The Fei Bao hawk

The new Fei Bao hawk is here! the build can begin. A very big box arrived today from Digitech Turbines, with my new Bae systems hawk. A quick inspection of the parts, everything on the list except the turbine pipe, however a quick call to Digitech and one pipe on its way, great service guys, thanks. 15 mins out of the box and woooow! one great looking model, so thats it for now I am going to a flyin and I will have to get sorted. By the way, no plans or instructions with this model, should be an interesting project????

Jet Masters 2007

Here are a few more photos from the Jet masters, 'more, more I hear you cry', keep posted and I,ll try to upload a few more later.

Thunder in the skies

The world Jet masters, this is where you meet the best of the best of jet model pilots, 29 countries, over 90 jet models, all under one roof. I managed to talk my way onto the Northern Ireland team, a great group of guys, a great competition, 10 days of jets, food, great craic, drink, more drink, even more drink, ' was it 10 days, mmm! lost count of the days, or was that the drinks.

Back to the drawing board

'Another bin bag job' I here you cry, however not this time, this model f16 or whats left of it, belongs to a fellow club flyer, who decided to push the envelope of speed a little to far, a 120 piped engine at full revs, the f16 blew up in mid air. We flew two f16s in formation, one upside down the other right side up, just like the real Thunderbirds display team down our runway at full revs, one pilot landed, the other crashed and burned. Need to rethink about a turbine jet ??????. O.K. thinking over I still want one, next step 'lets see whats out there?' and the best place for this, lucky for me, the 2007 Jet World Masters, taking place right here in good old rainy Northern Ireland.

up,up and away

The next step in the race to space was the purchase of a great planes F4, 'man this was sweeeeeet!!, fast and steady as a rock in the air, 'oh' the flying was improving also, no fences,cows or tractors hit this time only my wifes patio chairs during an engine run up in the back garden. The next jet creation came from cermark, the F16, man this was even more sweeeet! and f*!# / fantastic to fly, heads where turning at the club when this baby flew, a great prop jet and fast. The need for speed was now even greater than ever, the next step ' a turbine jet', the smell of jet fuel in the morning and the roar of a jet engine setting off all the car alarms around my house ahhh! better than sex!

The quest for speed has begun

The quest for speed had begun, or a better quote would be 'the era of the black bin bag had started'. With the help of a friend I became a member of the Dungannon model flying club, and leaned to fly a basic trainer model, however 3 months and 3 bin bags later, the standard issue for any up and coming top gun pilot, the thick plastic bags are best, keeps the 1000s or so parts of the crashed model togather, easy to burn or hide from the wife. So I was now flying on my own, full of confidence and very light in the wallet, I decide to sell the wife, sorry I mean my most treasured processions, hi fi, boat, bike, however the first idea might work? mmmmmm.
I flew 6 or 7 different models until I purchased my first jet type model, a great planes F15, wow what a model, well designed to take a couple of knocks ( Irish speak) or in my case a lot of knocks- 5 fences, 3 trees, 1 model plane, stood on it twice, and ??? yes I managed to hit a tractor in a farm yard and also a bull, he was a bit upset, I had to drive home with the car windows open that day due to the f15's new colour scheme.

My first turbine model jet.

Let me first introduce myself, my name is John, a 45 year old big kid at heart, and like many a person, watched Top Gun the movie released around 1984 and was hooked on jets ever since-' I feel the need the need for speed', therefore, how do I become a Tom Cruise of the skies?, well being small, over weight or some might say under tall and with the I.Q. of a jam donut, no airforce was going to give me a 50million dollar F14. After many hours of hard debate and a life long promise to her indoors ( the wife) to do every D.I.Y job she ever asked for (now were did I put that set of paint brushes?) I took up a new hobby of flying radio controlled model aircraft.