Telemaster Sales UK

Over on RC Groups there is a thread called, "Anyone Done Anything As Stupid As This Lately," in which I admitted to building a wing with one wing 2cms higher than the other. Another fellow who regularly posts, and who was once the British and Irish R/C Glider Champion, admitted that he'd recently flown a model into a tree. This reminded me of a couple of incidents in my own flying career which I hope may amuse you.

The picture below, taken in 2009, shows your humble servant at Forton Aerodrome, the home of Shropshire Model Flying Club, with his Flair Hooligan powered by an Irvine 46. I was enjoying flying it when the model hit the upper branches of the trees in the background. It bounced off, executing the most perfect knife edge at the same time! I remember pushing the throttle wide open and the mighty Irvine responded! I flew it back to a perfect landing trailing the foliage you can see in my hand from the undercarriage!



The other model in the picture is my Radio Queen, a replica of the first model aircraft to fly across the English Channel. On a later occasion, I was using a buddy box to teach my girlfriend how to fly. She flew it into the same trees! My fault, I should have re-taken control before she hit them but my depth perception has never been very good. I had to hire a tree surgeon to rescue it. Cost me £80! (93€ or $104 US.) Landing practice on my current club's 10 metre wide runway has improved things!

I sold both models before retiring to France. I now wish I hadn't. The Radio Queen was perfect for giving nervous elderly beginners their first experience of radio-controlled flight and the Hooligan was great fun in a hooliganish sort of way.

I sold it to a Brummie, a native of Birmingham, England's second biggest city. He was going to take his A Test with it.

Best of luck with that!

Telemaster Sales UK

As for washing machines, I paid 25€ (£21 Sterling or $28US) for a second hand one in 2015. A bloke had retired from Paris to his house in the country. Having had two houses he had more stuff than he needed including two washing machines. One of the paddles had broken off but otherwise it ran perfectly. I've just washed four sets of overalls in it. They weren't particularly dirty but I had been using something called Jeyes Fluid to kill lichen on my bean sticks. It's an excellent product but the smell is all pervasive. The whole house smells of Jeyes Fluid. I'll have to get rid of it before Miss Blue Eyes returns on 10th! The washing machine was made by a company called "Vedette." I've never heard of them either.

ETpilot

acdii

If you really want to practice landings, put an electric tape fence at either end at about 1.2 meters high and the runway about 150' long. Trust me, you get really good at landings, or really good at repairs! )

ETpilot

mkjohnston

My Feedback: (2)

I had a hard time trying to land on my clubs runway and the main reason was that I was use to standing on the opposite side of the strip looking at the airplane and landing right in front of me to the left. Because of the Silly AMA rules about being some many feet away from each other when flying I kept miss judging my approaches. My friend would come up to me when I was flying and said" Why do you keep standing on the runway?" Its very hard to break old habits , I said . I set up in RF 3.5 just like the clubsrunway and that helped a lot. The real flight sim is helpful as it only took me 10 years to figure out how to make my own fields. go figure right!
Michael Johnston

acdii

I had a little trouble going from small planes that have 60-70" wingspans to 84" and up. I have a H9 P-47 that I was flying one day and trying to line it up to land, the field I fly had a line of trees, and a hanger and to land east to west you needed to fly between them. Well I was so used to the smaller planes that I misjudged the distance the plane was from me, instead of past the hanger, it was still on the far side of it. Yep, slipped a wing off the edge of the roof and flipped it to the ground.


It's all repaired, but haven't flown it yet, and found the servos are sketchy, so going to replace them with some Hitec's.

I also have a problem with a 14' WS plane, not that easy to judge the distance, its much further out than I thought, and lost it too when the engine quit from a bad NiMh pack. Repairable, but not at the top of the list, just going to transfer everything over to and Extra 330L.

Telemaster Sales UK

Talking of moral compasses, please see Post 6848, perhaps virtue does bring its own rewards.

A bloke on the same website as linked in Post 6845 has asked whether I'd be interested in buying a Laser 45 or 50 if they're non-runners. I've replied in the affirmative! Lasers have a reputation for quality and reliability though they may not be as powerful as their Japanese competitors. Size for size they're also heavier so running one in La Coupe may be a bit like running a Harley Davidson in a Moto GP race! On the other hand, if you're British like me the thought of competing with a British engine has its attractions!

I have also offered to present a prize at the competition, Le Prix Quatre-Temps, (The Four-Stroke Prize,) to encourage competitors to use four-stroke engines. It will take the form of £50 worth of balsa, (59€ or $66 US) to the leading pilot in La Coupe who uses a four-stroke engine. In the unlikely event that it's me, the prize will go to the second-placed competitor who uses a four-stroke. Last year out of sixty-eight competitors only two or three ran four-strokes but for 2019 the organisers have increased the maximum permitted size of four-stroke engines from a 40 to a 52 so this year we may get a few more running four-strokes.

Just at the moment I'm like a kid at Christmas dreaming of that Laser engine!

ETpilot

donnyman

Hey guys I was wondering how many of you use your rudders to line up to the runway? I found it makes a big difference for me instead of using ailerons, my landings became more accurate and my rudder use increased in many maneuvers.

By the way I have a propane clothes dryer I need to get rid of.

acdii

I use the rudder all the time, Needed to slip a warbird in with a cross wind. Majority of my planes are also tail draggers, so rudder on take off is also a must.

ETpilot

red head

One of the (?) tricks I use when teaching people to fly : go stand in the middle of the runway and look at each end and remember what lines up as the center of the field at each end and then fly just a slight bit INSIDE of that line as a start. Another (?) tool I use is to have them hold their hand out in front of themselves with their THUMB on the bottom and their fore finger above it, hold a space of about 1"-2" separation and sort of glide that vision out in front of you over a tree / building line . As long as you stay above the forefinger , you should stay clear of stuff. ENJOY Red

Telemaster Sales UK

Talking of lining up with the centre of the runway, the dead tree in the picture below is used to line up for finals when the wind is in the west. When it's in the opposite direction a pair of pine trees on the skyline provide the same aiming point.

ETpilot

donnyman

balsa usa kit build---Sopwith pup






The Austin model club held its annual warbird meet yesterday and I was of the mind that with the monsoon type rain we had the night before the meet would be a washout but was I ever so wrong, the place was quite busy with flyers 49 pilot registered and the flight line was crowded

donnyman

I have more pics but they come out Too big! The field was just about at it's capacity because the usual grass areas was too saturated to be used for parking and cars were lined along the entry road. the pilot parking area was ridiculous but a successful meet was had, I only wonder what it would have been like if the weather had been like it is today absolutely fantastic.

all the corsairs were flown together several times along with other and the sound was chilling, a lot of turning and burning....lotta fun!

mkjohnston

My Feedback: (2)

Nice Pictures keep them coming! I had a funny thing happen today at the field as I am flying around with my GP Easy Sport I saw this black object come flying of and it was left wheel so I did a soft grass landing and went looking for it in the 2" high grass and never found it. All these years of flying this might happened three time to me and just before I took off I heard the guy flying his electric jet say he lost the front cowl and one the other guys found it right off that I bet. I wasn't as lucky so I called it quits again!
Michael Johnston

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Well I got the word a week ago it looks like my inclination toward flying my improve. It turns out my fuzzy vision with glasses is a cataract in the left eye. They are talking about surgery mid-June. That has got to help! The only fly in the ointment would be if something goes wrong are discovered during my stress test.

donnyman

Flyer
I had both eyes corrected for cataracts and the difference in vision is quite remarkable, the only problem is you will be given the option of near or far vision dominance, I chose far and can see distant things quite well though my vision isn't quite 20/20.
glasses makes for a slight improvement. overall I give it a rating of 95% near vision isn't a problem at all................. go for it!

donnyman

It flew overhead as I drove up the entry road ..it has fourstrokers.....awesome sound and flyer.
One more pic from the warbird meet

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

That is what my doctor told me to expect. I have been badly nearsighted since the first grade its going to be an interesting experience.

acdii

I bet flying that was Liberating!

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

I wonder if that B-24 shares the same flight characteristics as its big brother? I have often heard you had to actively fly a B-24 the whole time. It didn't cruise in level flight like a B-17.

acdii

That's because nature kept hitting it with the ugly stick. That is one plane that has no charm to it like a B-17 or B-29. Same as the B-26, on the ugly side.