The next round was simply a race around two pylons. Phillipe's model was fitted with a LiPo the size of a young house-brick and he proceeded to win his round. He said that it was just a question getting into a rhythm. I fitted a 2200 4S LiPo to my model and took off, waited for the MC to announce the start of the round and opened the taps. The model shot forward overtaking many of my competitors. Funnily enough a three-channel trainer is more difficult to fly accurately at high speed than a four channel model because it's constantly trying to correct itself. On one circuit it went into all sorts of unwanted gyrations leading to a cry of "Oh la!" from the judge standing behind me, but I recovered it and got into Phillippe's rhythm, turn, slight opposite rudder, level wings, turn, slight opposite rudder etc etc. The Contest Director announced over the PA that we had one minute to go. I don't know whether I was winning but I was not aware of many models getting past me but suddenly my model slowed. I called a landing, "Pas d'electricité!" and put the model down on the runway. My judge told me that I had passed 23 pylons in four minutes. An expert with a really fast model can pass 40 or more pylons in the five minutes alloted to the round but I am no expert, however, I was quite pleased with Boris's performance.

I knew beforehand that each round of La Coupe Des Barons lasted for five minutes and I knew that I could get eight to ten minutes out of my...Continue Reading

Having washed but not rinsed the van (don't ask!) on Friday 1st June I headed off south just after lunch. The satnav told me to go one way a well-known British motoring website told me to go another way! I chose the website's option, got lost for half an hour but reached the site of La Coupe Des Barons just before dusk, 293 miles or 472 kilometres from my home. La Coupe Des Barons translates as "The Barons' Cup." The model involved is the "Baron 1914" as much of an iconic trainer in France as the Sig Kadet in the USA or the Keil Kraft Super 60 in Great Britain. The model has a wingspan of 1.55 metres or just over five feet and looks vaguely like a 1914 Morane monoplane. Originally the model was intended for a French Micron 19 or 21 engine. Entrants to La Coupe come from all over France, there's a team from Corsica and two entrants who live in Switzerland and Germany.

The rules of the competition are as follows. The event is for the original Baron three-channel trainer but you are allowed to increase or reduce any aspect of the wing and/or fuselage, by 10%. Whatever modifications are made to the wing, it must retain its Clark Y aerofoil. The tailplane does not have to conform to the original plan though most of the entrants use the stock tail surfaces. Some entrants finish their models in WW1 German markings and use triangular Fokker or spade-like Albatros tailplanes, others use all moving rudders like a Nieuport. Ailerons are not allowed and if fitted...Continue Reading

After not using my blog for years, two blogs in a day may seem quite strange!

My flight box was getting old and shabby. I'd bought it in an auction in Exeter in about 1997; it was old then. There's a picture of it below in the foreground of a photo taken in 2007 so that was 11 years ago and by 2018 the methanol had started to rot the wood so it was time for a change.

​I had a look on the web and there were three which caught my eye two were advertised with French suppliers and the third with SLEC, an English company I had done business with in the past. I rejected one of the French suppliers because the box was too expensive but chose the second one, produced by a company called Super Flying Models no less, because I thought that the box came fully assembled and painted! I should have read the small print! Not only was the box a flat-pack, it was unpainted too and twice the price of the English box! Nil desperandum. I got on with assembling the box and found out that my flight battery was too big for it and the power panel was too small. I cut up lots of pieces of plywood I had handy to make the necessary changes, recycling some parts from the old box, the door knob for example. After several coats of highly patriotic water-based British Racing Green paint, everything was wired up and ready to go.
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I tried the starter motor, attaching it to the terminals just to the left of the power panel. The terminals on the end of the starter motor are a type of crocodile...Continue Reading

Hello Everybody!

It's been some time since I wrote anything but then I'm not up to much with computers.

I retired to France in 2015 where the houses are cheaper and the cost of living less especially if you grow your own vegetables! Last winter I built a Baron 1914, an iconic French trainer dating from the 1970s which resembles a WW1 monoplane fighter with massively increased tail surfaces for stability. The whole thing looks like something from a children's cartoon film. It has a wingspan of 1.66 metres or 66". I modified it to incorporate ailerons. After I had finished it I decided to enter a competition La Coupe Des Barons (Barons' Cup) which required me to build another wing as ailerons are not allowed in the competition. Originally the model was intended for a 19 two-stroke, for the competition something a little more powerful is allowed. Entrants using a two-stroke engine are restricted to a maximum size of 0.35cu. ins which is nearly twice the size of the prototype's engine. Competitors using four-strokes are limited to a 40 and those using electric power are limited to a maximum power of 825 Watts. I had planned to use a four-stroke engine in my Baron but as the carburetter is rather worn, its reliability was questionable so I've converted it to electric power, after all I didn't want to be stuck on the flight-line with a stalled engine! Pictures of the model in i/c mode but otherwise ready for the competition below.

The Competition.

This is a...Continue Reading

On several occasions when I have flown my Senior Telemaster, as in my avatar recently, the engine, a Thunder Tiger F91S has cut out in flight leading to a few unscheduled landings in the crop. At the close of flying last Thursday 8th August, I started the engine in my "Best Mate" stand and revved it to see whether I could notice anything wrong. I noticed that the needle valve moved with the engine revs, alternately moving inwards and outwards as the throttle was advanced or backed off. It transpired that the ratchet clip had broken enabling the needle valve to move. As I had another Thunder Tiger F91S, I resolved to pinch the ratchet clip off the other engine and fit it into the one in the STM but on digging out the other engine I found that the ratchet clip on that engine had also broken.

I was unable to locate a source of Thunder Tiger spares so that evening I emailed two firms, Just Engines and the Sussex Model Centre and explained my problem. Both firms replied and said that a clip from an SC or ASP engine would suit, I happened to open the Just Engines email first and ordered three clips, one for each engine and a spare from them. These arrived by post on Saturday 10th August. With the new clip in place the model performed faultlesly.

I'm impressed by the standard of customer service from Just Engines, however, based on past experience I know that I would have had a similar standard of service from the Sussex Model Centre.

I have no connection with either firm etc etc

An interesting event occurred at our flying field, Forton Aerodrome, near Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. (For the benefit of foreign nationals, Shrewsbury is part of the West Midlands, the central area of England, but only 9 miles, (about 14kms) from the Welsh Border.

Most of us were flying sports models and trainers and about half of the models there were ARTFs made in China. Then two chaps came along with a scale Fairey Swordfish of about 6 feet (1.8 metres) in the wingspan. The one man was a member of the club, the other, his next door neighbour who had built the model but didn't fly. The club colleague had loaned him an OS91 fourstroke and a radio and it took them some time to rig the biplane which featured rigging and landing wires etc.

Then they flew it and all flying ceased while an enraptured crowd watched it putter up the runway and into the air. It didn't do anything other than fly slowly and majestically in wide figure of eight manouvres. There was applause when it landed.

My question is:

Why did this model create such interest when there we plenty of pattern ships, sports aircraft, foamies, 3-D's and shockies (whatever they are) present which were capable of much more aerobatic flight?

I think I know the answer but I'd be interested in your views.