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My 1/5th scale Supermarine S6b, which I completed over a year ago, finally took to the air yesterday. Ian Redshaw kindly did the first two flights - he did a superb job. The model flew really well. It handled well on the water, took off very easily, and needed only some up trim (probably because CG was set slightly forward at about 28% MAC). The Laser 200V seems to be a perfect match for the model, which balanced correctly without any added weights. The weather was good, but rather gloomy, so not very good for photos. Nevertheless, I am attaching a few pictures here.

I had the great pleasure yesterday of witnessing the first 2 flights of John's magnificent S6B. The weather was just about perfect with light winds and correspondingly calm water conditions but, as John says, the light was poor for any flying photos. Talking to Ian Redshaw after the flights, he was very complimentary about the model's flying characteristics which surprised us all given that it is an almost perfect scale model, even down to the floats. Despite this, the model leapt into the air quickly at just over half-throttle and proceeded to give a very scale-like performance before well-judged landings by Ian, to the delight of all who were watching - most of all, John himself! Thank you, John, for bringing the S6B to our waterplane meeting at Colwick Country Park, you should be proud of your achievement in honour of your great-uncle.

Hi Martin, Many thanks for your kind comments, this model is my first go at planking and I have enjoyed it immensely. I’m now onto a tricky bit, fitting the control torque rods and getting the tail together. There is lots of head scratching going on right now. Cheers Mark

Got a couple of old diesels on the weekend, don't know why as they were rubbish back in the day and won't have improved over the years, one was an ED mk1, the original bee complete with tank, the other is a mk 2 competition special. Both were seized absolutely solid and the mk 2 had lost its carb, the adaptor having desoldered at some stage. As per usual the engines bore all the hallmarks of pre-teen engineers, mullered cheesehead screws and pliers hieroglyphics all over. Managed to get all the screws out of the mk2 and eventually got the front cover and seized crank adrift, ditto with the cylinder and piston . Gentle heating and the alloy cylinder head unscrewed then a brass drift and a hammer and tapped the contra-piston down til it contacted the piston then tapped them both out together, a few drops of auto transmission fluid after tapping the c-p back up the bore and then onto the crank, bit more heat and the crank came out, more atf, reassembled and it's now plopping like a good one. The mk 1 bee wasn't as seized and only needed a few seconds with the heat gun after removing the tank and carb tube and it freed up, some more atf and it, too, now plops beautifully. I'll have to try to find a carb and so on for the mk 2 but the mk 1 is ready to run. I had several of these engines back in the day, but was extremely fortunate in that my father had a set of cabinet makers screwdrivers and taught me how screwdrivers should be ground so that screws didn't get mullered, sold all the engines at the nats one year. I've had a Tomboy itch for a couple of decades and now I have the engine around which it was designed iirc, ie the mk1. I have heard that the mk2 has been known to power a j 60, I am refurbing mine so if I can cobble a carb together may try it in that.

Plenty to choose from Martin

Try Gorilla Glue clear, same strength as brown but doesn’t foam and dries clear (hence it’s name!).

I used a heatsink made out of rolled aluminum kitchen foil poked into the liner to dissipate unwanted heat. Engine now re-assembled and plopping nicely

When I tip stalled my MPX Heron into the ground, it completely broke the whole nose off. I used Gorilla glue, the brown stuff that activates with a little moisture and foams up. This gave me the time I needed to accurately fit it back together before the glue dried. Now because it foams up it can push parts apart so I pinned it all together to hold it in place, and the expanding foam also fills in any little holes there may be in the foam too. Three years later and it's still flying lovely. I rarely use cyano on foam, preferring to use either the Gorilla glue or UHU POR, which is also brilliant for any kind of foam.

Yes the whole cylinder assembly was set in a jig and soldered when manufactured . Tricky to re solder one bit without melting the other bits but nothing to loose in trying .

Bingo!

Well , the nights are drawing in now and the thoughts are turning to the workshop . Been a funny old year weather wise . Good news is , The La7s and Hurricanes are ready to go . I will start to contact you all , but feel free to either bail out , or shout out if you are super keen to get started . For those of you that have my email . use it .or nudge me via here . Wood prices have hit us like anyone else . The La7s will be £169 and the slightly larger Hurricanes £175 . Postage will be £10 on each . I will probably do some retract packs but they will be a couple of weeks later . Again , the price of parts is going up sadly . Richard

I would try a drop of cyano on an inconspicuous part and see what happens. I have repaired my old Radian fuselage with aliphatic glue which seemed to work OK and other club members have used Gorilla glue. The join towards the tail end of the fuselage appears to be glued together with something like No More Nails. You can still get replacement fuselages for about £35 if the damage is too bad.

Private Message sent

Are you replying to me? I had a very able pilot in the form of Ian Redshaw, and we came up with this clever scheme (called RC) whereby he could remain with his feet safely planted terra firma. Why Jeffrey Quill? He never flew the S6b. If I put a model pilot in the plane, and have to name him, I will call him George Stainforth!

A friend flying his E-flite UMX Timber against a sunset sky.

Thanks for your comments Gary. At last, I seem to have found a little ‘modelling mojo’ and have made a little progress on the Cougar: Cheers Mark

Yesterday was test flying day. I flew my new design, "Hound Dog"Which is very nice and aerobatic but needs some tweaking of the throws and trying a different props. Span 50"

David, two scans for you: Your Captain Grey is looking good for an OK-3 on this one.  By the looks of the painting, I'm thinking the original art was done by the great John Steel?  Terrific action-perspective of CV-62, the Indy, one of the great Forrestal class "supercarriers". You asked about my XFJ-2 Fury build progress: Zero!   But for weeks I have been focused on reorganizing my Cellar of Aeronautical Doom and it has been a colossal battle; a lifetime of STUFF and a glaring lack of discipline as to inefficient STORAGE vs functional WORKSPACE; as part of that war I found this circa 1962 model kit amongst the rubble. I made these two scans off my small home machine for you; at 1/600th scale the kit is too large to fit on my scanner bed, so here are the two bits. No ideal, but there it is! I have now declared a bloody stalemate/cease-fire in my battle with my mess; time for me to cut wood on the Fury. The workshop has never been better, all feels very good... so no more excuses!  Meanwhile, thanks for checking in on me yesterday and kudos on your good work here.  That instrument panel is really COOL.  Sure looks the part! Edited By John H. Rood on 09/06/2020 16:01:51

The example I have has desoldered from the cylinder, I'll have to make an adaptor to fit both the cylinder and any carb I choose to fit. It's a bit awkward as the transfer port at the front is also soldered on and they used soft lead solder which will be at risk if I'm too heavy handed. But I've nothing to lose as it's US without the carb.