Small Flying Arts

Lovely photos of the Nakajima, Roman! How has the four-bladed propeller worked out? It looks very realistic. I was also out during the weekwend making trim flights together with a friend (Johan, whom you might remember from Nijmegen). Here is Johans Spitfire making a sortie. It's built from the VMC ...

And finally, here is my own Sainte Formule. It's a design by Bernard Delhalle, the Maximus, but with some changes. I had not had time to test it before the competition, so was very pleased with its performance. The fuselage is covered with paper, the rest of the model with Ultrafilm mylar.

Larissa Bruin's Sainte model shows what a bit of work with marker pens can do to enhance the looks of a transparent model. Larissa had also made the nice paintings that were given as prizes.

Here is Pontan with his Tefft Contester, and the photo below shows it in its neat box. Normally a reliable performer, on this occasion it developed trim problems that prevented a flight.

The Finnish team was very successful!

Tommy also flew this beautiful Viima II, a Finnish trainer biplane from the 30's

And here is Tommy Westlin's DH5. Not a lightweight model, but it nevertheless flew over 40 seconds and brought home third prize.

Another of the Finnish flyers was Mauri Tuure, who flew this Nieuport 11. From the Nowlen kit?

I took a liking to this PIK 18, built by Tapio Linkosalo, Finland. The model is covered with printed tissue, which has been chalked on the backside to improve opacity.

Here are some more photos. First my own Miles Sparrowhawk, built from the Mooney plan but with many modifications to improve scale fidelity. Among these modifications were two that I regret; scale sized stabiliser and reduced dihedral. With the scale stabiliser the model proved unstable even with CG...