Peter Miller

I love that crack about ten million sheep, really made me laugh. Seriously though, New Zealand does sound like a really civilized place. I corresponded with a friend there for several years until he moved back to the USA. If it wasn't for the cost of living which I understand is high I might even think about moving outhter if I was a bit...a lot younger.

I had an Australian engine once. At least I think it was Australian because every model that I put it in tried to get home the short way.

I wonder how many of you remember the article suggesting covering wings with nylon stockings just pulled on a doped. It was back about 66. I never had the nerve to go and buy any, in those days one would have got some very funny looks. I do remember the last line of the article, it said "Have you got your seams straight lads? The point about building is this. If (and it has happened) a new model is a right pig or crashes on the first flight at least I can say, "Well I enjoyed building it" If an ARTF crashed on the first flight I wouldn't even have that pleasure. I suppose I could say "I enjoyed spending the money" but that would be a lie.

Why Worry, now you can argue with yourself, probably the most intelligent person around to argue with.

I remember that recently There was a program on TV about the old toys. IT was presented by James May from Top Gear. He gave a load of kids a simple set of Meccano with the instructions to make a basic model.Not one of them could. I find that very sad. On the Kit car. Well, many years ago when I left the RAF I did build myself a Custom Show motorcycle based on a Sunbeam S8. In those day you could buy one for £15!!!

Oh Dear Asmebling. My dyslexic keyboard again. I have a very simple answer to home decorating...I don't. The place hasn't been painted for about 20 years. How do you think I can turn out so many models. Always wanted to build a kit car, al least I know that it would be built right.

On Helicopters. The problem with them is that to build one is more the field of the model engineer and so one does have to go the ARTF route. On ARTFs If you read my entries above you will see that I have been building one for a specific task. Only had to put 6 ounces of lead in the nose plus a heavier engine to get the balance point right (See above.) I also stated else where that I do like my Easy Pigeon, The only ARTF that I really lie, even had to buy a second one after a farmer drove his tractor of mine )See Muppets) I am delighted that Guy is moving on to build his own but from some of the entries above you will se that that is not common, How about the club where the members didn't even know how to apply Solarfilm. I still say that most ARTFers are missing out on so much of the pleasure and satisfaction. Joining a club can be wonderfully benificial, you get the advice of many other modellers, (not all very good advice admittedly) If you can find a small club with modellers who are builder you will progress much faster and more cheaply.

You were lucky. A friend just phoned, he went to the airshow at Waddington today, got there just as they canelled it. Yes, dope and tissue, love it, just finishing a scale cowling with that method. You can get a real coach built finish with that and no seams visible.

You only need to get worried when glow fuel tastes good.

I tried to fill the tank on an OS 20FS through the crankcase breather. Took ages to clear the crankcase. Too many pipes sticking out of the cowling. Remember, "The man who never made a mistake never made anything"

Get it out to fly from water, that will guarentee a drought, just like making snow skis ensures a snow free Winter

To stop the aerail pulling out of the Rx just thread it through a shirt button before it exits the fuselage. I keep meaning to run a tube down the fuselage for the aerail, the neatest solution but always forget to install the tube until the model has been covered. Maybe that wshould go in the Muppet of the week thread.

Many years ago I let a vintage model go without switching on. The model flew 13 miles. The best part was that our site landlord took me up in his Tiger Moth for half a freezing hour looking for it.Didn't find it but got it back undamaged three weeks later. No name and address!

I was crying in my whsiky last night. Don't drink before the sun is over the yardarm...in the Australian Navy!! Only kidding. I have always said that a first model should be very stable and slow flying, Vintage is perfect. I have proved this many times with epopel h=who have tried to master trainers and failed. I used to give them a few flights on a Vintage model and they never looked back. JETSOME. Sorry but when have I ever talked about an own design helicopter? I have only ever tried one for a review, a Picco or something. Gave up fater a short time. Helicopters don't fly, they just beat the air into submission Could you be referring to my Piasecki Flying Banana? That is an autogyro, not the same thing at all.

My own favourite system is this. Take a short length of fuel tube, about an inch long, cut a small slit half way through at each end. Push the aerial in to one slit and back out of the other, retain the tube to the top of the fin with a pin. The tube grips the aerial firmly but will allow it to slip of snagged. This way there are no bends in the aerial and it looks neater than bands.

Try The Oregon ATC2000 camera, 2" Diameter, 4 1/2" long weight 6 ounces. one hour of good video and the highest resolution with a 2 GB SD memory card. Buy it from Firebox.com or even cheaper on Ebay.

Flanker, have you ever known any conversation, especially in a pub, that stayed on one subject the whole time?

Fortunately there will always be lots of people who love to build. I am delighted to see that Al is designing his own models, the more the better. I do feel that the argument that people will start on ARTFs and go on to build is a fallacy for the most part. Back when plastic kits became popular modellers said that the people who built them would move on to building flying models. In fact it was the opposite and the decline seemed to start at that point. Recently I was told about someone who recovered their ARTF with Solarfilm and took it along to a club (not in this country) They were asked how they had done it and how to apply Solarfilm. Oh dear, my tears are diluting my Whisky. In our small club quite a few members do fly ARTFs but there is not one who has not built models and who does not build the odd model now from time to time. Still. I keep reminding myself that the vast numbers of ARTFers do keep the prices of radios and engines down and balsawood is still a sensible price and good quality if you know where to buy it.

I am not sure how you would execute anyone who likes 2000 DB at any time as they must be brain dead anyway. But think of this, they will never complain about the noise of models because they will be deaf anyway.

I have to say that Dave's definition of a miniature aircraft goes back a long long way, I seem to remember reading it in Aeromodeller in the late 50s. Yes, non-scale aircraft are miniature aircraft designed to do a specific task, maximum duration, maximum speed, precision aerobatics or what ever. To call a scale model a "toy" is utter codswallop! About the same time as I read the definition of "Miniature aircraft" I also read another definition. A toy is something that a child pushes along the floor, a model aircraft is a working replica of the full size. (Solid, or static models excepted of course but even they are not "Toys", They are scale replicas.) It should fly in a similar way to the prototype. I know we are all guilty of flying aerobatics that the full size could not perform. Now the interesting thing is this. Look at any really big railway layout, they are normally populated with figures, look at the slot car tracks, OK, they don't exist now but in those days no one said that the figures of spectators should not be there, they added to the atmosphere. Some years ago I designed a scale PT boat. The photos of that tearing round the pond didn't look realistic until I added a compliment of crew on the bridge and round the guns. Oh and Snoopy should only ever be fitted to a flying dog kennel for complete authenticity

Just finished the trainer being used for Piggyback experiments. It has a heavier engine, a .32 instead of a .25. CG is specified as being at 75mm back from the leading edge. Only took 6 ounces of sheet lead to get it forward to the specified point. Luckily I have a roofing contractor just up the road from my house or the church would have had a new leak. Must have used oak for the tail instead of the usual orange boxes.

Just to put in my twopennorth. Strip ailerons can be used as flaperons with some degree of safety. Using inset aierons out at the tip as flaperons is a NO-NO because they generate tip stalls. Common full size practice on STOL aricraft is to lower the flaps and droop the ailerons slightly thus creating effective washout on the wing. From what I have read the glider boys drop the flaps and raise the ailerons, i.e. Crow braking. Flaps coming down generate more lift than drag as they start but the ratio changes the further down that they go. Trim change can vary from model to model. My Fletcher Defender would pitch nose up slightly as the flaps started to come down and from then on the trim did not change. My Midget Mustang shows no trim change at all. The first time I tried the flaps at a great height I thought I must have twiddled the wrong knob as nothing obvious happened. When the model got lower I could see that I had full down flap and all that happened was that the model slowed down.

Tony, Are you by any chance the Tony Jones that I knew at Laarbruch in 66? Flew control line stunt.

On another thread people objected to the idea that ARTFers are not modellers. Well, I won't split hairs on that one but what I will say is this, people who build their own models, either, kit, plan or OD are craftsmen and those who have only assemble ARTFs cannot claim that.

When someone says "No skill" I wonder how all of us old timers ever built any models, after all we were not born with the skills, we had to learn them, often without any outside help. You learn the skills by building. The other thing is that back in the days when many of us started, R/C was for bloated plutocrats only. We started with simple models, Free Flight and Control line. We learned the principals of building, trimming and control with these. Anyone remember the cretins in the free flight area at Old Warden who would launch a model, watch it crash, pick it up and launch it again without making any adjustments? They never even thought about trimming. The daft thing is that people who never build don't know how to repair their models so they just buy another. Quality is another factor, there are good ones but... The model I am assembling for the piggy back experiment has a solid dihedral brace. snag is that it is 1/16" short of the depth of the hole it goes into. Not a problem for me, just take a piece of 1/16" ply from stock, cut it to width and it glue on. What would the inexperienced modeller do? I am told thad DB models are still producing a range of the old kits, Corben Baby Ace, Centurionand more with others in the pipeline. Sig still make them, Galaxy Models have their range. There are kits if you look hard ennough. Better still, build from plans. Finally (Thank God, I hear the mutters) For me half the pleasure of the hobby is in the building. Even if a model crashes on its first flight I never feel that it is a waste because I had hours of pleasure building it.