Thursday Night: Xanga has been unobtainable all week, but today I had an email explaining the problem and that saying they were working on it, glad to say shortly after we were back online.  www.middleimage.com is also back for this site, though obviously still password protected, you can use this to get to the sign in and start page again

It has been really hot again here, yesterday it was 35C all day and we sat at 33C most of today...... although I must admit that we did have a couple of very much cooler cloudy days before that and the pool temperature really suffered, in fact yesterday it was impossible to get in, it was simply too cold.

I have been continuing with the model, I was under no illusion that it was "finished" when the airframe was completed and to prove me right, it took me all afternoon to construct the wing servo mounting bays. But it's very close now, I made the turnbuckels yesterday for the flying wires, as well as making and fitting all the rigging points and now I've found some rigging wires, I already have enough covering film, well.........

So far I have been really lucky with the parts for this model, as far as I can possibly do, I have used and adapted the material I already had here, be it left over from dolls houses or model aircraft construction. So far all I have had to buy is 2 x 79c "O" rings for the tyres.

To keep it really nice, I would prefer to use smaller screws for the rigging points and have so far not found enough of the same type of the 16 I require here, so I am looking to buy those, other than that, it's been a cost free model. Elevator and Rudder servo's still need a mounting plate and fitting and pushrods of course (although I have very nice left over light helicopter bits to make these from). 

I have found ( robbed from another project) and fitted some really nice hinges, the covering isn't going to take me too long.... but I have decided to heed our age old "superstion" of not completing the model before test flying it. I must admit there is more than a hint of reason for this precaution, so based on that then, it's not too far away at all.....

Sunday afternoon: Today has been cloudy, the sun only came out at 5-30pm, it's been cooler too at around 26C, which has been a really nice change. It did actually "rain" in the night too, but probably for only about a minute.

I have been making a replica Vickers gun for the Pioneer 2, the gun is made mostly from very light balsa, except the barrels, which are from aluminium to keep a crisp look.

Here is the model posing in the usual spot.... Still looks more like a WW1 German plane to me than anytihing else.... although probably mainly beacuse of cartton interrperetations of German aircraft that never exsisted.

However I have found pictures of some obscure WW1 Bristol experimental aircraft which is not too terribly disimilar... So then I am back to the original idea. The main thing here is that this is not a scale model, so any scale detail or scheme I add will only enhance the illusion that it is indeed a "real" aircraft.   So I still debating the colour scheme, the Itailan job still has a slender lead at the moment..... Although the model could still sport the Iron Cross instead at this point (in which case the gun would become a Spandau - which is very similar  and it doesn't really matter anyway)

Saturday afternoon: Hot and exceedingly windy, 30C. The wind is a curse this year, I guess it's something to do with the jet stream moving and all the rain in the UK too.

Last night it blew a real gale and unfortunatly has severly damaged the beautiful Algarve Americana's, one is broken completely and the others are leaning rather badly... Such a shame, they take 30 years to flower, then this happens.....

Thursday Evening: Today was somewhat cloudy, yet the sun shone most of the day here, it was 30C all afternoon. Yesterday we sat at 32C all day.

The Algarve Americana's have begun to flower, these are each 7M tall at least and growing, the flowers are the size of a large boquet... Once the flowering has finished, each entre plant will die.

I had another good flying session last night, but only Lady B and Piwaka before it got dark, tonight it is far too windy....

Yesterday and the day before I made the wheels and the rigging stantions for the Pioneer 2 and today I made the second stantion and the main undercarriage.
 


Seen here assembled the Pioneer 2 is starting to look the part...... I have decided to cover it in white and use WW1 Italian Squadraglia markings, bearing in mind the model bears little or no resemblence at all to any WW1 monoplane fighter....

Tuesday Night: It's been 30C here most of the day with a breeze, but it dropped about 8-30pm, so about 8-40 I took the T Rex helicopter for a flight, it stood out with the last of the sun, then Lady B, Tiger and finally Piwaka, all flown in order of increased visibility as the light dropped.....

Monday afternoon. Cloudy, 29C. It's been really hot, we had the hottest day I have ever experienced Friday last weekend at 39C.... It was above 36C for four days... and above 33C all week!

The heat seems to have affected the internet hence the reason I have been unable to post, we ccould download, but not upload, which meant even Skype didn't work as no one could hear me! Anyway they fixed it today and now the connection seems faster than ever......

I have been making a new model, it is based on the Hobby King Pioneer, but larger and made of wood not foam....

    
Here is the models fusealgae with the electric motor fitted.....

The fin and tail are all built up out of 6mm very light balsa, I was very pleased with the standard of my woodwork....

Here is the model assembeld for the first time, lots of work to do yet!

The wooden airframe is complete, but there is a lot more to do, the wing centre section has a rigging stantion as well as a cockpit, then the undercart, the lower rigging stantion, the rigging, horns, hinges, servo's pushrods, covering...... weeks yet.

The cowl is from a drinking water bottle, just happened to be an exact fit... i painted it grey on the inside and it gives a nice light green effect throught the plastic....

Thursday Night: been 35C here today, it's now 28C and feels cooler. Mid Summer, my half birthday, I'm 57.5, 3/4 of the way through my 50's......

It's hot, very hot, been clear and sunny and very warm for the last two weeks already and is set to continue..... We were promised rain a few days ago, but it was nothing. We have been going to Benidorm for the radiation, we got there last Friday to find it cancelled and because of that they have stuck two more on the end, so we haven't finished yet until tomorrow....

Saturday Night: Here are some pictures for now if you see this, then please come back for more on this post...

Big Fire in Calpe Friday

The planes were flying over our rooftops on their way to get water from the Guadalest lake, 5 mins each way.....

I added the footrails to the Jet Ranger which is 1/12th scale, seen with Steve and Maria )also 1/12th scale...

Saturday Afternoon: Hot, 30C, easterly wind and getting quite strong now, clear and sunny..... We have just got back from Maria's, Beccie has gone to Alicante with Antony and is staying at the apartment again for the weekend.

I went down the road to Maria's earlier to book our table and they asked me if I was going to fly today, so I went home and put on a little flying display for them with Lady B and luckily just before the afternoon wind came up....

Wednesday Night: Mostly sunny, warm 29C, long periods with no wind this evening, so I got to fly lots.

We got the nod from Benidorm on Thursday that the radiotherapy was going to start Monday, bit short notice which put everyone in a spin, but the slot they have given us seems to work OK and today it was all over in 20 minutes....

The week has been mostly sunny and warm, some windy days and some calmer ones. Antony had bought his helicopter over so on Sunday evening we had a flying session. It has been calming down most evenings in the last week so I have been flying more often again, I even flew the SE5A tonight.

The weeds and grass on the terraces had grown to up to 400m again, but it's so dry now most things have seeded or died..... I wanted to mow it before I flew today, I only did the strip, so it really looks like a runway now......

I am really enjoying flying the T Rex Pro, I finally overcame my fear of letting it fly free and have been charging around the sky like I used to do in years gone by with my NZ helicopters....

I made the pitch adjustments needed on the Jet Ranger and it flew properly for the first time. Now it's sorted out it's very nice indeed. I asked Beccie to take some pictures of it using my camera whilst I flew the model, here are the results.....

The Jet Ranger is 30" long and is 1/12th scale

A real one of these flew over the other day, it was very low and if I had taken a picture, it would have been hard to telll them apart........

During the weekend I carried on with Jackson's making the slates for the roof using the impress method.

Next I have to add the gutters and drains as well as the flashing for the dormers and chimneys, then the best bit, dirtying down.....

Don't mind me I'm just ruining your picture..... Tammy normally turns away when there's a camera pointing at her, but it didn't work today!

Eventually the picture......