Alan Gorham_

Lovely!

Thanks Roy, am very pleased with the model, it certainly put a smile on my face. If you have a spare 15 now, then consider a Birdie Ten, plan available on Outerzone. It's a mini old school pattern ship. Flies nicely and is easy and cheap to build. George had a small Bellanca built from a Peter Rake plan, but all foam instead of balsa sticks. Has he made a new one?

Piers, the instructions are posted in this very thread! They advised 1/4“ each way on both rudder and elevator. I have probably doubled that, certainly for the rudder. And, yes, I did check that the dihedral is as per plan!

Me again! Maiden flight of my Spatman completed. In fact we managed three flights. I had set the throws as per the instructions and the model was much less responsive than I remembered. Over the next two flights I increased throws and by the third flight we had reached the fast, groovy model I used to fly back in the day. Just for nostalgia's sake, on the third flight I let the tank run dry and glided down to the strip dead stick. Total fun... Here is Spatman keeping company with my Limbo Dancer.

Sorry, that's wrong. Several full size biplanes including the Tiger Moth incorporate mechanical differential and they definitely have a small amount of down aileron movement and a much greater degree of up movement.

I agree with Pat that the way the plan is drawn it looks like you will get differential aileron movement due to the fact that the horn is set back from the hinge line. It is distinctly odd and as Peter says, it must be a draughting error.

If you are trying to say that the ST2000/2500 type motors were not Schnuerle ported and therefore lacked power, then that's not correct. They used Super Tigre's own variation on Schnuerle. That is, the transfer ports are arranged either side of the exhaust Port, as set out by Herr Schnuerle, but ST also used a pair of boost ports immediately opposite the exhaust as well.

Calling mine mostly done. Just need to glass and paint the spats.

You need to mount the engine so that it is central in the cowl opening. Simple as that, I'd say.

Definitely install the engine with no thrust line offsets. They just aren't needed on a model with this configuration. As Jon says, just applying a bit of right rudder in long verticals is easy. Imagine how horrible it would look with the prop and spinner at funny angles to the front of the cowl!

Thanks Roy. Am very pleased with the results I got with the foam wing. It was fun working with obechi veneer again, been many years. Am keen to make more foam wings but I think I'll do a Mini Skyman next as per plan. Covering tonight...

All the major building is done now. Ready for a quick run over with sandpaper and then on with covering!

Republic Sea Bee? Not Grumman...

Manual pump, Cyclon 2V lead acid cell and long set of glow leads and a glove for me. Much easier to carry any distance from car to pits. Don't even take the Cyclon cell if flying diesel or spark engines!

Worth stating that Southern Modelcraft fuel, good though it is, can't be bought mail order.

I have personally used Benedini sound systems in couple of models. I'm afraid that good not does not equal light or cheap... To get satisfactory sound output you must have a combination of good speaker power, an amplifier to drive the speakers and a good quality sound unit capable of rendering realistic engine sounds. Plus, enough electrical power of course.

Nosing over is just faulty landing approach technique. As I said earlier, if you let the tail drop, then it becomes blanked by the fuselage and it becomes difficult to raise the nose. Flair covered this in their instructions telling you to make a level approach and landing on the main wheels. It works reliably!

I'm fairly sure it was a Piper Cherokee that was flown control line in Model Magic too!

Lovely! Are you going to build it, or keep it as-is?

I have the Flair 1/4 "Scale" Dr1. It has a completely rigid wire undercarriage frame and hard tyres. The only manouevring I do on the ground is the actual take-off and landing. No taxying or faffing about. As others have said, really, really ensure that your take-offs and landings are dead into wind and then it is no trouble at all. If you have adequate power, then opening the throttle briskly on take-off the let the tail rise to the horizontal position will give you adequate rudder authority that swing won't be an issue. On landing, fly the model down with the fuselage horizontal (don't let the tail drop into a three-point landing attitude) and again, you will find you have enough control authority to make a gentle wheeler landing, after which the tail will drop on its own as speed decays. I am sure that the Flair instructions mentioned the landing advice. Again, to echo others advice you must be able to fly using co-ordinated aileron and rudder to get the best out of an aeroplane of this era. One thing I will disagree with is that a big Dr1 need only be a light wind model. I certainly don't fly my model in light winds exclusively and, actually, a strong breeze makes take-off and landings shorter and more fun.

I flew mine for over a decade until it became oil soaked and tatty. It got refurbed with new wood to replace the oily bits and flown again for many more years. I built a pair of skis for it which finally allowed me to do decent landings and even better touch-and-goes. Like you say, the fun I had with mine was out of all proportion to the cost and the building time!

Hi Roy No, not electric for me on this one. I had a Spatman back in the 1980's and 90's powered by an Enya 15. I wanted a bit of nostalgia and I still enjoy flying IC powered models, so it was just a case of waiting for a suitable engine to appear on Ebay.

Hi Kevin Can I please echo the condolences of previous posters on hearing of your Father's passing. As a child of the 1980's I grew up reading your Dad's many articles on a wide range of subjects. His plan articles and kit reviews were prolific, as was his guidance on airbrushing models. I always liked his method of painting all the markings and insignia onto a model where possible and I also liked his way of giving a scale model a depth of definition by shading around the panel lines and gun ports etc. His way of painting definitely influenced my own finishing methods which I use regularly, see some of my models painted "a la Peacock".... Sadly, I think finding a Peacock Models kit might be very difficult - they must be getting rare now? Your best bet may be either an Ebay search in the radio controlled models section, or perhaps visit one of the model auctions at the BMFA national centre at Buckminster or Gildings Auctioneers in Market Harborough? I definitely remember the Purple Haze kit. What a cool name!

Much later to this party than I wanted to be but have finally started my Spatman build. Really, there were three main reasons that were putting me off starting but they have all been resolved, so here we are. Firstly, I was struggling to achieve acceptable results when cutting foam wings on my own. I have solved that by enlisting the help of a clubmate, Mark, who has helped me to solve the problem. Secondly, I was finding it hard to find suitable veneers until last year, when a PSS flying buddy gave me some old stock Obechi veneers. Problem two solved! Lastly, I was debating putting either an SC.12 glow or a PAW 249 diesel in, but I had bought both those engines for other models. I managed to find an older but new-in-box SC.15 glow on Ebay a few weeks ago, so all systems go! See below for my kit of parts and the powerplant. The fuselage went into the jig last night, so we should be good for more progress this week.

Well that is certainly the alternative. It depends if you can live with an obvious patched repair on your model or want to return it to pristine condition. Stripping models covered in tex materials is always easier than stripping film covered models though. Plus getting all the covering off an old model enables you to give it a thorough mid-life inspection and repair ready for more years of service.