Keil Kraft Super Sixty MIA
04-11-2013, 10:07 PM
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Keil Kraft Super Sixty MIA
Gentlemen,
It is my sad duty to report that my much loved Keil Kraft Super Sixty complete with period Merco 35 engine is Missing In Action and must be presumed dead. I had built the model for the Greenacres Fly-In last year which is organised by the best selling UK R/C magazine, Radio Controlled Models and Electronics or RCM&E for short.
What happened was this. I had had several successful sessions with the model over the last week or so and having carried out a few minor alterations, I took the model with the Senior Telemaster to the flying field. I had planned to meet a club colleague called Alan who is a superb modeller but a very nervous pilot. He is learning to fly on an electric powered Junior 60, originally a 1946 free flight design. I had helped him to trim out the model over the previous weekend and had planned to take the Super 60, two transmitters and a buddy lead to give him a go on the Super 60 to raise his confidence. I had also planned to use my old but hardly-used Futaba Skysport 4 transmitter as the main transmitter and the 6X Super as the slave because the aerial was found to be loose over the weekend but we managed to tighten it.
Having got to the flying field I found that Alan had already flown and damaged his Junior 60. I said I'd give him a go on the buddy lead with the Super 60. Another pilot, Richard Golding, a retired electronics engineer expressed an interest in having a go too so we all crowded round the Best Mate stand while I started the engine. At this stage we found out that I'd left the Skysport at home so no chance of a buddy, however, having got the engine to start I placed the model on the runway, gave the controls a final check, opened the throttle and off went the model climbing steadily. It turned to the left. I put in right rudder. Nothing happened but the model continued to climb in fairly tight left-hand circles betraying its free flight heritage and the fact that it was fitted with an old PPM receiver. I shouted that I had no control and the good old Super Sixty continued to climb. Alan, Richard and another chap who was there, did all that they could to help me. This involved fetching a Mode 1 Skysport transmitter from the club's training locker and removing the battery and crystal from my set to see whether any control could be re-established. By now I'd abandoned the transmitter and left them to it. I was concentrating on watching the model, the transmitter wasn't controlling anything anyway! It continued to climb then the engine appeared to cut or go to tick over, I thought I could still just about hear it but can't be certain. When I last saw it, it was in a flat spiral dive as if the rudder had jammed. It disappeared behind a large tree at the edge of a wood about a thousand yards away from the launch point.
Had they managed to get some kind of a signal just before it disappeared? Who knows? We discovered a broken wire in the 6X transmitter when we removed the back later. I had always regarded the 6X as pretty new but when I pause to think about it, I bought it when my friend Frank Wall was still alive and he died in 2004!
Two search parties looked for the model in the wood and surrounding fields but there was no sign of it. I expect it's deep in the wood in amongst the undergrowth-covered ponds. It disappeared near a cross roads. I'll print a picture of it and offer a reward to the finder and ask the RAF to fly one of their helicopter training flights over the area to see whether they can see it.
Farewell Super Sixty, I only flew you a few times but you were a delight to fly and died like a gentleman!
Small time
But in that small
Most greatly lived this
Star of England.
I had a beer and a Chinese take-away to cheer myself up.
Happy Landings
David
It is my sad duty to report that my much loved Keil Kraft Super Sixty complete with period Merco 35 engine is Missing In Action and must be presumed dead. I had built the model for the Greenacres Fly-In last year which is organised by the best selling UK R/C magazine, Radio Controlled Models and Electronics or RCM&E for short.
What happened was this. I had had several successful sessions with the model over the last week or so and having carried out a few minor alterations, I took the model with the Senior Telemaster to the flying field. I had planned to meet a club colleague called Alan who is a superb modeller but a very nervous pilot. He is learning to fly on an electric powered Junior 60, originally a 1946 free flight design. I had helped him to trim out the model over the previous weekend and had planned to take the Super 60, two transmitters and a buddy lead to give him a go on the Super 60 to raise his confidence. I had also planned to use my old but hardly-used Futaba Skysport 4 transmitter as the main transmitter and the 6X Super as the slave because the aerial was found to be loose over the weekend but we managed to tighten it.
Having got to the flying field I found that Alan had already flown and damaged his Junior 60. I said I'd give him a go on the buddy lead with the Super 60. Another pilot, Richard Golding, a retired electronics engineer expressed an interest in having a go too so we all crowded round the Best Mate stand while I started the engine. At this stage we found out that I'd left the Skysport at home so no chance of a buddy, however, having got the engine to start I placed the model on the runway, gave the controls a final check, opened the throttle and off went the model climbing steadily. It turned to the left. I put in right rudder. Nothing happened but the model continued to climb in fairly tight left-hand circles betraying its free flight heritage and the fact that it was fitted with an old PPM receiver. I shouted that I had no control and the good old Super Sixty continued to climb. Alan, Richard and another chap who was there, did all that they could to help me. This involved fetching a Mode 1 Skysport transmitter from the club's training locker and removing the battery and crystal from my set to see whether any control could be re-established. By now I'd abandoned the transmitter and left them to it. I was concentrating on watching the model, the transmitter wasn't controlling anything anyway! It continued to climb then the engine appeared to cut or go to tick over, I thought I could still just about hear it but can't be certain. When I last saw it, it was in a flat spiral dive as if the rudder had jammed. It disappeared behind a large tree at the edge of a wood about a thousand yards away from the launch point.
Had they managed to get some kind of a signal just before it disappeared? Who knows? We discovered a broken wire in the 6X transmitter when we removed the back later. I had always regarded the 6X as pretty new but when I pause to think about it, I bought it when my friend Frank Wall was still alive and he died in 2004!
Two search parties looked for the model in the wood and surrounding fields but there was no sign of it. I expect it's deep in the wood in amongst the undergrowth-covered ponds. It disappeared near a cross roads. I'll print a picture of it and offer a reward to the finder and ask the RAF to fly one of their helicopter training flights over the area to see whether they can see it.
Farewell Super Sixty, I only flew you a few times but you were a delight to fly and died like a gentleman!
Small time
But in that small
Most greatly lived this
Star of England.
I had a beer and a Chinese take-away to cheer myself up.
Happy Landings
David
04-12-2013, 09:44 PM
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RE: Keil Kraft Super Sixty MIA
I emailed the local RAF helicopter training squadron yesterday and within half an hour they said that they would overfly the area on Monday to see whether they could find the model.
Fingers crossed.
Fingers crossed.
04-15-2013, 03:49 AM
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RE: Keil Kraft Super Sixty MIA
They found it at 09.39 hrs!
It was in a field a few hundred metres away from the wood where I first noticed it going down. The fuselage was near a hedgerow and the wing was a few metres away at the foot of another hedge. Two of us had had a good look for it in those fields last week. I suspect that somebody found it and moved it to the side of the field and that the wind had blown the wing a short distance away. Damage is mainly restricted to the tail surfaces.
Well done the RAF!
It was in a field a few hundred metres away from the wood where I first noticed it going down. The fuselage was near a hedgerow and the wing was a few metres away at the foot of another hedge. Two of us had had a good look for it in those fields last week. I suspect that somebody found it and moved it to the side of the field and that the wind had blown the wing a short distance away. Damage is mainly restricted to the tail surfaces.
Well done the RAF!
04-16-2013, 02:42 AM
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RE: Keil Kraft Super Sixty MIA
Fin and tailplane will need rebuilding and some of the glue joints seem to have popped in the wing. Very busy over the next few months so don't expect a quick repair!
04-17-2013, 06:34 AM
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RE: Keil Kraft Super Sixty MIA
I received this email yesterday from the helicopter pilot who found my model.
Hello Mr Davies
I am the pilot who located your aeroplane and I am so pleased you have got it back. As a fellow modeller (I fly from Shawbury) I know how distressing it is to lose a model and was delighted to be able to help you recover it and by all accounts in not too bad shape. I hope you'll be airborne again soon now that the good weather is (hopefully) coming.
It was very generous to leave the champagne. My colleague in the office is doing an instructor upgrade on Thursday so we'll have a celebration when he passes.
Thank you again and happy flying
Dick Barton
As the Squadron Leader is called Paul Barton I am left to wonder whether Dick and Paul might be one and the same man. "Dick Barton Special Agent" was an extremely popular radio programme on the BBC in the late 40's and early 50's before television took over and Dick could be a nick-name.
Hello Mr Davies
I am the pilot who located your aeroplane and I am so pleased you have got it back. As a fellow modeller (I fly from Shawbury) I know how distressing it is to lose a model and was delighted to be able to help you recover it and by all accounts in not too bad shape. I hope you'll be airborne again soon now that the good weather is (hopefully) coming.
It was very generous to leave the champagne. My colleague in the office is doing an instructor upgrade on Thursday so we'll have a celebration when he passes.
Thank you again and happy flying
Dick Barton
As the Squadron Leader is called Paul Barton I am left to wonder whether Dick and Paul might be one and the same man. "Dick Barton Special Agent" was an extremely popular radio programme on the BBC in the late 40's and early 50's before television took over and Dick could be a nick-name.
01-09-2014, 06:48 PM
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Awesome that you got it back. Wish I could say the same for my Great Gonzo.
http://www.airfieldmodels.com/galler...onzo/index.htm
You said it was spinning, right? That's actually not the worst way to hit and looks very repairable. Congratulations!
http://www.airfieldmodels.com/galler...onzo/index.htm
You said it was spinning, right? That's actually not the worst way to hit and looks very repairable. Congratulations!
01-09-2014, 11:14 PM
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Actually, it gets better.
Just before Christmas I noticed that another Super 60 was for sale on eBay and the the seller lived only about 30 miles away from me. Brief word of explanation; I live in England's most rural county, Shropshire. Shropshire is adjacent to one of the most highly industrialised parts of the world, variously called the "West Midlands" or the "Black Country," a collection of towns like Walsall, West Bromwhich and Wolvehampton which merged together with the growth of industrialisation in the nineteenth century.
On the edge of the Black Country is a place called Penn and near there you'll find Penn Models; they moved from Penn itself some time ago. Now Penn Models have produced ready-to-fly four channel Super Sixties for decades, long before the days of ARTFs and everyone I've seen has been finished in the same way; yellow fuselage with red wings. If you want one, even today, they'll still make one up for you, just give them a week's notice! Penn Models Super Sixties are four channel models with inset ailerons while the Ben Buckle version has strip ailerons on the four-channel option. This model was finished in the traditional Penn Models scheme with a Magnum 52 four-stroke and an extra pair of aileron wings. It didn't sell so I contacted the seller after the auction and we agreed a price. So now I have two Super Sixties and three sets of wings.
I have not flown either model yet with the aileron wing but have flashed up the Magnum and it runs well. I have replaced the Merco with an OS 40 FP, another eBay purchase, because the Merco's strap-on silencer was never very satisfactory.
I plan to offer one of the models to a friend who has been very kind to me.
Just before Christmas I noticed that another Super 60 was for sale on eBay and the the seller lived only about 30 miles away from me. Brief word of explanation; I live in England's most rural county, Shropshire. Shropshire is adjacent to one of the most highly industrialised parts of the world, variously called the "West Midlands" or the "Black Country," a collection of towns like Walsall, West Bromwhich and Wolvehampton which merged together with the growth of industrialisation in the nineteenth century.
On the edge of the Black Country is a place called Penn and near there you'll find Penn Models; they moved from Penn itself some time ago. Now Penn Models have produced ready-to-fly four channel Super Sixties for decades, long before the days of ARTFs and everyone I've seen has been finished in the same way; yellow fuselage with red wings. If you want one, even today, they'll still make one up for you, just give them a week's notice! Penn Models Super Sixties are four channel models with inset ailerons while the Ben Buckle version has strip ailerons on the four-channel option. This model was finished in the traditional Penn Models scheme with a Magnum 52 four-stroke and an extra pair of aileron wings. It didn't sell so I contacted the seller after the auction and we agreed a price. So now I have two Super Sixties and three sets of wings.
I have not flown either model yet with the aileron wing but have flashed up the Magnum and it runs well. I have replaced the Merco with an OS 40 FP, another eBay purchase, because the Merco's strap-on silencer was never very satisfactory.
I plan to offer one of the models to a friend who has been very kind to me.
