Paul Williams

Thanks Danny, I must remember to ask before I do the job

Thanks guys lots to go on

Where do I buy the plastic to make cockpit windows it needs to be 0.5mm thick and clear

One thing I said I would never do is build for a friend, it’s ok for me to make a mistake on something that belongs to me but I would worry about somebody else’s pride and joy. However after seeing this spitfire kit sitting in a mates garage since 1066 I figured It deserved to fly. Plus I was on the sick for 4 weeks and bored silly. Its a Yellow Planes Mk XIV and can be viewed here I Have struggled to find a good build blog with detailed pictures so if you have seen one please send me a link. First impressions remain neutral fibre glass fuse and foam veneered wing, the kit boasts a lot of scale detail (air intakes, guns, scale hinges) the panel lines are present on the fuse. Its those foam wings I am concerned about. This will weigh in around 25lb and the span is 90” I don’t think I would design it with foam. But what do I know I can’t find any negatives on the net other than a bit of cracking ERRRR. The works done so far was to join the wing sections and glass up then cover with glass and poly C resin. The tail section has been fitted then elevator and rudder built as standard with balsa ribs. These are covered with cream solatex. A pair of yellow’s own air retracts have been screwed in. Now this really is a builder’s kit as far as there are no servo trays, tank mounts ect you are left to design your own. Plan shows suggested position that is all the help you get. The model shop sold him a Zenoah 38cc petrol on the grounds it would fit into the cowl without too much cutting Mmmmm. My Thunderbolt is roughly the same size and weight and I run a 65cc so I felt very much it would need more power. After some deliberation we settled on a Turnigy 50cc petrol. They claim it will deliver 5.5hp and spin a 22x10 prop, rev range 1500 to 10,000rpm that is the same as my RCG 65cc only I know for a fact 22x10 gives me 6500rpm. I have never used Turnigy so look forward to testing it. The plane is noted to be tail heavy with some reports using 3.5lb of lead up front! So to keep weight down at the rear I have dismissed a tail retract and made up a steering tail wheel for now. No need to be pretty its under the tail wheel door so can't be seen Hinging the control sections was the next challenge, I have never done scale hinges but soon worked out the hinge point needs to be at the centre of the leading edge diameter this is how I did it. Measure the width of the leading edge where you wish to hinge. Remember this will reduce if the section is tapered so all hinges will have a different depth. Lets say the LE is 30mm the fulcrum point needs to be half the distance 15mm (the radius) if your hinge measures 30mm from the end to the pin (hinge point) the depth you will drill in would be 45mm. Ok now we need clearance for the hinge to move. Offer the elevator to the tail and scribe a line top and bottom all along the lenth where it meets the female radius on the tail. The slots you cut across the LE should not exceed this line or they will be visible when its put together. With a fine tooth saw or sharp knife cut slots at 90 deg to the LE where you have drilled the hinge holes don’t cut past your pencil marks. This will still not be enough clearance for the hinge so now with a sharp pointed knife cut away so the slots are tapered into the hole at 45 degrees. Its made clearer on the pictures. Now the hinge will swing through 90 degrees (45 up and 45 down) Glue in the hinge being careful not to get epoxy on the pin, work them till dry to ensure they are free. When dry fit to female radius on tail and slide some paper between the sections to ensure clearance. Glue in hinges and hey presto control surfaces with no gaps. you can still see slots when the surface is moved but I cant figure a way round this. Any ideas guys?

Getting pretty fed up with the terrible weather this summer a few of us from our club decided to do some thing about it, we looked at various ideas for flying abroad and settled on Fly In France as advertised in RMC&e. Two years ago some guys from our club went abroad, the main grumble was the models supplied were not very good so picking some where within a reasonable driving distance seemed a good idea. This way we could take what we wanted. We hired a van and knocked up some racking with some thought we managed to get about 15 models of various sizes on board. The venue is located in the Loire Valley central France so to keep the miles down we sailed from Portsmouth to Caen leaving a 4hr drive from the French coast to our destination. There was 5 of us in total so we also took an estate car over. The venue used to be a working farm of 35 acres, bought by Brian Hilton who is an enthusiastic model flyer himself. The climate is more or less perfect we had 5 days of blue skies, 25 deg with very little wind. Brilliant. Brian’s place is very much work in progress he plans to have up to 5 double rooms for staying on a B&B basis but these are not completed to date. He made arrangements for us to stay at a local English run B&B which I have to say was fabulous. Non of us wanted to fly every hour possible so a couple of trips out to local tourist places broke up the week but for the majority pure bliss just flying eating and drinking. What more could you want? The trip worked out about £450 each with ferry, van hire, fuel, insurances ect. Money well spent should you be interested click here to see some more photos. So get some guys together and go to where the sun shines.

sorry dont know how I missed the first post what a numpty, thank you very much I am now looking forward to the french clear blue skies and good weather If anyone else fancies it have a look at fly in france advert in this mag

All very informative guys and I thank you (on both sides of the channel) but what I realy wanted to know is can I fly a plane over 7kg in france?

Thinking of going to france does any one know if their regs are the same as uk or are they different. Is there a weight limit for models out there?

I really fancy doing this are there any more sites?

Can anyone inform me where I can buy some wire wheels 3 3/4 for a ww1 fighter project.

Thanks for the feedback guys, to be honest I have not priced the complete project just thought I would buy stuff as I go and use reclaim where possible. I figured the main cost would be labour and I intend to build it myself. I spent some time surfing the local planning dept website and the good news is I don’t need planning permission, the glitch is roof height, because I wanted a double apex roof I can only go to 2.5mt which means the roof angle is to shallow for tiles. This is where things get daft if I change to a single apex I can go 3mt high Derrrrrrrrr. Anyway the project is possible and the roof is the last thing to go on, so onwards we go. The next problem is the logistics of building it, where do you put a garage full of stuff while building takes place? I pondered this for a long time and whilst browsing ebay saw one of these Ideal, the models and good stuff I squeezed into the attic and the rest in the tent. It was quite funny when the neighbour came round asking if it was a crime scene and where was the Mrs? Sorted, I put the old garage on ebay thinking if I could get someone to pick it up that would save me a lot of graft and a skip cost, it went within the hour for 99p and the guy turned up and took it away. Better get some thing started before the wife orders a fish pond and some garden furniture.

Sorry I can’t find a suitable category to list this topic which is good in a way it may mean the topic has not had all the bones picked from it and generate a good interest. I agreed with the Mrs (a rare occasion) in the summer of 2011 that after spending hundreds on decorating the house it was not such a good idea to start a winter build project in the conservatory. I would have to rough it in the garage/workshop this was the plan till the temp started to drop and the thought of cold and damp diminished my interest in spending time in there. There is not much point in trying to heat a concrete sectional garage with no insulation the other problem is space. With much of the area already utilised as storage for models and STUFF (you know what I mean) the problem was way beyond tea and biscuits. The winter months have drove me to despair I need a warm comfortable space with good storage. Solution? I could spend money on trying to insulate the old garage but that left me with the storage problem the building is flat roofed and starting to leak it was looking like it would have to go. Living in a typical 3 bed semi detached house the garden area is by no means huge another outbuilding would shrink the garden area to an unacceptable level however there is a shed next to the garage which could be sacrificed and the space utilised who said garages had to be rectangle? I was starting to think bigger. I downloaded one of them cad drawing things free off the web Solidworks, no charge as long as you can manage without the Pro version no problem there with simple to scale floor layouts. Now (after a few days with the manual) I can plan and draw to scale my workshop. Its a pain getting all the dimensions of workbenches, machines, shelving ect but once this is done you can start to fit them in with the confidence they will fit. I found by using the shed area and pushing the building out to the concrete raft edge I could increase the floor area by nearly 50 percent with no loss of garden. So a L shaped building was looking favourite, the roof double apex hip style will give me good storage more about that later. Here is how it should look finished. view from above

Thanks for your answers guys I have been busy on the old google and found this in case any body is interested,Aileron Gyro installation   You can run the gyro on one or both servos ( using Y lead wingman) it still works quite well if only one aileron is connected.   What surprised me is how simple the set up is, not test flown yet but works well on the bench.   Happy days @import url(http://www.modelflying.co.uk/CuteEditor_Files/Style/SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/CuteEditor_Files/public_forums.css);

some people may not agree with the use of gyro's on planes but after a few very dodgy landings in gusty conditions I would like to try one. I have seen it done using a dedicated plane gyro but the cost was around £80 a bit rich for me.     I have a few helicopter gyros doing nothing so has anybody managed to plumb one in? The first problem I can see is the tx does not offer gyro control unless I am in the heli mode. I would like to switch the gyro on or off at least, is this possible in acro mode?   I am using a spektrum dsx7 tx with a six channel rx.   Can anybody help? @import url(http://www.modelflying.co.uk/CuteEditor_Files/Style/SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/CuteEditor_Files/public_forums.css);

I have acquired a second hand 80" edge 540t does anyone know the distance back from the leading edge for the balance point please. @import url(http://www.modelflying.co.uk/CuteEditor_Files/Style/SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/CuteEditor_Files/public_forums.css);

Posted by Wingman on 15/10/2011 13:18:42: Presume because its tygon that you are using petrol in which case silicon is no good as it swells up. You could try neoprene. sounds good any idea where I can find such stuff wingman @import url(http://www.modelflying.co.uk/CuteEditor_Files/Style/SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/CuteEditor_Files/public_forums.css);

I have noticed after some time the yellow tygon fuel pipe goes stiff. I am using it as a clunk pipe in the tank. This prevents the clunk from weighting the pipe to the bottom of the tank. NOT GOOD. Is there a more flexible option that would be petrol resistant?@import url(http://www.modelflying.co.uk/CuteEditor_Files/Style/SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/CuteEditor_Files/public_forums.css);

Thanks Tim thats a weight off