Fame at last!

Well, I thought it was a prank by Phil Cooke, but I seem to have made the cover of the UK's only aeromodelling magazine - RCM&E.

Scary!  Good news for the association though, and my 6 week Spitfire build :D

Spitfire maidened, and other PSS stuff

Nearly two weeks since the amazing PSSA meet on the Lleyn, it's time to get things back to normal with a few running repairs on aircraft, and getting the next airframe through into build.  The Spit went very well, held energy well in the turns, and felt quite locked in - not at all like my previous experience of flying a model Spit I must admit.

The Spit received some damage on the second landing of the day, where the tufty landing area stopped the wings abruptly and the fuselage wanted to keep going!  An hour or two in the workshop and she's all repaired again.

The Tiffie continues to impress, so much so she / I won "Best Flown Piston Model", which I was quite chuffed about.  The conditions were great for her, and proves that lighter winds (30ish vs 55mph+ on the maiden) are in her capability.

All photos courtesy of Phil Cooke.

So what's next? I'm not too sure myself, there are a few build in the queue of course - B24, F20, C17, FW190 etc. but I'm getting back into power planes a bit at the moment having joined the local club earlier in the year. 

It's 4 more weekends until the Orme meet, so there won't be any new PSS aircraft from me for that meet, but I hope to get something else done before the year is out - I've completed and flown 3 brand new PSS models so far this year though.

6th scale Supermarine Spitfire Mark IX, for PSS

Just a quick assembled shot from yesterday, we're getting there slowly.

6th scale Supermarine Spitfire Mark IX, for PSS

I won this glass fuselage a while ago on ebay, which was apparently a Mick Reeves product, but I'm not so sure.  I think it was a copy of one of his units, as the panel lines and rivet detail is there, but very feint.

Sixth scale fus next to the Tiffie

Once the Tiffie and Seahawk were finished, I needed a new project to get my teeth into, so here she is.  I'm still moving the C17 along with a view to having her flight ready this year, but that's just non stop glassing.  I like to have an aiframe I can pop in to the workshop and do the odd 10 or 15 minute's worth of work on, rather than having to be there at least half an hour as is the case with the glassing on the C17.

Anyway, I ordered a set of foam wings from Cloud Models, that were very nicely cut, with spars, and veneer epoxied on.  A quick bench fly (ok, floor fly):

Wings have LE added:

Big block of foam for the under nose area.  This is usually engine access on an MR spit:

Shavings - wings start shaping up:

Tip on (ply core), and shaped along with LE:

First aileron cut out and faced:

Both ailerons complete and hinged:

First servo box going in.  My usual Corona MG HV digitals here:

Wings joined with two quarter inch dihedral braces :

Foam nose part shaped and two layers of glass :

A few more jobs to do yet, then!  I hope to have her done for a maiden on the Lleyn Peninsula at the end of June, should be do-able.