RCM&E

Welcome to the April 2023 issue of RCM&E. One of the greatest things about our hobby is the wide variety of types of model aircraft that we can choose to fly. I am a bit of an all-rounder, so I like to fly anything with wings or rotor blades. Until now that has pretty much meant fairly standard club models, be they power models or gliders, with a bit of slope soaring thrown in. Now there’s nothing wrong with all that and such models still entertain me for much of my model flying. However, recently I have been spreading my wings, so to speak, and dabbling in a few new areas of interest. One new area has come about by joining my local model gliding association. Many of the regular…

Get in touch... kcrozier@mortons.co.uk PONTE RETURNS Shaun Garrity, our Retro Ramblings correspondent, has some great news for vintage model enthusiasts as he tells us all about the 11th Pontefract Single Channel and Retro Fly-in: It’s back again fellow button pushers, 2.4g transmitter modifiers and lovers of all things retro. Keep your diaries clear of any weddings, birthdays, holidays etc. on July 15th and 16th so you can join in the fun at this very popular event hosted by PANDAS- the Pontefract And District Aeromodellers Society. The club website address is pandas.bmfa. org for the event location details. Since 2010 our small band of Single Channel, Retro Proportional, Galloping Ghost and Reed enthusiasts has grown and grown. We now have a multitude of friends all over the world, all coordinated via…

I have already built and flown the Phoenix 1600 and I use this in our club’s ‘One Model’ evening competitions during the summer. I was therefore very pleased to be able to build and test fly the Phoenix 2400. The model was supplied for review by CML Distribution, located in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire. “…you only need to supply a receiver and battery to complete the model” OPEN THE BOX On opening the large box all the parts of the model were found to have been very well packed. The two-piece wings, tailplane and rudder are contained in protective bags, secured so that they don’t move within the box in transit. Underneath these, below a divider, the fuselage is wired to the bottom of the box so that it too cannot move…

Welcome back to the ongoing project, the 54” Boomer Bus, which is a Henry Struck design from 1941. We’ve already sorted out the curved dihedral on the wing, as well as the rolled balsa boom, so now it’s time to sort out the Bus’s front pod. Working on the plan’s upper elevation, I laid down a simple 1/8” square framework as a horizontal crutch and fitted the top halves of the four interior formers, followed by the central, top longeron. Around this skeletal frame I started to add the outer planking from tapered lengths of 1/8” sheet. With this half-pod partially planked, I lifted it from the plan and added the bottom portions of the formers. Where the hatch was going to lay, I added scraps of Sellotape to prevent…

Sunday 21st August 22 was the date of the annual scale competition in Skelmersdale. Torn between flying or photographing, or even both, I eventually decided on the photo journalistic whim and set off with my trusty cameras on the 25-mile trip up the M56, M6 and M58, which should have taken about 40 minutes if not for the inevitable road works on the M6 delaying my arrival by some twenty minutes. But with a bright sunny sky and the thought of meeting up with some friends not seen since before Covid, I was in good spirits on arrival. The annual scale event held by the Skelmersdale club dates back, in my mind, to the late 1980s when I first started to roam around various events and discovering the enjoyment that…

I have been pondering a recent contact from an old mate regarding his inability to successfully join two bits of piano wire together to form a small model undercarriage. I’ve no doubt that most of you have mastered the art of soldering but from what I’ve seen on flying fields there are many out there that still find the making of a good solder joint as something akin to black magic. With a soldering iron as the magic wand, let’s link up and ‘let no man put asunder’. IT’S JUST SOLDER, INNIT? Well, no it isn’t. Like glues for different jobs, solder is just the same: different types for different applications. ‘Soft’ solder is our choice for today, the lead/tin alloy that joins circuits in electronics, up to old-fashioned heavy…