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Welcome to the Philip Avonds Scale Jets website! We wish you a lot of fun surfing through this R/C jet dedicated site! You will find very detailed information on our line of products: jet kits, landing gear and scale accessories.

The Fouga Magister model was put on display during the nocturne at the aviation section of the Royal Military Museum on October 13th, 2011. Lt Col Avi Paul Rorive, the solo display pilot of the Fouga Magister MT-48 was also invited to the event. We had a great time recalling memories from our Belgian Air Force time. The museum is not very well known but has some fine aircraft. A nice touch for me is that all but one type of aeroplane which I have flown in my Air Force career are on display: Fouga Magister, T-33, F-104G, F-16A, Sikorsky HSS-1 and Sea King (only Marchetti SF-260M is missing...). Well worth a visit if you happen to be in Brussels!

Fouga model displayed with Jet World Masters trophies

Fouga model next to full size Fouga

Philip with Lt Col Avi Paul Rorive

Lt Col Avi Paul Rorive is happy with the rendering of himself in he Fouga model

Jet Meeting Maubeuge 2011

I attended the Jet Meeting in Maubeuge (France) on October 1st, 2011. It was a very hot indian summer day but conditions for flying were excellent. The runway is 120 meter short but that's absolutely no problem for the Fouga Magister which was displayed twice during the afternoon. A video of the first flight can be found here.

Philip with Fouga at Maubeuge (photo Marc Deherve)

Fouga landing at Maubeuge (photo Marc Deherve)

Row of models waiting to be flown

Meet & greet with Frank De Winne

Belgian astronaut Frank De Winne was the special guest at the "Life in space" special event at Wevelgem Airport (29 september 2011). I was also invited to exhibit my Fouga Magister and that was a great opportunity for us to meet again. In the early nineties, we met for the first time when we both attended a flight safety course in Paris (France). A few years later we met again when I piloted the Sea King helicopter that came to the rescue of Frank after his ejection from a crippled F-16B.

Frank showed great interest in my scale Fouga Magister, having flown the full size for zero gravity experiment flights. Below some photographs.

Philip shows Frank details of the cockpit (photo Stefan Sette)

Philip explains how the model was built (photo Stefan Sette)

Frank approves the accuracy of the Fouga cockpit (photo Stefan Sette)

Jet World Masters 2011

Philip Avonds is the first place winner of the 2011 Jet World Masters in the 13.5 kg Class. He won the event in Dayton Ohio, USA with his new Fouga Magister. Read more...

Philip proudly displays the IJMC challenge trophy of winner in the 13.5 kg Class

(photo Stephan Eich, www.modellpilot.eu)

JetPower 2011

This year, our stand was all about the Fouga Magister. The Jet World Masters 13.5 kg class winning model was beautifully presented, occupying nearly half of the booth. The trophies were placed under the model to highlight the recent competition success. The superb Yak-130, winner of the 20 kg class, was displayed on the opposite side of the aisle. Each day, both winners of the Jet World Masters were being live interviewed in front of the crowd by Winfried Ohlgart. Winnie is the chairman of the JWM organising IJMC and also the big boss of the JetPower fair.

We made some nice realistic scale flights on Friday and Saturday. Conditions were close to ideal to show the graceful flying characteristics of the Fouga Magister model. YouTube video of the flight on Friday.

Philip Avonds proudly poses behind the Fouga Magister (photo Emanuel Dähn)

Philip explains how the flaps work on the sample Fouga wing (photo Emanuel Dähn)

Lot's of admiring faces! (photo Alain Vinolas)

Interview of both Jet World Masters next to the superb Yak-130 (Left: Vitaly Robertus, middle: Philip Avonds, right: interviewer Winfried Ohlgart) (photo Bernard Loir)

Taxi out for a realistic flight (photo Emanuel Dähn)

Fouga takes off over the runway centreline (photo Emanuel Dähn)

Slow dirty flypast (photo Dick Spreadbury)

Turning on final... (photo Dick Spreadbury)

...rolling out in final... (photo Dick Spreadbury)

...short final... (photo Dick Spreadbury)

..and landing (photo Emanuel Dähn)

Philip carries back his model after flight (photo Emanuel Dähn)

Fouga Progress

Fouga Magister on a slow dirty flypast (photo Ingrid & Renaud Leclercq)

We have completed 52 flights on the Fouga Magister to date. The model flies beautifully. Excellent aerobatics, easy to land and very tolerant to crosswind conditions. We made 6 flights from a grass field and that's no problem at all! The G-Booster 80+ powering the model is just about perfect. The flight envelope will be further expanded while experimenting with gyro's.

Fouga 6-view scale drawings

Our 1/48 scale 6-view drawings are now available for download in PDF format. They depict the Belgian Air Force version with the typical white painted aft canopy, the cooling scoops and air exit louvres. We honestly think these are the most accurate scale drawings of the Fouga ever published worldwide. Judge for yourself!

Fouga Magister left and right views

Fouga Magister top and bottom views

Fouga Magister front and rear views

Koksijde Airshow 2011

The Fouga Magister was on static display in the VIP marquee during the Koksijde Airshow which was held on July 6th and 7th, 2011. The USAF Thunderbirds, the Patrouille de France and the RAF Red Arrows gave great performances. I had the honour to sit at the same table as Lt Col Avi Paul Rorive, the solo display pilot of the Fouga Magister MT-48 which is the prototype I modelled as presented during the 2005 airshow season.

Fouga Magister on display in the VIP marquee

(Philip explains some technicalities to Lt Col Avi Paul Rorive)

Jet World Masters 2011

Scoop: Philip won! read more

We will compete with the prototype at the Jet World Masters in Dayton, Ohio, USA. The model fits nicely in the 13.5 kg class. Cockpit and landing gear detailing is now complete and the model weight is now near the limit at 13.390 kg dry. The model will be crated this afternoon. Still some work to do on documentation. Some more practice flights will be done at the competition venue. Below some photographs of the cockpit and landing gear details.