RADIO CONTROL MODELS AND ELECTRONICS
VOLUME 62 SPECIAL ISSUE
ON THE COVER
RCM&E's 2019 Special Issue is a regular issue that subscribers receive and sold in the usual newsagents.
Trad' building is the theme this year with, as the cover shouts, no less than 7 plans included!
FREE PLANS
FIRST STEP
Easy to build and fly, this is the perfect first-time build for all ages.
BAMBINO
A rugged little park-fly sportster that employs simple construction techniques.
BAMBINA
The compact low-wing take-anywhere aerobat.
So you've flown your latest ARTF or scratch-built pride and joy for the very first time. How did it go? A few beeps of up trim and a couple of left? A click of the needle valve, maybe? Job's a good 'un! Are you happy to leave it at that, or would you like to try and get the best from the model with a little tweak here and there?
It's true that many of us are very happy to leave well alone after the first flight of our latest toy, never quite getting the time to explore its true flight characteristics with a view to optimising its aerodynamic trim. Having lectured on this subject at various club nights over the years I also know it to be true that even the term 'Aerodynamic Optimisation' is well over the heads of many club fliers - increasingly so in this ARTF age, as we lose the basic skills that 'old school' aeromodelling used to provide.
You may think that such optimisation only really applies to aerobatic aircraft where ultimate precision is being sought, but this isn't the case.
We're grateful to Don Woodland who recently lent a copy of this, the first issue of The Amateur Aviator and Aero Model-Maker magazine from April 1912.
Although model flying had been reported in some model engineering magazines in the past, the issue here may well be one of the first dedicated model flying publications in the UK.
The Pioneer pictured here is Mr TWK Clarke of Kingston, described as one of the 'earliest successful model makers'. He has one of his all-wood heavy monoplanes and is noted as the inventor of the Clarke Flyer - of which many thousands had been sold before other model makers had made a machine that would fly at all.
RADIO CONTROL MODELS AND ELECTRONICS
VOLUME 62 ISSUE 10
ON THE COVER
Andy Meade slots into this month's gliding column with a report from the recent Power Scale Soaring Association meet on the Lleyn Peninsula. Andy is seen here with his new 1/6th scale Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX , converted for power slope soaring using a Mick Reeves fibreglass fuselage and an O/D Selig 3021 foam core wing. The model has an AUW of 12 lbs and performs superbly from the slope.
REGULARS
SWITCH ON
Read the latest update from the PSSA as they announce their latest Mass Build slope soaring project for 2020, plus a round up of other model flying news
COUNTERPOINT
Kits, bits, gadgets and more brand-new products to feast your eyes
ALL WRITE
Readers’ letters.
1. Big-bang bands. In the ‘good’ old days, band spattering 27 Megacycle transmitters and superegen receivers had to be used one at a time, owing to serious interference issues with two models airborne together. CB radio didn’t help much but, fortunately, these days we have two very reliable, legal frequencies in both 35MHz and 2.
ON THE COVER
In his latest Model Magic feature, Alex Whttaker is mightily impressed by Andy Ellison’s Grupp Modellbau RV-4, which is a handsome rendition of this best-selling US home-built. It is built to 1:2. 4 scale, giving a wingspan of 115”. A DLE-111 petrol engine drives a 27 x 11” or a 28 x 10” Biela propeller and the model has high visibility lights, and a PowerBox smoke system.
Let’s cast our minds back 43 years to that long, hot summer of 1976.
On The Cover
There was just one cover line that month, introducing David Boddington’s 40” (1016mm) wingspan Nieuport 24. David’s inspiration for this W. W.
On the cover
At the recent Ullswater Splash-in an eclectic mix of floatplanes and flying boats went for a dip, amongst them Mike Rawlins’ gorgeous Grumman Albatross. We've a full report from the event inside this month.
REGULARS
SWITCH ON
After a year of rest and recuperation Tony Nijhuis is back with a whole new jet set and we’ve news on the progress of dear Dave Burton’s Sea Fury project
COUNTERPOINT
Kits, blingy bits, gadgets and gimmicks. More brand-new tempters that just might take your fancy
ALL WRITE
Readers’ letters.
on the cover
Flightline is a company that's gaining something of a reputation for doing things properly. Twelve or eighteen months ago it made its mark in the UK with a 1600mm Spitfire Mk. IX which displayed many of the subtle details that define the famous fighter but that so many manufacturers fail to appreciate. It's been a popular model and as time passed all eyes focussed on Flightline's website in anticipation of a follow-up.
My beloved, ageing 72” span Harvard, built more than fifteen years ago from a Flair kit, hit the ground like a dropped jigsaw. We’d been through a great deal together over the years…balmy summer evenings, winter snow. . .
