Looks like everyone is playing around with full size aircraft lately. Bob McKenzie and Allan Beggs of Townsville went for a scenic flight over Townsville in the Red Baron yesterday. The plane is a Grumman Ag Cat and is the actual aircraft used in The Phantom movie starring Billy Zane

Mmmm....... The background looks to be on a bit of a funny angle.
 From the grins on the faces ,  Alan (left) and Bob seemed to enjoy the chandelles.

NEWS FLASH.................................................... Nobler Pranged...  Felt a big click in lines (Upside down at the time). I entered the Earth hard..
It seems elevator disconnected and Flaps took over. Just cracked the fuse a bit, easy fixed, just need a new bit between the spinner and the rudder....

Bob McKenzie

Here's something a little different from Jim Greenwood in Townsville. It's a highly modified Thunderbird. 

The original cowl and cockpit have been modified and the paint job is copied from RAAF 10 Squadron's Mustang which was used to tow target drones in Townsville. I think the original Mustang is now in a museum in southern Queensland somewhere.

Electric powered Thunderbird.

The Mustang style intake scoop under the fuselage was added to house the LiPo battery.
Cooling slots under the nose for the motor and speed control.

Peter Wisby of Hobart with his Christmas present. (He wishes!) Sorry guys, no more information. Although I think the camera date is wrong.

Bob McKenzie's latest is this Fokker DVII. It's a semi-scale profile slow combat model powered by an OS .29 MkIII with a Grish Bros. 10 x 6 nylon prop. Had its test flight today. A bit windy and the model was twitchy and fast. Some minor adjustments required.

A close-up of the elevator servo.

Control Line Fly-In at Kelly Field, Richmond.

24th & 25th November 2012

Thirty two aircraft turned up with around a dozen pilots. Weather was a bit turbulent but the flight line was busy all weekend. Only a couple of crashes, mainly due to the gusting wind. 

A bit of Rat Race practice, general flying and some "friendly combat" took place on Saturday.

Tony Gray and Peter Allen tied some streamers on and provided great entertainment for the crowd. Tony looped his plane and got his lines tangled around Peter's. While trying to untangle them the VooDoo bit the dust. Tony told me via email on Monday that it is all fixed again and ready for some more carnage.

Lyal Cameron's latest.......

Lyal's Pink Panther powered by a Parra 2.5G

Peter Allen's Rat Racer.

Peter's only about 6 months too late with this model, but, better late than never!
Very tidy build.  Let's see if it goes as good as it looks. I'm sure it will.

Barry's Spectre. The test flight was postponed today due the  windy weather. 

Barry Champion's new Spectre under construction.

more pictures to come.......

And now for something a little different.....

Jim Greenwood has converted his old Blue Pants to electric. He has fully cowled the motor and included cooling ducts. 

Just behind the left hand exhaust stack can be seen a battery isolating plug and socket. Inserting the plug arms the system. A good safety feature and well away from that prop. The cooling duct (red) can be seen in this view. Jim also added a tapered false trailing edge to the wing which gives it a slightly different look.

The specifications are:-

Motor- Thrust 10 /Precision aerobatics

ESC- Arrowind lv 25- Precision Aerobatics

Battery- Turnigy 3 cell 11.1v 1300mah

Motor controller- z tron BSD micro RC LLC [Version 1

Motor control – R415 Micro RX Hobby King TX Parkzone 2.4 GHz DSM2 Hobby King

Jim is going to try both methods of motor control; i.e 2.4 gig radio or Ztron programmable timer. The top front of the fuselage is a removeable hatch which allows easy access to all the electronics so changing from radio to timer is a simple matter of unplugging one and plugging the other in.

Jim tells me he has a couple of more things to do to it and hopefully the test flight will be next Sunday (21/10/12).

A little late for the Ringmaster Fly-a-thon but here is Lyal Cameron's Ringmaster.  Better late than never.