Free Flight Scale

20" span twin jetex kit converted to twin K&P 18mm ducted fans

1/8th scale. 45" span. 45ozs. Engine is Mills 1.3 diesel.

1998 was a good year having won the Superscale and the Eddie Riding Trophy 1.3 Mills Engine

Had yet another rush of blood to the head and decided to convert to twin diesels. Two .8 PAWs with throttles were linked to a timer with a cam in the fuselage working cranks and push rods. VERY over powered and frightening. Ran on half power. Too much to do at the same time. But when I did get it to go it was magic.

First full power electric flight at dusk on the Isle of Sheppy. Magnificent. Went to the pub and had a beer to celebrate. I then had to add rigging wires and scale detail. The drag increased so much I had to use more power and change the props.

Depron foam model of MIss Kenya. Flew ok but was not durable enough to last long.

Rubber powered kit scale. Replica Performance kit was quite a challenge and I nearly binned it twice. However it did trim out to fly well.

Making Smoke. As a change I made this Student from Aeromodeller plans. Originally for Jetex but I put a Rapier L3 in it. Flying was a bit of a lottery with this one but when it went well it was well worth the frustration.

Flush with the success of my Currie Wot I went bonkers and built this three brushed motor model. Ni-cads very heavy but it did win my first Nationals.

Before I covered all that work I took this photo. E.D. Racer engine. Too big and heavy but it taught me a lot.

Seemed a shame to cover all that work. Vac formed cowl with litho plate over balsa cowlings.

Finished at last and on its first outing and trimming session. Needed a lot more ballast in the nose to get it to perform.

Does not look it here but the wind decimated the 2009 Nats. The wind was way above anything sensible for free flight. Two abortive launches and then I withdrew.

Twin electric Handley Page 0/7. Civil version of the 0/400 bomber with 66 inch span. I later converted to twin diesels but there was to much to do at the same time when flying.

Twin electric at 66inch span. 2012 Nationals winner. Pushed the boundaries with this one

On the real thing this was an early experiment into jet propulsion. Was fitted with a rover turbine engine. My first electric scale model. Converted from rubber power as it was too heavy. Flew consistently well despite the weight of the Ni-cads.

Climbing away on another sortie. This time at at Oxford MFC Dreaming Spires Rally.

These surfaces are made as in Tech Tips page. Rear tail bracing is working. All the rest and control cables are shirring elastic. Note low vis' markings.

2007 Eddie Riding competition. Again a Mills 1.3 engine 1/8th scale.

1/12th scale with an AM10 engine. Originally fitted with a AM 15 but was to powerful. Model was too heavy so the rudder only r/c installed to assist trimming was removed. It has taken a lot of flights to trim but will now put up with conditions far from perfect. A bit quick in the calm but does take off nicely. Traditional build with the addition of carbon in the wing leading and trailing edges.

Went a bit o.t.t. on the interior. A lot of it is covered when finished. The inner wing spars are lamination of thin carbon fibre and spruce. Almost bomb proof. The cabane and and inner wing panel are made of relatively heavy gauge piano wire to put up with the landing forces.

Colour was difficult to get right. Early type of low visibility. Note faded out roundels and markings.