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Some video shot by a fellow member on the 10th flight where I have much better control of the plane at take off and landing. I have also found that I can fly it well at a cruise power of around 500-600W per motor which is amazingly low and with a few low passes followed by high power climbs and some tight high power banked turns, 6 minutes flight gets to 50% battery, so by time I land at 7 minutes I am 0-45% battery. Really pleased with how well it flies.

From what I've read so far, I'm pretty confident Toto will get where he's wanting to be, just a matter of stick time. Rest is just stuff, we all have our ways and personalities isn't that all part of the journey.

Evening all, Channel 4's highlights programme must now be well into the post-race bits, so let's take a look at the resuilts in our league today; os League Rank Team Manager Pts 1 4 0 Pitts Specials john stones 183 2 2 0 Iqonic racing iqon 175 3 8 0 Revers Racing Pete B 167 4 10 2 Hans Brake Zoonie 164 5 1 0 Essex Racing Tony Clark 152 6 13 1 PSS Power Flyer 150 = 5 0 LetsGoTotoLetsGo GrumpyGnome 150 8 3 0 GASTON Formula Chris McG 146 9 12 1 Mannschaft Carl Brotherton 145 10 6 0 The JP Specials johnpflyrc 144 11 9 0 Team Charles Picd Charles Pic 143 12 7 0 DMFC Racing Team Simon Webb 142 13 11 1 Norfolk Flyers Kevin Fairgrieve 132 14 14 1 Torque of the devil Stu 113 15 15 0 Oyster f1 Glenn Philbrick 101 16 16 0 teewrex John Tee 77 Top scorer today is John S with 183 points. Second is Iqon, 8 points back with 175 points. And third today is Pete, another 8 points back on 167. Well done to today's top three! Didn't John T say he remembered his predictions this week? 🤔 Looking next at the overall table after today's race; Pos League Rank Team Manager Pts 1 1 0 Essex Racing Tony Clark 1324 2 2 0 Iqonic racing iqon 1283 3 3 0 GASTON Formula Chris McG 1233 4 4 0 Pitts Specials john stones 1224 5 5 0 LetsGoTotoLetsGo GrumpyGnome 1172 6 6 0 The JP Specials johnpflyrc 1127 7 7 0 DMFC Racing Team Simon Webb 1121 8 8 0 Revers Racing Pete B 1116 9 9 0 Team Charles Picd Charles Pic 1079 10 10 2 Hans Brake Zoonie 1076 11 11 1 Norfolk Flyers Kevin Fairgrieve 1066 12 12 1 Mannschaft Carl Brotherton 1065 13 13 1 PSS Power Flyer 969 14 14 1 Torque of the devil Stu 964 15 15 0 Oyster f1 Glenn Philbrick 848 16 16 0 teewrex John Tee 719 No change on the top 9 positions today, so Tony holds on to top spot, with Iqon and Chris still 2nd and 3rd. Zoonie moves up 2 places to 10th, displacing Kev and Carl down a place each, to 11th and 12th. And below them, Ade and Stu swap places, now sitting in 13th and 14th respectively. Canada is next in 2 weeks time. Red Bull currently look unstoppable, but can Mercedes build further on their dramatic improvement? Can Ferrari get both cars in the same half of the results table? We'll have to wait and see!

Surely you don't need the Beaver setup on the trainee TX as all the model specific configuration is done on the trainer TX, all the trainee one does is transmit stick inputs to the trainer TX? Mind you I've never flown Spekky gear so what do I know!

Well .... what a beautiful day. Sun screaming through the sky ..... the smell of burning coals ...... and burgers. Loads of people at the field today. A mix of members visitors from the local village and maybe even a couple of prospective new members. I had a couple of flights, my first on the club trainer which went reasonably well. Amazing how two weeks between flights can set you back when you are learning. Changing between models is not may ideal either as they all have their own characteristics depending on type and how they are set up. So the advise that suggests to stick to one model if you can ...... is probably sound advice ..... however ..... beggars cant be choosers either. If someone offers to rake you up for a flight ....... dont look a gift horse in the mouth. My second flight of the day was with my own Beaver. Now , keeping it in mind that the Beaver has been previously set up on both my NX6 and NX8 whichwe use for buddying, when we went to get set up, the model had disappeared from the slave transmitter for some reason. I took the memory card out of the NX8, plugged it into the NX6 and copied over the model file ..... great we are back in business again. We done all the pre flight checks for surfaces, throttle etc and we also checked the signal between transmitters to ensure that the control of the p,and would pass between Instructor and student as it should ..... which it did. I had already given the Beaver a good going over last night to check for any physical defects etc and found that I only had to slightly tighten one of the landing wheels. ..... good to go. Next up, our slot came and we prepared to get airborne. ..... my instructor took her up without a hitch and took her a couple of laps to ensure all was good which it ...... seemed..... to be. I was passed control and did notice I was back to slightly over allowing for my throw movements which was taking me a bit longer to get used to ....... especially elevator. To me ..... the model was clearly gaining altitude a tad and I was having to compensate by using the elevator to just nose her down a bit. It wasnt severe but going by the amount of times I was finding myself trying to do it, something was not as it should be. I heard the pinging of my instructors transmitter which I assumed was him trying to maybe trim the elevator slightly in flight. Anyway, we are soon getting the warning buzzer set by the instructor to warn that we have around two I Utes left of the flight battery and he takes over and starts preparing for the approach to land. He was on his final approach and just prior to reaching the runway with a couple of feet to spare she came down into the fields boundary fence. There was a significant chunk of the elevator seemed to have broken off it and my instructor reckons this happened prior to actually hitting the long grass. It was c.ear that the Beaver was not going airborne again today. I've looked at the damage and I think its reasonably easily repaired so that's my next task in order to try and get her flight worthy again by next weekend. Even taking the above into consideration, its actually been an enjoyable day. I also take my hat off to those who went a ove and beyond to make today such an enjoyable with which to mark the clubs 25th anniversary. I'll probably fly throw a few pictures up of the damage to the beaver and hopefully a record of how I attack the repairs. Thanks to all for tuning in. Toto

Had a good few hours this morning..... well, sort of! P47: Took this to maiden but it was windier than expected and not down the longest runway, so it stayed in the car. Double Trouble: now re-engined with a nice little OS46 (thanks MSL - under 24 hrs from purchase to delivery) instead of the old, worn out, zero compression SC70FS. Great match. Few bouncy landings which I blame on lack of stick time. Final landing was the best - but needed to be as I lost a wheel on take off! P51: started to throw it around some more. Did circuits and bumps with flaps at all settings; ran out of up elevator using full flaps (nose overs) so decided to fly on mid rates. Big mistake as I took off like that instead of switching in flight. Leapt into the air, stalled and cartwheeled. Firewall ripped out, some other nose damage, minor wing damage, fin damaged. Ah well, something to do tomorrow, and pristine silver looks naff 😁 Riot: 6 batteries flown with usual lack of fuss. Hawk: spend 6 batteries dialling in the diff to get rolls as axial as possible. Warm weather meant no 'saggy' battery issues. Surprisingly, on my own for most of the time......

Only partly true. The model will NEVER be blown backwards. It might fail to penetrate, but it will always be flying forwards. Susceptibility to gusts is a wing loading result not section. The Jaguar was solid as a rock and its wing pretty flat. Any number of flat bottomed OR biconvex microlights are blown about by zephyrs. The language we use can lead us to dead ends quite quickly. Bottom line is, dont over think...just go and fly. You can always chop the throttle, save the model and go for a walk instead.

Still quite a bit still to do and the final fiddly bits take time but the wings are now on . As a 'single piece' plane it looks like a lot of Depron. Battery compartment next which hopefully will end up somewhere under the cockpit canopy!

Debut for this recent swapmeet bargain today - I'm on a bit of a Corsair spree at the moment and prepped for the maiden flight of this 1450mm FMS Corsair with some flights with my trusty EFlight 1200mm Corsair F4-U4. The FMS flies a lot "heavier" and anything below 3/4 throttle just feels like it's ready to drop out of the sky. Lost a wheel on landing and tipped up, but no damage beyond a torn foam hinge on the rudder. The Eflite has very effective flaps and I think the FMS would also benefit from them. Picture credits Derek Robertson.

I joined a BMFA club just over a year ago, and have become a much better pilot flying more frequently where I can learn from other pilots. I realised in the last week that one big benefit is that I haven’t questioned flying in this weather. A year ago it would have grounded me, but now I get out and fly and manage to bring my planes home intact. I still prefer calmer flying, but I think flying in the UK means sooner or later you’ve got to get your head around coping with the wind. But I’m still hoping next week will be calmer!

Had a couple of hours at the local field yesterday, where it was sunny, warm, light winds and what I describe as a Simpsons Sky - clear, blue with fluffy white clouds. Hadn;t intended going flying as I had jobs to do, but it was such a nice day it couldn't be wasted.

I retired to the middle of France in 2015 and joined the local model aeroplane club. About eighteen months ago I was approached by a Belgian chap, Frans, who asked me to recommend a model which he could build and which would be easy to fly as he was a novice pilot. I recommended the Radio Queen. Unfortunately the Ben Buckle Radio Queen kit was not available at the time but through these columns I managed to buy a kit from another British aeromodeller who also lives in France. Another of my clubmates, Francois Dutreuil expressed an interest in building a Radio Queen because our 46 powered ARTF trainers are too fast for elderly beginners at least for the first few flights, so the plans were photocopied. Francois finished his model and ten days ago brought it to the field for its maiden flight. Francois is our oldest member at eighty-two years old. He's a competent pilot and an excellent builder who has always used Futaba equipment. Being a retired ship's engineer he has a technical background and these days he only builds and flys electric powered models. All of his models have one battery for the motor and another for the receiver. He does not trust the BEC! He had a look at the 4-Max website, noted Max's recommendations for the Radio Queen and bought the equivalent motor, ESC, propeller and LiPo for the model from a French supplier. As the Radio Queen is a British design and the first model aeroplane to cross the English Channel, I thought I'd better help him out. After a lot of adjusting things on the transmitter, Francois plugged in his motor battery and advanced the throttle to find that the motor was running backwards. While I swapped over two cables, Francois made more adjustments on his transmitter. We connected the motor battery and this time we found out that the throttle controls were reversed! Then he hit the throttle-cut and a very powerful electric motor immediately went to maximum speed! Fortunately I was holding on to the model at the time and on hearing the noise, two clubmates came to our aid and with them holding the model I was able to disconnect the battery. Once everything was put right Francois took off, found that the model was massively overpowered, flew one circuit and landed. It glided well. He plans to try it with a 3S LiPo. Frans's model is near completion. He has not bought the motor, speed controller or battery for it yet but I have a Protronik DM 3820 motor and a 95 amp speed controller currently not doing anything. We intend to install them into his Radio Queen to see whether it will fly on 3 cells. My take on this is as follows. The Radio Queen which crossed the English Channel was powered by an ED 3.5cc diesel engine and was carrying quite a fuel load and much heavier equpment than we currently use. Consequently, the Radio Queen does not need much power to fly. The DM 3820 can power a model weighing 6kgs which is likely to be twice the weight of a Radio Queen. 400-450 watts should be more than adequate so we'll experiment with props to acheive this figure. Comments from more knowledgeable electric flight enthusiasts will be welcomed. Some pictures of last week's events for your amusement. Sorry about my dog photo bombing the second picture. More to follow. Happy Landings

Ive recently made a small collection of older 4 strokes i intend to pop into the airnin the coming months. This is sooo sweet and dropped through my door today.

As long as you are learning to fly, with people who know what they are doing and with the appropriate model, everything else is just stuff. I jumped in both feet spent a lot bought stuff which i never flew and eventually sold on, at a loss, but hey ho it is my time and money. I enjoy my flying and have a couple of regular in use models. I have stuff to maidan, stuff to repair stuff to wish for, its called life, this hobby just happens to be a part of mine. Like all on here despite its hiccups I enjoy, when that stops so will I. Toto I trust you will do the same

Agree 100% with what Ron and John say above. Beyond that he is receiving training from one of his clubs instructors so leave the model and equipment selection to the trainer, too many back seat pilots could seriously upset the poor guy who is after all doing it all voluntarily, if the plane was unsuitable then clearly the instructor would have said so.

Well done whatshisname......Hope it`s just a one off. lol

The Spektrum trainer system allows 2 different methods for configuring the slave transmitter. In "Programmable Instructor" mode, both transmitters need to be fully configured for the model. In "Pilot Link Instructor" mode, the master transmitter is configured for the model and the slave transmitter must be configured with no settings, servo travel set to 100% and no servo reversing. Both of these options are available to be chosen when initially setting up the master transmitter for training. I've found the latter to be better in practice and simply selected a blank, unused model memory in the slave transmitter, bound it to the master as described in the manual and it all just worked. I also found that it was only the 4 main channels that were transferred to the slave with the master maintaining control of any other channels/settings such as flaps and the throttle "safe" for the motor. Keep at it, Toto, it will all come together soon.

Been today, despite the wind, had a couple of flights with Wot 4 MkII. I just got to the stage when I realised that if I keep letting the wind dictate I will not fly so just going for it. Of course there were others there as well so knowing they would fly, and far more experienced than I just gives confidence.

To be honest with Phoenix being free with updates as above , I see no reason to buy Real Flight . Yes I would like to have a wireless USB link to my transmitter, but that i8s another purchase extra. Quite happy to save my pennies for real flight at a club site.

Many thanks Kind Sir. Believe it or not, I have had a good read at the manual but there is a lot of it and my brain takes time to compute it all. I'm sure I'll get there. Toto

I don't have any trouble remembering rate's because I once lost an aircraft forgetting to switch [about 1995] and have never used them since. My rates are in my finger tips.

No need for the model to be loaded onto the slave. The slave needs to be in an empty model slot then turned off. The master is then bound to the model then under the wireless trainer menu on the master bind is selected. Then power up the slave, put it into bind mode and it will bind with the master.

My Attila wasn't short of power, but it was very sensitive to the propeller choice. I found it worked best with a surprisingly broad bladed 10x5. It looked as if it should have been far to draggy for such a small motor, but worked really well in practice. OK, it needed a shallow dive to loop it, but otherwise it was the perfect power plant for the model. I would imaging David's 26 should provide plenty of oomph - provided you find the right prop for it! -- Pete

I have a range of adaptors,it cries out for universal standard. I have had no problems with commercial ones, the ones i do have problems with are those imake up. My soldering isnt great

The final question is, what didyour boss think of the day? This could have a bearing on the continued supply and development of Laser engines.

Thanks Ron. I have used the dry in place method, which works. The first time using wet balsa was on my Ballerina wing tips which showed me how easily wet balsa is damaged so now I wet only the outside making sure not to wet where I intend to use pegs. Also on the tips mould the balsa along the centre then pin the LE and last the TE. Because The excess balsa forms a curve in front of the spar. I will cut that off and trim the LE next. Steve

I've got an original OS20 FS in my collection. I've owned it from new, and used it in a Flair Attila with reduced dihedral and ailerons. The power was quite adequate swinging a 10x5 prop, and it both looked and sounded like a WW1 aircraft. I mounted it inverted, but had to move the tank to the floor of the fuselage to avoid flooding. Once that was done, I never had any problems with starting it inverted, though I was always careful to check it for hydraulic locks before applying the starter! The original Attila bit the dust some years ago when I deliberately crashed the model to prevent it drifting over the nearby railway lines. The radio had gone intermittent - later traced to mildew build up on the circuit board - and rather than risk it ending up on the tracks, or worse, I ditched it. I have another Attila kit awaiting its turn on the building board, and the 20FS will be going in that - eventually....! (So many projects, so little time....!) -- Pete

It sounded great, Ron. Enjoyed flying alongside you with the FT200 in my RV-4, shame it was just the one flight.

I thought it was a great day, despite only getting in the one flight with the RV-4 after the exhaust extension tube went AWOL. Thanks to Jon for booking the event, and to Chris who stepped in to do the briefing and set us all off in the right direction. Overall I think it went very smoothly, typical of a fly-in type of event with no egos on show, with everyone happy to join in the spirit of the event. While I agree that the odd model should have an individual slot, if it turns into a "show" then I, for one, would give it a miss. There are plenty of events around the country where you can sit and watch the big, impressive models, so I now prefer to attend fly-ins where everyone has a chance to join in without feeling under pressure to perform. Good fun though, and one everyone there is already looking forward to the next one. Here's a few of the photos I took of the event:

For minature allen keys or screw drivers only ever buy ground High Speed Steel. Torx bits are usually forged and hard to find decent stuff in minature sizes . As you say many are made of putty , some are too brittle? I have a set bought from aldi or lidl that i use for watches and very small stuff and a similar for rc and small engine repair. Allen keys get most frequent use and as i said earlier the Ground HSS are a must to prevent damage to the screw and last for years. Any supplied allen keys or drivers are thrown away or into the scrap box . Small hex drive grub screws can be a nightmare to shift and have had many brought to me to shift. A good sharp tool(non rounded edges) and sometimes a little heat and they always come out.

I have flown 6 twin engine planes and 3 four engine planes with electric power. These include an 80" Mosquito weighing 17lbs with 1.2kW per motor, a 74" Me262 weighing 16lbs with 2.5kW per motor and an 83" Vulcan weighing 25lbs with 3.4kW per motor. I have not done any rpm balancing with the ESC or throttle curves. I checked the WOT rpm and current draw in all cases and found them to be within a few % side to side which is not an issue. I have not checked the rpms over the throttle range and I have just gone out and flown them. I have not done reverse rotation of props either. I have found IC to be a different issue though, here manufacturing could give different performance at WOT. More importantly, the servo and carburetor throttle arms can be a source of different responses in the mid throttle range because despite best efforts to make them identical, a few degree difference can have a significant effect. For IC I use throttle curves to keep the engine rpms more evenly balanced over the whole throttle range. This servo set up issue does not transfer to electric, the ESC is very good at controlling the motor rpm linearly over the throttle range. My experience is that you are worrying about something that is not an issue with electric powered twins.

Lovely and calm here this morning, very light winds straight down the strip and had some very enjoyable flights. During the afternoon, though still sunny, the wind got up to a brisk blow and even now it's probably 6-8mph. I've just been watching some video of the long spring and summer evenings that we seemed to have for weeks on end back in the noughties. Glorious gentle circuits with lightweight electric biplanes and, on topic for the forum, carving up the evening sky with my Cambrian Bf109E - pre lipo days but still adequately powered on 10 cell NiCd pack and AXI 2820/10.

If you have two of the same motor and they are both brand new this is a non-issue - many (probably most) people will just run them off a single channel with zero problems. Tbh if the motors are identical and of the same age but are giving different levels of power that can be felt in flight it’s probably indicative of an issue in one that should be addressed on the ground via some careful testing, not the sticking plaster of a separate throttle curve.

Models never take note of wind...we do. Many many years ago at my club we had a spate of crashes in windy weather due to pilots stalling on the downwind etc. I wrote and published an article for RCME in an attempt to educate model pilots and thus reduce crashes through stalls; the readers letters and feedback suggested many many other pilots really hadnt grasped the concepts of airspeed and groundspeed. I told my sons as kids, and they constantly remind me of this, "in this country if you dont fly in the wind, you dont fly at all". Sadly it HAS got windier over the years so the advice stays good i feel. This winter has been more appalling than ever i have known it. I also work in full-size flying amd have lost more days november to may just gone than i can ever remember doing in 30 years. Needless to say my model flying has also been thinned. Wind i can hack, the cold i prefer to avoid these days.

It seems obvious to me. If you have a dairy farm, you produce milk, arable farms produce grain and vegetables, sheep farms meat and wool etc. etc. There’s been a proliferation of wind generators and wind farms - so there’s far more wind being produced.

Just maidened my Tony Nijhuis 78" EDF Vulcan. Built during 2020 and finally plucked up the courage. I do not know why I put it off so long, it is very stable and slows right down for landing. Sounds brilliant on full power.

My latest model: a 90mm High Performance Freewing F-15, just maidened last Sunday. All went well even with full weapons load!

Here are some planes I have recently built . The trainer is a high wing version of a Super Tauri enlarged to 140% .It is powered by a n OS55AX and approx. 74 inch wing span . The V Tail Valkyrie is an own design of approx. 54 inch wingspan powered by a SC 36 . The other is a modified Sky 40 , It now has a shortened radial cowl and is now a tail dragger with Tundra tyres .It is powered by an OS46FX

Personally I think we modellers over power absolutely everything we have. If we took a little more care in our building and power profiles, I am sure all of our machines will be much nicer to fly. Old timer aircraft were designed in a time of limited power & heavy radio gear so they really do not need much power. Same applies to the early electric planes, heavy motor / batteries - limited power so light air frames. I love flying my light planes, most of which are balsa plan builds around 80" wingspan, around 4lbs in weight and fly beautifully on 3S lipos. If they crash, they carry so little weigh that normally the damage is quite minor. 95 amps on 3S is about 1000 watts. How heavy is your plane?? The specs I am seeing are 82" wingspan and a weight of 3-4lbs. That would equate to around 400 watts needed in my book, on 3S that is about 30 amps. I would be aiming at a motor around 800 - 900kv on a 12" x 6" prop, even then I suspect you will be flying around 1/2 throttle.

somewhat annoyed after last week forgetting to do my predictions ,so I did a quick selection Thursday. I definitely saved them and didn't feel the need to change anything, so left as was. Checked after a reasonable time and the Fantasygp site said I had no predictions saved. This happened twice last season. Will definitely be checking the night before the race from now on. Well done John S, Iqon and Pete John

Or have never stepped on one of these…