Futura57

There's a whole one currently for sale, with spares... https://classifieds.bmfa.org/acadp_listings/hobbyking-avro-lancaster-complete-with-spares

I'm currently sitting on Epsom Downs after three very enjoyable flights of my bargain Bipablast. A gentle breeze is blowing from the East and the only other remaining club member is flying his very expensive 7kg carbon fibre glider in virtual triangles at 500 to 600 metres. Once again my F22 Raptor was a disappointment, giving a little over 3 minutes of average performance on a 4S 2200 lipo. It's got to be worth £100 to somebody. Only 6 flights old. I should have brought the sun cream

As far as I can tell this HobbyKing model is discontinued, hence why I guess you are appealing for spares. Finding new or used cowlings might be tricky, unless you are up to fabricating them yourself. A couple of suggestions... Put a wanted ad on the BMFA Classifieds in case someone has a pranged example which maybe has the intact parts you are after. As regards the propellers and shaft adapters, post a sharp closeup picture of the motor casing showing the shaft. Measure and post here the length and diameter of the shaft. Also, do the motors have an identifying number, size or brand to allow an educated guess for the correct prop size? If you don't know what diameter the propellers should be then someone here might know. Then take a good look on AliExpress and Banggood in particular, because they sell a myriad of little props CW and CCW as well as adapters. Even HobbyKing may have some suitable equivalent props. You simply may have to try the nearest you can lay your hands on.

Unfortunately the Epsom Downs club rules are constrained by the bylaws which were originally formulated based on 7kg dry. It's a public site. In the world we live in, getting the bylaws changed to 7.5kg wet is unlikely to happen.

A have a couple of new (to me) largish biplanes curtesy of the BMFA Classifieds in the last two weeks. First up is a 72-inch span Bipablast (so I'm reliably informed) which came with a nice running Moki 135, half decent mix of servos, JR 2.4Mhz receiver and satellite. I just had to add a new NiMh pack and I swapped in a new heavy duty switch harness for good measure. She needed a good clean up and the film covering tightened up here and there. Where the film was lifting around various edges I ironed it back down and secured with some strips of clear solartrim, especially along the wing leading edges. Some of the black trimline needed tidying up too. A bargain at £120. Since making the purchase two weeks ago I have flown her twice. I'm planning on replacing the damaged canopy and making a rolled ply cowling and some wheel spats so she will look her best. AUW is perilously close to 7kg dry. She's built like a brick outhouse with solid sheet fuselage and tail feathers and foam veneer wings. Feels nice and light on the sticks though. Just about fits in my old Honda Civic, but worth the effort of transporting and assembling at the field. 👌 Second is a Carl Goldberg Ultimate. A little smaller at 54-inch span and of much lighter open construction. I eventually decided to fit a Saito 125, which I first thought was over doing it, but the CG is very nearly bang on. For £30 the airframe came with a couple of working aileron servos. There was a ton of dust and sticky oil residue over her which took an hour to clean with warm soapy water and kitchen cream cleaner. Like the wife, underneath it all she scrubs up well 🤣 I need to source the remaining servos, receiver and flight battery from my stash. The Saito is hanging on one bolt for the pictures. The engine mount will need replacing before it can be fitted properly and the cowling trimmed a little to accommodate the front of the cylinder head. But she looks pretty good from a couple of feet away.

I agree, the 65 seems a bit marginal. On the other hand a Laser 150 seems a bit excessive. I'm guessing it had unlimited vertical perfermance. Did you brace the tail feathers? My modelling friend has also offered me a used OS91 4-stroke for £100, which is a viable candidate since the Ultimate's cowling appears to have been cut for a 4-stroke. It's either this or my Saito 125. Perhaps I should just go with the Saito and save spending more money.

The airframe was sold to me as an Ultimate 120, but it seems a bit small and light for for a 120 2-stroke. This Carl Goldberg Ultimate was seemingly designed around the K&B 65 2-stroke. Reading on OuterZone comments, some fitted a 90 2-stroke and 120 4-stroke, but advised to brace the tail feathers. I think my Saito 125a is too big for this airframe. By some freaky coincidence a modelling friend informed me today he has a brand new in the box un-run K&B 65 for £50. Apparently from a deceased modellers estate. It's tempting to go for it and make the aircraft a bit of a vintage project. I'm undecided.

Some photos of the fuselage structure and wing strut fixings, if it makes identification definitive...

I took myself to windy Epsom Downs today and met up with four more desparados. I forgot to take pictures, but one member took a video of my recently acquired Bipablast biplane, Moki 135 powered. I decided to maiden it in the gusty conditions. A bit hairy because it needed much down trim and a fair bit of right aileron. Here are a couple of frames...

Brilliant. Thanks.

This is not a pose for the camera. It is genuinely how my son sits on my sofa when he visits. I wonder if gravity is inverted in the corner of my room 🙄 I get nervous when he goes to the bathroom. Reminds me of the spoof Airplane movie when the stewardess tells the passengers to assume crash positions. 🤣

Thanks. I will get an internal shot and measure the span. The top wing mounting looks pretty distinctive and I figured it would be the biggest clue for somebody who knows the model.

I have another acquisition I would like to identify please. I believe it's an Ultimate, but what kit or plan? Thanks

Here's a good example of how my build pipeline can get interrupted... There I was making progress with my Strange Quark Mk2 prototype (vectored thrust) when a friend, who'd finished building his Top Quark from my plan, wanted me to cover it. He hates covering, is not great at it, and didn't want to ruin the model. I hope he likes Tigers 🤣 This was quickly followed by a new EDMAC club member who'd extricated a Kamco Kadet trainer from his garage, which was last flown about 15 years ago. He asked me to repair the damaged tail feathers. But there was a fair bit of other work I deemed necessary like stripping down and cleaning a seized 40 year old OS Max 30 RC, replacing a perished fuel tank bung and replacing the 4-cell NiMh flight battery that, after multiple cycling, no longer held sufficient charge. I also have made two purchases from the BMFA classifieds. Both largish biplanes circa 72-inch span. The first, a Moki 135 powered Bipablast, I've spent a couple of days checking it over, cleaning it, and ordering a few bits and pieces to get it fully airworthy. The second, an Ultimate 120 airframe, I'm collecting tomorrow. This will solve the problem of what to do with my recently acquired un-run Saito 125a 4-stroke. 👌 Before returning to my Strange Quark Mk2, after 2 or 3 weeks' absence, I first had to repair the nose of the Mk1 prototype I accidentally sat on and crushed. 🤬 Happy days.

Now I need to establish an initial centre of gravity for my 72-imch span Bipablast 😟

Very useful @Paul De Tourtoulon thank you. I find all the trade names a little annoying. This tells me what I want to know. 👍

My thanks for all your comments and suggestions. Yesterday my 'acquaintance' told me that he found at the back of his garage an old half gallon of fuel which the OS Max 30 RC engine in question was run on about 15 years ago 🙄 He says it is Duraglow 5% nitro. So without any further ado I told him to source the same (fresh) or something similar going forward, and to stop wasting my time 🤬

Having researched the OS Max 30 RC engine, other forums and sources have strongly advised even against 20% castor. The engine instructions are also quite clear. It's not my engine so I'm not going to suggest my acquaintance uses anything less. I will suggest he tries Westons. I will have a surf through all the UK model shops I use online to dig a bit deeper. In the meantime, further info is welcome.

I have an acquaintance who wants to run some old OS max rc motors which require a 25% castor oil mix with 5% nitro. He only requires a gallon at this time. Before Southern Model Craft moved from Tonbridge I would have suggested picking it up from there. Can anyone suggest an online source who would supply and deliver such a mix? He doesn't want the hassle of blending his own.

Easy on the flapperons. Rates are too high 🤪

I know exactly where you are coming from. But at least you are always striving for perfection. Reminds me of when I was a young child I used to love colouring books. Once the pencil or felt pen went over the lines more than a couple of time I would abandon that page and move to another fresh page with the intention of making it perfect. Usually the book would be filled with unfinished pages 🤔

My build pipeline is usually pretty stable for the rolling 3 to 6 months going forward. Impulses and changes are usually slotted in behind this. There are, of course, the inevitable little flying incidents which precipitate some queue jumping intervention, but those have not been an issue so far this year🤞 However, I have offered to cover a friend's model in the next couple weeks, which I can slot in during the evening, otherwise he will never finish and fly it. I also just volunteered to repair and service a new club member's Kamco Kadet trainer, unflown for 15 years. Including its gummed up and seized up OS30 rc engine. So my planned build pipeline is a little off course right now and about a week behind.

I just got back from my trip to Wiltshire today, after leaving home at 7am. It's been a long but enjoyable day. I met up with a friend who moved out of the London area over a decade ago, and I also met a few of his clubmates at the Wessex MFC. We flew out of their Poulshot field. My friend built one of my Top Quark designs from a draft plan I sent him last October. Despite it weighing in at over 1kg (the design weight is 700g) it flew really well and faster than mine. For the maiden he did the hand launch and wanted me on the tx. He describes his F111 inspired choice of colour scheme as military and mine as Disney. I kind of see his point. He's camera shy, so it's me posing with his model.

Tomorrow I'm driving from Caterham, Surrey to Trowbridge, Wiltshire to meet up with a friend and ex-member of the Epsom Downs MFC. I shall be flying at his local patch and catching up on matters aeronautical.

According to the May issue of RCM&E, it appears my design will be the free plan in the June issue 🥳