Brian Dorricott 1 Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 (edited) Love the picture on the front cover but where is the pilot? Looks silly without even the daftest of occupants . Upwards of £4/500 of model and can't find less than a £10 for a half decent pilot scandalous. Edited March 20, 2021 by Martin Harris - Moderator Use of dots to disguise swear word Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 Do you mean the big aerobat, or the Stearman? I don't like to see a scale model in flight without a driver in the cockpit either, but on balance I'd rather an empty cockpit than one of those awful racing car drivers with a full face helmet and smoked visor. ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyGnome Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 (edited) On the aerobat, even a smoked canopy would look better........ just my opinion ? GG Edited March 20, 2021 by GrumpyGnome Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stu knowles Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 The empty cockpit is a bit of a turn off for me too. The Beaufighter featured in Parting Shot isn't the one built by who it says - which will have cheesed off both him and the true builder of the model in the photo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt Kremen Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 A quick glance at the magazine archive shows quite a few pilotless 'drone' ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 Good point Captain - if the US Navy had any Queen Bee equivalent PT-17s I might let that cover picture pass ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Dorricott 1 Posted March 20, 2021 Author Share Posted March 20, 2021 Sorry Martin Harris but just annoys me empty cockpits ! Won't do it again . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Harris - Moderator Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 It's just a forum thing - no need to apologise to me! I most certainly agree with your sentiments on pilots - a model aircraft is meant to look like the full size when you fly it - either smoke the canopy if you are going for every last ounce of weight saving or if the close up non-realism offends you, make him/her removable! With the exception of the wartime Queen Bee and an incident detailed in a book of amusing aviation incidents that I once read, there are very few aircraft that have flown very far with empty cockpits! I had a wry smile when I noticed a detailed instrument panel flying past in an empty cockpit in one photo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Robson Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 Reminds me of a story of a Whitley bomber that was shot up during the war the pilot gave the order to bale out but the intercom to the tail gunner was damaged. The plane flew on in circles and landed on some rough ground. The gunner went round to the front to play hell with the pilot for such a bad landing and was shocked to find he was alone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrumpyGnome Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 Nice story! Sadly, my copy has not yet arrived. I think it's been over a year since I received an issue before it's available in the shops........ I'd probably cancel my subscription if a shop stocking it was closer. Post Office problems, not MAP I expect. GG Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff S Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 To be fair, David Ashby mentions that a pilot is on the shopping list for the PT17 in his review so I guess it was publication dates/weather issues rather than choice that the pilot in the review is busy tying his shoelaces and so is invisible in the photos. I hate seeing pilotless scale models, especially open cockpit ones, and that's common in the Realflight 9.5 simulator I'm using at the moment to keep my hand in. Considering that IMAC models are supposed to be scale representations of full size aerobats (at least I was under that impression) I was surprised to see that empty cockpits was a common feature in the photos in the article itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Gay Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 To be fair, the aerobat does have a sticker saying "Pilot" inside the cockpit! ? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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