Editor Kevin Crozier shares what’s coming up in the July 2024 issue of RCM&E.
This month’s reviews have also fallen to me, the Editor, so I’ll start this issue’s introduction with those. First into the air was the JP MB-339,a one-piece mini jet from J. Perkins with which I’ve been having a lot of fun. Last time I introduced you to the XFly Models Twin Otter, but this chunky transport plane was left grounded due to the ongoing wet weather and soggy flying fields. However, just a couple of weeks later she was airborne for the first time and I’ve just loved my time with her, dropping the powerful flaps for bumps and circuits. She also aerobats with ease but that does look a bit naughty with such a scale ship.
Our regular columns start with Shaun Garrity and Retro Ramblings. This month Shaun doesn’t take us back too far as he builds a new reincarnation of a favourite slope soarer, the SAS Wildthing. Next upis Danny Fenton, who sets the scene at the 2024 Scale Indoor Nationals, a highlight of the scale modelling calendar. Danny reports from the R/C event held at the University of Wolverhampton in late April. Our final column this month is John Stennard’s ‘The Insider’ in which John test flies his newfound Ares Sopwith Pup and looks at some favourite small biplanes for prop hanging and other agile indoor aerobatics.
I know that many of you enjoy turning to the middle of the magazine to see which new pull-out Pro-Plan awaits in each issue. This time Peter Miller lays down drawings for a Russian powered glider to satisfy an urge to design something different. And the MAK 15 is certainly that!
As for feature articles, R/C conversions of favourite free flight models are nothing new,but Alex Maxfield has done a fine job with his new Sans Egal, a modern take on an A2 glider design from the 1950s. Then it’s over to Dudley Pattison, who signs off with the last instalment of his ‘A Company Called Flair’ articles. When this popular series started back in the May issue, I asked for your help to illustrate Dudley’s tales with pictures of your Flair models and, boy, did you take that to heart. Those Flair Scouts, Fokkers and SE5a biplanes just kept on coming. So, a big thank you for that and we ended up with far more pictures than we could use. But waste not, want not and we’ve put the rest to good use in a jumbo edition of our Pilots’ Pictorial readers’ models picture gallery.
To wrap things up our waterplane correspondent Mike Roach makes a welcome return, this time reporting on the joys of flying off the water of his favourite local water park, Longham Lake. Then, in a final flourish, Graham Ashby files his latest Kick The Tyres column. After years of squeezing large aeroplanes into small cars, Graham finally snaps and buys himself a van.
