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Here is where I have got to on the 50-Canberra. I think if I ordered up some fans and stuff from 4-Max that might kick me into gear again.

The weather was very calm this morning although very dull and overcast and a bit cool so it's time for another autogyro flight. There was hardly a breath of, not enough to get the rotors spinning so it was back to hand launching. I waited for a puff of breeze holding Whippish behind my head I managed to get the blades swishing with a bit of a run, half throttle and a gentle throw an off she went! I flew for a about 5 or 6 minutes of mainly right hand circuits with a couple of even shakier left circuits trying not to favour one way or other. and then in for a landing, it was greaser! Beginners luck I think. Having really enjoyed the first flight I took a couple of minutes break then off for another flight. There was now a very gentle breeze down the strip so full back stick and off I went blades picking up speed, then after easing off the back stick with a short delay Whippish lifted off!! My first ROG with an autogyro! I was having fun. Trouble was I was quite a distance away now so I turned back towards myself and started to fly back but I think I let the rotors slow down too much and she went in nose first from about 25 feet up. The damage was not too bad, broken prop, motor undercart and firewall detached as a unit, battery box smashed. The blades and head was undamaged. I've started sticking the bits back together again and should be back in the air again very soon ?

A post deleted Gents, if you've a report to make, by all means do it, but lets remember our manners please. At present we have little evidence of a site problem, but if/when we do, rest assured the IT team will sort it ASAP.

Ahhh, the Flyte 150 saga ? This was when Jon was still in nappies and Neil Tidey was at the helm. 1992 I think ? It was very much plagiarism, by a chap I won't name (initials DH) who took a Laser 150 to the far east somewhere and said "copy this". Neil thought it was hysterical !!! Somebody bought one thinking it was a Laser and sent it to Neil for servicing. He had great fun taking it apart, and brought the bits to the pub to show us for a giggle. It was basically made of aluminium coloured chocolate and the tolerances were a joke. It's supposed "Unique selling point" was that the exhaust came blocked, and you had to decide which end to drill out ! Only one batch was ever made, because surprisingly they didn't fool many people. Unsurprisingly they ran like a bag of old nails. They still turn up occasionally, I saw one for sale at Wings & Wheels this year. It was unused ? Probably a good collectors item now actually !

You are welcome and welcome to the forum.

Cheers chaps, Models on other beta models are balancing between the points shown on the plan horizontally with no nose down attitude. Clearly I can alter this to give a bigger tolerance. Strange

Found some scrap materials laying in the verge near our house. They are now turned into a carry support/ rigging stand for the Mohawk!

Bit of a final message on this (I hope). Plane all back together and working. Side strengthening strips on and damaged area painted to try to hide the mess. all looks square and true, flying and trimming will tell. Tried to reset the ESC to factory default, and tbh not sure if I have. The sequence of beeps do not tally to those in the FMS manual. The sequence starts with 5 loud beeps, manual shows 4, and it goes on from there. Hard to spot the sequence from the ESC to the manual. The normal start-up sequence 'says' the motor brake is ON, the factory default should set it to OFF... Throttle response is just as it was before the crunch. My aerial re-solder seems to have worked, needed to do it to sort the signals out, but will test it and the ebay unit when it arrives, and will go with the ebay unit if range test is good. Ran the plane up to WOT many times to test the glue on the nose, all ok, but a flight is needed (by my buddy link guy).

Its still a good idea to be able to find the root cause of a model crashing, otherwise you're just asking for a repeat.

It sounds to me as though the AAIB and BMFA should run some courses on post-accident data gathering, so at least one member of every club understands how to produce a detailed, accurate report. You only need to read a few AAIB reports of full-size accidents to realise that first impressions and assumptions are often wrong (The Emilio Sala crash being a prime example. The weather and the pilot's lack of an instrument rating being the initial focus, whereas carbon monoxide poisoning was later found to be the most significant factor). In addition, witnesses are often completely wrong about what they saw and sequences of events. In one of my contracts I worked as a validation & verification engineer, running environmental tests on electro-mechanical assemblies for armoured vehicles. Root cause analysis of failures was a significant part of the job, and it was immediately apparent how essential a planned approach to investigation and lots of note-taking yielded information that would be easily lost if not done in a methodical manner. In addition, I was forever trying to press home to my colleagues that there is no such thing as too many photographs, each one should include a caption board if possible, or failing that, zoomed out shots enclosing a caption board, either side of a closeup. Very often photos taken to capture the general test area and equipment proved as vital as the close in ones of the assumed problem.

With the repairs and modifications to the outer wing panels complete attention has turned to cleaning up the rest of the airframe. Although I’m not a fastidious cleaner of models at the end of a flying session, I do wipe down as much of the exposed parts as I can, this though is what happens if fuel residue isn’t completely removed. Slowly it works into the paint, softening and lifting it, but then I suppose that’s why paint remover used to contain nitro methane! In fairness the model has languished in the shed for about 6 years and I didn’t spot the extent of the creeping effects of decay or perhaps I would have attempted to arrest it. This softening has occurred even with the application of TufKote as a fuel proofer. The Tukote may have reduced the affects that would have occurred with fuel directly onto enamel, but does show that model ‘fuel proofers’ are not a long-term solution. No Nonsense paint remover once again did a reasonable job of softening the remaining paint which was then scraped and rubbed down with wet n dry paper. The residual paint here is actually underneath a thin layer of fibre glass cloth from an earlier repair I had forgotten about. On seeing the repair I remembered I had once taxied into a concrete ramp. Having got back to the bare state I realise what a poor job I had made of the fibreglass work all those years ago. Although generally sound and adequate for the purpose, the surface is far from flat. This didn't really show up when the model was painted in a matt camouflage finish however its going to be a gloss civilian livery this time so a good base if essential. Isopon resin and perhaps another layer of gloss should improve things.

Try theses people for some silicone hose, they do high temp stuff somewhere https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/autosiliconehosesoutlet?_trkparms=folent%3Aautosiliconehosesoutlet|folenttp%3A1&_trksid=p3542580.m47492.l74602

It will work, I have a piece of silicone connecting the exhaust of my OS70FL to the silencer supplied with my BE2e kit, but be prepared replace the silicone every season. According to Jonathan Harper of Laser Engines, it's the temperature of a four-stroke exhaust which will destroy a silicone pipe.

Danny, can't you use the flexible conduit to do the same instead of the 90 degree knuckles or may be one knuckle and then the flexible extension on to the cylindrical chamber?

Well......I'm afraid after the past few weeks........ my octopi will be on a plate with the chips.....

Jonathon - Looks great. I think it will be my next build after completing my Chilli Breeze. I have never had a failure with canopy glue, it takes awhile to cure but when done just try and pull it off.

Covering and trim business all done! Decided on a black cockpit in the end, but yet to work out how to affix the canopy as I don't quite trust canopy glue to stick to shiny film! I suppose some sort of screw fixing will also be needed, then a few strips of scrap brown film to hide/tidy up things. Then just the engine and U/C to fit in place, glue in the hinges, make up the control surface linkages and fit the RX, battery and switch. Will leave the cowling until after the first few trim flights - as I'd guess the model would likely need at least some right-thrust.

Sleep on the decision. If it feels floppy tomorrow, a skewer (spell), I know I’m crap myself, will be needed. But probably not. Good enough. A learning curve, your airframe is in the last chance saloon, God’s waiting room, area of its life. Don’t worry. I agree, don’t throw money at it, but tight with money can be self defeating. Repair it, instructor can have a go. Two results. 1. Repair techniques advanced. 2. instructor, if not observant enough before liftoff, might have an entertaining time after it lifts off. That is serious, look what he does, checks, pulls, kinterrogates you. Before I get jumped on, I fly over dead ground. If it hits the deck, deer sometimes, and more often hares are under the aircraft. The local hares do 12 portions at a dinner table. I thank my whippets for that knowledge.

Getting back on track with the Hurricane, some mild weather enabled me to get down the shed and put some paint on. I covered the rear fuselage in lam film also the tail feathers, having some black etch primer I tried it out on the lam film giving it a light rub down first. At this point I am tempted do do a night fighter version, I know orientation will be tricky but flying last week with a Spitfire in dull weather was ok and it was a silhouette most of the time. It will be economic on paint all black although some were black on the underside only.

Had an excellent and totally unexpected few hours on Sunday afternoon, quite warm, sunny, blue skies very light winds just for the afternoon. Some nice models flying too -my first opportunity to see what all the fuss is about with these wee Arrows Models Red Arrow Hawks, with three of my clubmates flying theirs. I just took a few old failthfuls - my E-Flite P-51, my PZ FW190 and my HK Sukhoi Su-26 -which my clubmate Steve took some nice pictures of. I managed a completely inadvertent tail slide with the Su-26, slowing her up just a smidgen too much entering a stall turn - looked great though, minus the smoke ? Steve was flying a lovely little foamy Beechcraft Bonanza, which I pictured the other day- he tells me that the model was horrible to fly with the original signature V-tail, but it flies beautifully with the replacement conventional tail that he's retrofitted.

Just heard that a British vacuum cleaner manufacturer has bought the Co-op funeral directors. Some people think that's ok, I think they're Dyson with death!

I hope the dining room table hasn't damaged your wing at anytime John.

Brilliant News Phil. I showed Jan your Liz Earle bottle top you used for the jet outlet, and guess what. She uses it as well and has an identical top which I can use - result! I will haven not only a scale jet but a very smooth moisturised face as well!