Thankyou for your kind comments col.
While awaiting some calmer weather for a proper test flight on the Zenair I have gone back to tinkering with a 115″ span Petlyakov Pe-2 I started over a year ago. I always have troubles getting a retract system that works reliably in a scale timescale and it is this, together with the power system, that I have been attending to.
Also been spending some time on the drawing board designing the outer wing panels.

Rich, glad to hear all that work on the Shack is not going to waste. Presumably it’ll find its way into the museam at Coventry?
PND’s work is good, quite light and you have the option of laser cut parts.

Which mark of Firefly are you building?
I drew up a MkIV and was all enthused until I realised that the scale 4-blade prop was over 2 foot diameter and would set me back the best part of £50. That cast a different light on the model and sent it back down the list. Since then I have been wondering about a MkI with 3-blade prop – although the cost of the prop would be similar as I make up my own three bladers and would have to buy 2 to build the prop anyway. The main selling point for me would be that I don’t ever remember having seen anything but the later marks modelled.

I will be very interested in seeing the flap system!

Sorry AN2 – I glanced back to check and saw your header just above rich’s posting… ‘more haste less speed!’
I wonder if you might be interested in this thread from RCGroups… as if you wouldn’t!… the guy seems to be undertaking a very ambitious build – but seems well equipped to do it (so far).
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1356346

I have been editing some of my father’s old 8mm films for the family and thought others might like to see some old (and rather poor) footage from between 1938 and 1945.
Includes:
Slingsby T.21 at Dunstable 1938
DeHavilland 86 Expresses at Guernsey 1938
Bristol Blenheim over Harpenden – a very brief shot probably 1939/40
DeHavilland 98 Mosquito low level over Keil canal 1945
Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYIswchAGFM

Rapide was mine too, but from Luton. Dad bought us a flight. I still remember the wicker seats and the smell.
Then came a flight in an RAF Dove from Hendon and a Chipmunk at St Athan.
It was a promising start for a lad – then they stopped national service a few months before my callup.
Gutted – had to think of something else to do with my life!

Keith, that is SUCH a sad sight!
I am sure I read ‘Airwork’ on a pukka printed sign – can’t remember if it was on a wing stood up against a wall or on the boarded wall of the shed. There were 3 Procters and a Prentice jammed into the shed which had vertical timber boarding and looked far more dilapidated that the aircraft.
I had cycled over from Harpenden with a school friend and we sneaked up a rough track, through trees and into the shed via a hole made by a couple of missing boards. We didn’t dare show ourselves outside, feeling really naughty, so the visit was a brief one – but one that left a strong impression.

If you do speak to Mr R of ‘DMT, please thank him for his kindness in showing me over his aircraft. I was gathering detail for a future 1:4 scale model and he was really helpful. The Hornet Moth model got elbowed out by a Zenair 701, but it WILL happen – perhaps around March/April next year.

I have to confess I have no idea how much SFr 349 is in Sterling – not that I would be buying anyway as I design all my own. Is it a good deal?

Ben, thankyou for your comment. Warbirds more your bag then eh? Fast and loud?