Welcome to Chins Chins, my chance to chin-wag.
Each month I will be looking at what's new in the modelling industry, some history from the same month a quarter of a century ago and current Bumpy Green projects I am involved in.

As the last of the Christmas and New year festivities are tidied away or consumed in the case of chocolate tree ornaments hiding amongst the decorations being removed I think back over the previous year and hope that you all had as good a break from work as we did. Much relaxing was done and with many friends round to visit it was a very enjoyable holiday. Bumpy Green is now back after a few months offline to correct problems caused by an attempt to hack into our server. (More on that will follow shortly.) As seems to be the curse of model flying, every time the models were prepared for flying the following day, the weather in it's usual fickle manner changed dramatically with gusting winds, rain and even a few attempts to snow thwarting our best laid plans To avoid total modelling withdrawal the magazines have been a great help and for additional inspiration I have begun reading regularly Aeroplane magazine. One particular cover caught my eye as it featured a Mosquito being returned to flying condition, the following month was the 60th anniversary of the Dam Buster raids with a lot of history of the raids, the aircraft and the people involved. From then on I was hooked. A monthly full size aircraft publication, packed with articles on current aircraft, restoration projects from around the world, museum updates, air shows with some fantastic pictures and plenty of historical pieces covering various aspects of aviation throughout the 100 years of powered flight in both civilian and military use. One feature I have particularly enjoyed was the series called 'claims to fame' which documented many accounts of powered flight, sometimes many years before the Wright brothers famous flight. The ensuing debate from both pros and cons of the claimed attempts leads to some fascinating historical questions being raised as well as cementing the fact that witnessed and recorded records are what really count. From a modellers interest point of view Aeroplane lends itself to some good inspiration with often rare or prototype examples of previously unheard of aircraft appearing in great detail. Even the more famous aircraft when featured give yet more ideas on schemes and variations so there is no need to see five Spitfires at the model flying field all in Battle of Britain camouflage and all bearing the markings of Douglas Bader...

Another good section each month is the 3D cutaway drawings. January's issue featured the Gloster Javelin with the bonus booklet titled A Century Of Classic Cutaways. It includes many classic aircraft from the Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 of 1912 to the Douglas DC-10 from 1969. Other cutaways have included engines both piston and jet types including the Daimler/Beardmore, Rolls Royce Merlin and R.B 37 Derwent 1 Turbojet. With airframes on models being simplified by advanced materials and techniques it is good to see just how the full size counterparts were put together. Various artists have been featured over the years with J.H Clark, Arthur Bowbeer, Roy Cross, John Marsden, Frank Munger and Leslie Cresswell regularly contributing. Keep up the good work. Aeroplane makes a very good read throughout and well worth the addition to my monthly reading matter. Listings for full size meetings, shows and events are also another good reason to take a glance at this publication. Editor is Michael Oakley and I think he does a marvelous job every month. Visit their website at www.aeroplanemontly.com for more information.

Oxai Europe Impression 140 Oxai recently announced they are now distributing their F3A models from Oxai-Europe in Germany. Located in Shanghai, China Oxai-RC are a professional F3A aerobatic designer and manufacturer seeking not only to build high quality models but to lead F3A trends in several aspects including transition to new FAI rules as they are implemented. The latest addition to their showroom is the Impression 140 F3A. No prices as yet and the web site listed below is in German but an English version is on it's way. Also available are the Impression 90 & 140 Artistic 3D versions. Impression 140 F3A Specification: Length: 1995 mm Wingspan: 1960 mm Wing Area: 68.8 dm2 Airframe Weight: 2400 gr. Flying Weight: 4400-4600 gr. Engine Size: 23-26 ccm (1.40 - 1.60 cu in) 2-stroke or 4-stroke Recommended engines: Yamada 140L, 140DZ, OS MAX 140 RX, 140 Fl; 160 FX, 160Fl www.oxai-europe.de
Weston UK - MDC Tornado MDC Tornado This is a serious piece of kit, created to satisfy the most demanding heli flier. The Tornado is extremely light because of its full carbon main gear, with a .91 the power to weight ratio is unreal! It is equipped with a very smooth belt driven transmission system and fully machined metal head. A unique tail linkage connects directly to the spine of the servo giving completely solid control. Fully 3D capable and very quiet on a Genesis ProPlus pipe. Height 400mm Length 1360mm Main rotor dia 1586mm Main rotor blades 710mm Engine .75-.90 £1150.00 Available at the same price with a mechanical mixer as opposed to CCPM.
Weston UK West 75 Heli Following in the wake of the already successful West .36 & .50 helicopter engines the West 75 H brings a new level of power to R/C heli pilots. Coupled with the Weston Genesis ProPlus pipe For more details contact: Weston UK, 84-88 London Road, Teynham, Sittingbourne, Kent ME9 9QH, England Tel: 01795 521030 Fax: 01795 522020 www.westonuk.co.uk
Mainlink DELTA-6 Plus 1 - 2000 Mainlink Systems DELTA-6 Plus 1 - 2000 quick charger is a 240volt mains powered unit for Ni-Cad and NiMh packs from 1 to 10 cells. This charger provides 6 independent delta peak charge outlets. In addition there is an extra single, constant current trickle charge outlet for initial balancing of new cells. The unit incorporates an LCD display to show the charge times of each channel together with respective voltages. The charger can handle 4 to 10 cell packs on four of the outlets and 1 to 4 cells on the remaining two outlets. The trickle outlet can handle 1 to 10 cell packs. The advantage of using this system is that it gives you quicker, safe charging for standard R/C batteries. The technology used is the well-proven Mainlink DDP system. Price inclusive of delivery £147.00 For more details contact Mainlink Systems. Mainlink Systems, 1 Blunham Road, Moggerhanger, Bedford, MK44 3RD Tel/Fax: 01767 640242 www.mainlink.demon.co.uk
Do you have a new or existing product you would like to let everyone know about? Drop me a line with some details and pictures and they can be included with the next months issue. Email chinman

What was going on in January 1978 in the modelling world. Take a look back at some snippets from a magazine of the era. Radio Modeller entered it's thirteenth year and David Hughes, the editor remarked on the growth of the hobby and the advancements made in the sport and industry alike. With the growing amount of proportional radio equipment becoming available at an affordable price replacing the older 'reed unit' type controllers more ambitious models were within reach of more modellers than ever before. Cover picture was Clive Needham with his 74" span slope pylon racer Widgeon. Using an Eppler 374 section with a loading of 15oz sq ft and capable of carrying ballast up to 20oz sq ft allowed the Widgeon to fly in a large range of lift conditions. It also incorporated inboard flaps for use as coupled flaperons, stand alone or mixed with elevator control. Shocking news was the price raise to 45p for next months issue with increasing publication prices and wages being the main cause.

Arrow was another jet style design from Pavel Bosak who lived in Klatovy in what was then Czechoslovakia. The fourth in a series of designs which began with a single channel button control for the rudder being flown in a number of category contests. Designed for an inverted .19 size pusher arrangement and using a 3 channel radio control system for rudder, elevator and throttle controls. The Arrow was not very different from any other rudder/elevator model to fly with the exception of requiring a higher landing speed. Built as a one piece model with access to the radio via the cleverly designed canopy hatch setup, it was an unusual and quite realistic looking design for it's time. Pavel also noted the Arrow could be set up for elevon mixing and wanted to hear from anyone who had built one with this configuration.

Micro Mold Avenger was one of the latest ''slippery fish'' designs to hit the shops. With sleek lines, almost symmetrical wing section and a wing span of only 56" made the Avenger a true aerobatic slope soarer. All balsa construction kept the model very light and Dave Hughes enjoyed getting ankle deep in shavings to get the required bullet shaped nose. Flying the Avenger was also very rewarding with it able to perform with minimal correction most aerobatic moves both inverted and right side up.

Scale Topics with Roy Yates looked at, what he called 'immaculately built'' Tiger Moth of John Armstrong from the Liverpool and District Club. Based on the oldest flying Tiger Moth of the time, extensively detailed and powered by an Enya 60. Also reported was the International Tournament of Champions, held November 77 in Las Vegas. Phil Moore who attended from Britain scored a third place overall and pocketed $1000, not an insignificant sum in 1978. Finally news of the latest model plan from the Duncan Hutson stable was of the Pitts Special S2A. Designed on 2.75ft/in brought the model out at 55in span with an all up weight of 9.6lb at approx. 29oz sq ft of loading with custom fibreglass cowl and a moulded acetate canopy also available.

Peter Chinn's Motor Miscellany had a rather unusual Italian .21 size engine on his bench this month from the Cipolla Brothers. Based in Trezzano, much influence from the COZ series engine was evident from the look of the design. The unusual element was the transfer port arrangement, not milled into the main casing as usual but formed as part of the piston liner with sharp angles used to assist the fuel charge transfer. The carburetor was also an unusual design for the time using a jet metering and tapered hole design and finally a very large silencer completed the package. At over 6inches long it was one of the longest silencers available at the time and looked oversized for the size of engine. Stated output was .60 bhp at 15,000 rpm, not a bad output for a .21 size engine of the time.

Norman Warner's design for G-ERUP was intended to make best use of shorter runways. A true STOL (Short Take Off & Landing) utilising leading edge slats to maintain airspeed flow over the wings even at speeds and climb angles which would see most designs stall and tumble from the sky. Also incorporating a slotted flap design which reached across the centre 50% of the wing span and continued under the fuselage to allow very low flying speeds to be maintained while still under control from the very large flying surfaces. Norman had made the original design a high wing model with large fowler flaps but found it was unable to perform even basic aerobatics so opted for an improved low wing version.

You wouldn't see it nowadays but the three gentlemen here are taking part in a very unusual contest. The idea was to perform a four minute precision flight with spot landing with the addition of 30 bonus points for every half a pint of beer downed during the flight. The winner did exactly four minutes, landed right on the spot and managed to sink 3.5 pints in the time. He then confessed to not actually liking beer and disappeared to be sick. It just proves some people will do anything to win. Are you one of these guzzling glider guiders? Do or did you know them? Write in and let us know.

Here is a snippet I remember well from my childhood. If you have read ay of my reviews (DC-3, Topic 400, Scolded cat etc) you will know I favour using a control rod outer or inner to route the receiver aerial out of the model often having the protruding tube in a position that it looks like a radio antenna. Well this is exactly where that method came from, remembered from all those years ago as ''a brilliant idea''. I'm sure Clive Harriss would have been happy to know his handy hint was still being used 25 years later.

Recognise yourself in any of these pictures, we'd love to hear from you at Bumpy Green. Email chinman

I look outside and see the sun is shining brightly, most unusual for early January but soon realise my hopes of flying are dashed once more as the wind bends the mighty Conifer tree at the boundary wall of the Bumpy Green estate. If only I could find my kite I mused watching the seagulls float with very little apparent effort over the large puddles in the field next door. Memories of seagull hearding with my Pico-Jet soon put a smile back on my face and my thoughts turned back to the coming season. Having had a rather cut short amount of stick time last year it is with eager anticipation I look forward to getting into the air a little more regularly. My new job means I am much nearer to home so evening sessions should be more frequent now that a 40 mile and up to 2 hour commute round the M25 isn't required each night. Many changes to Bumpy Green have taken place during our down time and with luck we we be back on track from now on with our usual regular service.

That's it for another month,
See you in February

Article by John Kent from Bumpy Green Model Aerodrome
January 2004

Comment by Pete Skillington on 20040120194352. Rating 5

Nice to have you back again,keep up the good work.

VIEW / ADD Your Comments This is where you can leave your comments about the article itself or about the subject of the article. For example maybe its a review and you would like to tell people about the experience you have with this particular model. Name: Email Address (optional): Rating: 1 2 3 4 5 Excellent = 5 Comments: