May 2020

From the Editor - May 1st , 2020

Hooray, hooray, the first of May, as we used to chant back in my long-ago schooldays! However, there's somewhat less reason than usual to cheer this year due to the ongoing and tedious but very necessary self-isolation regimen which a great many of us are now following.

On the one hand, the weather is definitely improving. However, there's a downside - good weather makes it all the harder to maintain the self-discipline needed to continue the fight against COVID-19. I foresee a renewed surge of infections as peoples' resolve becomes weakened by the temptations presented by the coming Spring and Summer seasons as well as the uninformed urgings of our political leaders, at least here in the Northern Hemisphere.

Oh well, on to happier things! On the website front, there's nothing but good news. I have regained access to my user statistics, thus once again having an accurate record of the interest which this website is attracting. I've also retained full control of the content which appears on the site. So it's all systems go - the transition to the new host finally seems to be complete. 

The new stats reporting system is somewhat different and (it must be admitted) a lot more useful. It appears to count visits on a more rigorous basis, because the visit numbers are significantly down compared to those reported by the old system. It may only be counting visits during which pages other than the home page are accessed, thus not counting vists from disinterested people who just stumble across the site. Whatever the truth, from here on the reporting will at least be consistent. 

To give you some idea, the system reports a total of 481,479 hits in March 2020, resulting in 4,582 visits accessing 24,842 pages - an average of 5.4 pages per visit. Most informatively, the new system reports that these visits came from 2,390 unique visitors - a statistic that was previously unavailable. What this means is that 2,390 different individuals made use of the site, most of them visiting more than once.

Happily, the numbers for April 2020 reflect an upward trend! The total of 505,456 hits for April was only up a little, but these hits resulted in 5,031 visits accessing 44,415 pages - a significantly increased average of 8.8 pages per visit. These visits came from 2,613 unique visitors, also an increase from the March figure. This means that 2,613 different individuals made use of the site, most of them yet again visiting more than once. These are quite encouraging figures - the site is clearly receiving plenty of attention!

Regular readers will recall that during the period over which I had no access to user statistics I became concerned regarding the extent to which my efforts were contributing to peoples' well-being given the other challenges now facing us all. I went so far as to request feedback on this topic. This is a very clear case of the wisdom of being careful what you ask for - you may get it! The flood of messages of support from all over the world that resulted from that request was absolutely mind-blowing! I honestly had no idea that my work was appreciated to the extent that it seems to be! Thank you, one and all! I get the message loud and clear, and will carry on for as long as I'm able to do so.

Having expressed my thanks for those messages, I can't stop there! Noting that the maintenance of this site involves considerable ongoing expense with the occasional major financial hit, my great friend Peter Valicek went to the trouble of setting up a donation site on Facebook, inviting fellow readers of my work to contribute to the costs of maintaining my website. Peter did this entirely on his own initiative - I didn't even know about this until he told me after the fact that he'd done it! His efforts raised over Cnd$800, which he sent to me as a gift from himself and his fellow readers.

It's impossible for me to convey my thanks adequately - I can't find the words to express my feelings. I suppose that all I can do is offer my heartfelt thanks to everyone who contributed and assure all of you that the money will really help to keep things going. I suppose that the best thanks that I can offer is a continuation of the articles which appear every month in these pages. I will keep them coming for as long as I'm able to do so. At present I see no limits to the range of possible subjects.

Setting aside such unexpected generosity, my favourite kind of feedback from any of the articles which appear here is when someone contacts me to share a memory that was triggered by a particular article or to set me straight on some of the content. Last month's piece on the M.S. diesels from Newcastle-on Tyne in England was a case in point. That shop appears to have occupied the same position for Northern modellers as Henry J. Nicholl’s famous London shop did for those in the South. Consequently, the Model Shop seems to have stayed in the memories of many present and past residents of northern England.

A number of you wrote in to share your recollections. I thought that I'd share a couple of them here. My favourite came from Allan Brown, who retained very clear recollections of visiting the shop in the early 1960’s. Allan’s cousin Bill Lee, four years his senior, was a prominent member of the Novocastrian (Newcastle) model club (of which Allan is still a member). Bill flew free flight power with Ramrods and Dreamweavers. Allan had similar aspirations but only a D-C Bantam to play with at the time. More prod required ............!

At the time, Allan lived in a village near Sunderland. Although the Model Shop in Newcastle was only a bus ride away, that trip required the expenditure of funds that could be better used to purchase model building materials at more local shops. However, Bill Lee eventually took Allan with him to visit the Model Shop in Newcastle. This was the Blenheim Street location, with three floors all dedicated to modelling of every sort. This was Allan’s first visit, and he was impressed - the stock of balsa wood was mind blowing! A modeller's Aladdin's Cave!

Some two years later Allan had developed into a 15 year old "experienced aeromodeller who knew it all" - his own words. We’ve all been there ……in fact, some of us still are! Anyway, needing some stuff, Allan made a return visit to the Model Shop, where an old chap greeted him and asked if he needed help. With all the arrogance of youth, Allan assumed that this worthy would know little about the needs of up-to-date young modellers, testing him by going through his list of modelling requirements which he expected would stump the old fellow. However, his "victim" patiently and efficiently filled all of his needs. Thinking to finally put the old chap in his place, Allan said with a knowing chuckle "I also need something that I doubt you have - a conrod for a Mills 1.3". Got him there, thought young Allan!

The old chap calmly turned to a wall of little drawers behind the counter and pulled one out, placing it on the counter and asking how many Allan needed. The drawer was full to the brim with Mills 1.3 conrods, all made in house by M.S.! Another lesson learned! Feeling rather deflated, Allan said “Just one”, paid up and left with his tail between his legs.

Of course the "old chap" was Charlie Lutman!  Allan reckons that he probably knew more about models and modelling back then than Allan does today!

The Lutman family were big supporters of aeromodelling in their area. During the 1950’s they inaugurated the Lutman Cup, a high-class silver trophy which was awarded annually to the top north-east area free flight power competitor. Later it was awarded to the best all-round competitor in a north-eastern event. Allan’s cousin Bill Lee won it more than once.

A few years ago, Allan himself was fortunate enough to win the Cup (albeit not to take home - too valuable a Lutman family heirloom!). He achieved this by running himself ragged at the relevant contest, flying in a number of events. The Cup was formally presented to Allan by none other than Pat Lutman (Charlie’s daughter-in-law and one-time store manager), along with one of her water colours of the castle on Holy Island. Allan couldn’t take the Cup home, but the painting hangs on his living room wall to this day. The Cup has not been awarded for some time now, but remains the property of the Lutman family.

Don Imre also wrote in to say that the M.S. article touched a few memories for him as well. When he went into sales in 1979, his employer had an office on the Team Valley Trading Estate. Don was unaware of the former presence of M.S. on the Estate. However, he did visit the Model Shop, spending some enjoyable hours rummaging through the cupboards and drawers on the upstairs floors which were filled with all sorts of obscure engine spares.

Much later when Don had become involved in jet flying, he found himself competing with his FIAT G91 in the Geordie Nationals (Geordie being a colloquial term for anyone from Newcastle), not far from Team Valley at RAF Ouston near Hadrian’s wall (now Albemarle Barracks). The Contest Director told Don that he might have won the Scale event, but because he had no static details on the G91 he only received flying points, hence coming in second. He was fine with this, even more so because Charlie Lutman’s aforementioned daughter-in-law Pat Lutman presented the trophies! Don had met her years earlier when visiting the Model Shop, noting that she was very easy on the eye! He recalled thinking at the time that under the appropriate circumstances he could have got into a LOT of trouble with that lady! It was a real pleasure to renew Auld Acquaintance! Ah, the reflections cast up by our mis-spent youths.........those are the good memories!

I also heard from Miles Patience, who was able to supply another serial number for the M.S. 1.24 cc model, also drawing my attention to the 1948 Olympic "Nancy" control line kit which included the M.S. 1.24 cc model as one of its recommended powerplants. You've got to love the somewhat risqué style of that box label! Very daring for 1948 - must have sold a few kits!

Furthemore, Miles put me in touch with Graham Podd, who was not only able to supply another M.S. 2.5 cc serial number but was also able to clear up a great deal of confusion on my part regarding that engine's structure. Graham did this by sending along a photo by John Towell of his own example of the M.S. 2.5 cc model in component form. The information which this has yielded has forced me to undertake a significant rewrite of the description of that particular unit. My sincere thanks for this assistance! I've also been able to add additional details regarding the involvement of the Model Shop in kit production.

Finally, Ken Croft contacted me to correct an illustration which was wrongly captioned, also confirming the serial number reported by Miles Patience. Lots of changes - if you're at all interested in the M.S. venture, that article is now worth re-reading!

Now back for a moment to the boring stuff, with a note which has unfortunately had to continue to be a regular feature of these Editorials. This one is directed specifically towards new readers - old hands should skip down past the emoji to the following sections.
 
Despite my repeated admonitions not to do so, people are continuing to try to register on this website. The numbers have fallen, but it's still happening even after all this time. As I've previously stated time and time again, this has absolutely no effect - it's simply an artefact left over from the generic platform's primary intended use as an on-line sales site. Since this is not a sales site, the registration feature is redundant and I make no use of it whatsoever.

So why is it still there?!? Well, before anyone else asks (and quite a few well-meaning souls already have!), I've thoroughly explored the possibility of removing or at least blocking this feature, but it can't be done without extensive (and very expensive) custom modification to the otherwise very useable generic platform which came as a ready-to-use over-the-counter package, thus keeping the costs and complexities manageable. So we're stuck with this feature.

The bottom line therefore remains - please don't bother trying to register! Doing so accomplishes nothing apart from creating unnecessary cyber-clutter, which I definitely don't need!
 
Sadly, I now have to report yet another departure from among our midst. This time it's John Brodak, who was the last man standing among manufacturers of control line equipment in the USA. John passed away in Morgantown, West Virginia on April 25th, 2020 at the age of 81 years after a lengthy illness. He will be very sorely missed by his friends and family as well as by the entire control-line community of which he was such an important part. A full obituary may be found here.  

As a direct result of my request for reader feedback last time, the mail-box has been worked very hard indeed this month! Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, people are clearly remaining very much engaged. I heard from quite a few of you during April, including (in no particular order) Peter Valicek, Allan Brown, Maris Dislers, Alex Phin, Alan Strutt, Dave Jones, Luis Petersen, John Dixon, Derek Heaton, Neil McRae, Pierre Alberola, Michel Rosanoff, Graham Podd, Andreas Jaeger, Peter Rathke, Peter Metcalfe, Don Imrie, Dave Zwolak, Simon Blake, Michael Rhemus, Per Byrgren, Bill Wells, Miles Patience, Ken Croft, Geoff Peacock, Jim Woodside, Tim Dannels, Ed Holly, Alistair Bostrom, Ron Miller, Ricky Bould, Jim Conery, David Farmer, Randall Ryan, Gig Verlander, Antonio Tafuto, "Tug" Wilson, Max Tenet, Peter Gain, Tom Coletta, Paul Smigelski, Simon Jojin and Don Sohn. Whew!! Apologies to anyone whom I may have inadvertently missed in the crowd! The blog site has also continued to justify its existence by generating a small but steady flow of relevant traffic - thanks for that.

One of the things that I've tried to do through this website is to make my readers aware of available sources of information on the model engines that we all love. My recent research into several French model engine marques has greatly heightened my appreciation of another such resource. This is Michel Rosanoff's outstanding Retroplane forum, an invaluable source of information on model engines in general and French model engines in particular.

Although presented in French, the information on this forum may easily be rendered into comprehensible English using current translation software. Many high quality images of very rare French engines appear on this site, along with a good deal of information and related images about engines from other countries. I have frequently consulted Michel’s outstanding work during the preparation of various articles on French model engines, also periodically using images extracted from the forum with Michel’s kind permission. A visit is highly recommended! I've added Michel's site to my Sources listings. 

For some time now I've been directing readers' attention to the offering of engines from the collection of the late Paul Rossiter of England which may be found here on this website. Until recently it was going very well - most of the listed engines have now sold, but a few remain available at what I consider to be very fair prices. However, the current pandemic situation has created immense challenges in sending engines through the Postal service. Accordingly, for the present time sales have had to be suspended. You can still contact me either directly or through the blog site to register an interest, but no money will change hands or engines be sent out until normal postal service is resumed. Our apologies for the inconvenience.

I've previously mentioned having continued testing at some level despite the current pandemic situation - the neighbours simply have to put up with me! Another interesting engine that I did get around to testing during April was an MK-12S 2.5 cc diesel from 1955 Russia. This was sent my way by my valued mate Peter Valicek. It proved to be a far stronger performer than I had been expecting, also showing itself to be quite well made. I'll have a full review and test report in an upcoming issue. Meanwhile, I've added the MK-12S to the Gallery.
 
While on the subject of testing, I'm afraid that I have to report a rather unhappy incident arising from my testing activities. I was testing a RITM 2.46 cc team race diesel from Kiev in the Ukraine for a planned future article when disaster struck! The engine was making a fast run at over 16,000 rpm on a 7x4 APC prop when I reached down with my left hand to make an adjustment. Just as I did so, the RITM suddenly came lose on the right bearer, snapped round on the left bearer security pin and got me with the prop. Happened like lightning - no time to react.
 
Those APC props are pretty much like knife blades .....you can imagine the result. I received a mega-deep 9 cm long cut at the joint of my left thumb, requiring a trip to the hospital to get 9 stitches put in. I was extremely lucky - if it had got the tendon (which it nearly did), there would be no more guitar playing for me! As it is, I don't appear to have lost any function or feeling in the affected thumb.
 
Moral of the story - check that the test stand clamps remain tight before every run, as I clearly should have done. Also, wear Kevlar gloves whenever possible. I have them - I just didn't use them! Finally, keep an old rag handy to throw into the prop to stop the engine if you see that it's coming loose while running - don't reach in to try to sort it on the run, because it can flip around instantly with no warning - you just don't know what it's going to do. The rag trick doesn't harm the engine - it merely stops it. I used to use it quite a bit during warm-ups in my old days as a team race and combat pit man.
 
Now I just have to hope that my enforced breach of self-isolation didn't result in my picking up the COVID-19 virus.......... The chances of that are relatively slim, because British Columbia is among the best jurisdictions in the world at having brought the number of infections down through self-isolation, with which most residents have  cooperated fully. It has worked - indeed, until we get a vaccine it's the only thing that does, whatever some people may choose to believe or promote for their own interests. 
 
A welcome arrival in my mailbox every month is the latest issue of "Aero Modeller" magazine, now up to its 995th issue and closing in on the magic 1000 issue mark. Issue no. 995 for April 2020 contains (among other interesting articles) the first part of a multi-issue series by by Stuart Marsden on the life and work of Henry J. Nicholls, founder of perhaps Britain's best remembered model shop at 308 Holloway Road in London. What a life - musician, photographer, culinary expert, soldier (attaining the rank of Major), competitor, model shop owner and manufacturer - Henry J. did it all!  There's also a fascinating look-back by Maris Dislers at the models which won the Gold Trophy for control line stunt during the early years of that British competition. This features photographs by Ian Smith of his fine reproductions of all the models discussed. If you aren't an "Aero Modeller" subscriber, you're really missing out!

Turning now to this month's feature article, we re-visit early post WW2 Japan to take a really close look at one of the rarest engines to emerge from the O.S. factory - the sandcast twin-stack O.S. 29 sparker of 1948. This engine has been the subject of an earlier article on MEN, but that article did not include a full bench test. This month's feature addresses that deficiency in addition to adding a fair bit of updated information. As you'll learn, the engine proved to be an outstanding performer for a plain bearing spark ignition engine of its time and place! There's also an interesting American connection.

Since many of us are still maintaining self-isolation, I felt that you might appreciate a little extra reading material this month. Accordingly, I've added an extra article about another of Gordon Cornell's one-off masterpieces - his wonderful TR 247 team race diesel of 1960. I've covered his earlier TR 148 design in a separate article.
 
The TR 247 is particularly significant from a team race standpoint in terms of its application of the "inside-out" rear drum valve which Gordon called the "centrifugal" drum valve system. This design approach was later widely adopted, being developed by HP and others into the "bell valve" arrangement which became very popular during the late 1960's and early to mid 1970's. Although the concept had previously been applied to the FROG 349, Gordon appears to have been the first designer to apply it to a team race diesel. He used this actual engine (of which only this one example was ever made) in the 1960 British National Championship meeting, unfortunately without making the final. I think you'll enjoy learning about this fascinating and historic design!
 
For next month, i reckon it's about time that I returned to America for a look at another of the classic model engine ranges from that country which spanned the period both before and after WW2. I'll be taking an in-depth look at the Cannon range from Cleveland, Ohio.
 
We've met one of the main protagonists of this range before in the person of Everett DeLong. I've dealt with the prototype DeLong 29 diesel in a separate article to be found elsewhere on this website. DeLong's involvement with the Cannon range preceded the appearance of his well-known DeLong engines by some years, going back to 1939. Next month's article will include full coverage of DeLong's activities prior to his establishing the Super Motors company which manufactured the DeLong engines. Full tests of several Cannon models will be included. I'm sure that you'll find it interesting - I know that I did!

I think that's it for now. All being well, I plan to be back with another issue on or about June 1st, 2020. Meanwhile, please accept my continuing best wishes for making it safely through the present pandemic situation. The heady aroma of diesel fumes, sparkie smoke or burning nitro may be a bit more challenging to experience at this time, but I hope that at least some of you find an opportunity to get your fixes! Take care and stay well!! 

Cheers, 

Adrian Duncan 

British Columbia, Canada

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Note regarding material to be found on this site - unless specifically otherwise noted, all images and text which appear on this site are my own work, and I hereby assert my right to be recognized as the originator of this material. For the record, this material is made freely available to all upon two firm conditions:

  1. No commercial use of any kind is to be made of any of the images or text posted on this site without my express written consent.
  2.  No use of any kind, commercial or otherwise, is to be made of any material published in any form on this site without full and open acknowledgement of the source.

Adrian C. Duncan

British Columbia, Canada