Robin Colbourne

John, that's a very nicely built Sophisticated Lady. With regard to a slope site, I learned at Hankley Common, near Elstead, which is a Border Club site and an Army training area. It is where in the scene in Skyfall was filmed, with the house being shot up by a helicopter. I think it is being used rather intensively for Army training at the moment though as it was covered in cartridge cases when I was last there. I learned on a Bowman's Simpleton. I did some hang gliding from Coombe Gibbet, near Inkpen, which is on the Hampshire/Berkshire Border, and good in a Northerly. Your best bet however, is the Meon Valley Soaring Association (MVSA) who fly from Butser Hill, Harting Down, Wether Down (often called HMS Mercury after the nearby former Royal Navy shore station) and have use of my own club's site, The Trundle, near Chichester. I look forward to reading and seeing the Pilot Divine Wind build in due course. 🙂 Echoing Cuban 8's comments, you definitely want some fluorescent patches to improve visibility. Ideally contrasting top and bottom, and a wraparound strip along the leading edge helps when the model is coming towards you.

Sophia, Have a google, or do a search on this site for information about .aileron differential. and 'coupled aileron and rudder'. Both help an aircraft fly tidier turns than an 'ailerons-only' turn in which the aileron movement going up moves the same amount as the one going down. On a single-engined aircraft, with the fin in the propeller slipstream, the fin will be be far more effective than on a twin with the propwash well outboard of the fin. Another thing with the Dash-8 and its widely spaced engine nacelles, is that you have a fair bit of momentum a long way out from the centre. Any rolling and yawing takes more damping to stop the nacelles moving once they have started. There was a lot of discussion on pilot forums about this recently regarding the similarly shaped ATR-72 which spun in to the ground from altitude in Brazil. There is so much momentum from the engines that once the spin has started, the rudder does not have sufficient control authority to stop it.

Lindsay, the two front axles are probably trying to turn on different turning circles. Geometry on a pair of axles is quite complex. At one model club I went to, there was a chap who designed the steering geometry of the Panther Six Supercar, which like Lady Penelope's FAB1 in Thunderbirds, had two front axles. He did describe how he made it work, but lost me at about the second sentence! What you could do is to take a leaf from the Scalextric book. They want the illusion of four wheels on the track, but not for those wheels to try and steer the car off course. To achieve this, the front axle runs in vertical slots, so the wheels are on the track, but all the weight is on the braided electrical pickups. If you made your middle axle with vertical slots instead of round holes for the axle, there would be no weight on it and the front axle should have better steering authority.

Jonathan M, You shoudn't upset the mixture by unscrewing the carb attachment screw and refitting it at a different position. The axial movement of the throttle barrel controls the idle mixture. This Just Engines Video shows how to set the idle mixture if you think it has been disturbed. It can be done with carb on the engine. If possible, use a piece of bicycle bowden cable inner for your throttle linkage. A rigid wire can break the carburettor if the engine mount breaks or the front bulkhead comes adrift. A bowden cable will flex easily reducing the risk of harm.

If its a trainer model that was assembled by an inexperienced builder, do not assume logic played a part in its set up. Alternatively, perhaps the engine is not the original, and the existing throttle linkage was too short for the optimum set up?

Shortly before I joined the unmanned aircraft department at the Royal Aircraft Establishment Farnborough, they had been out to a military range at Suffield in Alberta for a few weeks of flight trials. The UAV they were operating, about 7ft wingspan and powered by a Webra 91, was fired from a catapult launcher, and had a video camera behind a hemispherical dome on the nose (a bit like a Lancaster Bomb aimer would have had). Part way through one flight, a mouse was seen walking across in front of the camera.

The 43" Cambria Petrel which is very much in the same style as the Kestrel, is available on Outerzone.

Yes I looked at Enmanbern's other contributions. Only one looked even remotely human-written.

What model flying facilities do they offer? The R/C Hotel has models that can be rented on site and instructors available. If there are no modeller-specific things offered, then what is the interest for the community here?

TADTS - They all do that sir

Thanks Roy. Somehow I missed Ron's post. The Bowmans Seagull glider is a new one on me too. It would be really good to find out the quantities of each design that were produced. In the Daily Telegraph obituary for Phil Smith, the Veron designer, it stated that Veron made about 140,000 Veron Impalas, and 170,000 of the free flight power Veron Cardinals.

I had a Puch Maxi with that same problem. There was a spark when the plug was out of the cylinder, but, as it transpired, not when exposed to the compression in the cylinder. Like your mower it took ages to diagnose. Once the coil was changed it started straight away.

Its great to see Skyways Models being produced again. I have their 72" 1/4 scale Spinks Akromaster (like this one but much dustier), which I bought, completed, years ago, but have not yet flown. Now I am living near a flying site that it is perfect for it, I must blow the dust off and get it flying. I hope that Steve Mason adds some new designs to the range, as tastes in models do evolve.

Learner, how does your club attract all these youngsters away from their phones and X boxes? One of our club's most recent students to get his A test was outside your age range but not below it! 😄

I think they were all like that. The steam engine on them was not the epitomy of efficiency and power. You weren't going to win any ploughing matches with one.

One aspect is that we train pupils to pass their A test, but how much time do we spend teaching the pupil to recover from situations that they may find themselves in apart from a dead-stick landing? How about teaching them to fly inverted, get into and out of spins, deal with, say a stuck throttle or loss of ailerons and have to get it back on the rudder? John Farley, the Harrier test pilot, maintained that if you don't practice your Plan B until it is as second nature as your Plan A, then it isn't a Plan B. Of course we should be letting Post-A test pilots build up confidence flying on their own, however continuation training with an instructor allows those more advanced situations to be experienced without them resulting in a crash if the inexperienced pilot doesn't get it right first time.

A fox is dog hardware running cat software.

Leccyflyer, did the instructor explain his thinking behind avoiding the use of the indicators? Not using them, when you could be giving other road users advance warning of your intentions, doesn't make any sense to me either.

Jonathan M, aileron differential is well worth having. A circular output disc or the type with six arms allows you to connect the aileron pushrods ahead of the servo output spline, thus giving differential. (Fig. 160 Diagram B, in the photo John Lee posted). Having more down aileron than up is definitely bad as you are more likely to tip stall at low speed. It is also worth having the option to mix in a bit of rudder with aileron to give balanced turns for beginners in the early stages. Once they are coping with turns and know what a balanced turn looks like, you can take the mixing out and let them learn to coordinate the rudder themselves.

The 'sue at any opportunity' culture these days probably played at least a small part too. I recall putting out pools of burning meths on my mum's cork tile kitchen floor after overfilling the burner on my traction engine. Fortunately the meths would evaporate before burning and with not much radiant heat, there was no discernable damage. I saved up my pocket money for ages to buy that traction engine, and even waited, rather impatiently, on my parents' advice, for a change in the tax system (VAT introduction?), as it brought the price down.

My guess is that magazines probably only reviewed the models they were sent to review. I struggle to recall ever seeing a Bowman's of Ipswich kit review and barely a Galaxy models kit either. Then there is the pot luck that the manufacturer takes in the kit actually being passed to someone who makes a good job of actually completing it in a reasonable space of time. Does anyone remember the review of the Chris Foss Wot 4 in BMFA News (or whatever it was called then?) many, many years ago . The reviewer changed significant parts of the kit to the point it was virtually a different design. Then, after all that, didn't even fly the thing! Chris Foss must have been livid.

A reprint of the Cambria plan is on ebay: Cambria Short Skyvan Given the cost of balsa, I would be considering an alternative method of construction for the fuselage, such as foamboard. Someone is offering a part-built Skyvan. This is the one that was a full-size plan in RCM&E around 1978 for two Cox Tee Dee 049s.

Given how we used to fly this size model on a 450mAH 4.8v nicad, the capacities (3000mah+) being suggested are very high. I would be looking to go for redundancy as opposed to more capacity. The switch is the weak link in the system, particularly if hard-mounted to the fuselage side, with the welded joints in the battery pack in second place. Two smaller AAA or AA battery packs with separate switch harnesses would be the belt and braces approach.

Another factor is your flying site. If its a large, smooth area of grass or tarmac with no obstructions worth speaking of, its a very different matter to a small undulating grass patch with trees and bushes nearby. I would say you want to really get lots of exerience recovering from unusual attitudes, such as spins and inverted, pushing the envelope by flying really slowly etc. before moving onto anything you are going to be really upset about crashing. The other thing is to get used to flying in a wide range of weather conditions with a familiar model. Finally, natural aptitude plays a big part. In our club, one of the youngsters took his 'A' test on a largish Focke Wulf 190 (after flying other models as well, and with prior agreement from the examiner). He is clearly a fast learner with equally fast reactions. That would probably not be a wise move for one of our retired newcomers to the hobby, with slower reactions and poorer eyesight.

Thanks Dennis that is quite a history. I would love to see pictures of the Aquafoil 80 as I was a big fan of the Walker Wingsail technology. Best wishes, Robin