[EricF]

I've got a Mike Trew Countryman in my loft, built from a plan it spans 144 inches and has full camber flap. Its about 30 years old.
Tony Baker's Solent Sailplanes sold it as a kit called Ridge Rover.

We have a couple of 'CountryMen' down here in Kent, both about 30 years old.

Below is one of them in flight, maybe it will encourage you to get yours out of the loft, which is where mine is along with some other 'woodies' including a 'SonataE', a 'Sunduster', a 'MiniPhase', a 'Force 4' (Chris Foss's first published glider design) and my own design 100" 'Heatwave' glider. I  have plenty of interesting old gliders but I can't include them here as they have foam-cored wings.

Also I have quite a few unbuilt woody kits including a couple of untouched 'Gentle Ladies' and a pristine KK 'Soarer Baby', the first model bulit by me at seven years old, (my Dad had the 'Soarer Major').

countryman slope soaring the common

[Old Geezer]

Greetings oh mighty Mekon - I'm guessing that your floating teatray will only fly in slope lift here on earth - unlike your home planet. (Venus for those who never had their weekly Dan Dare fix in the Eagle.)
Do you still correspond with Dan Dare and Digby, or are you over here on Earth trying to hook up again after the Eagle folded so many sad years ago?
Does you natural green skin tint make you blend in on the slope? I guess there could be platoons of Treens hiding in the bracken on our slopes ready to swat our mouldies and foamies out of the sky with their vintage Impalas and Capstans, built and stored over the decades in their venusian sheds for your invasion and take-over of our earthly slopes. 

[Patmac]

I'll have a pint of whatever Old Geezer's drinking.   

[Patmac]

...I  have plenty of interesting old gliders but I can't include them here as they have foam-cored wings.

Why not ? 

Plenty of interesting old foam cored wing models.

[Gary]

Got my Fantasia out of the cupbard today, might get it flying again the weekend if the weather is still OK

The Fantasia is no more or it might be if only I could find it! I got it into a thermal which was so strong I could not get it to penetrate back upwind even with full down elevator it just carried on gaining height as it went downwind and out of sight.
I searched and searched the fields but no sign of it

[Old Geezer]

Spiral dive sometimes does it [saved my Gentle Lady a couple of times].

If you have structural failure  , at least most of the electronics that survive the arrival will be where you can find them     .

[Patmac]

Spiral dive sometimes does it [saved my Gentle Lady a couple of times].

If you have structural failure  , at least most of the electronics that survive the arrival will be where you can find them     .

A spin is the best option but lack of penetration is the common weakness of the lightweight floaters.

[ludwig]

its not only old floaters that suffer from lack of penetration   

[Outcast]

I found this little beauty ,
       Its not a retro design , but i would say its a retro build , see what you think , i recon its cheap and fun looking.
      http://shop.singahobby.com/?q=node/15365
                             Bob

Bob - its all good mate  

Like I said in the first post - retro - whatever that means to you - may be old planes, may be woodies, may be foam veneer, may be new planes in an old stylie - may be old planes in a new stylie, may be balsa, maybe not - certainly didn't want to limit this thread to just "woodies" though  
Hell, my old Ellipse 2v almost qualifies - must be at least 15 years old
and we even had ARTF gliders in the early 1970s - The Solarfilm folks sold a 3-channel one (can't remember its name)

btw - IIRC that "Minus" somes in two versions, that's the acro, there's also one with poyhedral. The "crobe" is also a fun small sloper - "modern" pitcheron, but retro balsa build from plans - even tissue covered over the balsa  

Phil.

[mr ed]

A spin is the best option but lack of penetration is the common weakness of the lightweight floaters.

Its not a situation I've been in (only had weak thermals and my slopey heavy planes do penetrate) but I wonder if the advice should be like swimming in riptides - don't go with or against but swim across then you'll get out of the stream.
So maybe you should head crosswind and out of the thermal before even thinking about heading down.

[SteveBB]

Picked this one up, almost totally unbuilt at the NATS swap meet last year. This is what it looked like before it it's many flights. I shoe horned the elevator and rudder servos under the fin. Four servo wing.

However, it's crappy thin fuselage the other day peeled right round from the wing saddle on one side, a result of a stall after the numpty on the sticks tried to roll out of inverted flight, too slowly..Stall, impact..oaths..walk of shame...Picking it up I thought I'd got away with a sheered wing bolt.


 I couldn't be bothered to repair it, which is a shame as it flies quite fast, and looks quite tasty landing on it's wheel. Anyway, I'm making headway on making a new wooded fuselage, that won't look identical, but will be close enough.

Oh, Pat Teakle, Dominie, circa 1981

[Patmac]

and we even had ARTF gliders in the early 1970s - The Solarfilm folks sold a 3-channel one (can't remember its name)

The first ever glider international comp was won in the USA by an artf - a Graupner Cumulus IIRC flown by sandy Pimenof from Finland.



I think the Solarfilm glider was the Nebula. It was T tail, I remember seeing the demo one using slope lift in front of the stand at Galashiels rugby stadium during a model show there late 60's or early 70's.

[mr ed]

The first ever glider international comp was won in the USA by an artf - a Graupner Cumulus IIRC flown by sandy Pimenof from Finland.

These days all the events are won by ARFs

[Patmac]

its not only old floaters that suffer from lack of penetration   

Yup, new floaters do as well - in fact any draggy glider with low wing loading. One of the reasons I think that models like the Gentle Lady are over-rated , especially in the UK where it's rare to get good lift without an accompanying breeze.

[Patmac]

Its not a situation I've been in (only had weak thermals and my slopey heavy planes do penetrate) but I wonder if the advice should be like swimming in riptides - don't go with or against but swim across then you'll get out of the stream.
So maybe you should head crosswind and out of the thermal before even thinking about heading down.

I've no experience of swimming in the sea much less a riptide but if you fly cross wind you probably will get out of the thermal & almost certainly contact the downdraft that's filling it's place. Trouble is since the model's airspeed is less than the windspeed it might get carried a long way further downwind in the same time it could have been heading direct into wind. Losing height in a spin will get you to a lower altitude quicker & hopefully into lower windspeed air at the same time not overstressing the model.
Of course if you're confident enough you could try an inverted spin. 

[Patmac]

These days all the events are won by ARFs

The ARTF didn't win on this occasion. 



 

[Astro]

Hi All
Once again I have ventured in to the loft I have a plane which I must have bought 18 years ago fron a gent from Melton Mobery White fiber glass fuz molded T tail and rudder with I think a Balsa skined  blue foam, 3 panel ,3meter wing with carbon spar and joiners.No dihedrel on the wing panel tips. came with 4 white multiplex wing servo units . After trying to remember what model it is, now I am convinced it is an early Calypso F3B.doing search on net about it (stuart blanchard) found this wing skining article .

 www.rcsoaring.com/rcsd/RCSD-1986-06.pdf

Probably a bit of usless info (I knew that) as now its all vacum bagging and all that.
also found out how to Hinge the Impuls flappy bits was going to use hinge pins .Early ellips just used tape did they ever fall off

Dave

[Patmac]

I could well be wrong but I don't think any of the Calypso series were T tailed.
How about a photo or two?

[slope_dragon_x]

Calypso Contest came with t and v tail variants - I had a T.

The Contest was hollow moulded, but before that Stuart produced Calypsos from foam etc.

[Astro]

Hope these pics are okay $%&The Calypso.  The Impuls is same style all molded 2 piece wing about 2.5 m span

[Patmac]

Astro, that looks a nice model, well worth getting into the air. 
I had never realised (or maybe just forgotten) there was a T tail version of the Calypso.
I took some photos at York when the F3B world champs were held there (1985 ?) here's Stuart Blanchard with his Calypso & Sean Bannister with an Algebra.

[Patmac]

and we even had ARTF gliders in the early 1970s - The Solarfilm folks sold a 3-channel one (can't remember its name)

Phil, I came across this photo yesterday of the demonstration Nebula taken at Galashiels.
I think it was 1971 & seem to remember it was flown by Derek Hardman.



This is an OD sloper circa 1983. About 6 ft span it featured flaperons using a sliding servo for the mix & was designed for easy storage/carriage but quick to assemble on site. It had a pretty good performance, IMO better than my Phase 6 & great on knife edge. The flaperon linkage was it's weak point as it was inevitably sloppy. It would have benefited from a modern Tx & 2 wing mounted servos. I sold it on after a couple of years.



[ Specified attachment is not available ]

[longstick]

A Keil Kraft Elmira - Built from a very old kit bought from the Model Shop Horsforth.
Originally 2 ch in 1982

Renovated to full house in 2006 and covered in PINK!
Still flying 

http://www.rcmf.co.uk/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=257

[geoffers]

Shouldn't this be the pic at the top of page 3....

[Gumball]

A Keil Kraft Elmira - Built from a very old kit bought from the Model Shop Horsforth.
Originally 2 ch in 1982

Replikit are making it again! http://www.replikit.com/replikit2010/index.php?page=shop.product_details&category_id=166&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=229&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=102&vmcchk=1&Itemid=102

[the.Timinator]

How Retro is Retro?

On my first visit to the slope, (Tinkers, circa 1988) as an ardent power flier I was blown away by a model that several people had.

Stefan Dransfield designed "Minuteman" (not to be confused with other models of the same name.)

Low wing, swept back, serious cut out in the lower rear fuz this thing looked the business and flew extremely well.....

Foam cored wing and very narrow fuz, E374 IIRC.

So I tried sloping with Dave Hardakers Kwicksilver (again, other models shared the name) and the Omnipotent Phase 6 (should be a compulsory model for every slope newbie IMHO).

Skip forward ten years and I aquired a plan for the Minuteman!

Built one, but could not afford the "micro" gear to go in it and swapped it for a Wot4 - let the plan go with it, sadly  

Feeling a bit like the man who turned down the Ruttles, I've been looking for a replacement ever since.

ERrrrrrrrrrrr

So, Anybody out there got one?

Tim

[enginetorque]

Shouldn't this be the pic at the top of page 3....

Sean did have something of the LA pron actor about him back then................

[the.Timinator]

Fantastic catalogue -- just relived my youff.

Mostly Control line with a couple of gliders -- but I think between my brother and I we must have built around 20 out of that catalogue.
Wood shavings stuck to socks and tramped all around the house, if it wasn't for the fact we were all high as kites at the time on dope I guess it would have driven us all mad,

MAD I SAY, MAAAADDDD....
 

Couple of things Mike -

Second model I ever built was the Firefly, 24" span IIRC, and DC Bantam 0.8cc "powered" (35" - don't think so..)

Built the Firebird later - coupled flaps, PAW 19DS, totally different animal...

Never had  Picador, but I did have its big brother  - PAW 19DS powered Toreador..

Also a Mercury Marvin, K/K Midge, K/K Talon,Warlord, Shogun, Ironmonger, Hornet 3, Topflite Peacemaker, K/K Spectre, K/K Demon, and many others...

I still have a plan built, Oliver Tiger ( copy) powered Peacemaker I like to fly at least once a year..

And I still have my Oliver Tiger MkIV combat Special in a box, soaked in oil....

BUT

Most importantly, i think we need to recognise the fact that we used to use copious amounts of Cellulose Nitrate based surface Sealant to convert tissue or Nylon into a useable surface covering.

And probably not use the term D0pe - lest it attracts the interest of the anti-narcotics boys.....

Just sayin....

Tim

[Outcast]

Fantastic catalogue -- just relived my youff.

+1 

KK Ercoupe - first kit - a "Dad" build
KK Conquest - my own first kit build

mmm - balsa cement & dope fumes 

Phil.

[Hambone]

Fantastic catalogue -- just relived my youff.

Mostly Control line with a couple of gliders -- but I think between my brother and I we must have built around 20 out of that catalogue.
Wood shavings stuck to socks and tramped all around the house, if it wasn't for the fact we were all high as kites at the time on dope I guess it would have driven us all mad,

MAD I SAY, MAAAADDDD....
 

Me too Mike except my brother was more adept at destruction than constructiion...but I bet I have built at least 20 too. Then I too went to control line, eventually to F2C or "FAI Team Race" as it was called in the 70's...

Hammond/Williams was quite a successful team until the radio bug hit first me then my pitman Pete Williams...

Halcyon days of sticky but lovely smlling Castor residues...

Boneline

[mr ed]

I've just downloaded that catalohue. I think the card will be taking a big hit at the end of the month for a few kits.

I remember going into Howes in Broad St and just staring at the wall of KK kits for ages before deciding what my paper round money was going on this time.

[Allen the soarer]

since the 1930's we still try to look cool while holding a toy plane 

when will we learn 

[Outcast]

since the 1930's we still try to look cool while holding a toy plane  
when will we learn  

In the 60s & 70s we got pretty girls to hold the planes instead - just look at the magazine covers from that era  
Top marks to anyone who can identify the model (or the plane!)

magazine back issues here if anyone needs them:
http://www.payhost.net/modelling/acatalog/RCM_E.html

Phil.

[Woodstock]

What a mental shock scrolling though that catalogue, looking at 1960's kits, then suddenly Lipo batteries and Brushless motors !

And, there I found my very first model, a rubber powered KK Ajax, built c. 1070 1970..

[Allen the soarer]

This was my first RC Plane yes it's not a glider 
I stuck it in a tree 5 minutes in to the maiden, nothing changes 

[paul w]

Top marks to anyone who can identify the model (or the plane!)

Seychelle?

[Outcast]

Seychelle?

Yep - and the model?

Phil.

[paul w]

Yep - and the model?

Phil.

my gran

[mr ed]

I've just had a total WTF moment.
Epoxy drying so I'm looking at the .pdf of the Replikits catalogue and remembering balsa and home made Galloping Ghost and thinking about what to buy and suddenly realising I'm setting up a mouldie V-tail with a laser and a digital caliper.
I've been futureslapped.

Time to go out for a curry.

[Bad Raven]

BUMP...........         Funny how this thread just suddenly stopped...................

Search engine didn't find reference now found by manual search here with regard to 100" Soaron Silhouette, one of which I have just acquired with "some work to do"............... (like the brakes and wing mountings are totally shot, for a start!!)