Leaderboard

I will wait for clarification. Having watched a couple of Bruce’s rants, truth skirting, misinformation, I would prefer to eat my dog.

A better picture is attached. The cover picture is described as follows: 'Gaynor Holden a charming assistant for Alan Whittaker and his AM25 powered ''Guidato'' made from A.P.S RC/677 (9 shillings including post)!) and fitted with a Hill receiver plus Mactuator. Seen at the 1960 Woodford Rally sponsored by the Stockport Advertiser'.

I joined a local club and paid a substantial one off joining fee. After a few weeks competently flying two models of around 7kg alongside some regulars I took over my 7.8kg new P47 for a maiden. The club safety officer came over to enquire its weight and when I told him he replied saying, “if you try to fly that here without a B certificate I will have you thrown out of the club. Not very friendly imo but undeterred I asked how I could test for the B Certification. I am one of the examiners he said. Returning home with the model unflown I revisited the club handbook/rules and no mention of the B requirement was present. A phone call to the safety officer didn’t go particularly well and he subsequently had the committee rewrite the rules to stipulate that members wanting to fly 7.5kg plus models required a B. The annoying thing was the disparity of my well sorted models and competent flying compared to many of the regulars who would turn up and play lawn darts with models that just were not airworthy. . Back to the joining fee. I obtained my B at a Buckminster Achievement Day and decided to leave the club after only a few months membership to join a different and more welcoming club. Would the club refund my £75 one off joining fee? Not a hope. So I for one do not agree with such charges. What about modellers who move home regularly for work reasons. Why should they be penalised every time they change clubs?

after 24 hours and there is a bit of progress. These Skyray 'trade mark' fairings, although fixed in my case, were actually movable on the full size as huge elevator trim tabs. By moving upwards they allowed the Skyray to hold a nose high attitude for a carrier landing without much actual stick movement. Note also the leading edge slats deployed.

I proved that theory wrong on more than one occasion. For me the advantage of a foamy was the RR option because I knew nothing about electric, RR come with the motor, ESC, servos, prop and spinner. The Seagull Boomerang was an option at the time but being ARTF it would need the power system and servos buying separately. Second hand was not an option either for me as I didn't know what I was looking at. There are posts on here where vendors have installed cheap fake servos for example. Going to my LMS and buying a Riot was the easy option to get me in the air the next day. It turned out to be a good choice as it was easily replaced, it lasted six weeks of flying every day and numerous bounces and subsequent repairs. Whatever they are made of they all break but some more easily than others. I have found plan-built models to be the most robust surviving abuse where an ARTF would have become a bag of bits. When I started, plan building was something to look forward to once I had learned to fly. In the end what you chose to fly is not that important as long as whatever it is gets you in the air and enables you to have fun. Steve

I see the main justification for joining fees being to reflect massive investments in time and money made over the years by members both past and present. The joining fee is a token gesture to showing commitment to the club and not just using it to “pay as you go”. The old chestnut of certification will always cause division but the requirement for a B for flying larger model has been accepted at my club for decades - long before I joined. I saw it as a justifiable target to achieve before building a larger model. I fully accept that possession of a B (particularly one achieved in past years before efforts to standardise requirements may not have been applied) is no guarantee of competence but in a club which has adequate examiner availability I see little reason why someone wanting to operate a large model with its physical and legal responsibilities should not be asked to demonstrate a relatively simple level of competence. While bunting a 1/4 scale Cub may not be high on priorities, the aerobatic elements of the test show that the pilot is comfortable in recovery from unusual attitudes so DO have relevance.

Requiring a B cert to fly XX model type is another irritation. Having a B cert does not make you a better or safer pilot. Do you think half the people on the road would pass a driving test if they had to take one today? Not likely and its the same with B certs. Its also nonsense anyway as you could pass the B on a foamy acrowot and then strap in for the heavy metal warbird flight on the P47, or a 15kg turbine model, or a 1/3 tiger moth. Its just meaningless as a measure of competence to fly a given type of model. Also, in your case Nick dont discount a healthy dose of jealousy. You turn up as a new member, fly, land, go home with your models airworthy and then return with a lovely scale model scratch built. If the rest of them are doing one point landing's all over the field with aircraft barely hanging together you make them look bad and they cant have that as you are clearly just a show off. I have had similar experiences several times and its really depressing. Perhaps its just me, but having a model start, fly, land (on the wheels), and go home in one piece is the barest minimum standard i would accept from myself. I am not showing off by landing on my wheels and having a reliable model. Anything less just makes me bad at the hobby 😕 Anyway rant over, back to the OP.

Yes illegal to use in France, as illustrated here,,, 🤣

Not a fan of joining fees, no keys, we have a combination lock.

A small fee for keys or membership cards i can accept, but most clubs ask for more than a year's membership as a joining fee and its a disgrace in my view. Nothing more than a cash grab and it only adds to the startup cost for people to get into the club/hobby. It can also lead people getting started in the hobby to abandon clubs and fly in the park instead with no training and no insurance. That is not a recipe for success for both them, and the hobby as a whole as any accidents or incidents will reflect badly on us all.

Maybe they had unforeseen expenses, when we lost our 4th model field each member put in a 'certain' amount into the kitty to start the process of acquiring our new model field, so a joining fee was introduced for around 3 years.

I build one of these as one of my first Depron 'jets'. Built entirely in 3 mm Depron, skin over formers with a single balsa spar. Not strictly an EDF but with a 4x4.5 ducted prop squeezed in right at the tail. It did mean a slight scale sacrifice with over size inlets and exhaust. Light and simple, only two elevon servos it flew very well with just a 1500 mAh 3s in the cockpit. Having developed a 3D printed casing to suite a 4 blade 3x3.5 prop I wondered if it would allow at least a scale exhaust on a similar overall size F4D. 5 mm XPS sheet is almost the same weight as 3 mm Depron so could I use that as I have some left over from the construction of my 'fleet' of XPS EDF Hawker Sea Hawk/Hunter series. I do have a limited supply of true 2mm Depron so the intention is to use that to build the duct which would then act as a 'spine' to build the XPS fuselage around it. The first task was to find a suitable 3 view with fuselage sections. The was painstaking 'simplified' to remove all the unnecessary surface detail and redraw the lines so the original image 'fuzzy' lines could be blown up to the required size. The printed duct prop casing with the first duct section planked in 2 mm Depron. The next problem is the bifurcated inlet. With such modest power available, about 180W, and particularly low pressure differentials duct efficiency becomes a critical factor. A printed inlet duct would give the smoothest possible transition from the twin inlets to the circular duct. Impressive when printed out. But unacceptably heavy at 51g 😟. in fact virtually equal to the weight of the ducted prop casing including the motor!😲 I was not all sure I could make such a duct out of 2mm Depron sheet and still retain adequate airflow efficiency. Just as well I hadn't actually started to build the airframe.

My DB 60 Cirrus moth is now done bar the painting and has been put away until we get a warm windless day to spray it (may have to wait some time looking at the forecast!) so i have slipped in a quick build before my main winter build commences. This is a Chris Golds KI-61 which i have put 3 evenings into so far, it should all be finished by the end of next week. Electric on a 1300mah 3s pack, the plan was a free download off the Outerzone web site and the kit was nicely laser cut by my pal Wayne who has also cut one for himself and is putting his together at the same time as i am doing mine Will update the build pics every couple of evenings. If anyone else would like one of these full kits laser cut chime in and Wayne will do you one at a very reasonable price.

About 16 years ago I picked up a Protech Unlimited e-glider from a deceased clubmate's estate. It came with two battered blown plastic fuselages but no canopies. The main section in the photo is the actual canopy shape the base & ply end pieces were added to allow an oversize finished article that would be trimmed to fit. It's fixed to a batten from underneath by a couple of long screws. The whole lot is from scrap wood left over from DIY projects. Prep - add a pair of oven gloves & a pair of pliers. The mounting batten also proved the bulk underneath to get the size within the shrinkage limit.

Foam would definitely melt at the required temperature. When I've made canopies (+ other odds & ends) from pop bottles I've used off cuts of pine - cheaper (it doesn't come cheaper than free), easily obtainable & more robust to knocks especially if a second one is required later. Mine are rough cut using a band saw then a small plane, a disc sander & finished with wet & dry (used dry). PS - I've got some pics of my method somewhere on my PC, if I can find them I'll post some on here.

Numpty.

Looks like it's rubbing off.

I hope we haven't started a rubber fetish....

Not sure about the definition of a Swastika but on my FW Ta152 I printed them reversed so the tails face the other way.

Marutaka that I built in 1988/89 ?, I painted it all no decals it's the one in Hendon, first fitted with a Rossi, then an OS .61 crashed in the grapevines 4 years ago when it went into a spin on take off with the flaps down and engine stopped, a great plane to fly now replaced with a ESM Saito FG-30 powered one.

Some of these fees and rationales beggar belief!

I disagree with this on the basis that any facilities already at the field are already bought and paid for. That money has gone, invested as you say in that equipment/facilities which are improved in part to attract new members. Club fees should be set at a level to cover the costs of the club for a year plus a small surplus to cover something unexpected like a mower giving up the ghost or other unexpected eventuality. One club i was considering joining told me the joining fee was there in part to cover the cost of their sky sports tv subscription so they could watch football in the clubhouse. I hate football and i am there to fly so why should i be paying for that? One thing that really irked me when i heard about it was a club adding £120 to their joining fee because 'all the other clubs charge that much'. This is a blatant money grab and really not acceptable.

Well this has developed into an interesting thread. I am now looking for a cheap second hand foamy for training. Any suggestions of where to look? The BMFA club directory is hopelessly out of date. Links to some club websites are dead. No URLs given for a lot of them. I really don't want to drive 20 miles every time I fancy a bit of flying. I realise there might be waiting lists, but I wonder if these are more a policy than a necessity. Going back to the comparison with my choir, for decades it ran a huge waiting list, which meant it was a great accolade to be admitted. Rather like waiting for your Morgan Plus 4 to be delivered. Then the committee decided to clear the waiting list, and now we are actively recruiting. Demand can be affected by availability. The equipment supply situation is worse than not being able to buy from one supplier. Some items go out of stock for months. I am not going to back order and have my money tied up for that long. It is very refreshing to get such helpful guidance here. I was beginning to feel excluded by the bewildering complexity of the technology, and what I saw as the condescending attitudes of some already in the hobby. There is a model shop in Salisbury, but they don't do RC and the one that did closed a long time ago. While buying online is the norm now, there is no substitute for having a chat.

Goldberg Electra is a nice plane and was one of my first electric gliders back in the late 1980s, I think you will enjoy it. Perhaps I should get mine out of the roof and refurbish it. I can replace the Fleet Rx, but I wonder if the Deac still has a charge 😀 Dick

Hi Andy I use Firefox and have no problems at all with this Forum and can't remember the last time I had to log in. Run on my laptop with Win10 and Firefox 103.0.1 (tells me it is up to date) That doesn't help you I know, but there doesn't seem to be a general problem with Firefox. Dick

The mod on the carb looks to have some threads. My assumption is that the previous owner has a nipple installed and routed the oil from the case vent back to the carb RCV instructions also state to use bearing retaining compound when reassembling the bearings. So if the engine was previously taken apart and the retaining compound skipped that may have caused the outer races to spin and the resulting scoring caused by any debris present within the engine.

The tail feathers are now covered with the amazing Solite, it's so easy to use. I followed Ron's advice and turned the iron temperature down and even at the minimum 100C it works and quickly. Considering how I was putting the covering off, anxiety I think, finding it so simple to use has made my day, week or year. When I bought 15m of Solite at £7.99/m I thought maybe it would be too much and I would never use it, but now I am thinking I should buy more before it's all gone. Covering is usually a time when I start to think of what next, I have a CG Electra kit which I was reluctant to start because of my assumed covering issues, which are no more so it looks like the Carl Golberg Electra has made it to the top of the list. Steve

I have a very nice model of a Fieseler Storch, done in the winter colours of the Russian front, 1941, built from a Svenson kit. It is a beautiful example of scale modeling, at its highest level. Built in 1980 by a British Army officer, and flown on British bases in Germany at the time. Note, British bases. I bought it from the builder in Somerset. Brought it to France. Where to allow it to fly at the club field with the swastika displayed……. I talked to my Chairman. Who talked to the Mayor, who satisfied himself that it’s a work of great beauty, and that my Socialist leanings make it unlikely that I have ulterior motives. The mayor then consulted authorities at County equivalent level, and Regional level. And permission was granted.

I'm not an electrician but have replaced tubes with those led tubes and starter replacements. The replacement starter is simply a wire link to replace the original starter as it is not longer needed. The end result is superb, instant light and no fading as yet, go for it.

Not new , but new to me. I was after a petrol engine and I was offered an Evolution 33cc. When I went to pick it up it was still in the aeroplane, The seller said take the plane as well no extra cost. Flew it yesterday ], great flyer a little heavy at over 17lb.

The final duct configuration and the fuselage formers around it. Each former is in two halves with a root wing rib joining them together. The fuselage is the "heart" of the Skyray as everything else is simply attached to it but first it has to be skinned. Planking even modest double curves is not so easy in thick 5 mm XPS. It becomes a bit of a 'chicken and egg' situation as some skin areas have to be left off to run the elevon servos wires through to the cockpit but the wings cannot be attached until the skin is in place.

The Solartrim part of their website shows the proportions for various insignia including swastika so one can cut them from Solartrim or anything else. Scale models deserve the proper insignia - no need to distort history.

Getting down to the last jobs on the Hein now, i didn`t go with the Polyspan in the end, the airframe got several coats of thinned dope and sanding sealer rubbed down in between and was then painted with Tamiya acrylics, all the gear is now fitted. Tomorrow the tail will get painted red and the finishing trim colours and meat balls will go on. Next stop test flight! Once the trim colours are on i will post some pictures. I still have to make a plug to mould a canopy but that will wait till after it has flown.

I suppose I’m just lucky to be so thick skinned.

Just finished my new design. A modified Taylorcraft call "tumbling T-Cart" If you want to google the full size search for N6685C. The model is 47" span, for electric power. Weight 48 oz. wing loading 17 oz per sq.ft.

Undoubtedly. The success of the Wright brothers came about as a result of a vast amount of research, both their own empirical and studying that of others. Their designs were aided by detailed mathematical calculations. For example 1901 they tested 38 airfoil sections each 43 times as they adjusted the angle of incidence by a quarter of a degree. That year in a lecture in Chicago Wilbur described how the centre of pressure moved with the change of the angle of attack which shows that he understood how the centre of gravity must be set to accommodate such shifts. That is from the book 'Wilbur & Orville', a detailed biography by Fred Howard.