Love that sepia tint picture. Evocative. Waiting eagerly for the video and more pictures

Lift Off!!

I've been thinking about this day for a while now.  I ran the engine during the week and that's was fine.

No excuses now with Anwar and Jamal on hand to help, we fire up the Saito 91FS which starts first time,  small tweak to the needle, grab the camera whilst Jamal is holding her.  Point the plane into the wind, open the throttle, tracking straight, I can tell immediately I am going to need all of the Saito's power to get her off, tail up, ease the elevator back, the moment of truth, will she twitch, roll, dip... none of it, nice and stable, wings level climbing away.  Few click of up trim on the elevator and she's flying well. Few circuits for the camera and steady my nerves, feels very very satisfying.

Time to land, nice wide approach, she is not a floater that's for sure, but solid, can I keep the nose from tipping on touch down, will the home made undercarriage work?  Down fairly solidly tail settles and stays put and she rolls to a stop.

The plane was a pleasure to fly and over the next few weeks as I get used to her I will enjoy her even more.

JOB DONE!

My thanks to Anwar and Jamal for their help, support and encouragement and to EVERYBODY for their kind comments during this build. I hope you enjoyed it and took something from it. Now I can relax a bit, I go back to what I said at the beginning - just have fun !

Over and out!!

Mike yes, Job done! Congratulations
But then you need to get cracking on that 72" Spit from Mr. Nijhuis stable. I am sure you would do a build thread here. I  have been eyeing the short kit (with mouldings) for some time now ever since I got my copy of free plan with RCM&E 

Mike - We are waiting for the "heads to turn" at the sight of the pilot... hope Youtube is busy processing your video

Funny you should mention that:




hot off the press! Haven't even looked at it on youtube myself yet! 

Thanks for posting these... Still photos can never do complete justice to something like this

And for the effort of getting those lines on all the ribs !  You must be the most patient man on earth !

And like our Qatari friend aptly put it, part of the kudos go to your "government" too ! ("Which government ?" someone asks...  "HOME government !" says the Qatari friend )

Quote from: anwar on November 12, 2010, 05:47:27 PM
And like our Qatari friend aptly put it, part of the kudos go to your "government" too ! ("Which government ?" someone asks...  "HOME government !" says the Qatari friend )

Anwar,
Your Qatari friend very aptly put it. All of us owe it to them. 

the pilot in that plane is just awesome 

Ahhh! Lovely video's. The take off was very stately and the climbout very scale (like a period fighter).
But I must say that shiny metal piece at the cowl stands out like a sore thumb amongst all that nice looking open rocker arms.
Maybe taking off those rocker covers would give a better look (but then do not know how bad would be sand and dirt ingestion there) 

What to do!!

Here's a flyby shot.

I did wish for better camera equipment at one point... sad thing is that we did not carry to the field what we already had

But there will be better days ahead, after inter-wing struts are in place etc.

Mike the model looks splendid. You have put in so much of effort and it had resulted in a priceless piece of work. Brilliant build mate

Mike, please post pictures of the small scale add-ons you have done recently

More Add-ons  Already its EXTREME scale modeling. Mike  

Not according to Mike.  He says he has been to a few scale competitions as a spectator, and he said he would get less than 200 points out of 1000 for this one, while some champion scale builders would score close to 980 !

Yes Anwar that is right. While Mike's work is good the model he has built and the details added though consuming lot of time and require painstaking efforts are not what would be required to compete for a trophy at FAI sanctioned scale event.
To begin with the plan is not scale, it is sports scale. Most of Gordon Whiteheads plan are in sport scale category where he specializes in good flying and close resembelancne to the subject being modelled rather than scale fidelity. His models are good everyday flying model, unlike the 1000 hr pure scale job which get flown mostly at comps. 
This does not belittle Mike's effort in any way and his skills are far above most of us here on the forum or many who would be at any flying field.
He has done a great job on a great design

Apologies for not replying to Anwars request for some detail photos. I have just finished adding the two underwing fuel tanks and piping and cross strut braces. I also changed the windscreen as I wasn't happy. I did say that one thing about this type of building was you could add bits and peices at your leisure. Anyhow I think that's it.  It flies great, I actually started aerobatics last time out and I love to just "gloat" over it. Can't be bad!!

In the photos you can see the nav lights, made from balsa and litho sheet. The strut bracing, this is from stainless steel fishing wire, swivels, brass tube and m2 nuts and bolts, fully adjustable. The tailplane bracing is not functional. The new windscreen is from cardboard and clear plastic, my "new" method for windcsreens!

The pitot tube on the front strut is brass tube and piano wire. The small prop on the leading edge of this wing is balsa and screams when flying. I understand the Stuka dive bombers had these little props that use to make a real loud screaming noise when in a dive and terrify people on the ground. You can see why.

Mike - missed you at the field today !

Please put in some details on what you did to "weather" this model.

awesome mikey, reminded me Albert Ball, Mick Mannock and the aces hay days, thanks to RC can re-live those now. did i say ? gr8 build.

As noted in another thread, Mike has moved back to the UK.  He did mention he will be in touch on RC India.

Hello

As Anwar has stated I am now in the UK back from the warmer climes of Doha.

After waiting for a couple of months to get my gear I have now joined a club and thought you would be interested to see the environment and landing strips - somewhat different to Doha and I have certainly had to tighten up my landing approach skills!

I put this video not to show the plane (my trusty extra wot) but the strips and surrounding areas. so forgive the poor coverage of the flying!!

The grass strips are lovely but not too kind on retracts, for those who followed the build of my Gloster Gamecock I wouldn't fly this plane from these strips as the landing would be too tricky with the spongy grass. I have flow my Tiger Moth from here and as usual looked lovely and was pleasure to fly.

Happy building and Safe flying to all!!

Great to hear from you Mike !  Glad to see you enjoying what you seem to enjoy best

Hope you get to build something new... and see a build thread for the same here !

Nice to see my favorite  thread still alive Mike. Persistence and Patience are best friend of a flyer! Keep the destiny Bird for a good day, so that you may show the flying fraternity, one of marvels of good times, flying.

All the best for fighting all the temptations

Hello !!! this is my first post on RCIndia. I am also building the Gloster Gamecock from the same plan but am going to use electric power so thought I miight start a build thread showing any differences to Mike's model. I started this project a couple of years ago !! but got distracted bt now I wish to finish it eventually. It will be a long job and the posts might be intermittent but I am determined not to start any other builds. Some pictures of the lower wing build. I am using 1/4 x 1/8 spars to save wieght.

Really great project