hawk elevators

Hi all, sorry about the long delay between posts, very busy at work at the moment, however you will be glad to here that I have managed to get things moving on the hawk, little things may I add, arrived at the jet man's work shop, i.e. my good friend Ian, and forgot to bring most of the items I needed to install the elevators, 'Lucky my head is screwed on'.

To install the two elevators is a simple process, place the plastic washers onto the elevator rods and push into the holes pre-drilled. Next add the control hornes, a metal block with two screws preinstalled for holding the control horns on. Sounds simple to do, but it was not, remember I had concerns about these fittings when I first looked at them, well first, only a person with a small hand can get at the fittings when installed, next you have to secure the two control horns onto the elevators rods by tightening the self tappers, problem here is that you can not get proper access to the horns to do this. I have decided to use another method, used on the other hawks, replace the 4 self tappers with nuts and bolts (M3) should work, you can tighten these quickly and insure a more secure fitting of the parts, (if the elevator goes it's curtains, better to be safe than sorry, I say), so with the next post, I will show the fittings installed and with luck the servos in place.

I have included with todays post a few photos of Ian's workshop, a modellers paradise, and 'yes that is a B17 in the background' also the jet boys, i.e Ian, Peter, Chris and Stanley(the worlds greatest saftely officer), just had to share with you all, their latest box of modelling goodies.

Well thats it for now, off to a model auction tonight to see if I can pick up a few bargains, happy landings.

Dungannon flyin 2007

Hi fellow jet jockeys, well what a weekend, wind, rain and bloody cold, so much for a late summer as forcast by the weather gods. Our flyin at my local club went on as planned, many model pilots arrived, however many of the full size aircraft could not land due to a strong cross wind at the field. The weather also grounded many of the jet aircraft, i.e. the hawks, however the boomerang pilots put on a good display, talks guys, great model to fly. We had a great display from some of the large models, see photos, thanks to simon, matthew and sean, great flying even landed the models at their feet. Tea and coffee supplied by two wonderful ladies Karen and Mrs Miller, funny when I took over, the demand for food disappeared, I am not that bad a cook, am I???. The electric models got an outing also, and guess who crashed and burned? mmm me, to a cheer from the crowd, the foam F14 snapped in two, back to the workshop for this model, by the way, if you want to have some craic, get one of these foam jets from Robot Birds, we put on a dog fight for the crowd, great fun at around £25 each, you can't go wrong.

Well what about the Fie Bao Hawk, I here you say? yes I know, will I ever get back to building?, you will be glad to hear that some more servos for the hawk have arrived, (two 25kg digi ) these will be for the elevators, I did have a quick look at the set up for the elevators, excess to this section of the model is limited, I can see a few problems developing, however I will get some pics for you of the setup and tell you how I get on with the next post, 'fingers crossed'.

By the way one last note, remember I told you that there was no instructions with this jet, a total pain in the rear end!!, well a friend gave a me copy of the skymaster hawk instructions, not the same, but very close, better than nothing I say. O.K. thats its for now happy landings.

2007 jet Masters teams

Hi all, just posting a few photos today of the jet masters 2007. I see from the traffic reports for my blogg that many from around the world are logging on, great stuff keep it coming, hopefully some of you flew at the masters, therefore I have posted a few more pics of the masters, that I took of the teams. By the way, more great news, another fei Bao hawk is on the drawing board, a friend is about to part with loads of cash, poor man life will never be the same again.

Also check out the photos of the thrust nozzles on this mig, then do work, more later, happy landings.

Inside the Fei Bao Hawk

Hi all, quick post today, getting ready for our flyin this weekend. I took a few photos of the inside of the red arrow Fio Bao hawk, sorry about the quality of the pics, still leaning to use my new canon. I hope to get back to my own hawk next week,( fingers crossed), also I will post a few photos from our flyin, happy landings.

Fei Bao Hawks on display at Portrush airshow

Hi all, no building this weekend, spent both days at the Portrush airshow, displaying various models to the public. This is a great airshow, which takes place over the seafront at Portrush, a local seaside town here in Northern Ireland. The event manager, provided us with a large display area for the models and also another area for starting the engines. Members of the Northern Ireland masters Jet team and local club members, displayed various models from wwII, model jets, helicopters and foam models. We placed the three Fei Bao hawks together on the display line, ( many oohs & aaa), then we started the turbines on the Goshawk(Jetcat 160) and the Red Arrows hawk (Jetcat 120Se) together, wow!! what a noise, two turbines at the same time, the crowd loved it, even the cars stopped on the road beside the display area to have a look. Next weekend we will do it all again, with a flyin at my local club's field (Dungannon), a great day out for all rc pilots, almost 300 last year, pilots and visitors, not bad for a small club.

Well that's about it for now! I will have to get back to the building soon, the need for speed is growing, by the way one last note, the big model of concorde in the photos, woooooow! I hear you say, well this belongs to a friend, so I will keep you also updated on this build, because I will be helping Ian ( the jet man)to build this monster, can't wait!!.

Started building the Fei Bao Hawk

Had a great weekend at our local lake, flying off the water. I had three flights with a Seamaster, however the other float plane, a Tiger Moth, had to be grounded due to the high winds in the afternoon, pity, looks great in the air, even better on the water. (check out the pic )

Now onto more important news, I have finally started building the Fei Bao hawk and came up against my first major problem, (the damm workshop i.e. the garden shed), is to small, lesson number one, only buy models that fit into your car and also your workshop. My good friend Ian Rodd (Mr jet man) to the rescue, Ian's workshop is large, very large, e.g. I hear that the RAF Red Arrows practice there, on windy days!!! so all parts into the car and 40 mins later, with the hawk sitting on the stand I was ready to get struck in, (sorry Irish speak again).

I decided to start with the wings, so with a little epoxy I carefully installed the flaps and ailerons. No real problems here except, that the holds pre drilled for the hinges, must have done by a drunken person riding a donkey,way to big and not even round, however with a couple of wooden spars, the hinges where in and secure. Thats all for now, check back later.

Model jet crashes jet masters 2007

I will start building the hawk soon, I need to get a few more items, however, as promised, here are a few more photos from the Jet Masters 2007. As you can see, even the best of the best can get it wrong somtimes.