22 July 2003
Pete Money, Photo Garry Hunter
Hi Charlie,
Well, after a building session that extended to 4.30 am on Friday
morning I assembled the Ajax for the first time, looked on it with pride
(probably misplaced!) and rapidly disassembled it in order to get a few
hours sleep before leaving for Geneseo. As I think I mentioned before,
the color scheme I used was to the best of my knowledge exactly the same
as the one I used some 57 years ago.
I was pretty much running on adrenalin on the five hour trip up, as you
can imagine. Fortunately my good wife Brenda kept me supplied with
caffiene and conversation on the way to keep my eyelids from drooping
and of course was available to take over if necessary.
On Saturday there was a little too much of a breeze to try out a new
airplane, so I spent the time tweaking a Cloud Tramp to such an extent
that I lost it to Hung. Well, plenty of time to build another.
On Sunday the wind had dropped. I made up a motor (length about 1-1/2
times the hook to peg distance) of 8 strands of 3/16" rubber. I had an
11" non legal prop so I thought that a bit more rubber wouldn't be too
much of a problem. I did a quick glide test....cg was at about 50% of
chord...which showed that there wasn't anything dramatically wrong with
the trim. Then I cranked on 100 turns and she flew like a dream.
I have attached a picture taken by Gary Hunter of the Plan Page which
shows one of the later launches.
Unfortunately in my enthusiasm I forgot to check the rudder on the last
flight and the model pretty much augered in with a steep right bank and
dive. This broke the prop (probably a judgement on me) and did a very
little damage to the nose, easily repairable.
Despite the crash, it was a greatly satisfying day and a major thrill
to see the Ajax climbing out vitually straight off the building board. I
had, as usual, built in about 3 degrees down and 2 degrees right thrust,
and the heavy wheels and landing gear brought the CG to about where it
should be. There were no changes to decalage or anything else. Amazing.
Anyway, Charlie, I owe it to you for sending me the plan, and for
posting a picture of your model to motivate me!
Pete in Parsippany
The prop tips were finished after photo,Charlie
KeilKraft kitted the 'Ajax' in the late 30's and it has been produced
steadily through the decades since - not sure if at present as the company
has changed hands several times and pridiction of some kits has been
spasmodic. Graham Knight can probably give an up-to-date summation of the
present situation. It was notable that production of this and its' sister
model, the 'Achilles' continued through the war years and somehow, even had
balsa in the kits even in those hard times.
The 'Ajax' was accompanied by a rather similar model - the 'Achilles' of 24"
span, both originally designed by Louis A. Heath and later amended by Albert
Hatfull. Over the 60-off years it has been claimed that, between them,
they introduced hundreds of thousands of people to aeromodelling.... some,
however, claim they drove half that number away from aeromodelling.... !
One thing is sure, the do fly much better these days, with better trimming
trechniques, rubber, etc. than they did back when I was making 'em as a
schoolboy. There were only the two designs - not three - named after the
light cruisers Ajax and Achilles which later gained fame in the Battle of
the River Plate which led to the eventual scuttling of the pocket battleship
Graf Spee when the latter was forced to leave Montevideo harbour.
Incidentally, the Township I live in was named in honour of HMS Ajax, and
the streets originally were named for all her crew members, and this was
later extended to the crew of HMS Achilles; we have a rather nice
commemorative monument to the ships and their crews - and in recognition of
Capt. Langsdorf who commanded the Graf Spee.
It was only after we purchased this house almost six years ago that I found
we also had an Achilles Road in the Town; had we seen a house situated there
first it would have been an address for an ex-Brit vintage flyer to die for
... Achilles Road, Ajax. I would have built both models just to photograph
'em beside the road sign!
Hope all this has beee of some assistance..
