January 2009

Saturday 31st 26 fliers, lots of helicopters but not all flying at the same time, most of these are outdoor 3D types but just hovered or moved gently round. The photo shows many with training undercarriage fitted Great interest was shown in Meredith's CO2 powered free flight machine, slow and majestic flights, the CO2 released will cause global warming, prepare for a heat wave in the first week of February. Our chairman Chris had a little indoor model fitted with Micro Falcon gear. The Holy Cow was back terrorising our gentile indoor fliers, stick after stick of hot melt glue was used to repair it. I flew my Twister Storm, more of a wobbly hover than flying, this seems good value as it comes with everything except transmitter and RX . It is a bit big for indoors. The Robotbirds Blades were popular again, just right for the big space and able to take a few knocks. Phil

22 helicopters, there were also 3 E-flight mCXs not on parade
four models from Bristol Meredith's CO2 powered free flight model Gareth's rotating wing model Phil's West Wing's electric conversion The Stainless steel model on the right produces lift by spinning at high speed

The Holy Cow has returned, now more glue than EPP , the Mega motor screamed warning us to take cover, we were afraid, very afraid

Meredith's CO2 powered model. Short videos free.wmv and free2.wmv Span 40ins Wing area 230 sq ins Tail area 75 sq ins All up weight 35.9 gram Wing loading 0.802 oz/sq ft!

Brian's Cub	Stuart's Kyosho Minimum

Phil's Shogun	Chairman's latest

Saturday 24th A good turnout 29 fliers. Meredith got 2 minutes out of one of his free flight models, his electric free flight is still over powered in spite of shaving the prop down, this hits the roof and stick there, sliding down the curved surface, reverse ground effect? Andy captured two fixed wing crashes glos-mfc.co.uk/video/movie3.wmv and Darren got this this video, of the canopy falling off a heli making it tail heavy, it then slides backwards into the barrier glos-mfc.co.uk/video/crash.wmv

Our chairman's EPP Blade now with extreme control movements

Paul's Vapour	one of Meredith's free flight model

Brian's Wing	Phil Wright's Balsa model

Saturday 17th A very stormy night we could see the dome shaking and hear the rain. Numbers were a little down again, several heli positions were not used. Two new helis, Lee's T-rex 250 and Darren's Draganus Beam E4. I could not get my Shogun off the ground for the first two batteries, as it slid sideways while the training frame was still touching. Once I had the courage to get it up a bit faster I did manage to do some wobbly hovering. I flattened 7 heli batteries and 5 fixed wing and didn't see much of the flying or get many photos. Phil

Adrian's fleet

Jonathon's T-Rex 250	Darren's Beam E4


Trevor's MDF rudder elevator model, this model killed our chairman's Blade

Brian launching his wing	Phil's Shogun in a very wobbly hover, Mike risked his life to get this shot

Saturday 10th. Outside the cold spell was quickly fading as the wind picked up together with a rise in temperature, the dome was also considerable warmer than the last two weeks having been in use all day. Another good turnout but a bit down on last weeks record. Darren took over the task of keeping things running and monitoring the frequency board both jobs he did very well. Thus relieved of any duties I finally had an evening in which to concentrating on my flying. Gave me a chance to ring out my new Robotbirds Blade which I had built during the previous week. Now I have always been a "Depron man" but I have to admit that while you can build rigid light models in Depron they are a bit on the fragile side, and usually don't last more than a couple of flights in the dome. The Blade is EPP it is also a very popular model three others flying on the night, it is a bit bendy and not as "crisp" as my previous models but I flattened four batteries while having several mid airs, hit the floor hard a few times, and each time it just bounced back. So I'm converted anybody want to buy some Depron sheets. Most brilliant model of the night was the "Green teams" Walkera Chinook, this is quite a big model with two 450 mm rotors and looks very impressive in flight. Slight lack of pictures this week as Phil's camera has died although he did not discover this until he downloaded the pictures, hopefully normal service will resumed next week. Quite a bit of free flight activity from the Bristol lads, these guys have got their timing spot on nipping out for a "quick" flight while the slots change over. Although one of there light weight rubber models managed 2.5 minutes. Gareth also has some interesting rotatary winged free flight models. Chris B.

Brian's "repaired" Piper Cub	Laurence's Walkera Chinook

Two of Gareth's rubber powered free flight models, a helicopter and rotating wings model

Saturday 3rd Bitterly cold outside and not too warm inside, the dome had not been used during the day and although the heating had been switched on for us the large volume had not warmed up. It should be warmer next week as it will be used during the day. A record turnout 32 plus 2 juniors. The free flight models were interesting, Gareth flew a rubber powered rotating wing model from a 1964 aero modelling mag. Steve had a new EPP home brew shockie and is slowly getting into 3D. I talked to Paul about helicopter flying, Paul recommends starting with 3D and only worrying about the hover at the end of the flight, surprisingly he didn't crash till the end of the evening. Phil

Pete's Blade and his Easy-Bee

A free flight collection	Bob the builder with a blade mCX

Adrian's heli	Tim's bi-plane

4 shockies	Lee's

Steve's new shockie	Tim's shockie

Meredith's Free flight	An England team model

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Gloucester Model Flying Club