Table of contents for April 2022 in RCM&E

Welcome to the April 2022 issue of RCM&E. As I write this month's Welcome piece Storm Eunice is battering the UK, bringing havoc in her wake. This looks likely to be the worst UK wide storm for several decades and this time the weather gurus appear to have got their forecasts pretty much spot on. I hope that our UK readers came through it okay, and with your model workshop roofs intact! Now I know I have voiced my frustration with weather forecasts before, especially those provided by weather apps, but it seems I may have been guilty of misinterpreting the information they provide... One of the apps I regularly check before flying is BBC Weather. Recently, I spotted a link to a video by BBC Weather presenter and meteorologist…

Without further ado, here's a pair of tiddlers for this episode. One has a twangy elastic band and the other has a super capacitor. How fashionably diverse we are! VMC CORSAIR Given the success of my initial foray into rubber-powered tomfoolery with the re-issued Keil Kraft Gipsy last summer, I thought I'd have a bash at something a little smaller and more fiddly. The Vintage Model Company was founded in 2012 and besides producing many existing designs their designer, Andrew Darby, has been hard at work producing new designs and models as well. After browsing both their comprehensive website - https://www. vintagemodelcompany.com/ - as well as watching several of their construction videos on YouTube, I decided to plump for an 18” rendition of one of my favourite aeroplanes, the F4U…

Sometimes, a low sun combines with a lingering mist and can create conditions like no other, camera wise. Thus, it was, when the posse foregathered at County Model Flying Club in mid January of this year, I was pretty quick to attach the camera to as many of my models as possible to capture the moment… PROJECT CONCLUSION In the fullness of time the reduced-scale version of the Rhonadler 35 sat on the bench, all the I's crossed and T's dotted (I have my own way of doing things!) With a generous wing area and an all-up-weight of around 12lbs, this was in no way going to be a lead sled, but the outcome was going to interesting. To recap, I say interesting because, as with the larger version, this…

Close to Christmas, I spent a great day with friends up at the St Helens Indoor Club. The session was organised by indoor die-hard Eric Strefford, who dished out the mince pies and kept us in order. It was great to see Eric's latest model, an SE5a in Depron, which flew very well indeed. Also of interest was the Westland Widgeon of Andy Bowman, which flew really well and looked very stable indeed, especially in pitch, often a difficult achievement. A model that always is a delight to see was Graham Green's wonderful Halifax. This always reminds me of the Airfix kits we built as kids, the difference being that Graham's flies, and flies well too. Graham told me that it has been flying for at least eight years and…

Martin-Baker I was a very lucky boy recently and very privileged to be given special permission by the Martin-Baker Aircraft Co. Ltd. to visit their hangar at Chalgrove in Oxfordshire, fulfilling a long-held ambition to photograph my fleet of Martin-Baker aircraft alongside their current aircraft. As a child I was brought up in a house where both my late father and older brother worked for Martin-Baker. As a consequence, I have heard many stories about Sir James Martin, the inventive engineering genius behind Martin-Baker. One of my Dad's favourite tales was that when Sir James would hire anyone, his joke was to say: ‘I'll pay you X amount a week, plus whatever you can nick!’ Then there was the day my brother's departmental boss flew his own vintage aircraft from…

DOUBLE PRO PLAN! GYROO Join us next month for a feast of Pro-Plan features as we bring you not just one, but two free R/C model plans! We start with Gyroo. Richard Harris's goal was to create a simple multi-task autogyro that would be perfect for gyro beginners yet equally enticing for more experienced gyro nuts wanting to try aerobatics. It uses widely available workshop materials, predominantly lite-ply and spruce, producing a rugged and moderately cost airframe, powered by a 3S 2200mah LiPo and incorporating a Coolwind Razor head unit. DOUBLE PRO PLAN! PECCADILLO Keith Thomas has enjoyed a love affair with delta gliders for 45 years, and believes that they still stack up well, being compact, cheap to build and equip, offering excellent handling, combined with good speed and…

“...the first thing you see is the large fuselage and the short stubby wings” Our ATOMRC Dolphin kit was supplied by Neil Jones of www.flightech.co.uk for review. Although FPV ready, Neil is selling this model as a small, fun aerobat, which is perfect for throwing in the back of the car as a break from his customers’ more usual competition standard gliders. It's just the thing for a quick flight whilst recharging the batteries for your bigger models. On opening the box, the first thing you see is the large fuselage and the short stubby wings, all moulded in extremely strong EPP foam. Two nose cones are provided, one for a GoPro and the other for the standard nose. All of the small items needed to build the Dolphin are…

The thing is, nowhere feels easier for flying scale models than Old Warden. Barkston Heath is a delight, with all that space and all that tarmac. Ashbourne is noted for its camaraderie, and the food. Then again, the big LMA events manage to pack in a lot of spectacle and usually some drama. However, Old Warden steals my heart every time. First of all, you can walk up from the flying field straight into the famed Shuttleworth Collection, which is world class. Then there is the picture-perfect local village and its traditional houses, which are quintessentially British. Then there are those long summer evenings with a mix of flying, camping and BBQs. Trust me, Old Warden has it all. CAMPING IT UP Last July, with all the lockdown restrictions in…

ARROWS F-86 SABRE £189.99 I www.jperkins.com Arrows Hobby is making EDF ownership increasingly more attractive with its range of unencumbered, performance EPO jets. Employing the same design principles as the outstanding 64mm Marlin, equipped with the same powertrain and sporting the same authoritative performance, the 64mm 4S F-86 is every bit as good, with the added bonus of being modelled on one of the most iconic fighters of the early jet age. With an aerobatic envelope to rival the very best that the EDF world can offer it's also a jet that'll look after you when you're finding your feet but will also challenge you when you've found them. From large sky-eating loops to locked-in knife-edge, through slow, full-flap passes and everything in between, the versatile F-86 will quickly become…

All Write CAA TAPED UP Like many modellers I received my new CAA registration details for the current year. My reaction when I saw it was, ‘Ye Gods! I'm going to need a bigger model!’, with the number of characters having increased from 10 to 19. My attention then turned to where I should carry this registration, especially on my scale models, as the CAA say it must be accessible without the use of a tool. Mmm... I was in my workshop pondering this requirement, idly handling a tape measure. Boom - a lightbulb moment! I was extracting the tape when it came to me, and reversing the numbered side revealed a blank surface. If the measure could be fitted in a convenient place inside a scale model and the…

“This iconic aircraft was initially conceived in the early 1960s” Some military designs have delivered decades of service, more or less unchanged. Just consider the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, which first flew in 1954 or the B-52, which - astoundingly - first flew in 1952. If we look to light attack and reconnaissance aircraft, there is only one contender in the long service awards. The OV-10 Bronco is one of those mystical aircraft that fulfil their original design roles so well that there is not much point in altering them. Certainly, developments in engine technology, avionics, electronic counter measures and armament have evolved since the Bronco first flew in 1965, but the OV-10 platform has always been able to evolve suit the current mission. TWIN TURBOPROP This iconic aircraft was initially…

“...rather than just build the kit, I decided to scan all the parts” Finding myself with lots of time on my hands I decided to get out an old Keil Kraft kit that I was given many years ago. This is the Gyron, a single-channel trainer for an .049 IC engine and with a wingspan of 36 inches. It is a very rare kit as KK provided no plans for it in the box. Inside is a kit of die cut parts and pre-cut balsa; just follow the diagrams and put it together. But once built you could not build another because of that missing plan... So, rather than just build the kit, I decided to scan all the parts and then put those scans into my CAD design software.…

Those of you who have built and flown the 50mm EDF version of the Jet Provost we launched last year will hopefully agree that it was a super little model. I always thought a 70mm EDF version was always on the cards, if a 4S version became available. Sure enough both FMS and Powerfun have produced a 4S unit that would really suit a scaled up version of the Jet Provost. So, this is the third and last model in the Midi Jet series. One of the key elements I really wanted to achieve with these new ‘Midi’ sizes of model was to keep the wing loading down to less than 30oz/sq. ft. and around 3lbs in AUW. Unlike the Hunter, which was scaled up by 140%, I decided to…

TESTING, TESTING | RTF helicopter “This is a 300-size fixed pitch chopper with a flybarless rotor head” Readers of a certain age will well remember the Airwolf, an adapted Bell 222 helicopter used in the 1980s American TV series of the same name. Amongst its many attributes Airwolf was shown to be stealthy, with a low noise signature, heaps of weapons and it could even reach supersonic speed! The ESKY 300 V2 reviewed here replicates the livery and sleek lines of that famous machine, with the added bonus of several bright LED lights to really help make the stylish black and white body stand out in flight. This is a 300-size fixed pitch chopper with a flybarless rotor head, which reduces complexity and helps it survive the odd topple when…