Bills Twin Tries to Resist Gravity !

Yea.. she flew grand… on first flight it was scarey.. lovely sound of two engines in harmony… but fast.. I was amazed that 2 cheap (€45) 40 size engines could pull the Dual Ace around so fast.. but fast she was. After 10 mins or less, one engine cut and I quickly and incorrectly pulled in dead engine rudder and within a mille second realised my mistake and popped in the live engine rudder which helped. I was able to make a controlled but descending one engine circuit and landed ok.. despite giving Gordon a fright. Two hours later I took her up but within 5 mins I decided that I wanted to land and on the downwind turn around 200 feet the inside engine cut, she spun into the dead engine and the spin accelerated and the Dual Ace piled in vertically into a soft boggy terra firma.

Is it me or is the pilot crying ??

Examination of the wreckage ensured. It transpires that all is not lost. The damage was confined to the fuselage nose cone being crushed, some timberwork behind it being crushed and the two engine mounting boxes being torn out of their seat in the wings. Both sets of engine clam shell cowls were damaged also. On investigation, it appears that J P Perkins in the UK have replacement nose cones and clamshell cowl sets available as spares. All the rest of the airframe was intact. So after the usual couple of hours of.. “damn, will never build a twin again…etc” the mood changed to.. “maybe I can rebuild as a twin electric !! “ Without a doubt rebuilding is not a problem, quite straightforward actually. Changing the model to a twin electric motor powered will eliminate the reason for the crash… engines not properly tuned to each other and not properly run in also. A quick scout on the net showed a couple of articles where people have already modified the Dual Ace to twin electric.. Voila… just butter the same sandwich as they did !! Watch this space.. !!

Flying Site Development Update

Over the St Patrick’s weekend, Alex led a team of people putting serious effort into extending and ministering to our flying site. We had identified a number of hillocks (Jimmy Hoffa’s grave ) that needed to be levelled and some low spots that needed filling. With that in mind a number of ideas were floated over the clubhouse table and it turns out that a local Ballivor man who has a Boomerang and radio set is now a prospective member of the club after he offered the use of his JCB to perform the surgery needed on the site. The following pictures show some of his efforts !!

Alex, if we find bones will the M3 be rerouted ???

SOD this for a game of cowboys, Alex !!!!

As if that was not enough, Aidan Murray offered the use of his 3 ton whacker road roller to level all that was dug up with the JCB.

Hmm this is easier than learning to fly… !!!

Once the ground had been levelled and rolled Damien and Jim started their exercise regimes with the mower and spreader…

Ooh this is the life…. Mind you… the Mrs would probably say ‘ You wouldn’t cut the grass at home !!’

That determined steely look that says… ‘ I’m bloody frozen here.. !!’

Finally, Oliver, Phil and Alex assemble to practice their Morris dancing routines.. !!!

Publicity in Local Paper

Our chairman recently contacted a weekly newspaper in County Meath called the Meath Weekender and asked them if they wished to do an article on the hobby of aeromodelling. The article was published and lead to a healthy number of enquiries from interested people, some of whom have now joined the club. The article was heavily weighted towards the safety aspect of the hobby and the role of the MACI.

Indoor Flying

Bill attended an indoor flying session on Thu 27^th Dec in the Aer Lingus Staff Centre at Dublin Airport. This was organised by Stoo Holland (pilot on the right in the photo below) and about 12 flyers turned up with a selection of visitors also. It was quite successful in that a lot of flying was done by all and sundry, engines were knocked off and epoxied back on to fly again. Bill even managed to get a small electric free flight model circling within the confines of the hall. We hope to run a couple of these events ourselves and will invite others from various clubs to participate.

Engineering Technology Teachers' Association

Once again, the club recently took part in the annual National Conference of the Engineering Technology Teachers' Association in the Mullingar Park Hotel in November. We had a large 2 table stand populated with a range of model aircraft and associated equipment. It was a very good public day for the club and we had a significant amount of interest from young and old. It was interesting to meet a large number of teachers who had dabbled in the hobby years ago but now feel they might be interested in returning to the fold. Some even enjoyed a whiff of Bill’s can of diesel fuel!!! We also had some unmade kits on view to allow people to see how models arrive from the shop and what actually an ARTF means.. ! Bill was ably assisted by Damien on the day. Some Pictures of the day in question..