“Necessity is the mother of invention.”

Arthur Hume found this old team racer circular bellcrank that he made from a Mecanno set wheel back in the 1960's. The top hole against the ruler was drilled to take the pushrod. The other 4 holes were already there. The leadout wire was wrapped around the bellcrank for one and 1/3 turns and soldered to the bellcrank just above the two holes where the wire exits. This helped to hold the wires in the groove and prevent jamming while still providing enough movement.



Anyone else got any home made aeromodelling gadgets, vintage or otherwise, that they'd like to share?

The boys have been busy........

Due to the lack of flying today Jase and myself went into full production of our new indoor (combat) models. They are 3D Diablo's, look a lot like my Hawk, We made them 28" span which is 3/4 of full scale and cut our foam sheets from our left over chunk of foam from an old freezer panel. we made all components around 8mm thick and put a 4mm hollow square carbon fiber wing spar. They are still fairly light and pretty strong. They should take a knock well and I think should fly Ok. Motors and speed controllers etc to still be ordered.

Regards Owen

Mercury MkII B Class Team Racer.

Another model from Jim Greenwood. Jim powered it with an OS .25 for the test flight in which it flew beautifully with a long glide. Now powered by a Super Tigre .29 for a bit more grunt.

Bob McKenzie's All American ver 2.0

Bob has done some minor repairs to his All American. [Quote] "I just replaced everything from the prop nut to the control horn" [Unquote]. I think the tailplane is original. Powered by an OS .29 III, it flys beautifully. Although Bob bought the OS in the 1960's, it has had little use and still needs to be run-in. Bob's original All American can be seen on the 10/15/11 posting under Older Posts.

More Indoor Fun......

Owen & I decided to see how a couple of R/C 3D Foamies would go converted to Control Line. Not bad, as it turns out. A bit more grunt and a couple of adjustments should sort things out.

R/C 3D Paiget converted to C/L

Owen's R/C 3D  Hawk  C/L conversion.

Result of trying to loop the Gee Bee with not enough power. It did
 it and continued to fly with the outboard wing flapping like an
 injured  bird.The wings are joined just outboard of the fuselage and
 the glue join keeps letting go after a thump with the floor.
 Next one will be a one piece wing.

My Paiget

T Bird MkII 110%

Jim Greenwood of Townsville sent me this pic of his latest model. A Thunderbird scaled up to 110% and powered by a Super Tigre .60.  60 inch wingspan on 65 ft lines. It was test flown today and flies nicely. The Super Tigre starts beautifully. One prime, then turn over once - "klunk", one flick and it's away every time.

Another Nobler from Bob McKenzie's hangar.

Ringmaster Fly-a-thon 2013

Reminding everyone that the 2013 Ringmaster Fly-a-thon is to be held on 5th - 6th October, 2013. 

It's only two months away, so get those Ringmasters ready. More details later.