Dave O'Brien and his prize-winning Camel

One year on from its last appearance on modelflight, Dave O'Brien reports prize-winning success with his beautiful scale F1 Sopwith Camel.

During the year that has passed, Dave won the Towner Trophy at the BMFA Southern Area Scale Day, Bickley, in Kent, and the Leatherhead Model Flying Club Trophy in 2005.

The model is 1/4 scale and is based on the Mick Reeves kit. It has a wingspan of 84" and is 54" long. Fitted in the cowl behind that impressive dummy engine is a Laser 200V engine.

I asked Dave if he would run round the model and point up all the special features and here is what he has told me.

The rigging wire is flat stainless steel, silver soldered to fork ends for adjustment. There are six servos in total, two for the ailerons, two for the elevators, one for the rudder and one for the throttle. They are all standard servos. Radio is a Futaba PCM set (Field Force 6). The prop is a 20 x 8, Master Airscrew.

The pitot tube is scratch built from brass and piano wire while the vacuum tubes are copper from electric cable. The ammunition chutes in the cowling were built from tin plate and the Rotherham pump was built from odds and ends of copper, brass, aluminium, etc. and then a propellor was carved from balsa wood and stained.
The pilot is from A H Designs with the windscreen cut from Perspex and tin plate.

Covering is linen Solartex and the top surfaces and fuselage are painted with Flair Spectrum PC10 (brown). All the insignia were hand painted directly onto the Solartex.The rib stitching and tapes were done with white glue and torn strips of Solartex (looks good).

On performance, Dave says, "The plane flies very nicely and looks superb in the air, it has a real presence, and has given me great pleasure."

Another nice conversion from Don Hofeldt

Great job again on the latest issue. I always enjoy hearing from you that a new issue is ready. I know you need new photos of people and airplanes so here is a 86" built up kit of a Bird Dog I have just done another electric conversion to. I use, as always, the AXI 4130 High Count geared motor, 1.5 to 1 with a Inner Demon gear box. It turns a 22/12 E prop and pulls about 29 amps - sorry, I don't know the RPMs right now. It is powered with a 14.8 and a 11.1 lipoly set up of batteries run in series. It flys well but you need to know how to work with the rudder in the turns. Seems to fly like a real full size plane.

Lucas Rizzi

- something a bit different ...

A couple of less familiar models on the gallery from Lucas Rizzi - top, his 40-inch electric Zoot Scoot park flyer designed by Dave Szuter; lower, his very interesting little Paramotor.

Jay Wiley - disappointing Fokker needs sorting!

Here is my latest project, the SIG ARF Fokker DVII electric. I've added ailerons to the top wing using the bell cranks from my destroyed Jenny. I've had a couple of test flights but poor results so far. The first flight staggered around and drifted into the side of my car. It bounced off and dropped to the ground unharmed. I've checked the radio again and believe it to be okay but I feel I need more nose weight even though it balances okay. I'm also going to increase the dihedral to try to make it more stable. The ailerons seem ineffective at times and it goes out of control. The Jenny was a rock solid flier so I'm rather disappointed with the results so far. It looks good though!

Philip Crandon

Garry Henderson-Smith sent these shots of a scale Fieseler Storch that flys at his club, Lismore Model Flying Club, Australia.

The model was built and is flown by Philip Crandon. It has a 94" wingspan and has occupied Phil's spare time over nine years, in between house building and raising his family. The undercarriage is fully functional as are the doors and engine cowl openings. Phil also flys regularly in glider competition and may use the Storch for towing.

Weighing in at around 14lb it is powered by an Enya 91 four stroke. Loads of detail makes it look great on the ground and well-mannered flight performance adds up to a very beautiful model, complete with reduced map of the local district in the map compartment of the door.

topside

underside

removable nose

Paul Cook tweaks his Topic

Paul writes, "I have managed to make a small model over the last few months, attached a few pictures. It's not very big but took me a while to build due to DIY. It is based on my Topic but slightly tweaked in size and plan form. Specs are as follows:

Span: 18"
Weight: 5.5oz
Motor: brushless Feageo 1230/4100 with 3x3" propeller
Batteries: Etec 3 series lipoly 700mAh
Servos: Ripmax SD100

The advantage of this model over the Topic is easy removal of the battery, as seen in the photos by the removable nose. Also the aerofoil is slightly thicker making radio installation a little easier. It flies well and flat out it goes like a rocket. Flight times are around 14 minutes depending how aggressive you are with the throttle."

See market place for the latest addition to Paul's range of Flight Line Plans

From Bill McKinney

Flown by Devin Rockwell, the Zero (back picture) is an ARF from Seagull, wingspan 58 ins, weight 6.5 lbs and powered by a Super Tigre .40 two-stroke - fast and very manoueverable.

The Fokker GR, flown by Ken Gibson, is built from a Great Planes kit; wingspan 60 ins, length 48 ins, weight 9 lbs, engine Saito .91 four-stroke.

Reg's new model

This is the new ARTF that I have put together since the last issue. It's the Seagull Bellanca Decathlon, 67.75 ins (1720 mm) wingspan, 50 ins (1270 mm) in length and fitted with a .40 two-stroke engine. It comes in an advanced state of construction, fully covered and with factory-installed pushrods and engine mount, and went together very well.

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