My name is Dave Whiston , I work and live in Mexico. Previously I did 5 1/2 years in Brazil and prior to that 3 1/2 years in Spain.

With the exception of the three “Super Heroes”, the secret air base was deserted; the sun was seductively peeping over the trees giving the promise of another great day. Biggles, Algy and Ginger all looking thoughtfully at the “new Aircraft”. It was a type and design never before seen at the secret airbase; in fact it was so different that only they were there for its first flight. The aircraft sat waiting silently on the starting ramp, its white fuselage reflecting the fact that this was not the normal fabric covering the three friends were accustomed to this was a new material called fibre glass and it gave the aircraft an almost alien appearance. Of even greater difference and even more startling was that this aircraft only had one wing and even this was different as it had two engines mounted on it, not the usual one engine “ twice as many problems” Algy had quipped when the aircraft was first revealed. “Well we’ve put this off long enough” said Biggles as he casually flicked a switch on the mobile battery starter which was already connected to the two engines. “Contact” with a strong pull on the propeller Algy swung the left hand engine over with a cough and a crackling bark the engine came to life, the right hand engine was spun, it too coming to life immediately. Biggles advanced the throttle and both engines roared in approval, the aircraft began to vibrate and rock on it’s under carriage as if trying to voice its eagerness to be airborne. Face set with determination, Biggles advanced the throttle and the aircraft moved, taxing quickly to the end of the runway Biggles turned and faced the aircraft into the wind, a slight pause then without hesitation pushed the throttle to the halfway mark, the engines roared again, but this time the note was different it was as if the engines were singing, the sound of each seeming to harmonize with the other, ¾ throttle and the aircraft was racing down the runway it drifted slightly to the left , Biggles applied a touch of right hand rudder and the aircraft moved back on track. Suddenly and without warning the aircraft lifted off the ground still accelerating but suddenly swinging violently to the left, “Right, Right”! shouted Ginger , the aircraft now swung wildly to the right still with the nose pointed skywards silhouetted by the sun appearing like a large bird of prey then without warning the aircraft adopted the flying characteristics of a hawk as it pivoted on its right hand wing as if it had just seen a small rodent or other tasty morsel sitting on the grass and dived straight down. But unlike and eagle or other bird of prey it forgot to pull out of the dive at the last minute. An earsplitting crash echoed around the secret airfield followed by an unearthly silence........ I always think that when you crash a model aircraft on its maiden flight, there is always that embarrassing silence afterwards, have you noticed? Even the birds shut up. Well I think it sounds better in a story format. I could have said, for example “remember the twin I described last time? Well now it’s an Ex twin” or something similar, nowhere near as exciting as the adventures of “El Biggles”!! I was hoping to show before and after Photo’s, but my daughter borrowed my digital camera and deleted all of the photos!!!! I did get a bit of video but the aircrafts life was so short that if you blinked you would miss it!! Good news is that it will be rebuilt so there will be a second installment; I already have the fuselage repaired and am now working on getting someone to cut me a new foam wing. Then we will try again!!. I think I got the thrust on the engines cocked up, some people told me no side thrust some said 2 degrees right thrust on the left hand engine. Does anyone out there know what it should be?

I was over in the UK during the first week of April, enjoyed all the rain and cold so much I was very happy to get back to Mexico. However whilst there we did the rounds and visited all the family. Originally we are from Staffordshire about 3 miles from Alton Towers to be precise. Now if any of you find yourselves in the area on a Sunday afternoon there is a really nice railway to visit (my kids loved the “Harry Potter” type carriages) it runs from Froghall to Cheddleton and is signposted as the Churnet valley Railway Worth a visit!!

On returning home I decided to get on with the refurbishment of my large Cessna. I want to change the windscreen etc and replace the covering to give it a brighter colour scheme. So after getting the work load sorted out the first available Saturday morning Michael and I set up shop in our downstairs room which is large, airy and with plenty of light. Michael carried the fuselage in and deposited it on the table and returned to fetch the wing, whilst he was out I reached into the model to remove the cockpit interior, under normal circumstances a relatively easy task, but I must have left one of my modeling pins in there during the build, because it stuck right in the end of my middle finger I got my hand out of that model faster than a rat out of a drain pipe. Now I did expect to see a little bit of blood or perhaps the pin sticking in my finger, the last thing I expected was to see a bloody Scorpion swinging off my middle digit. With a sharp flick, I managed to dislodge my new friend and then proceeded to introduce him to a large block of Balsa repeatedly over the head! Was I calm? Was I Bugger!! I was up the stairs and in to the house so fast that I mistook the loud Bang which I thought was the door slamming when it was really a SONIC BOOM created by my high rate of knots, ( I might be fat but I can move when I have to!) The newly 'flattened' Scorpy Luckily it was a black Scorpion. These are not really venomous it just bloody hurts!! The real bad boys are almost transparent, they are treated with a lot more respect and kept at a much greater distance. Anyway I now have a new element to my pre-flight checks this includes spraying the inside of the fuselage with DDT or the strongest bug killer, these stowaways can be a real bugger!! Now can anyone in the UK beat that ?? Just in case I took a photo of my mate so you can see I am not joking I put my finger in close so you can get an idea of his size, (no it is dead, I am not that stupid) Oh and don’t bother running into the house expecting sympathy, I didn’t even get any help putting on the bite ointment!!

I have been busy building of late. I needed to get some of my aircraft back into a tidy state, nothing was broken just that as we can fly ALL YEAR, (when we haven’t got swollen fingers), most of my aircraft were beginning to look a bit rough, I also had a couple of projects kicking around which needed to be put to bed. Sometime ago I bought an RCV engine with the intention to build a Fiesler Storch, unfortunately as time goes by my work load seems to get heavier so that is a project which will have to wait. However I still wanted to have a go with the engine and got a Hangar 9 AT6 Texan from a mate in Mexico so I put the 2 together. I spent a bit of time getting it to look right. The RCV 90 went in perfectly, my only complaint is that it’s hard (impossible in Mexico) to get props for this engine. And secondly it is difficult to get a spinner here which will fit. Anyway the engine sits nicely inside the cowl with only a cut out to the base to allow for cooling. We fitted a pilot figure and did a bit of cosmetic painting to make it look that little bit better. We will fly on Futaba radio but will use UK frequencies, I lost an Arestti 40 flying on Mexican frequencies, I am pretty sure some kind person fired a radio up without checking the frequency board. I have installed a high torque metal gear retractable undercarriage servo and all seems to work nicely. I have fitted a remote glow connector and fuel point inside the base of the cowl. We fuelled up with 20/20 4 stroke mix and turned the engine over by hand until she felt like the fuel was starting to lubricate the bore. Connect the glow plug and open the carb up to about half way, the fuel screw was 2 ½ turns open. A touch with the electric starter and she fired up straight away !! lovely, I have fitted a three blade prop and she really kicks up a draft so I have no doubt that she will get off the ground, the RCV is geared so you can fit quite large props, my only concern is that with such a large prop landing might be a bit tricky, careful timing of flaring out will be important if a broken prop is not to be the order of the day!! Michael wanted to get in on the act, and has he as been doing some lovely paint jobs on his Warhammer figures so he got to paint up the dummy radial engine. I must say it makes the model look really good! What is more it only took him about 20 mins! What do you guys think?

A really good addition to your model room equipment is a balance machine, (Great planes) I have seen a lot of really smart models come to grief on a maiden flight due to the model not being balanced properly. This piece of kit is not expensive but takes all the guess work out of it. I now use this with all models and because it’s so simple to use, you can check models before you leave for the flying field, we all know things shake loose sometimes so the models balance can be compromised. Once you have checked this you can easily check for lateral balance, I simply grab the model by the prop and Michael balances the tail wheel on one finger and you just watch which wing drops all the time and add weight to balance. As you can see it’s a pretty simple piece of kit, the supporting arms under the wing is pivoted on a small ball socket, the small vertical chrome pin is used to line up the ruler ( pivot arm ) with the leading edge, the arm itself is a ruler so you just set it to what the Centre of gravity (CofG) says in the instructions for your particular model put the model on to the balancer (low wingers you balance as shown inverted) high wingers as below, the right way up !! I have included a picture of my Cub so you can see exactly what we are talking about. Obviously make sure your model can swing freely on the balancer, also get someone to give you a hand to support the model!! As its hard to hold the model position the balancer and put on the weights when you only have 2 hands!. Now I never guarantee anything but all my models are now well balanced and fly very well. In some cases there as been a marked improvement in the flying characteristics so if a jobs worth doing its worth doing well !!

Whilst in the UK the mother in law “Tess” (hmmm I had better explain the joke here, the father in law is known; for his liking to tickle the kids, as Mr Tickle so we called the Mother in law Tess, as in Tess & tickle... Tesstickle - get it!) Anyway she commented on how much money I must be getting through on model planes. Actually I am not, I know it looks like (and yes I have) got too many models but I am very careful in what and when I buy. I am always on the look out for a bargain and in nearly all cases have purchased only when a big discount is there for the taking. A good place to look and I am sure you have is in the For Sale section of Bumpygreen, there are some lovely bargains to be picked up there. Engines, I usually purchase used at model shows or out of mags and occasionally over the internet. Radio’s are also second hand (but I send them to my local Futaba engineer to check them over before I use them) To be fair I have 2 new UK spec radios which I purchased last year to stop idiots trashing my models when they switch on their radios without checking the peg board. Also a good way to get hold of gear is to put an advert in your local hobby shop (if they will let you) I have done this in Mexico with good results (Many rich people buy things they can not build or fly and then look to dump them, so yours truly steps in with a really low offer, as the saying goes “take the cash or put in the trash” Well that’s all from me and my throbbing digit! See you next time. Dave

Article by Dave Whiston from Mexico
For Bumpy Green Model Aerodrome
April 2004