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From the Editor – November 2023
At long last we BC residents can see light at the end of the forest fire tunnel – we’ve now had sufficient rain to dampen the ferocity of all but the most aggressive fires. A respite appears to be in the offing …………at least until next year. Looking back, it's sobering to realize that this has been the coolest summer of the rest of our lives …………. As matters stand, things can’t improve – they can only get worse. As long as we voters collectively continue to support the climate change deniers and refuse to place climate change action at the top of the list of voting criteria, the politicians will continue to pay lip service to the issue. It’s down to us …………… but at present I see little evidence of a collective willingness to adjust our sights. Just to offset our relief at the prospect of cooler weather, a new strain of Covid has been making a very strong comeback both here in BC and elsewhere. The impact of this is already being felt in our hospitals, where Covid-related admissions have been climbing rapidly, but the majority of people appear to be remaining in denial, in part because government is continuing to downplay the issue. This being the case, I expect that there will be little check upon the spread of this round of the virus – my friends in the health care business are really concerned. One of my associates is down with a very bad case as I type ...........
Confirmation that a significant number of folks remain engaged with our hobby comes from the fact that the mail box has remained quite active. Despite the many distractions now preying upon us, I heard from quite a few of you during September, including (in no particular order) Peter Valicek, Gordon Beeby, Dave Zwolak, Rich Kacmarsky, Don Imrie, Miles Patience, Andrew Boddington, Luis Petersen, Maris Dislers, Bob Allan, Ted Smith, Alistair Bostrom, Pat Hardy, Dean Clarke, Peter Rathke, Michel Rosanoff, Tim Dannels, Dan Vincent, Richard Tapp, Martin Dilly, Mike Noakes, Bill Bickel, Wynn Paul, Bob Watts, Ron Hiltz, Rich Klopp, Wes Pettinger, Bob Christ and Paul Smigelski. Apologies to anyone whom I may have inadvertently missed in the crowd, and apologies also to anyone whose message(s) went unanswered - things do slip through the cracks, especially when I’m distracted! The blog site has continued to justify its existence by contributing a small but steady flow of relevant traffic - thanks for that. I mentioned last month that I had been experiencing doubts about the value of continuing to expend the time and resources required to keep this website going and growing. I have to say that my valued readers have put me fairly in my place on that score! I received a whole slew of messages from a surprising number of you expressing very clearly the value that you place on my efforts and the heartfelt wish that I continue. I’m extremely grateful and indeed humbled by these expressions of support, and wish to assure you that I have every intention of carrying on with renewed vigor as long as circumstances allow. I have mentioned previously that I’ve been experiencing significant problems with the administrative functions involved in the maintenance of this website. I anticipated that the cost of undertaking the necessary investigation and implementing the required fixes stemming from these problems would be considerable. It turned out to be just that, although happily the problems are now fully resolved after much effort – the site is back to full functionality. Another bullet dodged! Even so, just keeping the site going even when there are no technical issues involves a considerable annual expenditure over and above exceptional expenditures such as this. A number of readers have suggested that I should be tapping my readers for financial support. However, I honestly feel that I can’t do that. In my experience, imposing what would amount to a user fee on any w Others have kindly stepped forward with offers of direct financial assistance. However, while I greatly appreciate these offers, I don’t feel able to accept. Anyone contributing to the costs associated with the site would acquire the right to a say in its development and operation, and I simply don’t wish to go there – I have to retain my autonomy. So I sincerely thank those of you who have offered, but must decline as matters stand. If my position changes, I’ll let you know. I’ve noted previously that the General Discussion thread on my blog site had ceased to function. After great hue and cry, it turned out that the problem arose from the fact that the thread now includes 620 posted comments going all the way back to 2015! The size of this thread had exceeded the maximum capacity of the system for a single thread, hence the failure to continue to respond. My server provider has expanded the allowable capacity to allow the thread to work once again. This is great, but the IT crew have pointed out that the blog site platform is not designed to store decades' worth of comments on a single thread. If nothing changes, the same issue will re-occur in time. An option that I’m now considering is to commence a program of deleting posts that are more than, say, one year old and to keep doing this on a regular basis. This would eliminate the storage of many posts which probably haven’t been read for years. It would also keep the thread focused on active discussions as opposed to becoming an archive, something which it was never intended to be. I’ll be making a decision on this in the near future and will advise of the outcome. Meanwhile, if you are aware of anything of interest to you on that thread, now’s the time to go and find it!
The Readers’ Recollections thread on this website has continued to play very well, growing by leaps and bounds as new material becomes available. During October I was delighted to hear from .09 cuin. model engine guru Dan Vincent, who had a number of matters to share with me. Among these was a very entertaining story about Dan’s long-ago experiences with the McCoy .098 glow-plug motor, an engine It was really great to hear from my valued English friend and colleague Mike Noakes, who has made the study of the Mills engines his speciality. Mike has dug up some fascinating information on the London shop established by Mills Brothers at 2 Victoria Colonnade, Victoria House, Southampton Row, London WC1. It appears that this shop remained in business until at least 1955 – far longer than I had previously believed. Not only that, but the much-modified premises in which the shop was located are still there today, forming part of the Heritage-listed Victoria House building. I’ve added this information to my Mills history article, with my sincere thanks to Mike. In last month’s Editorial I mentioned having had the pleasure of speaking on the phone with Martin Dilly, one of the aeromodelling standouts during my early years in the hobby. Martin has cooperated with David Beales to produce a very informative book My own copy arrived in early October and I have since spent many happy hours perusing its contents. There’s not a lot of information about engines, but the book constitutes a wonderful trip down memory lane to a time when aeromodelling was a real hobby led by real hands-on aeromodellers! I enjoyed it thoroughly, and I’m sure that others would do likewise. I recommend that anybody seeking to re-discover the heart and soul of aeromodelling buy this book! Contact Martin to arrange this.
The .149 diesel model of 1953 was accompanied by an equally rare .06 diesel model. My good mate Maris Dislers put together an OK .06 diesel using a combination of components from several different OK Cub .049 models combined with a modified RJL Cox .049 diesel conversion head. He has now provided his own test report on this interesting hybrid, which proved to be a very useful performer by the standards Assuming that all goes well, I’ll soon be looking at putting together the annual Christmas issue, in which it’s been my custom to provide extra reading material for your holiday enjoyment. All being well, December 2023 will be no exception.
The second MEN transfer piece will focus on the most ambitious model diesel design ever tackled by the former CS company of Shanghai, China. This was the 5 cc CS "Oliver Twin" diesel designated by the company as their OT 30 Twin model. It was based on the components of CS's well-known 2.5 cc "Oliver Tiger replica" (which wasn't!). It was a very ambitious and largely successful design whch performed at an I had a lot of help from Maris Dislers in getting to the bottom of this story, which remains a fascinating example of development work by an enthusiastic company which still had a few things to learn but was very keen to do so! An enjoyable and informative read which is well worth preserving! I promised you a good helping of bonus reading for the holidays, and this will take the form of not one but two distinct but related accounts of historical events as opposed to engines per se. Both articles will deal with distinct aspects of the 1960 Control Line World Championships held that year at Buadörs Airport near Budapest, Hungary. This meeting was characterised by the yawning gulf between the superb standard of the facilities and organization laid on by the host Hungarians and the dismal failure of the event officials to enforce the applicable rules in a fair and even-handed manner. This resulted in the Speed and Team Race championship titles both being awarded to competitors who had blatantly cheated to put themselves in a position to “win”, somehow escaping any official censure in doing so. I’ve deal with both competitions individually in separate articles. It’s a sad but fascinating story from which many lessons can be drawn. I think that about does it for this edition. If things go sufficiently well, I hope to be back to you with another edition on or about December 1st, 2023. Meanwhile, please accept my best wishes for getting the best out of what life has to offer in these troubled times! Adrian Duncan British Columbia, Canada ___________________________________ 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:
Adrian C. Duncan British Columbia, Canada |
Greetings once more from still too-sunny Coquitlam! We’re now through October 2023, the month in which I turned 76 years old. How the heck did that happen?!? Yes, I was born 76 years ago on October 2
As I’ve said previously, I reckon that all we can do as individuals is carry on as best we can while keeping ourselves authoritatively well informed, setting our expectations accordingly and exercising due caution and responsibility in those areas which remain within our control. That’s what I’m doing anyway. It really does help to know that there’s still a healthy worldwide community of individuals having an ongoing interest in model engines - that’s what keeps me going! My statistics reporting system has continued to report very encouraging visitation figures. 
Now on to the usual dose of model engine news! Some time ago, my valued Aussie mate Bob Allan sent me some important new information with respect to the very rare BOMA range from Indonesia – that country’s only commercial model engine range. This took the form of indisputable photographic evidence to the effect that there was a second distinct variant of the BOMA 150 reed-valve 1.5 cc diesel which was previously undocumented. I had never seen any earlier reference to such a variant, making it very important to add it to the historical record. It’s taken some time for me to get around to dealing with this matter, but I’ve now updated the 
which he liked very much, as did a surprising number of others. I’ve added Dan’s story to the growing sequence of readers’ tales which may be read on that thread. Read and enjoy!!
documenting the models and aeromodelling achievements of the great English competitor Jack North. Jack was active in the hobby for over half a century, mainly in the free flight arena. During this time, he produced a series of outstanding model designs and achieved a consistent level of national and international competition success which has seldom if ever been equalled. The book is appropriately entitled “Flying North”. It is now in its third edition.
For this month’s lead articles, I’ve begun once again with an MEN transfer article. This takes the form of an updated version of the long-standing MEN article on the 
To supplement this, I’m presenting two all-new articles relating to the OK diesel story. The first of these is a review and test of the very rare prototype 
The all-new lead article for the month will deal with a famous series of American engines from the 1930’s and 1940’s – the Dennymite series of spark ignition motors. These fine engines deservedly achieved great popularity during their heyday. They were so sturdily constructed that a surprising number of them have survived down to the present day in fine operating condition. As my review and test of several different variants will confirm, they were also fine performers by the standards of their day. Well worthy of respectful remembrance! 
unexpectedly high level once sorted. The illustrated Vision II variant was a particularly noteworthy performer. | |