Limobob

I had my very first flight at age 11 from Shoreham in Auster 5 G-ANHR. I went to sit next to the pilot but was shoved in the back seat by an older person. The flight was along the coast and over Brighton and i was thrilled to bits, taking a whole reel of shots with my trusty Brownie 127. I still have these somewhere, i must look them out. The cost of this exciting adventure was just one English pound, how about that for value. I never flew again from Shoreham but visited the airfield on many occasions as my aunt Lou had a house on Shoreham beach. Of course also many visits to the wonderful air displays which are sadly no more after the awful Hunter crash and loss of 11 lives. On my final visit the wonderful Vulcan put on a fantastic display and i remember it very well bringing a tear to my eye as it roared over, a sight not to be seen again unfortunately along with the excellent open days at this historic airfield. I went on to enjoy many more flights in historic aircraft including a fantastic 45 minutes in a Gloster Meteor from RAF Wattisham whilst on summer camp with the CCF from Reigate Grammar School. Ridiculously as an avid plane spotter i failed to take note of this aircrafts registration. My little buff logbook shows the flight but with no detail, i would love to know if this aircraft is still about but have been unable to find any details.

An update on the situation. Richard contacted me yesterday evening and is happy for me to pass on information. He has orders for the EU packed and ready to go but was horrified to find that shipping costs had tripled in some cases which he found unacceptable. With the balsa shortage his sister now has alternative employment as indeed does he! He is unsure if EU orders will have VAT for the country slapped on them so not sure how to handle this at his end. He is not taking orders at present and may just confine these in future to the UK but does not want to break ties with his EU side of the business. He has given me the option of cancelling my order but i will leave it all in place and see what happens over the next few days. He is tired of all the wrangling and uncertainty of VAT and import/export issues and feels he must sit back and let others fight all the bureaucracy issues. I am sure i am just one of very many who wish him well and hope sincerely things can be sorted out so his excellent business can continue for years to come

I ordered on 30th December a 1/4 scale DH60 kit and received confirmation by email. Like so many of us, i have used DB on many occasions and have always found them perfect with quick and easy delivery every time. I do hope this will be the case for this order and hope sincerely that Richard and his sister manage to sort out their problems in these very difficult times so we can support them in the future.

Thanks Dwain for your input including the link to your Cessna build. The Oratex certainly looks excellent with no visible marking. We were all sad with the demise of Solartex which was a wonderful product loved by modelbuilders worldwide and i have used it on many models, just the silver i did not take to, sorry!!

Does anybody have any experience of using silver Oratex? I have use silver Solartex in the past and whilst i loved Solartex the silver was awful stuff, marked very easily and in my case didn’t seem to shrink as tight as other stuff. Oratex is readily available over here and a tad cheaper than Solartex was it has however gone up quite dramatically in price recently and i do not want to buy a large quantity in silver and find it is not acceptable.

No response to my problem, which i am quite suprised at. I thought maybe the people who run the site could help. The problem is solved however by logging into the site with my ipad in landscape rather than portrait as i usually do. Is this some sort of glitch in the programming or is it just me?

Not sure this is the correct thread to ask this question but here goes. When i log in the black bar at the top of the page is mis-placed and covering an area i need to click on. I.e.,, if i go to ‘forums’ the wording ‘latest posts’ is covered up. As this is the one thing on the forum i use most i am finding it very annoying. My subscription is still valid so no problem there.

Reassuringf from Richard Dalgleish, perhaps i am worrying too much. I haven’t put the tank box in yet as i need to remake one part because of my extended side members. I will see then just how low i can position a bigger tank, not very i fear, but thanks for all the comments

My head is spinning a bit with so many posts to read in the laser thread alone. The chicken hopper discussion looks a possibility but with Saito recommending tank pressure how would this work or can it be ignored. Any system would i think need careful bench testing prior to committing it to a model.

Just woken up again and pleased to report my progress, which is pretty slow. Fuselage is built up to the stage of the top stringers being in place and working on the tail feathers, very time consuming and quite fiddly at times but gradually getting there. Coming out quite well actually and have the tailwheel mounted with its horn and kevlar for the closed loop. Just need to source some suitable tension springs. My thoughts now turn to the fuel tank positioning/plumbing etc. I have purchased a couple of different tanks, a Kavan 14oz and Ripmax 16oz both of which are far too big to go in Brians allocated space even with my 25mm side member extension. I have scoured the internet for information on fitting a small supplementary tank low down and feeding it with the higher placed main tank. Without doing something i can forsee many problems with fuel syphoning and flooding. Any information anyone can supply would be a great help. I feel sure this problem will have reared its ugly head for many builders in the past and hopefully can be resolved. The 9oz Slec tank shown on the BT drawings i feel would be just far too small when using a 120/125 four stroke

Well i’ve gone off at a tangent and bought a Saito 125a fs, last one that Topmodel had along with its pre-tapped alloy mount. It is a tad bigger than i was expecting to be honest but a lovely, beautifully made thing, it will protrude a fair bit inverted and could be very vulnerable to damage with the Hurricances tendency to nose over. With this in mind, what options do i have? Side mounted would be easy but look horrible but how about canted at 45 degrees, this may solve the damage issue and i think still allow for the Merlin exhaust stubs to be modelled. I need to do some careful measuring to see where the exhaust port exits, a bendy pipe may do the trick with a right angled adapter. It would also bring the carb up a tad higher and allow for the tank issue to be addressed. The 9oz BT shows would not be sufficient and 17/18oz is more likely required for decent duration. Size comes into the equation as the larger tank would be around 150 in length! I intend to push the front former forward about 25mm so the Saito can be bolted straight on, this gives a little more interior space....i think. I have all the materials to re-make the necessary side pieces in 1/4” balsa and 1/16” birch ply, just need the weather to change a bit before i disappear in my workshop to get started. On the retract side of things, the Unitracts or in fact any air system needs reconsidering with the lack of space being factored in, looking more and more like electric at the moment. I watched a club member fly his Mustang with a big Saito inverted with a standard muffler. Looks a bit naff on the ground but once flying and with the very bendy electric retract legs tucked away it was a joy to watch.

I am going to print off the Unitract order form and send it to John Hope and see if i get any response. I’m not sure how much info he would require but hope just a request for a standard set to suit the Hurricane would suffice. I’m sure he has made lots of these retracts and assume he has all the required info. The only thing a bit vague would be the cost and postage as info on the site is pretty old. Failing any response i will try Dave Brown as Danny gave me a contact number which i hope is in UK otherwise a hefty phone bill could suprise me!

Thanks for the info Jon, i’ll just have to keep trying. Maybe he is on holiday, quite popular at present. It will certainly be a relief if i am able to make contact, and then just have to wait for the Laser 120 to become available!!

I picked up what Danny said about Unitracts still operating but i have had no luck at al trying to contact them. Has anybody else had any recent dealing with them so may be able to throw some light on the subject. The electric route may seem a possible option but difficult to find any dimensional drawings etc to ascertain if they will actually fit and can be adapted to accomodate the required angles by setting the legs, maybe not so easy and could finish up a complete waste of money. This is where the unitract units win hands down as angles and oleos are taken care of and you are sure they will fit. I spoke with Fighter Aces ref. the CJM set but am told the business is pretty well defunct so can rule that route out,shame as they looked very good.

Well Sarik have come straight back to me and offered replacement of some very wonky stripwood and also will recut one former which was chopped short. They also enclosed a cutting list which is very useful to check stuff off. I would like to say a very big thank you to them...excellent service