Alan Gorham_

I have personally used Benedini sound systems in couple of models. I'm afraid that good not does not equal light or cheap... To get satisfactory sound output you must have a combination of good speaker power, an amplifier to drive the speakers and a good quality sound unit capable of rendering realistic engine sounds. Plus, enough electrical power of course.

Nosing over is just faulty landing approach technique. As I said earlier, if you let the tail drop, then it becomes blanked by the fuselage and it becomes difficult to raise the nose. Flair covered this in their instructions telling you to make a level approach and landing on the main wheels. It works reliably!

I'm fairly sure it was a Piper Cherokee that was flown control line in Model Magic too!

Lovely! Are you going to build it, or keep it as-is?

I have the Flair 1/4 "Scale" Dr1. It has a completely rigid wire undercarriage frame and hard tyres. The only manouevring I do on the ground is the actual take-off and landing. No taxying or faffing about. As others have said, really, really ensure that your take-offs and landings are dead into wind and then it is no trouble at all. If you have adequate power, then opening the throttle briskly on take-off the let the tail rise to the horizontal position will give you adequate rudder authority that swing won't be an issue. On landing, fly the model down with the fuselage horizontal (don't let the tail drop into a three-point landing attitude) and again, you will find you have enough control authority to make a gentle wheeler landing, after which the tail will drop on its own as speed decays. I am sure that the Flair instructions mentioned the landing advice. Again, to echo others advice you must be able to fly using co-ordinated aileron and rudder to get the best out of an aeroplane of this era. One thing I will disagree with is that a big Dr1 need only be a light wind model. I certainly don't fly my model in light winds exclusively and, actually, a strong breeze makes take-off and landings shorter and more fun.

I flew mine for over a decade until it became oil soaked and tatty. It got refurbed with new wood to replace the oily bits and flown again for many more years. I built a pair of skis for it which finally allowed me to do decent landings and even better touch-and-goes. Like you say, the fun I had with mine was out of all proportion to the cost and the building time!

Hi Roy No, not electric for me on this one. I had a Spatman back in the 1980's and 90's powered by an Enya 15. I wanted a bit of nostalgia and I still enjoy flying IC powered models, so it was just a case of waiting for a suitable engine to appear on Ebay.

Hi Kevin Can I please echo the condolences of previous posters on hearing of your Father's passing. As a child of the 1980's I grew up reading your Dad's many articles on a wide range of subjects. His plan articles and kit reviews were prolific, as was his guidance on airbrushing models. I always liked his method of painting all the markings and insignia onto a model where possible and I also liked his way of giving a scale model a depth of definition by shading around the panel lines and gun ports etc. His way of painting definitely influenced my own finishing methods which I use regularly, see some of my models painted "a la Peacock".... Sadly, I think finding a Peacock Models kit might be very difficult - they must be getting rare now? Your best bet may be either an Ebay search in the radio controlled models section, or perhaps visit one of the model auctions at the BMFA national centre at Buckminster or Gildings Auctioneers in Market Harborough? I definitely remember the Purple Haze kit. What a cool name!

Much later to this party than I wanted to be but have finally started my Spatman build. Really, there were three main reasons that were putting me off starting but they have all been resolved, so here we are. Firstly, I was struggling to achieve acceptable results when cutting foam wings on my own. I have solved that by enlisting the help of a clubmate, Mark, who has helped me to solve the problem. Secondly, I was finding it hard to find suitable veneers until last year, when a PSS flying buddy gave me some old stock Obechi veneers. Problem two solved! Lastly, I was debating putting either an SC.12 glow or a PAW 249 diesel in, but I had bought both those engines for other models. I managed to find an older but new-in-box SC.15 glow on Ebay a few weeks ago, so all systems go! See below for my kit of parts and the powerplant. The fuselage went into the jig last night, so we should be good for more progress this week.

Well that is certainly the alternative. It depends if you can live with an obvious patched repair on your model or want to return it to pristine condition. Stripping models covered in tex materials is always easier than stripping film covered models though. Plus getting all the covering off an old model enables you to give it a thorough mid-life inspection and repair ready for more years of service.

I think the only other coloured heatshrink textile material is Oratex, but I paint my models so I don't buy coloured covering, so no idea if it's the same or similar colour to Solartex sorry. If you want to match the colour of the rest of the model then you may just have to consider recovering the whole model.

Heat up and peel the knackered Solartex off the whole wing and replace with another covering that is available.

It's the old Flair Spectrum paint rebadged IIRC. That's an enamel base hence the use of white spirit to clean. Not as fuel resistant as Solarlac in my experience. YMMV but I bet it doesn't.

That is quite common in my experience of ordering several plans over the years. Sit tight a little longer and it will probably arrive.

Derrick Scott has them in his plans listing. https://www.model-plans.co.uk/precident.htm

Dave Milbourn passed away a couple of years ago I think, so you are unlikely to get a response from him. Your email address is still publicly visible by the way, so you may well get some phishing emails unless you hide it.

It's an OK Cub.

I didn't get an error message and was able to put the kit in a basket and take it through to almost checking out.

One kit available at SMC: Link

Spitfires only had 2 flap positions. Fully up and fully down.

This sounds like some kind of anti-BMFA rant, but I can't work out what the OPs point is.

The Feugray plan was included free in the October 2008 RCM&E magazine. There is one for sale for a poorly Cephalopod plus an extra 2 quid for postage on Ebay now.

Excellent result Anders! Great choice of subject.

That is a model called Linnet. Belair models offer laser cut parts for it.

For definitive details on model setup, maybe consider buying a copy of the plan from the PSSA? https://www.pssaonline.co.uk/product/bae-hawk-t1/