Table of contents for April 2023 in RCM&E

Welcome to the April 2023 issue of RCM&E. One of the greatest things about our hobby is the wide variety of types of model aircraft that we can choose to fly. I am a bit of an all-rounder, so I like to fly anything with wings or rotor blades. Until now that has pretty much meant fairly standard club models, be they power models or gliders, with a bit of slope soaring thrown in. Now there’s nothing wrong with all that and such models still entertain me for much of my model flying. However, recently I have been spreading my wings, so to speak, and dabbling in a few new areas of interest. One new area has come about by joining my local model gliding association. Many of the regular…

Back in the day, when short trousers were compulsory and not a fashion choice, I used to voraciously consume every copy of the Aeromodeller upon which I could get my hands. Filled, as it was, with choice nuggets of information i.e., how to speed up the drying of balsa cement (don’t bother, you can’t) or how to get a puddle of coloured dope out of your mother’s carpet (ditto), there was one nugget that sank to the bottom of my subconscious, only to re-emerge recently. Since I started designing my models via the PC, I have been able to print out my plans via an A3 printer, carefully taping the pages together to get a full-size plan. When it comes to wings, rather than go through the procedure twice, it…

Continuing from the last edition, the Skyleaf Leader undercarriage was installed after first painting the legs and spats in a red colour to match the existing scheme. I must admit I am definitely not a paint sprayer and so I resorted to rattle cans from Halfords to complete this task to an acceptable standard. I do feel that when installing spats for F3A models great care should be used to make the mounting as rigid as possible; any flexure of the spat about the fixing to the leg will eventually result in cracking of the spat at that location and eventual failure, often at precisely the wrong time! The fixing strategy for the Leader is the same as that employed on all BJ Craft models, not surprising as BJ produced…

Sunday 21st August 22 was the date of the annual scale competition in Skelmersdale. Torn between flying or photographing, or even both, I eventually decided on the photo journalistic whim and set off with my trusty cameras on the 25-mile trip up the M56, M6 and M58, which should have taken about 40 minutes if not for the inevitable road works on the M6 delaying my arrival by some twenty minutes. But with a bright sunny sky and the thought of meeting up with some friends not seen since before Covid, I was in good spirits on arrival. The annual scale event held by the Skelmersdale club dates back, in my mind, to the late 1980s when I first started to roam around various events and discovering the enjoyment that…

With the sleek Osprey 2 now assembled and flight ready, as detailed in the last issue, it was time to take her to my local gliding field for her maiden flights. After a break in flying over the festive period my clubmates and I were champing at the bit to do a bit of thermal soaring. But when the prearranged day dawned it was rather windier than I was expecting. However, I had long earmarked this new glider as potentially being my windy weather F5J thermal soarer so that I could keep my prized Infinity Evo safely cocooned in cotton wool (or rather its padded wing and fuselage bags) for whenever flying conditions became a little breezy. Hence, I had rather talked myself into a corner and could hardly back…

Engine build Last time I had just about finished the cylinders apart from their electroformed copper jackets. I shall now write about this process in detail but before doing so I must cover the other major mechanical items such as pistons, con rods and valves, all of which were now ready for installation. For those readers who missed the earlier articles a brief resumé of the justification for building this particular engine seems a good idea. The Anglo/French ENV company was formed in 1908 to produce a much needed lightweight ‘aviation motor’ to fulfil the needs of many pioneer pilots. One of these was Thomas Sopwith, who won many prestigious prizes in various machines, mostly powered by the 60Hp ENV. The prize money helped to found the Sopwith Aviation Co,…

Would you think ill of me if I told you that I’m more of a flyer than a builder? I’m afraid it’s true. For me the celebrated winter building season – complete with fanfare, 28-piece brass band, bunting and trifle – doesn’t really enthuse. Winter for me is a cold, dare I say miserable, time of year that I like to skip through as quickly as humanly possible. Only when the evenings start to noticeably draw out i.e., about now, am I reacquainted with my mojo and any resemblance of enthusiasm for building. I long ago realised that my workshop time is directly proportional to the amount of flying I do and if I can’t fly, I tend not to build. Not great for a country in which we’re obliged…

TN VAMPIRE It hardly seems possible, but it’s been almost two years since the last of Tony Nijhuis’ popular mini jet Pro-Plans. Of that batch the Jet Provost was the most popular, followed closely by the Gnat. But we have a feeling this new 32-inch span Vampire will give the Provost a pretty good run for its money. Everyone loves a De Havilland Vampire, don’t they? The success of these little models is down to their small handy size and the frugal cost to build one. With a cheap EDF unit, economy servos, LiPo and speed controller it really provides maximum fun for minimal bucks. PHOEBE On the reverse side of this month’s pull-out Pro-Plan you will find a drawing for Phoebe, a delightful 29-inch wingspan easy to build foam…

I have already built and flown the Phoenix 1600 and I use this in our club’s ‘One Model’ evening competitions during the summer. I was therefore very pleased to be able to build and test fly the Phoenix 2400. The model was supplied for review by CML Distribution, located in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. “…you only need to supply a receiver and battery to complete the model” OPEN THE BOX On opening the large box all the parts of the model were found to have been very well packed. The two-piece wings, tailplane and rudder are contained in protective bags, secured so that they don’t move within the box in transit. Underneath these, below a divider, the fuselage is wired to the bottom of the box so that it too cannot move…

I have been pondering a recent contact from an old mate regarding his inability to successfully join two bits of piano wire together to form a small model undercarriage. I’ve no doubt that most of you have mastered the art of soldering but from what I’ve seen on flying fields there are many out there that still find the making of a good solder joint as something akin to black magic. With a soldering iron as the magic wand, let’s link up and ‘let no man put asunder’. IT’S JUST SOLDER, INNIT? Well, no it isn’t. Like glues for different jobs, solder is just the same: different types for different applications. ‘Soft’ solder is our choice for today, the lead/tin alloy that joins circuits in electronics, up to old-fashioned heavy…

As many readers will know, in many areas of the UK flying sites are at a premium and they often come with restrictions as to where and when we are allowed to fly. So many model clubs have restricted zones to avoid potential conflicts with their near neighbours; I know our club does. Up to now we have policed this by eye, with senior club members giving gentle reminders to fliers when it is felt the boundaries are being encroached upon. After being contacted by a reader who had witnessed a Jeti radio pilot using an onboard system that alerted the pilot when predefined restricted zones were being infringed and having wondered what other electronic solutions there may be, the editor asked me if I could investigate a bit further.…

I had an e-mail from Mike, a fellow scale flyer. His story kind of sums up winter for me and confirms why I stay in the warm when it gets cold outside. But the difference with Mike is he is very keen to use every moment to further his flying: ‘I was up at Buckminster last week during that crystal clear calm but very cold spell. The grass at my club had been left to grow too long for me to fly from and so I had a cunning plan to fly the YMF in the clear still skies and take advantage of the well kept grass at Buckminster. However, it did not work out as I had planned since I was unable to use the hangar to rig. By…

BOMBS AWAY! Andy Rigby took his new B-25 Mitchell bomber to Skelmersdale MAC’s popular scale event last August. This impressive foam model spans two metres and features retracts, lights, a bomb bay and bomb drop. Our reporter at the event, Lindsay Todd, managed to capture the falling projectile during the B-25’s test flight and says, “The B25 captured all but the noise of the full size and boasted my proudest photography moment by actually catching the bomb drop! I would love to claim this as a planned photo, but it was an absolute fluke.” The following text was first used in Arnaldo Correia’s ‘Spanish Dawn Patrol’ article published in RCM&E November last year. However, we didn’t have sufficient space to show the entire sequence that Arnaldo managed to capture on…