SLOPING OFF...
...the Newsletter of Christchurch and District Model Flying Club for...December 2025
OUR BOOMERANG COMES BACK …... AND WITH UPGRADES
By Peter Chaldecott for the Three Amigos
The Boomerang being assembled for its first Amigos flight. Jonathan Harris, Chair of County MFC and turbine maestro on the left, Peter and Richard in the hats
Those of you who read Richard Docketty's account of how The Three Amigos came to be in possession of a 'real' model gas turbine jet in the December 2025 edition of Sloping Off will remember that, whilst our initial outing was very successful, it was also unfortunately cut short by a collapsed nosewheel – and before you ask- no, it was not due to pilot error! So it was that the Boomerang XL found its way to my workshop for examination and repair. Well, what we found shocked us all. The nosewheel retract unit was mounted on some pretty dodgy looking wooden bearers that had obviously already been broken previously and which were now held together (or more correctly, NOT held together) by a couple of Ice Lolly Sticks.
Clearly, this was not going to be a simple glue it back together job! To make matters worse, several of the ply formers in the nose area were looking decidedly 'iffy' and would also need to be replaced.
First job was to order some nice new Beech engine bearer material from the helpful people at SLEC UK, and to prepare drawings for the new parts that we would need. This was where I hit the first head scratching moment! With no Plan for the Boomerang, and with little prior knowledge of the aircraft, or any other information to go on, it was quite tricky to determine the precise location required for the retract unit mount. I was fairly certain that, when deployed, the nosewheel leg should be pointing vertically downwards, but if this was so, when retracted, the nosewheel would not disappear completely into the nose – surely this could not be right, could it? Well, fortunately, Trevor found a video on the internet of a Boomerang like ours, and guess what ….... the nosewheel was peeking out just like ours. So, panic over, time to move on!
Since this is very much a joint Amigos project, and because Trevor and Richard both have scroll saws that are way better than mine, I volunteered them to cut the necessary ply parts. So it was that, several scroll saw blades later (!!!!), I quickly found myself with all the necessary parts to complete the repair. I guarantee that if we have another nosewheel collapse, we'll have a lot more to worry about than just a broken nosewheel!!!! Hopefully, the accompanying photos will give a flavour of the work involved.
BUT WAIT, THERE's MORE:
In view of our findings with the nosewheel, we felt it prudent to give the whole airframe a good 'going over' before flying it again, and yes we found more horrors!! This time a suspicious 'soft patch' in the inner upper wing skin revealed a rolled-up paper manual that had just been stuffed in and covered over! So, nothing for it but to cut out the offending item and insert a new piece of balsa skin and re-cover. So now finally we had an airframe that we were confident with and it was time to go fly again – which I'm pleased to report went without incident.
UPGRADE TIME:
Two things you quickly learn about gas turbine models is that not only do they consume a lot of jet fuel, they can very easily consume quite a lot of money too!!!
Ideally, a gas turbine model should be controlled by the very best of Radios, and as luck would have it, Trevor and I both have Jeti DX16 Transmitters …. so you can guess what's coming - yYes, another Jeti Rx was soon winging its way to us for transplanting into the Boomerang. We had a lot of fun replicating control throws and flight modes, and with a lot of help from Jonathan, our friend and mentor at County MFC, getting the engine management system to work with the 'new' radio. Eventually it all worked and subsequent flights went without issue.
Having completed our initial flights, Jonathan then said “You know, it would be a good idea to convert the engine to 'Kero Start'.” Apparently this would enable us to start the engine on jet fuel and dispense with the Propane canister that we had previously used to fire it up. Seemed like a good idea, so the necessary 'readies' were dispatched to Dave Wilshere at Motors and Rotors and in return we received one Kero Start Plug and a load of plumbing and fittings. Once again with Jonathan's help we managed to get it all plumbed in and, after some clever trickery on Jonathan's part with the remote electronic control box, the engine fired up and ran without issue. Hooray!
As I said, these things can quickly consume quite a lot of money, …... but they are very addictive and worth every penny for that heady smell of kerosene!
SO WHAT'S NEXT:
Smoke? Well, that was tempting until I heard that the oil 'pongs' a bit, and I don't fancy that in my new car. So I guess that's it for now.
It's a shame that we cannot demonstrate the Boomerang to you at Oldfield (apart from being against the rules, I don't think the neighbours would take kindly to the noise, and it does need a lot of sky!!!) but hopefully this will have given you a flavour of our gas turbine experience to date.