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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…

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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…

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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. As a beginner,…

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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…

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24 days, 24 prizes!  As the year end approaches (and especially after 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…

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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…

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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.I biplane came from his experience of building and flying LC Bagley’s 1948 free-flight version, equipped with a…

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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.; today’s LiPo-powered models can easily climb vertically and have ample power for all…

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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. If you’re looking for a testimony to the vision of the Rhinelander…

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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…

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