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Showing content with the highest reputation on 31/12/21 in all areas

  1. I hope I'm posting this correctly, I've only posted once or twice before). I recently finished this Magnatilla and had a successful maiden a couple of weeks back. It was a lovely calm day and after only a little bit of trimming the model flew very nicely - it does tend to climb a little under throttle, but it's quite manageable (even for a relative newbie like me). It's an electric set up (4s3300mAh) - so I thought I'd include an image of the battery location - all recommended and supplied by George at 4 max. . 4m
    9 points
  2. Hi, I am in the process of making my own Mini Indoor Autogyro but 1st I need to experiment making a head. This one is using a silicon tube to allow movement of the head Up-Down Left-Right the bearings in the tiny bell motor work really well. Of coarse weight has to be kept down to a minimum. I may go with this one . Steve.
    4 points
  3. Happy New year chaps . Ive just been to Aldi's . Apparently they are getting a lot of fitness equipment in on Thursday , for people's new year resolutions . I was particularly interested in kettle bells of about 3kg each . So I asked the manager if there would be anyone available on Thursday to carry them to my car . He just looked at me blank . So I picked up some bread and butter pudding and some triple cooked frozen chips instead .
    2 points
  4. Created by master RC designer and builder Dietmar Metz. This is the finished Star Wars Tri-Jet being demonstrated at a trade show in Germany. Quite amazing degree of control for an electric ducted fan jet.
    2 points
  5. Indeed - but its easy to tell from driving on other parts of the field when the ground is at the right degree of plastic deformity for our specialist treatment! ?
    2 points
  6. The top and each side of the fuselage has now been covered, not the bottom yet as I still need access for installing the control cable and servo cable runs. The covering is again Sig Koverall. Prior to covering, a bit of work was done in making the the landing light and a ground signalling light removable. This picture shows the original lamps glued into position. The lamps were 12v 50w and 35w halogen ones driven by a circuit I had designed using my limited electronics skills. The signalling lamp flashed ½ second on ½ second off, which was all I could achieve with a simple 555 timer. I was going to retain the system as is, however on testing the circuit the ground signalling light would flash but the landing light wouldn’t work. There is a fault on the board somewhere which makes one of the relays chatter and I can’t find out why. It looked a bit Heath Robinson so a neater and more modern approach would be 12v 4.2w leds and a Powerbox lightbox powered by a small 3s lipo. This amazing little unit has 4 programmable outputs so will do all I want to achieve (its on order but not arrived yet). Also, the lamps were glued in which made changing them impossible without causing damage. Fortunately neither lamp failed, however I decided that making the lamps capable of replacement would be a better arrangement so the old units have been cut out and the new ones held in with screws. The landing light is now held in place by a simple fibreglass ring which retains the glass lens (a cabochon) and in turn, the lamp. The ground signalling lamp is held by trapping the flange of the lamp between two liteply formers screwed to bearers in the fuselage. The fibreglass ring was moulded in place using trusty parcel tape as the release medium. A few layers of 50 gm cloth followed the curves and once dry, a hole cut out which was slightly smaller than the cabochon to hold it in place and the excess trimmed off the rear to form another circle. Small wood screws screwed into the original ply ring hold everything together. At first I drilled the holes too close to the edge of the ply ring, so had to apply the trusty Cataloy and have another go. This time the holes are in the right place. I'm sure the final painting will cover up the mistakes!
    2 points
  7. The mild weather has given me the chance to get some paint on at last. Matt black rattle can from the motor spares shop, I had intended taking the masking off but on inspection in the better light there is some more paint to go one.
    1 point
  8. Belgians have no sense of humour. Anyway, full of mussels and chips, with Graves (wine, not depository) dates, nuts and chocolate truffles, feeling slightly sick, Happy New Year.
    1 point
  9. Thanks for your reply, Jonathan. The climbing isn't dramatic, but it's definitely noticeable when compared to the the other models that I fly regularly (Easy Street and Yeti are my current favourites and in the nicer weather I'd tend to fly an XR61 quite a bit - they are ARTF, so I imagine things like thrust angles are all sorted by the manufacturer). On the advice of a much more experienced club mate I have trimmed it for level flight on about half throttle - which is where the Magnatiila feels happiest as it's not a model to be hooning around with. I have no thrust angles built in - I just mounted the motor square on to the firewall/F1 (is that what it's called ?) - the X mount is 12 - 6 , 3 - 9 ie + as opposed to x, if that makes sense. I've just checked the drawings and instruction manual and I cannot see that there is any recommended thrust angle - but as the model is intended to have IC I didn't really check when I built the model if I'm honest, I was more concerned with the prop clearing the cowl and the dummy engine placement within the cowl and the various spacer lengths required to achieve this. It does pull to the left a bit on takeoff, but that's easily corrected with rudder and doesn't feel 'weird' to me as I'm used to using the rudder to keep models straight on takeoff. It's the climbing under power which felt a bit strange as I'm not used to it I suppose , plus the model is doing something that I haven't asked it too (although I know I have by increasing power, as a relative newbie I tend to associate climb with elevator input). I will take your advice regarding the mix and I may try placing a washer under the top mounting point and see what it does - or I might just leave it alone and learn to live with it. Thanks for the tip on checking for right thrust - I will definitely give that a go. thanks again for your reply and advice - all very welcome ?
    1 point
  10. It does make it worthwhile Peter. Having decided to modify F1 it's time to start sawing. The shaded parts are to be removed, I learned this in woodwork class too long ago. Here it is after some changes trial fitted I have cut the ventilation hole large enough for the ESC to be installed from the front beneath the battery tray. Battery tray design is next. I am thinking of making it to the shape of the nose like this liteply tray with holes and slots. More fun to come. ?
    1 point
  11. Brilliant, thanks for sharing as usual!.
    1 point
  12. Personally I’ve never had a bent or warped doubler construction but then, as Mike says, I apply it in thin layers. Another ‘trick’ I use is to run a covering iron over the ply after an hour or so. I first tried this when I discovered that an edge hadn’t stuck down so tried the covering iron and was pleasantly surprised at how well it worked!
    1 point
  13. We can learn a lot about realistic weathering from plastic kit fans
    1 point
  14. In the circumstances I would have done the same Tony
    1 point
  15. Hi All, Now that the pre-Christmas jobs around the house have been done and Christmas has past, time to get back to the Sunderland and as all the weather wants to do is rain what else is there to do to pass away the time. The elevators and rudder are covered and fitted, for the elevators I ended up using some scrap pieces of Oratex left over from my DH71. I had tried using laminating film but this failed twice. I have used it before on an open structure (only to try it out and it worked well ). The rudder was covered in laminating film and no problems at all. I bought 10m of laminating film from Ron Grey earlier this year intending it for another project, when I decided what to build after the Sunderland. However, looking at the eye watering prices of Oratex and the size of the Sunderland I thought to myself lets give the laminating film a go, especially as it worked out at a modest 58p/m2 compared to a 2m roll of Oratex for £35 for 1.23m2. I think the savings speak for themselves plus on an environmental note there is no backing sheet of plastic to throw away either, so helping to save the planet as well. At 1.8m wingspan it would take two rolls of Oratex or other iron-on film to cover the wings alone saving me £66!!! Yesterday, I made a start on the wings, yep this stuff is great as easy to put on as Oratex/Solartex possibly even easier as no heat gun required. Just started tacking the film in place. The smaller access panels were a little tricky to cover due to their size Only a few small creases but I'm happy with the results Wing half underside and access panels done Then onto the top side With confidence levels high, I thought let's try a wing float next Before, hardly a flat surface in sight. Starting at the bottom, this was the easy bit Using the off-cuts from the wing panels I allowed plenty of material to give me enough to pull on as I teased the film around the compound curves then trimming it off with a knife/scissors Yes, this is the after shot. One float covered. Float in position cowls cut out and placed in position just the nacelles to cover. Just a note, I found that the film stuck very well to the wing bandage which some films do not stick so well. Next, finish covering the wing and cut out the remaining access panels, that's todays task. I have given the fuselage some thought regarding the covering, the hull I'm going to use glass cloth to give added strength and durability as this is going to take the all of the take-offs/landings and for me this Sunderland will be a landlubber. The rest of the fuselage will be film covered. That's all for now Regards Robert
    1 point
  16. This is new to me but it was built by a Club mate who had to give up flying. I re-engined it with an OS61FX but that struggled to pull the rather heavy airframe around big manoeuvres. It now has an OS 91FX in it - same crankcase so dead easy upgrade. Still running in the engine so probably quite a bit more power to come. Vertical performance is now much better but will no doubt improve as the engine loosens up. It really needs a new cowl as the pitts silencer it came with required most of the bottom of the cowl removed. There are now so many holes in the top to accommodate 3 different needle valves as well.
    1 point
  17. I took delivery of my Fiat CR42 at our last flying session and my pal Derek has sent me through some nice static shots of the completed model - with the 3D printed bust of Mussolini's son as a pilot figure, the final added scale details and squadron markings. It will be the spring before I fly this marvellous model myself. 50" span (~1/8th scale), weighs 5lb 4oz, for a wing loading of 18.8 oz/sq ft, Powered by a D3548 motor, 11x5.5" APC-E prop and a 4s1p 3600mah Lipo .
    1 point
  18. Test flew my Mercury Matador today in perfect conditions. It uses one of the complete power packages from 4-Max 2212 1000Kv. My Matador weighs 1 lb 10 ounces and it climbs like a homesick angel om 1/2 throttle
    1 point
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