A Brief History of my Aeromodelling Experience in Three Pictures of the Same Model.l.
07-17-2022, 11:16 PM
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A Brief History of my Aeromodelling Experience in Three Pictures of the Same Model.l.
The man who taught me how to build model aeroplanes was my Uncle Geoff who had married one of my mother's four sisters. I was eleven at the time; I am seventy-four now. The Keil Kraft Ajax was not a success, I could not stop the nose block from falling out! Within two or three years Geoff was to die of cancer at the age of thirty-six but before he died he gave me all of his models, unfinished projects and plans. These included a Tomboy finished with a yellow fuselage, red winds and tail and red trim.The Tomboy was a simple 36" (92cms) wingspan free flight model intended for beginners. Most of his models perished in my inexperienced hands, free flight remember, but among the unfinished models was the fuselage of a double-size Vic Smeed Tomboy. Geoff worked as a draughtsman so had no problem in drawing up the plans double size.
The next twenty or thirty years coincided with my sex'n'drugs'n'rock'n'roll years. Once I'd left them behind, I completed the construction of the model, installed a Sanwa radio and a PAW 19 diesel engine which barely flew it! Changing the diesel for a Merco 35 produced a more satisfactory performance. Picture of the model and my much younger self taken in North Devon, England, over thirty years ago below.
Unfortunately the fuselage was about forty years old at the time, perhaps the quality of balsa wood in the 1950s was poor, whatever the reason the fuselage started to deform so I built a second one using cyano throughout. I was a very inexperienced pilot at the time and somehow or other I managed to get the model into a spiral dive and when it hit the ground I was left with a big yellow bag of kindling! The wing and tailplane were alright so I built a third fuselage and succeeded in putting the model into a tree. Inexperience again! That's why I have no pictures of the Mark 2 or Mark 3 fuselages! The wings and tailplane rested in a cardboard box in the loft for at least another twenty years.
Having retired to France in 2015 I built a fourth fuselage and this time I fitted an electric motor.
It flew well enough but one day I made a horlicks of the landing and the model went over on its nose breaking the fuselage at the wing's trailing edge. The fuselage is made out of 1/4" sq balsa which is fine for free flight but to withstand the extra stresses of radio control 5/16" or even 3/8" would have been better. The Belair Models short- kit of the enlarged Tomboy features a fuselage made of 3/8" balsa strip.
The model spent some time neglected in the corner of my workshop until I hit upon the idea of lining the forward structure with thin plywood and building it as a sub-assembly which I simply glued to the rest of the fuselage. All of my other Tomboys were finished in the same colour scheme as Geoff's smaller Tomboy but unsurprisingly I had run out of Vintage Yellow Solartex and as it is no longer produced, the Mark 4a has the forward fuselage finished in red. I have gone back to using a proper engine again, an OS 40 Surpass.
My dog would prefer to play football. Sorry soccer!
Any other model and I would have burned it long ago!
The next twenty or thirty years coincided with my sex'n'drugs'n'rock'n'roll years. Once I'd left them behind, I completed the construction of the model, installed a Sanwa radio and a PAW 19 diesel engine which barely flew it! Changing the diesel for a Merco 35 produced a more satisfactory performance. Picture of the model and my much younger self taken in North Devon, England, over thirty years ago below.
Unfortunately the fuselage was about forty years old at the time, perhaps the quality of balsa wood in the 1950s was poor, whatever the reason the fuselage started to deform so I built a second one using cyano throughout. I was a very inexperienced pilot at the time and somehow or other I managed to get the model into a spiral dive and when it hit the ground I was left with a big yellow bag of kindling! The wing and tailplane were alright so I built a third fuselage and succeeded in putting the model into a tree. Inexperience again! That's why I have no pictures of the Mark 2 or Mark 3 fuselages! The wings and tailplane rested in a cardboard box in the loft for at least another twenty years.
Having retired to France in 2015 I built a fourth fuselage and this time I fitted an electric motor.
It flew well enough but one day I made a horlicks of the landing and the model went over on its nose breaking the fuselage at the wing's trailing edge. The fuselage is made out of 1/4" sq balsa which is fine for free flight but to withstand the extra stresses of radio control 5/16" or even 3/8" would have been better. The Belair Models short- kit of the enlarged Tomboy features a fuselage made of 3/8" balsa strip.
The model spent some time neglected in the corner of my workshop until I hit upon the idea of lining the forward structure with thin plywood and building it as a sub-assembly which I simply glued to the rest of the fuselage. All of my other Tomboys were finished in the same colour scheme as Geoff's smaller Tomboy but unsurprisingly I had run out of Vintage Yellow Solartex and as it is no longer produced, the Mark 4a has the forward fuselage finished in red. I have gone back to using a proper engine again, an OS 40 Surpass.
My dog would prefer to play football. Sorry soccer!
Any other model and I would have burned it long ago!
Last edited by Telemaster Sales UK; 07-17-2022 at 11:25 PM.
07-31-2022, 05:01 PM
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Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Coffs Harbour NSW, AUSTRALIA
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A brief history in 3 pics of my 23 YO "Tiger" that can occasionally bite, but still going.
The year was 2K, hitting front page of RCT, 400 page monthly!
Bugger of the job, broken crank shaf during service removal!
2022, still going with 470 + flights in the log book.
The year was 2K, hitting front page of RCT, 400 page monthly!
Bugger of the job, broken crank shaf during service removal!
2022, still going with 470 + flights in the log book.
