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

Here we are again and its bloody freezing! Ok it’s not down to those minus numbers you seem to enjoy in the UK but over the years living abroad my blood seems to have thinned to the point that I can now catch a cold just looking at an ice cube! Unfortunately these wimp like characteristics resulted in my contracting Chronic Bronchitis which literarily knocked me out for 3 weeks worth of flying Recently, Michael and I have managed to get some flying in, we still have some weather related problems, you know,, the wind doesn’t blow straight down the runway here !! We have to contend with SIDEWINDS !!! Absolutely not acceptable. Wind, Rain, cold, my wardrobe needs to be reviewed. Michael unfortunately suffered a mishap with is Matrix 40, he was well into a nice acrobatic routine which was very good when at the end of a very slow low pass the flame in his Irvine went out, his emergency landing would have been a beauty, if it had not been for a lump of old concrete hiding in the long grass, which jumped out and slapped his aircraft out of the sky. Unfortunately the damage proved to be worse than anticipated; the fuselage had a lot of fuel rot damage which had not been seen the resultant impact caused the fuselage to shatter rather than crack. The aircraft had served him well for 2 years, which in reality for some modellers is a life time!!. His back up aircraft is the Funtana S40 which had previously made its maiden flight in Mexico. The Funtana is as you know a 3D aircraft, not really something your average youngster gets loose with, considering we had mounted a Magnum 80 four stroke in the business end which now at sea-level makes the vertical climbing power of this aircraft quite breathtaking. Michael sensibly has elected to fly the model on low rate settings to get used to the aircraft, we will then dial in more movement has his air time increases. His flying style is currently giving me heart flutter, he will insist on floating down the length of the runway at about head height he then flicks the model vertical and wangs the throttle open at the same time, to date the Magnum has burst into song at the required moment, but being the boring old fart that I am , I anticipate the engine will eventually cough at the wrong moment and the Funtana will return home in a Tesco bag !

We also took our little Waco Biplane out for another bash, first flight (reported in last issue). All went reasonably well, ground handling was very solid and the take off run was easy to control. Once in the air the model went up like a cork out of a bottle and level flight could only be achieved by cranking in down elevator trim and keeping the engine revs low. Since then I have put in a bit more nose weight and it has really improved the flying characteristics, low passes and mild aerobatics are quite nice, landing is nice and slow handling very predictable, in short a nice little Sunday flyer. I need to make a couple of wing struts for this but as they are not structural I have not got around to it, the cowl needs to mounted and painted to “spruce up” its appearance the only problem is that the cowl is a bit short and leaves a 20mm gap between itself and the fire wall, I think I can modify a section of plastic pop bottle to fill the gap out.

Lately Mr Gobby and I have been conducting a low key war of words, not really a war but Michael has convinced himself that because dad only flies high wingers and “old “ looking aircraft, the “new” 3D style aircraft would be beyond my limit of capability. Luckily during our final trip to San Antonio ( Texas) I had taken full benefit of the lower prices and had purchased three aircraft, these being a Cessna, a Decathlon and a Funtana S90. The Funtana S90 is the big brother of the version being flown by Michael. Now I know that this sounds like a huge cash outlay but when I checked the UK prices I found that I had paid exactly half the UK cost ! So how can the prices be so high in the UK when nearly all the ARTF aircraft come from the same sweat shops in Vietnam, China and Korea ?? The Funtana S90 has plug in wings which makes it really easy to transport. At time of writing we have not had the maiden flight (we are waiting for a good weather day!!). Building this particular model is very easy, the kit has some very nice metal bits in it with the control horns having ball links instead of the usual plastic bits, (which inevitably prove too flimsy and have to be changed). Unfortunately my kit came with the canopy split. I do not know if its only me but I seem to get a lot of kits in which the canopy is damaged these include, my topflight Cessna, Funtana S90, Flair Focke Wolf, and one of my Arresti 40’s. I notice that Steve Webb stocks the Funtana so I will have a word with the lads to see if they can obtain a replacement one. Like all the ARTF kits it needs a good coat of fuel proofer to ensure a long life. Whilst on the topic of fuel, I had noticed my Magnum engines were not running with their usual gusto. The locals had advised to run on 10% nitro and I must admit from the start this did sound a bit weak for obtaining maximum four stroke grunt. The engines seemed OK on the ground but running during flight became irregular and to be frank unreliable. I swapped to 16% and the engines are now back on full song, I have now got back to first flick starting and all have a good solid tick over, this in turn has given Michael more confidence. I know many people like to use the minimum amount of Nitro possible to try to extend the engines life and I do lean in this direction, but I always flush out the engine with WD40 and then put some after run oil in after every run ( Note run and not just flight) I try to keep the business end of the model in a no problems condition, a dodgy engine does not aid a pilots urge to experiment.

Michael is now showing interest in the building side of the hobby and he is having a go at a Great Planes Slow Poke. The build of this model is pretty straight forward, I think the only things which might cause a novice builder problems are the fact that the wing is built in three parts and the engine needs to have down and side thrust built into it. But the instruction book is very comprehensive, and with dad behind to answer any questions we have made quite fast progress, centre wing panel, both wing panels, tail and stabilizer are all completed And the fuselage is slowly taking shape on the model board after much discussion we will fit a magnum 50 four stroke. Michael is considering drawing up a colour scheme for the model, if its anything like what he did to his T34 then it will be LOUD!!. The Slow poke has a nice fat wing and promises to be a nice slow aerobatic which should (hopefully) fit in with Michael's flying style. The model is always available as an ARTF but it really is easy to build so I consider the ARTF as cheating. I have found a small model shop in Lisbon, but they seem to lack all the builders’ bits and bobs, but all seems to be very pricey.

Before I go YES I KNOW MY MODEL AREA IS MESSY !! Her in doors reminds me on a very regular basis, so we will be donating this Saturday to re-organise and clean up the shop. Have fun till next time

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

Comment by philflyer on 20050525115034. Rating 5

Thanks for this very entertaining and informative series. Please continue as long as you can - Bumpy Green is much richer for it.

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