Mike.K

After just ten days of moderate effort, the Skybolt is 99% finished with only a 240mm long flexi exhaust pipe and the silencer still to be fitted. Just Engines will be sending the flexi pipe in the post shortly together with an external fixing bracket kit. The cost for those parts comes out not far short of £40 but avoids the need to mount the silencer within the cowl. The silencer will fit centrally under the fuselage with mountings to hold it firmly under the central parts of the landing gear. Maintenance will be a lot easier than an internally cowl mounted silencer as well as getting exhaus

The Skybolt kit was collected from Rob on Tuesday. Together with a few other bits and pieces, Rob dropped the pile outside the shop door and I paid for it using his card reader which he placed on the shop door threshold......... I`ve never had to go on my hands and knees to pay or pray for anything previously. I think he just wanted to watch me struggle to get up off my knees........ Another case of daylight Robbery with a smile as our esteemed friend and model shop proprietor helps himself to the contents of your piggy bank! A lovely bloke is our Rob. The kit is not a big one. The wings

Looking for a user friendly twin engined airframe, the DB Twin Tub caught my eye. Although a large 82" model, with twin engine configuration, this vintage David Boddington design hit the spot for me. Essentially, its a Barnstormer with two engines mounted close inboard upon its high parasol wing configuration. Just a couple of images can be found on the DB order listing with the same ones appearing on Google. Other than that, I`ve not found any information on the model anywhere else than the DB sales listing. The images you see below appear to be the only ones around. I`ve just ordered on

With the recent sad passing of my Father, the lockdown and an urgent need for a Hangar clearance, I bit the bullet hard. Some twenty five models have been built in my work area over about the last two and a half years. Despite small and regular clear out sessions, the chaos, dust and general bedlam rose on an almost exponential scale to a near unworkable situation. Something had to give. Over the years, my Fathers filing system had expanded to bursting point. His art work from previous years flowed out of the plan chest and his collection of watercolour paintings and books had approached a vol

Its been under the modifying torch before its even flown! I needed the SC120FS for my forthcoming Seagull Steen Skybolt. Out came the engine and in went a low time ASP/SC 1.08 two stroke which I bought with a gummed up carburettor for just £11 at one of the Club actions a couple of years ago. As I confidently expect this Zlin to have a fairly short life, it seemed a good idea to fit a cheap engine rather than one of my prized and valued four strokes! Conversion of the air-frame was accomplished in about three hours. It was worth doing. Mike

A lull before my next project begins means some time to sort out all my propellers. I`d struggled with my late Fathers rather small prop balancer. The props I`m now using are generally between 13" and 18". Clearly a decent balancer was required. Choice is somewhat limited and prices are not so cheap. In the end I plumped for a Dubro unit which generally retails at about £36. Justin at Rapid RC knocked the price down by £3 probably due to the volume of mail order business I`ve pushed his way during this lockdown period and the inability to get over to Robs emporium. In any case Robs shop i

About change! The Seagull Zlin Z50 has had its SC120FS snatched for the imminent assembly of the Seagull Skybolt. The above ASP 1.08 two stroke which hadn`t been installed in anything since I bought it at one of our Club auctions a couple of years ago, now sits in the Zlin. Its an economical way to gain the engine I wanted for the Skybolt with no additional costs involved. Images depict what occurred. Rob now has the kit ordered from Perkins. He now has My Hermes delivering at what he says are excellent prices. He tells me he sent out a kit weighing 8Kg to a customer on two day deliv

The Fly Baby is 99% complete and just requires four more rigging wire sets to be fitted. Just four more .6mm flying wires and four more turnbuckles are needed to see final completion. Its been a very long build! All up weight is a rather beefy 13.3Lbs. Rather heavier than James example I would think. Its essentially been built to the plan with only a couple of small mods done to the wing joiners. The large 120FS is perhaps a bit heavier than an OS90FS... C of G came out spot on with no nose lead added. Now it has to be flown.... Images here show the model out on the drive this mornin

Work has continued on the Fly Baby with inter-plane struts and one dummy engine cylinder being constructed. Images below. Sadly my Father, Peter, died early on Tuesday at East Surrey Hospital after a long Parkinsons illness which was exacerbated by the Covid virus. Peter was founder Hon Sec of Riddlesdown MFC and was the person who encouraged my modelling activities from about 1972. I`m continuing the Fly Baby completion to keep myself occupied whilst we make arrangements for his burial. The Riddlesdown guys have been informed of his passing. The Fly Baby now only requires the fittin

Now nearing completion, the Fly Baby is not far off finished. You can see in the images the missing inter-plane struts, flying wire mounts and a few other parts. Not much more to do now. Mike

Bought at one of the Club auctions a couple of years ago, this ASP 1.08 two stroke motor fitted with an Irvine silencer is in very low use condition and was discovered quite by accident when I raked through my engine stock. I forgot I had this very tidy and almost unused engine. OK, two stroke motors have gone out of fashion being noisy and dirty but it seems a shame not to put this engine into service. It would certainly be suitable for the proposed Skybolt kit. It would also save a few quid in the process. Nothing is set in stone so this engine could always be removed and a substitute 120FS

A few more construction images below. Cockpit combing, sheathed cabane struts, dummy fuel cap, dummy cabane cross braces and finally, the hand built windscreen now on the model. That screen was fiddly and quite an effort. With that pile done, wings are due to go back on the fuselage for the the inter-plane struts to be sized and constructed. Then another round of flying wire assembly. Not far off finished at that point. The next project would now appear to be a Seagull Steen Skybolt resplendent in "Batman" colour scheme! Another thread created for that one with the final image here depicting

Being locked into our homes, means filling the time that we would otherwise be using out and about. For me, that means creation of yet more model planes.... With my long term Fly Baby scratch build now rapidly approaching the final stages, I`ve been looking for another project. Knowing the Seagull range of kits so well, lead me to look at their Skybolt. It follows the normal and typical Seagull kit assembly pattern. No surprises there. For those that don`t know the Skybolt, well it looks very much like a Pitts Special. I expect to order the kit in around a months time. It won`t be so

A few more images of progress to the Fly Baby. I had a week or so away from it as I had the Seagull Jungmeister kit to assemble. It was good to have a break from the FB as construction is all of a prototype situation and the constant problem solving can be mentally tiring. The quick assemble Jungmeister is relatively simple to put together and not much brain power is needed. With that model completed to ready to fly status, I`m now refreshed and battering away at the final parts of the FB construction. Since my last posting, I`ve added flying wires and tensioning turnbuckles to the tail f

A second opinion and a well balanced review from Australia in this link. The Jungmeister had been converted to electric power, weighs a half pound less than my model and flies quite nicely. The C of G has been moved forward by 20mm and comes as a recommended adjustment by several online forum sites. I`ve done a battey shift on my model which also puts the balance further forward at 160mm from the leading edge of the top wing at the centre section. Loads of aileron differential is also suggested together with preparing oneself for plenty of left stick rudder input. Pretty normal for a model of

The Jungmeister kit is now with me. I`m pleased about that as it gives me another project to do whilst self isolating during the virus pandemic. A mass of images of the assembly can be found at the foot of his posting. I`ve been working away on the Fly Baby bipe but its been hard work and I felt I could do with a break from it. Scratch building constantly requires a degree of "prototyping" which can be mentally draining after several repeated months of such activities. With the arrival of the Jungmeister ARTF kit, the majority of the hard work has been done for you so brain drain is reduc

Some further progression now with the Fly Baby landing gear now sheathed in a 1/32" ply and balsa laminate. The covering is sticky backed vinyl which I previously used to tonse up some bare white UPVC windows on the house. I obtaining it from eBay several years ago. It is of external grade and five years later still looks good having been subjected to all weathers. The ply laminate required epoxy on the surface to give "energy" for the vinyl adhesive. That enables the low tack vinyl to grab the surface and adhere well. Joints and corners had a little more epoxy applied over then to help s

OK, here is the first stage of the landing gear construction using a vice mounted wire bender capable of bending up to 4mm O/D piano wire. The unit was sourced from Robot Birds for around £18 and takes some of the fright and effort out of bending largish sized piano wire. It takes practice to use and one needs to gain a little confidence before committing to produce cabane struts, landing gear etc. Its worth reading up about bending radius requirements before starting to bend wire parts for your latest model. Its also worth noting that when you have bent wire to a required bend, you can expect

The decals have arrived from "The Sign Builder". Certainly a hassle free way of obtaining graphics. Now installed on the Fly Baby and looking quite nice. There is a little artistic, non scale licence applied to the fin and rudder ie the addition of SMAE and BMFA together with the Fly Baby logo which on the full sized aircraft appears at a cock-eyed angle. That wasn`t very pretty so I`ve used my own ideas. This model is far from being a Nationals award winner...its rather more of a usable sport club flyer. A few changes won`t do any harm. As an aside, I`ll be using The Sign Builder to prov

More work done. Tail feathers all have hand made brass hard points fitted for flying wires. In addition, the tail wheel unit is installed. Custom made registration letters are in the post. Not cheap at £49 but quick and reliable service from The Sign Builder on line or via eBay. Their work is of high quality and I previously used this business when I had the graphics done on my big Extra. No doubt I could have sourced for less cash but that requires a trip to Gerry Booth at Wallington which costs in miles, fuel and time. As we are all on home lock down due to the virus panic, I makes

A twelve hour covering session produced a fully covered and colour trimmed fuselage. The wings were the subject of additional covering work. The model is now coming on quite quickly. The modified tail wheel assembly comes from the Seagull Gypsy Moth kit. When I built the Moth, I fitted a more scale like unit, hence this unit being held back for another project. It fits this scratch built model to perfection. A quick and easy solution. Now I have to build the landing gear, make inter-plane struts, sheath large gauge cabane and landing gear wires and finally rig the flying wires. Still

Bottom wing now covered with servos installed. Both wings now trial fitted with inevitable slight height across model issues. Two heads being better than one suggests that a trip over to Rob for a little advice would be benificial. Scratch built bi-planes are not the easiest thing in the world to build accurately. All sent to try us. Images show the further progress. Mike.

And a bit more. Top wing now complete with C 0f G marks in place and all scale colour trim applied. Mike

Thank you, Trevor. A little more progress. All hard points for inter-plane struts and rigging points installed on the wings. It was a tedious job but all done now. Struts will be a laminate of 2mm x 12mm carbon strip and ply which Rob is sourcing for me. In the meantime, I`ve covered the top wing with blue trim to be applied today. Then I can get on with covering the lower wing. Its all coming together gradually. Mike

More progress. My thanks to Pete Ward at the Falcon Model Flying Group for providing me with the new motor. It is now fitted to the fuselage but some cowl modifications were needed to get it to fit. Whilst the crank case width and engine bolt holes were identical to the previously fitted OS91FS, the cylinder is appreciably larger and the motor length is about 10mm longer. A spinner will cover that mismatch. It has all fitted together nicely as you can see from images. The standard exhaust sits comfortably in the lower part of the cowl and a silicon exhaust deflector tube will be able to p