Now some In Flight Images....Continue Reading

I have just returned from The Gratton RC Fly-In 2015 where I was treated to some very special models and some exceptional flying displays.

Gratton Field is about Half way between Rosewood and Laidley which is only about 40 mins West of Brisbane,
My Father, John Knox Snr, and I provided the commentary for the event perched inside the tower at the fantastic Gratton Field facility.

My opportunity to fly was in the early mornings where, this time, I flew my FMS 109F and my FMS T28. It is a great time to fly these foamies as the air is quite still, and you can really enjoy the peace of the morning without the sound of bellowing IC engines or the scream of turbines.

Anyway, here are a few pics of some of the people and the models they flew over the weekend.

Rob

Today, I had the honour of showing off my model P40E to the daughter of the man who flew the full sized aircraft back in 1942.

How did it come about?

Last year, September, a friend of mine had the misfortune to crash his FMS P40E.
Knowing that I am a bit of guru with repairing crashed foamies, he gave the model to me to fix and to keep.

The repairs didn't take me too long, and I flew it serviceable within a day of starting the repairs. I flew it a few times, then tried to sell it, without success.
SO, it hung from my ceiling for about 6 months gathering dust while I procrastinated over what to do with it.

A short while ago, I learned the story of Squadron Leader John Jackson of RAAF 75 SQN in 1942. John and his pilots were the only fighter squadron standing between The Japanese and Port Moresby between late March and early May 1942. (see 44 Days

44 Days: 75 Squadron's Defence of Port Moresby 1942 (Part 1) (17 min 26 sec)

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I have also read the Book by John's two children, Patricia and Arthur, which is his diary and his letters home to his beloved wife Betty. A truly fascinating read.

http://www.3squadron.org.au/subpages/jackson2.htm

As a result, I chose to customise my model after John's last fighter, A29-8.

Naturally, my detail info came from the internet, old B&W photos and photos of a plastic model of his aircraft.

Once I had completed the model, I posted photos here on RC Groups, Face Book, and onto the 75 SQN Association web...Continue Reading

Today, The Caboolture War Planes Museum held their annual Wings and Wheels day.
My Dad is involved with the museum, and they now have a retired Army Huey that I had crewed on a few occasions. Dad volunteered me to stand at the Huey telling people about it.
I had heard that Tim Berry, the owner of the Full Size T28A which I had customised my FMS model after, would have his aircraft there. With that news, I loaded my model into the car, and headed off.
Long story short, I took the model to Tim at the show, where he finally got a chance to inspect the model first hand. He was absolutely chuffed.

A second T28 was due to fly in to display at the show, so Tim asked me to join him, and go and meet it in the air, plan being to do some fly overs in formation.

Once we got established in our loiter area Tim handed over to me so I could fly the orbits while we waited. Wow, what a hoot, I got to fly a Trojan.

After the other Trojan formed off us, Tim lead us in a couple of fly passes, prior to a very nice initial and pitch over the runway prior to landing.

Just fantastic.
I'm one very happy fellow right now.

My sincere thanks to Tim for taking me flying and giving me the opportunity to fly in this fantastic aeroplane....Continue Reading

The CRAMS Club is holding an event over the last weekend in August at Gratton Field.
Details are on the attached Flyer, but should you have any other questions, just contact me here and I'll get back to you ASAP.

Rob

I filmed the maiden flight of young Brett Gordon-Brander's Ziroli SBD Dive Bomber on Saturday the 5th of July. This the video I put together.

Giant RC SBD Dauntless Dive Bomber (14 min 15 sec)

While I was at the Spektrum Gratton Air Spectacular over the weekend, I had the pleasure of meeting Wayne and Harlee Homan.
Wayne, naturally, is an RC enthusiast, whilst his wife Harlee, is an RC widow.
Harlee works for Discount Foam and Rubber on the Gold Coast, and she had with her a dozen of these model aircraft stands.

They fit together like a 3D jigsaw puzzle, and are made of very dense foam, and are therefore, quite sturdy. They retail for just $30 and are very handy.
I placed different models onto the stand to check for fit, and for support.

Seems like a good idea to me. If you're interested, just send Harlee an email
attention Harlee
shop@pjbowers.com.au

My 8 year old daughter Bronte snapped these inflight pics for me

Believe it or not, I've added 2 new models to my fleet of RC model aeroplanes.
For Christmas, my Family gave me the Dynam Hawker Tempest. A delightfully simple model to assemble, and a very agile and fun model to fly.

More recently, a friend of my brothers crashed his FMS P51B. Not interested in fixing it, the model came to me.
The damage was a snapped fuselage and a destroyed prop and spinner.
After having made those repairs and purchased the necessary replacement parts, I customised the model as a RAAF 3 SQN aircraft from about the 1943/44 period in Italy.

This is a very stable model to fly, and land. Simply a joy.

...Continue Reading

Since about September last year, I've been quite busy.
A friend and colleague asked me to teach his 11 year old son, Shaun, to fly RC.
Naturally I agreed.
Shaun got himself a Phoenix simulator and I had a crashed Pee Zed T28 which I knew could be repaired to use as a trainer.
Given that I am a qualified Aircrewman instructor, it was a case of adapting my Airborne Instructional Technique (AIT) to suit the RC skills.

During about 5 sessions, spread over about 3 months, I managed to teach Shaun to solo. Shaun now has his Bronze wings.

I've also, more recently, instructed another friends son to fly RC. This was during about 4 sessions but over a much shorter time period. Young Jack solo'd only last weekend. Again I used a Pee Zed T28.

Well, after some 2 months, with time availability being a major issue for me, young Shaun has finally solo'd.
This was filmed yesterday at the Club field in Toowoomba, QLD, Australia.
The first 3/4 of the vis is with me on the buddy box, and the last minute is his solo flight.

It was quite windy yesterday, but Shaun handled it very well.

Congratulations Shaun. Well done.

RC Trainee Pilot Shaun Rotherham Flys Solo (5 min 28 sec)

I'm very fortunate that my parents have a house at Bribie Island, near Brisbane, Queensland.
This morning, very early, I headed over to Surfside and had some fun with my J Power P38 over the Pacific and the Beach.
Enjoy the pics, compliments of my Dad....Continue Reading

This is a link to face book showing one of the landings young Shaun conducted yesterday morning.
Once it was on the ground, I took over and got airborne again straight away, that's why it was a touch and go.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...type=2&theater

A few months ago, a former Helicopter Aircrewman Trainee and colleague of mine, approached me to help his 11 year old son get started into RC Aviation.
I sent them along to a "Have-a-go"day at one of the local clubs here, where young Shaun had his first 2 flights of a nitro powered Boomerang trainer. The lad was hooked.
I suggested that they get him a sim, either Real Flight or Phoenix. They ended up with the Phoenix, which came with a DS X 6i transmitter.
I had at home, a damaged PZ T28 which I repaired for Shaun, and then got flying for him.
We got a buddy lead, and I got the model rigged up for some Buddy flying with my DS X 9 and Shaun's DS X 6i.

I gave Shaun 2 flying lessons at my local park, just getting him to fly circuits.
I briefed him before the flights, explaining exactly what I wanted him to do.
I conducted the take-off, and demonstrated the circuit, then gave him control with a definite, " You Have Control" handover.
I talked him through the circuits, and was very pleased to see his circuit flying progress well during those 2 flights.

This morning, I took young Shaun to the club field at 0630, and gave him 6 more instructional flights. The first flight just had him flying standard circuits based, naturally, on the duty runway direction.

I was happy with his progress in the circuit after that first flight, so I briefed him that we'd look at landing approaches, where, if I was happy with his approaches, he would land the model....Continue Reading

Here is the vid of Steve Thomas's Catalina on its 2nd flight.

World's Largest RC Catalina Flying Boat 2nd Flight (8 min 16 sec)

A good mate of mine, and prolific builder of ENORMOUS Rc War Birds, Mr Stephen Thomas, recently asked my to document the maiden flight of his Catalina.
Here it is.

World's Largest RC Catalina Flying Boat Built By Stephen Thomas (12 min 12 sec)

I managed to get my 18 YO daughter to film another slow flight with the EFlight Hurricane. She wasn't all that interested so the camera work is pretty dodgy, but you do get to see how stable the model is flying slow tight manoeuvres.

RC EFlight Hawker Hurricane Slow Flying At The Park (4 min 10 sec)

The surface of the park is still pretty good despite the recent rodeo.
Here's a vid from the Hurricane today.

RC E Flight Hawker Hurricane, Some Low / Slow Flying (0 min 0 sec)

The annual Charity rodeo has once again taken over the park.
Once again, I'll have to be careful of the damage to the surface of the park for take off and landing due to the heavy vehicles driving on the grass.

This is a short Vid of my FMS T 28 from last Sunday.
My brother was about to head home, and I wanted him to film the T 28 for me before he left.
In my haste to get into the air, I grabbed the battery which I had used on an earlier flight, so I lost useable power pretty quickly.
The landing was a pearler though.
Rob

RC FMS T 28 A Very Short Flight (2 min 24 sec)