31st May 2009

I should have done this on the day, that's why I've dated the heading.

A really superb day weather wise although the wind was a bit strong at 8 - 10mph. I took the Yak 54, Sunbeam 1, and the Ember (tempting fate) and flew them all, but the Ember was a very short flight, just up and down again during a quiet spell. That was enough, it was still too windy. I wanted to take the Picojet, unfortunately one of the magnets had displaced itself and It was difficult to get it back in place. Also the bearing had come out of the rear cover so I had to glue it back in again. I think that's poor design. I don't think I'll buy another out runner motor.

A minor accident occurred today, a Club member had landed an electric biplane safely and parked it in the pits. No problem so far, and then picked up his electric glider, and after changing models on the transmitter proceeded to launch the glider having not done the full pre-flight checks. Once the glider was launched, he then switched on the motor, which also switched on the motor on the biplane he'd been flying earlier! It moved forward and hit him in the legs, and whilst looking down to see what had happened, the glider nosedived onto the tarmac. Fortunately there was no injury caused but the glider didn't get away with it so lightly. What he didn't do was disconnect the battery in the biplane before launching the glider, both aircraft being on the same frequency. We live and learn... or do we?

I took some photos of Malcolms Magnatilla to record the how he fitted his four stroke engine. This will be useful information for when I build my Legionaire. The aircraft has a very short nose and its a bit of a tight squeeze getting it in there.

Malcolm says the OS 70fs is way overpowered

Firewall cut away to accommodate carburettor

All pictures shown with rather nice aluminium cowl removed.

That's all for now folks.