Not all Spitfires are that bad

After reading the last newsletters article “the Spitfire saga for the last time” I thought some members might be interested in a spitfire that I built about 18 months ago.
I purchased the kit from Cambrian Direct after reading in their brochure that it’s a nice stable model with a “quite forgiving stall”.

There seems to be a lot of work involved when you start to read the instructions but when you get started it takes shape quite quickly. The instructions are really clear and everything does fit. Cambrian recommend covering the whole airframe in glass cloth and finishing with flair paint, I kept telling myself all this time consuming finishing will pay off because it’s much tougher than iron on film and it lasts ages, but I couldn’t stop thinking this is a scale Spit and it’s going to crash!

Then came test flight day (mid may 2001) half scared to death shaking like a leaf I sent it down the strip at the DK (the Halesowen field is my usual site but it was closed due to foot and mouth). With the Thunder Tiger 91 FS purring the model left the ground and climbed away responding to every command. During the fifteen-minute flight it flew beautifully but there was a problem, it was nose heavy. I’m flying on full up trim, the tick over is running too fast (new engine) and I can’t slow it down enough to land.

After three or four aborted landings I’m starting to panic, holding a bit of up elevator on the final turn I managed to find that “forgiving stall” and in true Spitfire tradition it crashed!

By some amazing twist of fait the only damage was a completely shattered cowl and sheared wing bolts. A few weeks later with a new cowl, carefully set tick over and a lot of care adjusting the C of G, It was ready to go again.

This time I waited until the Halesowen field was open. I picked a still day and waited until I had the strip to myself, again shaking like a leaf I sent it screaming down the runway and as before it climbed away beautifully, only this time it didn’t need trimming. I spent the whole flight exploring the speed range and practicing landing approaches, when I eventually decided to land, it sailed in steady as a rock, nice and slow. I could have saved myself a lot of hassle if I’d taken a little more care on the initial set up, oh well you live and learn!! I can safely say this is one spitfire that flies really well (as long as you set it up correctly)!!!

Cambrian Spitfire MK 22/24 1/7th scale, 63 in span

· Fitted with air operated retract units
· Thunder Tiger 91 four stroke
· Navigation lights (high intensity LED’s)