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Is it the end of aeromodelling? Short answer, No. Long answer, No it isn't!

Dear Clarence It would be really useful if you would stop equating what is happening in the USA and Canada with how the CAA is handling the issue of drones and model aircraft in this country. Those of us who have been involved in model flying before the drone issue arose have seen the really excellent way in which the BMFA has pressed our case at both EU level with EASA and with the UK's DoT and CAA. We have ended up with an excellent outcome which I'm sure that the USA and Canada model flyers will be envious of. You are just scare mongering. Please put some balance into your postings and don't assume that what happens in other countries will inevitably happen here.

Well, if you want to go back to "pre-history" and 27 MHz days then a lot has changed. I used to be able to go off and fly control line mostly by myself on a patch of grass in Mitcham. Bet you can't do that now as there will be noise complaints. I also remember having to buy a radio licence and could fly pretty much where I wanted again mostly on my own. Bet you can't do that anymore. Then again, you didn't need an MoT after 3 years. On the other hand, rationing had stopped as had the war. How far back do you want to go? Meanwhile in the real world, and in the UK, the difference between before drone and after drone laws the difference has been ..... er need to pay £9 per year to the CAA (can be rolled up in the annual membership payment and the need to do the Air Law test every 3 years. Doing the Air Law test is a good idea for those who come into the hobby/sport with no background in aviation at all. Helps them to realise what you can and cannot do. That seems to me to be a very small set of hurdles. Please don't big them up to being life altering events.

Why would you ever leave a battery plugged in on a electric model! Model match or not a battery should never, ever be left plugged in except when flying. Nobody should ever touch another pilots Tx unless invited, even if they did there should not be an armed model sitting around waiting to accidentally start.

Indeed - I've never understood the practice of putting one's transmitter on the ground, or handing it to someone else when retrieving a model. You're still the pilot in charge of that model until you have rendered it completely safe -in the case of an electric model by disconnecting the power source - and you should have hold of the transmitter until then.

I agree with Peter about the well managed relationship between the CAA and our UK organisations but although this is primarily a UK based forum, we do have members and contributors world wide. What I would ask is that we limit any sensationalism - our friend Bruce has a certain reputation in this respect. The news from Canada and to some extent, the USA, shows the need for vigilance but I think the related thread started by Clarence yesterday covers the topic so I’ll lock this one before too much duplication occurs.

Please specify what all these new hoops are? As far as I can see, the biggest difference is that you need to be aware of the impact of air law on how we operate. You need to pass a very much more complicated test before you can apply for your driving licence but that hasn't put people off. So, you have to register and pay the CAA an annual charge. That's done for your by the BMFA if you choose to pay this cost when you pay your Club and BMFA subscriptions. So, one new activity that can be done on-line and can be done "open book" style. Can't see the problem myself. If that's too difficult for someone, then I would ask why that person has taken up a hobby like flying RC model aircraft when it is not that different from learning how to drive.

I agree, now we have 2.4gHz communication with receivers bound to its transmitter but in the days of 35Mhz there was the potential for your transmitter being nearer to someonelse's model than its pilot's and cause interference. At least that was the theory and the reason for leaving it in the pilot box.

Here my "when in Wales" project waiting to be covered for flying this year. AR1 slope soarer (on outerzone). Fun and games making a 6' wing in a 5' shed!!

There is a perfectly sound reason not to hand a 2.4 GHz Tx to a Clhbmate especially when fealing with an electric aircraft. Best to keep it with you and use a throttle kill switch.

Only thing that is new in the UK for BMFA members is registration and the requirement to have passed a very simple test that shows you are aware of the regulations. Registration, involves ticking a box and spending £10 for a number to put on your aircraft, very simple and a tiny hurdle. Passing the test, which is free, open book and gives you all the answers at the end of your attempt is an even tinier hurdle, absolutely nothing to put anyone off. Of course if some insist on exaggerating the size of the hurdles to newcomers then it is they that are the ones putting people off.

IIRC, isn't Clarence the chap who claims that everyone else's method of teaching beginners is wrong and positively putting beginners off from starting in the hobby, which could be solved, if only everybody would adopt his teaching methods?

It's still very easy to get involved, sounds like you are part of the problem and exaggerating the "legal hoops" they have to jump through. The hurdles to participation are tiny and easily cleared and shouldn't put anyone off.

I had one very early frsky reciever that i couldnt get to respond to my tx16s. It would bind i recall, but no output. Pretty sure it was a V series, possibly a V4. No big loss. Every other frsky reciever ive had in then 15 years since works fine.

Not a great deal wrong with a clubmate who's not an idiot holding your TX whilst you retrive a model, after all you could trip, knock up the throttle, models takes off downs an airliner, which crashes into a school causing a fire which engulfs a City and thousands die, Putins granny is in the city, he's miffed so launches intercontinental missles on Donny, our fields out of use now coz it's radioactive n I've paid £55 for nowt. 😥

it will work with your spektrum gear but you may need to trim the tab off the servo plug as there is a little tab on futaba servos to prevent the plug being inserted the wrong way and speky receivers do not use this plug. Other than that its a decent enough servo as far as i am aware (never used one myself) but it might be a bit overkill for general flying? You cant use its sbus function without futaba rx's, you may or may not need a digital servo depending on your application. The savox 351 is cheaper and more or less equivalent, hitec 311's are a smidge cheaper again but the savox offers a better spec. I have a number of savox servos and they are working nicely. I also like them as they use the same arms as my futaba gear which is handy for me. If you have hitec or spektrum servos the arms will be different. not a show stopper but it can be inconvenient. Do you have a specific model that needs to be equipped or are these for general stock?

Leccy, I use Jumper T16 rather than Radiomaster but it uses the same 4 in 1 MPM. My Jumper works perfectly well with my V8 receivers My son uses Radiomaster Tx16 and that too works with the V8 receivers. I can't answer about the V4 as I don't have any and I can't find any info.

True, and at the time we were all on 35mhz that might have been considered best practice. Though there are still some flyers using 35mhz these days, they are mostly in the minority.

If my transmitter is switched on, it never leaves me.....

Good point Peter. The other pojnt is that if the radio equipment has a Failsafe facility it must be set. All 2.4 GHz radio has a failsafe facility and most 35 MHz radio does. If I remember correctly, all Dual Conversion Rxs have a failsafe.

The one setting that is recorded by the Rx is the failsafe positions in case you loose radio signal. Most equipment can do failsafe and must be set. If you then swap RXs between models you must teach the RX the failsafe settings for the new model. Consider, especially IC where one model might have the throttle servo reversed but the other not reversed. Swapping the RXs around without resetting both failsafes would mean both models would go to full throttle on loss of signal.

It does make you wonder just how the powers that be come up with their ideas and on what evidence they base their edicts. In our case, what true value does registering ourselves with the CAA provide and how many cases have there been where registration of a model or drone has been of use to the authorities for whatever reason so far? There have been a few cases recently (discussed on this very forum) where models, quite legally operated, have finished up where they shouldn't and I suggest that having those models registered made no difference to the outcome or indeed how the incidents were quite rightly investigated and subsequently dealt with. Stories in the media about the illegal and intrusive use of drones at sporting events or for other nefarious activities are way beyond the scope of a registration and education programme, so lets not go down that rabbit hole either in order to justify what we've been saddled with. I don't believe that we are trying to "big up" all of this. Clearly, paying a few quid to the CAA and answering some questions in a test of understanding that's impossible to fail is a nuisance but not life changing, or has indeed altered our MO in any significant way............ but therein lies the issue. If it's so easy and has made little difference to us and with no advantages apparent that many of us can fathom, then why was all this red tape put into place at all? My guess is that it simply looks good but is actually of little or no practical benefit to anyone. We as model flyers have been required to operate sensibly and legally under the ANO for many years past. As far as I'm aware this arrangement worked well and the law has come into play in years gone by when serious (but thankfully very rare) incidents have taken place. I accept that we are where we are and the law is the law and things could be worse etc etc

It's £10, but the test is now valid for 5 years. 😉

The hobby has quite enough to worry about as it is without worrying excessively about government regulation. An ageing membership that is increasingly difficult to replace, pressure on flying fields (one of my clubs is currently worried about plans for a nearby trunk road upgrade), fewer people with reasonably good disposable incomes that can be spent on luxuries like traditional hobbies and a change towards virtual activities that do attract many young people and with it their ££s to the big corporations are all things to take into account. The BMFA have done a great job to take on the dead hand of government and more or less have us operating as we have done in the past. I have always thought that the recent regs as they affect us are a silly over reaction by persons in government reading far too much into drone delivery for the masses (whatever happened to that, I wonder), overstating the safety aspect of models and drones becoming an increased hazard to full size aviation than in the past - And the blue sky dreaming of the many advisers and academics who pull figures of millions or even billions of pounds of revenue in their reports to the government on the benefits of commercial UAVs flitting all over the place and doing whatever they can think up for them. I tend to cherry pick Bruce Simpson's announcements - yes, he does overdo it from time to time, and a lot of his worries are not directly concerning to us in the UK, but I do share his standpoint on the fact that you can't keep a good bureaucrat down and once they get the bit between their teeth, there's no guarantee as to where they'll wind up. Take the absurd rules and regs, hoops to jump through and the cost to get a motorbike licence these days! Remember when diesel cars where announced as being the holy grail? Persona non grata now. It's wrong to be overly pessimistic about the future of our hobby, but beware of the slow drip of regulation - take the cost of CAA registration and the gradual upping of that as an example.

I was on a walking holiday in Malta & Gozo last week, got back yesterday evening. 5 years since I was last there and indeed things have moved on and Malta seemed busier than ever. While the weather was good all week on my spare day it was very windy and there was no activity on the flying site when I looked in.

Putting it simply the Tx has the model memory details. These details can only be changed in the Tx when that memory is selected and has nothing to do with which Rx is being used. For a Tx and Rx to work (for 2.4 GHz radio) the Rx must be bound to the Tx. The Rx will do as its told once it has been bound. If the radio has a model match facility then not only does the Tx and Rx bind but the Rx is bound to the specific Model Memory in use while binding. If the radio doesn't have model match then provided the Rx has been bound to the Tx it will accept the information from any model memory. It is up to the pilot to pick the correct model memory to match the model being flown. This means that you will be able to fly a model with the wrong model memory selected - this could be either disastrous or make no difference at all if the model memories have identical settings - usually though, they settings are different e.g. elevator going in the opposite direction!

I stand to be corrected by a qualified mechanical engineer but as far as I'm aware, bolts are designed to pass through holes with clearance and retain components by their clamping force. Other than tensile strength, the main benefit of using the "correct" size is less potential for misalignment during assembly - often, critical alignments will employ accurately ground locating pins.

Is that Sam smith ?

We went back last September. A lot, and I mean a lot has changed. So much so that we are not returning this year. Our regular Hotel has not changed, but many of the restaurants and bars have not come through you know what well. There was a couple we really enjoyed in Valletta, but they appear to have changed hands and the ambiance was not good. Where are you staying this time @ken anderson.? So this year we are doing our other favourite holiday. Another cruise. We shall be in Monaco for the wife`s 60th birthday. I have told her that if I save really really hard I may be able to buy her a cup of tea whilst we are there.

I am off to Malta for the first time in early May. 4 days in Malta, the rest on a short Med cruise for my wife's 70th birthday pressie. Quite looking forward to the Malta bit. I would pass on the cruise if I could although most days we are on dry land so that is some form of redemption.

Thanks all for your kind words. Yes John it was at the time of the revamp of the forum. This also coincided with the passing of my wife of sixty years, and I was in a bit of a state, managed to keep in touch with all things rc with the forum of our friends over the pond. I think it was the hobby ( been flying over thirty years) that helped me get over my bad patch. Cheers As I said, lots of names are familiar to me, it’s like a big family reunion lol.

Nearly finished the Gull I’ve done it in the colour scheme of the aero plane Alex Henshaws father bought. They used it to map out the route that Alex used on his record flight to the Cape in his Mew Gull. Model is finished in Oratex white with Tamiya nato green XF67 for the lettering and the stripe. Their plane was in fact a Vega Gull but hey. I’ve some more work to do on the undercarriage but she should be flying in spring.

Rather a sensationalist thread title perhaps? My interpretation is that a national body in Canada has lost its equivalent to our Article 16 exemption due to perceived errors in issuing site permissions. Model flying in Canada can still take place in the same way that any model flyer here can register as a flyer/operator without being a member of an association. It can be taken as a warning that our organisations must be vigilant and responsible.

Interesting. I have all my rates on a single switch as I find it easier to find one rather than many. The downside is that there may be a 'harmonisation' whilst I find the sweet spot. That switch then becomes my Flight Mode switch with any expo/diff/mixes on it. Low Rates (FM0) would be up, mid rates (FM1) middle, high rates (FM2) down..... but as I use a switch on top of the radio, it's low=away, high=towards. Default for all switches is 'up'. Many ways to skin a cat! What's important, is to find what's best for you; and then standardise across all your models, so it becomes second nature what to find where.

I've been flying Graham Dorschell's Depron E-Vulcan for around 3.5 years now. It's square-section with a pusher prop, but once it's aloft looks quite realistic. It's only 42 inch span, and easy to hand launch, but because of the classic delta shape with a large wing area, looks bigger than it really is. The plans were in one of the last RCMW magazines before they went out of business, and are available from Sarik Hobbies.