R/C FLYING: WORLD’S No.1 FOR ELECTRIC AND GLIDING ENTHUSIASTS
Flight Quiet&Electric
October 2015
www.qefimagazine.com
International
HOW TO BUILD WITH DEPRON
Plus! Build a Depron ‘SR-71 Blackbird’ from plans
FLY-IN SPARCS
22 PAGES
Colerne E-Fly report
OF REVIEWS
Tested by us so they work for you!
PERSUASIVE PETREL
SCALE SOARING AT WHITE SHEET HILL Ripmax Dagger tested
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Dynam’s Waco bipe appraised
Issue 164
£4.25 • 10>
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Japanese WWII fighter-bomber
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Flight INSIDE... Quiet&Electric
International
October 2015 • Issue 164
COVER
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This month’s cover sees Vaughn Entwhistle launching Steve Fraquet’s 1:3.5 scale Petrel at the June White Sheet meet. Turn to page 52 for the full report in Scale Soaring. (Chris Williams’ photo)
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FEATURES Building With Depron This modern lightweight flooring material can be used for making some superb flying models as Tony Bennett found out, and passes on some useful tips
SR-71 Blackbird Designed by Laddie Mikulasko, this quick and easy 693 mm span electric profile sport-scale build of all Depron construction uses an economical powertrain and is a delight to fly
Feature
Plan
Colerne E-Fly 2015 Vaughn Entwistle gets a charge out of this annual event electric fly-in organised by the Bath SpaRCS
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REGULARS
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Plug-In
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Marketplace
52 56 62 Feature
Plan
46 REVIEWS
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Dagger
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Kawasaki Ki-61 RTF
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Crossfire
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Micro Quads’ Musings
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Waco YMF-5D ARF
Brian Collins gets to grips with this fast electric 850 mm span delta from Ripmax
With a fondness of scale warbirds, and speed, Brian Cooper tests this “High Speed” 995 mm span Japanese WWII fighter-bomber from FMS with flaps and retracts fitted
Editorial, plus news, views and comments The latest electric flight and gliding products
Light Fantastic Chris Golds begins this month with another tale, this time of an exciting rescue effort in the Middle East, and reveals more of your models
Scale Soaring This month Chris reports on the scale fly-in from his local hilltop, and makes a start on his latest vintage scale sailplane project
Over There In his regular column from the US, this time Mike Lee passes on some useful tips for more accurate and confident flying, shows us ‘different’ moulded wing repair, and gets to grips with ‘hand-launch gliders’
Watts 'E' Up To Brian Collins describes building a model aircraft sound system – on a budget.
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Small Thrust
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Diary Dates
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With his enthusiasm for small EDF models, John Stennard tells of his latest adventures with these modest EDF models both indoors and out
Where to go and what to see!
Down Under Our regular reporter Peter Pine reports on the F5J Australian Nationals 2015, and passes on more tips on Flight Loggers!
Classified Adverts Our regular FREE ‘For Sale’ section
Web Directory Shop online for your modelling needs
Shoppers Directory Where to find your modelling needs
Coming Next Issue What to see in the November 2015 issue of Q&EFI
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Speed fanatic Brian Cooper takes to the skies with this simple to build 700 mm span foamie combat model from Flyingwings
John Stennard introduces three of the latest mini quadcopters for outdoor or indoor flying from Syma and Revell Control
Matt Boddington assesses this 1270 mm span 1930’s sports biplane from Dynam that has superb handling for aerobatics or just cruising around in the air
Cover Story www.qefimagazine.com
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Scene at the White Sheet Scale Fly-In
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SCALE SOARING
On home ground, Chris Williams reports on his local hilltop scale fly-in, and makes a flying start on his latest vintage scale project White Sheet Scale Fly-In, August 9th 2015
The laws of celestial mechanics are very precise... The transit of Venus, the appearance of Hailey’s Comet, the solar eclipses: all of these things can be predicted with a great degree of accuracy by those with a higher IQ than mine. But all of those massive brains cloistered in the same room are totally unable to predict what we scale glider guys are going to find when we turn up for a White Sheet Club scale fly-in. What we saw on this occasion was, coincidentally, as rare as a solar eclipse, that is to say we were confronted with what can only be described as near-perfect conditions. When Motley and myself Vaughn Entwistle launches Steve Fraquet’s 1:3.5 scale Petrel
climbed out of the car we saw event director Steve Fraquet wandering around in a daze, mumbling, “I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it!” Neither could we, and we hastily set about the process of rigging the mini-fleet before the Weather Gods woke up and realised their mistake. We were soon joined by the members of West Mendip club, a tough breed of men, well used to the oxygen-sucking climb of Crook Peak, and somewhat contemptuous of us White Sheet softies, with our level playing fields. This was emphasised when Peter Balcombe suffered the only out-landing of the day, whereupon he descended to the fields below in short order, brought his Oly back to the foot of
the slope, and handed it over to Bob Cook, who practically leapt back to the top of the hill like a supercharged gazelle, all before I could take one sip of coffee and do more than take a nibble at a ginger biscuit! Mr Fraquet had brought along not only his trusty Petrel, but also his pretty Windspiel, which had made an appearance some years ago, but which hadn’t been seen since. The Darmstadt D-28b Windspiel was built back in 1933 on the principle that a very small, very light sailplane would be more capable of turning tightly in the centre of small thermals, and thus had a wingspan of only 12 metres. Interestingly, the rudder was coupled mechanically to the ailerons – who said C.A.R. wasn’t scale?
Peter Balcombe launches his very pretty 1:4 scale Olympia 2b, prior to landing out!
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Scale Gliders Steve’s model was in the process of being refurbished so had yet to have the re-painting process completed, but he was tight-lipped about the reasons for the refurbishment in the first place. (I’m guessing he tripped over his wallet during a launch. It wouldn’t be the first time.) In the afternoon, when the overcast sky made an appearance and thus brought with it a commensurate increase in the wind, Steve went to prove that the Petrel’s
Bob Cook launches Pat Teakle’s 1:4 scale Moswey
Motley gets to grips with the HW4 Flamingo
envelope is wider than you might think, with barrel rolls, prolonged inverted flight and other shenanigans that would make poor old Fred Slingsby turn in his grave. Bob Cook, recovered from his gazelle impression, went on to fly his rather nice-looking Nimbus to great effect: I guess there was little chance of this machine landing out. (But if it had, who better to retrieve it?) Motley has started on a new venture; he’s building the HW-4 Flamingo. I took the opportunity to hand him the transmitter and to get acquainted with the prototype. As we both have a thing for landings, he was keen to see how she would fare. Now, there are several sorts of landings; there’s the walk-of-shame, whereupon the model ends up too short or too long, or there’s the show off landing, where the model comes to rest next to your feet. We call this the ‘Bootlace Arrival’. On his very first attempt, Mott managed something similar to the Bootlace, except that he ended up clouting his shin with one wingtip. (It would be some feat indeed to clout your shin with both wingtips!) We call this the OdourEater-Arrival. The fact that it took a mil-spec crowbar to pry the transmitter out of his hands goes to show that his efforts in the
Bootlace or Odour-Eater landing...? Author refuses to reveal
workshop will now have redoubled vigour. Pat Teakle confessed at the beginning of the day that he brought along nothing new to show us. But we let him off on account of his advancing years. He got in his usual prolific airtime with his recently new Moswey and his Celestial Horseman, both of which revelled in the excellent conditions of the day. Also washed up on the shore with the Mendip boys was Vaughn Entwhistle; newly-minted editor-without-portfolio for Traplet, so of course I was careful to mind my P’s & Q’s. When the boys get together, and the good cheer starts to overflow, it’s during times like these that daring thoughts bubble to the surface. Some time ago Smallpiece, Motley and I set up a photo shoot whereby two Minimoas were launched simultaneously
under the camera’s eagle eye. This went moderately well, and thus it was that I suggested we try to repeat the scenario. So, Mr Fraquet and myself lined up on the edge of the slope and prepared to launch. Smallpiece hunched down behind the camera and announced his readiness for action. “Did you take the lens cap off?” I queried, receiving a stony silence by way of reply. We launched, whereupon Steve flung his Petrel at the ground and failed to miss, in direct contravention of Douglas Adam’s definition of flight (throw yourself at the ground and miss, in case you were wondering). Second time around saw success, and we retired to the deck chairs for a restorative coffee. Inevitably, another devious thought bubbled to the surface. “What”, I enquired generally, “if we were to go for a three-man launch?” There was a momentary silence, and then a general air of approval from all and sundry, as long as they weren’t going to be the fools to actually do it. “Think Guinness Book of Records” I urged, and before I knew it, we were quorate. So, this time at the starting grid; myself, Steve and Motley, and I urged Smallpiece to ensure the camera was actually switched on, knowing he was too far away to give me a kicking. Off we went, wings wobbling madly as we each tried to keep the others at bay, all of us thinking the camera had damned well better be switched on, as we really didn’t to have to do it again. Aaah, Smallpiece isn’t number one cameraman without a reason, and as I hope you can see, we have a good case to put forward to Mr McWhirter. There was general agreement at the end of this splendid day, that here we had one www.qefimagazine.com
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