Wings & Wheels 2009

Well back again, never seem to get the time to update this blog, I always have something to do for everyone else ahhhhhhh!!!. Any how, I managed to get to the Wings and Wheels show in England recently. The day started at 3.00am, a quick drive to Ian robb's house and onto the airport with the rest of the guys. We arrived at the show around 9.30am and even at that time the trade stalls and show line were getting busy. As with most of the shows we attend, everyone gets side tracked at one particular trade stand and the party breaks up each person going their own way. I got caught up in the BRC Hobbies stand, talking to my old pal Scott, this guy is one of the best EDF pilots in the U.K. and a wealth of knowledge, no trip is complete with out a chat with this guy. The trade this year was very good with a good mixture of i.c. and electric models and spares on show. The bring and buy sale held every year was fantastic, if you want a bargain, this is the place to buy, jets,scale, boats, helis, everything, all at great prices.

In the afternoon we all met up at, where else, 'the beer tent' to show off the bargains obtained that morning. One of the best deals came from Al's Hobbies, we purchased a number of 2.4G mods for J.R. with ar9000 receivers for less than £110, all supplied by Ali No2 the boss!, who loves a good laugh and a bit of craic as we say in Ireland, thanks Ali, your one off price, paid for my air ticket over to the show.

The flying this year was very good, compared to previous years. The star of the show was of course young Ali of Al's Hobbies with his twin turbine A10 warthog and his thrust vectoring Euro fighter, wow!! a jet hovering a foot of the ground and flipping over in the air, shit hot!!

This years show was the best yet and hopefully I will get back next year. By the way I nearly forgot, according to easy Jet, it was my big '50th birthday' on the way back to belfast, and yes the flight crew made this clear to everyone on the plane!! for the record I am 47 not 50 and still have my own teeth!! 'Peter and Chris'.

Well thats it for now, Happy landings.

The B52 has wings

Hi folks quick post today, well the B52 is coming along nicely I have cut out the wing panels, which will break down into three sections for transport.The wing cord is the classic Clarke Y section with a taper to the tip of the wing, also with a little wash out at the trailing edge of the wing tip.The next step, will be to strengthen the wings with wooden wing spars and design the wing panel joining system.I will post a few photos when this task is finished, well thats it for now!
Happy Landings.

Jets over Letterkenny

Hi all, at it again, blogging, 'what twice in one week, I here you say, what going on John?' well to be honest, a hell of a lotttt!!!. Yes to day it was the Grant Capel Memorial Fly-In at Letterkenny in the County of Donegal, and man what a great day we had! both weather and flying where perfect, ??? I mean everyone else's flying was perfect, not I ( O.K. I'll tell you, Engine cut on my F16 and I landed in a field which had been full of cows, i.e the ground was full of little holes, which does not mix well with retracts!!!). Anyhow there was some great flying from pilots such as David Nolan with his usual mind blowing 3d heli display, the Ballymoney boys, Langfordlodge lads and many other club pilots from North and South of the border.

Some of the days highlights included three large ww1 models flown by Clifford, Andrew and Robert from the Ballymoney club, honest, they looked and sounded just like the real aircraft. Harry and Peter from NIJets flew two jet turbines, low and fast down the strip and put on a great display for the large crowd.

The big F14 made it's public appearance for the first time and flew great. The pilot, Ian Robb took off and made a high right banking turn, then made a high speed pass down the runway at a slight angle to the crowd, a flick of the switch, and the wings rotated into a delta formation, another turn and she was going vertical wings back, man she looked fantastic, and the crowd gave her a big cheer as she went past.

A big thanks to Seamus and all the Letterkenny lads, for a great day. Well thats it for now, happy landings

Slopesoaring in the Mourne Mountains

Hello all! back again, this time with something different. I have got back into slope soaring this year, as stated in my last post, so a week or so ago, I met up with the Bandbridge guys in the Mourne mountains for a spot of combat on the slopes. The wind on the top of the slope was blowing around 15mph steady, just right for the models I brought along ( Phase6 & DR1000).

The lift was great, so good that Matthew Poots was able to fly rolling circles close to the slope and rolls while in the stall position. My own flying was not bad, if I say so myself, a little rusty but O.K. however my DR1000, did get hit at one point by another glider coming out of a loop,resulting in the loss off 1/3 of the port wing, but I managed to land with no more damage.

Overall a great days craic, really enjoyed the day, If you would like more info and pics from the day, goto http://www.banbridgeaeromodellingclub.org.uk/tiki-index.php.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ajpptTrH50

I have added another photo of the Big B52 under construction, the tail feather are now completed, so next I will start the wing cutting, I'll post a few pics soon. That's it for now, happy landings.

Well time again to get blogging, so as promised in the last blog, I have posted a few photos of recent models. I have been flying EDF jets over the last year due to the fact that they our cheaper than turbines' in some cases' and easy to fly. The fly fly hobbies range of 90mm edf's, new to the market last year, have been top of my list, with three jets build and two flown to date and one the mig 29 still grounded due to sh#?/ motors over heating. I still have two turbines jets in the work shop, hopefully ready to fly in the next month or so, still waiting for the ECU to come back from Jetcat turbines, 'four months now, great service Jetcat???????'.

So what else has been happening, well started back to slope soaring with the NIMSA guys. I use to slope soar a lot in the past but time and working most Sundays stop the gliding, however now with most weekends off due to a change in jobs, I decided to get back into this discipline. I build a B52 PSS (powered slope soarer), well I am still a jet nut! from the RM Green plans which I purchased at a table sale, nice flying model 78" wingspan 6lb AUW, looks great in the air, however not content with this, I have started building a larger model with a 16 Ft wingspan, I will keep you all posted on this model as it out grows my workshop building table.

Well I think I will close this post for now, going to get back into the workshop for a few more hours building, by the way I also build a new workshop, post a few pics next time. Happy landings.

For further info on gliding in Northern ireland got to http://www.nimsa.co.uk/

Modeljet blog back in action!

Well believe or not, I have decided to start blogging again, yes it has been over a year since I updated this blog and things on the jet flying front have moved on, some good and some not so good. The bad news first! well the hawk that I was building and what the blog was set up for, is no longer, Yes, I did get the model finished and flying however the model was lost during it's test flight, a flame out in the engine 'due to an air bubble' on a low pass caused the crash.

So much time, effort and money was put into this project, I was really f*#~ off !, however, after a week or so I was over the loss and back to the drawing board. At persent I am building an Elan and also I have a very nice and VERY LARGE french Rafale which I purchased second hand from the JMA website, check this wedsite out it's great(http://www.jmajets.co.uk/). Also I have been flying a few large 90mm EDF jets from the Flyfly hobbies range of models and a couple of smaller model types from other kit suppliers, I will post a few photos later.

On the website front, I now run a new Website for the Northern Ireland Jet modellers association http://www.nijets.com/ , this covers all jet flying activities in Northern ireland with sections covering many aspects of jet modelling, check it out!

Well that's about it for now, I better get back to work, break time over, I have posted a few pics of the hawk before the crash, happy landings.

GWS f15 flys

Hi all, just a few photos of the f15 inflight, also I have added a couple of other pics of the eflight 777 which Ian the jet man build in one day, and if my sources are correct, he has just added a set of retracts to the little airliner??? will it work, mmmmmm??.

Check out the pic of adam and Dave, both on sit down protest until they got their tea and biscuits, good help is hard to find these days?? happy landings.