Índex per February 2026 a RCM&E

Welcome to the February 2026 issue of RCM&E. It could be just me, but although winter has well and truly settled in, bringing with it the usual dank and dreary conditions, there have been quite a few fine lying days to enjoy too. Dare I say, they could soon even begin to outnumber the number of good lying days we enjoyed last summer, too many of which were spoilt by gusty, bumpy conditions even when the sun was shining. On one such fine winter’s day my clubmates and I gathered to inspect the newly laid gravel track down to our local lying patch. This had been torn up during autumn by some heavy farm machinery, leaving the already rutted road in a very poor state. But on this day the…

Ahead of the BMFA RC Indoor Scale Nationals in England, 26-27 April 2025, I thought it was time for a new competition model. Making an R/C scale model for indoor use is really like any scale model building but with the important exception that you have to be able to build light enough for the model to be able to fly slowly too. This adds an extra layer of complexity. Every tenth of a gram of unnecessary weight must be questioned and sometimes it is difficult to really understand what really weighs the most. As an example, a piano wire detail, i.e. pure steel, seems heavy but a piece of steel of 0.5 mm wire in a landing gear might add, say, two grams, while the paint on an entire…

MAGNETIC BUILDING BOARDS One advantage of using a magnetic building board is that models that are built on them do not end up with any pinholes in their structures. Another advantage is that the fixtures are used to hold the pieces square as well as firmly to the board. I have seen some pictures online where modellers have crafted some wonderful magnetic creations by using a 3D printer. It’s a great idea if you have one of those at your disposal, but I do not own a 3D printer. This set my mind ticking about what materials were available that could be modified to use on my own version of a magnetic board. I thought about maybe using nicely squared and sanded wooden blocks with magnets in, which do work,…

This is the third and final model in a tranche of three offerings and, yet again, it pays homage to a classic British jet fighter of the 1960s and 70s. Although the Tornado didn’t enter service until 1979 its design was embedded in the 1960s. FOUR PROTOTYPES The Tornado has always been a favourite of mine, but it did require four prototypes to get right. The model originally started as a twin 50 mm EDF version with a wingspan of 40”. This first prototype was a little overweight and used a plastic electric retract unit. Although the concept was sound and the principles of the swing-wing geometry was almost mastered, it crashed when the power-hungry model ran out of battery on a low pass and planted itself into a small…

One cannot help but wonder how this hobby has changed over time. With pre-built foamies or wooden airplanes, available with factory installed servos, gyros and who-knows-what, life has certainly become easier for the novice model pilot. However, I feel that we also need to be conscious of the fact that with the separation between building and flying, much of what used to be common knowledge in model aeroplane design and maintenance has now disappeared. I will leave it up to our readers to decide if they consider that to be a good development or not. Personally, designing and building a model and then see it take to the air gives me so much more satisfaction than flying an ARF. In recent years, I have enjoyed the process of successfully converting…

RAF FE2b March issue’s pull-out Pro-Plan is a bit of a treat and something a little bit di ferent. As promised in Mats Johansson introductory article about building his amazing lightweight scale model for Indoor Open Scale events (see page 18 of this issue) we will be publishing a copy of his detailed plans so that you too can build your very own WWI pusher biplane. Although designed for lying indoors in large sports halls the FE2b can also be lown outdoors in calm conditions as Mats relates when testing it for the first time, “I test lew the model outdoors in the middle of the Swedish winter, when we had a snowless December, in completely calm but cold weather at minus 7 degrees C! The take-o f took place…

After a long period of inclement weather conditions, the forecast for Saturday the 8th of November last year stood out for its apparent lack of rain, along with a lull in ever present gales. On the downside there was going to be an uncharacteristic lack of draught from a less than favourable direction. A change to the club’s rules some years ago means that the use of sustainers is now permitted, although for the purpose of height gain only. Hotliners need not apply! So, it was no surprise that when your author turned up at the hill ‘moustaches’ were much in evidence. To those poor souls not steeped in the art and application of gliding, poling a model though smooth air in an utterly predictable manner is absolute balm to…

1 PHILIPP SCHNEIDER MODELLBAUSERVICE This company presented wooden constructions of various models from their Friendly series, including the Loop, a lively motorised all-rounder for aerobatics, leisure soaring or glider towing, plus the WoodRay and various flying wing models. There is certainly something interesting in their range for the woodworkers among us model builders. 2 POWERBOX SYSTEMS Model aircraft telemetry and display in special heads-up glasses is not entirely new, not even for users with PowerBox CORE transmitters. However, with the latest transmitter software version 3.8 what is new is that only the special glasses themselves are required and no other hardware is necessary. Otherwise, visitors could find out about a wide range of PowerBox products from Richard Deutsch and his team. 3 PS MODELS The quality and performance of the…

Okay, that sounds back-to-front, but ever more reliable radio control over the past few decades has resulted in many models surviving, where once they would have been re-kitted ‘with extreme prejudice’. A great many of these models remain in flyable order, only being ‘retired’ through lack of space or builder/pilot boredom with the device. There’s nothing to be ashamed of in acquiring an older model, especially if you have limited time to assemble or build aircraft, or even - perish the thought! - dislike the process. As a reckless gatherer of various motley models, I was recently gifted a gorgeous old design that mate Andy Gough had collected as a dilapidated wreck and lovingly renovated. He no longer flies it and as it would no long fit within his own…

Your first reaction when seeing this model might well be, “What on God’s Earth!” Well, at least that would be a printable one! The ‘young in mind’, like yours truly, will remember the opening sequences of ‘Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines’ where some bizarre contraptions, a few of them multi-planes, appeared. Aviation was in its infancy, many avenues were tried, with the least successful ones being discarded along the way. I’m sure you all know of the Sopwith Triplane and some will have been lucky enough to see the ‘late production’ aircraft flying at Old Warden. Nieuport, a contemporary of Sopwith, was one of the better known and successful French aircraft manufacturers during WWI and afterwards, up until the early 1930s, specialising mainly in fighter aircraft. As far…

BOWERS FLY BABY €225 I www.rbckits.com Designed by Pete Bowers, the Fly Baby is a single-seat, open-cockpit homebuilt that first lew in 1962. Built from plans, this easy to build and ly design required no more than a garage, basic handyman skills and tools to create. More than 500 have been completed to date, many examples of which are still lying today. Easy to ly and capable of mild aerobatics, this 1790 mm span model from RBCkits is a very faithful representation. Designed for electric power (type 34 or 41 motor, 35 - 50A ESC and 4S 3200 to 5000 LiPo recommended), the kit includes CNC cut ‘tab lock’ ribs and formers that assemble to form the core of an extremely accurate three-piece airframe, with removable wings making for easy…

The sixties were a time of several major developments in building and flying of radio controlled aeroplane models. Radio equipment was still in its infancy, with many home-made transmitters. What was available from the various manufacturers at the time could be very unreliable. In the second half of the decade proportional radio was introduced, be it at horrendous prices. Competitions, then as now, were used to test new developments. Competitors in the UK, Germany and the USA really paved the way to what is available nowadays and we regard as standard. A CHAMPIONSHIP DESIGN The German National Championships in R/C aerobatics had been dominated by the same names for several years, when in 1968 a young man called Heinz Elsässer became the new German Champion in what was then known…

Despite the title of this month’s article, I’m not usually a slave to making myself all sorts of promises come the first day of the New Year. It would be pointless as I’d only break most of them in pretty short order. But here’s a short list of some of the things I’d like to do in the months ahead… STORAGE WOES A much-needed task is to tidy up my storage unit. Located in a nearby industrial estate, this is where I keep my models and some of the paraphernalia connected to RCM&E that I don’t need access to quickly. It’s also the place where I keep archive copies of the magazine. It’s only a small lock-up, say the size of a small box bedroom, but, boy, it’s getting crowded…