Innehållsförteckning för November 2023 från RCM&E

Welcome to the November 2023 issue of RCM&E. I recently enjoyed two back-to-back flying sessions. In the morning I flew my Osprey F5J glider and I thought I would use some of the excellent conditions to practice spot landings. In our club comps this means flying for 2.5 minutes and landing in the centre of the spot dead on time. If you manage the time and landing exactly you score one point for every second of flight time plus 50 points for the landing, giving a 200-point score for a perfect flight. For every second you fly over or under, those seconds are subtracted from the maximum 150 for the flight. And for landing in the centre of the spot you score an extra 50 points, earning progressively less until…

So, this is the final model in the latest Mini Jet series. I think it safe to say that this series of models probably won’t be the last. So, expect a little break while I have a think about what else would make popular subjects. No doubt I’ll have plenty of suggestions from the wider modelling community and very appreciated they will be, of course. From this current series of mini jets the F-16 is a modern era jet as it is still in service today, even though the design is approaching 50 years old. That is pretty incredible! Notwithstanding this, I must be honest and say that the F-16 is my least favourite model out of this latest batch. Well, I guess something must come bottom of the list…

PARTINGSHOT Mike Roach’s 120-inch span Avro Lincoln makes a low pass for Chris Williams’ camera. Mike says of his lovely model: ‘My model is based on the Ivan Pettigrew 100” Lancaster plan. Since the Lincoln was ‘merely’ a development of the Lanc, the changes needed were minimal. New outer wing panels, bringing the span up to 120”, an extension to the rear of the fuselage, a greenhouse for the bomb aimer and circular radiator failings for the engines. Everything else is as per the plan. The build was mostly balsa and lite ply, but I made the ribs and fuselage formers from Depron and the nacelles from foam. Power is from two 3S 5000mAh batteries, one for the outers and one for the inners, giving an easy 10 minutes of…

When we talk about the aircraft’s attitude, we mean the ‘sit’ of your ‘plane in the air when flying straight and level, fuselage level with the ground, wings parallel with the ground and maintaining height at mid-throttle (or thereabouts). Your attitude requires you to be relaxed and unhurried, in control of the aircraft. This will happen if you follow the recommendations below. THE CIRCUIT To practice we want to fly a rectangular circuit. A left-hand circuit is shown in the nearby drawing. We begin our Landing Circuit by flying over the landing strip at circuit height (10-25 metres) into wind. Depending on circuit direction we then turn 90 degrees left or right onto the Crosswind leg, followed by another 90 degree turn in the same direction onto the Downwind leg.…

This twin seater tactical support, light attack jet and training aircraft was the first design jointly manufactured by Dessault & Breguet. Its origins go back to 1971, with the first prototype being flown in 1973. In the late 1970s the French and German air forces placed orders for them, initially training versions by the French and tactical support versions for the Luftwaffe. Its reliability and performance made Alpha Jet the top choice for the Patrouille de France aerobatics team. A total of 512 were manufactured and they have accumulated over a million hours of airtime between them, with a number now owned by civilian operators. French military Alpha Jets are armed with AIM-9 Sidewinder and Matra Magic 11 air to air missiles, as well as AGM-65 Maverick air to ground…

I first saw this design online a few years ago and clearly remember how the simplicity of its construction appealed to me. It was also unusual in that although a low wing design it only utilised three channel control - rudder, elevator, throttle - like many of the simpler 1970s and earlier sport designs. But it was claimed to be highly manoeuvrable and fun to fly. I know several life-long modellers who choose not to appreciate the characteristics of three channel sport models, preferring always to stick to aileron control for general flying. Perhaps they feel such models are a step backwards? Yet, I cannot help feeling they are missing out as I find such designs a welcome change from ‘full house’ control, if only to stretch one’s imagination and…

Peter Holland is a name many older modellers will be familiar with having been Editor of RCM&E and the draughtsman and designer of some traditional and some very unusual models over the years. One of the oddest was his Mr. Robotham, a two foot tall walking robot, the three legged walking vehicle called Teal, a three legged pusher airscrew powered hydrofoil, a caterpillar tracked model called Sno-Cat that could be adapted for R/C and a free flight flying carpet called Arabian Night. In fact, Pete seemed to have a go at most things from control line, free flight to sport and scale R/C models - a true all round modeller. On top of that he also published some great books such as ‘Model Aeroplane Building - Sketch by Sketch’ which…

A short while ago I saw a webpage that highlighted a range of model kits I’d not seen before but I later found that some are stocked by 4-Max Models. Delving further saw me lusting after a few of these curvaceous lovelies and mentally calculating the cost of both buying and importing a couple for myself. Throwing caution to the wind I contacted the manufacturer, Bluesky Airmodels, to price up both purchase and postage of my choices. Whilst the price of the kits seemed reasonable enough (sold in US Dollars for export from Brazil) the freight cost made it more cost-effective for me to buy three models. The following review is my honest opinion of just one of the model kits that I purchased for my own use; I have…

At one time I regularly met Al Foot at an indoor flying venue; this was in the Christie Miller Sports Centre, Melksham. The centre was in part of the old RAF Melksham, No. 12 School of Technical Training, which was in operation from 1940 to 1965. The airfield site and buildings were then used by several different commercial businesses, including the Sports Centre. Sadly, the centre closed in 2018 putting paid to our indoor flying and my contact with Al. In addition to a variety of aircraft Al usually had some autogyros with him. Autogyros tend to be outdoor machines but Al flew a range of his own-design autogyros indoors, including micro single bladed, a standard size twin and even a quadruple bladed model. My interest was in the micro…

Get in touch... kcrozier@mortons.co.uk WHEELY CLEAN A lot of us older guys now need to lighten the burden of getting our models and gear from the car park to the pits. So, these camping trolleys are ideal - but for one little niggle. As our farmer keeps sheep on our site you can imagine the state of the wheels at the end of a session as the deposits dry up around them and it becomes quite a task to clean them at the end of the day. My solution is simple. A six-inch strip of cling film and a securing band of masking tape provides an adequate defence from the offending deposits and lasts quite a few visits to site. It is cheap and simple to remove and replace. Jim…

GROSSWING PROTOTYPE Please consider these pictures for Pilots’ Pictorial. I built this Grosswing for Jorgen Peterson of Modern Vintage Models to iron out problems prior to production. It was kit number one. I built it in three days, but it has taken three months to finish it. Jim Dowe NO GOING BACK Rewind was going to be my last traditional design before I switched to mid wing. It was loosely based on an A4 diagram of the Brazilian Mehari Tuareg aircraft and at 63” came out at almost one third scale. It was an experiment in construction methods. The wing was a foam core with a 4mm carbon spar, tapering to 3mm for the outboard 10” epoxied in a groove just below the top surface which was flat. The section…