Hi all and welcome to my world or the world of model flying as I see it!

Happy New Year and I hope you received what you wanted for Christmas. My Christmas was very nice I had some time to take off work before the end of the year so I had a long break with plenty of flying and some quality time with my family.

I would like to thank Clive and Urs for their comments at the end of November’s and December’s column, I think they are both right. Glider pilots do seem to be very laid back and I think this reflects with the atmosphere on the slopes I have visited, and Urs is right with regard to NiMh cells for use to power models you can get a little more power by going with that extra cell.

While I’m thanking people, the next pair for me to thank are Paul Fram and Tony potter, they have sent me some photos of their Plouf’s.

Paul has changed the wing tips and the incidence on the wing.

Tony has changed the wing incidence and he has mounted the tailplane differently. The normal way is to just glue the tail to the top of the tail boom (I have also put some carbon fibre tows into the glue to help with the strength on mine) but Tony has cut slots in the tail boom then fitted the tail into these slots. I don’t know how many of you have built a Plouf but those of you that have will know how much fun they are. As to the rest of you, if you fly gliders then get a copy of the plan and join in with the fun.

Yes that’s right transport or how do you get your models and associated gear to you flying strip? The first is a photo of me with my bag that I use to get my gliders from the car to the slopes I fly from.

It started life as a rotary washing line cover this I got for I think £2:50 from one of the discount shops you see in most towns. I then got the strap from my local market it was then a simple matter of sewing the strap to the bag, The good thing with this bag is I can get three gliders all of 2 metre wing span in it and then I don’t have to go back to the car for other models to fly.

Now to the field box, this is the work of a fellow club member, I don’t know about your flying site but with ours we have to walk a little distance from the cars to the pits, now the walk isn’t up hill or down hill but when you have a field box and model or models to carry the box starts to get very heavy very quickly, but not now for Phil because he now has everything on wheels.

Those of you that have been with me from day one, and yes there are one or two of you!! Will know I told you about my Gwynt Araf own design well I’ve been at it again the photos are of my Heron glider

This started life as a Revenge fuz. Now the Revenge was a 60” span pylon racer back in the days before EPP racers of today. I was offered the fuz for a good price and so I then set about making a wing and tail. The wing is all built up I started by making the ribs using the sandwich method to the HM22 section. The wing is fully sheeted with 1/4 x 1/8 spruce spars and 1/32 ply shear webbing. The tail I have gone down the same route as the Gwynt Araf and made that from 4 pieces of 1/8” balsa with 50 gram per Sq. metre glass cloth sandwiched between, this was then sanded to section and varnished. As to the flying well I have to say it’s very good but then you would expect that but it’s true. I have flaps and ailerons so I have it set up with Crow brakes and all the other trick set up you can have on a 4 servo wing but all in all it’s a nice all round model.

Now we all know that makers of our radio gear tell us just to use that particular make of servos, receivers, batteries and crystals but we don’t do we? No, we go are own way with one make of receiver and a different make of servo and so on. As I said we all do it or should that be most of us do.

Well I have a little story to tell with regard to this, you will see a photo of a very small glider called “The Hawker Headbutt” I had come to the stage of fitting the radio gear, the plan was to use a Jeti Rex 4 receiver two Futaba S3106 servos and a 110 battery pack. The servos I fitted and plugged them into the receiver. This receiver had no crystal in it because I had not used it for some time so I fitted a 79 crystal from a GWS receiver, the crystal is Futaba plugged the battery in with the tranny on and nothing worked, so I put the crystal back in the GWS receiver and it worked going to a different channel with the Jeti and that worked but putting the 79 back in and it didn’t work but it would work fine in the GWS!!!

So if any of you have got any ideas as to why this should be I would like to know, in the end I got a new 79 crystal and all is well.

And that’s it for this month. I may have some news for you of yet one more branch of modelling that I am getting a little interested in, to give you a clue it’s something that we all had as children.

Email me on waynesworld@bumpygreen.co.uk

So I will sign off with a blast of the whistle until next time.

Wayne.

Article by Wayne Haycock for Bumpy Green Model Aerodrome
January 2002

Comments left by others...

Comment by Garry on 00000000000000. Rating none

I never knew which edition of RCMW had the Plouf plan. How does one get a copy of same. Would like one. . . Please !!!

Comment by Brian on 00000000000000. Rating none

Ditto re the Plouf Plan. Where can i find one please?

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