Here's the layout of the graphics I have to add, couldn't do it tonight as I'd something else on, perhaps tomorrow.
BTW the colours are much brighter than this, the red is a much deeper red and the light blue is sky blue.

I hope these pictures come through, this is ready to go in the white.
I have 3 colours of vynil trim, there is dark blue and the cowl, spinner, u/c and pants will be this colour. Also light blue and maroon.

By the way it's fitted with the two seater canopy.

Whaddya think?

All back together, bought two digital servos, one for the elevator and one for the rudder, they are the bog standard spektrum ones and apparently are quite torquey. I used Kavan furry mylar hinges pegged with cocktail sticks after epoxying them in, was going to use gorilla glue but didn't find it until after I'd used the epoxy .
I've been rethinking the colour scheme, the original builder gave me a set of vynil trims that I felt was not the right colour for me.
I rolled them out tonight and blow me they are just the ticket so I'll be slapping them on tomorrow night.
I have two dynathrust props one 18 x 6 and one 17 x 8, the thing is about these props they are quite heavy one is 125 grammes the other 127, nearly twice as heavy as an apc so it'll cut down on lead if I need any. Just have to trim the carl goldberg spinner I have to fit it, this was originally intended for the goldberg ultimate I'm building but I think I'll put an alloy one one there.
I have two canopies one for a single seater version, the other for a two seater, christ it's not even semi-scale!! it does look prettier with the 2 seat version though.
No hurry to get it all together, no flying weather for a couple of weeks yet real depressions swinging in from the atlantic, at least it's not cold.
First thing to do will be to run in the laser 200 vee, the hog of the model aero world! .
I'll get a couple of pix without the colour then some with the colour and post them shortly.

Bit of a set back, the builder used Kavan piano hinge type hinges and I gave them quite a strenuous pull test, one aileron pulled out due to inadequate gluing but the rudder, I actually broke two of the hinges.
These were a real pig to remove and I intend to replace them and the aileron hinges with fuzzy hinges, unfortunately both the aileron and rudder hinges enter into the foam that is used to build the wings, ailerons and rudder so I'll have to get some gorilla glue as any cyno, including the foam safe, is suspect in these critical areas.
I gotta say it's far better to have this happen before she gets wind under her wings than during the flight.
I also had a look at the weight issue and have decided to go down the route of digital servos for the rudder and elevator, both mounted at the rear, using one for eles and one for rudder.
If anyone has used the futaba budget digital servos then I'd appreciate a heads up over which to use.

Following on from my previous post, even if I sell all those planes I'll still have the following fleet:-
1 Chris foss Wot4, kit built not artf saito 82
2 Chris foss acrowot, saito 82
3 Chris foss extrawot laser veetwin 200
4 Super Scorpion Vintage os forty fs, 66" span
5 Flair Junior 60 vintage os 26 fs 60" span.
6 Plan built winday ain't it, vintage, os 26fs, 61 Span.
7 Plan built Southerner Major 84" span os 52 fs
8 Kit built Keil Kraft Falcon 96" span, laser 70
9 GP slopoke 40 artf os 55 ax
10 Goldberg c/w cub laser 80
11 goldberg ultimate bipe 120 4s
12 plan built super tauri Irvine 36
13 ARC Jupiter os 55 ax
14 arc cessna os 91 fx
15 electric flying wing thing
Plus several repairable planes and 4 or 5 kits.
No wonder my wife is anti-models!!!!

As I mentioned the last time I posted, some of my fleet required maintenance which I've now carried out, not much clearing congealed synthetic oil from carb spray bars, little bits and patches over holes in the covering and rebending u/c wires.
I also had a long hard look at my fleet as I find I have almost 20 fliers, many of which have not had wind beneath their wings for many a long day and in some cases have not even flown.
So, to help me prepare prices etc, here's a list of what is being sold.
1 Kyosho calmato 60 with either a 61 SC or a 91 OS Fx up front, lovely flier nearest plane to the astrohog I've ever flown.
2 Ripmax Wot4 mk2 ready to go with saito 82 little used, the airframe has never been flown.
3 Laser 3D 60" span 3d flier, never flown, ready to go with a little used saito 62.
4 Never flown Thunder Tiger V Bat flying wing with power pod and OS 10 FP, no rx or servo but with battery and switch.
5. Never flown Black horse Ultimate Bipe 90 size with a little used saito 125 all servos etc add rx and fuel and off you go.
6 Ultra stik with irvine 36 and ready togo.
7 Flair Fokker D7 airframe and servos only, the engine is a laser 80 hence a keeper.
8 Graupner Skycat airframe, no servos.
9 ST model fox electric glider all servos, 2 3 cell lipos slight damage to nose, spare electric motor.
10 Multiplex merlin with multiplex tuning motor and esc, 5 batteries (3s lipos 500mah) only flown 4 times, some hangar rash.
11 Precedent T180 (Cub lookalike) airframe only yellow and blue solarfilm.
12 BT Hurricane ready to cover and finish. includes mick reeves retracts.
13 Never flown H9 F22 raptor, all servos, battery switch and includes a yamada 45 2 stroke with mini pipe.
All will be keenly priced and raring to go.

First up I can't add pictures as I've forgotten how, the plane is in the white and the finish is profilm on the wings dope and tissue on the fuselage and the tailplane and fin then painted with white acrylic paint.
This last bit is the only thing I don't feel comfortable with, I don't know how the paint will react to overcoating with epoxy paint which i'd like to do.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
All the pushrods have now been changed, 3mm steel rods screwed at one end and a 3mm adaptor silver soldered on the other.
I've used steel clevises on one end of the aileron pushrods, ball links on the other. The elevator pushrods have ball joints at each end and the rudder is pull-pull.
I'm not sure whereto go from here, I have vynil stick-ons the builder had cut but the colours are not what I like.
I'd like to spray the cowl, spats and u/c light blue and make up my own profilm stick-ons in light blue and metallic purple. The thing that's holding me up is the acrylic paint on the fus.

I've had to stop doing it for a bit and do maintenance work on a couple of my fliers, also I'm assembling a Hangar 9 F-22 that's nearing completion, also completing a 3d flier that I've had in the workshop for some time(9 years to be exact).
I'll get back when I've researched the properties of auto spray can acrylic paint.

I've started sorting the various components out to make this bird airworthy and have been spending time getting really tight linkages.

The designer, Chris Foss, is one of those who thinks less is more, consequently the plane has been designed with standard servos in mind. Just to recap, it's 72" wingspan and 60" long and a design weight of 10.5 pounds with suggested engines 91 - 150 2 stroke and 120 - 180 4 strokes.
The elevators and the rudder have aerodynamic balances ( bits of control surface forward of the hinge line) intended to reduce servo loads and when I bought it, it came with 5 futaba 148s, in honesty I was a bit dubious at first but the more I thought about it the more I felt hey, this guy is the designer and he's been successful for the last 30 odd years at it who am I to query his work.
So standard servos it's gonna be except I'm going to fit hitecs with karbonite gears, and two on the elevator, one to each half, two on the rudder and one to each aileron, also one for the throttle.
The engine is going to be a laser 200 Vee Twin, the prototype flew on a laser 150 single which gave it unlimited vertical but I got this brand spanking new twin for the same money as the single so that's what it's gonna be.
I hit my first snag, the guy who built it provided enough dubro 1/4 scale horns and clevises and I made up the pushrods.... DOH!!!!! the clevises are american ((4 40???) and all the roods I have are 3mm 2 hours work wasted as I now have to take the clevises off and tap out the holes to 3mm.
Back to the grindstone and will let you know the solution to the snag soon, it wasn't as difficult (on the ailerons anyway) as I thought!

Well, I've started fettling the extrawot, it needs several major decisions made which I'll talk through.
The engine is superb and initially I thought it would prove too heavy at 1.2 Kg so I tried to swap it for a saito 36fg then I found that was heavier still so I am going to use the laser, principally because I have thoughts about scratch building a fw 190 A4 at about 75" wingspan and the cowl will swallow the laser.
Anyway the builder had had made a beautifully machined alloy spacer that took the form of a flanged tube, this weighed in at 200 grammes, but the big disadvantage was there are no holes to allow the fuel tubes to exit so I bought some 12.5 mm thick maple engine bearers and they weigh 60 grammes.
With these in place and with the cowl fitted together with18x6 prop and carl goldberg spinner it balances nose heavy BUT it still has to have the elevator servo(s) fitted at the rear beneath the tailplane. I find I need 160 grammes to achieve the correct balance. The standard servos weigh just 84 grammes for the two so I'll have to fork out for two metal cased digitals that weigh 63 grammes each.
The other problem is the servo for the rudder, the rudder is simply enormous and a 2.00 cubic inch motor on the front is going to introduce some serious aerodynamic forces. Currently the fitted servo is a futaba 148 which is going to be operating at full load just to stay in neutral so I linked up another one in tandem, works just fine, and it's a little more weight behind the c of g.
I'll update from time to time.

Well the mate that sold me the wot 4 has now sold me an extrawot, 6 feet span which he's built to a very high standard and now decided to go all electric so it's never been flown and comes with a brand new in the box laser 200 V-twin christ man this'll sound like a hog......
See www.chrisfoss.co.uk and www.laserengines.co.uk
I'm now as happy as a pig in s**t but sometime I have to explain to the wife where my pension's gone......

I just love my wot 4, this plane was built nearly 30 years ago and my mate sold it to me in april, a weekend hasn't gone by (when it's flyable) when I've flown it.
He originally fitted it with an OS 61 4 stroke, long since discontinued but I pulled that out and e-bayed it and got the best part of what I gave for the whole plane back.
I fitted a saito 82a, and this is just a bit too powerful forit, wack the throttle open and she does half a torque roll, leaned out whell do 3 vertical rolls before falling off the top yet will slow down to walking pace.
Before I bought it I'd assembled an artf of the same plane, fitted with a saito 82 as well and I haven't flown it yet.
If you get the opportunity to try one in the states go for it ideal engines are OS 46 fx or ax some folks fit the 55 ax.
In the uk the artf is actually cheaper than the kit. You can see them on www.chrisfoss.co.uk look under the Ripmax collection.

A couple of posts ago I mentioned about the Flying Dutchman and his half scale bleriot that he was hoping to fly across the channel, he didn't make it.
10 miles into the flight the engine packed up and he had to ditch in the english channel.
Though we informed both the british and french coastguard agencies, one ship diverted and recued the 1/2 scale louis bleriot and another ship, a dutch sailing/training 3 master picked up the plane and reunited it with its owner.
He came across to the UK by ferry and we had a consoling drink together.
Unabashed he now plans a 67% bleriot (remember the guy also flies a full size one and crossed the channel in it in May this year) which he is going to fly in the shows round europe next year.

My first son's mother and I were divorced over 25 years ago, I looked after my son right up until he left university when he went to live with his mother in London in the early 90s. We hadn't seen much of one another since except when I was in a clinic for surgery to remove a particularly agressive cancer about 8 years ago.
He is a self employed consultant to a large government run department and, as his second job, he has a rock and roll band which is kind of in the "2nd" division, he also has his own record company and freelanced for virgin media writing and producing songs for american girl acts trying to break in to the UK market. He's toured the midwest in the states but his biggest fanbase is in China where he has had several tours.
He played around a lot like rock and rollers do so I was amazed and delighted when about a year ago he announced he was getting married.
The wedding was last weekend aboard the HQS Wellington moored on the thames in london, google it, it's a hell of a venue.
I was the most laid back wedding I've ever attended the registrar had a fit of the giggles (she was a she) and both my son and his bride were literally laughing all the way through.
The booze was flowing and he asked me to address the wedding party. I'm not an extremely confident public speaker but I'd not had a drink then but I made a brief speech that halfway through had he and I on the verge of tears, filling up we call it in the UK, so there was a pregnant pause that...Continue Reading

I had a call last sunday from a dutch guy who flew a full size bleriot replica over the channel on May 20th this year.
He now wants to fly his half scale model from the comfort of a full size bell heli, which he won't be piloting.
Anyway he asked if I would check out the landing site and handle the PR for him on this side.
He was going to make the trip today but the wind is up over the 10knot limit also it's in the wrong direction so tuesday looks to be the day.
I'll post some pix and a link to a video shortly but I'm just off out to go flying.
If you want to get on the mailing list, send your e-mail address to me and I'll send the bulletins to you, NB restricted to the first 10 as I have difficulty getting the stuff on my mail.

Turns out that the problem with the 82s was lousy fuel, changed to fresh fuel and the engines are back on full power and sounding better than ever.
So I've spent £220 on new engines and £24 on new plugs when all I really needed was a £14 gallon of 10%.
( Secretly I wanted the 55s as I have two ARC jupiters that need a good 46 size in them to fly well. But don't tell the wife).

The stats I gave in my last blog were taken from the on board computer which gives several averages plus also instantaneous readouts, I find it very helpful to reduce fuel consumption though most of the trip was driven on cruise control at about 120 kph which is the max speed limit in Spain and 110 kph in France, you can drive faster in France (130 kph) when it's dry on the autoroutes which tend to be toll roads but 110 - 120 kph gives the best fuel consumption in our car.

Since that blog, we've had some great flying weather, I took my caravan down to the Hastings flyin and had 4 great days, whilst there I assembled a kyosho calmato 60 low wing job which I've fitted an OS 91 Fx in which gives ample power for big lazy loops - I can thoroughly reccomend the combination.

At our flying site yesterday (see www.bloobirds.co.uk) a mk 9 spifire (full size)was stooging round doing mock attacks on a helicopter which was obviously filming it for some forthcoming film.

It stayed for over an hour and our club president was flying his 1/6 scale spitfire when it first came over, no-one had a camera, bloody typical.

My saito 82s have been playing up and on my last two visits to the flying field I had to abort the flights so I bought two 55ax to replace them guess what a bit of a concerted twiddle with tha low needle plus a new plug in each sorted them, still I've got two loft queens that the 55s can be installed in.

Drove back from nerja in southern spain to dover uk, average speed 64.3 mph, fuel consumption 54.1 miles per gallon.
Four grown ups and their luggage in the car. 13 hours the first day and 9 ish the second day. 1350 miles in total.
We left nerja at 0715 and stopped for the night at 20.15; we stop quite often and eat and walk about which is included in the overall time. We stayed overnight in Bordeaux and left at 0845 and arrived in calais about 1800.
The uk immigration official was Irish, he had a round red face, ginger hair and beard and my wife, who is Irish couldn't believe it when he spoke to her in gaellic which she didn't have a chance to learn in ireland as she left at 6 weeks of age, he then spoke welsh to me, me being welsh and all, and my kids couldn't believe it when I said christ it's a leprechaun...lovely bloke.
Great holiday except I never got to maiden the multiplex merlin!!!!!!

We've been soaking up the sun in the south of spain for over a week now, great. Good run down just winding myself up to the drive back come the weekend.
Done 1500 miles so far and used 30.2 gallons of fuel.

finished the merlin and it's ready to fly, was going to fly it here but having second thoughts. I'll maiden it when I get home.

Since the last post, no training for weeks, matches rare as rocking horse cr*p down to flooded pitches then it all clears up, he's doing real well in his training and has been played in a position that he doesn't normally play in; it's just great what these pro coaches spot, his club team are just enthusiastic amateurs, admittedy they don't have the pool of talent to choose from.
Lets just say I'm one happy pappy!!!!!
Also I've recently bought 3 electric things, an ST fox sailplane, this is one fragile ship so sensitive to the cg location, my advice - walk on past it.
Also a local firm manufacturer makes flying wings, great foamie plane but weak as dried spaghetti where the ply motor mount is glued to the foam, my view - worth a try.
Latest one is a multiplex merlin, hot damn this is expensive, so much so that I spent an evening trawling the net to put together the power pack, in the event I got motor, esc two batteries, 4 servos spinner and two props for the same price that multiplex sell the motor, esc and spinner - rip off or what.
I bought it as we're off to spain for a few weeks and this box, charger and tx will just about fit under the seat of my car. I've not built it yet.
We drive down to spain, it's not like coast to coast USA, only about 1700 miles there but it's a good adventure and there ain't any Apaches on the way
Ok only joshing...what they do have is car hijackers, we've nearly been victims a couple of times but now, as soon as we hit france I buy pepper sprays (illegal in the UK) for each side of the car, one for wifey and one for me.
Hope we don't get to use them again.

Last night he went to his squad induction and 1st training event, he did rather well and came away quite pleased with himself.
I must be honest and say I was quite surprised how big he is compared to his peers, there were 53 in the squad and he was second tallest but because of his fitness and physique he was only 11th heaviest, there being some right old chubbies there.
Eventually there will be 23 in the squad so competition is absolutely fierce and he came back covered with stud bruises and he left one poor lad covered in blood from a particularly severe tackle.
The game of rugby in the UK has gone downhill in recent years, the rule makers have introduced so many new rules to prevent stamping and kicking (people not the ball) that the physical side of tackling and rucking (the art of players from each team squabbling on the ground trying to draw more players in to create openings for the backs to score tries) has become more and more violent with people ending up blinded from gouging etc and fistfights are not uncommon with blood substitution with another player whilst the injured guy gets his wound stitched.
It'll not be too long before they start wearing body and head armour.
Sometimes I wonder if I'm doing the right thing letting him play the game but hell, it keeps him off the streets and all the bad things that happen there, and he gets rid of all his pent up frustrations out on the field of play rather than on the streets.