August 2015 – www.modeldesigns.net

Model aeroplane enthusiast colouring book vol 1.

Posted on 31.08.2015 by admin

Here is something funny. I have noticed that adult colouring books are all the hottest rage today. So I decided to make my own. Targeted directly to scale model aeroplane enthusiast. How niche is that?

These pics are taken at Jämi Scale Open -event this summer and with a bit of photoshop magic they turned into colouring pages. How wonderful… Click this link to download your very copy of Model aeroplane colouring book vol 1 (pdf, 3,5mb). Print it and start colouring right away.

Update : I made couple more of these. They have been scheduled to appear here approx weekly. So if you want to keep up with colouring books aeromodelling-style subscribe for updates, see right column and look for subscribe-text.

Päijät-Häme Aviation museum

Posted on 31.08.2015 by admin

Visited Päijät-Häme Aviation Museum to get some pics of some IVL planes (IVL K.1 Kurki, IVL Kotka and IVL Haukka). They are are planes which are manufactured by Finnish state aircraft works (nowadays Patria aviation). This museum has really interesting atmosphere and charm. Most of planes are in decent shape, but some older examples (like ones I wanted to photograph) were in rather sad state. But they are preserved and that’s most important.

I will be posting several sets of pictures in coming days so stay tuned. Now is good time to subscribe to updates of this blog, see to right (subscribe-form). Also, pls. visit museum, it is really nice place and you support aviation history preservation.

Pics will appear with tag ‘Päijät-Häme Aviation museum‘ (see right tag pane). Meanwhile some pics. One plane which is really extremely rare is Blackburn Ripon II F which, I believe is the only original example in existence. It is rather maginificent plane and the pics do not make justice to it. The size of plane is something to be seen.

PIK-12 OH-179 Has found an new home

Posted on 30.08.2015 by admin

This is just an happy ending to story which started around 2011. I was trying to locate so called ‘Tampere Gabriel’. That is, an PIK-12 Gabriel which was supposed to be around city of Tampere. After searching for an while I contacted good folks of Tampere Aviation History Association (PIHIS Ry in Finnish…). The association’s secretary Samuli Puotila advised that the plane is in deep (and I mean really deep) storage and he will inform me when it is being moved. Year or so passed and then I got email that temporary storage area was located and rescue party will get to deep storage site. That is almost collapsed barn.

I got there and during extremely enjoyable day we rescued that plane under all kinds of garbage. Pics of that day can be found here.

After year or so I got second email. There was promise of more permanent display and the plane needed some scrubbing. So again, I drove approx 200km and enjoyed every moment of hot day scrubbing that lovely old plane to more acceptable state. That day has pics also, they can be found here.

Then time passed again and finally plane found it’s permanent display. In middle of Kuusela senior citizen housing at heart of Tampere. I had no opportunity to assist assembly etc. but couple days ago I finally got time to get pics of her.

And it looks great. It is flying again!

Took some pics. Due somewhat confined space I used fisheye lens (8mm Zuiko F3.5) and as always I got carried away.

I must thank City of Tampere and Pihis Ry for dedication and commitment to restoring and getting this lovely plane up in air again. And allowing me to take part of this endeavor.

Gluhareff S-22 & Adaridi SK24 update!

Posted on 23.08.2015 by admin

Well, this is Finnish aviation history news.

My friend from Kuopio commented in last aerotow event that ‘You, Tuomas have this interest in old planes, I have found an old book in my old relatives cupboard which might be of interest’… It turned out that his relative was some sort of inventor and he had an authentic book from 1924 with name ‘Moottorittomat Lentokoneet ja heikkomoottorilentokoneet’ by B. Adaridi, 66 pages. This is extremely rare book in which mr. Boris Adaridi explains flying with ‘Motorless aeroplanes and Avionettes’. AND it has the same plan of every mans glider as in Suomen Kuvalehti 1924.

Which I have featured in my Gluhareff S-22-page. You might remeber that I have built S-22 and the plans are freely downloadable at my site, check previous link.

The difference is that this version is much cleaner and it has much greater detail. Also, reading book I get much more detailed information of brothers Gluhareff flying attempts along. Some snippets of information below.

Remember this picture. It shows S-22 and other glider of their design, M-3. I have often thought of this picture looks somewhat strange. That M-3 looks a bit odd. Well, it turns out that the explanation is written in text. It says ‘In picture (35.) one can see how badly plane has been damaged in one particular flight.’. Well, it explains deformed plane…

Then another pic of S-22 from above. I have not seen this picture ever before.

And finally, for me never before seen pic of ridge brothers Gluhareff used for flying attempts.

All this is pretty exiting and adds to this story of three strange men in Finnish woods trying to make soaring attempts. And eventually succeeding. B. Adaridi then went on to design Adaridi AD3 and then moved to France. Brothers Gluhareff moved to US. Most of this book is around designing light planes, just like Adaridi AD3.

Then to SK-24. If you have read through the original story (bottom of page here) and downloaded original scans you might want to download new, much cleaner scans. Previews below, for full resolution scans press SK24-pages-1-3-02-bw (14mb zip file).

Page 1. 3-view

Page 2. Details

Page 3. Parts.

Kuivanto IGG Aerotow & Scale Soaring competition (ACRO) 2015 @ 14.-16.8.2015

Posted on 16.08.2015 by admin

Whew. What an weekend. All day flying & competition. Weather was splendid, just a bit windy during sunday evening. But, as always, company was great. Some pics of general flying below, for competiton pics check after first gallery.

And some pics related to competition

Kymi airport open doors -day 8.8.2015

Posted on 09.08.2015 by admin

Visited Kymi Airport open doors day 8.8.2015 to get pics of newly ressurrected Viima VI-3 plane but sadly that did have difficulties arriving to Kymi. Well, no problems as plenty other planes were present and I got some nice pictures for further planning. Meanwhile some non-so-typical pic’s for your viewing pleasure.