Phillip is currently working hard to get the H1 ready for Saturday. I have given Phillip all the moral support that I can to help to get this baby of the drawing board . The paint finish on this model is really good.

But I would really like to see this one flying as well. Tonight the servos and linkages will be fitted. Now that is what I call cutting it fine .Once again well done Phillip!!!.

PS ( the blue on the wing is defiantly related to some support for the bulls --- and the orange, white and blue Glen’s Impala ? --something to do with the Cheetahs ?

Ready for the Mountains, Man And Machine

Piet and the Slope Aero Commander ( finish at last)

Today exactly 40 day’s ago I started with the Rockwell Aero Commander PSS project, and I can now say that it was a very challenging experience for me.

This morning I was up at 5am to complete the 2 main dummy under carriages, after all it has to stand on it own legs before it can take to the air. The Blog and posting that I did kept me focused and although I made many mistakes and were I would normally gave it up for a bad job I carried on thanks to Glen, Izak, Deon, Mike, Mark, Evan and ever one else that did leave comments on the Blog that kept me going.



I sincerely hope that the wind will blow this weekend and that I will at least have a good chance to fly the Aero Commander. This for me will be the cherry on top of the cake so by Monday we will know and like Mike said It is now a Fly or Die situation.

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(Photo Above)

The Slope Aero Commander standig on it's own three feet.

Like with many a model RC glider that I have maiden before one has all these questions in your head , like is it to heavy?, hope I have the CG right place?, will the control movements be ok?.

But for now I am taking out tonight , my ever so understanding wife ,Jenny for a well deserve dinner, that had to put up with me being more in the workshop over weekends and working on the Aero Commander at strange hours of the night and mornings. The worse case occurred when on the 18th of September forgot all about or 33rd wedding anniversary and I promised my co-worker Phillip Otto that I will help to cut his wings that night (but I somehow survived the situation ) and hope that I can make up for it tonight.



To all the other crowd (ETB and DMAC and many other builders) that burned the midnight oil and worked by the MOB clock that Izak put on the ETB Blog, I hope all your planes be ready for the PSS weekend and that all your efforts will be rewarded.





(Photo Above Right)
Piet - Pondering over the Aero Comander. Is it to heavy?, hope I have the CG right place?, will the control movements be ok?.

PS. (Photo’s of Piet and the Aero Commander kindly taken by my wife Jenny.)

Hughes Progress

Albatross Letov L-39 P.S.S.

A quick look at the Berg Blog and you can see the BERGIES are all very enthused with the PSS event next weekend at Volksrust.











What really stands out is the wide range of aircraft types that will be seen on the slope during this event.
With only days to go its time for final finishing and setup of servo's , balancing and radio programming, then its off to the slope to throw these planes ..they gonna fly or die.



I finished of my sons Blakes plane this weekend and although I only started it last weekend its the first one RTF.


a bit of "out of the box thinking" here I know its going to belly land so to protect the control arms I set the servo's up in the fuselage jet nacelles and direct drive to the control horns on top of the wings.


This is a smallish plane but the weight is ok at
950 grams all up weight.






The proud new owner with his new toy.

I hope they all fly and we have good winds next weekend.

Rockwell Aero Commander- Adding the finishing touches

With only 5 day’s left I am just about done with this build only the engine cowlings need
to be mounted in there correct positions.








Dummy props and undercarriage will be remove before launching. So far 35 days has come and gone since I have started this project.





For what it is worth I have collect the following data.

Wing Span : 2.4 Meters (100 inches)
Wing Area: 1000 sq inches +/- 6.3 sq feet.
Wing AR =9
Wight: 3.3 to 3.5 Kg 7 to 8 Lb
Wing Loading : 18 to 22 oz /sq feet







Radio : 4ch rudder,elevator,ailerons and flaps.
Battery: 4.5 A/h ,5 cell nicad.
Power : Needs lots of wind on Volkies this Saturday so wish me good luck as I go.


Tony came around to show me his GWS Spitfire that he finished of and is ready for the slope on Saturday.
This model is cast out of foam and any paint that is used must be “ foam friendly ” as not to attack and melt the foam. Nice paint job Tony.

Hughes Progress

Phillip's Secret Wepon

The Hughes H1 Racer.

Gotta see this one for sure.

Good luck Ph'lip.

101 Things to do with Carbon Fibre

Let it not be said that the Berg-blog does not bring varied and interesting content, all pretty much centered around the many facets of radio control , model gliding.

The number of visitors continues to grow and having just finished our second year ,we see from our statistics over 30,000 pages have been downloaded and September was a record month with 2853 page loads and 1326 unique visitors, our last record was after the Sungazer event in March with 1170 unique visitors and 2530 page loads.

Most encouraging is the number of returning visitors who enjoy our local flying and building

activities, one in particular is the many times returning visitor from Kampala in Uganda, please drop us a comment sometime we are curious to know about your Rc flying in Uganda?

That really applies to anyone really, you are welcome to post a comment, try it , it,s easy.

Oh the heading....how to use carbon fibre to make a KEBAB (sosatie)

Take one extremely sharp carbon fibre splinter

Take one carbon fibre tow re-inforced wing leading edge

Take one piece of sandpaper and start sanding the L.E. round

Make sure your hand moves with sufficient speed.

Pierce the carbon fibre straight through a tender part of your middle finger.

Swear out loud.

Its not a great picture but you can see the entry

point on the right and the splinter sticking out the left.

After trying a local fix, head off to hospital , sit in a waiting room, one of my least favourite things to do on a tuesday evening, pay, pay, pay ,consultation, anti-biotics,pain-killers, and tetinus shot

set my plane back a whole evening.

That piece was embedded right through, not really a splinter more like a branch.

Lesson ...well a sanding block and some more care would have avoided this , final tip do not try to do this repair at home , seek medical help.

Take extra care now.

Mike

Guess the PSS Plane Name Game

This is a famous plane and my co-worker , Phillip Otto is working flat out to have it ready next weekend.
Glen, if you can tell me before anyone else dose I buy you a beer at Volkies next weekend.

Light filler

I found this in my LHS local hardware store not to be confused with LHS local hobby store

Its a ready to use light weight filler, Its very similar to a water soluble filler available at the LHS called Balsa-lite .

Great for filling dings and hollows on your next foam fuselage project.

I will use it from now on.

Shaken not Stirred

Well another busy weekend building PSS aircraft and some more lessons learnt.

I revisited the matt clear coat I had used on the Warthog and which came out all shiney,

I decided to give it a good stir with a long stick and found a thick sediment on the bottom of the tin, this had not mixed in with a good shake, so I gave it a good stir and sprayed up my second Pss Plane a sort of Jet inspired aircraft.

The clear gave a good matt coat and the jet looks good , hope it flies it has strange proportions.

Some feedback on the Warthog it weighs 2.8kg balanced , the Jet f1 as it will be known weighs

1.8kg and will probably balance at about 2kg

In case you were wondering ...it's not an old Zaggi wing but it is a recycled project.

Slope Commander- Part 10

With all the silicone hinging done but the elevators I now started with the servo tray for the rudder and elevator . The aileron servos and Flap servo will be mounted in the wing. More or less on track with this build now and I should be finish by the end of this week.




Hold your breath for the last post on the Slope Aero Commander Part 11

Estcourt Slope Weekend

Is anyone interested to join us on the Friday 31st of October through to Monday the 3rd of November for a Scale and General Fun-Slope-Fly at Estcourt? We will be staying at the Blue Haze Lodge. Lots of B&B in Estcourt.

green = tarred roads
yellow = off-road
blue = quick way to fly-site

A10 WARTHOG PSS PROJECT

Stay back it might bite....

Not to be left out of the PSS craze here is my secret project. (Now no longer a secret)

It has taken me 9 days to build to this stage, using the lost foam method for the fuselage, the wings and tailfeathers are balsa sheeting bagged onto foam and then glassed with 104gr to finish

off. The jet motors are made out of glass carbon around 2 x 2ltr spite bottles sponsered by Charl.

The paint is base coat colour and final coat 2k clear matt, which for some unknown reason has stayed glossy.

I look forward to seeing it in the sky over Volksrust , with a plethora of other warbirds and of course a lone Aero commander struggling to keep up.