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Sorry, but I have no idea what you believe "questioning it" actually means at this point in terms of practical action. Are you expecting a mass rebellion against a £1 increase to cause the government to do an about turn on registration? This seems unlikely given almost every major developed country is going down the registration route, and some (such as France) have already gone quite a bit further with actions that would severely limit our activities. We as modellers (led by the national associations including the BMFA) questioned the proposals at length via every avenue available from about 2015/16 until mid 2019 when the proposals were finalised. This included completing feedback surveys on government proposals, letter writing campaigns, and the BMFA's representation at the Science and Tech Parliamentary Select Committee and behind closed doors with governement officials and the CAA. Unfortunately the fight against mandatory registration was lost as (whether you agree or not) it is seen as a foundational element of managing the low level airspace as commercial and recreational use increases. However, the fee was at least reduced and so far no additional and more onerous regulations have been forthcoming. The reason I (and I suspect the vast majority of posters here) are not worried about a £1 increase is because a) it's barely an inflationary uptick, b) we all know registration is here to stay whatever happens, and c) we are more worried about the future battles we'll need to fight at some point against more onerous controls that could be far more damaging to our hobby. Railing against a £1 increase would just make us look petty; we are far better keeping our powder dry for when remote ID inevitably rears it's head in coming years.

Don't think to question it? That whole discussion was relevant in 2017 (?) when the whole scheme was being proposed and defined. I'm surprised you think the scheme's proposers gave three fifths of a rats hind quarters about us boys with our toys. The BMFA did some great work to ensure we didn't become collateral damage.

If you look around the rest of the world Cuban 8, you will realise that we have got off fairly lightly and that is down to the efforts of the BMFA and its members in making their views known. We live in a world where there are multiple forces acting on the use of lower airspace. The reason I don't see this as "a ridiculous and overblown piece of government bureaucracy" is because of all governments desire to increase the economic activity of their nations while using a technology that has a low barrier of entry unlike traditional aerospace. So, we have a conflict of interest where some big movers wish to make full use of lower airspace for commercial reasons. Easiest solution is to stop those without a voice from continuing as before and clogging up chunks of airspace. However, due to the leadership of the BMFA, and other associations, and support from its membership, we have manage to arrive at a situation that is very much business as usual for 95%+ of members. With a membership of 30,000 or so, the BMFA dwarfs any other air sports organisation in terms of membership. Thankfully, we had a S of S for Transport who actually understands the use of lower airspace even though he only uses it to take off and land. Where would we have been with someone who had no light aviation background? Things could have been a lot worse.

I'm off flying, going to cost me more than £1+ extra now in fuel, should I stay home or "Rollover" and go ?

On the contrary ED, I cannot but hold my head in my hands in despair at your post. This is the usual whinge when a purely nominal sum is proposed at a Club meeting to up subs. In this case, the service we get from the CAA allows us to continue flying pretty much as we were able to before the drone situation arose. If an increase of £1 in your overall costs of building and flying model aircraft in a year is going to make you pack it in then I would say that you would be unique! The sudden increase in the cost of fuel is going to lead to very much more than £1 in the year so what are you proposing to do about that? Brexit, Covid and now the tragic invasion of Ukraine have, and will continue to, push up prices a lot more than £1 a year. My goodness, if you think the BMFA should strongly oppose this increase you just are not living in the real world.

Today was a perfect day for a maiden flight. So the Ki45 finally got it's moment. Delighted to report that the first hand launch saw it ease steadily into the blue sky needing just a few clicks of aileron and 3 clicks of up elevator. It flew really well. Really, there was nothing bad to report. It is stable and predictable and flies like a trainer. I found I could fly it comfortably at just over half throttle and got nearly 4 minutes from the little 2200 3S packs. Landing was a walking pace non event. Dead chuffed! Only trouble is that there was no-one else there, so we'll have to make do with an 'after' photo. Details: Span 60" Powertrain: 3536 920kv motors spinning 9x4 3-blade props. Battery: 2200 3S AUW ready to fly: 3lb 10Oz Graham

Kevin, if a person has a soul that is not generous, they might be rich, but ultimately they are miserable, and spread misery round them.

Today was a perfect day for a maiden flight. So the Ki45 finally got it's moment. Delighted to report that the first hand launch saw it ease steadily into the blue sky needing just a few clicks of aileron and 3 clicks of up elevator. It flew really well. Really, there was nothing bad to report. It is stable and predictable and flies like a trainer. I found I could fly it comfortably at just over half throttle and got nearly 4 minutes from the little 2200 3S packs. Landing was a walking pace non event. Dead chuffed! Only trouble is that there was no-one else there, so we'll have to make do with an 'after' photo. Details: Span 60" Powertrain: 3536 920kv motors spinning 9x4 3-blade props. Battery: 2200 3S AUW ready to fly: 3lb 10Oz Graham

I lucked out today. I had a day's holiday booked, and finished my jobs by early afternoon so it would have been rude not to get out in the sun. I flew this trio of 'Birds. A Warbirds Replicas Tempest that is newly fitted with retracts, my own design KB-11, and my first foamboard foambird, a Ki45. I had the field to myself, part from the Buzzards, Red Kites and a large herd of deer. A splendid afternoon Graham

I clocked my La7 (80 inch warbird 300 4 stroke engine) at around 70mph some years ago on a flat out pass. It was a very crude measurement with stopwatches and a known distance travelled but yea, i absolutely agree that you do not need to go mad with servos which is why said La7 is fitted with 6kg servos on ailerons and elevator, futaba 148 on rudder and 9kg servos on the barn door flaps. I am sure these are overkill, but i have known people fit 20kg servos in 60 size models as they think they need it and its just wasted cash. I doubt the eagle here would be doing much over 60mph as you rightly say. If the servos are under spec it is usually not a problem as you will simply feel sluggish response as they blow back. However, a weak servo can be a problem should flutter begin to develop and then its game over.

So the fact that they built a registration system that issues OPID (and pilot ID but not needed for most of us) that allows us to comply with the law of the land, fly at over 400 ft (with no upper limit in controlled airspace provided we maintain line of sight for under 7.5 Kg models - probably 90% of users excl MRs) is not a service. What does the DVLA do? Without a driving licence you cannot legally drive your car but for the vast majority of qualified drivers what other service do they provide? According to your logic they provide no service so we shouldn't bother to pay for them - which we all do via our taxation. If you want to live in a country where anything goes - move to the USA! Ah, yes, they have even more stringent requirements imposed by the FAA in the "land of the free"! Oh, what service does the Treasury provide us? They take money off us - does that count as a service. How about the Foreign Office? I think the jury might be out about what service they provide to the British public! What about the MoD? What service do they offer us model flyers? Mostly, they no longer let us fly our models on their land e.g. no Nats this year. Come on chaps, those of you who think the CAA are out to make our lives difficult are looking at the problem from the wrong direction. Come to think of it, there are loads of organisations that we pay for that don't appear to offer us a service but that comes with being a citizen of this country. We could do a lot worse as current events show us.

Great idea Kevin, I have been involved in doing similar in our club. We set up a "Social Member" status at a much reduced rate. (Some members who are on their own etc. just like to sit under our tree / drinking tea / watching the flying / yapping about flying!). Instigated club fees paid in instalments throughout the year. Set up a "club shop" in our mobile home, which is fully managed and usually stocked by members who are either giving up or have sadly passed away. Arrange lifts to the field to members who may have lost their licence due to ill health. Reduced membership fees for members interested in gliding only. Always open to new ideas, but we think we are doing the best we can to help members who are not as well off as some. The only downside, is that we have to watch out for members "pleading poverty", and have come unstuck with one person who has since left the club.

The only differences between a 148 and a 3001 are the top bearing - and the label! Futaba used to supply the ballraces as a “conversion”. Bulletproof servos - not the most power or greatest speed but enough power for even a largish sports model such as a Regal Eagle.

When was the last time anyone was asked to produce their driving licence ?

The increase of £1 is really not the point. The whole registration system, and in particular for BMFA members, is a rediculous and overblown piece of government buraucracy that doesn't do one iota of good to improve safety or whatever else for our members. I'm surprised that many don't see it that way, but appear to enjoy the extra admin and red tape and don't think to question it.

Ah, most of us are a bit stressed, first Covid then cost of living and Ukraine..... Anyway a positive for the government..... if there is war they have a good list of trained drone pilots...... ? ? (only joking, in this life you either laugh or cry ? )

A dry fit followed by gluing in place tonight took up quite a bit of time. Again the tube section hasn’t been cut big enough so I will have to adapt it tomorrow. I have dremeled out the center holes and will leave the wing ribs as with the tail. It really is a solid section when all stuck together. I’m just gutted I won’t be getting much further for a while as I’m waiting for the retracts from the states. I can’t progress much further until I have the nose retract.

Oh boy, another thread to pull out the grumpy old gits ! Fact. Life is going to get more expensive. Fact. Complaining won't do anything to reverse the situation. Fact. In this country we have it a lot easier than most countries in the world (including America). Fact. It could be worse. You could be living in the Ukraine. Let's temper this with a little reality, shall we ? I doubt very much if anybody on this forum is concerned about where their next meal is going to come from, or even their next bottle of chateaux "whatever". In fact, most of the members of this forum can probably remember a time when life was indeed a lot worse. I know I can and I wasn't born until the 1950's. Does that make me one of "those young upstarts" ?

Indeed - whilst I agree with @Engine Doctor that modellers have not got much for our money from DMARES, looking at recent inflation and that predicted for 2022... ...it looks like this is pretty much an inflation aligned adjustment. Anyway, railing against registration at this point is pointless - it is now ubiquitous worldwide, and is seen by the authorities (whether we agree it or not) as foundational to integrating SUAS into modern airspace. IMO we now have to accept registration as a least worst but necessary evil, and move on to fighting the advent of much more onerous regulations likely to rear their heads in the medium term such as remote ID.

11% increase for no extra service seems very reasonable by modern standards.

Slow progress tonight with a lot of pausing for considering options and planning. All Aft formers glued in place, main wing tube sanded flat and glued in place along with ribs. Checked alignment between main wing tube and tail tube and thankfully it’s bang on. Cut a 6” ply spinner backplate for the motor and offered it up, I need to make up standoffs and a backplate for strengthening the firewall. Nose retract is not due to be complete until the end of April (plus delivery time) so I’ll have to plan to clear the bench at some point to build other parts. I may try and fit the retract after so I can keep cracking on. Time will tell.

chateaux "whatever". ? Luxury. We used to get up before we went to bed.................

Totally agree with this

I suppose so, but that in itself isn’t a reason to pay more for an MG servo - just be more careful going through doorways! A good halfway house are the Karbonite Hitecs, they wear better than an MG (developing very little slop) and are pretty resilient to bumps. Personally at these kind of model sizes I’d much prefer an opto ESC and a separate power supply - the weight penalty is often minimal/zero (just remove a bit of nose weight and add in the battery pack in its place), and there is no risk of an ESC failure taking out the RC link.

If we're marching to protest, can we make it an afternoon please, I'm not good of a morning, anytime between 12pm and ten past n I'm in. P.S had a good un at field and grass has been cut. ?

Unfortunately, one source of low cost models/materials is from modellers who are giving up due to age and ill health or have been awarded their own personal wings. I suppose it's inevitable given the demographic of the hobby but it's always sad to be presented with a pile of stuff at a club meeting and told, "if you want it just make a donation you can afford, he would have wanted to see it used" when my turn comes I hope someone less fortunate than me will benefit.

There are several on-line calculators which reveal just how small the requirements are e.g. here Don’t fall into the trap of assuming your model flies at 200 mph - they may look fast but most average sized models would struggle to better 70 - 80 mph in level flight…my mental calculations from your 8S setup from long ago in the thread would seem to agree with this figure, as would an Eagle from my own experience using a Laser 150 with a 16x8.

The power of the servo can be calculated but i use a simpler bit of guess work based upon the 3 factors that impact it. The 3 factors are control surface size, control surface deflection, and airspeed. a WWII fighter would have moderate surfaces, small to moderate deflections (apart from flaps), and moderate speed. A tiger moth has large surfaces, large deflection, but low speed. 3d models have huge surfaces, huge deflection, but low speed. A jet as small surfaces, small deflection but very high speed. You can also factor in your own flying style. Do you love a stick bang, or are you smooth and gentle? Also how do you plan to fly the model? In the case of the eagle are you going to go Gee Bee racer, or more of a relaxed spacewalker or flybaby sort of thing? Personally, if it were me on a model like that i would probably be looking at something slightly over the bare minimum spec as it sits between the WWII fighter and tiger moth in my list above. I am sure it could be flown safely with the 3001's etc, but i would probably shoot for something like the savox 351 run on 6v. It offers a little more torque than the old futaba, is digital so holds a bit better, and its not mega expensive either. They also use the futaba output spline so that is quite handy.

The wing dowel hole doesn't need to be circular. It can be a slot as the only critical dimension is where it holds the wing in position - in this case the top. I bought the CNC cut parts from Sarik and the pre drilled hole wasn't exactly right (or my building made it so!). I just added a cross piece of balsa and the wing fits perfectly - held in place by the dowel, the wing seat and, of course the 6mm wing bolt.

Regal Eagle Racing was always be a popular slot at our Haverfordwest Model show in the 90's. The course went around a couple of small tree copse witch aircraft would sometimes go momentarily out of site behind. All to the exited tone's of DB sound. Good fun.

@Dad_flyernot sure if you've got the ESC yet but I can recommend the Hobbywing FLYFUN-110A-HV-SBEC-V5 as ideal for your setup. The 4-Max ESC I originally had in my Extra Wot (10s) suddenly stopped working so I replaced it with one of these and tbh it is excellent especially the braking functions that it has, plus you don't need a separate BEC.

but can help prevent gear teeth shearing when the occasional 'mishap' occurs (banging a control surface, usually tail, getting the model in and out of a vehicle!).

Well the design and print for a stack turned out OK, so just got to cut, multiply (x6) and add a fixing plate to the 3D print design.

I remember the Regal Eagles being flown at shows in a pack of 4 or 5 back in, what… the late 80s/early 90s maybe? They flew well, but I remember my Dad commenting “…that cardboard construction will never hold up to fuel in the long run”. I guess he was wrong! ? Re: servos, the choices mentioned above all look fine to me, but definitely ditch the two different servos driving the same surface setup! I don’t think you necessarily need metal gears though - there aren’t any major negatives to them, but on an electric they aren’t really necessary as the vibration levels will be so low anyway. Looking forward to seeing how this one turns out, should have plenty of performance on an 8S setup!

That Cuantic is a beast. So much side area. Seems F3a has gone almost to a direct scale up of the indoor F3p.

Kevin, don’t get upset, I love you. Personally I like the way Genghis Khan did business. Honest brutality, no messing.

Very nice Leccyflyer. I too don't get on with "safe" type systems on gyros. I really do not need systems on my aircraft making them more difficult to fly than they already are.

Beautiful day today. Had 5 flights with my Element. A lot more practice needed though!

From my POV Kev, some didn't move over to the new platform at first but came on later, one or two long time posters have gone for various reasons, threads seem pretty active, maybe not so many builds, but Covid saw plenty so maybe that's caused a lull. Forum (To me) seems pretty easy going, not a great deal of friction of late.

Yes, I put the reg number on my models. I use a Brother label printing machine (which I already had for years before) to print to the minimum required size. I place the label in the most unobtrusive place I can find. Inside surface of the undercarriage leg is my favourite. Nobody at any of the various clubs where I fly has ever given it a glance!

Maybe Hitec HS-485HB, about twice the torque of a 148 or 3001. Futaba and Hitec etc plastic seems pretty resilient. Or metal gear and dual ball raced 4-Max, 4M-556AMG-087

The reason for my post on this thread is quite simple. Since the revamp of the site I have noticed that there are fewer and fewer people posting on the forum. There also seem to be far fewer people creating threads. I have seen many familiar names disappear from the forum, who were regular contributors. Either they are dropping off the perch at an alarming rate, or like me are fed up with others constantly moaning and using the forum just to vent their frustrations. In this particular case it is about something that we all knew was going to happen anyway. Anybody with half an ounce of common sense knew it was inevitable. I'm afraid this is not specific to this forum as it appears to be the way of the world these days. Don. A friend of mine once said that people went into politics because they were poor business people (He also thought Maggie Thatcher was a bit left wing !) Alan. I wouldn't want to denigrate anybody. far from it. If there are people who want to be involved in our hobby who have financial restrictions, maybe we should be discussing how we can help them on the forum instead of topics like this one. I for one would be all in favour, particularly at a local level. ED. No comparison. Just stating facts and reminding people of them. I am well aware of the actions of working men and women in the 1950's. Some of them were better than others. I take it that you don't believe that the CAA carries out a service that is of benefit to aeromodellers ? They have their overheads increased as well. This is my last post on this thread as I can see it ending up as the usual "slanging match" However on a positive note I have read a comment that has piqued my interest and I will be starting a new thread on the subject, which I hope will have a more constructive response. Mods. Please feel free to alter or delete this post.

I ain't got much, £1 increase on a "hobby" is pretty much meaningless to me, pales into insignificance compared to the cost of everyday must have items. The term "ger a grip" comes to mind.

You want to apply for a Government PR job Kevin. Just who they are looking for.

Frankly, the entire thread should be removed. . . His videos bring our hobby/sport into disrepute and nobody will ever have anything complimentary to say about the bloke.

Onboard my turbine sport jet with the Insta360 ONE X2 action camera at BMFA Buckminster with the first Jet Modellers Association (JMA) event of the year

I did post yesterday but lost the text due to abandoning the post because of image uploading problems (which I think are fixed now). Have mounted the aileron servos using a ply and hardwood box, no instructions or sketch are provided. It occurred to me later that I automatically used two servos where only one would have been the original idea, sign of the times! The link rods foul the wing mount cross member, this is mentioned in the instructions and a sketch of it is shown, after cutting out this area I added a doubler to restore the strength. Have just fitted the intakes, lots of filling and sanding to do.

difficult to say because of the distance, but it could be failure of control surface or servo. What type of model was it?