Ribble Valley MSA PSS meet – 8th May 2005

By Phil Cooke | 8th May 2005 |

Report by Steve Griffiths

Jean-Luc Belon built this example of the XB-70 Valkyrie from the Paul Janssens plans.
It is built to 1/35th scale and has a wingspan of just 36″. This model is fitted with drooping wingtips and working canards (as per the full-size design) It is constructed entirely from balsa and is finished using white film to good effect. Model flies well in moderate lift.

I finished my last report from this venue hoping for a fifth consecutive successful meeting, and we got it! Another good North-Westerly wind, Pendle’s best direction, and it stayed dry. Bliss! Plenty of other pilots turned up, and there were about 21 models on the slope.

Jean-Luc Belon brought his Me-110 and his newest creation, an XB-70 Valkyrie to approximately 1:35 scale, complete with wingtips that turned down in flight. These later proved to be lift-dumpers, but otherwise appeared to exhibit no untoward effects. The model is all balsa, spanning just under 36″, but is over 51″ in length. It is built from a plan by Paul Janssens, and has a generous wing area of 540sq. in; the wing section is not known. Jean-Luc had arranged the canard to operate in conjunction with the elevators. It needed a couple of flights and balance adjustments to get it to fly reasonably well, and it looked very good in the air!

Steve Kemp had been around those car boot sales again and picked up a Balsacraft Grumman Bearcat for just £15.

After some renovation work and a re-spray with car paint it is as good as new! At 45″ span it has an AUW of 44oz, and is another example of a model designed for electric flight making a good PSS subject.

Ron Davies’ P-51B Mustang is, if my rather sketchy notes have jogged my memory correctly, a fuselage from a power model on some wings from an old Me-109: quite convincing, nonetheless, and a good flier. It spans 43″ was decorated as a machine from the Italian theatre in 1944, complete with chequerboard tail feathers. Ron also had a DH.88 Comet of 75″ span, built from a plan, of all balsa construction on a veneered foam wing. It weighed 5 1/2lb.

Simon Hardman picked the event winners, which were