Plenty of aircraft to fly at the moment, with too many built during lockdown and the natural predator of airframes unavailable. So I thought I would scratch a long-term itch and try planking with balsa for the first time. All went reasonably well - I now have to decide what to do with the result, keep for show & tell at the club, build the rest of an aircraft to match, or just scrap it and put it all down to experience....Continue Reading

...and a fuselage to match.
One of our club members has got right into 3D printing, so I asked him to produce a set of wing ribs for a 2m soarer - simple, constant chord design to suit the fuselage of a model I already had. Worked out OK, but proved interesting along the way.
Again, pics tell the story best.
Cheers,
...Continue Reading

Spotted a set of Sbach 342 wings for sale cheap on RC Trader and thought: 'I reckon I could make an interesting flying wing out of those!'
They came with servos installed, so all it needed was a fuselage and running gear - how hard can it be?
In the end, it flew very nicely, but we had some adventures along the way.
Again, the pictures tell all.
Cheers,
...Continue Reading

Most of this was also posted under Color Board Experiments:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=2598758
but I thought I would record it here in case anyone in other forums would like to play. I don't know how global the Daiso company is. We have three or four of their stores around Melbourne, Australia, and stocks of the foam seem to vary with location and time. There are several sizes of sheet, plus mixed colours and thickness of individual sheets. Some of my applications are pictured.
Cheers,
PeteM
Update 08 Sep 17 - Daiso no longer stock this material, and I can't locate it anywhere else - BUGGA!...Continue Reading

Quite a few years ago, I designed and built a large thermal sailplane, Yingani (the rainbow). It came out at around 4.7 m span with extended tips, weighed 2.8 kg and flew like a dream from the winch. Average flight time per launch was/is over 30 minutes (variometer fitted).
Anyway, time passes, fields shrink and the urge to drag the winch out regularly gradually fades, so I set out to build an electric launch version of the fuselage to fit the original wings.
Finished and flown, YinganE came out a smidgen lighter than the original pure sailplane and seems to fly even better. The pictures tell the story.
Power train is an MVVS hard-case outrunner with 14x8 prop, TGY Plush 60A ESC on a 4S 2200 LiPo. Controls rudder, elevator, spoiler, differential spoiler on Spektrum gear....Continue Reading

I had the urge for quite a while to try a discus launched glider, but did not feel like jumping in at the deep end with a $1000 competition-level airframe. Came across the thread and plan for Mimi and started building.
See Franz Bal's thread at:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...highlight=mimi
The original used a solid balsa wing, but 12mm balsa stock of the quality required is hard to find - so off to Compufoil to develop a built-up alternative.
Anyway, Mimi turned out to be a lot of fun and I flew her for several years, until seduced by the even lighter Elf. Sold her to a friend, who had a lot of fun too, until it collided with a nearby planet and came back for a rebuild under warranty.
The pics tell the story.
Cheers,
...Continue Reading

A while back, I became somewhat obsessed by McCutchen machines (also known as Charybdis, Rotoriser etc). Memories of my youth include these things burping and farting across the field at head height, powered by small diesel or glow engines, never quite on tune.
So I figured a modern one might work, with a brushless motor and lipo (NiCads at first).
The first seven failed to climb, then success with #8 that rose happily towards the ceiling, confounding the doubters!
As you can see, they got stranger and stranger as time went by...
Cheers,
...Continue Reading

Thought I had better make a start on populating my blog, so this just to see if it works.
A few pics of some of my indoor FF and RC electric models based on the famous Hangar Rat.
Cheers,
...Continue Reading