All Activity

So I have windows 10 on a HP laptop, and pay a Windows annual subscription. Will that have inbuilt anti virus ??. Trying to ditch Kaspersky: up to £40 now. Albert

Hi Richard, did I see that you might be able to supply canopies? It would be handy if you already made your own blank. I would probably get two if possible as I'll build the delta at some point in the best future too. Many thanks, Tom

Hi Richard, did I see that you might be able to supply canopies? It would be handy if you already made your own blank. I would probably get two if possible as I'll build the delta at some point in the best future too. Many thanks, Tom

May the Forth be with you.

There does appear to have been some issue with the safety car. Not that I completely understand what, really happened. Superficially appears that Lando Norris benefitted from a new set of tyres, that non of the other drivers benefitted from. I suspect that played a big part in Verstappen, not being able to challenge for the lead, there could also have been fuel usage issues, for all our knowledge. As a spectacle Miami worked, like the Super bowl and many other USA events, As a race, I am not convinced. Although to my surprise safety was not the issue I suspected. The track appears to be particularly prone to drivers being pushed of, by drivers they are passing, Where as those being passed, seem to see a benefit, from ensuring that the pass is not completed. Not a Miami fan. From Verstappen's view point, he was lucky to have made it to the 2nd corner. It is probably Nando's turn to get a degree of luck.

1st of April more like!

Was that photo taken on 4th May?

Learning the basics of flying an R/C model aeroplane is hard enough in ideal conditions, but having to cope with variable windy conditions at the start of your training is really putting pressure on you and I'm not surprised that you are feeling a bit demoralised. If you are still at the stage of getting on top of good, safe model control in nice weather, then flying in very gusty conditions at this time will actually teach you next to nothing at this stage and might even put you off altogether - the model will be flying you rather than vice versa and a damaged model can be the result even on a buddy lead. Every beginner is different and instructors should IMHO, tailor the lessons to suit the individual - that includes only giving instruction in next to ideal conditions if the pupil is clearly very nervous and not enjoying the experience of the model getting blown about gusty conditions. Have a word with your instructor and try to sort something out.

brokenenglish To be exact I did not say a Mills 75 does not like running inverted only that they don't start as well.

I am surprised at this test being needed, especially as the club's grass was obviously too long therefore 'non conform',,,😂

They fly well enough and typical of aircraft of this era the main steering control is the rudder. Are you going two or three channel? [one or two I expect] I also think you are likely doing hand launch which is just as well as models of the 17 even largish ones can be a handful on the ground run. [ some fit a rudder gyro to help with stability] Free flight models are by design one speed machines with the right engine for that speed. If you are experienced with setting a FF model then just rudder control so it can be steered back to base may be what you desire.

Neddy "I had trouble turning the plane into the wind it seemed to just about stall" Are you sure? Think about what is happening and remember you are standing still on the ground. When the plane is flying with the wind behind it will appear to be travelling faster over the ground than normal. The plane's flying speed plus the wind speed. When the plane is turned into the wind it will appear to slow down as seen from the ground. The plane's flying speed minus the wind speed. However the actual speed of the plane through the air is unchanged. Indeed if the wind speed is close to the plane's flying speed it will appear to almost stop in the air as it turns in the wind but as far as the plane is concerned it is still flying normally. Good that you noticed that the plane was slowing down and in still conditions that would serious but in a wind the plane speed when viewed from the ground varies depending on its path relative to the direction of the wind. Learning to fly in even a mild wind is best avoided until you have achieved the confidence that you are using the controls appropriately. Then only gradually pick days with stronger wind speeds to get used to the plane's apparent speed variations. Of course the effect of wind and turbulence when flying close to the ground creates a whole new set of potential problems but that is all part of the process of learning to fly and when to stay on the ground.

I have no objection to people powering their Boomerangs with electric motors. I just prefer glow engines myself, especially four-strokes but I'm not going to fit one of my beloved four-strokes into the club's trainer for some ham fisted beginner to wreck if I don't take back control quickly enough! 😉 PS. The last two Boomerangs which I assembled had all the parts to fit either an i/c engine or an electric motor.

Maybe it's the D-Day theme, but I couldn't help hearing that last line in this mode. https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/358915eb-5269-4a5a-a476-1ca346e5e5bf

I so admire your determination and resilience in making and flying this model. An object lesson to us all. Keep going Simon!

I do have a charger with a 5A discharge capability but this is limited by the wattage - i.e. a higher cell count/voltage battery will reduce the current limit. DickW posted a cunning plan on another thread to utilise a resistance (e.g. a headlight lamp) in series with the battery to increase the discharge rate of chargers - he cautions that not all chargers may work this way but my unqualified opinion is that the theory is sound. See this thread:

I notice we are all defaulting to Gorilla version of white PVA . Excellent stuff . Ive recently discovered (from Phill the kit cutter) that screw fix super glue is best vale and quickest drying super glue . I have to say , that for very reasonable cost , I would totally agree . I like these kits (now I can see them from the outside , as it were ) . I think its the speed of build and robust nature . Later in the year we can have new website but with initially just the two D Day fighters and their accessories . That will mean that anyone seeing one of the 75 already being built and flown will be able to get one of the peg . Sorry to spoil the flow Leccy . (nice pins)

Have you also upgraded to industrial scale fire extinguishers ? Your taking a serious risk. Once they are in runaway mode there is no stopping the the fire until the power is exhausted. Plus the gas that is emmited is highly flamable/explosive and will quickly spread fire to anything combustible nearby . Charge or discharge out doors away from anything combustible. If you are unlucky enough to have a fire the fire brigade wont be calling you a "daddy" .

One thing that I’ve noticed when teaching is that as a pupil increases in competence, there’s a tendency for them to start getting downhearted about “lack of progress”. Often, this is simply because they are more aware of their errors and consequently more self critical. As you progress, listen to feedback from your instructor - they will see progress that you’re not aware of. Do you have wind and turbulence effects turned on in your simulator - if not, turn them on…some experience of “silly” conditions as well as realistic ones probably won’t hurt! If model flying was as easy as it seems on a simulator, it would remove much of the challenge and ongoing enjoyment - the constant presence of gravity and the proximity of the edge of the air give a continuing challenge to even the most experienced pilot.

Good point.

Im pretty sure the purists will have a fit. This is my Boomerang. It flies easily and is a cracker. The prop is a 13 x 8.

Built from a Brian Taylor plan and laser cut parts from Sarik. The original plan has fixed undercarriage I modified the wing to take electric retracts. Electric power on 5s, thinking of converting to a Tempest 2 with radial cowl since the battery which is housed in the cowl moved forward and the prop started cutting the leads. Fortunately I heard the noise and landed, the positive lead was almost through.

My intention was to get the airframe finished on this one before putting up a thread, but the Oberst has spoken and I'm therefore obliged to document the build in progress. I started my Warbirds Replicas Focke Wulf 190 much later than the majority, in the middle of April, as I mistakenly thought that I'd eventually have a clear bench to progress quickly - should have known better than that and a succession of funfighter sized Spitfires and Hurricanes took up the early months of the year on the bench. Anyway, we are where we are, a matter of weeks before the 80th Anniversary and with fingers crossed that the Butcher Bird will be ready in time. I chose Oberleutnant Josef "Pips" Priller's Black 13 for my FW190 scheme as one of the extremely rare Luftwaffe fighters that actually made an appearance over the Normandy beaches on 6th June 1944. It's a fairly standard Luftwaffe late war scheme, most grey and green, with little variation from that and this model will be a first for me in the use of brown paper as a base for the B & Q paints that we all know and love, hoping to make use of some of the techniques described by The Master as part of this exciting project to demystify achieving a realistic painted finish. In putting the model together I've followed the excellent videos produced by Ron Gray and the very useful tips of the early builders of these kits, greatly enjoying watching their progress. If mine turns out half as good as some of their productions then theirs will be twice as good as mine. It's my first WR build, though I've built plenty of other kits in the past and have accumulated a stash of Richard's kits in the past couple of years. The quality of the kit cutting is excellent and the wood choice is very fine indeed. The parts need very little persuasion to come out of their laser cut sheets and fit well. Following the advice from the early builders, I reglued the laser cut on the top of the upper fuselage sides to accommodate the canopy correctly, marking a new cut line 12mm further north than the original. First time using Gorilla glues in anger on this build, I'd previously just bought them, left them on the shelf for a few months then thrown away the solid bottle. I even swapped out my preferred DM Speedbond PVA for Gorilla PVA on Ron's recommendation and have found it excellent. The ABS mouldings are really nicely done and trimming with Lexan curved scissors and a sharp scalpel was quite straightforward. I'm not going to give a blow-by-blow account of the assembly, as that has been very well covered elsewhere, I'll just note where I might have deviated from the way others might have done their FW190. I'd intended using my fuselage building jig, but in the end it was unnecessary due to the self jigging construction, so I used clamps and pins, all gluing was with PVA. The most obvious departure is the beefing up of the motor mount. I think it was Ron who found the motor mounting plate fractured on his model, so I laminated up two layers of the 3mm birch ply to make a thicker mount plate and, due to the size of the radial mount on my motor of choice, I increased the height of the motor mounting plate to the same height as the fuselage crutch inside. That 6mm laminated mount is a tight fit between the fuselage sides and after measuring up the relative position of the prop arc to the cowl front I fitted some hardwood spacers between the motor mount plate and F1, then added triangular stock from the kit to reinforce the back of the plate. It gives a very solid motor mount and hopefully is strong enough to take a prop strike with no ill affects. I also adopted the additional triangular pieces of balsa to support the upper fuselage sides where those splay out to meet F2. Initially I got the tail infill wrong, using two separate pieces of 1/4" thick balsa, top and bottom, before seeing Ron's adoption of a vertical fin post, so I modified that. On the longerons I didn't see any mention of the need to significantly reduce their width when pulling the tail end together, but that became self evident during the fuselage assembly. There is plenty of beef there with the triangular infill to take the rudder hinges. As I was fitting the excellent 3D printed fan, kindly provided by Simon, I adopted Ron's idea of making the cowl nosering removable, screwed to F1 after shaping the tongue of the lower supporting block. That should make motor maintenance more straightforward than struggling with the narrow aperture inside the fan ring. It's important to trim the fixing screws, so as to not have any nasty sticky-out bits. My motor tests between the three possible motors showed that the optimum choice was a Thumper V2 &420/10, with an APC-E 12"x8" prop. On an HRB 4s1p 3300mah pack that pulled 40 amps, for 550watts in. The AXI 2826/10 on an 112x8.5" prop and the same size pack gave me over 600watts in, but at the expense of a higher current draw of 45amps. The Thumper should give a power loading of 130w/lb, assuming I meet the ~4lb AUW and the larger prop arc will help put more prop outside of the large cowl. The motors have very different mounting lengths so are not interchangeable. I could have chosen to go with the AXI and had the option of two different winds to fine tune the motor, but that would have made the battery compartment shorter, as they are a long motor. I've sourced instrument panel and cockpit sides from the RCSB site, of which I'm a member, and 3D printed those, which will be a sandwich of PLA parts , acetate sheet and printed photographs. All of that will be inserted when the cockpit frame is completed. Moving onto the wings they were a very nice bit of kit, marking out for the servo boxes was straightforward and the wooden parts attached with Gorilla glue brown, followed by work with the razor plane, Permagrit blocks and a wee 3D printed profile sander to get everything to shape, before cutting out the ailerons. Servo box cutouts made with my Best Bent Wire mounted in my soldering gun and with final sanding completed the wings were joined using Gorilla glue brown, weighted down and secured with tape, pins and rubber bads to put the joint in compression and stop the GG pushing anything out of alignment. I'd normally use 30 minute epoxy, but thought I'd give the expanding glue a try here. That's where I'm up to just now - got some clean up to do to remove the expanded glue above and below the wing surface before applying the glass fibre bandage.

As far as I can tell this HobbyKing model is discontinued, hence why I guess you are appealing for spares. Finding new or used cowlings might be tricky, unless you are up to fabricating them yourself. A couple of suggestions... Put a wanted ad on the BMFA Classifieds in case someone has a pranged example which maybe has the intact parts you are after. As regards the propellers and shaft adapters, post a sharp closeup picture of the motor casing showing the shaft. Measure and post here the length and diameter of the shaft. Also, do the motors have an identifying number, size or brand to allow an educated guess for the correct prop size? If you don't know what diameter the propellers should be then someone here might know. Then take a good look on AliExpress and Banggood in particular, because they sell a myriad of little props CW and CCW as well as adapters. Even HobbyKing may have some suitable equivalent props. You simply may have to try the nearest you can lay your hands on.