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For balance, better to leave the thread. It gives a fair representation of the collective thoughts of this end of the hobby as to this idiot’s actions. If removed, our views get removed from public sight. Would a neutral onlooker then conclude we stand in a neutral corner on the issue?

There's a website only a mother could love.

The hole in our needle is designed for a 1.5mm allen key and i recommend these are used. Braided cables are not recommended as their resistance to torsion is poor, especially if it is unwinding the twist in the cable. This makes accurate needle adjustment very difficult due to the rather springy and indirect drive. I have this exact issue with an ASP 160 twin using a braded extension. Admittedly its quite long and perhaps an extreme case, but its very irritating. While the allen keys are more likely to cause damage in the event of an accident you have already crashed by that point anyway so being worried about damage in that event is a bit pointless. Also how often do you break needles? Suffering a lifetime of inaccurate tuning to save yourself buying a needle once every 5-10 years seems a poor trade. However, if its a concern use some fine carbon fibre rod with a nub glued on the end as it will snap like a carrot when you bash it ?

The recent post on the BMFA FB re a a young lad with his face slashed open by a drone being flown in a public park really drives home the impact that a rogue pilot can have. Not just on our hobby but real physical impacton innocent young bystanders. While this is allowed to continue our collective reputation will sink even lower. Numb brained fools on YouTube continue to fly over property being nosey , one in particular under the guise of an "** Audits" and even the police seem powerless to stop them . He even flew oround and posted ariel shots of a prison and was still allowed to walk away after being detained by prison personnel and the police. No wonder the guy in discussion above does just as he wants The real worry is that when the authorities sit up and take notice they will slap even more draconian rules on all of us .

Not sure what mine weighs but I power it with the Hacker A-30 on 4S 3000mAh - serious grunt!

The winter project, a Dane-RC Leprechaun V3, saw light of day on Good Friday, and flew well. Review in the mag' in due course.

The tail wheel assembly is well up to standard and robust I must say. In fact I have seen worse ones on some of my 60 cc jobs. Impressive. The coupler was glued into the rudder with gorilla glue.

Spring is definitely here and my Swizzle Stick is performing well. I flew it last Thursday, which was a calm sunny day the only issue was the bouncy, bouncy, bouncy landings. The best I could do was a little skip but I could not repeat even that. I remembered reading on here that a light breeze helps with take offs and landings. Wednesday bright sunshine, my model always flies better in the sunshine anyway the wind was 10 mph. It's true the wind helps, multiple landings and only a few minor skips I had three flights before the trainees turned up, Wednesday is training day, I hung around and enjoyed the good company. Today bright sunshine with 10 mph early in the morning so at the field at 08:00 and the Swizzle Stick had not forgotten the lessons from the previous day ?. Even as the wind gusted up the little Swizzle Stick handled it without issue. An amazing model that flies so well for me that it boosts my confidence and makes me feel really pleased that I go flying. Back home no repairs just a warm glow of elation from within, I guess that's why we do this. Tomorrow it's back to the Mini Super build as the forecast is 19 mph ☹️ too windy? not really it's just that as the conditions get more challenging the sense of fun reduces to the point where it starts to feel like hard work, and I gave that lark up a long time ago. Steve

She said I had to get more romantic so I gave her a massage with essential oils, Castrol GTX and WD40

Hopefully enough weight to ensure a good contact.

It is rather large with them on plus you have the struts too but it certainly floats, if you missed the vid of its maiden flight (nearly exactly a year ago!), here it is:

Having read through a load of these posts I can't help thinking that the new owners must be wondering at the mentality of a lot of their readers.

My subscription is now due although it still refers to My Time Media with cheques still made payable to them? I did notice a small price rise and the my annual one off payment is now the same as DDM.? Had both print and digital last time but don't think I ever accessed a digital copy/archive, so binned digital this time round. Love the free plans and have built several and will build this months Gyroo. Fingers crossed there continues to be enough contributors to keep it full and interesting ?

Its always got to be a struggle.

Just a small update on progress this time. The picture may not appear to show anything different from some previous ones but Smoke Trail has now been fuelproofed and is getting closer to being flight-ready. I used black Solarlac for the engine bay and then Clearcoat on the remainder of the fuselage and the flying surfaces; a single coat, brushed on. It's a pity that the picture doesn't do it justice as the colour has washed out somewhat. The red flying surfaces are much brighter in reality and the Clearcoat has given the whole model a good shine. Anyway, I'll leave it to dry for a few days before installing the rudder (hinged with thin aluminium) and attaching the undercarriage again. Then it's another job I'm not looking forward to: the dreaded windscreen ?

Actually I carved it myself from a block of balsa i grew in the garden using a scalpel I forged from ore I dug up and then covered it in homespun nylon and dope, and harvested berries to create the ink for lettering the keys. I bought the dope from my local alchemist. ?

Sweating some solder on to the ends will get rid of the said lifetime of inaccurate springy needle adjustment issues. But given that I hardly tweak my needles unnecessarily I will continue to use the repurposed scrap cables ? While gluing in a nub on the outer end of the carbon rod will be perfect, not many will wish to glue the rod in to the needle. And we do know what happens to those carbon rods when we try and tighten a set screw on to them. Don't we?? In the end we do what works for us and we prefer. Back to Lasers then ?

Are you in 8-16 channels?

Just a note to say that I have suggested to the organisers of this year's Coupe Des Barons that they group all of the four-stroke contestants in the same group. They are considering it. Up to ten four-strokes in the air at the same time, the sound would be "formidable!" Must rush. Got to fit a new exhaust to the van.

It couldn't last, but at least we've had a good run over the last couple of decades or so. Don't know how things will develop given the substantial rise in the price of lipos, not to mention poor availability compared to only a short while ago. I need to replace a number of older and tired Hobby King packs that have given excellent service over many years and the cost is looking to be nuts, particularly on the larger capacity 6S types. No way am I laying out that sort of cash. Smaller sizes aren't so bad in terms of cost and do seem to be available from a small number of suppliers in the UK, but from brands that are unfamiliar so a bit of a gamble as to what to expect. The rubbish ones, if indeed some are not much cop, will soon get around on the grapevine. IMHO, our hobby got a much needed shot in the arm when practical and affordable electric power for models became available with brushless motors and lipo technology some twenty + years ago, for reasons that we've discussed at length here in the past. If that original 'shot in the arm' starts to lose it's benefits, who knows where an already shrinking hobby will wind up? Even going back to IC is not as it was given the demise of the likes of ASP and SC, not that oily old glow engines will be particularly attractive to many new and younger fliers interested mainly in ready to go foamies.

While old allen keys are convenient, I prefer small L extensions from softer wires or short pieces of braided cables that are sweated with solder at both ends to take the set screws snugly without fraying the ends. Advantage being that in a prang, stiff wire needle extensions can lead to damages to the needle or the housing.

Agree, it should be closed. We should remove the publicity for him

I have better uses for my time, besides the vinyl would look better than anything I could draw.

i reckon most of the stuff at our flying field is china origin......a lot of people were happy with hobby king.....cheap prices, reasonable quality and delivered to your house...what more could you want. The LMS didn't have all the stuff we needed, and so like many others HK was the way to go...more so with electric stuff. The transition from buying balsa local to build off a plan was taken over by the "cheap" ARTF market and the LMS couldn't even think of competing with the far east lads.......if HK has had it as far as the UK is concerned i'm sure something/someone will jump in to satisfy our needs........ ken anderson...ne..1...HK dept.

I looked up the word "thicket" and it appears that this post is insinuating that Yorkshiremen are stupid. I take issue with that. We are many things (tight fisted, old fashioned, dower, etc), but to consider the population of our county as "stupid" in my opinion could be considered a racist slur. A stupid Yorkshireman, Lancastrian, Scot, Irishman, or Nancy southerner for instance is a comment aimed at an individual and although not very nice can be considered as an observation. To condemn an entire population of an area as far as I can gather in a public manner in this country (for what it's worth) is an illegal act and should be dealt with by the mods in the severest way possible. Mind you. As a Yorkshireman I don't really give a poop what anybody says about us as they are only jealous.

Thanks John ? Phil G was also impressed by it and now also wants to build one in fact this one has caught the attention of possible one of the biggest you-tubers in Australia. none other that Andrew Newton he even gives me a mention and direct viewers to my video.? Steve ?

Maidened my Topmodel CZ Marabu in perfect conditions this morning. Needs a few more trimming flights but I'm very pleased with its performance.

Another nice covering job with hk film extra slim? just finishing off my swinger II ,published in Dec 69 RM ,it should have taken three weeks to build ended up being three decades! Just need to find a suitable silencer for the Merco 61 III from my collection.

The heading , Where are they now? got me thinking about some of the big names that seemed to be all over the aeromodelling mags in years gone by, but have since disappeared from the mainstream. Obviously, time takes its toll, but certain big names did seem to be 'flashes in the pan' for a while and then not much heard from them any more. On the other hand, others are still around and active after many decades. I suppose the same thing is reflected at club level as well.

I don't think so Pete. They also produce magazines for born again bikers.

The comment by John , that centred on job losses, immediately garnered my general sympathy. At the same time, i did not and do not have clear picture in my mind about whom was being referred to. The more I thought about the issue the greater became my perspective of who is adversely affected. It will include Traplet Press. I then thoiught there are probably a wider circle of people, potentially the existing writers, as focus will change with time, also those involved in selling advertising space, will the new owner have their existing department, the printers of the mag could be also be subject to change. I suspect that many people will be impacted, potentially not for the good, although some will eventually conclude things were for the best. IMO it is not just the obvious workers that I feel for. As for Traplet, as Kevin (and probably others ) have alluded to, the mags must not have being laying "Golden Eggs". I wonder how this will aspect the new owners are going to address? My pessimist side suggests, we trad, type modellers, are less numerous than ever, or perhaps we are spending less, maybe both, who knows? Again as suggested by a suggested tittle change, everything changes with time. IMO changing the title will not have any significant affect on who may buy it for the first time, it may be the final straw for many current purchasers, again who knows. I have seen our hobby titles disappear from the shelfs of the newsagents over the years. Perhaps a very recent surprise is that some of the places where RCM&E could be found, no longer (appeared) to stock it. On a positive note I did purchase a mag for fling scale modellers (not an awful lot in though). RCM&E still remains the best that is currently available. When I can find mags for Tractors, Land Rovers, barges, there must be space for a mag for us. A very positive aspect is I thought that Sarik would struggle with the short kits and plans. So I have often been mistaken. Hmm how will they be affected?

Reading through the press release I think that the magazine will will change, but not quickly or drastically. "We have owned these magazines for over 15 years but with our business focus changing within the group we have concluded that the titles’ future plans are best served by new ownership, where there is portfolio scale to benefit and add value to these titles,” said Owen Davies, MyTime Media’s Chief Executive." My reading of this is that of financial problems and the need to quickly redress them by selling off assets. Isn't this what happened at Traplet ? At least we know now that the magazine is now in the hands of a company with a fairly secure base that continues to support minority hobby interests. At the end of the day it is all down to marketing and has been for many years in printed media. In cases such as the BMFA magazine they are marketing information to their members and it is a tool to do that. Much of the expense in producing the magazine comes from the subscription charges with advertising from companies that also support the BMFA in other ways. That and utilising the time of people already employed by the organisation. My own view is that long term there will be an amalgamation of different types of modelling magazines and this will be driven by the reduced number of product suppliers to the model making hobbies, who in turn will want to advertise to the widest possible audience for the least outlay. Another reason would be the fact that the number of people capable and willing to produce these magazines ( and the articles in them) is also dwindling, due partly to the ever decreasing number of people interested in these styles of model making. Food for thought ?

RCM&E is the only paper reading material I engage with. Reading it normally involves a cuppa and a comfy chair preferably outside in the sun. If it went digital only I doubt I would bother reading it.

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.