How to build a Competition Winning model…. by Team Bogworm

It all started with …. "Bogan, lets go to the Ozzy Masters" …. "Ok Worms, but I’m not flying that pussie old Lotus again !" What were we letting our selves in for, there was only two months to go, and our aircraft desperately needed upgrading. A few DB Exports later, the design plans and ideas were complete, which included some tips from Chip Hyde and the back edge of Bogans Jandal ….Team Bogworms new design was born.

Onto to the building, how many times have I said to my self, I’ll never try and finish another bloody aeroplane in time for a competition. Ewan Galloway promptly pumped out the first fuselage for Bogan, followed soon by one for Worms. As Bogan started on his wings and tails, Worms set to work on his fuselage and soon found out that dope was no substitue for epoxy hardner. No matter how long he left it the sun, it was never going to go off….. Bugger.

Bogan roared into the building of his model every night till the wee small hours of the morning, and started to get ahead of Worms who was getting pretty busy jerking the jerseys back on the farm. When Bogans’ fuse was ready for painting, it was sent to Tauranga where Graeme Giles set to work and did a great job as Bogan continued with the wings. Worms too was ready to paint, and he made a start on the most difficult multi coloured masking job he’s every attempted, what a great idea.

Time was really running away now with only a few weeks to go. Bogan had to stop work for a whole weekend to fly in the Taupo Airshow. While he was away, Ewan and Worms got the keys to his workshop, and planned on locking themselves in for the whole weekend, or until the job was done ! On opening the roller door, the first thing they see is Bogans fuselage, sitting up on its carbon under carraige. "What the bloody hell has he been up to !" Worms reckoned the carbon gear looked high enough to clear a 24 inch prop.

Nearly ready now, and later that week, Worms only had one more stripe of paint to go. But he couldn’t wait any longer and test flew his model in a howling gail at the Waharoa field….. straight away he’s on the cellphone, "Bogan, Bogan ! It flys bloody choice !"

But Bogan was experiencing some more workshop drama back at the ranch. This time it was his scales that had crapped out, totally screwing up the epoxy / hardener ratio just as all the vital last minute gluing jobs were done, eg hinges/ horns and servo rails. The next morning expecting the glue to be dry, Bogan rang up Worms complaining of a huge sticky mess on his hands.

Worms had a sticky mess of his own to deal with. Remember that last stripe of colour required on the fuse? Well he was all set and ready to go for a midnight "it won’t take long" spraying job…. First coat, huge blobs of crap come out the gun and mess up the model, bugger…. bright idea, re mix some paint (final drops of hardner are used up) and this time I’ll heat it up with some hot water in the sink, cause its getting really cold now and the fog is coming down. Place mixed paint in sink, put plug in sink, turn on hot tap to trickle….. Hmmm while that’s warming up, I think I need to prep the model again, and go for a quick slash…..Oh shit, THE PAINT …. You guessed it, Blue Kitchen ! Yes, the sink had over flowed, blue paint and hot water had covered the sink top, the dirty dishes, the oven, the floor, and inside all the cupboards over the clean dishes too. 2hrs later, the paint job was done, not to mention the dishes…. Nice stripe but.

Soon, the building stage was over. Two months of hard work looked like it was going to pay off. At one stage, our project had gotten so serious, that building became more important than courting. One night Hamish had to turn down an offer of rubbing baby oil over some local tart, for another night in the workshop, and Bogan was really starting to miss the benefits of his marriage license.

With only a week to go, both models were test flown and there was just enough time to get in some trimming and practice flights before NZ was hit by bloody great Cyclone ! The day after Bogan’s test flight, the fuel injector on his fancy new computer driven OS fell apart, and in went the trusty old OS140RX. There was only one thing left to do, come up with a name for the model, and get some stickers sorted…..the Matrix was born.

Click here for more

Back