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Welcome to TONY BAKER, ANDREW GISBY, DAVID HUTT, ROGER ILSLEY, GEORGE JARVIS, RAY WILLIAMS, DAVID SIMMONDS and SCOTT THOMPSON who have all been in touch for the first time - meet George on personal profiles. 

Hi Reg,

Have you forgotten that you were trying to get some detail on the Piper Cub seen in issue 35? I was reminded by the Alvaro Riasco Cub. By the way, I may be wrong but the J3 and the Super Cub were different aircraft I believe??? The S Cub had a totally cowled motor whilst the J3's flat engine protruded through the engine cowl. Doubtless someone will put us both right in issue 38!

I am particularly interested in the Cub as the Ford Popular of the air almost. I don't suppose you could try in your reporting to indicate sources of the built up aircraft kits or plans could you? Though I have an ARTF Cub, I want soon to build one as I am not in the least impressed with the quality of the one I have. Nor does it fly in a pleasant way.

Best wishes

Geoff G

I hadn't forgotten Geoff's request for detail of Dave Hutt's Cub which was shown on #35, but was waiting for the information. David kindly came back to me with the details, and for others who may be interested, his letter is below right. 

Geoff is quite right about the different Cubs - my reference to a J3 Super Cub is a non-existent hybrid! Pictured left to right below, the J3 Cub, the Super Cub and a close-up of its cowl. The Super Cub pictures are from http://cubcrafters.com and the J3 from http://www.cmac.org.au 

Insofar as source information is concerned, where I reproduce pictures from other web sites there is often very little detail given, but if you send pictures to me of your own creations, perhaps you could try and give this additional bit of information concerning the source of the kit or plans - in fact, the more information, the better. 

Thanks for the great rave you have published about my site. My hit counter will probably need a grease and oil change after this!

Regards,

Dave

My pleasure, Dave! Dave was referring to the item on his Australian Control Line Nostalgia site, to which there is a permanent link on the personal enthusiasts' sites links page. If you haven't looked at it yet, I'm sure you'll love it when you do!

Here's David Hutt's reply to Geoff's interest in his Piper Cub.

Thank you for your interest in my Piper Cub. It is built from a "Great Planes" Kit. Scale 1 to 4.6 Wing span 92"

Weight 12.25lb Wing Area 8.1 sq ft. Wing loading 24 oz per sq ft.

Built basically from the kit plus Cub Main Wheels and sprung tail wheel.

Covered entirely in Olive Drab Solartex. All insignia painted on with Flair paint. U.S. Army colours.

Thanks, Dave, and welcome to ModelFlight!

I belong to a flying club in Kent and I fly mainly electric. Last winter I did a bit of indoor flying as the weather / foot and mouth restricted my outdoor activities.

At the moment I am flying Simprop Lift Off with an Alex 1406 /2Y plus Robbe gearbox & 8 cells. I also fly an Aveox Embat with 1406/4Y no gearbox 10 cells. I have just converted a Kyosho ARFT Spitfire to electric, Aveox 1409/2Y 16 cells Robbe gearbox but this is yet to be flown.

I also fly various 400 models, I won't bore you with the list!!

I am a member of the MAA and have been to the flying holidays at Filey & Devon where I mainly do slope soaring .

. . . Nice to have found your website!

Roger

Hi

I am a member of Cape Radio Flyers from Cape Town, South Africa.

Do you know of anyone with a good set of plans for a Zero with approximately a 62" wing span - although this is not an issue as I can scale them up or down. I plan to fit an OS 91 Surpass to it.

Many Thanx

Ray Williams

rayblue@mweb.co.za 

I found some plans from Wing Manufacturing for a Type "O" Zero scale model - perhaps there are others available?

Noticed the "new" engine on your Citabria. As a "layman", i.e. not a reviewer for the mags, what's your opinion on these engines. I think price-wise they seem to be fairly competitive with the standard four-strokes, but I'm just a bit interested in their performance, particularly against the Laser engines.

Thanks for your e-mail Johnny - it's nice to hear from you.

With regard to the RCV 60 engine, I'm hoping it's going to be a good one but I have yet to find out! I've only seen one before, and that was when a chap at our club brought it up to run it in at the field, already installed in his model. It was not flown on that occasion, but it certainly sounded nice!

However, I was a bit worried when Bob Nicol told me that Dennis Richardson had installed a RCV 120 in his new Spitfire (see photo gallery) and had since returned it to the manufacturer because it nearly shook his model to pieces!

In fairness, though, the manufacturer's manual does point out that due to the 2:1 gearing on the prop, torque reaction forces are double that normally expected from a conventional four stroke. They state that the most noticeable effect of the 2:1 gearing on the operation of a model is that the torque pulses transmitted back to the airframe are double that normally expected and "tortional oscillations applied to the airframe are greater". This in itself does not cause any problems, they say, but it does mean that ground running should always be done with the wings firmly attached, by which they mean BOLTED to the fuselage, and that the construction of the fuselage around the engine mount, and between the engine mount and the wings must be very rigid. Modellers are advised to try to avoid large hatches in the fuselage in this region, and to ensure all materials used are of suitable quality.

Whilst I was visiting the Sandown Model Symposium, I had a word with Laurenne Mansbridge of RCV Engines who said that they actually recommend the placing of a thin aluminium plate between the engine retaining nuts and the back of the fire wall in order to spread the load a bit and to help avoid the tendency of the bolts to bite into the firewall when the engine is running.

Currently the RCV engine is manufactured in two sizes - the 60 and the 120 - and Laurenne also told me that they are introducing a 90-size engine in August this year.

By the way, Johnny, how's the Friday Skivers Club going, I wonder?

Good morning Reg, the presentation looks great, it is great to have people like yourself promoting the hobby -  keep up the good work. It is appreciated that you chose our club.

From all club members -  thanks

Ed

Thanks, Ed; it was nice of you to bother to write - much appreciated!

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• How's that new kit progressing?
• Got a question that someone might be able to answer?  

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