This popular event is rapidly producing some excellent models from the membership. To prove it, here is Ken Spokes Catalina, 82” span from the Ivan Pettigrew plan. It has retracting tip floats and a fully-sheeted hull/fuselage. The wing is fixed to its pylon, which detaches from the hull for transport with the usual peg/bolt system.

And no, it’s not a PSS, the motors have yet to arrive.

Another look look at Ken’s Catalina. The struts are “properly” fixed and add a lot of strength to the pylon. The finished plane will only weigh about 5 lb, and with 8 ft of wing, that’s not many oz/ft. The blunt nose is true to scale and I believe the engine cowls come from Boots the Chemist!

New member Gonzales Garcia-Atance brought his RTF Mustang with Spektrum 2.4 Micro gear, 1-cell Lipo and 8.5mm brushed motor. The model weighs only 34 grams which he kindly converted to 1.2 oz for us Brits. His project is to put this gear into a Guillows all balsa Spitfire (like the 18” KK kit, but 13” span) and make it to the same weight limit. The balsa looked a bit “old English heavy oak” to me, but best of luck!

Not all models were complex, but most were modified in some way. This Multiplex chuck glider by Adam Reay was given R/E radio. Looking at similar conversions on the web, A/E seems more usual, but I was told that a small brushlessmotor is about to be fitted to the nose to further improve its flying characteristics. And its speed!

The Chairman’s autogyro has been a difficult build because of inconsistencies in plan and materials, but has done a test hover at Barton-on-Sea, when the rotor flew off on its own!

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Andrew Tubb brought his 30” span SE5, built from the Silent Flight plan of a few years ago. He has added ailerons which will improve the roll rate no end. I particularly like the realistic exhaust stack which it turns out was simply printed on paper and glued on the side, exactly as advised on the plan.

Some struts Andrew?

The Ed’s 58” span Shoestring is a semi-scale, 1/4 scale (!) Goodyear racer from America, contemporary with the Midget Mustang and built in the late 1940s. He needed something to do some flying training with and not worry about the scale detail. It’s another Pettigrew plan.

Tim Calvert has been busy for some time, and lately. His 62” span Guppy below (free RC Groups plan) is beautifully presented with Tim’s trademark decoration and exquisit detail. It has a 140W motor and will fly at about a lb AUW.

The Fizza is a Nigel Hawes design via RCME and was started in 2004 but has been in store for “a while.” It’s 36” span, 17 oz AUW and will fly with a Typhoon 6 outrunner. Note again the highly individual art work and the excellent finish.

And finally, Terry Sullivan brought along his ARTF mX2, a very cleverly designed foamie where the wing and tail groups can be detached—I guess it will fit back into its box for travel

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