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Posted by PatMc on 15/03/2019 21:42:24:
Posted by Andrew Ray on 15/03/2019 20:32:52:
Posted by Bob Cotsford on 15/03/2019 10:58:32:

Anyone remember the big St Leonards Models kits? There was a 120" thermal soarer, fibreglass fus and built up wing, was it the SuperNova? My first taste of what a good soarer was like.

Jim Baguely of free flight fame. I don't remember the fibreglass fuselage but I am building a 124" one with the wooden fuselage and changing the wing joiner to a flat steel strip, I thought the design was quite clever, very light with the 1/16" x 1/2" spruce spars at the surface butted up to the D box sheeting The free flight heritage very much evident in the design.

Andrew, the 1/16 x 1/4 spruce spars are not up to the job, they rely on the vertical 1/16 balsa webs. Trouble is the wings flex under load which stresses the joints between the web & spar. There just isn't enough glue area on these joints [also I suspect the glue doesn't penetrate such a thin spruce edge] This can result in the webs becoming popping of the spars which are too thin to take the stress so collapse.

My kit definitely had a g/f fuselage in the box, and I could have sworn that the spars were 1/2*1/16" spruce tapered on the tip panel, not 1/4"! Maybe mine was a later, upgraded kit? It seemed sturdy enough for some fairly brutal bungee launches. I would have said that the big weakness was in the use of round wire joinersfrown

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Posted by andrew exton on 16/03/2019 10:01:11:
Posted by stu knowles on 15/03/2019 20:14:59:

This ad cropped up in a thread on here a while ago. I have an unflown Cutlass from this kit in the garage,

img_8345.jpg

thats interesting stuart

I assume you mean the aeroplane Andrew. angel

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It is intereting hearing all the other forum members comments on here and it also makes me wonder in the same light and following on from James May's Big Trouble in Model Britain how many of these models fall into forum members stash of kits that me the the requirements of SABLE? I have a few older kits either complete or part built such as DB Models Tiger Moth, Balsacraft FW190 Phoenix CAP232 (though this is finally being put together and converted to electric power for this year), Simprop Excel to name a few.

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  • 10 months later...
  • 2 months later...
Posted by Bob Cotsford on 16/03/2019 10:41:47:
Posted by PatMc on 15/03/2019 21:42:24:
Posted by Andrew Ray on 15/03/2019 20:32:52:
Posted by Bob Cotsford on 15/03/2019 10:58:32:

Anyone remember the big St Leonards Models kits? There was a 120" thermal soarer, fibreglass fus and built up wing, was it the SuperNova? My first taste of what a good soarer was like.

Jim Baguely of free flight fame. I don't remember the fibreglass fuselage but I am building a 124" one with the wooden fuselage and changing the wing joiner to a flat steel strip, I thought the design was quite clever, very light with the 1/16" x 1/2" spruce spars at the surface butted up to the D box sheeting The free flight heritage very much evident in the design.

Andrew, the 1/16 x 1/4 spruce spars are not up to the job, they rely on the vertical 1/16 balsa webs. Trouble is the wings flex under load which stresses the joints between the web & spar. There just isn't enough glue area on these joints [also I suspect the glue doesn't penetrate such a thin spruce edge] This can result in the webs becoming popping of the spars which are too thin to take the stress so collapse.

My kit definitely had a g/f fuselage in the box, and I could have sworn that the spars were 1/2*1/16" spruce tapered on the tip panel, not 1/4"! Maybe mine was a later, upgraded kit? It seemed sturdy enough for some fairly brutal bungee launches. I would have said that the big weakness was in the use of round wire joinersfrown

super nova takeoff.jpg

375f7f7e-6a32-4c93-a94d-2ebbf7f24662.jpeg

How's this for an example, it was given ot our club a couple of years back. All original with Fleet 27MHZ gear and looking a bir sorry for it self. I took it home undone some a bad mods to put it back as original, replaced the the radio and built an electirc convertion. I have had some very nice flying with it sine.

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Posted by Maurice Dyer on 26/04/2020 09:32:42:

Aahhh....memories!!. I too had a UK SE5a on a Enya 19, three channel. My second RC model back in 1976.

Wish I'd kept the plan.

Maury

You can get copies of the KK SE5a plan. Derick Scott who operates Model Plans website has one as I bought a copy a few years ago. It's not listed on the KK section of his website, but if you email him he will sort you out. His prices are very reasonable too.

**LINK**

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  • 1 month later...

I was given an old Bowman Kit’s Simply Sailman kit (part started) last year by an old friend (thanks Andy!) he was having a clear out and this one had to go. Some how I ended up taking it home.

A wasn’t going to do anything with it, but as I’ve been enjoying flying my Super Nover I’ve decided I’ll finish the Sailman. Another old friend had one in the 70’s and would regularly beat everyone in our club competition with it!

So this is next up on the building board.

One thing I could do with is a copy of sheet 1 that hasn’t faded if anyone got one?

Ive managed to go over a lot of the plan with a pen but there are some notes that are to far gone to see. I’m hopping I can figure out these bit myself anyway but if someone still has a copy I’d be interested to see what it said.Simple Sailman plan 1

Simple sailman plan 2

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If you had the KeilKraft Handbook in your youth, you probably drooled over their 'Intruder' F3a pattern ship. 72" span for 10cc engines and 'full house' radio... The stuff dreams are made of! That picture in the Handbook was the only sight I had ever had of this mythical beast...

...until now...

That twin exhaust tail looked familiar, although the canopy line has been changed to make it more Curare-ish.

KeilKraft Intruder - F3a Pattern Model
 

Edited By Robin Colbourne on 30/05/2020 23:04:25

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  • 3 weeks later...

Whilst people with memories of the models and manufacturers are still around, it would be really good if a database of British R/C models and manufacturers over the years could be compiled. It would be great if we could capture some history on the people behind the models as well as the development and manufacture of the aircraft themselves.

Clearly this would be a lot of work, and it would be ideal if it could be in a format in which anyone could add to it, with a moderator checking submissions. Is there any such software that would allow this? I'm aware of Outerzone, whcih is really good, but something more like http://wiki.rc-network.de.

I have a mystery aerobatic slope soarer kit, called a Sidewinder. I think my brother bought at a Sandown Expo in the late 70s or early 80s. It has a fibreglass fuselage & foam wing and a hand drawn and copied plan. There is no manufacturer's name or address though. Has anyone ever heard of it? Where was it made and by whom?

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Don't remember the sidewinder; but back in the days, there were lots of home grown cottage industries banging out small runs of models sold at Sandown, Woodvale and Plumpton etc.

Miss those shows so much. Real British RC modelling............with the dulcite tones of old DB...😂

Maurice

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I love the cover picture of that plane.

Anyone remember D and D Models in Hereford?

There was a kit of a D and D lightning on eBay last week. It got me thinking.

They also did the eze fli and the Viper. The Viper was like a Weston Magnum.

I suspect the eze fli was an American Kaos

Rod

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It's been bugging me that I can't find anything to identify a model that I built in around 1975/6 in the old magazines I've looked through. It was a jet style pusher with a tricycle undercarriage and I'm sure the kit was regularly advertised in one or more of the magazines. All I can say is that it was sleeker than a Gnatty and I still bear the scars from the pusher prop while adjusting the mixture on the Veco 19 which wasn't quite powerful enough to get off a bumpy Croxley Moor patch without the assistance of a glider bungee - but that was another story...

Any suggestions welcomed!

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  • 1 month later...

I recently bought a second-hand JB Aviation Merlin but can't find any information on CoG and control surface throws. I could "wing it" of course but would prefer a safer journey into the air and back to terra firma.

Any info will be most welcome.

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