Phil & I flew over to see Thomas and have a look around his workshop which is located in Hausach, South West Germany (Above & to the left of Lake Constance). We were greeted with the fuselage of this half size monster sitting on his workbench. I knew then that one day it would be mine ! This was in March 2005.

September 2005 saw Thomas drive to my home to deliver the kit. He also joined us at the Middle Wallop event and was eager to see that the first few flights went well. He even programmed the model in to his own transmitter so he could have a fly himself. The first few flights were launched behind Steve Davis’s 160 powered Wilga. After not more than a handful of flights we became very comfortable with the plane, and soon I was being towed by Ray Watts using his 62 powered Titan ! To round off the day I was amazed when Thomas towed me up using Dave Hoares 62 powered Piper Cub. That was a sight to see, not sure I would want to do it again in a hurry but we got to a very safe height before we got a bit out of shape and had to release.

Anyway, a bit about the model…………..

It’s 7.5M span and weighs in at 25KG. It flys like a big floater but has fantastic roll control. The wings and tail are standard foam cores with carbon spar with full glass/obechi covering. I have then glassed the whole thing with 50g cloth to get a good finish for painting. Spraying was done using Dave Hoars compressor & Spray gun and a bucket load of 2K car paint. The finish was good the second time round ! (At least I learnt how to use a spray gun !

The canopy hinge mechanism is my own design. I drew it on paper first and played with the pivot points for the gas strut until the geometry was an ‘over centre’ arrangement. By that I simply mean that the gas strut is fully extended, and ‘locked’ in both the open and closed positions. The hinge itself is made from two separate sheets of plywood, each one laminated between two sheets of Carbon/Kevlar cloth. These two sheets are held about 10mm apart by steel bolts & brass spacers, and the whole unit is glassed in to the underside of the canopy frame.

See Andy's photos of his model

The cockpit detail is courtesy of Axel. I bought the individual instruments and arranged them on a piece of carbon plate, added a few brass screws for a little extra ‘bling’. The pilot is of course from Axel, but now has to be ready to move between the ASW27 and the new Fox.

Servos are mainly analogue, as recommended by Thomas & a number of the Swiss flyers.

It uses two Multiplex DS12 IPD receivers which are linked to two Emcotec Mini 6 RV power management units. These in turn are powered by 4 x 7.2V 3600 Nihm packs. (24 Sub C cells). This isn’t a complete twin receiver system but it does mean that if either receiver fails I retain control of half of all the flying surfaces. i.e. I still control one aileron and one flap on opposite sides and one half of the elevator (It’s split in two). Touch wood, I haven t needed to put it to the test in the air yet.

Here is a converted Powerpoint slideshow of Andy's 7.5m ASW27 from Thomas Budszus