RC Model aircraft

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

My RC model aircraft activity started about 1985 at Ashton Model Shop

What a lovely shop?……..Managed by a super model maker and close friend……Charlie Jackson……Bless him!

You may have heard of his son……….World Champion, One metre class Barry Jackson?

I tried to find a photo of his shop, but no success

The shop had a partner……..Lawrie Cullen……Another super modeller and flyer, He was a great friend and a fellow member of Ashton club and the Woodford club

Sadly, Charlie and Laurie are gone but not forgotten

As I write this, memories and faces are flooding back of a very enjoyable period in the distant past

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Happy days

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Fast forward a few years……..About ten years in fact!

Having spent a lifetime in the hot and cold of the damp draughty garage, No1 Son got married and a warm workshop was born!

What a luxury!

Here is one of the early moving in days…..

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Scratch built Piper Pawnee……..105" span

Powered by a 20cc Saito 4 stroke twin

This model was a crop duster and was fitted with a Talc box and Venturi nozzle to dust down the club members!

Great fun of course

The flying field in the photo, was in Macclesfield, having been evicted from Ashton, where we had been since before the war!

It was too far to travel and the club folded, but luckily, emerged from the ashes, some time later

Time for a new hobby, boys……..Model boats of course

Capt Bob….433 Sqd

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

About the same time, our Daughter ran away to Austria for a holiday……And came back married!

Wow!……..Think of the money we`ve saved!

So now, I`ve got yet another workroom!

In the picture, we see a genuine Van Gough reproduction!……..Dr Gache and also the Cypress trees!

Also, a Cambria Fun Fighter Spitfire in the embryo stage and a RTP rubber powered Pitts Special

The silver stunter is a classic C/L Thunderbolt with a difference!……More on that later!

These were carefree days!

Capt Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

This was a nice flyer

Fokker Triplane…….DR1

But it was so delicate, it would have been a nightmare to repair………So I sold it while it was in one piece!

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

I had this lovely model for about four years, before a faulty battery ended it`s jolly life on a hard railway line!

The Art Chester Jeep….Scratch built…..40 4str

Very docile flyer and so unusual

On the start up photo, we see the two Clabby brothers and dear old Jack Arden

Bob

[Dave MilbournParticipant @davemilbourn48782]

Always loved the Chester Jeep. Never got round to building one. My all-time favourite model aeroplane (apart from my own designs….) was Ed Kazmirski's 'Orion'; I finally got to build one for Dave Heaton, who ran Super Models of Derby during the 70's. I wish I'd kept a photo of it.

Dave M

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Thank you for your interest, Dave

The Chester Jeep was nice to fly and never had a mishap, until it came to a sticky end

It had a symmetrical wing in the plan view, front view and wing section……..Was it a racer type?

We had great fun glider towing with the Big Piper Cub and aerial photography from a Junior 60

Slope soaring was good fun too at Moel Famau and Charlesworth

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

This model is a Slingsby Tandem Tutor

Had an Action Man for the pilot and dive brakes, which were great fun for flopping out of the sky on landing

That`s the great Laurie Cullen at the controls

It had a short life, being left in the garage one night, the wings filled up with water during a thunder storm!

Nice flyer but no good for slope soaring, being too heavy

Bob

[Tony HadleyParticipant @tonyhadley]

Thanks for showing the photographs, Bob. Must say I like your Fokker Triplane. Do you think you did the right thing in selling it before it suffered any damage? Did the new owner have a lot of enjoyment, or didn't you hear about the model after the sale?

Model aircraft was never something I had a great deal of success with, my control line aircraft had to be taken home in bits after the second flight and my balsa and tissue jetex powered model didn't crash but just seemed to hold the same position in the air without making headway. Never bothered afterwards, built model boats, one of my early ones was an own design airscrew which used the glow engine from the c/l model.

With modern technology, a flight on RC Airsim on Xbox (or a windows phone) is great fun. No worries about crashing too.

Looking on the internet now model aircraft really seem to have gone RTF in a big way, a virtually indestructible electric flight trainer can be bought at a very reasonable cost.

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Hello Tony

I`m pleased you like the aircraft stuff

If I were to go flying again, I fancy an electric Junior 60……Or a Piper Cub, as these are nice stable flyers

The Triplane got sold on!…..Don`t blame him either!

The next post will be just up your street!……..Control Line with a difference

Don`t go away!

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Last but not least…..An unusual experiment!

We were on the verge of losing our flying field…..With nowhere for us to go!

There were plenty of small fields around for Control Line, but we were RC Flyers

I came up with the idea of……..Control Liners controlled by RC!

Control line always made me dizzy anyway, so to control a C/L model from outside the circle seemed a good idea?

I built a quality classic stunter……..A Thunderbolt out of the plans catalogue with an Rc in the fuz to control the Engine, Flaps and Elevators

The circle had a sturdy pylon with rotating drum. The pylon was pegged to the floor

More…….Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Normally I used to get Laurie Cullen to do the test flying, but at the time, he was busy

So we got the engine fired up and I just taxied round the pylon on ground, till Laurie was available

Without realising it, the model took off!

Round and round it went, at a constant height……..Lovely and nice to watch

Tried a few high speed runs and timid Wingovers, throttle back and landed…..Amidst an outburst of applause!

Bob and Laurie

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Setting up was most hilarious and everybody got involved!

Laurie soon got the hang of it and did a few loops and wing overs etc

But then Laurie forgot the Golden Rule of only doing stunts downwind!

He tried a loop on the slack side of the wire and on 40ft lines the model came into the circle area and……crunch!

The model was repaired but the idea didn`t catch on

The full story appeared in RCMA Magazine, when Graham Ashby was the Editor…..About 1993

Oh dear! I`ve just remembered…….The first model was a Kielkraft Phantom and survived the test flights quite happily

The idea was taken up after publication by a chap from down south……..Hello Mr Baldock!

About three years ago, a chap phoned me for info as he`d bought the model and stand on Ebay!

I still think it was a good idea and would surely stand and stare, if I saw one today

Bob

[Tony HadleyParticipant @tonyhadley]

A very interesting experiment, but as is usual with most things to do with model aircraft, they only have a limited life span of things going right before they come down to earth with a costly and time consuming repair.

Meant to say earlier, my airscrew model boat didn't have any more success than the aircraft, it flipped over in the middle of the lake on the third run. If they ever drain that lodge, I will try and get my engine back. That brings back further memories, the lodge was one of many which belonged to a bleaching mill, when the mill was demolished in the 1960's all the lodges were filled in – except the one with my airscrew driven boat in the middle, they built bungalows and houses around.

Thanks for showing and telling.

[david buckley 1Participant @davidbuckley1]

Hi Bob I joined Ashton model club in 1977 & have fond memories of flying on the Richmond St site with Laurie & Charlie I was there at the time you did the RC control line thing that's me in the next to bottom photo messing with something around the engine. I left the club in 1988 when I moved house to Worsley but I am still a very active flyer at Tyldesely model flying club I fly most weekends everything from IC electric helicopters quads etc.

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Hello David

I know your face obviously, but can't recall ever talking to you……..Memory not so good these days

Can you post a few old pictures, to bring back a few memories, please?

However did you find my thread?

The club wound up about 1995 and the remnants reformed the club in Stockport, somewhere near Bredbury Hall

They were happy days, but spoilt by the constant aggro with the Council and disgruntled neighbours

All the best

Bob

[Ralph PinchParticipant @ralphpinch41762]

Hi Bob,

very interesting topic, have always held a yearning to build a model aircraft but I'm not very cordinated and would certainty destroy it first time out………….it's not the flying but the way you land lol.

Ralph.

Edited By Ralph Pinch on 17/06/2015 09:17:12

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Hello Ralph

The problem with model aircraft is the lack of suitable fields

Plus the noise nuisance that annoys the neighbours………We had years of this and came to blows on several occasions

Plus the club renegades who won`t behave themselves……….We has a pair of Hooligans who swooped and dived on a complaining member of the public………..He turned out to be a Police Inspector!

So we were evicted in 1992`ish………….Having used the same field since 1938!

I used to enjoy Slope Soaring at Charlesworth…….Till one of our resident tough guys thumped the Farmer at Lambing time!

I didn`t realise at the time, that I`d joined a Boxing Club!……lol

So I later became a model boat enthusiast for a quiet life!

Bob

[Ralph PinchParticipant @ralphpinch41762]

Hi Bob, your last post reads like a sketch from the Young ones lol, coming to blows, renegades, hooligans, Police inspectors and evictions…………..what a bunch………….but bet it was good fun really, I live at the top of a rather large hill with fields not fifty yards away.

Might get myself one of these training gliders to play about with.

Hell this is a model boat forum……….. but I like the way it can diverse at times.

Ralph.

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Hello Ralph

You are very lucky to have such a desirable flying site

Slope soaring is very pleasant……No noise and if the wind is blowing uphill…….You can stay up all day!

Have a trip out to Moel Famau near Loggerheads…….When the PSS event is on……..You will be very impressed

Bob

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Just had an idea!

I've found the website for the RCMA magazine and will try and retrieve my published article

This should be fun!

Bob

[Ralph PinchParticipant @ralphpinch41762]

Yes Bob, there is one field that must be 1/4 mile wide and long, runs down hill facing the Dee estuary, into the prevailing wind, no more than 5mins walk from the door.

[Bob Abell 2Participant @bobabell2]

Ralph

The field sounds ideal

There was a PSS rally, last week on Great Orme……Llandudno

Sods Law!

Bob

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