Well, the plague is still with us to some extent, but things are a little more relaxed and training flights began again last week. I had to book in for a slot, but got one easily and another booked for this coming Tuesday. I flew as well as last October, so I haven't forgotten anything. I'd like to push things along some and start doing low passes and landings. I could try the playing fields in the village where the guy who runs things said he'd welcome me there with small electric 'planes as it would "make a change from bloody dog walkers"!! As long as there are no kids playing ball games I may well sneak some stick time in there. As long as I have his permission, I have insurance.
I have had some plans for a Vulcan reduced to a more manageable size for me. I can't transport or store big models and frankly I have always been a four footer fan. They're what I grew up with and what I like to see. The huge things, which OK, may fly better, just strike me as willy waving. "Look at me, I can afford a huge £400 petrol engine in a £500 kit which someone built for me. I have Futaba RC costing £2400", even though the infinitely better AND beautiful Jeti Duplex is much cheaper. "I had to buy a special van to put it in and fit it out so I can only carry toy aeroplanes on racks". No, thanks, not for me. If it won't go in my Suzuki Swift, it don't happen. So, the Jetworksonline Vulcan plans were reduced at some cost by a fearsome Polish lady in a local print shop. Actually she was very pleasant and did a good job. It must be that missing indefinite article in her speech that makes me think she came hotfoot from a James Bond set!
The Vulcan is now just over a metre wingspan, instead of the big 55" it started out at. It will still take a pair of 50mm EDFs and should sound fairly jetlike. My son, Mike, 3D printed a couple of components to check the drawings and they fit like a glove.
As it was my Birthday a couple of days ago he also bound the instructions into a booklet at work. Much easier to refer to.
I shan't be building this one until I've flown some of the other aircraft I've built during the plague.
I still have my wee Pietenpol, a kit from Flite Test in foamboard. Bernard at the club already flew this and loved it.
And I managed at last to get a couple of Lidl's gliders a couple of weeks ago and converted one to power, using pitcherons, which is where the wings themselves pivot to act as control surfaces.
I also have the trainer all finished and fitted out with an Enya 40, waiting for when I'm allowed to fly my own aircraft at my own risk.
I also built a Flite Test Spitfire from free plans which I scaled off the PC screen as I'm too tight to print 30 odd A4 sheets with the price of ink. I finished it with some mods to make it a little more realistic looking and in First Flight zinc chromate and bare metal as I detest cowshit cammo. But you just gotta have that shape in the sky and the FliteTest version has undercambered wing tips so no nasty tip stall, which is normally the bugbear of Warbirds and Spitfires in particular, so it should fly in a beginner's hands.
There are more, but they'll keep for next time. I'm fast running out of ceiling!
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