Broadside 1/2A Team Racer

Ahhh... Memories.

Steve Betts' friend Rod (left) found this photo of them back in their Team Race days in 1989. 

Rod was Steve's pitman. The model is a 1/2A Team Racer called Broadside powered by a

 Sesqui 1.5cc diesel.

Kelly Field, Richmond

Control Line Fly-in at Kelly Field, Richmond,

Tasmania - 15^th - 16^th Dec. 2013

The weather was fine but windy so a few practice rounds of Rat Racing were held with some very good pit stops as well as a lot of bad ones. Never mind, that's what practice is all about.

Will Deal took a heap of photos of the weekend and you can see them   here...

Jason George got some jogging practice in while trying to land his combat wing in the windy conditions as you will see in the video below.....

Mental Block

Owen's "Slow Build" is finally finished.

Owen Cameron's latest creation now has a name - Mental Block.
Apparently the name came about because he couldn't think of a
name for it. 

Don't worry about the hinge gap. The control surfaces are not glued in yet.
I like the canopy. Home made, for sure.

Yet to be test flown after the paint has cured. Owen is a little
worried about the weight of 58 oz. Power is by a K&B 

Nobler

Noblers - They Just keep on Coming......

Some details of my NEW/OLD Green Box Nobler..

Built from a kit purchased by Jim McBride of Mackay, between 1970 - 75, he started building soon after, but only got as far as the bellcrank mount, then discovered radio control and other things and stored the wing and kit box in rafters under his house.

It stayed there until October 2013 , when I purchased it after hounding Jim for a year or so. I had to pay it off due to the exhorbitant price he put on it. $20.00! As I only had a $10 note on me when he agreed to let me have it I paid the balance later with a $5.00 note and 5 $1.00 coins. I then took possession of a very damaged wing and box of kit bits. all was there, but the metal parts that were not packaged had some rust damage and the cockpit was missing. Nothing that could not be fixed.

 
 I started on the wing, which was heavily dust covered, about 75 % of the ribs were damaged and lots of missing sections. The bellcrank bolt was a US 4/40 size and almost rusted away. The bellcrank was of the old plastic style, not nylon. The bolt broke when I attempted to undo the nut. The bellcrank ended up in a Ringmaster .

Bob's home made canopy - painted internally.

  Most of the dust gave way to vacuuming with a soft bristle brush attachment, and wiping with a Metho soaked cleaning cloth. A thumb and finger pressure test on every bay of the leading edge sheeting found the balsa to be sound and it had good grain with still a lot of ingrained dust, the underside of the leading edge sheeting was clean and had only suffered a couple of punctures and a few cracks in glue joints. Luckily the wing still had the excess sheeting extending beyond the tip ribs, this allowed me to pin the wing down to my building board after a detailed check for any warping; none much to my surprise. After pinning, I started to cut and insert rib sections and have a close check of ALL glue joints and put a bit of super glue on all joints. For those inside the leading edge sheeting I used the extension on the bottle to place a drop. I replaced the bellcrank with a modern version with the heavy duty bolt and bush. From here forward, building the wing as normal using kit bits and changing to nylon covered leadout wires. Doping and covering completed the wing.

Elevators and Tail plane had been started and left in the box. No problem here, just continue building and a spot of super glue on all previous joints, completed and ready for doping and covering.

Now for the Fuselage. The sides were die cut but each side had a slightly differing grade of grain - did not look that bad. Engine bearers were warped and replaced with new Tassie Oak bearers. THEN DISASTER! The fuse warped while drying after being glued onto wing and tail plane.. UGLY MESS... Lots of work to remove wing and tail and sanding back the engine crutch. Balsa for new sides was then selected for matched grain and strength.

All went well and all fitted nicely. Model is powered by a Merco 29 which was used in my first Nobler about 1965/66, it is also fitted with the Veco aluminium wheels from that model also.

Paint scheme... After some thought, it is the same (as far as I remember) as my original except for the decals.

The Plane had its first flight on Sunday 8th December and out performed all previous Noblers I have had.

Bob Mac

Oh-oh!!

Jason, Lyal and Owen down here in Tassie have joined the Pulse Jet craze started by Hobby King. They have not run them yet. With Christmas being so close, construction of some jet trainers has been postponed till the New Year. Stay tuned!

Another Nobler.....

This one is a profile fuselage version by Arthur Hume. Test flew today. Went OK. A bit windy and a rich engine run resulted in low line tension in the upper half of the circle. Some engine offset is to be added before the next flight.

Owen's slowest ever build....

Owen Cameron admits this has to be his slowest ever build. ( Refer to earlier post dated 26th September.)

Covered with Esaki tissue, it is now ready for painting. His own design, based on the Vector 40; it is, as yet, still unnamed. 

Two Maiden Flights in Townsville...

Arthur Hume test flew his Spad VII today.  Designed as a
 Slow Combat model and powered by a Fox .35,it flies really well. That  probably explains the smile on Arthur's face.

Another test flight was carried out today by Jim Greenwood with his
Brodak Flite Streak. Powered by an OS .25 LA, it also flies
very well. 

Jim had trouble with his undercarriage coming loose. An 

extra clamp is to be fitted.

The Brodak kit was nicely laser cut but they stuffed up and 

supplied 14 R1 ribs and 4 R2 ribs instead of the other way around. 

Jim overcame the problem by cutting down the 4 R2 ribs to 

the same size as the R1's and fitted cap strips.

 It actually looks better than the uncapped rib version.

Jason's First Ever C/L Flight

Jason George hands over control to Jason Stone.

Jason S solo on the first flight!

Jason flew out the tank. A "solid" landing tore out the
undercarriage. Nothin' new there. We've all done it.
Easy fixed.

Congrats Jason. We hope you are now hooked!

Another Newbie.....

The Control Line ranks are beginning to swell with another modeller, John Urry from Townsville, taking the first step........

"No, I didn't believe I'd do it either, but here's proof. I bought a Brodak Jnr. Ringmaster kit and will use my old OS 20 FP, (article in latest Aeromodeller to set up for C/L)  Seems like an OK kit, really nice laser cutting, all going together good so far."

John is an excellent builder and I can't wait to see the finished model.... I see he's using the good glue!

Lyal Cameron's Ramrod, hot off the building board.

Original Ramrod colours.

 

Powered by a 1970's OS .35

The Test Flight....
Sunday, 10th Nov, 2013.

Some photos of Lyals Ramrod first flight. It flies very well, first flight the old OS 35 done an amazing job of a perfect 4-2-4. After a few flights the old OS35 cleaned itself out and is deemed to need a new crank bush. Total weight was 38oz.
I flew my Ramrod and the Tor Rat after a bearing change and the old miss BJ.  Lyal flew his Ramrod and his Peacemaker.
All were brought home intact apart from a broken wheel spat on my Ramrod.

Owen Cameron.

Background - Peacemaker, Tor Rat.
Owen's Ramrod, Lyal's Ramrod, Owen's Miss BJ.

Owen & Lyal's Ramrods

Lyal putting the Ramrod through it's paces.

Solo C/L Model Retrieval Assistant.

For anyone who is interested in flying C/L alone using a stooge, here is a handy item to prevent your lines getting damaged while being dragged across the grass when carrying your plane back to the pit area after each flight. It doesn't require much explanation as it should be evident from the photos how it works.


The column is a piece of aluminium tubing that is a sliding fit inside the 20mm pvc conduit. The handle holder is a piece of 25 x 3 mm aluminium offset from the pivot point by about 75mm to allow it to turn smoothly.


Modify the handle holder to suit your handle or make a new handle to suit the holder.


The horizontal slot in the holder faces to the left because I am left handed. Slot it to the right if you are right handed.

Jason & Owen's Open Rat Racers

Jason George's beautifully finished Tor Rat. Jason loves his bling.
No paint - all film covering.

Powered by a Rossi .40 bought for $53.00 on ebay. Owen tells me
it runs hard on an 8 x 9 prop.

Jason & Owens Tor Rats. Owen's is powered by an
OS .40 FSR.

Now all we need is some good weather for a bit of OPEN RAT RACING!

Ringmaster Fly-a-thon 2013

I took my Ringmaster for a fly this morning and clocked up 8 flights for the Ringmaster Fly-a-thon between 8:30am and 9:30am before the wind and rain came along. I was flying solo so I tried out my stooge for the first time. It works a treat!

My stooge - "As flash as a rat with a gold tooth!!"

One of the problems of flying C/L alone is retrieving the model and getting it back to the pit area without kinking or tangling your lines in the grass so I quickly made this handle holder yesterday.
Just drop the handle into the slot and grab your plane and carry it back to the pits. Now that I know it works extremely well, I will build a prettier one. I just used junk that I found in my shed. The reason for the “Z bend” in the holder is to allow the handle to pivot around much more easier than if it was just a straight shaft. The handle is left in the holder ready for the next flight.

Retrieval handle holder.

I did not trip over the holder during flights because I always step back 3 paces after take-off to give a good safety margin between the plane and the pits. Now I know the stooge and holder work so well, I am looking forward to more solo flying.


I had tank problems with the filler pipe being blocked off with solder. So I flew all flights with the uniflow pipe blocked and the overflow pipe open. The engine leaned out during every flight.
The tank was tested after I built it and everything was OK. But then I soldered a strap to the side of the tank to secure it to the fuselage and the position of the strap was exactly where the end of the filler/uniflow pipe was attached inside the tank, so the solder inside the tank melted and closed off the pipe. I unsoldered the end of the tank and cleared the pipe, reassembled and tested OK.


It's getting windier as the day goes on so I will have to wait for tomorrow. The forecast looks good anyway... Fingers crossed.

Sunday the weather was as forecast so Lyal Cameron and I made the most of it and clocked up some more flights on Sunday morning. On my first flight, I decided to see how close I could land to the pit station and ended up just clipping my chair with the wingtip.

You can see in the photo the chair was a bit too close to the takeoff/landing point. Tore the wheel off and snapped the fuselage.

That little wrinkle on the end of  leading edge is where it hit.

                                                                                                                                                  

Video of the "Ring Ding".

I had to share Lyal's Ringmaster with him for the rest of the morning.We put up 8 flights each. Lyal left for home and it was back to the hanger (shed) for me, glued the fuse back together with some 5 minute epoxy and half an hour later I returned to the field for another 15 flights. On the first of the 15 flights the tank decided to fall off. The tin strap holding it to the fuselage had fractured.

This is how I held it on with bits and pieces that I found in my flight box. A bit wobbly but it did the job.

Number of flights:  John Moody, 30 flights,  Lyal Cameron,  8 flights.  Total for Tasmania is 38 flights.

And now on to Townsville........

Bob McKenzie, Alan Beggs and Jim Greenwood put in some flights at Townsville Aeromodeller Society's field on Saturday. A couple of TAS R/C flyers had a few flights using Alan's Ringmaster.

TAS Oak Valley field

Charles Mulroney Park.

Bob, Alan & Jim continued flying Ringmasters on Sunday at Charles Mulroney Park.

The number of flights put in by Townsville was 50.

Bob McKenzie   15

Alan Beggs         16

Jim Greenwood  11

Paul Deidun          2

Geoff Luke           3

Cameron Mocke  3

Final Results for the 2013 Ringmaster Fly-a-thon is a new record of 2332 flights.

Next year's target is 2500 flights.