AEOLUS - 4 decades later

Panem et Circenses is what the Romans used to say, a phrase coined by the poet Juvenal. Bread and Circuses, in other words, were cynically provided by the Senate to divert the plebeian populace from more the serious matters of state. They were happy with their free bread, the red, white, green and blue chariot racing factions in their stadia to gamble upon and the gladiatorial and bestial spectacles in their amphitheatres. These days one could say Dole and Football or Sport or Reality TV/A-Z celebrity list and Rap, Grime, Drill and Hip-Hop music genres are their replacements ;-)

LOCKDOWN!

As the Nation is locked down for months on end from 23rd March 2020 what will the plebs do deprived of their diversions; many of us modellers and hobbyists will just carry on making and building, of course. No problems for us with Self-Isolation. Myself, I've been building for a few weeks now, on and off, and here's the results of my work, a 'woodie'. At the time of writing I'm still not finished and because I am waiting for some spray paint to dry I decided to make a new page. I already created my Photoshop graphics (I love graphics) and printed them on a new type of Decal/Water Transfer paper * which I found.

I just created the two matching sides with 3/16" balsa & 3/8" triangular longerons, here it is waiting for 1/32" ply doublers.

Balsa airframe parts just balancing together to see how it looks. OK I reckon, but it will be a mid-wing so some accurate cutting of the fuselage will be required.

So to the model, basically it is an Aeolus 3 from a plan some 40 years old, hence the 4, featured elsewhere on my pages. I have modified it of course, as you do, and I have been enjoying making it. Mind you, my building skills at 73 years old are not up to much these days, but I try. I made the fuselage slightly longer, perhaps 5cm, I never measured it, and the wingspan is just over 1.7m. I changed the section too. Rather than the original symmetrical NACA profile I chose the newer aerobatic SB96 but I suspect it will be closer to an E374 due to my lack of building skill. Who knows? But it will fly I'm certain; I just don't know when because of the Draconian measures introduced by the PM. Weight-wise I was aiming for 1kg. but I am a heavy builder so let's just go for an Imperial weight of 2lb instead!

I put it on my FrSky X9 Lite. The first model for this little Tx running OpenTx. Hopefully, I got the datum line and fixed tailplane incidence correct, we'll see when it maidens one day in the far distant future. It came out at around 1175g before testing, so not too bad. Now on to my next model... a BPLR MadSlide. Obechi foam wings and a balsa fuselage from the plan.

* N.B. Decal/Waterslide Paper: I generally get decal paper from eBay but I came across this slightly different material, which seems to be a kind of matt plastic film, on backing paper. It comes off very easily compared to other paper making larger transfers slightly easier to place. Here's the web address: https://www.bigbitestudio.co.uk/product/blank-water-decal-paper-sheets_size-a4/