Model planes 1990-1999

1 1990 Encore I finally have a house and a workshop with which to resume my model building.	2 1990 Encore The wing is from one of Bob Whitely's Lasers that he crashed at a contest in Arizona in 1988. To save building time, I bring the wing back with me and use it in the first Encore.	3 1990 Encore It is a little heavy but incorporates a 55/45 low aspect ratio stab/elevator for the first time. It is powered by an ST60.	4 1990 Encore Ted and Shareen Fancher visit us shortly after the plane is finished and Ted carries out the trimming flights.
5 1990 Encore It came to a horrible end - one of the few planes I've crashed through pilot error. It was at KMFC and I lost sight of it in the sun. Milliseconds later, the pieces floated like confetti across the flying field. Guy Bevan collected the pieces, rebuilt it, and got years more service from it.	6 1990 Encore Brian Eather kindly gives me a Firecracker to use in the interim. I ran Brian's plane with an ST60 with a Bolly tuned pipe. Impressed with the combination, I press forward and build Encore II with an inclined engine to accommodate the tuned pipe.	7 1990 Encore II Masked off and ready for the gold paint.	8 1990 Encore II The dimensions are very similar to the original Encore. It has a coat of clear, ink lines and is one of my better finished models.
9 1990 Encore II Even though it is very well built, it flies like a dog. It seems the offset engine destroys its balance in some way and it hinges violently in one direction. I give the plane to Ian Smith to use as an engine test mule and, when he converts the front to standard, the hinging stops.	10 1991 Encore III Encore III under construction.	11 1991 Encore III Encore III still uses an ST60 on pipe and is quite a nice aeroplane. Like it's predecessors, it uses a 720 sq in foam wing (60" span, 12" M.A.C.)	12 1991 Encore III This plane experiments with the wing and tail on the same centreline. The pipe hanging underneath looks quite ugly. I had yet to discover Randy Smith's wrap around header for the ST60.
13 1991 Encore III It comes to a sticky end when a solid leadout breaks and the plane crashes. The first three Encores were all short lived. Since this control failure, I use only .027 seven strand cable for the leadouts.	14 1992 Southern Angel Still sticking with an ST60 on pipe, I decide that the wing should be larger and scale it up to 750 sq ins.	15 1992 Southern Angel It has a removable wing and a home made header that takes the pipe underneath the fuselage. It was built to compete in the 1992 US Nationals.	16 1992 State Titles It flies very well and goes within a smidgeon of winning the NSW State Titles. However, that was in calm air. I'm posing with the other KMFC fliers, John Elias and Dennis Percival.
17 1992 Southern Angel at the US Nationals I travel to the USA to compete in the US Nationals with my old travelling companions, Brian and Val Eather. Bob Whitely's Showtime is the other plane in the picture. Sue Whitely described the plane thus: "It looks as though Walt Disney threw up all over it".	18 1992 Southern Angel We rent a van in LA and have enough room to carry the Showtime with us all the way to Chicopee, Massachusetts on the east coast of the USA. This is Brian's and my fourth drive across the USA together: 1984 World Championships Chicopee, MA; 1987 Nationals Lake Charles, LA; 1988 Nationals Chicopee, MA and now Virginia Beach, VA.	19 1992 Southern Angel at the US Nationals in Chicopee. Sadly, I don't know enough about trimming a model to fly in the wind and the whole experience is a disaster. I vow this is my last top-level contest.	20 Late 1992 Southern Angel Southern Angel also causes me some grief at the 1992 Bundaberg Nationals when I stick my hand into the propeller and finish up judging instead. I sell the plane shortly after.
21 1993 Encore 4 This is the first truly successful plane to carry the Encore name. It is based on Ted Fancher's Trivial Pursuit and has identical dimensions.	22 1993 Encore 4 It is powered by an OS46 VFR on one of Brian Eather's early generation tuned pipes. It has a 660 sq in foam wing and weighs 64 oz.	23 Encore 4 at the 1993 Wagga Nationals Here Encore 4 poses with Brian Eather's Firecracker. Brian's plane also uses an OS46 on pipe.	24 Encore 4 at the 1993 Wagga Nationals The hot, windy conditions expose a severe weakness in the setup, one that causes us both to place much lower than we should have: the engine would flame out during a square inside corner. A permanent cure is later found by fitting an AAC piston/liner set.
25 George Aldrich at the 1993 Wagga Nationals George came to Australia as the guest of Australian modellers who contributed to his expenses. He doesn't like the way my Encore 4 flies because it is too fast and too noisy. He likes the slow speed 4-2-4 switching run for which he is famous.	26 1994 Encore 5 This is another Trivial Pursuit based plane. Reg Towell has a theory that you should keep taking weight out until it breaks then put some back in. This is that plane.	27 1994 Encore 5 I also have a control failure when the 4-40 turnbuckle in the pushrod breaks. After repairs, it is too heavy to carry a pipe so I give it to Dennis Percival who uses it with a ST60 with muffler. Dennis then gives it to Paul Kenny who has many years of service out of it.	28 1994 Encore 6 This is another foam winged Trivial Pursuit-based aeroplane. It is 64 ounces and flies brilliantly in all kinds of windy and rainy weather.
29 1994 Encore 6 It has an OS46 with an AAC piston/liner on tuned pipe with one of Brian Eather's newly developed UCT props.	30 1994 Encore 6 At a contest in Narromine NSW with Paul Turner and Reg Towell. Looks like I placed somewhere.	31 1994 Encore 6 At a contest in Tamworth with Herb Hanna and Reg Towell. The plane flies so well that I regret not putting a decent finish on it. So I sand it back and leave it on the painting jig ready for paint. Then the cat jumps on it and completely destroys the plane as she struggles for grip. The cat lived.	32 1994 Encore Fleet Encores, from top to bottom, 6, 4 and 5.
33 1995 Encore 4 This is the Encore 4 with a new paint job. With this plane I start to develop the paint scheme based around the Australian flag. This plane also places well in Brian Gardner's hands at the NSW State Titles.	34 1996 Encore 7 Encore 7 is the last in the Encore series. It is powered by A PA51 on pipe and it flies extremely well in all conditions. It is the last foam wing that I build before switching to built-up wings. It further develops the Australian flag scheme but it still doesn't look quite right to my eye; so I reverse the flag motif to narrow at the front and wider at the rear (like the bow wave of a boat)	35 1996 Encore 7 and Thunderbird Dennis Percival builds the Thunderbird for me and I put the paint on. The Thunderbird is powered by an ST46 and has a removable fin for easy transport.	36 1996 Thunderbird It flies very well and I am continuously to enjoy lots of hilarious comments about how much better it flies than my piped models. My intention is to take this plane to the 1996 Vintage Stunt Contest (VSC) in Tucson, Arizona.
37 1996 Thunderbird Unfortunately, the only part that I'd built, the bellcrank, wore through at the leadouts and the plane crashed and was destroyed. Even sadder, it happened at Narromine when we went to farewell Ron Malcolm who was dying of cancer. He never got to see it fly.	38 1996 VSC My Thunderbird was destroyed so Jim Armour very kindly loans me his Ares. I'm standing here with David Midgely who is one of the finest builders I've ever met. We travelled to the VSC with Bonnie & Dennis Percival.	39 1996 VSC At this meeting I renew a lot of old friendships: here with Bob Palmer. Hmmm. My weight seems to be creeping up. Claus Maikis is looking on in the background. We'd met a few years earlier at the 1984 Championships in Chicopee MA.	40 1996 VSC Here, I'm launching Claus' beautifully decorated Bob Palmer designed Smoothie.
41 1996 VSC I meet a legend of the model airplane fraternity, Ed Southwick, and I interview him about his life in modelling. Ed was a very humble, extremely nice man who was killed in a car crash a couple of years later. He is sadly missed.	42 1998 VSC Thunderbird I build this Thunderbird especially for the 1998 VSC. This time I am fully prepared with a plane that flies very well. Engine is an OS40FP. The VSC is blown out and cancelled and I never fly an official flight. Bonnie Percival and her Dad accompany us as before.	43 1998 Super Tramp The Super Tramp is a very close copy of the Trivial Pursuit except that I make the wing less thick by taking ¼" out of the thickness.	44 1998 Super Tramp The reason for this is that all of the US designed thick wing planes at the 1995 Ballarat Nationals (including mine) stalled in the rain. Reducing the wing thickness eliminated this problem.
45 1998 Super Tramp This is easily the best plane of the Trivial Pursuit-inspired planes that I have built. Among the reasons are: PA61 on later model Eather pipe, Brian's new 12½" prop and three ounces lighter than the foam winged aeroplanes.	46 1998 Super Tramp It exists today (late 2008) and is probably still my best aeroplane. It still has the PA61 which continues to run flawlessly. The only update is a different Eather propeller which has improved the performance by a small but noticeable amount.	47 1998 Super Tramp Then I go into a deep slumber and don't get interested in model planes again until 2006.	48 And this is the reason I fall deeply in love with motorcycles again. I get to be very good at riding motorcycles and very poor at flying model planes. I don't attend a contest of any kind until 8 years later. This is me at Turn 2 at Eastern Creek in 2002 on my beloved 2001 Honda 929 Fireblade. She's gone now and I miss her still.