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Junior 60. You ain't a Real Modeller unless... If it were a song, it would be a Standard. Not a Sinatra smoothie, perhaps, but something that could be altered, hacked about, put to any use but still be itself. Dean Martin's "Return to Me" seems appropriate. According to a SAM Yearbook it was drawn in the month of my birth (January '45) and kitted shortly afterward. It's originality can be called into question: It owes much to Paul Plecan's Simplex, and Phil Smith once told me it was based on a French design. After all, it is not 60" span, but 1.6 metres. But what design is not derivative?
Not that size matters. Tony Wilson's 50" version has appeared in a variety of indelicate postures in the Press recently after his Bowden experiences but has survived to do it all again. Motor is an ED 2cc (but not the Comp special.)
My first "full size" one became my r/c trainer seven years ago. In those ancient days it had a NiCad battery weighing a pound...how far off that seems now. With two-cell LiPo, an MFA Como RX15 with Olympus gearbox and APC 12 x 6 it will RoG off grass and climb well, but of course this is underpowered by any modern standard. But the gearbox makes it sound like a well silenced four-stroke, so it stays in there. Thanks to the intrusive activities of the Paparazzi on the flying fields these days, it has already been seen in the RCM&E. (I must get myself a better hat.) I've promised the model an engine cowling for its tenth birthday.
For free Flight I have another version (also from a Ben Buckle kit) with 2.4 Letmo replica and timer. A future Bowden winner...in my dreams. This will be given an alternative electric powered fuselage after I have had a talk with (read: listen to) Ian Middlemiss.
Then there is the Majestic Major. I never had model storage problems until I built this one. My SC four-stroke has not yet had to run above tickover as the wing loading is so light. Trimming involves adding incresing amounts of downthrust and this is work in progress. Great wheels: given to me by a friend, they are of French origin. Appropriate, perhaps?
John Ashmole |
