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Don't imagine your model is 'too ordinary' to appear here. Trainers, ARTF's, foamies, helicopters, gliders and soarers, jets, scale, blimps and novelties and anything else that is a flying model, powered or free flight, is welcome and don't forget, modelflight is not only r/c! |
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All
pictures on this page are thumbnails - left-click to view a larger
version
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Time for my favourite job of the
year - a look back at the magnificent models that have graced the opening
screen of modelflight over the last twelve months.
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THIS MONTH'S COVER SUBJECT
John
Wheater's Lancaster
John has completed his Lancaster that was featured in some detail on last month's 'work in progress' page, and has sent these lovely evocative shots of the completed model. John's black and white digital montage (below right) which he has entitled 'The Final Pee' has tremendous atmosphere and really seems to capture something of the tension of the occasion when these big boys went off for a night's deadly work, don't you think? Click each thumbnail to get the full impact of these great pics!
The model is the Priory Kits Lancaster; it has a 6-foot span and is designed for four 400 brushed motors. The kit is designed to be hand-launched, but John has modified it and fitted retracts - something which he says took a bit of doing, balancing strength with lightness. The finished weight of the model came out at 5 lbs 5-3/8 ozs (2.4 kg).
Jeff Murray & Son
"My son and I have started flying together in the last year or so. This is a great way to spend some time together enjoying a past time we both think is great.
"The FourStar 40 (above) is a kit that my son Russ, 14, built over the course of last winter. He did an amazing job of building it. We hope to have it in the air this weekend at a fly-in. The weather man is predicting snow and wind for the weekend but it is still four days away and one thing about the weather in Alberta, it can change in 5 minutes.
"The Super-Stearman (left) is an ARF that I received
last Christmas. Due to the unusually wet spring and summer we experienced
in western Canada this year we have not had the time we wanted to fly
so this one has not yet lifted off. We
have instead flown the 25 year old Falcon 56 Mk II as much as possible.
This (right) is a picture of it before I "re-kitted"
the wing. I obtained another wing kit from Carl Goldberg and it is back
in the air again."
Constellation Model Flying Club
We kick off this selection of pictures from the Constellation MFC website gallery with Terry Cosh's magnificent 1/4 scale model of an A1 Crawford (above) - a 1930's homebuilt aircraft. Powered by a 120 Magnum 4 Stroke. Terry's Father built this aircraft as a full size at 21 years old in 1930.
two entries in the Shepparton Mammoth Scale Fly-in:
and
two from the Golden Era Ace Race event:
Kurt
Meyer built this 1/4 Scale Model of a Tiger Moth. The full-sized
aircraft lives at the Jet Aircraft Museum at Parafiled Airport. The model
is powered by a Saito 120.
Wayne Clancy - Skymaster update
"A few months ago I sent some progress pics [work in progress, #95, April 2005] of my Aviomodelli Skymaster, above. Well, unfortunately this time I'm sending some pics of the result of its one and only flight.
"A quick resumé of the story. The plane was finished by late August. Good weather saw three weekends of engine runs, taxi runs, etc., that revealed that the original wheels were not supporting the 8.5KG weight and were seriously slowing the plane down on our grass field. Note that the weight was 2 kilos over the manufacturers specification but I read other modellers had built to this weight apparently with no problems! A change to bigger wheels and a pitch change on the props seemed to have the desired effect but after four weekends speed was still lacking. A close cut of the grass on the Friday saw ideal conditions on the morning of the 24th September. Several taxi runs on the hard baked runway with the shortest grass it had seen in a long time and with the twin engines giving a lovely droning sound as they went in and out of synch I was convinced that it was time.
"Starting
the roll out from as far south on the strip as I could get, I left it
as long as possible before pulling lightly back on the stick - takeoff,
but not for long. I believe that the speed was marginal at best though
the ease of the rotation might indicate otherwise; in any case, my climb
was certainly too steep and with hindsight I should have allowed a far
flatter climb at this weight off a grass strip. Whatever, the result at
about 2m altitude was a stalled left wing that caused the plane to cart
wheel on contact. The damage is reasonably bad with both booms severed
and the nose totally amputated and lots of other less catastrophic but
equally serious damage. So, lots learned (You can always have too much
weight but never enough power I think sums it up) and surprisingly my
motivation not too quenched."
Pete Masters' latest additions
Pete Masters has certainly been busy since last he was in touch, adding a variety of models to his fleet, as you see here.
1
2
3
4
5
1 and header picture. PSS version of the Hurricane Mk I 1939/40 version.
2. The X-wing - a foam wing with a brushless motor on the back. 'Rocket' comes to mind when air borne and very good when power off on the slope or cliff.
3. The Predator 500 with which Pete has fitted a 700 brushless motor with 14 volts up its wiring which makes it go very well. it has a 54- inch wing span.
4. Stan Yeo's new model called the Bedlam, a 60-inch wingspan high-wing version of the Mayhem.
5. A nice little gun ship - a birthday present for Pete from the lovely Maggs (modelflight pin-up of the year, see below) and the family.
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Please email your pictures together with details if possible - state if kit, plan or scratch built, scale, wingspan, engine or power train details and any special touches that will be of interest to fellow-modellers. If possible, please send pictures as .jpeg or .gif files. Don't worry about file sizes; in fact, large pictures are ideal as they allow for the possibility of cropping and resizing to obtain the best from your images. If your graphics software gives you compression options for .jpeg files, please carry out the minimum amount of compression possible ('high quality' settings). After I have processed your pictures, I will compress them as little as possible to achieve the best compromise between final file size and image quality. |
Canard
from Rupert Kosmala
Following
the interest in canard designs expressed by Don Santee on last month's
'postbox', Rupert has sent these pictures of a pusher canard model he
built some time ago.
Rupert
did not keep any records about this particular model, although he recalls
that the foreplane was of the "flying" variety and was hinged
at 25% chord. He writes, "This was a docile flyer, well within the
capabilities of the average Sunday flier."
Pete Young goes skiing
Attached is a picture of my electric Hangar 9 Funtana S on skis - over 800 watts power developed, 6 1/4 lbs AUW, flies terrifically!
I had previously flown the plane with 2x8 cell NiCds @ 2400 mah resulting in a 87 watts/lb metric (50 watts/lb is sport performance, 100 is mild aerobatics). I subsequently upgraded the ESC to allow power bursts up to 70 amps (was previously limited to 40) and put in a 6000 mah 4S3P LiPo - which dropped the AUW by one pound while upping the watts/lb to 127 - a 150% improvement!
We maidened
the newly fitted plane on Saturday (10th December). At full power it ski'd
forward, rotated quickly, then blasted out at a very steep> climb angle
in a shower of snow - spectacular! The plane now has the thrust/weight
of a fairly high performance park flier while possessing the handling
and tracking of a "big" plane - very satisfying.
Bud Carlson tracks down that NEAT model
Bud Carlson has done some good detective work and tracked down the beautiful little unspecified model that was shown on the November issue of modelflight. Bud brought the picture back from the 2005 NEAT (Northeast Electric Aircraft Technology) Fair but unfortunately he had no details then about this lovely model of an Albatros D-11.
Recently
Bud has found some detail information on this 22 oz. electric model including
the builder's name and was surprised to learn that it started life as
a diesel-powered model back in 1979/80. It is that old and was built by
a Steven Stratt who is shown holding it in the picture on the right,
which also appears on the November issue. Mr Stratt drew plans for this
Albatros model in 1980. Marketed under the name of Airdrome Models, plans
and 1/3, 1/4 or 1/6 scale kits of this model are available from both Arizona
Models and Scale
RC Models who are featured on our site
seeing page this month. Arizona Models describe Steven Stratt's plans
as some of the most detailed plans they have ever seen.
Bud
has sent another image (left) of this little wonder as scanned
from a model magazine dated June 1980. They had a feature article on this
model which was relatively new in 1980. As you can see, it is the same
aircraft. The pilot is rigged to the rudder control so he swivels when
rudder is applied. Perhaps of interest, the 1980 article states that this
was Steven Stratt's first R/C model ever and hadn't built or designed
models since the 1930's when he flew rubber powered models. He was awarded
the best scale entry at the 2005 NEAT fair with this vintage aircraft.
Here (above) is another little beauty of Steven Stratt's that Bud captured at the NEAT Fair - this time his Dornier Zeppilin D.1 - for which plans and kits in several scale sizes are also available through the two links shown above. The 1/6 version has a wingspan of 78.6 inches and is suitable for a 40 Astro Cobalt motor (or .60 glow).
IF IT'S A FLYING MODEL THEN THIS IS THE PAGE TO DISPLAY IT!