It might sound hard to believe, but the Tracker has now been winning competitions for 11 years.

Not only that, but it remains the ONLY all moulded model in production which is made using pre-preg cloth and properly heat cured.

However, way back in the early days, the original Tracker was a built up model using the normal technology of the day - foam/veneer/balsa and ply construction.

This model was designed by and built by both Bill Dulson and John (the Sherriff) Howells.

Then there was a complete change and although the model remained a Tracker, Jon Stanswood had recently completed a CAD design course and between Bill and Jon there was a complete re-vamp of the model to convert it from its original construction to an all moulded model.

But the new Trackers that you see today are considerably changed from the original Vee tailed, flat centre panel versions which were campaigned by Jon and Bill at Radioglide in Oxford in 1998 – an event I remember very well.

These original models were fired up the line at the start of the slot, and impaled into the ground at the end, suffering no damage unless they were not going straight at the time.

At the end of the weekend, both Jon and Bill went home model-less and Ron Norris, Al Wisher and I all went home with the very first, essentially pre-production, Trackers!

Did we do better because of it – not on your life, we were useless with them because they needed a different flying style and it was important to keep the speed on if you wanted to turn. If you slowed it down and just flew normally they “tracked” off into the distance – hence the name and welcome to lesson 1, fly faster.

We used them, we abused them and we won events with them, meanwhile Bill (ace moulder) Dulson and Jon (mould design and fuselages) Stanswood were frantically building more because they had nothing to fly for themselves and there was a mad clamour from prospective buyers to have one of these.

So much for the basics, as I said, I had an original pre-production model (heavier than anything else apart from the other originals), and learned to use it.

If I remember correctly, that first one was about 70-75 ounces which was a couple of ounces lighter than my own 100” models. A year or so later, I bought another – a lightweight – at about 65 ounces, and it’s fair to say that I have had  a Tracker in one guise or another most of the time since then.

But this story is not about me, it’s about a model for which the designers and builders were awarded the Eppler trophy for innovation in 2003, and without which it is probable that the 100” class would have died out completely. Yes I know that is a sweeping statement but when you look at the progress and development of this 100” model there is nothing else currently available to buy for competition use.

The other main reason for saying that is that competitors were beginning to get used to buying “off the shelf” competitive models and the whole aeromodelling scene was changing from design/build/fly to buy/fly!

Although there will always be competitors who want to build and use their own design (I fall into this category when time allows) the main kitted rival was the Eliminator designed and produced by John Stevens although he ceased production of that some time ago.

To get back to the Tracker, there have been some significant, and many minor, design changes although none of these have altered the original basic planform.

The first models were all Vee tailed with a flat centre panel. The spars being straight one piece carbon flat sections which were bound together with a “shear web” to make the spar which was then installed into the wing during moulding.

In the early days of production creating a wing with some dihedral in the centre was not easy and also quite heavy.

All models from the very first to the present day have the wing and tail bolts already installed into the fuselage with captive washers and accessed from underneath so that there are no bolts visible once the model is assembled.

The tailplane was also quite innovative being a 2 piece item, which, when the joiner was fitted the tail hold down bolt went through that and clamped the tailplane halves into a vee shaped seat at the rear of the fuselage.

The model was also designed to use the cheapest servos available at the time – standard “brick” size.

A year or two went by, and as Trackers were becoming more popular I happened to have a conversation with Bill in a motorway services (Leicester, always a quick coffee stop before the BARCS AGM) and we were discussing possible improvements to the model.

My thought was that a cross tail should be offered, to which Bill nearly had a fit as he is a staunch Vee tail supporter, and some centre section dihedral wouldn’t come amiss.

I think other flyers had also been suggesting the same because, some months later a pre-production fin and tailplane were seen in the back of a car – linkage details still in progress.

And so a cross tail version appeared.

Then, some time later – maybe a year or so, centre section dihedral arrived probably due to a change in the production methods and this made a significant difference to the turning ability at low airspeeds.

There were many modifications to the lay-up of the fuselage as it was found that when they snapped (usually because of abuse), it was nearly always in the same place. This was a difficult problem to solve without just adding more weight, and the area of reinforcement had to be altered several times before this was cured.

The fuselage itself has been modified considerably until now it has a nice wing fairing at the leading edge, and a stub fin at the rear on top of which is bolted a very neat tailplane and elevator group. Although it looks like the original, the amount of work required to think it through, produce it, and make it work is quite astounding.

There is no after moulding joint or seam in the fuselage as it is moulded in 1 piece, with the obvious exception of the nose cone and radio tray (which are also 1 piece items although separate from the main moulding), and therefore there is no filler or micro balloons used either.

The line on the fuselage is just a mould line and if you look carefully at a fuselage you will find the cloth joint is nowhere near the mould line.

The pre-preg cloth used was also a challenge as the first problem was having the correct amount of resin in the cloth to make it strong, light, and workable. This is another of those “easy to see, hard to resolve” issues as there is always the “minimum order quantity” and at the prices demanded from pre-preg suppliers it all has to be used before starting again.

Of course pre-preg means the cloth must be kept in a freezer or it will cure and be lost. It also means it must be heat cured to allow the resin to flow and cure properly, which then gives a new meaning to the term “release agent”!

Not all of these are designed for use at elevated temperatures and under the conditions required to mould a model aeroplane. It only needs a small area of the moulded component to become stuck and there is a major problem – will the mould or the component break?

All of that said, the problems were overcome quite quickly, the model was and is a success.

Through its many guises from those first models to the present day 100” versions there have been many variations: - Vee tails, Cross tails, electric, 3.1 metre Open models, 100” aileron tips for the electric ones, etc., etc.

The Tracker still dominates in the 100” class whether by sheer weight of numbers or because it’s just a very good aeroplane does not matter but like all things you know it’s successful when people complain about it, but then go and buy another!