RADIO CONTROL MODELS AND ELECTRONICS
December2019
ON THE COVER. . .
As 2019 comes to a close we thought we would warm you up with a picture taken on a hot summer's day of the VQ Models Piper Tri-Pacer, reviewed in this issue by Mike Austin.
Even apparently simple things, like starting an engine, often assume a good bit of inter-related background knowledge. Of course, the problem for the newcomer is acquiring that know-how quickly. So, I want to look at the underlying fundamentals one by one and then go though a typical and practical start-up procedure step-by-step. Buckle up tight in the back now!
We’ll be starting a standard sport glow engine in the modelling equivalent of the missionary position.
Like a hound following a dragline, Alex Whittaker sniffed out the latest and greatest workmanship on show on the scale flight line at the BMFA Power Nats. Top slot went to Mick Henderson and his superbly detailed Airco DH 9A, a true masterpiece in miniature.
The Chipmunk, I’ve always assumed, is very much a British aircraft, indeed the image of a Chipmunk was as British to me as the thought of a Spitfire doing a victory roll over the Kentish countryside in the summer of 1940. So, I was surprised to find that, in fact, the Chipmunk was both designed and first flown by de Havilland in Canada. Apparently, at the end of World War II de Havilland in the UK was keen to develop a new low-wing trainer to replace its aging Tiger Moth but was too busy developing new jet aircraft so the task was handed to the Canadian operation. Accordingly, the Chipmunk first flew in Canada in May 1946 and was in service later that year.
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.
