Robin Colbourne

Roy, I thought Bowmans moved to the West country in the later years. Did they then move back to East Anglia? Maybe you could add a timeline for them if you know it; I certainly don't.

A new in box Sunduster here. Note it is misdescribed in the title: Bowmans Sunduster unstarted kit

If you can't find the article anywhere else, then the Magazine Exchange have a copy (April 2017 RCMW): T-Bird RCMW April 2017 Magazine Exchange

There's a thread about the Paper Aviation Ezee Peezee, which was a 1990s 76"-ish span trainer typer model built largely from foamboard here Paper Aviation Ezee Peezee Outerzone has a plan for an Ugly Stick -type model from cardboard, although it should adapt to foamboard too. Card Stick

They're living breathing things that appeal to all the senses. The purr at idle to the scream/roar at full power, vibration, smell, exhaust coming out the back, taste too, if you had to suck the fuel through (not recommended). Get something like an open rocker four stroke and you've got the valve gear to watch too. The same reason people go to steam rallies and heritage railway lines. I used to start my Indian Mills 1.3 in my hand, just to feel the thing come alive. BTW, if you're going to do this, don't fill the tank, as the engine gets rather hot!

Why do you say that Peter? Is in-store vandalism a thing where you are? The green cabinet was simply a product display within a shop, not a vending machine out on the pavement.

One thing that hasn't had a mention is the massive rise in single parent families. A lot of model clubs insist on a parent being present when a child is at the club, so if the parent has other children, or works weekends, the opportunity for regular attendance is limited. If that same child can go to a local park with an electric foamie without the parent's involvement, that is what they will do. Maybe the answer to the lack of local model shops as an outlet for low volume, low cost consumables, is a return to a cabinet of those items in other forms of retail outlet which have sufficient space? This is what Fred W. Megow did with his 'Green Cabinets' in the height of the Great Depression as at the start of his modelling empire as described here: AMA -Fred W. Megow :

Could the motor brushes have worn down to the point that there is no longer enough pressure for them to transmit the current to turn the starter motor? I've had this on a number of car starters and the equivalent problem on alternators. As Piers suggested, check every connection along the route from the battery to the starter and the same on the negative return side. Undo the connection, clean mating faces to bare metal, smear with Holts No-Crode or vaseline (the connections, not yourself... 😄 ) and retry. One more possibility is that the starter ring gear and/or the gear on the starter, have worn to the point that they have jammed. All the wear is in one place (coming up to compression) so worth taking the starter off to check this, if you don't find the fault elsewhere. I had a Morris Ital on which the ring gear fell off the flywheel(!). We did the usual shrinking it back in place, but even when cool it could be slid around the flywheel. A few tacks by the welder at work cured that! If the oil really hasn't been changed in the engine after six years, its about time it was! If you do need brush gear, then 'Mid-Ulster Rotating Electrics' are my mail order 'go to' source for anything starter or alternator related, plus they do some Briggs & Stratton bits too: M.U.R.E Briggs & Stratton parts

The Quaker Flash (67" span) is a scaled down Flying Quaker (84" span), which was originally released as the Megows Gas Model. Delicate wooden propellers plus slender, petrol engine crankshafts with extra length for the contact breaker gear, meant a noseover could be an expensive business. If doing a rise off ground take off, the model would already airborne before ground handling was a concern.

I had never heard of the Keecat 65, so I'm sure there are others in the same boat. Here's a picture of one: Richmodel Keecat 65 Quote: "... Keecat 65 is a well designed pusher prop jet. It is stable and easy-to-fly. It tracks great and slows nicely for landing. After it takes off, pull the supplied retracts up, and it's ready to rock! It has three undercarriages that can be retract. It is constructed with high quality laser cut parts and assembled under the most demanding quality control. With retracts and double boom tail, this plane will fly like it is on rails. Fast and smooth! The kit comes with all hardware, retracts, canopy, fuel tank, wheels, wheel wells, and more. Get yourself a professionally constructed and covered beauty! SPECIFICATIONS: Wing Span:1400mm(55.1″) Length:1640mm(64.5 ″) Weight:7.5 LBs Wing Area:49.2dm2 (763sq in) Wing Loading:69.1~71.2g/dm2 (24.3~25.1oz/sq in) Engine: Glow (.60 - .89) Radio system: 5ch(Not Included) Servos: 8 servos (Not Included) Controls: - Throttle - Elevator - Rudder - Ailerons ..."

Hi JD8, thank you for your reply. Yes, I'm conscious of the fact that the main loads from the wire legs are taken up into the fuselage by the vertical portions, and the transverse parts of the legs across the bottom of the fuselage, secured by saddle clamps, act as torsion bars, helping to dissipate the highest loads. I suppose the ideal would be to retain the upper few inches of each leg and somehow attach the carbon undercarriage to them.

Our club has been donated a Hobbyking Bushmaster for use as a club trainer. In many respects it is ideal, however the piano wire undercarriage gets distorted in anything other than a perfect landing. I'm proposing to swap the hard foam wheels for some low bounce air wheels, but would like to fit a carbon fibre undercarriage, as it would save me having to correct the tracking every time and also give our pupils at least a fighting chance of a non-squirrelly takeoff. Have you or anyone you know already done such a conversion on a Bushmaster or a similar EPO foam model? If so, how did you do it and what was your experience of its survival once done?

Gary, Is it like this: Sky Soldier The battery appears to be a three cell Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH), in which case you should find a chargers on Ebay which can be set up to charge them. If you have an Imax B6 charger that can be set to charge anything from 1 to 16 NiMH cells. Some cordless phones use 3 NiMH cells, so maybe you could use one of those, although it may be a bit slow and there's no easy way of knowing when the battery is fully charged.

Erflog, given that EPO probably isn't the best material at the front of a model anyway, how about reproducing the front end in liteply or balsa and gluing it to the surviving back end? I would be inclined to include the undercarriage mounting in the wooden structure too. The alternative is to set up a search for 'Wot 4' on Facebook marketplace. Thereare a considerable number on there from new in box to well flown.

I've now used a sliver of yoghurt pot to push some Deluxe Materials 'Foam 2 Foam' adhesive into all the joints, and this has really stiffened everything up. I have yet to do the gap between the front of the transverse metal plate and the foam in front of it, but that may not be necessary. The brown goop appears to be some sort of epoxy used previously to effect a similar repair previously, however it had delaminated from the EPO foam. I've chiselled off what I could of it, but some that is stuck to the metal is providing a bit more contact area for the Foam 2 Foam, so I've left it. Here are a few shots post repair.

Thanks for the reply Colin. I'll see what I can do with shims and pushing glue between the mount and foam for now then. I'm glad to hear its a nice flyer.

I've recently been given a well flown Wot 4 Foam-E Mk2. The motor can rock up and down by a few degrees (approx 3mm, measured at the front of the prop adaptor). When looking at the nose area from below, I can see that the transverse metal plate about 1/2" from the front of the fuselage moves relative to the foam around it. Is this normal? If its is not normal, options seem to be to put some glue between the metal and the foam and/or put a shim of, say thin plywood in front of the plate to take up the slack. Has anyone else had similar issues and if so, what did you do about it?

There is a J Perkins Albatross wing for sale in this lot in Aberystwyth: J Perkins Albatross on Ebay

If the centre of gravity is in the right place, you should be making wing or tail incidence changes to sort the glide out, not adding weight. The model with the nosewheel is going to have more parasitic drag below the thrust line and centre of gravity, so it is would be natural that it will have a tendency to dip its nose more as it accelerates. Very slight differences in the incidence of the wing and tailplane mountings and any wash in/wash out (twist) in the wings and tail, whether intentional or not would also affect this. If they are essentially the same design, can you try swapping the wings (and tail if possible) between the two fuselages and see what happens. Make one change at a time and record the results. If the wing is held by rubber bands, you can add more incidence with bits of balsa or card under the leading or trailing edge to see its effect. If the wing is bolted on at the trailing edge, you can reduce incidence on a high wing model or increase it on a low wing model by adding packing between the wing and fuselage. Control linkages can have differing amounts of slop in snakes, hinges and clevises, so these could also be behaving differently between the two models. By testing the models in the glide as opposed to under power, you should be able to rule out motor power and thrust line differences. Make sure you use the same prop for both models so its unpowered drag is the same in each case.

Divide & conquer...

A job lot of glider wings for a song on Ebay. One of them should fit: Glider Wings job lot

It looks like a Aviomodelli Ariane 5 from Italy. There are a few pictures of one for sale here: Aviomodelli Ariane 5 Motor Glider Mantua Models still show it on their website, but it appears to be out of production: Mantua UK - Ariane 5 Motor Glider

Fair enough Gary. As it is now quite an old model, your best bet is likley to be in bought up job lots from ex-modellers who are selling up or estate sales. In this case it would be worht letting the various commercial buyers of model aircraft job lots know that you are looking for a Durabat so they can keep an eye open for one. I would also suggest setting up searches on Facebook Marketplace, Ebay and Gumtree to notify you if one gets listed.

Gary, I can understand you wanting an original Durabat, but are you aware of the 'Spadtothe Bone' Website which has a whole range of designs using the similar construction techniques? Simple Plastic Airplane Designs - Spad to the Bone

This was raised on the Aerodrome forum. The answer suggests that the Royal Aircraft Factory where the SE5a was designed used the inboard position, however sub-contractors used the outboard position. SE5a lower surface roundel placement The outboard position has the centre of the roundel aligned with the interplane struts and is the full chord of the wing, so very easy to mark out. Maybe it was simply a case of speeding up production?