Adrian Smith

the very nature of park flying is that you will be flying close so the lightest r/c gear is going to make for a nice controllable flight. if you want to bat it around then sturdier servos are called for but please please have a friend close by to watch for people out enjoying themselves. i know this is going to look silly as you may say that you can keep an eye out yourself but believe me, when you are concentrating on the plane, you will develop tunnel vision. fly safe! 

the slat is best positioned in the direct path of the airflow over the aileron. as to position in relation to the centre line of the wing, the extreme forward edge of the slat is inline with the wing centre line. think of the slat being in fact the leading edge, come rearwards about 25-30% of mean chord and mark a slot the same width as the aileron and about 19-25mm wide. now mark the underside of the wing, again in line with the aileron this time marking a slot 10-12mm back from the leading edge. carefully cut through from the top slot to the lower slot to finish up with a gentle curve down from the top surface of the wing  to the lower surface at the rearward slot line and at the front edge of the slot, cut through to the lower slot at a lesser angle so as to give a wedge shaped slot with a wider air entry and a narrower air exit. radius the leading edge of the front portion of the formed winglet but keep the rearward lower edge of the slot sharp.

Hi walt, i hope the build goes ok. send in details as tif takes shape regards adrian s

Well done jim, I couldn't have put better myself........ where did I put the midazalam, jeez I need a lay down!

your're still mad !

Dings are annoying but can be remedied by adding water to the dent and allowing to dry, the water makes the balsa expand, once dry, little filling is needed regards adrian s

I have just finished reducing the free tiffy plan by 75% It gives it a wing span of 42" just right for a park flyer. Tomorrow looks like being a wet day so its into the workshop to start cutting wood, any one else playing around with the plan i.e. scaling up or down? regards adrian s

dont give up on scaling to your choice of finished size, think about wing areas, power to weight ratios, the old rule of thumb for free flight scale used to be one pound per square foot of wing area per CC of engine size. now I know that this too light for rc but its a starting point. remember, build it light to fly right.

Hi cris, yes, park flyers are small, probably max wing span 40-48" ....but the most inportant thing as with any plane is weight! and the skill to fly safely in a small restrictive area, remember that other members of the public are entitled to use the park, have consideration for others at all times.

I like jetsomes method of fine tuning a plane, to commit a pride and joy to a possibly final flight to establish a correct c.g. is insane. he is obviously a rich man and probably packs a few black bin liners in his flight box when he goes flying!!!

Hi Rob, I have used ALIPHATIC glue for a few years and it has  never let me down. it has a fast grab, use it like a pva white glue but most of all it sands well. if you use white pva on planking, it has a tendancy to drag out of the joints, being slightly rubbery, with aliphatic glue, it dries hard BUT not to hard that you sand away the balsa around the joint leaving the glue line proud. regards adrian s.

Starting engines for the first time is fraught with danger so be careful please mike, enlist the help of a friend. incidently, this is going to look absolutely rediculous when you read it but it does work and it keeps your fingers well out of the way when the engine bursts into life (hopefully!) Ensure that the prop nut is very tight . turn the engine over compression with one finger covering the carb air intake a few turns to draw the fuel from the tank mto the engine, connect the glow plug lead, turn the engine over again, you should feel it "bump" as it goes over top dead centre, close the thottle to idle setting and then..... wait for it! flick the prop over BACKWARDS!.... I know that looks daft, but it does work and is the safe way to hand start an engine. Now I am waiting for all the indignant emails to come flooding in calling me an idiot, I suggest that before they do however, TRY IT! It really works. regards adrian,

Dennis Bryant (ELITE MODEL PLANS) used to supply cowl and canopy for his model tiffy, the cowl would I'm sure fit the RCME plan and  the canopy was for the early typhoons in that it was a framed version, not the bubble type. as a matter of interest, did you know that the mustang p51 used tiffy canopies when they redesigned it with a lowered aft fuz top? regards adrian.

Tony, you mentioned that the nylon/dope covering had a cracked surface appearance.... the old boys that used to cover control line combat planes used to add a couple of drops of castor oil to the mix of thinned dope. this plastified the gloop! this might solve the problem. regards adrian.

when you order your retracts from possibly a company such as UNITRACT for instance make sure you specify total travel at 96 degrees... this will give you the correct forward angle veiwed side on, the correct outward spread of u/c when veiwed from the front and the wheels will pop into the wings correctly with no need to pack the wheel covers to lay flush with the wing surface. they are a tad pricey (£65) but you will get a qaulity product! Brian Taylor uses them so they must be good. Dont forget to balance the plane with the wheels up..... I know that this will be seen as obvious but better safe than sorry. there are a good few less experienced modellers out ther that have homed into this plane build. happy flying regards adrian.