Fylingdales Flyer

Chris, have you looked at the Whitby club, 20 miles north of Scarborough. It's on the BMFA club finder or Just google Whitby Model Flying Club. Just don't confuse it for the one in Canada! The flying field is at Goldsborough, just north of Whitby, mostly fixed wing, it's small and friendly. As for model shops, a new one has opened recently in Whitby. It's called G Force R/C and seems to be a fully stocked, old fashioned model shop-kits, balsa, fuel etc. It's got loads of stock. Only open on Thursdays , Fridays and Saturdays at present and is situated on Upgang lane, part of the 'Parade'. Graham

Thanks for the reply Gangster, plastic clevis don’t fill me with confidence as well. If they are similar in size to the Sullivan ones, then they are probably American and not metric. I’ll just order the smaller size an see if they fit. I may end up buying and trying all the nearby sizes yet, but thanks for your help anyway. Graham

I have an ancient Arising Star which I have recently resurrected. The plastic clevis on the outer end of the rudder and elevator pushrods have deteriorated and pulled off. Can anyone tell me what thread the pushrods are as 2mm won't screw on and 3mm are too big? Are they 2.5mm or one of those strange American sizes? I would just like to know the size to save me from having to buy all the likely sizes. Graham

Thank you Piers. Now that I have seen the plan again I can remember why I was unhappy with the T.E. It was a single skin, over which the end of the ribs extended. I cut down the ribs, and added an upper T.E skin with a vertical shear web between each rib, forming a triangular section. I don't think that much weight was added, but it certainly is stronger and supports the covering better. I'll add some photographs when I fetch it from the loft to make some progress, hopefully soon. Graham

I have been building a Great Planes Slowpoke Sport 40 from a kit, but it's not finished yet. It's covered, with Solartex, but needs the radio and engine fitted. There has been a delay, as I originally built it to take my HP61VT engine, but, as I have recently gravitated towards electric power I have an Axi 4120/14 motor and Jeti 70 Amp ESC to fit. I don't think that it actually needs a 'perfect CG' but I understand that they have a tendency to turn out nose heavy. I have tried to keep the tail light and with the weight of the batteries and motor well forward, I hope I won't need too much lead. I also have an Eagle Tree Guardian flight stabiliser to fit, which it might not need, but then I'm not a great pilot. I bought it because I liked the look of it, an ebay purchase from the USA. It was a very enjoyable build with everything slotting nicely together. The instructions are great, but some of the wood seems a little heavy. However, with it's massive wing area, this should not be an issue. There is a recognised weakness in the fuselage structure where the solid side panels join the strip structure, just aft of the wing seat. This is easily taken care of with a little doubler over the joint. I was also unhappy with the wing trailing edge, between the aileron bay and the centre section. It just looked inadequate to me, so I modified and strengthened the structure. I would have photographed these modifications and posted them, but they are under the covering now. When you see the plan, though, I think it will be obvious what is needed. It's unfortunate that Great Planes have discontinued this model. I have another discontinued Great Planes kit, waiting to be built, an Old Timer 40, which I also bought for it's looks and will build for electric power. Graham

Posted by Tom Sharp 2 on 12/11/2017 11:12:20: never mind the planes, look at the car Healey Tickford saloon. Rare then, very scarce now. Graham

Apologies for the delayed response and many thanks for the advice. Nigel, I've had no success getting the Sanwa servos to work with a Futaba receiver. The servos heated up quite alarmingly when connected and did not respond, so I think I will buy the ones suggested by Piers. Piers, thanks for the suggestion, I'll order some. The Mini Super was built from a Ben Buclkle kit, but is a tail dragger as was the original Boddington design. However, it does have the reduced dihedral of the Ben Buckle plan, about 3/4" under each wing tip, so I'm hoping it will be OK. The wing covering was damaged when something was dropped on it, so I thought I would convert to ailerons whilst re-covering it.

Having flown my electric powered Ben Buckle Mini Super only once, I have decided to convert to four channel by adding ‘barn door’ ailerons. I ordered a pair of, what I thought would be suitable, servos from Servo Shop, but inadvertently ordered micro servos instead of Mini servos. The Futaba S3114 servos that arrived yesterday seem to be very small and I don’t think that they are suitable. Anyone care to comment? I do have a pair of unused older Sanwa SM-411 Mini servos, which look about right. The plugs don’t fit the sockets on the Futaba ‘Y’ lead, but I can change to a Futaba plug. Question is, will the Sanwa servos operate OK with the Futaba receiver, given that Sanwa use a different pulse length? The wiring colours on the Sanwa servos are different i.e red,black,black. How do these match up to the Futaba black red white? Graham     Edited By BayNavigator on 22/10/2017 23:56:14 Edited By BayNavigator on 22/10/2017 23:57:35

Definitely Solartex for the Junior 60, but preferably the 'vintage' colours or Antique, to give a see through covering with the 'bones' visible. I always give mine a couple of coats of dope as well, to seal the surface and keep it clean. 'Old Geezer', plus one for the Axi on the nose. Mines a 2820/10 and pulls it off the runway in about 10 feet. Graham Edited By BayNavigator on 22/10/2017 18:15:06

Doh! I was looking at the eliptical wing and the shape of the fin and cockpit window profile. I completely missed that the fuselage was wrong. It looks like it would be an easier build than a Southerner though. Graham

They look like Southerner 60's, designed by Bill Dean in 1946 and kitted by KeilKraft. Still available as a print wood kit from Ben Buckle, it makes a good electric conversion. Mine is covered with Solartex and powered by an Axi 2820/10 with a 40 amp Jeti ESC and 3s Life battery. Graham

Just watched it pass my house in Robin Hood's Bay, plenty of spectators although the weather wasn't as good as last year. Great aerial shots of Whitby and Scarborough and the North York Moors from the helicopter. Graham

I use LiFe batteries from Component Shop Wales (google it). Excellent service and a good selection of 3s batteries. Graham

I had always been fascinated by ships and the sea,but was not attracted to military discipline, so I joined the Merchant Navy as a navigating officer cadet in 1973 at the age of 18. My cadetship, with the old cargo liner company, Ellerman City Liners was the most enjoyable time of my life and I saw much of Africa, India, North America and Australia with periods of academic study at Plymouth School of Maritime Studies in between. In 1977, just after I had qualified and obtained my Second Mates certificate, the Merchant Navy started to fall apart and companies like Ellermans started disposing of ships as fast as they could, whilst investing in other areas of business such as breweries and road transport.The british fleet reduced by 75 percent during this time. A couple of redundancies saw me working for Reardon Smith Line of Cardiff (one voyage only, then the ship was sold to the Greeks) and then Denholm Maclay on the North Atlantic ( Icebergs, pack ice and fog) for two years until, once again, we handed the ships over to the Greeks. The last six years of my seagoing career were spent on Nuclear Fuel carriers, bringing spent fuel back from Japan and sometimes Italy to France and Sellafield. Realising that i didn't relish spending the next thirty years doing this, and wanting to see my two children grow up, I came ashore and went to work for the Ministry of Defence in a completely different role. I hope to retire in the next couple of years. My only regret is that the Merchant Navy that existed up until the mid seventies disappeared so quickly. Had it continued to exist I would probably have stayed, however I wouldn't change anything. I've always lived on the beautiful North Yorkshire coast and continued my connection with the sea by saiing.

All of my Jeti ESC's work this way. Every time that you re- connect the battery, you have to move the throttle to full and then back to off before the system 'beeps' and arms. This is built in as a safety feature and is particularly useful if you use Futaba R/C as the throttle movements are the opposite of other manufacturers, and must be reversed. Graham