What did you do aeroplane wise today?

[Lastwoodsman]

What did you do airplane wise today?

Friday April 17 2026

Flight Report #7    30"  Dumas Beaver rubber powered

    Well,  it was pretty foggy in the morning after all that rain.

  We got in seven flights this AM.  The best flight was 6 sec,  all landings were good,  and no damage to the Beaver. 

Pic #1    2525    Serious fog ....
Pic #2    2531    Deep wet grass by the Spit and Hurri.
Pic #3    2533    My setup in the Cricket Field.
Pic #4    2543    Exiting the park with an intact Beaver.

    It was a good flight session,      what with the high humidity and wet lite Silkspan covering from the wet grass landings.    I found a way to get rid of those drops of water .....

    We may get out to fly later on today too,  when the humidity goes from 93%  at  10:00  AM,  down to  68%  at  6:00  PM.

Full Flight Report #7  is coming up in my  30"  Beaver thread.

Lastwoodsman
Richard

[Lastwoodsman]

What did you do airplanewise today?

Tuesday April 21 2026

Flight Report #8   30"  Beaver   Mon April 20 2026

six flights   longest  6 sec

     At  2 PM  it was sunny  42 deg F  winds blowing  6 mph from WSW gusting to 12 mph  humidity 33%

Pic #1     2561     Egads!   They mowed the Cricket Field in the distance.
     
Pic #2     2563     First flight landing.   I have never seen the grass flattened like this.

Pic #3     2565     Back on the stooge.

Pic #4     2567     The six second flight landing in the distance.

     Full Flight Report coming up,  although I am getting behind .... 

     WHOOPS  I just lost the 19 pics.   Oh no!   Well,  it was only 19 pics,  edited,  resized,  and full texts completed.   Sorry, ...  but I have lots of similar pics from Flight Report #7,   which I still have to post in full. 

     In Summary,  these six flights confirmed that the Beaver  was trimmed out,  and now I am making a 9 inch motor for the new rear motor peg which has now just been added.

     Old rear motor peg was  7 1/2" and used  7" motors.
The new rear motor peg is  10" from the prop hook.   This rear peg will use a 9" motor that I just made.    I will bench test this motor first.

Thanks again George for keeping Free Flight balsa alive on your site.     It is the only place left for us.

Lastwoodsman
Richard

[Pete Fardell]

Here's my dad maidening his new scratch built Hawker Horseley in a breeze the other day. He's nearly 87 and showing no signs of slowing down on the building or flying front.
(I rather look the look of the Hawker Hawsley too. It may have to go on my own build list.)

[dputt7]

    Very impressive. 

[cvasec]

Lovely. If you do build one, don't forget to make it a bit smaller!
Ron

[Konrad]

Thanks again George for keeping Free Flight balsa alive on your site.    It is the only place left for us.

Lastwoodsman
Richard

Are you aware of this site? Seems to be as active as HPA when looking at FF content. Ok, it has been well established for decades. This iteration of HIP/HPA is less than 6 months old.

There are a lot of competent contributors there.

https://www.rcgroups.com/free-flight-64/?daysprune=100

[Lastwoodsman]

Tues Aug 21 2026

What did you do airplane wise today?

I'll go with George,  if you don't mind.   

Quote from George:
"The popular RC classes already have homes elsewhere and can very well stay there.
But free flight doesn't..."

Lastwoodsman
Richard

[Konrad]

Tues Aug 21 2026

What did you do airplane wise today?

I'll go with George,  if you don't mind.   

Quote from George:
"The popular RC classes already have homes elsewhere and can very well stay there.
But free flight doesn't..."

Lastwoodsman
Richard

Don't mind at all. I was just pointing out that there are other well established sites that discuss FF. I feared you might not have been aware of RCGroups.

All the best,

[Squirrelnet]

I had a great afternoon yesterday being shown around a collection of plans and models from the late Vic Smeed by friend and new member on here Charlie Fun Flyer. For those that don't know Charlie Jeffreys also runs the Vic Smeed group on FB.

Charlie has many of Vic's original models including his Pushy Cat complete with very a dapper carved pilot, some of which Charlie is restoring into flying condition.

Pics - Pushy Cat , Airy fairy and RC single channel Sky Eye

[Squirrelnet]

Charlie also has many of Vic's original drawings and plans. It was fascinating to see Vic's work flow with a design from a full size sketch of the outline to a more worked up and layed out plan which would then be sent to the magazine office to be drawn up by their own draftsmen

In the pic you can a design called a Squeak part of trio of design's for small rubber cabin duration that begins with a fairly simple pencil drawing. Charlie has worked these up in CAD to produce finished plans, much I guess as would have been done in the day by an magazine's own draftsmen. One of the other models in the series the Bubble has been built up and flown already. Covering is rainbow tissue also from Vic's effects

One interesting drawing that caught my eye was a towline glider version of the Tomboy built for a competition by SAM 1066 in 2000. Did anyone make one ?

[Squirrelnet]

Vic also had a large collection of early radio control, infact the Sky Eye came fitted with a Cox 'Failsafe' single channel radio. Charlie has replaced this with a modern 2.4GHz to fly it but the original 27Mhz system is something I have never seen before

There's a very early looking commercial transmitter to called a Pixie made by OS in Japan which looked very 1950's in Bakerlite as well as later commercial items like the Slim Jim servos

Altogether a fascinating afternoon...thanks Charlie

[Jmk89]

Looks like a good time was had by all....

[dputt7]

Nice to see some of Vic's originals, must have been a few stories as well I guess.