Table of contents for January 2025 in RCM&E

Welcome to the January 2025 issue of RCM&E. As regular readers will know I am a bit of a grumpy old man when it comes to the notion of producing a Christmas issue, especially as it would involve me needing to come over all festive in early October! I was reminded of the strange timing of festive periodicals only recently (but still only at the end of October!) when I nipped into my wife’s hairdressers on the way home from a lying session for a quick trim. Mrs. C was already ensconced, taking it easy whilst waiting for some strange and powerful chemicals to take e fect underneath layers of tin foil on top of her head! ‘Would you like to see the latest magazines?’, o fered the stylist, handing…

If you’re not familiar, Ivinghoe Beacon, located in Buckinghamshire, approximately 40 miles north-west of London, is one of the oldest slope soaring sites in the UK. It is currently owned and managed by the National Trust. The Beacon is the site of an early Iron Age hillfort and archaeologists have also found evidence of Bronze Age human activity. Ivinghoe Beacon has also been the location for a number of Hollywood movies, including Star Wars - The Rise of Skywalker and four Harry Potter films: Half Blood Prince, Goblet of Fire and both Deathly Hallows movies. I’m assuming the area is used because of its proximity to Elstree film studios. If the script demands rolling hills, it’s on the doorstep, with the added bonus of no power pylons to edit out.…

Last month I tackled the repairs to the Bowmans Miles Magister. With that behind me I could get to work converting this old oil burner to clean electric power. An electric conversion can be split into two parts. First is the choice of motive power requirements and, second, the location, installation and accesses thereof. POWER REQUIREMENTS Let’s start with the motive power requirements. If you’ve not done a conversion before it can be quite daunting as there are a host of variables to consider. Power, cell count, motor kV and airspeed range, to name but a few. I like to start with the power requirement and then work my way back from that. Typically, I use the old watts per pounds rule of thumb as a starting point: Gliders and…

SEAGULL SWIFT V2 TRAINER £188.99 I www.jperkins.com Re-released and boasting all the high-lift, slow flight benefits of a parallel chord Clark-Y wing section, sturdy U/C, exposed upright engine and basic four-channel control, Seagull’s Swift V2 has all the ingredients required in a trainer. Balsa-built with an eye to strength and durability, the beautifully pre-finished laser-cut airframe is a quality platform for year-round flying in all weather conditions. It’s an ideal platform for those tentative first steps through solo flight and beyond. Mildly aerobatic and with a trike undercarriage option included, it also doubles as a sportster that the more experienced R/C pilot can enjoy on lazy days and summer evenings. 63” span for .46 two-stroke glow engines or 4S electric. SPARMAX ARISM MINI KIT – CHRISTMAS EDITION £198 I www.airbrushes.com…

There’s something undefinable about Old Warden airfield and The Shuttleworth Collection. Like so many others I wish I could put my finger on it. Driving in through the ‘new’ entrance and the long access road lifts the spirits, increases the heart rate and the day seems that much brighter. Arriving well before the Saturday flying session on a fine late-July day and parking close-by the R/C runway entrance, I was greeted by the inestimable ‘Emma the Organiser’ before a stumble around the sea of cars, already disgorging objects of aerial beauty, proved once more that building gorgeous model aircraft is an art still undertaken by a great many of our proponents. It’s true that ARTF aircraft have made inroads into the flying community, but they only serve to reinforce the…

MR. FLAIR Dudley Pattison, Mr. Flair himself, visited both 2024 Flair Fly-In days at Banbury Model Flying Club. Here he is with his own example of one of Flair’s best-selling models. Over 15,000 Puppeteer kits have been sold over the years. There was a strong cross wind at both Fly-Ins and Dudley chose to take off into the wind, across the runway. As I took the take-off shot, I could just imagine the pilot reporting back, “Blimey Duds, that’s a short runway but look how wide it is!” DATAFILE…

The latest FAI Scale World Championships took place in Ploiesti, Romania from August 11 - 17, 2024. PINNACLE OF SCALE I must confess I decided to attend the Scale World Championships, taking place in Romania at the start of August, with some trepidation. The preparations were lengthy and the trip costly, however I am really glad I went. I met so many wonderful like-minded individuals and would happily share a beer or a soft drink with them anytime. The models were amazing and the opportunity to see them was priceless, but the big thing I came away with was that we may all have different customs and different languages but, in the end, we are not that different - we all had scale model aeroplanes in common. This is the…

French novelist Marcel Proust once described how the smell of a pastry dipped in tea triggered a rush of joyful childhood memories. Autobiographical memories activated by the senses, mainly smell and taste, are among the most potent and influential. There is a science behind this but as I am not a scientist, nor pretend to be one, I will leave any scientific explanation to our readers and their own Google searches. It’s Friday night and after making sure the models I am going to fly on Saturday are airworthy and fully charged, I load my car with my flight box, transmitter, planes, fuel – plus bacon, eggs, coffee and milk (make sure you pack the important stuff!) Saturday morning comes along and it’s off to the flying field. I get…

I’m a real fan of single model competitions and mass builds. They encourage people to chop wood, get people talking, re-energise mojos, motivate minds and bring modellers together. Whilst we may thoroughly enjoy the solitude, the peace and the creativity attached to shutting ourselves in a shed with a build over the cold, dark months, we all still love to discuss the challenges involved, reveal our solutions and, ultimately, share the fruits of our labour and our workmanship with like-minded enthusiasts. Satisfaction relies on this stuff, as does getting together at the flying field, comparing our efforts, learning, admiring, flying and socialising with people who truly ‘get it’ and understand the skill, the dedication and the effort involved. Mass builds encompass all of these endearing facets and, crucially, give those…

The Bedford National League F3A competition, held on 4th August 2024, was hosted by the Bedford & District Aeromodelling Club (BDAC), near the famous Cardington airfield, formerly RAF Cardington, which housed Britain’s prototype airships in the 1920s. This domestic F3A event was run by long term UKF3A member Ross Donovan, with additional judges Garry Peacock, Keith Brightman and Keith Jackson. The National League events are open to all members of the UKF3A and allows them to fly in their respective classes, these being Clubman, Intermediate, Masters and FAI categories. They are a great way to get started in F3A and allow flying standards across the whole spectrum of ability to be observed. This event, slap bang in the middle of the F3A calendar, had a smallish entry of just 11…

FxRES, F3L and F5L are some of the fastest growing competition thermal soaring classes in the UK for 2M span thermal soarers limited to Rudder, Elevator, Spoiler (air-brake) control. They compete in a simple thermal duration competition. All classes are well support by BARCS, the British Association of Radio Controlled Soarers. More information can be found on the BARCS website. There are many different types of models flown in these events, many available as kits and some are designed and built by the pilots. This diversity and the fact that pilots can design and build their own competitive models make the class very attractive and relatively low cost, making them suitable for all who want to dabble in the competition arena. This article, I hope, is part of a short…

“The lyer with the most models wins”, someone once said. I think he was joking, although more than a few flyers have taken that to heart. It’s not unusual to hear of model collections numbering 30, 40, 50 or more and, in some ways, it’s easy to appreciate. Learning to fly is hard on airframes, most folks trash a few in the early stages, but there comes a point when proficiency is gained and the workshop starts to fill up. Model flyers are optimists. You have to be; for every disaster there will always be the calm summer morning, that golden evening, or a memorable day at the slope when lift can be taken for granted. Perhaps that explains why some are so reluctant to say goodbye to old models,…

When Lindsay Todd’s Skywriter (RC2124) was published in 2013 the thought of a semi scale biplane for everyday use tempted me. However, ‘just’ a sports scale biplane was not enough for me; it had to closely resemble an original. When I studied the Skywriter plans thoroughly and then compared them to a three-view of the Hawker Fury it clicked - wing dimensions, tail size, tail moment arms - all were a good fit. So, I set out to draw a stand-off scale Hawker Fury based closely on the aerodynamics and construction of the Skywriter. Having originally the same wing as the Skywriter she turned out to be about 1/8th scale. When I penned my drawing I decided on the Spanish variety, mainly because that one has an undercarriage that can…

Top letter For his letter this month Julian Chichester wins a compact e455 multi chemistry AC input charger courtesy of Overlander Batteries: www.overlander.co.uk PINEWOOD MODEL MAKER In response to Daniel Siddall’s letter in the October 2024 issue and the article on ‘The Battle of Britain’ film models that appeared in RCM&E in the July 1967 edition, I am sure for two reasons that this was the only article on the B of B models that was published. The first reason is that I’ve been a subscriber to RCM&E since 1964 and the second is that I worked at Pinewood Studios in 1968, under Chris Olsen, Mick Charles, et al, making the models. So, if there had been another issue or article after the July 1967 one I would almost…

The last 40 years have seen some big changes in the model airplane industry. ARTF models have grown in popularity alongside balsa and hardwood kits. White EPS Styrofoam and blue foam had been used for wing cores, but it was in the 1990s that companies like Multiplex pioneered the introduction of almost 100% foam models, employing their own much tougher foam. These aircra t were possible through the addition of carbon and plastic cleverly integrated into their design, o ten at the manufacturing stage. These models, however, o ten lacked the finish that can be achieved with wood and composite So, what if you are an aeromodelling enthusiast looking to enhance and protect your foam model? Look no further than Foam Finish from Deluxe Materials. Its highly adhesive formula can…

NEW STYLE For a new design Ton van Munsteren sometimes looks online for inspiration. Ton had the idea of building a glider for bungee launching and he came across a glider called Stylus, published by RCM in the USA in the late 1980s. The intention was not to hand launch but to shoot it skywards with a bungee so to reduce drag the fuselage was slimmed down and the aerofoil was modified to AG35, which was also made slimmer. It still looked a little like the Stylus but with so many changes a new name was called for, hence New Style. There are no ailerons on this 1260 mm wingspan model, only rudder and elevator. It’s not a di ficult model to build and it will be a nice glider…