Frank Sopwith

It finally was time to do the first flight with the Gloster Meteor mk4.

It weighs in at 43 lbs. it is 1:5 scale with two Jet cat P80's, little tail heavy but managable!

With thanks to my clubmates Ray who talked me trough it and Tim who made the pictures;
















cheers,

Frank

-JC-

My Feedback: (26)

Gefeliciteerd Frank,

Always cool to see something different. Spectacular looking project. Great photography as well.

J.F

Beautiful plane!

Andy Aldridge

Now that IS an aeroplane. STUNNING. Well done chaps. What a beautiful flying machine.

Redline7000

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Aero modelling is alive and well in the Netherlands! Stunning!

Henke Torphammar

Very cool! The Meteor is alot of engine and very little airframe, looks like it´s missing 50% of the wingspan

Ali

My Feedback: (5)

Superb rendition of a glorious aircraft. Well done to all those involved. A very impressive bit of aero modelling.
Regards Al

Jack Diaz

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Awesome model. Congratulations!

Jack

David Gladwin

Congratulations on a superb and truly original model. Look forward to seeing it.

Beware, however, of the engine -out situation !

The real Meteor, like the Canberra, was a dog with an engine out, get them slow, run out of rudder, and you simply lost control. In fact the RAF lost over 800 (yes 800) Meteors (and many Canberras) many of them on asymmetric training accidents, many of those at the "Driffield bloodbath". I have often considered a model Canberra, , may still do one, but if I ever do it I will crosswire the fuel solenoids so that if an engine fails it will instantly shut down the other engine. No thrust without asymmetry would be far preferable to the one engine case which would almost certainly lead very rapidly to a spin.

Again warmest congratulations on a splendid achievement and long may your "Meatbox" grace the skies !

Regards,

David.

HarryC

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A fantastic model Frank, well done.
Harry

jetster81

Hi Frank, well done, it's just so nice to see something different in the air and you have made a very nice job of it. Do you know Dolf by any chance? he is a retired gentleman and also flies a Meteor around Holland,as I recall he had homemade turbines in his.

Gordon W

Wow! Outstanding photographs of an outstanding model.

How did you design the main gear so that the wheels will fit inside the u/c bays when they are retracted?

Do the trailing arms tuck up by means of a scale linkage as the legs retract? Or did you offset the main gear pivot point so that the legs "shorten" geometrically as they rotate upwards?

Or maybe you "cheated" slightly and offset the inner door hinge line nearer the centreline? Looking at the second and 6th pics, I suspect the last-mentioned solution. However you did it, you have my congratulations on your success in arranging the gear setup so that the model has the proper scale stance with the correct ground clearance when on the ground.

Congratulations on your success with this iconic jet.

Gordon

JP-1

Truly an outstanding model, first class. Great to see this classic British jet grace the sky, I am sure with with twin P 80's the sound will be close to original too.

Well done Frank.

I know the logistics of transporting a superb model like the Meteor would be difficult, however is it likely we will see it in the U.K. At some time?

Alistair

Frank Sopwith

Spot on Gordon, the inner door hinge line is not exactly scale; you got me there

In the Netherlands we have the foundation 'PHantasy in Blue', with a collection of about 50 planes which flew for the Dutch Royal Airforce, The Gloster Meteor is one of them but we also have other oldies like the Hawker Hunter, Thunderjet -Streak & -Flash see pics, at the moment I'm busy with a F84-G Thunderjet (all the planes are 1:5 scale)
Interesting fact is that none of them are kits!! Design and all the molds are done by the builders, and these projects started as early as 1996!!

cheers,

Frank

powerjets

My Feedback: (1)

proficiat Frank, zeer indrukwekkend !
Is PHantasy in Blue still alive.. ?

RemoteJets

In 2012 Frank flew this Gloster Meteor F Mk4 scale 1:5 from stichting Phantasy in Blue (PHiB) for the first time.
Up to 4 years ago it made about 15 flights in total, after that this model was collecting dust due to other projects, corona, etc.

End of 2022 Frank asked me if I would be interested to take over this model and maintain and fly it for PHiB.
After some thoughts I agreed and beginning of February I picked up the model.


The model just fits in my building room of the garage (in the other side of the garage I have the trailer standing which I specially bought for the Meteor and off course for my other models):



I will change the radio control to Jeti, will install telemetry on the turbines.
But before that I will have a big inspection on the model and make some minor changes.
Also I will have to make a stand for the wing and fuselage for transportation and build up at the field.

If some are interested in the process of letting this Meteor fly again then I will update this thread regularly.

Greetz,
Berto.

BosModelAir

gpman

Of course we are ;-)

Geoff

RemoteJets

You are everywhere Geoff.

But okay I will just go on and see who will follow.

Although it is a flying model it has not been flown for about 4 years, so I will do a very complete inspection on the model and will change some small things and see what will need to be repaired.
I will fly it with Jeti, I will install a REX12 with extra Rsat 2, a GPS (have one lying around...) and I will install telemetry for the JetCat turbines.

So first thing I have done is removing the ECU`s because they will need to be upgraded to a newer version for the telemetry function.
Both ECU`s where on top of this frame:


Also removed the ECU tray for some rearranging of all the wiring:



And removed the tank and UAT tray with the fuel pumps:


The UAT`s with pumps, I will replace all the fuel lines:

paul_h300

Glad to see this Meteor is still about. I am currently building a 1/5.8 scale F8 for two P-60’s.

RemoteJets

Yes, it still is alive, planning for a re-maiden is somewhere in April I guess.

Nice another Meteor, just a little bit easier to handle ;-)
Any thread here maybe?

RemoteJets

The Jeti REX12 with Rsat2 will steer the model, the expander is for the telemetry from GPS en turbine ECU`s:


Wiring before:


And after:

paul_h300

Nice progress so far with the re wiring.

Looking forward to seeing some progress pics and especially some more in flight pics.

No build thread on here yet for mine, but I will be doing one.
I have just bought a Ripmax Hunter so that will be getting put together first and then the Meteor.

The slightly smaller scale of mine will make it a bit easier to manage. Still a 96” fuselage though.

I am planning on a two piece fuselage, split just aft of the wing.

keep up the good work 😊

RemoteJets

Thanks, looking forward to your build.

After this I carried on to the ailerons.

Removed servo`s and inspected, replaced bolts and nuts on the horns:



Found some play on the RH aileron inboard hinge, uinstalled new bushing, play in now zero:



Also discovered that LH flap servo mount was loose, already repaired, will also install aluminium arms:

paul_h300

I can't start a thread yet as I don't have 10 posts.

Good find on the loose servo and worn aileron bushes. It is always good to give an airframe a good once over every now and again.

How much has the Meteor flown since it was built?

RemoteJets

Since the maiden in 2012 it has flown about 15 times / less then 2 hours.