David Martin 15

How did it fly Tom..? I bought mine in the early 80's for £17 and still have it and the box/plans now. My original build was around a cox 049 glow motor but my inexperience at doping tissue had the model crush itself overnight..!! I bought more wood about 15 years ago (£27) and built another over the original plan. This one has a small £5 bell motor, 15A esc and 1000mah 3s lipo. I've thoroughly enjoyed it's simplicity and gentle silent climbouts. I get around 10 to a good height before the battery gets to 3.7v per cell. I covered the second model in Litespan and stuck the covering to the undercambered ribs with watered down pva before gently shrinking. I have recently taken it back to it's roots and recovered it with tissue and dope, a little bit heavier and more brittle but a lovely candy type see through effect. Flying could be better described as guiding a free flight model really. The soft rudder/elevator is only used to initiate a turn then re-centre the stick and give opposite rudder to straighten out. I've regularly gone up to a frightening height in a thermal with it, but this should really be avoided, it's not just a case of putting the nose down and flying out of it, the wings start oscillating badly at speeds much beyond normal flyng speeds and can be heard fluttering. My best slope flight to date was in a 5 mph warm breeze at north Kent one sunset evening. The orange sun glowed through the wing and tailplane covering as the model gently transversed the slope with hot air balloons taking off from Leeds castle in the distance slowing coming towards me. I've got full house gliders and power models but this simple model does contain a sprinkle of magic.

This is an old thread but the tank on my 120 yt Spitfire is fitted as per the original model location spec, high wrt my laser 120's carb and I've had no running issues with it at all since 2008. All I need to remember is to shut off the carb tightly between flights if there's still fuel in the tank or it will drip. I always empty my tank at the end of the session anyway. The engine runs with no pressure fed to the tank and both tank breather pipes stick 1/2" out of the underside cowl cooling hole with the exhaust pipe. I've yet to have a dead stick..... My usual careful run-in followed by peaking the top revs then richening the needle 2-3 clicks left pretty rich first flights. I contacted Neil Tidey about it and was told to peak out the revs on the ground and fly it like that..! I thought that might lead to lean, hot runs but it's been perfect with plenty of power for all the usual Spitfire big aeros and isn't cooking on landing. Good luck.....

Hi Morton, Are you still after the Pup's building instructions..? I have some from when I acquired my kit 31 years ago. I take it they will be a version 1, I don't know when version 2 came out.. My model still flies beautifully on it's early 80's open rocker OS60 fourstroke. If you're still interested in the building instructions, I can scan then email them to you.... All the best..... David

Hi Simon, Did you have any luck acquiring a new cowl for your Thunderbolt..? I have the same model and have patched up a few squares on mine over the years, other minor scuffs just add to it's charm. I've been flying my model on it's great matching RCV91CD over 7 years now with no issues at all. The supplied electric retracts work flawlessly still. One issue I need to be aware of is it's lack of flaps on light wind days making it come in pretty quickly, the thick wing section does allow a decent flare though along with the large 14" prop disk. I've overshot into the long stuff more with this model than any other over the years..! My new club's tarmac runway means I have a decent walk to retrieve it each landing now..! Good luck if you still fly yours... David