Contents...
REGULARS
PRE FLIGHT
Introducing this issue
TAKE OFF
Latest R/C model flying news
SHOP WINDOW
A look at the latest R/C products
SCALE SOARING
Chris Williams looks at the pick of the scale gliders seen in action at the Ghost Squadron Aerotow, Middle Wallop, which took place in late July. It was a one day aff air this year as the base was holding its Family Day on the Saturday
SOARERS’ SLOT
Although kept busy as Contest Director, Mike Proctor managed to keep track of all the thermal soaring classes at the Wetlands round of the BMFA Silent Flight Nationals, where the F5J, 2 metre eSoaring and Open eSoaring events took place
IN THE LOOP
Keith Jackson makes a welcome return with his column dedicated to precision aerobatics, as he reports from the F3A Nationals. With Barkston Heath being unavailable for this year’s BMFA Nats, the F3A component of the UK’s premier event was held at the Plane Crazy Model Flying Club, near Hurley in Warwickshire
THE SPORT CHANNEL
Gray looks at an historic short film of the Keil Kraft factory and receives an SMA gift
DIARY DATES
Event dates for the indoor model flying season
NEXT ISSUE
Coming up in next
REVIEWS
FIREFLY
Daniel Johns carries on evening flying with a compact night flyer from FMS that is fitted with fifteen LED light strips
FEATURES
SCALE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2016
Neil Tidey is our reporter as Team GB win the Bronze medal in the F4H class at the FAI World Scale Championships in Ploiești, Romania. Unfortunately, Romania did not prove to be a popular venue and some European teams did not attend. Although not well supported, there were entries from 10 countries and the all top competitors went, making the event a true competition
LES MEILLEURS PILOTES FRANÇAIS (TOP FRENCH PILOTS)
Dave Goodenough chats to one of France’s scale aces, Daniel Boulanger, the newly crowned F4H Scale World Champion, who competed in Romania with his beautifully executed rendition of F-AZAL, the renovated Luciole (Firefly) no.16, which was originally constructed in the early 1930s as a training aircraft
RAGLEY HALL FESTIVAL OF FLIGHT
Despite heavy rain, we joined the expectant crowds who braved the elements to visit on the first day of this brand new model show in the heart of Warwickshire. Fortunately the weather broke and we were rewarded with some excellent display flying. Sunday’s visitors had better luck, with perfect conditions throughout the day
STELLA CLIPPER
This 1575 mm wingspan ‘hotliner’ glider was designed by Brian Austin for four function R/C and a 480KV brushless outrunner motor as a follow up to his popular ‘Watts Up’ plan that has proved very successful as an ‘introduction to electric glider’ model. If you wish you can remove the power source and, using a smaller battery, fly it as a pure slope soaring glider
ANDREASSON BA-4B
Enjoy building Roger Vaughan’s 3S electric sport scale biplane from this month’s free pull-out plan The full size BA-4B was designed by Bjorn Andreasson as a potential project for home builders, although the all metal structure may have put some people off as only a few were ever built. Roger’s little 37 inch span version is allwood though and is, thankfully, easy to build.
LMA AT COSFORD
Neil Hutchinson reports from the flight-line at the Large Model Association’s big rally, held in July. Neil arrived at Cosford wondering if there would be any changes to the layout of the show line. Last year there were problems for the traders but this year it reverted to the usual LMA show layout and everyone seemed a lot happier
THURSTON TEAL
In the second part of his article on building his 1780 mm span amphibious flying boat, Laddie Mikulasko shows how to construct the fuselage before finishing off the Teal and preparing it for its first flights
SIMULATED CONTRAROTATING PROPELLERS
Following on from his article last month, David James flight tests his Gannet fitted with a dummy contra-rotating propeller. The CR prop certainly improves the appearance of the Gannet on the ground, but how does it perform in the air? The 33 pound, 114 inch span model flew beautifully from the start
DOGFIGHTING DOWN UNDER
Greg Thompson introduces his sturdy Fokker biplane, suitably beefed up to survive the R/C combat skirmishes that are held once a year at an undisclosed location in Victoria, Australia. There, a group of dedicated individuals get together to ‘recreate’ the iconic aerial battles of the Great War. Each aircraft tows a short length of paper streamer and opponents attempt to remove it, or sections of it, from the aircraft. The only requirements are that the aircraft shall be powered by a .25 cu in glow motor and be representative of a WWI type
