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The Big Guff in flight 10th November 2021. Video by my friend Frans Cooremans. It is an amalgation of three flights which I had with the Big Guff that day, hence, sometimes I am wearing a blue fleece and sometimes I am not! French scholars will forgive me for using the femine "la" when referring to the engine, I should have said, "le moteur." 927767862_----DavidAndTheBigGuff.m4v

looks good Martin . Nice and straight . Should go like a rocket ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phvJbLXEQPM We cant see La7s flying at the moment as nobody has restored one (yes we did have a later model at Duxford a few years back ) But we can get an idea what awesome performers they must have been . The Yak 11 trainer (the "Moose") was derived from the very frisky Yak 3 airframe , but detuned by fitting a lower rated radial engine and longer canopy to accommodate a second pilot for training purposes . All over the world various Yak 11s have been re engineered back to hot Yak 3s by generally installing a v12 Allison Engine of around 1200 hp , which is very close in size and power to the original Klimov motor . However some of the Yak 11s have been fitted with more powerful Radial motors and the single seat canopy . This version does bring us very close to the La5/7 spec and you can certainly see how these little fighters must have been hard to take on . Vertical performance shows how small and light they are , as they go uphill more like late WW2 fighters like the Bearcat and Sea Fury which had twice the horsepower . A good example of the Russian philosophy of making machines very task specific . Very much like a rally car . Everything not absolutely required is simply left out . Hope the link above works ok . Richard

UHU Por used as a contact adhesive

Two fuselage sides completed, very straightforward, one built on the plan and the other built on top whilst leaving the original in place: The next job was to form the undercarriage and wing supports from 8swg wire, these need to be added to F2 and F3 before the formers are glued in place. This was the first time I'd attempted such heavy duty bending, a fair amount of trial and error resulted in wasting wire but I finally settled on reasonably accurate knowing I can fettle the formers and bend the wire a little when all is in situ: This is the tool I used for the job, I found it very hard to judge exactly where to place the wire in the bender to get the correct position of the radius, experience is everything with this job I think: Next was to attach the strut mounting points to F2 and F3, made up of clevises bound and soldered in place: Thinking a little further ahead about where and how to locate the battery, it just squeezes between F1 and F2 and would drop in through the removable cockpit floor. However I think because of the enclosed and confined space I think it might be difficult to then strap it in place which would leave me relying only on velcro. That's assuming of course that the battery needs to go all the way forward, which I think it will. Located further aft would be much simpler:

Quite. My Prestige set used Kraft KPS11`s with the same chip as Skyleader. Intensive F3A practice meant that they had to be stripped every six weeks. Pot removed and cleaned and the screwed together motors had the com. cleaned. A noisy pot is almost unheard of today even on 20 or 30 year old servos.

Thanks also to RCM&E for printing the Blackburn Zeppelin Hunter article in the October 2021 issue. I really learn a lot from other peoples build articles. Such skilled craftsmen. Great magazine. We are lucky to have it.

Up on it's legs now, need to order some main wheels. The nose wheel is the right size but may have to be reduced as it catches when retracting, it is 6mm back from where it should be but it would need modification to the front end to move it forward. It was drawn for mechanical retracts.

Even I can’t explain why, but I’ve started to build a model based on the Roy Clough “Martian Spaceship”. For those who haven’t come across this aircraft (?) before see https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=3863. The original was designed as a free flight model, but I’d like to put R/C in it and I was wondering if anyone in the forum had actually made one? I know a number of people have built R/C versions before, but from the sound of it with somewhat mixed results. I’ve found a plan from May 2010 Q&EF international by Paul Witco that I’m using as a basis, but that was built using foam board, which I don’t have, so I’m having to modify the structure accordingly. I’d originally intended to use elevon control, rather than the conventional rudder/elevator that Paul used on his version, but I read an old post on another forum that this didn’t work very well. I’d be interested to know if anyone has tried this. Anyway, this is the structure so far.

For the penultimate time this season; Don't forget your predictions! Saudi Arabia this time, and another circuit staging its first GP. Hamilton has topped both practice sessions so far, ahead of Verstappen in P1 and Bottas in P2 - though P2 was terminated 5 minutes early when Leclerc had a high speed crash at Turn 22, badly damaging his Ferrari. Leclerc was unscathed, and quickly released after a brief visit to the medical centre. I guess the Ferrari mechanics will be burning the midnight oil though... The race is another evening race, so P3 is tomorrow at 2 pm (UK time) and qualifying at 5 pm. Sunday's race is at 5:30 pm.

The down thrust is possibly needed but not any side thrust As said, rudder is used for that.

It looks as though the Lipo might be able to go in vertically behind F1 which might improve the CG situation. Otherwise consider using an open ended box arrangement with a Lipo size hole in F1 instead of the adjustable bolts to allow the Lipo to go almost up to the motor. Or much wider spaced bolts to achieve the same thing.

Looking good Stephen! Are you going with the side- and down-thrust...?

It's the artf Boomerang Johnathan. The mark 2 version that can be tryicle or taildragger. Yes I thought it would be a bit underpowered with my 52 fourstroke taking off from a grass field. I could use my spare Saito 62 that I know would fly it gloriously, but I would rather keep that engine for something else. I also have an OS 46ax mk2 which has only 5 flights on it so near enough brand new that I bought a year ago so I could use that also. The last plane I used my 46fx on was a calmato sports, but I changed that out for 55ax.

So we pay £2 and get a servo that, Has a brittle output arm, indifferent spline, noisy pot that does not centre well, wiper that wears out in a short time, a case that is not great and indifferent plastic gears Hang on I have just described a Skyleader SRC1 of the 70s And they were swifter and queter and stronger than many of their contemporarys So perhaps £12-£15 for a good standard servo is the real bargain The difference is back then they cost over £20, which in real terms is well over £100.

Not for me, I need a sheet of 8' x 4' to make a rubbish looking vegetable crate,,,?

Thank you Gents. Very reassuring and given me confidence to "flash the cash"!

What a great looking model,,,

This is definitely different - like it, like it ?

Yep, all good now, thanks again Andy.

Great link and potted history Richard. "Frisky Yak 3". er, yep....

The smoke reminds me of British Leyland cars.

Not got far enough in with the build to fine tune battery placement but will hopefully update later with current state of build. I'm working on the assumption that as Peter's prototype was designed and built around IC our EP versions will be nose light which I'm hoping can be addressed with battery/equipment placement and very little if any lead. But, as mentioned in my OP, I'm coming from a glider background so somewhat in unfamiliar territory!

That's just it Martin; the spec is good, because it is as fake as everything else about the servo. The seller, if he knows they are fake, will spout any old tosh to encourage you to buy them, and if he doesn't know they are fake, is just repeating the rubbish he has read from whoever sold them to him. There is nothing that can be believed about fake servos except that they bear a passing resemblance to a product from a reputable manufacturer who (hopefully) stands by the specification that they quote.

Col, a PANDAS pal, campaigned a 'Windbag' at the 2017 S/C event, its a very similar model, as you can see they fly quite well ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov3ytSx2CHk

Guys, thanks for the "likes", certainly wasn't expecting what amounts to about 10 of them! I'm very proud of the model, and pleased it's finally finished, so the fact a bunch of "strangers" from across the globe appreciate this too is somewhat pleasing. Interesting discussion resulting from my comment about uploading the plan to OZ. I did have a small moral dilemma about it, but as i have previously asked DB S&S, and Traplet if the plan was still available before deciding to salvage what i could of mine (lots of tape!), i decided that preventing what might have been the only copy in existence from disappearing was more important to me than unknown copyright status. If it was raised as an issue then i would like think it could be removed, as with any such plan on similar sites.

Have you seen this John? https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?1666181-Martian-Space-Ship

This has been about 15 years in the making. David Boddington 1/5 scale. about 70". Myself and modelling friends built it, despite being not quite finished, it had one flight on a 914st. Ended up in storage and recently a burst of enthusiasm came on to get it finished. Reworked a few things, including a recover and repaint in a different scheme, and a conversion to electric due to the infrequency at which it might fly, and avoiding fuelproofing. Flies brilliant on 5s, and is acutally quite easy to fly. Plan now on Outerzone, because I put it there. https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=13406

Received my connector today ordered from Gashangar and disappointed to find that it wasn’t as expected. It has two pairs of three wire leads but the other 4 are all two wire leads and the block only has 14 connections. Not sure what the purpose of it is.