SMC and J.Perkins about the landing gear loads of time. SMC came forward with the spring wire for my mewgull legs mod but from J.Perkins so far the only feedback is that Seagull is happy with the desing, they do not see anything wrong with the undercarriage and they also add that the have not received enough complains about it to point to an endemic problem!! At one point they offer to replace the wing but now the did U turn on this option too. I'd loved to get their new 40 size cap and maybe the Dewoitine but I think I go for an other manufacturer as I'm not impress with their feedback. Said that I love the mew gull and I hope sooner or later to be able to get new spats and come up with a solution.   Regards,   Federico

Hi all,   eventually the maiden day arrived last Sunday. With a stong breeze perpendicular to our run way I went through the usual checks and range check, everithing looked ok. The CG was circa 1" forward the reccomanded and the supertigre G51 runned very rough for what I could see a huge amount of vibration at the fuel tank. The sesulting bubbles in the supply pipe I guess are the couse of the not smoot engine operation. The plane was put into the wind and throttle open gradually. The first take off was on the hedge of a stall. The normally quite powerfull engine looks undersized for the raptor. The airelons were very twitchey too. After few cirquit the stall was tested and the result was quite good with the plane dropping the nose a no major sign of tip stall. Landing was not particulary difficult and the absence of flap (left in the fully up position) was not an issue. I like to test this again with no wind! After inputting a big -80% in my airelon expo I tried a second tale off, this time I used all the space available and pull it in a very shallow climbe. The airelon where now manageble with sill a very fast roll rate when the sticks were pushed to the limits. loop are nice and wide too. Stall turns are not really for this model. I see why a lot of people opted for a bigger engine, I have an MDS 68 and I might try it in future, I only sorry to spoil even more the front of the plane with a bigh chunk of metal. At hight the whees are not very visible, actually the whole model is quite invisible! Yes I got the grey one! Not a trainer by all means at least without all the stick on features. Overall I'm quite happy and if a bit more poke can be added at front for few nice vertical climbs the overall package will be well worthed the price I paid for. I got few ground picture but I still need to transfer them from the camera to the pc. All the beast,   Federico

Hi Graham,   happy the maiden went well, looking forward to the full review. Got more flights on mine but my spats are gone for good.   Regards, Federico

Hi Les,   I'm delighted for your success. I hope you'll get loads of flying with the mewgull as it is very a very nice plane indeed. Keep us posted and try to get few picture of it. I've still not undertake the reapair work but since I've no props for it I'm not in a great hurry.   Regards,   Federico

Hi Ian,   the cowl has six holes on the bottom plus exhausts plus the scale vent on the side. The problem is that a good portion of the side vent is overlapping the front fuselage. Lokks like the only option is cut out a good part of the cowl bottom... not very scale! Here a picture of the side anyway. Some of the real mewgull sport a side vent on the left side of the cowl so I might do them too. Leon suggestion is probabily wise but I prefer fly the yoke without spats than not flying it at all. It is a nice mode not easy but fun and is surprisingly aerobatic (not in a 3d way!!!).   Regards,   Federico

Hi all,   sunday was a fantastic day so I got the mew gull out and the camera ready. I want to give segull a chance so I decided to fit the spats as reccomanded with increase clearance from the wheel to the spat. The cowl was also fitted after a dremel job that could have provide some airflow through the engine. The following picture resume the pre during and after flight!    looking pretty in the morning sun.   the cooling vent have been cut out with the dremel but result to be not very effective.   that's me ready to unleash the power!!   fast low passage...   nice and easy...     Afer then minutes fly just coming up from a low passage the engine quit in the worst spot... typical. I got the plane just about back on the short grass and recover a tip stall a couple of meter from ground. It came quite hard on the wheels and stop on the nose. In fearness was a pretty good recovery and the landing even if rough could not be classified as crash by any means. Unfortunately the faith I put in Seagull design as aleady suggested by different third parties was completely trashed when I recovered the model. does not look to bad from here look again...   the spat mounting got ripped out with bits of wing attached on both wings. The spats are both severly damaged and probabily a write off. As I'm a bit disgusted I still haven't dismantled the bits to see how to fix the wings. I accept that this was not a grazer and I would have accepted damages to the spats but the spats induced wing damages are really too much. Seagull cannot tell me that this in their eyes is a sound design. I love this plane and if I have to I'll keep flying it without spats bur this really defeath the pourpose of a scale model right?! I'll pass this pics to SMC/JP but unfortunately I do not expect any major solution from the manufacturer as they already state that there is notthing wrong with the design.   For the record I'm pretty sure that the dead stick was due to poor cooling of the engine. I did try to minimise the butchering of the cowl but look like I cannot avoid to cut a big gush in the bottom of it.   Regards,   Federico