I said goodbye to an old friend last Wednesday...

[David Davis]

I said good bye to an old friend last Wednesday but not in the way I expected.

In 1988 the Junior 60, the Flair version was my first successful radio controlled model aircraft. Initially the fuselage was covered with olive drab nylon and the wings and tailplane in Solartex Natural. Unfortunately I do not have a picture of it in this dull scheme. It was powered by an Irvine 20 car racing engine then by an HP VT 20 fourstroke, then by an HP VT 25. Now it had the power to take off from a tarmac runway! After I'd learned to fly on it I used it to give nervous elderly beginners their first experience of radio controlled flight. Years later, I sold it to my cousin who kept it unflown in the loft above his garage for fifteen years. I bought it back a few years ago with a pronounced wash-in in the starboard wing caused by poor storage. I added an aluminium trim tab to the wing and converted it to electric power.

The model was a bit like Trigger's broom. Soon after having built the model someone gave me another wing. I built a second Junior 60 for the wing. It was powered by an electric motor ,back in the days of geared brushed motors and NiCads, remember them? Finished in red and yellow it was quite an attractive model and someone made me an offer I couldn't refuse so it was sold. Picture below with my much younger self. In addition tyo the red and yellow model, I've built two fuselages and three tailplanes for the original model and at some stage I recovered it in Orange Solartex but I believe that the wing was still the original one which I'd built in 1988.

I retired to central France in 2015. I am a member of a club with a lot of beginners in it and I'm teaching two of them how to fly, an Englishman, Andy Phelps and a Frenchman, Eric Ceyrat. I have too many models and need to clear some space. I had arranged to give the Junior 60 to Andy last Wednesday in exchange for a couple of welding jobs he has done for me. I had fitted an Orange receiver coupled to a Spektrum remote aerial to the model, I am nothing if not generous, and two 3300 3s Lipo batteries were charged up. We arrived at the flying field and carried out a range check. Then we discovered that his Spektrum DX6i had developed a fault but no matter, Andy has reached a stage in his learning where he can fly a Junior 60 without any qualms, so I took off and handed him the transmitter.

He flew the model round in circuits and eights and when the timer started to beep after ten minutes he said that the motor had stopped. He handed me the transmitter for me to land the model. I found that I had some motor power and and the battery checker indicated that there was still a 48% charge in the battery. I put the problem down to beginner's nerves and fitted the second LiPo. Same routine, I take off and hand Andy my transmitter.

After some time he said that he had lost the motor again and handed me the transmitter. Not to worry, the model was at a fair altitude up wind. I tried to turn the model towards us but there was no response to any control input. It was making a bid for freedom! All we could do was to watch it descend in a beautiful free flight glide into a wheat field! However, the hedges limited our view and we could not see exactly where it came to earth. What had gone wrong? Heaven knows.

You'd expect to be able to see an orange model in a field of wheat but we couldn't find it. We went searching for it for over an hour in the hot sun without success. Later three of my French colleagues turned up and all five of us looked for it but we couldn't find it.

If it ever comes back to me it will have gone through the front of a combine harvester or it will have been wrecked by the sun and the rain so this really is the end of the road.

Fly on old friend, fly on.


Mind you, wait a minute!

Belair kits are selling a Parts Set for only £65 (72.55€ or $79 US) so you never know.

**LINK**

Edited By David Davis on 24/05/2020 07:43:57

Edited By David Davis on 24/05/2020 07:50:11

[ken anderson.]

hello David, bet it turns up...we had one that went AWOL in the fog..and had landed itself about 1/2 mile away ...5 days later a dog walker reported it to us sitting beside a railway line... fingers crossed for yours..

ken anderson...ne..1...JNR 60 dept.

[Chris Walby]

Good news the combine spat out all the bits, bad news it found it before we did!

Mind you the one I lost in the woods did not fair much better.

Best look in the last place you would think...a lot further than you think .

[Doctor Chinnery]

David - put a call out for a local drone flyer to come to help before the weather damages the old girl. We have a tame drone pilot in the club, he's saved several club members bacon over the last couple of years. Drone flyers are more than keen to help - it counterbalances the bad publicity that the odd irresponsible drone flyer has brought upon the whole model flying community in general and drone flying in particular.

[David Davis]

Good idea Mr Chinnery. I'll ask the club president this afternoon. He knows everybody.

[kc]

One of my clubmembers put down 2 large white sheets at 2 edges of the field and then flew a plane with tiny video camera over the field. By examining the video on his laptop the distance from the white markers indicated the lost models position. Trouble is when retreived it wasn't the model he was looking for but a model that was lost earlier! But the principle worked.....

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Posted by Chris Walby on 24/05/2020 08:28:37:

Best look in the last place you would think...a lot further than you think .

There's a great deal of truth in that. Every model I've ever found was in the last place I looked!

P.S. If you lose a telemetry equipped mode, take the transmitter with you and walk in the expected direction until you hopefully get a signal if the receiver is still working. Once you can get a signal reading, simply hold the radio close to your body, turn slowly in a circle and stop where the signal is lowest.  Turn 180 degrees and walk a while in that direction, repeat until you see the model - it works really well. This is a bonus from telemetry but always take the transmitter and wiggle the sticks from time to time as you may hear the servos working before you see the model.  Of course, if the battery has disconnected in the crash, none of this is any use but it's always worth a try.

Edited By Martin Harris on 24/05/2020 16:53:40

[john davidson 1]

had just the same symptoms with a whole batch of six Orange receivers, lost signal, even overhead after a few minutes of flying, changed the rx several times, could not believe a whole batch was faulty because they worked ok under test and blamed the transmitter. sent the transmitter for service but of course the same result, eventually claimed a refund from HK which was given without quibble but in the meantime I had about six planes totalled

[Paul Marsh]

Posted by john davidson 1 on 24/05/2020 17:26:10:

had just the same symptoms with a whole batch of six Orange receivers, lost signal, even overhead after a few minutes of flying, changed the rx several times, could not believe a whole batch was faulty because they worked ok under test and blamed the transmitter. sent the transmitter for service but of course the same result, eventually claimed a refund from HK which was given without quibble but in the meantime I had about six planes totalled

They are not faulty, they all do that...

[john davidson 1]

Paul, that is the first trouble in many years of Orange use, I only used them in light models anyway and kept to original rxs in seriously heavy ones. Now using Lemon with satelllite in light models with no trouble at all so far

[Mike Etheridge 1]

I have told this story before , I lost my black White and Green Southern dragon that flew away on Epsom Downs in September 1962,so I saved up £10 and bought a K K New Junior 60 and radio kit from Heset model Supplies in South Croydon. I flew the the Junior 60 for the second time in 1963 with the TerryTone receiver switched on and rubber power Mactuator wound fully. I was absolutely hopeless with the old radio and the plane disappeared over the Epsom Downs grandstand, so with the transmitter in my hand, my friend and I went to search for the plane that had landed on the adjacent pitch and putt course. By pressing the transmitter button we eventually heard the Mactuator clanging away and found the plane which had been hidden in some bushes and covered with long grass. We then went back on the Downs only to find that all my aeromodelling kit had been stolen including my Instamatic camera. The plane spent the next ten years in a shed before I eventually equipped it with a Sanwa Mini Two radio kit and managed to fly it OK.

Best of luck with your plane David.

[David Davis]

It seems that the farmer found it after it had had an argument with his combine harvester!

[ken anderson.]

welcome back old friend....

ken anderson...ne..1...welcome back dept.

[J D 8]

Anything of use left ?

[Richard Clark 2]

Posted by David Davis on 27/07/2020 09:15:11:

It seems that the farmer found it after it had had an argument with his combine harvester!

That should buff out.

[David Davis]

Posted by J D 8 on 27/07/2020 10:11:44:

Anything of use left ?

I am in Somerset as I type this but the model is in France. I fly back on Friday. The wing seems to be ok other than a hole in the covering. The rest is beyond repair and a complete new fuselage, and tail are required. Technically this model is the property of one of my trainees but he will need my help to build it so noblesse oblige.

[J D 8]

Well at least it did not go through the combine, having driven them I can say that anything that go's in is shredded.

I did once find a model while combining stopping just in time. It was a FF model glider that had been missing some four months. You may have guessed it was mine.

[Paul C.]

When you get back could you give us the results of the autopsy as I am sure we would all like to know what was the cause of the flyaway. Hope that you will be able to find the cause after all this time 😨

Paul. 👍

[Mike Etheridge 1]

I can see some useful bits on the tail and hopefully the engine did not suffer ? I am sure you will have that back together in no time David. If you need a plan I can get one copied for you.

Edited By Mike Etheridge 1 on 27/07/2020 15:32:58