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.

January started with a nice mild spell, cold but no bad weather to speak of. At the end of December I had attended the Winter Classic Jets meeting with Phil Chisholm who was flying his Harpoon. I was a lovely crisp day with mostly blue sky and bright sunshine. This made for an excellent photo opportunity and I had soon filled two digital camera media cards. I also had the opportunity to meet Tony Stephenson - MD of Traplet, Tom Wilkinson - Editor of RC Jet International, Dick Spreadbury - regular contributor to RCJI as well as the Jets column in RCMW and Giles Fowler - regular photo contributor to RCJI and no stranger to Bumpy Green.

Many of the faces at this meeting were new to me but some of the ''regulars'' were also in attendance with Dave Wilshere of Motors & Rotors flying a number of superb models including a fantastic new Me 262 powered by twin Wren turbines and Ali Machinchy of Al's hobbies also fielding a number of jets with my attention mostly on his Mig 15. A great pity it didn't manage to fly with the F86 Sabre shown above as these famous duelling pair would have made for some great pictures in the air together. All in all a great day with many fine models flying in a totally relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere. More pictures will be posted when I get a chance to upload them.

Mad Dog Kevin's Cassut is nearing completion. Mentioned briefly last month, it is now covered and the racing scheme decals have arrived and are being added. The picture shows the model on Kevs drive so you can see just how big the plane is. Engine is yet to be installed and Kev I know is also working on the huge cowl in preparation for the engine of choice to arrive. More details and pictures when they become available.

Kevin's other new project mentioned last month is the KJ66 Gas Turbine test bed Delta designed by John Barber. The model was originally bought by Tony and housed at Bumpy Green for a year or so in anticipation of acquiring a suitable turbine or large IC engine. Eventually Kevin's persistence (as well as promises and even threats ;-) paid off and Tony swapped the airframe for a large model glider. Being the fastest builder in the west Kev soon had the Delta equipped with a Moki 135 and suitable radio gear but initial test runs have shown the Moki may not be powerful enough as the Delta would taxi quickly enough but could not rotate from ground. I will post updates and details on the model when this model finally gets airborne.

Due to the delays in getting this issue uploaded to the Bumpy Green server and online the What's New section will continue in the March 2005 issue.

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 the modelling world of January 1979. Take a look back at snippets from a magazine of the era. Editorial from Dave Hughes opened with a note on Cycle Number 21 ~ a period of heavy sunspot activity. Predicted to bring freak radio reception conditions the warning was that interference was expected over the next few years with the peak being around May 1980. Cycle 21 was also predicted to be the highest on record. The previous cycle, 11 years previous had proved to cause no adverse problems with radio modelling in general and the highest degree of interference was still predicted to be caused by pirate CB operators who had basically hijacked the frequency. Advice was to monitor frequencies whenever possible in case of illegal CB activity and sunspot surges combined causing glitch problems. The word Glitch, used so often to describe problems with RC equipment, even today was noted to have been used in the Isaac Asimov book, The Collapsing g Universe and was derived from a Yiddish word meaning 'a slip'.

Gordon Whitehead had the new Micro Mold 44" span Mk 24 Spitfire on the bench and in the air. Designed for .20 size engines and featuring some nice scale details such as rocker cover bulges and exhaust stubs on the nose, gun blisters on the wings and the characteristic tail fin shape of the late mark spitfires. Building was straightforward with all pre-cut parts mating nicely and the selection of wood was varied but of good quality allowing for the harder sheeting to be used on the undersides to give an amount of ground-proofing. Gordon's only deviation from the plan was to use the engine inverted instead of the recommended 45° angle, this to keep the smooth lines of the Spitfire nose as uncluttered as possible.

Slope with Dave Hughes had more on upset local slope sites in the UK being revealed to all and sundry while soarer's from Sweden, Norway and California are more than happy to welcome guests at their slopes. Thermal specialist George Stringwell had a few things to say about safety and the dangers of becoming complacent around the flight line and park (pits) after confusion with the frequency bands caused his model to crash on take off right into the parked models causing damage to his own and a friends models. Any precautions that can be taken to avoid frequency clashes should be employed and as always double check if you are at a crowded site as mistakes can be potentially dangerous.

Peter Chinn was finding less and less time for article writing as he had so many letters to answer with huge questionnaires taking hours to reply to instead of minutes. After a short break he was back with more on new 4 strokes and noise emissions. The latest offerings from Damo in Sweden was the FS-218 18cc flat twin. With exposed rockers and a smooth flowing intake the appearance was desirable if the £350 price tag was not. The Wankel or rotary engine offered an alternative for of power and without the reciprocating parts and rapidly opening and closing exhaust port that makes IC engines exhaust pulse make so much noise the Wankel needs only a small silencer to remain very quiet.

Featured plan was the Crackerjack designed by Brian Peckham, a 52" span super-sports model for .40 size power. With the sleek lines of a midget pylon racer and looking a lot like the Cosmic Wind racing plane Brian had wanted something a little different for the coming season. Construction was mostly balsa with some ply parts and was a fairly complex build requiring a few weeks to complete. Not intended as a beginners model but the handling was reported as excellent with fast responses and lightning speed at full throttle but quite docile on lower throttle and even on dead stick landings.

Dave Banham took Cambria's new glider ~ the Miri 100 ~ to the air and found it to be a comprehensive kit which builds easily into a highly capable flat field soarer which is equally at home on the slope. 100" span as the name suggests and with 2 channel radio control the Miri was easily equipped with quite basic gear. Featuring injection moulded fuselage pod, alloy tube boom and veneered foam wings it was well on the way to being ARTF. Flown from a bungee launch then a tow line the Miri glided very well with a soft touchdown easily achieved on every landing.

Roy Yates Scale Topics was an in depth special on the 1978 World Scale Championship winning 1/4 scale Fournier RF4 of Mick Reeves. The model was almost a non contender after a series of engine problems but that was soon overcome to assure a place in the British team. Balsa and ply construction throughout with many working parts to the model including, air brakes, retracting landing wheels, working stall indicator and even working gauges on the extremely details dashboard. With so many functioning features and massive attention to detail it is no wonder Mick took the World Scale Championships with this model.

Recognise yourself in any of these old pictures? We'd like to hear from you at Bumpy Green. Email chinman

Vixen is still progressing slowly with covering of the tail surfaces complete. The PVA and paper covering has not been without it's headaches and several large books were employed to keep everything flat and straight. This has led me to worry about the main wing covering as I don't want them to end up like bananas. One suggestion has been to use wallpaper paste instead of PVA on the wings as this will be prone to less shrinkage. The logo for the Vixen has been created by Marcus at RCGraphics and made from the same hardwearing vinyl used for all his decals and graphics. One nice touch was his addition of additional brush tips so the tip of the tail can be see through allowing the under colour to show or by using the additions keeps the characteristic white tip so famous on a fox brush.

That's it for another month
See you in February 2005

Article by John Kent from Bumpy Green Model Aerodrome
January 2004

Comment by Jim McCarty on 20050426211730. Rating 5

I have been searching for information on the Damo FS-218 four stroke twin engine. A Google search led me to this site. Ahah! Is there someone out there that can find a copy of the article about this engine or a copy of the 1979 magazine? Any help or hints will be appreciated. Thanks in advance, Jim

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: