Mike McEvoy

[John Tapsell]

If you are interested in Tailpiece and other general ramblings, visit Mike's 'Grumpy Old Modeller' website.

 

http://www.grumpyoldmodeller.com/

[Norman]

Very sad to hear this news, when i returned seriously to aircraft modelling and began reading SAM i found his tailpiece writings an absolute joy and used to eagerly look forward to each month's edition ,i also came to rely on his new kit reviews as well as they were never wrong !,  he really helped make that magazine what it was , i do hope they have a good 'prototype' and 'what if' library where ever he is !

 

Rest In Peace Mike

 

[Andy Young]

Sad news indeed. One of the true stalwarts of the hobby. Tailpiece was always the first page I used to read each month. His stories about Hunters were always fascinating. RIP.

 

Andy

[cngaero]

That's really sad news to hear.

I have always enjoyed his stories in Scale Aircraft Modelling's Tailpiece.

Such a wonderful Gentleman and a great loss to the hobby.

Condolences to his family and friends.

 

Blue Skies Mike.

[Biggles87]

Very sad to hear this, I was thinking of him just a few days ago.

I first met Mike at the College of ATC at Hurn  in the early ‘70s where he was an instructor and later got to know him well through a couple of model clubs and IAT at Greenham and  Fairford when he was the ATC manager and I was part of his team.

As others have said, he was a gentleman and had a great sense of humour.

 

John

[Nigel Bunker]

I first met Mike in the early 70s when I went to IPMS Reading as a very green teenager. I followed his journey in SAM as first a reviewer and then a columnist. Next I then came across him again in person in the 90s through the What If SIG and through the Thames Valley Scale Model Club.

 

As has been said, Mike was a true gentleman and was always interesting to chat to. He was truly one of the unsung heroes of this hobby and will leave a void that will be hard to fill.

 

My condolences to his family and all those who will miss him.

 

Nigel

[iainpeden]

I knew Mike for 40 years - always ready for a chat about What-ifs, cats and his "pet" cuddly badger and not always in that order.

He trained as a fighter pilot in Canada on T-33s (or the Canadian version) and went on to fly Hunters with the RAF.

When "his" Hunter was sold to Chile he vowed to visit her; he actually managed it on a trip to South America. 

At Telford this year he told me about his plans to get to Oshkosh next summer.

Blue skies mate.

[George Norman]

RIP Mike. 

 

Like other Tailpiece was always the first stop for me read of SAM. Met him on my only visit to Telford some time back, A Larger than life chap and a true gent.

 

[Tiger331]

Yes, a sad day indeed. I loved his 'tailpiece' column in SAM and our chats at SMW over the years.

 

RIP Mike

[AMB]

So sad news!   I have known MIke for some 50 years, first meeting him in the ATC tower at Greenham Common when he was SATCO during the early '70s IAT shows. He has been  agood friend ever since and also stopped for  a chat when we bumped into eachother at Old Warden, Duxford and of course  Telford. He seem immortal!  One of the greats in our modelliung world!   RIP Mike.   Maybe you'll return in some form..." What if" ??  

Edited December 4, 2021 by AMB

[mick b]

Very sad news and if anyone deserves recognition for services to the hobby it should be Mike McEvoy.

 

I saw him at Telford happily chatting away at the SAM stall, he must’ve been chuffed to have been there amongst friends and all those models. 

 

RIP Mike

[Wez]

That's a shame, I met him a couple of times at the IPMS Farnborough show, avuncular and witty, he always seemed to have time for people.  An utter gent!

 

RIP Mike

[Tim R-T-C]

We met Mike on the way into SMW on Sunday this year. Although I didn't know who he was at the time, we had a lovely chat for several minutes about modelling and badgers. A very friendly gentleman and a loss to the modelling community.

 

Thoughts to his friends and family.

[Cyberduck]

A note to the moderators

This is my brothers account not mine, please feel free to delete this post if that is an issue

 

I have just found out about Mikes passing

I have known him since the days of the Stoneleigh nationals

He was a true gentleman and a fine advertisement both for this hobby and for his generation

It was and is a privilege to call him a friend

I shall miss him

My thoughts and condolences to Gina and his family

 

Paul Davis 

[Eric Mc]

 

That is very sad. I saw Mike wandering around the halls at Telford (and his badger puppet!) and he seemed in fine form. I've been aware of Mike since I first started reading his various articles in Scale Aircraft Modelling back when the magazine first came out (1978). It was great to see his Tailpiece articles reappear in the current version of the magazine in recent months.

I know he has links to the formation of the original IPMS club that eventually became Farnborough IPMS. He's a guy I would always liked to have known better but never got beyond the odd chat at a model show. 

 

[Mr T]

Only just spotted this very sad news. I was among many people who spoke to him at Telford. I first met him in the early 1980s when I was more active in the IPMS. He was always good for a chat and a mine of information. 

Clear skies Mike and I am sure there is a Hunter waiting for you. 

[binbrook87]

Oh this is very sad news indeed. ☹️

For anybody who has been reading Scale Aircraft Modelling from it's early days, his 'Tailpiece' articles  were a true inspiration and a delight to read and especially for a model mad teenager in the 1980s like me. I read and re-read over and over again his enthralling ramblings and found a real empathy and familiarity in his style and his subject matter.

Just recently i managed to obtain some old SAMs from that era and headed straight for the back pages to reminisce. The quality of his articles even now are as fresh and as relevant as ever and will live on and on. Although i never met him personally, i accidentally found myself standing next to him at Telford this year...but was too embarrassed to say 'hello'. I regret that now.

Sincere condolences to his family and close friends at this very sad time. Rest in peace my modelling hero. 🙏

Edited December 5, 2021 by binbrook87

[Patrick Martin]

A little known bit of writing from Mike McEvoy, he did for myself back in 2005, concerning his history half a century earlier, before he flew the Hunter .....

 

      I and my fellow students of Course 5413 were formally introduced to the Canadair T-33AN at the end of August 1955, each of us with 180 hours or so in the Harvard behind us and all judged as potential jet jockeys, a term then much in use in the popular press. This was what we’d joined up for.  The big board outside the D Flight room at 2 AFS Portage la Prairie had it exactly right, showing a grizzled old tiger in Wing Commander’s uniform gazing approvingly at his bunch of tiger cubs at play. I think that “tiger spirit” featured on a caption, but it was certainly implied, a legacy from 1945 (or perhaps even 1917).

      The shiny jets that we met - after a spell in ground school to familiarise us with the changes in speed and systems that we faced - were distinguished by the PP codes that showed that they were Portage la Prairie-based, and the 2 AFS badge on their noses.  Their flight affiliation was shown by the colour of the nose of their tip tanks that were always worn, green in our case for D Flight. Our reaction to the first experience of the T-Bird - it was never called anything else - was always the same, the marked push in the back from the Rolls-Royce Nene that marked its Canadair source and the sensitivity and quick reactions of its ailerons with post-take-off wobble, a sure sign of a rookie student. The cliché description of the aircraft was “a gentleman’s aerial carriage,” and like all clichés was absolutely true.  Even with the ejection seat there was a degree of comfort when strapped in, and my memories are of climbing out at the end of a flight, even if it had been under the hood, smiling.

      One indelible memory is of my only night sortie - shortage of course time - and thanks to the local radio station and the T-Bird’s invaluable radio compass hearing Harry Seagoon (Secombe) dismissing the Idleburgers, my Canadian instructor was totally baffled by this strange programme, but the aircraft’s aileron assistance ensured that it wobbled [through] the Saskatchewan night with a big grin on its pilot’s face.

      After sixty hours or so each, Course 5413 graduated, and we were awarded our (RCAF) wings, there were due celebrations.  Our fellow Canadian students emerged well prepared for transition to the F-86E (Sabre), for which the T-33 was an excellent lead-in, perhaps its ultimate achievement was, as with the Harvard, the successful graduation of all those multi-national NATO student pilots.

            Mike McEvoy

[Prenton]

Just heard about this.  What a loss. 

 

I have all of the SAM volumes from Volume 1, no. 1 to date (many of which I "inherited" from another modeller), and the Tailpieces were required reading..  What a huge loss to the hobby.

 

RIP

 

Philip

[Ralph]

Evening all,

Am not normally motivated to write this kind of post  but have seen on another site that Mike McCoy of Tail Piece Scale Aircraft Modelling fame, and the Grumpy Old Mideller website has passed away aged 85. His tail pieces have always been my favourite part of SAM, and I was so pleased to see him return for the last year or so. 

Saddened to hear this; an important part of British modelling over the last forty years.

☹

[junglierating]

That is a shame...still like reading his column when I go through the old 1980s editions.....bygone era really 

[Ralph]

8 minutes ago, junglierating said:

That is a shame...still like reading his column when I go through the old 1980s editions.....bygone era really 

That's exactly what I do!

[Norman]

Me too , never grow tired of reading them , he had such a big influence on my ENJOYMENT of the hobby RIP Mike

 

 

[BushBrit66]

A really top guy. Always ready to talk and his enthusiasm for the hobby, at a basic level of just getting on with it, was infectious. He came all the way to Bristol and back to give a talk  IPMS Avon some years ago. The term gentleman really applied to Mike.

[treker_ed]

There is a thread in the chat section in tribute to Mike. Magazines & books is not really the right place for this I would suspect.

Edited December 6, 2021 by treker_ed