The Skyleader that never was

[RON]

I was chatting to Shaun one night and happened to mention to him "I wonder what the skyleader Single channel and reeds transmitter looked like as I'd never seen any", His response was not expected, He told me that they never made any, to my amazment.
This got me thinking, wouldn't it be a novelty and talking point if I designed a reeds tranny in the skyleader colours and style.
I got cracking on with it and came up with these... PS, also made an S/C set to match
The meter on the reeds tranny was Kindly donated by Phil.

Ron

[Shaun]

I hope it's making an appearance at Ponte and the Retro Nats this year.

Shaun

[RON]

I hope it's making an appearance at Ponte and the Retro Nats this year.

You never know Shaun, It may do

[Mike_K]

Seeing Ron's fantastic Skyleader reed and S/C reproductions and his comment that this is what the early Skyleader sets would have looked like is only partially true.

Skyleader started out as Southern Radio Control (Soraco) and they imported F&M/CG radio gear from the USA including the F&M Matador reed sets and the CG Venus S/C sets. These are the "Skyleader reed and S/C" sets and they are anodised blue! They also imported the F&M 5 propo .

The first Skyleader proportional sets were the Soraco Skyleader 3+1 which had bronze anodised cases as did the Soraco Skyleader 4 and 6 channel sets (the colour is similar to a Kraft KP4/6 set but more bronze than golden). The first yellow Skyleader set was the SL, but at the same time they launched the 3S (slope soarer special) which was a vinyl clad blue.

So when you get time Ron, you need to do an anodised blue, an anodised bronze and a vinyl clad blue version as well!! only kidding.

Keep up the good work Ron, I'm only envious because your builds always look neater and have a better finish than mine...

[Mike_K]

I guess I'm lucky Phil, I've got a couple of SL's. And I know, a couple of them could do with a clean up. OK all of them could do with a clean up

I just need to copy Ron and get a yellow Skyleader reed set and a Skyleader single channel set and I'll be there. Do you take orders Ron?

[RON]

Hi mike,

It’s funny how all the skyleader’s all have different meters in them, it’s as if they just used what they had in the box at the time.

As for the orders, no sorry, but I can help you out with part numbers etc for the casings and switches etc.

Ron

[Shaun]

Seeing Ron's fantastic Skyleader reed and S/C reproductions and his comment that this is what the early Skyleader sets would have looked like is only partially true....etc.....

Ahh Mike ... but as I mentioned to Ron, Skyleader never sold their own manufactured Single Channel and Reed gear gear, so the F&M / CG gear sold through Southern Radio Control doesn't count. The Skyleader brand started with their bespoke propo...

Give poor Ron a break .. he will have to build them now .

Shaun

[Mike_K]

Hi Shaun

I know, I should stop teasing Ron, go to my workshop and get on with my own conversions. Or finish a user manual. Or the other 101 things on my to do list.

But before I go to my workshop, we ought to give Ron some more ideas for other "that never were" sets. Which other British manufactures only made propo? Fleet, Flight Link and Horizon are the only other ones that spring to mind who only made propo. So Ron are you up for some nice blue Fleet, black FLC and red Horizon S/C and reed sets?

[Shaun]

Now then, here is an interesting snippet. Quite a few years ago I picked up what might have been a prototype Fleet 4 channel Reed set. 2 things led Phil an I to suspect it may have come from the Fleet Skunk works. First, it had a Fleet centre loaded aerial and secondly it had the model numbering convention on the case that Fleet used in the early days. There was also commonality in the passive and active components used (that were built on Vero board) as many were the same brand as used in the early Fleet GG sets. And finally it came from where Fleet gear was manufactured.. Draw your own conclusions...A possibly maybe!

Shaun