Avro a gogo

[gdclowes]

thought I might share an amusing moment in my RC flying career that took place back in the summer of 1975. At the time I was a member of the local model flying club mixing with some seriously geeky flying type chaps. One day one of these members came up to me and produced some old plan of an Avro 504 bibplane in what was known then as peanut scale ie 12 inch wingspan freeflight designed to use the then new co2 motor,the type you charge from a soda syphon refill bulb. Being well into scratch building at the time I decided to give it a go and two weeks later one ready to fly 504. Was quite stable but the motor run time was at best 10 seconds, not enough to gain any real altitude for a reasonable flight.A friend suggested installing a small glow motor to it which I thought at the time would be a good idea (wrong). After rummageing through my box of bits I came across an old KielKraft .049cc wasp glow engine and decided this would be the ideal power plant for this tiny aircraft. The engine was duly fitted after some minor modification to the firewall and that following weekend went down to the flying field with my friend and supercharged Avro 504 for test flight. I thought it prudent to put just a small amount of fuel in the tank not realising how economical the wasp engine was. With engine started and mixture fully leaned out it was time to throw her skyward. As the kite left my hand it immediately went ballistic in a vertical climb that would put a Saturn 5 to shame then at about 300ft levelled off and proceeded to fly off in a westerly direction towards Liverpool or thereabouts. My friend and I just watched in amazement as the little Avro dissapeared into the distance and although we could no longer see it we could hear the wasp engine singing merrily away getting fainter and fainter until we could no longer hear that. I wonder if it ever made it across the Atlantic, maybe not, we will never know. and that my friends is the story of the first Avro 504 to go vertical. Hope you enjoyed this little story and if by chance you know anyone who had by chance come across my little 504 back in 1975, please can I have it back.

[Radweld]

RC gear is so small now, you could rebuild it and fit a small brushless motor. I lost my first plane, an Aerobird Scout by flying it in too high winds, at ground level the winds were light and gentle, so I launched the scout, up she went and proceded to fly. The scout being 2ch is limited to rudder, your pitch is controlled by the throttle, too much throttle and she stalls and turns round.

Well when I got her upto 50feet, the wind there was faster and it just grabbed it and took it. it was impossible to turn it round and fly it back to be because it would stall and turn round again.

Last seen flying over a housing estate. RIP Scout.

[MalcolmS]

It doesn't just happen to the small or two channeled! I built a Super Cub up from spares with a Spitfire radio and battery and went to test her. The vertical stabiliser was not a great fit as I do not think I had the correct screws but it felt ok so off to the field. Great take off and lovely performance unitl I noticed I suddenly couldnt turn left. Tried all sorts of things like power down and gliding but the wind was stronger higher up and blew her away over some houses and of course I tried running after her in an attempt to power down and maybe get it down as soon as possible. However soon lost sight of her so gave up. Somebody somewhere will have a nice collection of HZ/PZ bits and no transmitter.

My lesson has been duly learnt- always make sure the plane works perfectly and also try and keep witihn the field if possible.