Radio control jet international october november 2015

THE WORLD’S PREMIER R/C JET MAGAZINE

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015

NYE FLY-IN A jet roar farewell to Peter Nye

JETS OVER IROQUOIS

Canada’s newest jet meet takes off

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ATTACK OF THE GIANT METEORS Colin Straus’ ongoing build of two huge Meteor F.1 Jets

VIPERJET MY WAY

Serge Bordais custom builds a C&C Models ViperJet

www.rcjetinternational.com OCT/NOV15 • £5.99 10>

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CONTENTS OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2015

Issue 134

EDITOR Vaughn Entwistle rcji@traplet.com GROUP EDITOR Kevin Crozier REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS David Gladwin, Colin Straus, Ken Park, Serge Bordais, Dave Wilshere, Mark Beacham MANAGING DIRECTOR Tony Stephenson OPERATIONS DIRECTOR Tom Stephenson DESIGN AND PRODUCTION MANAGER Nick Powell MAGAZINE DESIGN AND LAYOUT James Scott ADVERTISING SALES Angela Price Tel: 01684 588568 email: advertising@traplet.com MARKETING EXECUTIVE Wendy Adams Tel: 01684 588521 ADVERTISING COPY CONTROL Cindi Griffiths Tel: 01684 588517 email: adcopy@traplet.com PRINTER Warners plc NEWSSTAND DISTRIBUTION Seymour Distribution Ltd. (020 7429 4000) HOBBY TRADE DISTRIBUTION Traplet Publications Limited (01684 588522) US DISTRIBUTION Traplet Distribution USA Ltd., 806 Parkland Ct, Champaign, IL 61821, USA Tel: (001) 217 355 2970 email: info@traplet.com AUSTRALIAN DISTRIBUTION Traplet Publications & Hobbies, P.O. Box 501, Engadine, NSW 2233, Australia.

Tel: (02) 9520 0933 Fax: (02) 9520 0032 email: sales@traplet.com.au SOUTH AFRICAN DISTRIBUTION P.O. Box 1067, Oudtshoorn, 6620, South Africa.

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CHECK OUT PAGE 16 FOR OUR LATEST SUBSCRIPTION DEALS ON THE COVER:

Mark Beacham captures some of the action at the Nye Jets, a meet held to remember, and celebrate the contributions of jet pioneer Pete Nye

PUBLISHED BY Traplet Publications Ltd, Traplet House, Willow End Park, Blackmore Park Road, Welland, Malvern, WR13 6NN, England.

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All rights strictly reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any way without the prior agreement of the publisher. All letters must be accompanied by the sender’s full name and address. The publisher cannot accept responsibility for unsolicited correspondence nor some of the opinions expressed. All material and artwork originated by Traplet Publications Ltd., photographs, drawings, plans used in this magazine become the publishers copyright under Copyright law. Some photographs may have been digitally re-mastered. The Company reserves the right to suspend or refuse any advertisements without giving reasons. Whilst every care is taken to avoid mistakes, Traplet Publications Ltd. cannot be liable in any way for errors or omissions. Nor can the Publisher accept any responsibility for the bona fides of advertisers. © Traplet Publications Limited 2015 ISSN 0968-3291

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TECHNICALLY SPEAKING

Regulars 6 FROM THE COCKPIT

News and product information from around the jet-modelling world

10 TECHNICALLY SPEAKING

David Gladwin examines the XBus serial data system from R/C giants, JR Propo

68 JET CHATTER

Dave Wilshere discusses fuel tank do’s and don’ts, paint issues and test flies the up-sized Ripmax Xcalibur+

74 NEXT ISSUE

What’s coming up in the December ‘15/January ’16 Issue

Features 18 JETS OVER IROQOUIS

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JETS OVER IROQOUIS

Ken Park describes the return of the jet boys to Canada

24 C&C MODELS VIPERJET

Serge Bordais describes his custom build of this popular jet

32 NYE JETS KERO BURN

Mark Beacham attends the first meeting held to commemorate the achievements of jet pioneer Peter Nye

44 POWERBOX iGYRO 3e

Colin Straus tests the PowerBox solution to smooth and realistic jet flight

C&C MODELS VIPERJET

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50 PROJECT METEOR

Colin Straus continues his big Meteor F.8 build

60 WEATRONIC BAT 60

David Gladwin continues his tour of the Weatronic Bat 60, including the ‘Setup Wizard’

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AUTHOR & PHOTOGRAPHER: MARK BEACHAM

Nye Jets Kero Burn

Such was the importance of the late Peter Nye’s contribution to the birth of UK jet modelling that Jamie Cuff decided to commemorate Peter’s achievements by organising a new jet meeting. Welcome to Nye Jets Kero Burn!

F

lying model aeroplanes is a very social hobby. We’ve probably all been guilty at some time of doing more chatting than flying when we meet with our flying friends!

The lack of suitable sites for flying jets adds another reason why organised mass meetings have become such an important part of the flying season for model jet flyers. What better way than to commemorate the work of one of the pioneers of UK jet modelling?

Jamie Cuff certainly thought so, and therefore set about creating this new event. The chosen location, Throckmorton Airfield, was built in 1940 and formerly known as RAF Pershore.

During the war it was home to the Wellington bombers of No 23 Operational Training Unit and later hosted Vulcan bombers. Currently owned by QinetiQ, the site, with its full sized paved runway, is an ideal place for a gathering of over 100 model jet pilots.

Peter Nye

As jet modellers we live in exciting times.

Whether it be airframes, turbines or electronics, we have access to a huge range of high performance products, making the size of our bank accounts just about the only limit to our modelling ambitions! But, of course, it wasn’t always like this.

Back in the 1980s the jet modelling scene was in its infancy and in the absence of today’s equipment manufacturers it was up to talented individual modellers to combine their passion for the hobby with skill and ingenuity in order to push back the boundaries.

A life long modeller, Peter Nye achieved many ‘firsts’ and improvements that changed the face of jet modelling in the UK. In an age before model aircraft gas turbines were even dreamt of, his combination of the Turbax ducted fan unit from the USA with the K&B 7.5

2-stroke glow engine provided UK jet modellers with a more powerful, off the shelf power unit solution for the first time.

Before this modellers made their own fans from wooden hubs, with hand shaped nylon blades glued and pinned in. The plastic Turbax unit made it much easier to balance the impeller, and the K&B engine, with its matched tuned pipe, was easy to set up. After the Turbax, Pete went on to bring in other fan and engine units, which gave an unbelievable increase in thrust and therefore model performance.

His innovative approach to lightweight airframe construction also helped to open up this branch of the hobby to many others.

In the early ‘80s, Pete produced his famous Hawk design, which, under the Fan Jets brand, became the first ARF jet kit available in the UK. Like so many of his airframe designs, it

It’s smoke on at take-off for Mick Burrell’s Kingtech 210 powered FeiBao T-33

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contained many features that have stood the test of time and which we now take for granted in today’s models.

After the Hawk came his L-39 and then the Venom, Panther, Lightning and Crusader, to mention just some in the long line of designs he continued to produce right up to his death in April 2014.

Keith Russell’s ZN Line Wizard with its Electron ER40 retracts deployed for landing

Gentlemen, Start Your (Jet) Engines!

The weather is always the main worry both for organisers and those attending model flying events, so all concerned would have been delighted to wake up on Saturday 11th July to the sight of sunshine. By mid-morning the pits area was awash with pilots assembling model jets of all shapes and sizes. After the usual pilots’ safety briefing, the flying started. Appropriately, the first sortie of the weekend was by Dick Spreadbury, flying his Peter Nye-built Hawker Seahawk (see side article).

The custom colour scheme on Andy Rann’s CARF Ultra Flash looked great in Saturday’s sunshine

A number of Jet Legend ViperJets were flown over the weekend, Adrian Shaw’s example being amply powered by a JetCat P120

Apart from the flying, part of the fun of such events for me is seeing a wider range of models than I would normally encounter at my local club. Sport jets are always well represented at jet events and this weekend was no exception.

Twin boom designs such as Boomerangs and Xcaliburs are especially popular with all levels of pilot, due to their fun but easy going flight characteristics and relatively low cost.

It was interesting, therefore, to see Steve Prior’s Pilot RC Dolphin, which is a built up ARTF model aimed at the same market, but which has a conventional layout. Nye Jets saw Steve fly the Dolphin for the first time and he was happy to find that it does indeed fly like a jet ‘trainer’. The power available was more than ample with a JetCat 140RX fitted (100140N recommended), but Steve has had to fit a larger fuel tank to give a decent flight time with the larger engine. Time will tell whether we see as many Dolphins at future meetings as we do Boomerangs and Xcaliburs.

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