Barton BMFA Open speed meeting 28th and 29th May
Reporting by Dick Hart and Barrie Lever
Saturday was a better day for practice and we spent a couple of hours with Barrie trying to get his fast jet to run. In the end it was decided it needed a thicker valve to compensate for the very high ADR and bingo we had three good practice flights.
Saturday practise was also the first time out for Dick Harts ex Gordon Isles F2A model now setup for the burgeoning 12 class, for Gordon this model is unusual in that it is setup to take an Irvine 15 rather than the Kostin engines which Gordon ran to good effect. Dick set the Super Silencer equipped Irvine 12 up with a clearance of 17thou and ran on 25% Nitro. The prop was a cut down 6.5×5.5 APC, the 6.5×6 type presented the engine with too much load. The little Irvine sounded eager and pretty crisp and there were high hopes but it ran in on release and burst the trailing edge of the wing, which needed a full workshop repair (more of this latter).
On the Sunday we had a real problems even getting a pop out of the sport jets before about noon principally because of the weather, which was cold, humid and high pressure. The fact that the batteries were down in Dick’s spark box did not help but Barrie had a stand by box so the day was saved. As the day warmed up a little and the dew “burned off” starting became a lot easier and all entries were able to fly three rounds so 15 flights in all. Despite a promising Saturday practise Barrie’s fast jet would not start, maybe we should have fitted a new reed before trying but we were caught up with other adventures.
Sport Jet had a real competitive edge to it with Ken Morriseys model beating Barrie Lever’s Blue Thunder PCPJ entry by just 0.32mph, roll on the Nats as the Sport Jet battle is likely to be one of the tightest of the event.
Early morning Barton pit scene, note Blue Thunder Sport Jet version with external two line controls and forward facing non pressurised tank vent.
Dick Hart fitting a new crankcase pressure nipple (manufactured overnight by Chris Martindale) to the Rex 28.
Dick Hart’s ex John Newton 29 model powered by a Nova Rossi Rex 28 with mini pipe gave encouraging flights. Now fitted with an APC 7×7 instead of a 7×9 and running 25% Nitro the motor sounded much more like it means business. The model has a new alloy wing that Barrie folded up and we were keen to see how it flew. Turns out the model flies pretty well according to Chris Martindale, now it just needs to find more speed. The first flight was fastest but the tank was short filled or ground running was too long and the model stopped short of fuel before the required laps were completed. The second flight was slightly slower at 151mph but plenty of laps. It was noticed that the needle is screwing itself in during the flight and the Transitrace shows the effect. Dick will get a decent remote NVA fitted for the next meeting.
12 Class wing repairs
As mentioned earlier, Dick Harts ex Gordin Isles F2A model suffered a run in on take off, resulting in crunched wing root. The model was taked to the Pylon Line team workshops where 50mm of the root of the wing panel was removed and the split wing trailing edge and spar delamination was repaired.
Rebonding delaminated wing spar on Dick Harts 12 class model.
View of the wing root showing bonding with 3M 1838 epoxy adhesive.
Dick Harts 12 class wing being bonded in ex. Ken Morrisey wing alignment jig.
Barrie Levers Granddaughter Nellie Chester-Sterne holding Dick Harts fully repaired 12 class model.
Finally the results !!