Who is building what?

[Martin McIntosh]

I am having to wait well over three weeks for balsa from my preferred supplier so who is buying it and what are you building? I know of a few but there must be many more out there.

[AndyD]

ive been waiting two weeks for my balsa so I can start my ballerina bipe

[Richard Acland]

I decided that once lockdown started I would dig out one of the plans that had been lurking in my drawer for some time. It is a Stolp Starlet. a parasol wing home built aircraft. I ordered wood from Balsa cabin and was told that they were very busy and it might take a while. Since then I have ordered quite a bit of stuff from various model suppliers and they all give the same story. Online orders have really picked up and they all seem very busy. It is an ill wind that blows no one any good.

[David perry 1]

Just taken delivery of timber to finish my Ww Sapphire rc conversion then my super sinbad.

Next will be a thermic 50. Hoping I can persuade laser cutter owner to do the fiddly bits for me...

[Peter Jenkins]

I've had a Top Flite Mustang 60 waiting to be built for 18 months and a Taurus for about 5 years! I also have just acquired one of Richard Wills Spitfires so I've got a lot of building to get through before I can get out and fly my F3A models!

The Mustang build is going fine. Just finished the wing and about to start on the fuselage.

[FlyinBrian]

I have just resumed the build of a new fuz for a WIZZZA, I have two wings, one per the original all sheet balsa and the second has a symetrical section about 1" thick at the root. The fuz got caught by the folding roof of my wife's car

[PeterF]

Apologies, I bought it all for my 84" Vulcan, stocks will take time to rebuild.

[John Wagg]

Half way through building an Avenger slope soarer. Waiting for balsa etc' probably from the same balsa shop.

https://aerofred.com/details.php?image_id=97733&mode=search

Just finished a Quaker Flash and waiting to do its maiden.

Repaired the tail of a 25 year old own design aerobatic model.

Today re-done the screen of my Southerner 60 as I wasn't happy with my first effort.

Looks like our club are opening up (with restrictions) so here's hoping. Forecast is a bit breezy for the next few days though.

Not sure about whether I can go to the slope yet ??

 

Edited By John Wagg on 14/05/2020 21:16:53

[Chris Walby]

I am still slogging my way through my Focke, helped the wife to build an Ohmen and built a Extra slim Twin to act as a distraction.

As a key worker lock down meant being more busy than normal so even less time to do anything else.

Good news SLEC contacted me today and said my kit should be posted out in a couple of weeks, that can go with the ARTF (oh no it isn't) and the electric twin build that has stalled. I said I was going to fit a rudder to the Vulcan which is just another job to do.

I think I'll jus go flying instead

[Jonathan M]

Just took delivery today of the final bits and bobs for the Quark 2m slow aerobatic slope soarer. Have had the laser-cut short-lit and the extra balsa for a year now, ready to start in the next few days (just a few jobs on existing models to finish first).

Took the opportunity to order at the same time all the bits and pieces for the Chilli Breeze which will be the following build. Already got the veneered-foam wing... the balsa I'll wait to order after the current rush!

[Jon H]

As i have posted on other threads i am still trying to finish off my Hurricane

And making noises in the garden with engines being rebuilt and tested.

[Geoff S]

I've almost completed the Das Liddle Stik I've built from a fee plan I downloaded from Aerofred about 5 weeks ago. I thought I had all the wood and components (servos etc) I needed but I was short of some wood (spruce spars and some balsa sizes). I ordered from SLEC and it took a bit longer than usual but only just over a week IIRC.

If I really set my stall out I suppose I could fly it next week but I'm not in a huge rush. I'm enjoying the build because it's not stretched out and there's no real pressure as there is with a scale build - even a scale build to my sport-scale standards.

It certainly seems like a lot of on-line suppliers of stuff for builders and kit manufacturers are getting a little business boost because of the enforced shed time. That's great in my book just a pity the reason is a horrible pandemic.

Geoff

[Richard Clark 2]

Finished, ground tested with both glow and electric, and ready to go.

Aeronca Sedan made from the 65 inch span 1953 'Mercury' free flight kit plan. Changes are one piece wing so the struts, though functional, are not actually stress bearing, minor carbon strengthening here and there, and fitted with aileron, elevator, rudder, and throttle controls. (Despite what the 'experts' say, with a little differential ailerons work fine on high wing models, even a 'full dihedral' Junior 60.)

I could not make up my mind whether to use glow or electric. So I made it for both with fuel tank, battery box right on the C of G (happily the electric motor and the glow engine with its 'in cowl' silencer weigh exactly the same), separate r/c battery, throttle servo and its linkage, and ESC permanently fitted. I can swap from one to the other involving only four bolts in about five minutes..

I am using a now redundant MEGA inrunner motor designed for EDF. Such motors are more efficient than outrunners, run smoother, are quieter and less vibratory than outrunners, and with a low cell count work very well driving big props.

The glow engine is an Czech MVVS 3.5cc r/c (about a '21' in modern terms) as small 'good' glows are getting hard to find and this excellent one was 'new in box' in a local model shop. It's a touch high revving but it will do.

[Trevor Crook]

Almost finished covering the Phoenix Models Chipmunk I bought at the start of lockdown - I've been pacing myself!

It needs a pilot so I tagged one on to the order my son put in to the Balsa Cabin a couple of weeks ago. He got it yesterday, they did warn him that orders were taking a while to process, and did a good job of informing him on progress. Just need to arrange a socially distanced collection from him now.

[Peter Miller]

I am building a Mini Kosmo kit due to suffering from"Designer's block"

It is a good kit...but I can't wait to get back to my drawing board!!!

[Dwain Dibley.]

I just bought this little Beauty, I have a penchant for all things tiny and indoor at the moment.

D.D.

This was one I have worked on before, that me and a sadly departed Mate, were getting back in the air. It was about 35 years old

It got sold after he passed, so I don't know what happened to it. It had a Tartan 44 cc nitro engine in it, that the new owner ripped out in place of something else, can't remember what, We had got the Tartan running like a sewing machine as well !! Ah well....gripe over, I was just annoyed that some people don't respect the models heritage, if you can understand that ??

I still have two Tartan 22's, one with a Walbro carb on it.

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[eflightray]

Just finished building, (I hope), a replacement for my last Lancaster that was attacked by a hawthorn hedge.

103" span, difficult to photo all in one shot, very small bedroom. -

Ray.

[John Wagg]

Waiting for the right weather to maiden. RM plan 76 - Avenger slope soarer - Designed by Bill Grundy 1971. Just 2 channel on ailerons and all flying elevator. Not been an easy build and would design it differently if doing it again. I did have one back in the 70's and flew well, so that's why I have built it again. Finished today with the C.o.G balance to set. Does need some lead in the nose.

That's fluorescent orange under wing and a lot brighter in the flesh.

Perhaps fit a couple of roundels on the wing.

Edited By John Wagg on 07/06/2020 21:14:33

Edited By John Wagg on 07/06/2020 21:37:21

[Doctor Chinnery]

Finally finished a BalsaNova which I acquired as a nicely built balsa airframefor what would now be buttons 4 moves ago - with luck I intend to run a couple of tanks through it this afternoon. Memo to self - don't buy "2nds" covering film, especially for sheet surfaces. Then maiden tomorrow morning, if we're successful I'll tidy up the covering and do a bit of decoration.

I've just started a trad' British kit - a Galaxy Wasp who's been bought for an SC32. Beautiful laser cut balsa and ply, and quality foam wings etc etc, excellent plan too definitely a VFM kit (value for money!). If I had to have a moan - shame considering the general quality of the kit - the instruction sheets are very poor photocopies, and to be honest although pretty comprehensive, they would benefit from better laying out and spacing - as I say, shame, as the rest of the kit is excellent value and the instructions look cheap.

BUT - despite the grumble - I'll still keep buying Galaxy kits.

[Redex]

I am about half way through a BillKits Slingsby T67 build -. but I'm putting off cutting the rather large canopy to as late as possible in the build as it looks a bit daunting.

[David Davis]

My Uncle Geoff who married one of my mother's four sisters taught me how to build model aeroplanes in 1959 when I was eleven years old. He was to die of cancer within two or three years. He was thiry-six IIRC. Before he died he gave me all of his models. These included a Tomboy and a the fuselage of a double sized Tomboy. He was a draftsman and had drawn up the plan himself. Spool on several decades past my sex'n'drugs'n'rock'n'roll years and I built the rest of the model and installed a radio, picture below. I finished it in the same colours as his original little Tomboy. The fuselage soon started to disintegrate so I built a second using cyano for all of the joints. I was a very inexperienced pilot in those days and somehow got the model into a spiral dive. When it hit the ground I was left with a big yellow bag of balsa sticks! I built a third fuselage, landed the model in a tree and broke its back. I have kept the wing and tail for over twenty years in a long cardboard box which I brought over from England together with other "refurb projects!"

I plan to build a fourth fuselage using electric power this time and if any of the Cocklebarrow Farm events are on this year, I hope to fly it there.

Picture of the model in its first mainfestation below, and my much younger self of course!

[Martin McIntosh]

We were obviously born in the same year, rock and roll yes but the drugs and sex bit seemed to pass me by. Maybe the lasses did not like the stench of diesel fuel. I must have stunk to high heaven at school the next day after cycling to the local park in my uniform to fly.

I also have a Tomboy, Senior, 1946 Mills 1.3 powered. The original motor was sort of inherited from a deceased uncle and now sports similar. Wish I still had the r/c carb.

[David Davis]

The double sized Big Tomboy is taking shape. I need to get hold of some aluminium or copper tubing to complete the closed loop circuit to the rudder. Then I have to cover the top of the fuselage and add the canopy glazing, a bit more red paint and the job's a good'un. I hope I've made a good job of installing the servos because they are going to be inaccessible once the canopy glazing goes on!

I learned elsewhere that a normal 36" (91.4cms) Tomboy has 3.5" (8.89cms) dihedral at the wing tip so my double sized one should have 7" at the wing tip. I had built the wings in two halves to make transport easier. The port wing was correct but the starboard one had more like 9"! I hacked away at the dihedral braces last night and removed them. I decided to make full depth dihedral braces while I was at it and worked out that if the dihedral should be 3.5" at 18" then it should be 1.75" at 9." Thus I was able to draw something up full size on a piece of A4. I may extend the brace a couple of inches. The model will be used as a slow-flying model for my own enjoyment and as a basic trainer for absolute beginners on the buddy box so it may be an idea to fit longer dihedral braces!

[EarlyBird]

From the plan on Outerzone at 36" span it is 3.5" under the tip. I take this to mean under each tip. For your double size 72" then 7" under each tip 14" if one wing is flat to the board.

As you have drawn the brace with one side flat to the board at 9" you will have 3.5", at 18" - 7" and at 36" - 14".

Please check before cutting any wood!

Cheers

Steve