Robin Colbourne

Hi Jonathan, Given the difficulty in packing and posting a model of this size, unless it is new in box, your best bet is one near you. If you put your county or nearest large town, it will give potential sellers an idea of whether it is worth contacting you. There is this one (Irvine Tutor on eBay that looks all right. It really depends upon what you were expecting to pay.

Paul, there are a number of reasons. The club is quite spread out with the largest concentrations of members near the two sites. The concrete runway site suits the larger models with higher landing speeds (F3A & medium size EDFs) plus its the only site suitable for a long bungee. The other site is the seven day a week site. We have a plan B should we lose the use of either site temporarily or permanently.

I had an MFA Skyhawk in the same pale blue as Bridon's. I bought it secondhand and didn't have very high expectations for it, what with a polyester glass fuselage and four full size servos with only an OS Max 20 to pull it around. What a surprise! It was a really nice flier and I used it for quite a while as a buddy box trainer when I was giving one to one lessons, despite its small size. I see to remember it went in hard and the gelcoat cracked up at the bottom of the 'windscreen' and around the bottom of the fuselage. Someone bought it with a view to repairing it, but I don't know if they did. I hope Bridon finds a good home for his as it is quite a rare model now. By coincidence one of our club members mentioned the New Yamamoto when I was telling him about my wooden Yamamoto that I've been flying recently, after finding it on eBay. I have a couple of part-built New Yamamotos, and this chap was keen to get another, so hopefully we will see one of them in the air soon.

As I understand it, the 'Weekend electric only' rule is because of houses and holiday accommodation within earshot. I guess they expect people to be more tolerant of engine noise in the week than at weekend. As we have the other site for power flying at the weekend, and most members are retired, it doesn't seem to be much of an issue with the members. With regard to getting new members, targetting the middle aged and newly retired is a much better bet than trying to get uyoungsters whose time is stretched between studying, other activities and part-time jobs. As most clubs insist on a parent or guardian accompanying them, the impact of single parent families shouldn't be overlooked. At the other end of the membership, I'm a firm believer that the buddy box should be regarded as a method for allowing older, experienced, fliers to keep flying safely, as their eyesight and other faculties deteriorate. In full-size gliding it is normal for older pilots to fly in a two seater with the other guy (either an instructor or Silver 'C' pilot) there 'just in case'. In many cases the younger pilot will still learn from the older one's greater experience. In a good club, with good communications, no longer being able to drive shouldn't be an issue unless you are right out in the sticks compared to the rest of the membership. I'm sure in our club a lift would be offered if transport was the issue preventing one's flying (obviously a different story these days if its a junior needing a lift 🙄 ) .

Hi Dennis, Thank you for your contribution. It is incredible to hear 'straight from the horse's mouth' how one of our hobby's classic models came about. It is amazing, given that you weren't a flier yourself, that you managed to get the important details on the Super Fly right from the word go, not to mention producing a well-proportioned, great looking model. Maybe Kevin Crozier could be persuaded to do an article in RCM&E about the Super Fly, Cliff Hanger and your story? Best wishes, Robin

Payneib, You could have said that at any point in the last 60 years, however new people come in with new model designs and methods of kit manufacture, whilst other companies, under new ownership have gone from bandsaws and 'die-crushing' to laser cutting. What the BMFA could do is to gather the experiences from manufacturers past and present on how to be successful in the model industry and share that info with anyone brave enough to have a go.

Our club appears to be thriving. We have one grass site which is seven day a week use with electric-only at the weekend, a weekends-only concrete runway for IC, Electric and EDFs, plus thermal comps flown on the adjacent grass when it has been cut, a slope soaring site and a once a month evening site with a social club, where we fly small electrics and control line in the summer and have meetings indoors in the winter. Membership-wise we have a handful of junior members, plus a mix of older new members who have either moved into the area and are experienced fliers or are older beginners. There was talk about having a cap on membership numbers, although it only seems to be an issue at our concrete weekends-only site, and even there most people leave before the end of our permitted flying hours. We are fortunate that we all seem to get along. Listening to older members talking there have been times when unruly members have made life difficult, but that is a thing of the past. We have a club Facebook page and three Whatsapp groups which allow people to coordinate when and where they fly plus giving each other mutual help. It all seems to work pretty well, largely thanks to some hard-working committee members and members who cut the grass etc.

A New in box Flair Focke Wulf 190 ARTF, for £200. The price in the header is for a bundle including the kit, engine and retracts although he's listing them seperately in the description.

In your example, the water is providing resistance to the boat moving with the wind. Now imagine the boat in a river flowing north to south at at 10 knots, the wind is blowing from the North at 10 knots. The boat is drifting South at 10 knots relative to the river bed, but it has no movement relative to the wind so the sails have no effect.

I'm sure the tips on the pure nylon (i.e. not glass filled) props flex to negative pitch when at speed. This is due to that lack of torsional rigidity. Its the same reason that ailerons didn't work on aircraft such as the 1909 Antoinette; they just twisted the wing in the opposite direction. A wooden or glass filled nylon prop won't flex anything like so much, so it is generating more thust from the tips. The downside is that these props will ether break on hitting the ground, or break the rather slender DC crankshafts. The pure nylon props may appear rubbish, but they do have their advantages. If using the flexible prop you probably want to add an inch on the diameter relative to the stiffer props. Here's the Sceptreflight DC Sabre test report. Prop sizes are in the text to the left of the test results. Just realised I've repeated what I wrote a few years back. Stuck record!

Tim, the speed which has an effect on the wing is the airspeed. This is the wing's speed relative to the air around it. In the absence of other information, the wing is moving through a body of air which is moving at constant speed over the ground. If you did the flight above stratus cloud, with the cloud moving at the same speed as the air through which the model was flying, it would be as if the model was flying over the ground in zero wind.

That was something that did occur to me. Also if wanting to fly in scale competitions, in the 1970s there tended to be an adherance to the FAI 10cc limit. When the limit was removed, we had such things as Hanno Prettner running two 61s driving a geared prop in his Dalotel (of course there are other benefits to running a geared prop).

I've had that. Flying fast and a sudden uncommanded loop when not expected!

The two most common reasons for 'ballooning' are: The excess airspeed to maintain a banked turn is converted into height as the wings are levelled. A stab of down as the wings are levelled will counteract this. When turning into wind, the model's climb rate appears greater to the pilot on the ground as its position relative to him changes more noticeably in the vertical sense than the horizontal sense. Imagine being in a department store walking alongside the escalator. If someone steps onto the escalator at the moment you pass them, then if you keep walking, they go up relative to you, but horizontally maintain position. One thing that doesn't get mention as much as it should in model flying is wind gradient. Full-size glider pilots have this drummed into them all the time as it is a killer. Friction with the ground reduces wind speed as one descends; so one loses energy when descending into slower moving air if flying into wind. If you do an approach dead on stall speed in a strong wind, the aircraft will lose airspeed and stall unless you have a margin in hand. Likewise, if you have to do a dead stick turn close to the ground, You will lose less height completing the turn quickly by flying faster and banking more, than to stretch it round with minimal banking angle and airspeed.

Looking at the engine recommendations on older designs, it seems incredible how small some of the recommended engines are. Even more so when you think that pre-schneurle ported engines were considerably less powerful than more recent offerings plus the servos and receivers were that much heavier. Some examples: MFA Yamamoto - the box says for .19 to .35. Would a Yamamoto get off grass on a .19, or was it expected to be hand-launched? Similar sized models these days would have at least a .40 on them. Flair Puppeteer - Engine recommendations are .25 to 40 two stroke. Has anyone flown one on a .25? Mick Reeves Hurricane (80") The box says a .60 Was it that they were being flown with higher nitromethane content, open exhausts or just a more sedate/marginal flight profile?

If only I lived in Lincolnshire. A Chilli Breeze with engine for a tenner.

Would a small header tank near the engine do the job?

Taking a lateral thinking approach, the objective is to provide a constant pressure fuel supply. Control line pilots achieve this using a pressure filled silicone baby pacifier (teat) filled with fuel. Maybe a balloon pressurising the tank, or a battery driven pump would do the job. Otherwise by a Perry Pump from Ebay when one comes up in the UK.

I just looked there Dave. The website shows out of stock on all the Perry glow pumps.

Hi Richard, would a Perry Pump do the job? These rely on vibration from the engine to pump the fuel. You probably want the VP-20.

The Bixler 2 is a very forgiving model big enough to see, yet flies on a 11.1V 3S 2200mAH battery. Cheap too! If you can find one, the Hobbyking Bushmaster is about the same size as the Arising Star and if you mix a bit of rudder in with the ailerons, flies really nicely.

OS 25FX In near new condition, Very smooth bearings, throttle moves freely This engine came from the estate of an ex-RAF & airline flight engineer. Ideal for a Fun Fighter, this OS 25FX engine turns freely, and is in excellent condition. Although there are signs of it having been run, it is generally very clean. The holes in the mounting bearers and throttle arm all look the original size. There is some paint on the underside of the berarers although this does pick off. Recommended propeller sizes are 9x5, 9x6 or 10x4, 10x5. The new price of the OS 25 FX from Just Engines is £189.60, so this one represents a considerable saving over the new price. The original OS instruction manual for this engine is also included. Collect from Emsworth, Hampshire, or I can post to UK destinations for £4. As someone who collects model aircraft engines himself, I appreciate how important it for the engine to be well protected when in transit, so I will wrap the engine in plenty of bubble wrap and paper before putting it in a taped and glued corrugated cardboard box allowing clearance to protect the projecting parts. This is to ensure it reaches you as it left me. I will be selling a variety of model aircraft, engines and accessories so please check out my other items.

Fascinating stuff Jonathan. Thank you for sharing it with us. I remember seeing David Parkers' article in the Aeromodeller, and some years later going to a lecture by a chap, Dennis Allen, who had been in charge of the unmanned aircraft department at RAE Farnborough, who had also built one after retiring. There is a thread from some years ago which has copies of the original 1967 David Parker articles.

Great find David! Looking through Outerzone looking for the word 'paraso'l in the description yet the Casper didn't come up. I then trawled through the parasols on Wikipedia with no joy.

Welcome Justin! Its good to hear from you. I bought quite a few gallons of fuel from Dave Watts and his family at shows over the years. I was even using some of it this evening. I look forward to buying more fuel from you. Will you be going to the Popham show on 7th/8th September? It is one of the few shows in Central Southern England these days. If you do, I'll pop by and say hello.