Messages

61

Misceleanous / Visit to the Irish Air Corps base at Baldonnel

« on: July 28, 2013, 23:18:37 PM »

Hi all

Just back from a great visit this week to the Irish Air Corps base at Baldonnel in Dublin. Fred and I along with the members from the Ulster Avaition Soc, managed to organise a trip to the base last Thursday, to have a look around the museum and also visit the other hangers on the base which house various types of fixed wing aircraft and helicopters.

The visit began with a meet and greet in the front car park with pilot Officer Stephen Morrison, who acted as our guide through out the day. First stop was the air Museum which displays various types of aircraft, engines, uniforms, weapons, aircraft parts and of course model aircraft. A guide showed us around the various displays and answered many questions from the members, I must say at this point, that this guy was the most knowledgeable person I have ever talked to, when It came to aircraft.

After a most interesting talk on the history of the Fouga Magister and the Silver Swallows, I asked, if it would be possible to take a few photos of the magister with the Islandmodels PSS version of the aircraft, which I had brought along with the hope of getting a few shots. I must say that the staff could not have been more helpful, and give Fred and I full excess the the fouga aircraft inside and out, so we got a lot of good close up photos of the aircraft  and it's markings, we even got offered a copy of the full set of  original plans for the Fouga magister showing all the markings of the Silver Swallows, if we would donate the PSS Fouga Magister number 220 silver swallows to the museum to hang over the full size CM-170 display, my words 'DEAL SIR'

Some photos of the Museum:


Fred looking at some of the many displays of aircraft.







Various engines and a 1:1 scale model of vintage aircraft







Various Irish air corps aircraft from history.



Fouga cm-170



A fouga with front gun pods



Photo of rear cockpit on the Magister



Fred and I with the model PSS Magister



A photo with the full size silver swallow's magister



Fred with the model fouga Magister beside the full size aircraft.

I will update this post tomorrow with some more text and photos.

JohnP

62

Misceleanous / Roisin takes her first flying lesson in a glider!

« on: July 17, 2013, 20:21:05 PM »

Hi all

Last weekend, my good lady Roisin, took her first flying lesson and she loved it! Roisin has started to travel with me to most of the RC glider events here in Ireland and most recently, a trip to France, so she decided that she would go one step better, and try out the real thing by taking a flying lesson in a DG 505, with the Ulster gliding club. Her 30min, flight was very smooth, and she even picked up a few good pockets of lift, coming off the nearby hills and cliffs along downhill beach. Here are a few photos taken on the day.


Ready for take off.


Canopy locked and hooked onto the tug.






Not a good photo, of the take off, I only had the small camera with me.


30mins later, a smooth landing right down the grass strip.

Thanks to the Ulster glider club for a great day and a very happy lady.

JohnP

63

Events / Newcastle Co Down

« on: June 20, 2013, 21:39:08 PM »

Just got some info on this year's Newcastle airshow,

It is being now called the Jetfest!.

Red Arrows
F86 Sabre
Typhoon

and fingers crossed for good weather, the Vulcan

I will update as the lineup is confirmed,

jp

64

Slope Soaring / Le trip to Le Menez Hom

« on: May 23, 2013, 21:41:19 PM »

Next stop on our tour, was the D-day beachs,Sword, juno, Gold, Omaha and Point Du Hoc. The only place we did not visit was Utah.


Sword beach head with the an old bunker still standing.



Left view.


Gold and Juno beach landing areas.




Omaha beach head, you can still see the shell craters around the German strong points. Over 2900 men lost their lives on this stretch of sand on the first day of D-day! :cry:


looking down the beach at Omaha.


Looking up the beach towards point du huc.

Next stop on our tour and the last for the day was the cliff gun battery and bunkers on the Point Du Hoc. This strong hold was attacked by the US Rangers, which climbed the cliffs under fire on D-day only to find that the big guns had been removed only a few weeks before the raid, and found telegraph poles in the gun bunkers, they too lost alot of man in taking the gun battery.





Roisin standing in one of the shell craters


A view of the cliffs the Rangers had to over come on D-day.




Isabelle in the main command bunker



Brave men, all of them....

65

Slope Soaring / Le trip to Le Menez Hom

« on: May 23, 2013, 21:05:50 PM »

We travelled back to Ronans house on the Sunday, however, we stopped off in Saint Malo, just can't find the pics yet, we post later! :?:

On the Monday, Ronan took over the driving, so we visited the D-Day locations and museums along the coast.

First stop was the Pegasus bridge museum at Caen. This is the bridge that the british 6th airborn made a glider assault to take and hold the bridge.
























We next visited the Gun battery at Merville which was the target for the british 9th airborn on the night before D-day.







.

more to follow!

66

Slope Soaring / Le trip to Le Menez Hom

« on: May 23, 2013, 20:36:59 PM »

Ok more pics.

I can't recall the name of this village, but it was lovely to walk round.







Ronan's beer cellar!!




And they lived happy ever after!!

Last night at the campsite, we all attended the pilots and family dinner evening.






Roisin decided Fred's hair needed a little work! :lol:

67

Scale / Scale RC Irish Airliners

« on: May 21, 2013, 22:13:51 PM »

Hi Gavin

Thanks for the offer, but I think you should leave a great model like the 330 until you are ready to fly it yourself. If you can manage to fly the 737, then you should be able to fly the bigger airliner with practice, i.e use the 737 as a test plane, the windrider range of airliners, are smooth flying models.

I live 20mins from Newry, so we are neighbours, give me a call Gavin some time on 07745458755, and we can arrange a meeting.

As for local flying sites, there are none near you with a runway. I only know two sites with a tarmac runway, northdown club, and the Ulster club, the rest of the other clubs have grass runways, and you would need a tarmac runway for the 330 to obtain a safe flying speed for take off.

68

Scale / Scale RC Irish Airliners

« on: May 21, 2013, 16:01:28 PM »

Thanks Fred for the video!

Gavin, I finished the fuselage in glass cloth and epoxy, than applied a few coats of paint. The wings and tail are covered in solar film, and the engine pods, again glass cloth and epoxy as they take alot of knocks when landing.
The engines  will take a 70mm fan unit, however, if you are using ducted fans, you need to strengthen the engine pods, because this is a very weak section and if one of the engines should fall off in flight or even move, the CofG will be effected big time, even on a PSS version with no fans.

Gavin I would love to see your 330 model, so let me know when you are going to fly the model as I live in Armagh and only an hours drive from Dublin.

69

Scale / ASW 20

« on: May 20, 2013, 21:15:03 PM »

Nice job Peter, looks fantastic  :clap:  :clap:  :clap:

70

Scale / Scale RC Irish Airliners

« on: May 20, 2013, 21:05:57 PM »

Hi Gavin

The two airliners look fantastic. The 737 from windrider is a good flying model, and you have done a great job on the Ryan Air scheme. I have build the 787 Dreamliner as a PSS model and it is a great model to fly, I also have the 380 in the workshop which I will complete later this year. I have seen the thrust composite range of models, and they are impressive, however a little too expensive for my pocket. Look forward to seeing both models in flight, so please post any vids when you complete the test flights.

787 inflight http://www.gliderireland.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3310&start=0

JohnP

71

Slope Soaring / Le trip to Le Menez Hom

« on: May 20, 2013, 20:48:27 PM »

O.k. more photos














Ronan and Fred formation landing





















:wink:

72

Slope Soaring / Le trip to Le Menez Hom

« on: May 17, 2013, 23:13:13 PM »

Hi all
Well home now, from a fantastic trip and a big thankyou to Fred, Ronan and Isabelle for looking after us, Roisin and I had a great time.
So here are a few photos to get things started, as there was a lot of photos taken by everyone.






The car park on the first day


This photo was taken from the summit showing the crowd on the first day.


Fred!!


Ronan's B4








Some of the gliders , in the pits, it soon filled up during the morning with I think 127 models.







I will post more photos when I get time!

73

Slope Soaring / Le trip to Le Menez Hom

« on: May 07, 2013, 10:48:21 AM »

Car all packed, also roof box for our invasion of France by the Irish Slope rebels. Just one problem so far, the lights stopped working and I just got the car serviced on Friday, however all is working now :?:
If I can get to a computer or wifi stop, I will post some pics each day.




The Boss is ready for european greetings!

74

PSS / COMET

« on: May 05, 2013, 22:24:01 PM »

Well done
what a fantastic looking PSS model, can't wait to see it fly! :clap:  :clap:  :clap:

75

PSS / COMET

« on: April 23, 2013, 11:40:30 AM »

The Comet looks great, good luck with the test flight :clap:  :clap: