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Wing dowel holes drilled, Front lower nose block fitted and more sheeting.

Have a look for Theraband tubing used for physio exercises. I have been using the red tube for an F3 RES glider and it works well. Various power levels are available and the specification is given for each Colour in terms of its force at 100% elongation.

Looking at Mike's website he lists a number of 'partners' of which Hitec are included. There must be so few sets returned for servicing these days and with modern manufacturing quality, few returns under warranty. I find it hard to see how individual brands (in the UK at least) would manage to keep a viable service / repair department. As we've discussed before, it may well be just as economical to replace a faulty item with a new replacement on warranty claims particularly if the fault is intermittent or requires a lot of labour time to complete. Even replacing a broken switch if it is awkward to get to, requiring a fair bit of dismantling of the tranny might take an hour's labour, for which one might reasonably be asked to pay £70 per hour or more + the part+ postage etc.

I suppose clubs need a rule that covers this situation and particularly mid air losses! With people spending ever increasing amounts on ARTF foam models there are likely to be expensive models (possibly unrepairable ) knocked out in a mid air by simple repairable balsa models. The old idea that mid airs are nobodys fault and each repairs their own model may no longer work! Maybe a rule that you bring a model along to the field at your own risk?

Some time later working through a fair bit of sandpaper The leading edges are all but done. I have a 40 odd year old Permagrit block that sticking some sandpaper to the curved grip makes for a really useful tool. The transition at the forward rake was a bit tricky but contrary to my concerns the aluminium cut back nicely. Just the tips to do and then a final sand all round and I can glass it.

So finally decided to go Saturday. Please let the weather hold.

Spent the last few days or at least a couple of hours in the evenings doing a little covering of the wings and hinging the ailerons using a top hinge techniques with the heat shrink fabric then cracked on installing the ailerons servos, hitec mini metal gear in this case side mounted onto hard wood blocks that are glued onto the ply plates with arm passing through a slot and short 2mm wire link to the ailerons a bit more paint work now required before final set and then off to the field. Linds

Hi, I too built the Chris Golds Defiant which appeared in the RCME Feb or March. Mine is the all black night fighter version, also 6S 5000. It has not yet flown and only has a manual turret. I still have to balance it and set control surface travel and dual rates just in case. Obviously don't know the all up weight yet. Delay is due to finishing the RBC Tempest V which maidened last week and flew lovely (see video on SRFC/BMFA website) and completing the final setting up of the Tony Nijhuis Typhoon which is now waiting for better weather (lighter winds) for my test pilot to maiden it. Have to say your Defiant looked great in the flying vids, hope mine looks and flies as well. Les

If it started off ok I would guess that the batteries, if used singly, have been heavily worked, the model has a 130A esc and minimum recommended battery is a 6s 4Ah 30c which would indicate that it's likely that the motor makes good use of the ESC capacity. E-Flite suggest that lower capacity batteries are used in parallel which would be my first suggestion.

I know that fella, I just don't want him wasting money, and am trying to be helpful. If the lipos are good I am suggesting some other options. No biggie.

You don't have to throw money at Lipos. Just measure the battery voltage as two posters have suggested. I'd rather check the voltage before throwing money at changing bearings.

Is the motor noisy or screaming? The bearings in a 70mm fan unit motor are tiny. If the bearings start to wear the shaft to the fan goes out of balance, and worst case the fan blades will touch the casing. It might be worth changing the bearings before you start throwing money at Lipos. It might be worth trying a different ESC, I have found the top end can be vastly different between makes.

Exactly Paul, life is too short 2 Mid airs, have chopped my model in half both times, But did they chop me Or did I just get in the way? We just got our other models out and tried again.

35c rated batteries are rather low for an EDF application which I am assuming a "Viper" is? It's likely you killed the packs and their internal resistance is on the way up, leading to the loss of performance. As above, if you check the pack voltages at high throttle settings, you will see the voltage collapsing if the packs are damaged/old.

I started work on the Skyrider today. What you get for your £53.40 in a little cardboard box is a set of laser cut wing ribs, a dural u/c, a set of profiles for the formers and a plan which is not shown in the picture. The profiles are printed onto paper which has adhesive on the other side, so you cut them all out, stick them to the balsa and cut round them. The fuselage is thirty-six inches long and nearly five inches wide. I didn't have any sheet wider than four inches so I was forced to cut a little more from a third sheet and to glue it edge to edge. I'll leave it to dry overnight. Cost of balsa so far: £10.44.

I'd start with checking the voltage reduction under power. Also you could see what happens if you parallel up your two lipos for a static ground test.

It is indeed a very attractive rendering of a model I passed my A on a good few years back. I built 2, both with foam wings, and they both met their end eventually. I do like the improved canopy shape. Is the undercarriage standard? I seem to remember mine had single wire legs that fitted in vertical grooves - yours looks better.

Share of some flight video the Mrs filmed.

Very nice Mike, love your colour scheme. ?

Nah, SCs closed field up, Ferrari, RB still way ahead.

Just chucked a battery and ESC inside with the surfaces taped in place to see about the placement of the Servos. It all feels like the CG is well within bounds as per the plan. With Motor, prop, battery, ESC but no covering or servos, the airframe weighs in at 1165grams, or 2lbs 9oz. Not sure what the target weight should be for this model. So far, I am really enjoying the build. Cheers KB

A few screen grabs from the flight video...

Jamie Cuff flying his 3 channel Fairey Albacore at the recent Model Air event hosted at Old Warden Aerodrome. Not an easy thing to fly without ailerons and all that dihedral in the strong breeze we had going on most of the day.