My name is Dave Whiston, I work and live in Portugal. Previously I worked in Mexico (hence the name) and prior to that I worked 5½ years in Brazil and 3½ years in Spain.

Well I am back, almost. Our container got delayed in Mexico due to Hurricane Ivan, and then his friends turned up !! I understand the sea was a bit choppy so the captain decided to keep the ship tied to dry land for a bit longer, (Can't say I blame him, the cross channel ferry used to do me in !!) We have set up camp in a house just outside Lisbon (Cascais) if anyone knows the area. We have discovered a few modellers in the area but nothing overly firm yet. I must have been going into some form of withdrawal as her in doors set-out with our faithful four legged one and found me a small deserted strip of asphalt within walking distance from the house. Apparently it’s an ex helicopter flight school, there is about 120 feet of asphalt and the nearest house is about 1 mile away. Only problem I can see is that the local flying school seem to use the airspace for flight training so there are a couple of Cessna trainers poking around, but I have noticed there is lots of time when the air is clear. Also because of the area I would only consider flying our faithful Albatross trainer or something 3D which can be kept in close (the idea being that I can get it down on the floor ASAP) Our container arrived with a minimal amount of damage, but we had some models that got knocked about, the leading edge on Michael's Funtanas got some compression damage, the slow Poke which was in construction is now a kit again and worst of all the cabin front of my topflight Cessna is a write off. Also it looks like the top of the wing over one of the flaps has been crushed so the flap will have to be removed and re worked. I made a call to Steve Webb’s and they sorted out a new screen for the Cessna, now it's going to be a matter of time. I also picked up a couple of small 20’s size motors to re-engine the twin. I then had to make a return to Mexico and Costa Rica for a couple of weeks to do some sales training. Costa Rica was very nice except for the fact that the day before I got there, there was an earthquake, luckily no one was hurt, but there was some damage to the roads and electric network and we did have a couple of after shocks. I have a healthy respect of earthquakes, Tornados and Hurricanes having experienced all three, last earthquake I suffered in Mexico was a 5.8 not to bad that one, the road sort of rolled like a wave and the buildings visibly shook. Anyway I arrived in Mexico City on the Sunday morning and had a connection flight up to Culiacan that evening. So I borrowed a company car and drove out to the flying field. What a reception!!. Within minutes of arriving, Ulysses had removed the back of his radio and was busy converting to mode 1 so that I could fly his T32. NOW THAT’S A MATE !!. I was back flying in Mexico and nothing could be better, the sun was shining and there was no wind at all. The world models T34 is a lovely plane to fly it has absolutely no vices and if the controls are set up to the manual you will have a perfect first low winger or a very pleasing Sunday flyer. Michael has had one for sometime now and due to various bumps and bruises it has evolved into a nice little sport flyer he is busy putting a new covering on it at the moment so I will send a photo in when he has finished. All too soon it was time to back up and head out of Mexico, after a couple days of training I was once again heading west and soon touched ground again in Portugal. I did have time for a few beers in the Newark airport bar and had a fascinating conversation with an old guy who was telling me that he used to fly a water bomber (used to fight forest fires). Over the years I have met some pretty interesting people in airport departure lounges, one was Alice Cooper who turned out to be nothing like the demonic figure head he is identified with. He is an avid golfer and had been down to Mexico to shoot a few rounds (what ever they are !). On return to Portugal I was looking forward to blowing the cobwebs off and getting some serious de-stress flying in, but the sky was doing something I have not been accustomed to on flying days IT RAINED !! My first denied flying day in 8 years. Also the wind was getting up to hurricane force, I hope it calms down here or I can see flying becoming a back seat hobby (to building at any rate) When I left Mexico I got a nice little stagger wing model from Ulysses, I think it’s a Waco can anyone confirm?? I have fitted an OS 46 in to it, I think that should give sufficient blast, the cowl is too small to receive anything bigger and I also need to space it forward about 15 mm, (which is why the cowl is not fitted at the time of the photo). This will be flying on Futaba gear. Now on the ground she taxi’s around beautifully and the Pitts muffler gives the motor a bit of a more throaty sound. Once she gets in to the air she takes on all the aerodynamic tendencies of a large concrete breeze block, I was told she will float like a trainer .... Trainer? What ? Cliff diver !! I will do a bit more work on this one and update you on how things go next issue.

This very nice little Decathlon is the Seagull models version. Now the name Seagull is new to me but the quality is OUTSTANDING, the wood is to a very good quality and all the main work has been done at the factory. Everything in the kit lines up exactly has it should, the manual is in perfect English even though Seagull are from Vietnam. The only thing I did different to the instructions was that I use 30 min epoxy to fix the pushrod outer tubes into the fuselage. The undercarriage legs line up perfectly and are all pre drilled with the blind screws already installed. I wanted to load a four stroke into this one so I used one of my Magnum 52 engines which I had used in my twin (the 2 x 52 four stokes made it over engined, hence the two 20’s) I am not sure of the UK price on this model but the US price is $84.00 so in reality you should be able to get it for less than £100

A couple of days later, Saturday rolled in and the wind had dropped a little so I thought I would risk my arm with my Albatross on the bit of disused asphalt discovered by her indoors. Well when I arrived there was a strong but constant side wind (I hate Gusts) but I was pretty sure I could handle it. I gave everything a range check with the engine running (I know the model was perfect in Mexico, but anything could have happened during the move) I noticed one aileron was not moving fully on close inspection I discovered one of the clips connecting to the control horn had sheered the pin, a replacement was fitted and the tank fuelled up. Running right to left the albatross sprinted down the strip and fired off into the sky, and this is normally a very sedate flyer. What I forgot was that we have over engined all of our models to compensate with the 8000 ft above sea level in Mexico City. Lisbon is most definitely at sea level. I found that despite a very strong wind ¾ throttle was more than sufficient to get around the circuit the down wing leg was at ¼ throttle to try and slow things down a bit. I gave it a good 10 mins of general flying around and then set up to do some line ups on the runway. Now this was going to be interesting to keep the model flying straight down the runway I was using the rudder and holding the nose about 30 degrees of the centre line!. To make matters worse the wind was getting stronger, I did not think now was the time to wait for a drop in the wind. Setting up to land at ¼ throttle all seemed to be going to plan, my intention being to hold the side slip on until just before touch down then flick off the rudder and hopefully run down the centre line. Well the truth is, Yes I did get it back on the ground, and YES it was going down the centre of the strip and YES I did feel well chuffed with my piloting until a bloody great gust took the plane over to the right of the strip, it's only about 4 m wide so it was all over very quickly. I applied right rudder but it sort of swerved not turned at which point the stabilizer connected with a bit of old wire which had been dumped and Crack! It sheared off. On inspection the damage was not so bad but flying was definitely off for the rest of the day. Good thing really because the clouds burst and it started to rain again !! Back home and I had the stabiliser back on in 45 mins and that included mixing the epoxy! This plane is now 7 years old. I am hoping a mate will be bringing me a new one up from Brazil soon so I will keep you posted, that will give me the opportunity to refurbish the original.

A few days later I managed to locate a couple of modellers who told me about a flying site to the south of Lisbon, by all accounts this site has had insurance cover removed due to the construction of a factory unit to one end of the runway. AS YOU CAN SEE IT BLOODY RAINS HERE !!! Now this does not really pose a problem as the runway is being extended in the opposite direction. If you look at the photo above you can just see the taxi way going off to the right, that is now out of use and a trench has been dug about 30 feet this side of it, effectively making that end of the runway redundant. Anyway I loaded up the Albatross, fuel, coffee and the dog and we set off. On arrival no one was about so I let Molly off her lead and she set about removing any birds, rabbits etc from the runway, whilst I mounted the wings and fuelled up the aircraft. Molly was secured in the back of the car with her favourite blanket and a bonio and I fired up and taxied out on to the runway, I knew beforehand that this was an open runway (no club membership needed) the runway is a nicely finished asphalt strip about 200m long and maybe 6m wide trees are set well back from the runway so visibility is no problem. I had a nice little flight (20 mins) and ended with a dead stick landing. One thing I have noticed , again possibly due to the change in altitude, the control inputs on the radio produce a more rapid and “violent” response from the aircraft. Also the aircraft now seems to float along much further than it used to in Mexico. (probably due to the air being more dense) Another Brit with the unforgettable name of Rod Stuart turned up with one of his Portuguese military students ( he teaches English) and a small 40’s size trainer, neither of them had a clue what they were doing, I did not realise this until after they had started up the motor and the aircraft was off down the runway, I sort of noticed the way the model failed to hold a straight line before it sort of bounced into the air the aircraft then sort of bunted its way off into the distance, Rod informed me that they had tried to fly the model twice before and on both occasions come to grief. It looked to me like it was about to come to grief again so I sort of helped him pass me the transmitter ( I just grabbed it ) luckily the model was just badly trimmed so a few clicks here and there an the model settled down. I then set it into the circuit and explained what the circuit was, then on the next pass I gave it a touch and go just to emphasise what it was they were supposed to be trying to achieve. The best part is that both guys then got to fly the model (safely) when it got out of shape I put it back in the sky and at the end of the session put it back on the ground in one piece. If anyone is thinking of having a go alone, reconsider and find someone to help it will cost less in the long run! We hope to meet up again in the near future and I will use the Albatross with a buddy cable to help the guys get over the first steps of learning how to fly. Just as I was packing up a guy turned up with this little sweetie. He didn’t fly it though he was just interested in setting it up and checking range, engine, etc. But now that I have seen it I will keep an ear out to find out when it’s going to fly, it has a 140 size 2-stroke with tuned pipe and carbon fibre prop and under carriage the fuselage seemed to be fibre glass and the custom paint job was just outstanding. Another guy had this pretty impressive Egg beater. Not sure on the mechanics but I think it’s a petrol engine and has a video camera on board.

It looks like the weather may have broken this afternoon so Mike and I plan to fly the Decathlon, Matrix and of course the Albatross tomorrow, so I will let you know how we get on next time. Hopefully I will be a little more punctual with my updates in future but belated as it may be happy new-year to you all.

Article by Dave Whiston from Portugal
For Bumpy Green Model Aerodrome
January 2005

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