A4 Skyhawk printed parts

Building a Skyhawk for the PSSA mass build?  I've modelled and printed this refuelling probe that uses McDonald's drinking straws for the tubes.  This one will be going to Phil Cooke for starters, and after he's fitted and trialled it, I will offer them up for sale.

Sunday night Pike flying at Burton Dassett

I braved the M40 on Sunday night to go over to my local club slope at Burton Dassett country park, and was surprised to see I was the only flier there.  The wind was around a bit westerly for the SW slope, but the Pike and the newly-refitted Carbon Mini Blade went well.

Arty HDR shot

Fly with right hand, phone taking pics in left hand!

Some big clouds came steaming through - lots of knobbly lift.

White horse big air and Su27 repairs

I had a great time on my favourite inland slope last weekend - the Westbury White Horse.  The best of these slopes is really the northerly ridge which is very long, and has nothing in front of it for a dozen or more miles - just the flat flood plains of the Wiltshire Avon.

The above shots are from the car park - in the first picture you can see the start of the westerly slope as the hummock on the far right of the horizon line.  The westerly slope lets you actually fly over the ancient white horse itself - a very steep slope you would not want to land out on.  There is a shelf to the far right that can be used in emergencies, but to be honest I've never had variable lift on these slopes, that I've been flying since the late 80's.

Pictures by Shona again of course!

So the Hawk went well as always, but the Flanker didn't get away too great from two launches - I think she was flying with way too much up-trim from the Bwlch visit where the air wasn't as great, and refused to push out into lift.

The first launch resulted in Shona putting a thumb through the bottom of the wing skin (oops!) and the second launch by me resulted in a landing behind the launch point.  It looked like she came down softly, but cracked the top skin on the fuselage around the hatch, and dislodged an interior aileron linkage too.

So the repairs, then :

Crack sanded down both sides of RX hatch

Top skin removed around aileron linkage

Balsa infill where thumb went through

Cracks gone and painted, rear cut-out panel glued back in too

Albatross builds - cockpit update

I took this photo last week, but forgot to post it.  It's the first L59 just before it goes into final paint, showing off her cockpit details.

Obviously the tape will come off first, but I'm pretty happy with the way the cockpit moulding went.  

F15C build - introduction

At the weekend, I found this lovely little glass-and-wood F15C on one of the trader's stands.  I did like it, and so did Shona.  After walking away, I asked her to go back and make a cheeky offer for it - she did, and it worked!

...So technically I didn't buy this one! :)

Here it is :

Lovely isn't she?  It's from a HET kit, that would have been for EDF, but we'll have none of those noise makers in this little birdy thankyou!  The fuselage is all lightweight glass mouldings, including the verticals.  The wing is fully built up, and the taiplanes are solid balsa.

Mod's will be quick and simple :

• Remove the verticals, make them slot-in (after MiG29's tails have been snapped off many times)
• Make tailerons into all-flying-tail
• Some carbon reinforcement in the nose
• Cut-in ailerons, add servo tray in the front for all 3 servos
• Mould new canopy.

I was going to go for a fancy Japanese aggressor scheme, but I've had enough of complicated spray jobs.  This will most likely be 2-tone tactical grey, just like what can be seen flying through the Mach loop.

Onwards!

A great weekend!

What a great weekend, with the best of company and pretty good weather too.

My first trip to Weston Park was brilliant - loads of great aircraft and precision flying, loads of laughs and loads of sun.  I even bought some models, oops!  I also came away with a great big stash of balsa and liteply, ready for this and next year's projects.

Amazing quality B2 Spirit, turbine powered.   I didn't see it fly though :(

Amazing pyros and fun-fighter flying!

Sunday was all about one special lady - XM655 at Wellesbourne.  I will get some photos up of her soon doing her fast taxi, as they are all on the big camera.

I will also update the blog shortly with some details on the new air-frames too - 4 powered aircraft and 1 new PSS!

L59 build progress - cockpit and paint

The first L59 (or L39..whatever) is approaching its paint stage - I just need to get the cockpit detail done first.

Without cockpit

With cockpit, a quick bit of bench flying

Pilots with primer

Pilots now being hand-painted, in between waiting for the glue to dry on Seahawk planking!

Hawker Seahawk progress - Planking

I'm really getting in the groove again on the Seahawk, and enjoying the planking again.  Progress has been swift and I've been marking the plan up with improvements as I go, because I'd like to make a second with removable wings at some point.

From this..

To this...

..And a bit more of this!

I'm off to Weston Park model show on Saturday, so will look at picking up some bits and pieces for her - mainly some more balsa but there isn't a great deal to go on now.  Can't wait to get this one flying!  Which reminds me, I need to look at colour schemes again and make a final decision.

Vulcan progress - done!

I managed it.  3 resprays on the wings, last minute lacquer, and programming on the hill, but she made it!

She didn't get to fly unfortunately as the wind didn't play ball, but there you go - such is slope soaring!  I'll keep the Vulc on "Ready 1", and make a special maiden trip up to the Big Rock when the conditions come good before the Lleyn hopefully.

So that's 3 meets this year with 3 new aircraft.  Can I keep it up? What do you think!  With 2 months to go until the Lleyn, I have plenty (!) of time to finish off the Seahawk and secret project number 1.  Easy :)

Vulcan progress - paint disaster! & PSS forecast

Well it was all going so well, until this :

In my haste to get her finished, I used the cheapo masking tape to back up the blue vinyl tape.  I thought that the cheap stuff would need some extra persuasion to stick, so used a seam roller to flatten it all down before paint.  Now, this is a method I have used before  on masking, but not with acrylic paint - usually when using 2K or enamels, which bond a LOT better than the water based stuff.

So, not only did the cheap stuff fetch the paint off, the vinyl did too - right down to the Oracover.  Balls.  So you can see I have started re-applying blue vinyl on the green now, and I will pick up some more Frog tape "yellow" tonight.  I have to go into town anyway to get the satin varnish, but it's something I'd rather not have to do.  Live and learn!

So the weather, then.  At the beginning of the week, it looked good enough to fly everything in the fleet this weekend.  Now - it's turned crap.  No wind, plenty of rain.  Balls.  Rhossili is looking fine with a handy SW  / W that should be good enough to get the Vulcan away, so I will leave it until Thursday night then decide where to go.