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My A-10 Thunderbolt II  -  I have been working on this for over a year. I did a bit.  I did some more. Then I got busy and had to put it to one side. Anyway I got it out and began tests. Video to follow soon!  But in the meantime I had to show why I like the A-10. Some love it - some hate it.  I think it's ugly, peculiar, wonderful, iconic and inspiring all at the same time.  Here is a  video clip of the real A-10 "doing it's stuff" .   How could I not fly a model of this ?  

A-10  Thunderbolt (fullsize video) 4.7Mb file            A-10 (my EDF model)    Model video here soon.

Flying Model Planes from Howth -  Howth Head is a wonderful place for slope soaring model planes.  The public walk nearby so I would not fly fibreglass speed machines here, and landing places are a little tight, so it is most suitable for small gliders, PSS fighters, and flying wings. The slopes are good in south, east and north winds and everything in between. In a southerly you fly with a beautiful view right over Dublin Bay to Dalkey Island and Sorrento Point.  Here are a few pics I took while flying my Sport Wing. There is more info about flying in Howth in the Dublin Mountains Slope Soaring website (see links page)

               The 1st pic shows the flying wing in slope lift at the cliff, with the Pigeon House in the distance. In the 2nd pic you can see a pilot boat going out to meet an incoming freighter, and I sent my Wing about 500 metres out towards the pair of them. Dalkey Island, Dalkey Head and the tip of Sorrento Point are just visible through the haze.  A very pleasing flying session in a gentle warm south Force 2 breeze.    

Dublin Kestrel Model Flying Club -  Went to the Kestrel model flying club (out beyond Tallaght) a few times recently. Alastair got a flying lesson on his fibreglassed Rödel foamie Cessna. I got to fly Daisy and Skyraider and worked out the final bugs in my new Rödel CAP21 which has an MVVS.50 engine.  The one on the right is the Raptor, a .15 glow plane conversion to brushless electric.

Cessna 400		Daisy		Skyraider		CAP21		Skyraider		Raptor

"Mad Max" RC Aero-Prop Sand Yacht-Car -  I saw a plan for a Sand yacht and thought "Why not?". But it's a pain to have to go to the beach to use it, so It got wheels, and since the wind is unpredictable, it got the ability to make it's own wind!  An Aero-Naut geared Race 400 motor, which turns an 8" prop. One servo for steering, a home made rudder bearing and Sun 1000 Kontronik speed controller, a bent 400 aircraft undercarraige, and some plywood. The "A" frame is from 4mm carbon rod, burnt with a lighter at the articulation points, so the epoxy is destroyed leaving a "hinge" of carbon fibres. This is then bent to the required angle, a bit of carbon roving "twine" tied on and "thin" cyano superglue is run into the roving/carbon rod joints, making them rigid. Time taken - almost instant- a minute or two.
Idea conceived at 6pm, drawings  at 7.30, construction in the evening, and by 1am I was outside the house (in the dark) doing trial runs with the completed model.  It's hair trigger sensitive on the steering, so use minimum throws (and expo if you have a computer RC transmitter).  Power is from a KAN 1050 8er battery pack from speed 400 aircraft models.

The teddy "driver" was just added for the photo session of course!  I think I'll do a cool fibreglass fairing sometime.  It is just asking for a streamlined fairing with beach buggy type wheel well mudguards, and painted with flames !  Mad Max  is a real "fun thing", and the video shows it in action quite well.
 

Minimalist Tank -  The weather isn't great at the moment, so I got the creative urge. Not the usual kit building stuff.
First I designed and built a free running (non-rc) tracked tank, simplified the tracks right down to drive bands, and powered by a clockwork motor, then all made from common Meccano parts.

Slope Soaring in Dublin   -  The weather improved a bit last week - so we took some model airplanes up to the Dublin Mountain slopes near Rathfarnham. Here is Alex with his AeroNaut  Elektro Akrobat on  the lower Kilakee slope, the Elektro Akrobat in flight, and a lovely pic of Patrick flying through a patch of sunshine breaking through the clouds..

Slope Soaring at Ballina, Co Mayo

New Slope in Co Mayo  -  I spent a couple of days at Ballina, Co Mayo.  The Ballina Model Flying Club is only about 3 miles outside town at Cloghans,  where P J Clarke is the main man.  We met and PJ invited me to fly from their club flying site near Lough Conn, which is of a very high standard, has a great view of Nephin mountain, and where the modellers mainly fly 2 and 4 stroke engine type models.
But I had brought my flying Wing  "Sport Wing" in the car with me ...  an aerobatic soaring model.  So on this visit it was to be slope soaring all the way.  I quickly located a good slope at the Foxford end of the Ox mountains, near Attymass. It was blowing a force 6 so-westerly, I had a lightweight model, new flying site, new uplift and turbulence to figure out.  Absolutely tremendous!   Rain showers stopped play, and I landed after a 45 minute flight.
Here are some pics taken by me of my own plane while still flying it (try that if you are getting bored). 

In the afternoon the rain  cleared up so I went back to this lovely slope. This time with my family.  Here are a couple more pics taken by my wife, including a pair of Kestrel Hawks that flew down to take a look at my wing, but decided to not attack,  just pass by 10 feet over it to check out the model plane. The pic shows one hawk doing his unique "Kestrel Hover" while he is scanning the ground looking for prey ... 

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