Quarter Scale RC Spitfire Crosses The English Channel

Thanet Life: Cross Channel Visitor:


Working from a public wi-fi at my local Hastings bookshop, I had some problems loading up this interesting news article about model radio control airplanes I found.  It featured a 1/4 scale Flying Legends Spitfire.  Quoting a post found on RCU:  Mike Booth was the pilot. This has been done before, but Mike was the first person to actual control the model from start up, in Calais, to shut down at Manston, Kent. end quote.

Neil Hutch flew with Simon Moores in a Cessna 172 and Mike and Stweart Clifford flew the Spitfire from a Eurostar light general aviation aircraft.  That Eurostar pilot was Chris Trow.

Mr. Moores's blog has a YouTube link to the video of the cross channel flight.  What I loved about this is story is that this is something I would loved to have taken part in here in Texas.

When I joined Wings Miniature Aircraft Society back in 1997/1998, one of the stories that the old hands told me about was the RC cross country flying they used to do.  The pilot would sit in the back of a pickup truck and spotter/pit crew would ride in back with pilot.  Driver also has a spotter riding shotgun to help with the spotting duties.

In 15 years, I've never had the chance to do something like this!  I can only hope it can still be done as long as we stay away from active airports while doing the cross country flight.  Also, that the Department of Homeland Security doesn't say no also.


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Ref.
1. birchington.blogspot.co.uk. "Cross Channel Visitor" by Simon Moores. May 4, 2012.  (http://birchington.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/cross-channel-visitor.html). images from this blog.
2. RCUniverse forum posting. "Model Spitfire Crosses English Channel" by Neil Hutch. May 7, 2012. (http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_11071178/tm.htm).

Friends 1978 Triumph Spitfire Project

My friend Ricky Taylor always come across these great vehicle deals. It was through him that I manage to get a 2001 Jeep Cherokee Sport. He drives around Lubbock in his (now yellow) 1985 Mercedes-Benz 500SL.

Today, he collected his latest project car - a 1978 Triumph Spitfire 1500. That's him posing next to the car while it is still in the trailer in front of his garage. His plans for this is to repaint it British racing green and to convert it over to electric power after finding a YouTube link. And all of us got to get our picture taken with us behind the steering wheel. Ricky Taylor, Tucker Mack, and myself (see top picture).

Some specifications for the Spitfire. Length - 83 inches, width - 57 inches. Height is 48 inches and has a curb weight of 1,568 pounds. The typical engine for this car was a 1,493 cc displacement motor is missing from this particular vehicle. The sportscar was designed by Giovanni Michelotti. The manufacturer was the Triumph Motor Company (also known as Leyland Motors).

Ricky had several Spitfires back in the past. As for me, I kinda like the Triumph TR 7/8. As well as Mercedes-Benz convertibles.

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Ref.

1. Wikipedia. Triumph Spitfire (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_Spitfire).

2. Left Coast Conversions ( www.leftcoastconversions.com )

eRC B-25J Mitchell Bomber Model Airplane

This is a amazing kit. Receiver ready basically. All I have to do as glue the wings on and program

my radio. Well... there is more to do than just that of course.

I finally got it out of "lay-a-away" from my local hobby ship on December 31, 2010. While only $300 bucks, paying a little bit at a time and then when a emerengy comes up, having to put off a payment for a month or two. Well, buying the model took longer than I thought it would back when I first started paying money down on it back in May of 2010.

But anyho... Today was a fine day and since I now have a "workshop" over at my friend's place, I finally had time to look this model over and start to put it together.

I other previous experience with eRC came in the form of the Ready to Fly (RTF) Spitfire. But the B-25J that I am now working on is from a different company - but Hobby Lobby markets this product under its' eRC brand. Made out of EPO foam, its fuselage length is 41 inches. Wingspan is 53.25 inches giving a wing area of 356 square inches. Five channels are needed (Alieron, Elevator, Rudder, Retracts, Throttle). It even has working navigation lights.

Now, my model comes with the 20 Amp speed control. The newer kits come with the 30 Amp ESC. The bomber is done up as the "Apache Princess." The real B-25 did not have counter-rotating 3-blade props - but this kit is set up for that to make it more stabe for brand new multi-engine flyers. Power is provided by the 3-cell 2200 mAh LiPo battery. The kit even comes with its own charger.

To guide this model through the air, I now have a JR 10sxII transmitter (a older version of the 10X transmitter to be sure). Its going to be on 72Mhz for right now. Someday I hope I can afford the 2.4GHz module that can connect to this readio.

On the day that I am writing this post, I managed to shoe-horm all the wiring from each wing into the fuselage and glue the wings in place. My biggest complaint thus far on this model is HOW the wings mate to the fuselage.

It would have been nice if this model had also been designed to include a working bomb bay. Because then it would have been easier to get both wire sets from each wing and to organize them better than the small foam hatch on the bottom of the fuse ahead of the bomb bay.

In the process of this build, I am planning on getting a camera for FPV video taking some time in the future. So my thinking is to make the glass nose removable and putting the camera in there when ready.

And if this model can survive my first test flights of it, then I will have something to fly with at our local club's 2011 Warbird event later this year.

UPDATE (March 23, 2011): Its all put together now. Just need a few odds and ends like making the front bombardier nose removable to allow me to stick a small FPV camera up front if I ever get one of those key chain video cameras. Anyway, here is a picture of it up on its landing gear sitting on th dirt runway of the Lubbock Oddball RC Society (LORCS).

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Ref. Hobby Lobby website (http://www.hobby-lobby.com/b25_apache_princess.htm). pictures taken from same source.

e RC Spitfire

This is so cool. And so affordable, that I have actually made a down payment with my LHS (Local Hobby Shop) for the Spitfire. e RC also makes a P-51D Mustang in the same scale. They also have a B-25 and a Electric Duct Fan (German markings) Typhoon jet model. All can be purchased from Hobby-Lobby.

Just watch the video. This may well be my first baby steps BACK into the hobby. This part of the hobby is known as Micro RTF (Ready-to-Fly).

Edit: Ok, the stupid size of the video frame issue again! Ok, just click on the stupid thing and watch it on YouTube directly.

UPDATE 1 (June 2, 2010): Finally received my eRC Spitfire yesterday. Had a thunderstorm in the evening so unable to make any test flights then. Did charge up the two batteries that were included in the package.

This morning, braced with the warnings of my friend Henry, I quote: Be careful – with the elliptical wing, it will snap roll pretty easily. Take-offs are cute – it will roll about 8ft. and then jump into the air. Landings are not so easy – you’ll need to keep a little power on or else it will fall out of the sky. My problem is that the speed control doesn’t seem to be very linear, and intermediate throttle positions with the inherent flight characteristics (read snap roll tendencies) are difficult to maintain. end quote.

I can confirm the need for a little speed for landing. I made my test hops without the landing gear. By the way, there is no mention in the instruction manual on how to stick them onto the model. I didn't have any foam safe CA glue at hand and I didn't want to risk regular CA (i.e. Super Glue for you non-modelers out there). First three flights lasted about 3-4 minutes while trying to trim the little Spitfire out. It still behaves like it is tail heavy. Before the sixth test hop, I took an X-Acto knife and trim the battery compartment a little to allow the battery to sit slightly forward than what the model allows. It flew a little better. It might fly better once the landing gear is glued onto the wing-this is one of those have to wait and see experiments. If you try to do the same thing yourself, don't take too big a piece of foam out-that will get you into the drop down gearbox for the prop. I got a part of it-but not too bad. No more than 2-3 mm at the most.

The Sixth flight started off ok, it was beginning to fly more level and not pogo on me too much, but then it seem to lose radio signal strength, so I throttle back and tried to glide it back to my position. It landed in my neighbor's back pasture. No problem since we don't have a fence there. This may be due to the fact of charging the batteries the night before and the earlier test hops plus one other battery charging cycle. Those (4) AA batteries are just standard ones from what I can see that come with the model. I will have to buy another package of Double A batteries for this weekend to see if that is the real cause or not. I also think that since I was using the indoor prop and not the outdoor prop-another reason why my particular bird might be tail heavy-that might be another factor in the tail heaviness of my Spitfire that I witness today.

Knowing these things now, I still like this little beauty. Had a beautiful morning, light winds so I could do my testing before 9am. Then I had to get ready for work. But I can keep the model in its original box and store it in the rear cab of my pickup truck for fun whenever.