Hi guys !

About two years ago a bought a classic pattern plane from an old modeller. He told me that it was a Sicroly that he builded in 1972 after he received some hand drawn blueprints from Hans Prettner. The plane was kept in the attic since it last flew in 1995. I asked him how many times the plane was flown, and the answer was "with this Webra that I put in it in '77, about 150 hours but no crashes". He also told me that the plans were never published and probably this one is unique. After this story I paid for it together with the RC 150 Euro (~ 185$ at that time).

Indeed, the engine was totally wreked, piston skirt rounded, the pistonring very tired, and the conrod had 0.5 mm play, the bearings had so much play that were about to dismantle themselfs. Also the Kavan wheels were hard as a rock with the stripes hardly visible. It seemed that the old modeller was telling the truth about the age of the plane.

It took some time to restore the plane, it was painted so I had to whipe it using a lot of nitro solver and then fine sanding the plane and use some filler to level the surface of the wing. The tank (MK 270ml), engine mount, wheels and hinges were also replaced with new ones. I recoverd it with Solarfilm, installed some new electronics (the original servos were Simprop Contest Speed and the RC a 1978 Simprop Contest 8 SSM with dual rates). The engine was replaced by a HB PDP 61 with Perry pump and carburettor from the early '80s.

Until now I managed to do around 20 flights. The engine was difficult to tune in the begining but after this was settled it's turning an APC 12x7 prop at 11.200 rpm using 5% nitro fuel and has enough thrust for my style of flying.