Foam models have given rise to all sorts of questions, not least how best to stick them together and protect them. Pete Lowe finds a few solutions using the Deluxe Materials range.
Why did the rules for model flying have to change? This thorny subject is discussed by Cliff Whittaker, who was an advisor to the BMFA during their negotiations with the CAA.
Alfred Vink relates the story of Aviation Club Leiden's 2019 winter group build.
In November 2019 no one could have known what 2020 had in store for us. In fact, it was business as usual at my local club LLC (Aviation Club Leiden) here in The Netherlands. A club with great history, founded as early as 1936, and still going strong.
Shaun Garrity looks back to early R/C helicopters. This time in Retro Ramblings we have something a little different - retro helicopters. It’s hard to believe it was the early 1970s when I first came across them (I suddenly feel really old). R/C helicopters were actually flying prior to this but they were mostly constructed by pioneering modellers having to figure things out for themselves, because as far as I know no commercial products were available.
When I first started flying in the 1980s, with my father, most models of the time, at least in our club, were quite traditional. However, Leicester Model Centre (LMC) changed all that with the release of several fibreglass fuselage and foam wing 'jet' designs that were prop driven and became rather popular.
If they're having fun then they'll want to go again. . .
Have we given up trying to save the hobby for the next generation or do we have to adapt to change to ensure its continuation? Are our flying clubs destined to deteriorate into fields of grumpy old men depleting slowly and recounting tales of how it used to be? As the BMFA struggle on with their free flight founded education programme I was asked if there was anything we can do, individually or as a club in R/C land, to encourage new youngsters in, or help keep the ones we already have.
24 days, 24 prizes!
As the year end approaches (and especiallyafter the year we've all been having) what better time to have a little fun in the form of our popular Advent Prize Draw!
Drop into the forum every day till the 24th December to grab a chancing of winning a prize. Thanks to our friends at J. Perkins Distribution, Sarik Hobbies and Overlander Batteries we've some fab things to hand out to 24 lucky winners.
It all starts on 1st December, see you then!
.
We're grateful to Don Woodland who recently lent a copy of this, the first issue of The Amateur Aviator and Aero Model-Maker magazine from April 1912.
Although model flying had been reported in some model engineering magazines in the past, the issue here may well be one of the first dedicated model flying publications in the UK.
The Pioneer pictured here is Mr TWK Clarke of Kingston, described as one of the 'earliest successful model makers'. He has one of his all-wood heavy monoplanes and is noted as the inventor of the Clarke Flyer - of which many thousands had been sold before other model makers had made a machine that would fly at all.
Let’s cast our minds back 43 years to that long, hot summer of 1976.
On The Cover
There was just one cover line that month, introducing David Boddington’s 40” (1016mm) wingspan Nieuport 24. David’s inspiration for this W. W.
There’s no denying that Lithium Polymer (LiPo) batteries have revolutionised electric flight. Gone are the days when getting an electric model to fly above head height was considered an achievement. Electric flight is now a direct (some say better) alternative to i. c.
Believe it or not, the F-13 probably represents the high point of technical and commercial innovation in Hugo Junkers’ privately-owned Junkers Flugzeugwerke. Forget all the Ju-somethings of W. W. II, they came after both Hugo’s death in 1935 and the Nazis’ sequestration of the company.
Harvards still race at Reno every year. The famous prop roar is the sound of those supersonic tips.
When it entered RAF service in July 1939, the US-built North American Harvard satisfied Britain’s desperate need for an advanced trainer that could bridge the widening gulf between the biplanes used for primary training and the new generation of fighters such as the Hurricane, which had already been operational for eighteen months. Yet, landmark though it may have been in Britain’s belated rearmament programme, the Harvard was only one member of a family of closely related aircraft that were produced over a period of 30 years, and which filled a variety of roles around the world, from trainer to fighter-bomber.
Welcome to this, the second of a five part series aimed at steering the newcomer along a fuss free path into the fascinating world of flying R/C model aircraft. Last month we covered the basic questions, this time we’ll get into a bit more detail and look at some purchasing decisions. What you buy and fly can depend on a number of factors:
Where you intend to fly.
The models and equipment your instructor or friends use.
Welcome to the first in our series that’s aimed at providing the information you might need to make informed choices and, hopefully, start flying R/C model aircraft with the minimum of fuss and bother. Into the Blue maybe a little hopeful as a title, since the UK weather will no doubt dictate that on most occasions your new model will be sent skywards ‘into the grey’, but let’s be optimistic!
BEGINNINGS
So, you want to fly R/C? Good! Remember that flying model aircraft can be as complicated or as simple as you want to make it. Above all, however, it’s fun. If at any stage you’re not enjoying it then something’s wrong and you’re advised to stop and discuss what you’re doing with fellow flyers.
Some old issues of RCM&E resonate for different reasons. March 1992 hits the spot for me as it reflects the time when I got back into the hobby, thinking it best that I learn how to fly properly, once and for all.
For many, twenty years won’t seem so long ago, especially as the letters A, R, T and F had become quite well established. Truth is, kits of this nature actually date back to the early ‘80s, if not before, and while far less common in ‘92, they were certainly around.
