Richard Acland

I have 2 SC 52 four strokes. They are lovely engines, easy to tune and an incredibly low idle without cutting out.

Thanks, I should have been clearer. I have 4inch wheels. I want spats for them.

I havnt posted any thing on this build for a while, however progress is being made. The wings are now built. It took me a while to figure out a method of mounting them. I have now done that using four 6mm nylon screws. As the ribs are undercambered I have fitted 1/16 x1/4 cap strips I have then brushed on covergrip in the hope that this wiĺl help the film to grip. I am lucky in that when Hobbyking first brought out their covering film at 5 meters for about £12, I bought a shed load thinking this wont last. It turns out I was right as it has been out of stock for ages. Anyway this means I have plenty as this model will need a lot. Today I have been working on a remote glow connection. As the 52fs will be inverted and cowled fitting a glow driver would prove difficult. I would like to fit spats to the wheels but as they are 4 inch wheels I cant find any commercially available so I might have to make some. If anyone reading this has some I would be interested

A picture of me aged about 6 years with my Keil Kraft Pirate. Well I was told it was mine built by my Brother who was a Boy Entrant at Cosford at the time. Funnily enough although it was mine my Brother and his friends did most of the flying. It must have struck a spark with me as I am now 78 and still building and flying rc aircraft and Secretary of my local club.

You make some valid points, however I still maintain that the achievement scheme is voluntary and was not designed as a licence to fly.

I have had a long standing feeling that the achievement scheme is being abused and used as a licence to fly by many clubs. The scheme is voluntary and should remain that way. I recently went to a club in my area when we had a problem with our field. The first question was do you have an A cert, if not you have to be supervised when flying and you need an A cert to be a full member and fly solo. Now I am 78 nobody asked if and when I took my A test. It could have been 20 years ago when my eyesight and hearing were much better than they are now and my flying ability generally much better, but you have an A so you are good to go. What is important when joining or going to a different club is how I perform now. To this end my club adopts the what I call the common sense approach. If we don't know you and regardless of what achievement scheme level you have we will keep a close eye on you until we are happy, if we think you have picked up some bad habits we will give you some time with a club instructor. This has worked well over many years. If then want to go and do the achievement test it is up to you but no pressure will be applied. At the end of the day how many people do you see that have passed a driving test that in your opinion shouldn't be on the road.

Lovely evening here in South Glos. Took my Lady Eowyn 2 out for some nice flights. Built this from a plan which was designed by an Aussie called Peter Allinson. It is basically a Lady Eowyn which is a Peter Miller design and scaled up to 82 inch span. Potters around nicely on a SC70 fs.⁸

Thanks for that, most unscientific answer I have had which makes it easy to undrstand. Richard

I built this Stolp Starlet during lock down. It has only flown once. It is72 inch span and weighs about 6 lbs with an SC 70 FS. The problem I have Is I can not get the engine to idle. It is mounted sidewinder and will reach peak RPM, but when I lower the revs to idle it hunts and cuts out. I originally had an OS 70 surpass which had the same problem. I thought it was the engine and changed it for an SC which I used previously in other models, but same problem. I can only assume it is a fuel tank problem as it sits well behind the engine but on the same level. To this end I decided it would be an Ideal opportunity to convert it to electric. Now I have asked this question before on this site and asked not to be blinded with science. All I got was blinded with science. There must be a way someone can tell me this motor is equivalent to an OS70 FS, you will need this battery and this speed controller and this prop. It is a scale model and will fly at scale speed. Am I expecting too much.

I have now started building the port wing. It took me a while to figure out how to fit the ribs to the main spar but I got there in the end. The ribs that were supplied with the laser cut kit required quite a bit of work to get them to fit over the main spar. I think that the ribs could be a bit thicker I would have preferred 1/8th balsa. I have jacked up the ribs by 1/16th so that I can fit caps to the underside to give them a bit more rigidity. I am hoping that having built one side that it will be quicker to build the starboard wing.

When I decided to build this model I chose to buy a set of lazer cut parts from a well known company.This is the first time I have done this, I normally buy a plan and a load of wood and cut everything according to the plan. At £130 I thought it was a bit pricy but as my wife was paying I went ahead. To say I havnt been impressed is an understatement. As the plan was supplied with the parts I wasnt expecting any problems. A lot of parts were way off spec. I ended up making one fuselage former and re fitting a couple of others. Today I thought I would start on the wings. My expectations were not high. As you can see the cut outs for the ribs on the trailing edge are way off. This resulted in me filling the misaligned notches and cutting new ones. I then had to to enlarge the cut outs in the ribs as they were too small to fit over the main spar. This is just the port wing, no doubt the starboard wing will be the same. I will not be taking this route again.

Fuselage now fited with stringers. Front end now planked with 3/16 balsa sanded, filled and three coats of sanding sealer. Radio gear installed. I am going to start on the wings. I have not decided on the method of mounting them yet but it will probably be wing bolts.

Now completed tailplane and fin assembly. Contemplated on how to control the elevator and rudder. I didnt fancy closed loop or snakes. I had a couple of wing servos knocking about. One fitted nicely in the tailplane to operate the elevator and by increasing the thickness of the fin slightly I was able to use the other to operate the rudder. The cables can then be hidden in the tailplane assembly with extension cables running through the fuselage. Tested and all works fine with a 52 four stroke up front the servos shouldnt affect the Cof G.

Great information. Many thanks.

All food for thought. I notice that you have fitted wing bolts which is what I intend to do. Are just two wing bolts OK, I had intended using four.

I did think about the tip dihedral but you are part of the problem. Your model is featured on one of the sites I looked at and as it looked so nice with the straight wing I decided to go down that route. I still have the option, having not built the wing yet and I could give the wing a bit more dihedral as you suggest

I have now added the lower formers plus fitted the fuel tank and throttle servo for the 52 four stroke. The cowling was made up by using strips of 3/16 balsa then sanded and filled with balsa wood filler. Several coats of sanding sealer followed to give a nice smooth finish. Before going any further with the fuselage I will make up the tailplane and fin and work out how I will control the rudder and elevator.

Yes I think elegant is the word to describe this model. I am going for the straight wing as opposed to the original with added dihedral.

My main interest is quarter scale and over the years I have built many models mainly from plans. I have also built a few free flight models mainly for use at our much missed Barkston Nationals. I do like some of the classic old time free flight models. To this end, and a departure from my usual build I am building a Southerner Major. This is a scaled up version to 84 inch span from the original 60 inch span Southerner. I have made a start and am wondering if there would be any interest in following me whist I do it, posting some photos along the way. There will be a few departures from plan to make life easier. I did order a pre cut kit of parts, ie ribs and formers. I have to supply the bulk of the wood.

Just one last thing, how old is thefuel you are using. I had engine problem last year with an inverted four stroke.My fuel had overwintered in my garage. Someone suggested getting fresh fuel which I did and it solved the problem.

Only met the great man once and that was quite a short conversation. It was at the Barkston Nationals. I had just opened my boot to get out a free flight model for the evening jamboree. A face appeared over my shoulder and exclaimed "an ED bee mark one but what's the model". When I turned around to say it's a Vic Smeed Miss 38 I saw it was Boddo. After a quick chat he was gone, camera at the ready looking for something else to photograph.

Can someone give me the dimensions or bearing numbers for the front and rear crankshaft bearings for the SC 52 FS engine.

changed my pay pal password as advised by pay pal.

I wasnt aware of it. Fortunately it wasnt for much money. I am not sure where the guy lived.

I recently placed an advert in the wanted column for an engine part. After a few days I had an email from a guy saying he knew of a friend who had the said item and would be willing to sell it. After contacting said friend a deal was struck and I agreed to pay via pay pal. The strange thing was his pay pal e mail mail address was different from the address that I was contacting him on. After a long wait said item did not arrive and my e mails are not answered. I have contacted pay pal who are investigating.