There were some pleasant Autumn days for flying in May. Finally it looks like we have nearly finished all the major work on our strip!
AGM – Saturday June 20
Don’t forget the AGM on Saturday, June 20, commencing at 10:30am at the Clubhouse.
Club Day – Saturday May 2
Club day, whilst overcast gave us perfect autumn weather – not too cold and little wind. This resulted in a reasonable turnout, with 14 members in attendance; Alan J, Bob L, Daniel H, Eddie & Royce VdB, George & Kerry C, Greg R, Jacques W, Mark H, Max W, Mick G, Peter D and a short visit from Vincent G. Mick organised the BBQ – thank you Mick. A shoutout to Fred W, who is still battling some health issues. Hopefully we will see Fred back at the field in the not too distant future. Greg R has also recently had a stint in hospital. I called him one day to see how he was travelling and the response was “no good, I am in hospital”. After spending a few days in hospital, Greg was released and hopefully the problems have been resolved.
Eddie and Royce, brought along a new model, this time an E-flite “Turbo Timber Evolution”. A minor mishap saw the model lose the motor and the cowling – it just fell off whilst trying to take off. However, a quick trip back to the bench and Eddie had it repaired in no time and back in the sky with no more dramas. Whilst I have written about the failing eyesight of
Just to show the repairs were satisfactory, and what an accomplished pilot, this young man is, below is a video of Royce flying the new model, including “touch and goes” and a perfect landing to cap it off.
Eddie sent me his latest purchase and to quote him “Yeah, got a bit excited 😅. See how we go. Just hope to remember to put the gear down before landing 🤣“. One of my favourite aircraft – a Spitfire (it almost dwarfs young Royce!).
Another member who has been battling some health issues is Chris J. As you would have seen, Chris offered up some of his models for sale, with the proceeds being generously donated to the club. One of the models was a “Timber” and this was quickly snapped up by MeiLin. The remaining model remained unsold, so Chris decided to post an advert on the PFL site. This time the ad included two gliders, a Durafly Excalibur electric glider and a “Vector” 1.8m slope soarer, as well as the Sebart Sukhoi 50E. Unless someone from LMAC bought those models, the donation to LMAC would be lost. A quick call to Mick G and he bought the Sukhoi and I bought the two gliders. The club then benefitted to the tune of $500, thanks to the generosity of Chris.
UPDATE: in some pleasing news, Chris has advised that he hopefully has a solution to his eye problems, and will rejoin the club and get back to flying. Chris says he still has a few models to fly and has no regrets about donating his sold models to the club. A great clubman Chris!
As usual, Mark Holman took some fantastic shots on the day. Mark has a real skill at capturing some great images (no doubt from his days of snapping very fast motorcycle racing!) – Thanks Mark
All photos by Mark Holman.
Bob Lockwood’s Sopwith Camel
My call for material for Hangar Talk solicited a reply from Bob Lockwood, and here is what Bob had to say about his latest project.
Inspired by the photos of Micks 1½ strutter photos I thought I might share some of my own.
Now I enjoy building, probably more than I enjoy the flying but, unlike Mick’s beautifully accurate scale details, my building is almost cartoon like. Having said that, I’m happy with the way things look and from 20’ at 20m/h I challenge anyone to spot the errors 😊
I have two project on the board at the moment, one is a 1/6 scale Sopwith Camel, the other is a Vickers Wellington bomber. Both are progressing well and as the Camel is nearing completion – and has the longest build history, I thought I might focus on this one at this time. If anyone is interested I can give details of the Welly another time.
The Camel is built from a plan that I believe was free with RCM&E, it must have been 25 years ago – as I said, it has a long build history! Anyway, I have always loved WW1 aviation and for this I blame Capt W E Johns.
So the Sopwith Camel appealed to me and when the plan came along it was a no brainer and it was fixed to the building board.
The build was fast and I soon had a model sitting on the strip ready to test fly…… This was 20 years ago! As a member of the NWA at that time, I proudly watched as the model was taxied out by our resident expert for a test flight. It took off, porpoised around a circuit and landed with several bounces. I was advised that it was a huge handful and massively underpowered – I was sad☹
It was at this point life got in the way and I had a hiatus from flying for 15 years. The Camel gathered dust…… a lot of dust!
Enter 2025.
With renewed interest, the Camel was dragged out of storage in a sorry state. But it was inspiring all the same and a recommission was started.
The old engine, a plain bearing OS 40, radio and all other ‘stuff’ removed, and the airframe was checked. All seemed ok and an upgrade was started.
First off was the engine. The original plan called for a 35-40 2st. obviously that did not go well, I think a lot of the problem is the huge round cowl and rotary engine on the front pretty much blocking all but 4 cm of prop tip. To solve this issue, I decided to work backwards from the required prop size; this resulted in me fitting a Saito FA-100. Although still to be flown, I am confident that this is a good choice. Lots of power and the extra weight on the very short nose can’t hurt either – why use lead when a bigger engine fits.
Electronics came next, as the original was fitted with 36Mhz receiver and budget servos, this was an easy fix – throw it out and install new shiny stuff 😊
So here we are with a solid airframe (I hope), Good motor and shiny electronics. Time to make it look right.
I decided not to strip and recover. There were several holes due to hangar rash and poor storage. These were patched and painted in what I tell myself is ‘authentic WW1 style’
The inter-wing struts were located, hmmm…. I think there should be four and I only have three! OK, out with the plan and a new set of struts constructed.
Paint is ok, but the markings and insignia left a lot to be desired – out with the paint, pencil and templates.
Today I am looking at the rigging. Luckily, the rigging is nonfunctional so can just be constructed from a leather strap and elastic.
I hope to soon have a rebirth at the field…. Watch this space for an update!
Flying Strip
All the major expenditure is now complete, and it is now a matter of maintenance to achieve a great surface. Maintenance will involve, progressively lower mower cuts until we get to the lowest setting on the mower, more rolling (if Ron has time), followed by spraying weeds in the spring. It has been a lengthy and expensive process, but one that will be worth it in the end.
From the Archives
Here is another Prop Torque, this time from June 2001. In this edition Greg Robertson describes how he got into flying electric models courtesy of another member, Mike Linton. Mike’s career was that of an air traffic controller, and I recall him heading up the team at the Launceston Airport when he moved to Tasmania from the mainland.
From the World Wide Web
Another tip, this time for flying in high winds.
Well that’s it for another month. Thanks again to Bob for his contribution. I know there are others out there who have new models or old ones that we haven’t heard about, so take a few pictures and send them in please.
Don’t Forget – Put a Spark in your life and fly electric!
George
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