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Having made the decision to instal the test duct into the Depron HE162 the next problem was how to actually do it. For its size it is a very light basically hollow airframe that relies entirely on its skin for strength and rigidity. The danger being that by cutting open enough area to install the complete duct it could make the rest of the airframe too 'wobbly' to be handlable. Eventually I bit the bullet and chose to cut the nacelle along the centre line of the duct, either side, front to back. In the process it would destroy the printed duct but that was going to be scrapped anyway. Done this way it would mean the lower half of the duct would remain in place on the fuselage so retaining a degree of fuselage rigidity and not disturbing the wing mounting. To my relief it actually worked quite well. Note the oversize tail fins installed earlier to try to improve its flight characteristics. Once open it does rather highlight the delicate nature of the structure. It is all just 2 mm Depron. ? Now I have to work out how to fit and glue in the Depron duct to all the formers without breaking too much of anything. On a lighter note what you don't see in the above picture is my daughter's ChiHuaHua asleep on the bed! She likes both comfort and human company.?

The MG5 is now available with a bigger (longrange) battery which gives a WLTP range of 250 miles, which should be a safe real world 200. Costs around £28k. Unfortunately, the seat backs don't fold very flat, so not so good for model transportation. 7 year warranty is attractive.

Well we've just installed a 4kW PV array, inverter and 5 kWh battery for under £10k. The charger cost around £500. Would you like to tell us where your figure of £30k comes from or was it plucked out of thin air? I really wish we could stick to something vaguely factual.

That would be great Eric. I'll pencil it into the diary. I have an inflatable skeleton we can take to represent Richard! Graham

One stab nearly completed. I’ll add a 1/8th G10 trailing edge at a later date and hatch cover. Now this is done I’ve paved the way for the other one and elevators but that won’t be happening till next week now.

I have a Toyota Corolla Sports Touring hybrid estate which can carry my Extra Wot and Giant Super Sportster plus a small foamie, or, like today my SIG Rascal 110” plus a couple of small foamies. My criteria, when I bought it, was that it needed to be able to carry my F3A 2m model plus all necessary accessories. I’ve been looking at EVs with a view to change and the 2 models that I like are the Ionic 5 and the EV6 both of which have deceptively large load spaces but am having difficulty justifying spending £45K bearing in mind that I no longer do a high annual mileage.

I now have a final conclusion to the trainer saga with the two QX7 txs not wanting to act as a master tx. OpenTx has recently released version 2.3.15 with the statement that it fixes trainer detection issues with QX 7 txs. I have updated my QX7 transmitters and this is the certainly the case. All the issues that were present before have now gone and the function is easy to use and program. Also any audio lead I have, mono, stereo or quad now works. The Radiomaster TX16S still has the problem that the socket they are using is longer than any normal audio jack lead plug and the wireless trainer box they sell, which does work well, will only link in FCC mode as there is no EU LBT firmware are available for it. I have tried bending socket pins and generally messing with the connection but it’s not something I would want to trust in a normal flying environment. I hope this helps someone else avoid the drama I had try to get this to work.

If you look at 3" sheet at both Slec and Balsa Cabin there is a better choice in stock.

It's a Flair Hannibal which is a 1.5 sized Magnatilla.

A little more work and it's now starting to look like a fuselage pod.

You could wait for the Kia EV8. You’ll probably need the intervening time to save up a bit though - for a garage extension as well as the car!

Thanks gents - that's quality information. I hadn't heard of the MG5 and haven't had an MG since my venerable Metro in the 1980's. From a first look the seats down capacity is quite a bit less than my current Mondeo, which was a wee bit less than my previous Mondeo. Food for thought though.

More FUD then.

There are almost no EV estates at this point, mainly because the manufacturers research has told them SUVs aregoing to sell better (don't shoot the messenger!). The MG5 is probably the most likely of what is onsale today, but that may still be too small and it's sticker WLTP range of 250 miles might be a bit tight for a fully loaded journey on the motorway on a cold day without charging. I suspect the 80KWh Skoda Enyaq or maybe the VW ID.4 would meet your needs, but you'd need to research that more specifically in terms of the load space. The Enyaq was definitely my favourite as a model carrier of the ones I looked at, but they start at £40k so don't get the government grant... (not even the 60KWh version does any more).

MG5?

Yea the inlines went to the back burner over winter as they needed air time and with winter weather dampening down flying hours there was no point building more so i went ahead with the flat instead. I have been meaning to get back to them but the flats have proven even more popular than expected so it delayed me a bit. I do have inline parts coming together and was doing an inventory of what i have so i can build more. If the planets align i might even have made some headway by the end of the month. So we dont get too far off track here give me a call this afternoon if you like and we can go through all the stuff you need to know, your model choice and all that. In the meanwhile, i am off to run up some FT200's and my prototype 310v from a few years back.

Specious argument. Supply chain issues are a fact of life across all industries at the moment, the fact that it's an electric vehicle makes no difference.

Checked out the speedbrakes for the rbc kit and it looks very nice but my span is 2m 70 so too small...I'll try to find a 3D enthousiast to enlarge them Thanks for the info ! Meanwhile prepped the speedbrakes-bay and the aileron servo tray

Pretty pointless having a "balsa stand" at the moment. Both Slec and Balsa Cabin have been out of stock of most grades of sheet balsa since around March.

Decided to crack on with one stab half. Sheeted it and decided to cut the servo hatch (the hatch will be made after glassing and I will cut it from G10). To extend the bolt out of the skin I decided to use carbon so I can sand it down easily enough (with a bit more prior thought I could have done this a lot neater but it will look fine and won’t add much weight). Filled in the gap around the tube by layering balsa from the inside and then cut the tube with a dremel and slowly sanded it down. Fillers been added and I will do the final sand tomorrow if this area and move to the other stab.

We've just installed solar PV. 14 panels, inverter and 5.2 KWh batteries. The effect on our consumption from the grid has been astonishing, often down to 1 or 2 KWh a day, and we are heavy users, something like 11000KWh annually. I also run an EV. doing about 12K annually. I return on average 4.8miles/per KWh. The PV installation cost just over £11,000. I live in the south of England. My challenge is persuade my EV charging set up to allow me to charge during the daytime. For example on Monday early afternoon the panels were producing just over 4Kw over 3 of which were going to the grid instead of into my car ?. Prices of solar PV installations have dropped substantially. I first looked in 2008 8 panels on one roof only plus inverter, battery storage was still in the future £12,000

Given that new builds apparently have to have an EV charger, I don't understand why the government don't go further and mandate they also have solar panels and storage batteries, where appropriate. This would probably cost less than £10k per house, negligible when new builds where I live start at around £400k. Surely that would significantly reduce the grid's average gas consumption? I wasn't wishing, I remembered what this guy said on this video, which admittedly is a year or so old. About 14 minutes in, he says a solar array and battery come in around 8-9k. Even if this is a bit light, in commercial volumes I would expect 10k to be realistic.

Given that new builds apparently have to have an EV charger, I don't understand why the government don't go further and mandate they also have solar panels and storage batteries, where appropriate. This would probably cost less than £10k per house, negligible when new builds where I live start at around £400k. Surely that would significantly reduce the grid's average gas consumption?

TBH at this point I would skip the X10 and buy either the new X18 or slightly pricier X20 that run the Frsky ETHOS system - it is probably closer to your A9 in terms of configuration approach, still miles more powerful, but also includes all Frsky's latest RF programming. Personally I find the X10 a rather uncomfortable hold, the new models feel much better in my hands and they will be supported for longer. The X18 is actually cheaper too... https://www.t9hobbysport.com/frsky-tandem-x18-dual-band-transmitter-frsky-tandem-x18-dual-band-transmitter---blue The obvious alternative is one of the MPM radios - with those ou are getting lots of flexibility in terms of RF protocols, but losing the more advanced ACCESS features (like over the air RX updates ) and TANDEM 2.4GHz /900MHz options of the new TXs. Only you can decide which will be more useful, but personally I would say having one (cheap) MPM radio would always be a good idea even if you do buy a new Frsky TX; with that in your back pocket even if you do retire your Hitec for any reason all the RXs remain useable.

The website has been updated with the two flats along with specs and dimension drawings. I only updated it yesterday afternoon but its caught the attention of a wider group already.

Yes Steve