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I once had a lift home from Cornwall to Waterbeach in an Avro Anson, On landing the pilot touched down on the grass short of the tarmac and gave huge bounce onto the runway. As we climbed out the Navigator said to the pilot "Which landing shall I log sir?"

I left school in 1950, at 15 a shy lad, started work with a baptism of fire, it would have been easy to be offended but noticed if you did you were easy game, the answer was to give as good as you got verbally and you soon got respect.

Thanks Ian and Gary. To put this into context, a few days ago Ken posted a joke which contravened forum rules. In an attempt to point this out in a light-hearted manner I made a few changes which anonymised the target stereotype hoping that it would make the point. Unfortunately this light touch approach seems to have fallen on stony ground and a further example which arguably contravened the CoC was highlighted. In either case, the jokes would have been just as funny without reference to a particular community, whether specific or implied. Let's end the debate here - this thread is for humour and not philosophical debate over modern sensibilities and publishing responsibilities. I'm happy to discuss this further by PM if anyone has a major issue with this request.

And so it begins. Short kit from Caramba. https://carambamodels.com/joomla/en/short-kits/nostalgia/234-kwilk-fli-mk3 Spent an hour this afternoon plucking out the laser cut parts - easy job. A few of the 6mm sheets were ever so slightly cupped however I'm not seeing a problem. It'll be electrically powered with a setup that weighs about the same as the OS AX55, which was the alternative.

A bit breezy today but it was down the strip. A few flights with my WOT4+, on both 4s and 5s and a flight with the Hurricane which was excellent (it has now developed a supercharger whistle!) but I rushed the landing (pickup truck coming down the strip!) and veered off into the long stuff but no damage. Unfortunately after that forced landing it wouldn't fire up on both cylinders so as I had to leave early anyway, I called it a day on the Hurri.

Looks like this joke is definitely out then? http://www.heidecker.eu/MultiKulti/E_MultiHimmelHoelle.htm

I've been with Futaba since 1986 and never had a reason to change. You know the old saying, if it's not broke don't fix it. My current transmitter a Futaba 9c Super 2.4 Fasst was bought in the year 2000 and still like brand new. I honestly hope that Futaba will be around for generations to come.

Yes enjoyable day Kevin, took an assortment of models and flew them all bar the lightweight depron Skysteak, look forward to the next one.

Reminds me of the Jeeves and Wooster golfing joke.... Wooster "How do you think I should play the next shot Jeeves ?" Jeeves " Under an assumed name Sir"

Think she's OK but the transmitter suffered a brown out.

If a joke's works without using the stereotype then use the alternative. If a joke needs the stereotype to work then it's neither funny or acceptable.

Whether or not Ripmax are the distributors, someone will pickup Futaba in the UK - they still have many devoted fans here (though in terms of sales and market share they have declined in the last 10 years). For that reason I wouldn’t be worried about a lack of support if you were to buy a new set, though personally there are many many brands I’d pick over Futaba given how they have fallen behind in terms of features, plus I’ve never really got on with their programming.

So you're not "having a paddy" over it? 🤣 I seriously wonder how the easily offended manage to get through life looking to take insult at every opportunity.

I am offended

Photos of the new silencer below. I've added a baffle around the exhaust port that will also stop the stainless steel scourer entering the engine. The baffle also adds support to stop the silencer being crushed when the bolts are tightened. Just need to fit and seal it on to the engine and carry out some testing. If this doesn't work i'm not quite sure what to do next other than experimenting with props or possibly fitting a header and cannister.

I'm playing devils advocate a little here as I too had to fight my corner and feel that I benefited from it, but isn't this how bad behaviour becomes institutionalised?

The plane is blow moulded and ideal for water. It has given me many years of pleasure and joy at the lake and the fourstroke engine just adds to the experience.

An Englishman, a person of low IQ, and a parsimonious person go into a bar.................. That's got rid of the stereotypes.

I thought they band lead in paint decades ago?😄

Evening all, I recently finished an old Galaxy Models Mystic that I have powered with an RCGF Stinger 26cc rear exhaust engine. The model has had 2 flights and performs well but unsurprisingly the engine is rather loud with the standard silencer. I have made a new silencer from aluminium using Durafix Easyweld to join the parts together. The new silencer is twice the volume of the standard silencer and uses "stinger tubes" to act as baffles. I have run the engine with the new silencer but have not taken dB readings yet. There are a few things that need modifying (plug cap is just touching the surface of the silencer for one) so i will need to make an improved mk2 version. I have found loads of information with regard to effective canister silencer design but there appears to be very little for the pitts style of box silencers. I was wondering if anyone has any good advice with regard to effective silencer design or could recommend something that has worked well for them? I was wondering if fitting a couple of perforated baffle plates between the exhaust inlet and stinger tubes would make a big difference? I've attached a few photos of the model with the standard silencer and home made item. Thanks, Matt

There was an area on the wing leading edge that had some cracking around what look like a lump of car body filler. To be on the safe side, with some persuasion this was taken off, to revile what it's hiding. To be honest, the damage was not too bad, just a crushed balsa leading edge. It didn’t take long to splice in new wood. Putting the wing to one side, I made a start on the fuselage, by removing the old windscreens, they both need replacing with new. The other kit still has the plastic sheet for them; unfortunately it’s starting to turn yellow also. As I can't get hold of a fresh copy of the plans, it not too hard to use these old ones as patents. One of the Small areas that needed attention, on the fuselage, is I assume a latter badly done radio switch - charging connection fitment. Whatever it was, it's gone now. Another small area that needed attention is an old repair on the anti-spin fairings, a gentle sanding and recovering was all that was needed. On the subject of sanding, I had an Idea about retaining as much of the original patina as possible, as I liked seeing the hand painted insignia. Well, that idea went out the window, the more I looked, the more unrealistic it became. So no turning back, I took the sander to the tissue covering. It's surprisingly tough to sand. The last little bit for now that makes me think, that this model was originally made by a very good scale modeller, are the stitched fabric hinges on all the control surfaces, so I was hoping to retain them all. However, the rudder hinge fabric has started to pull away, giving slop in the rudder movement, also, the rudder covering would benefit from redoing. So after a lot of shall, I, won't I, I've taken a knife to it and it's off!

Job on your hands there Roy, hope all goes well.

The elephant in the room is the wing veneer, how to tackle it was the first issue to deal with. Repair or replace the obeche veneer with new were the two options. I’d been looking around for obeche, but the largest I could find was only 4" wide sheets. There is an alternative however, Poplar, and you can buy this in large sheets. Not a veneer I'd heard of before so asked around and apparently, poplar is of a similar density to obeche and also slightly stronger but, is softer and more porous, so it will most likely soak up more paint/glue. In the end, I started experimenting with a repair scheme, and touch wood it seems to be working OK, and it goes like this. 1/ Open up the crack. 2/ Wick in glue. 3/ Clean up. 4/ Pull the split together with tape. 5/ Lay packing on top to add pressure to the split area. 6/ Use what's at hand to apply weight. 7/ Leave it a day to go off. To finish I've sanded it back to the veneer then glassed over the wing. It’s time-consuming, but seems to be working even on the larger ones just need to make sure you get all the voids are filled with glue.

Futaba (OS) is a very well established international company. I should think that unless agreements have been made to repay the debt that they will look elsewhere to do business. There are plenty of well established companies that would be happy to take on the franchise rather than the people who just pooped on them. I know I would. Can someone explain to me why; Traplet go down and don't supply goods to purchasers and they are considered to be lower than a snakes belly. Ripmax go down and don't pay their suppliers so that seems to be acceptable.

I might have an original small one kicking around I will have a look if you are interested postage costs only

Grew up on Futaba 35meg using FF6 and then 9. My first 2.4ghz set was a Spectrum DX6i bundled with a Blade heli. I bought more rx's for it, used it in my parkfly and electric stuff. It seemed to work ok, but it felt cheap and flimsy, the pots needed cleaning from time to time and i seemed to always be falling apart. It would also loose its bind and seemed quite a faff. So when the time came to buy 2.4ghz for my big fixed wing (mandated for show flying) i stuck to what i knew with Futaba and bought the 8j. Its been great, no complaints beyond the lack of servo slow in the software or flap sliders on the side like my FF9. I still use my FF9 for about half my fleet as i had a bunch of fully functional 35meg rx's and saw no reason to bin them.

Have a look at Mike Shelim's website at rcsoar.com. He has some excellent templates ready written to download onto your Otx transmitter that will take all the grief out of seting up your 4 servo wing glider.

THIS IS A THREAD FOR POSTING JOKES AND FUNNIES. PLEASE RESPECT THAT.

The trouble seems to be that NOTHING is wrong or unacceptable if even one person does it. The ONLY thing that is "wrong" is to disapprove of it or to make a joke about it.

The Ripmax website states: Ripmax Trading Update Recently there have been changes within the Ripmax company group and Amerang Limited - one of our highly respected group companies - has taken over the trade of Ripmax. As far as Ripmax customers and suppliers are concerned, it is very much 'business as usual' and all contacts and relationships remain exactly the same. It is our plan to ensure that our well-known range of radio control models and accessories continues to be available to modellers in the UK and across Europe. Many thanks for your continued support. Nick Moss, CEO. whilst the associated German Company Ripmax GmBH (also managed by Nick Moss) continues to distribute and support Futaba throughout Europe. Obviously things change over time but to my mind anything other than taking the above statement at its face value is pure speculation.

Apparently not according to this chart of compatibility. None of the TFHSS receivers are compatible with the 14SG, only SFHSS ones.

Anyway. Back to the OP. This engine, it has 4 pistons, who cares if 2 or 4 stroke. I see nothing but convention going on with the business end of the piston. Whilst they're squashed into a tiny volume, they are regular pistons. Air cooling might be problematic with the low volume? Liquid cooled, I guess no real difference to a conventional layout. The conrods have a 'device' to get linear motion translated into rotary motion. That part looks like a disaster waiting to happen... I'm guessing tolerance and wear will make operational lifespan of this unit really very low. I just can't see the genuine advantage over (say) a regular radial or flat layout. Maybe I'm missing something. Or maybe not. After all, Mazda have been making Wankel rotaries for years and they haven't really caught on. Also, I call shenanigans on their power output vs displacement claims. Their claim of "1 stroke" isn't precisely confidence inspiring when it comes to veracity of their media output.

I guess that the crux of the matter is that to take part in our hobby before the mid 90s when cheap ARTFs were beginning to really take hold, one was pretty much obliged to build a model from a kit. Some saw that as an obstacle, while others enjoyed the process as being part of the journey. Depends what the individual wants from the hobby and how the split between 'builders' and 'flyers' is distributed and how it's changed over the years. As a rough guess, back in the day 90% of us were builders, those remaining sourced their models solely on the second hand market - obviously not a hard and fast 90/10 spilt, some of us had a foot in each camp as would have been confirmed by the popularity of huge swapmeets and well attended club auctions. My own club's annual auction was very big - a couple of hundred attending from many surrouding clubs at a large village hall that we used to hire. We ended it around 15 years ago because the buyers and sellers were just no longer there in sufficient numbers any more. Events do continue on a smaller scale, I'm pleased to say, but a shadow of the past TBH. Just the way it is. I was thinking about Flair yesterday, and on reflection I can understand the current owners' reluctance to burst onto the market again - it's just so uncertain, and are the returns that one might expect on a large investment needed to restart production going to be worthwhile? It's not exactly just a hobby for them to remain occupied on a few quid for fun. I don't know how things are going to go, given that Far Eastern manufactured ARTFs are not the really cheap option any more and their availability and choice has become much reduced. Kit manufacturing on a large scale has taken a huge hit with many well known names, not just UK ones, having either having packed it in or are just ticking over with a much reduced choice. However, on the up side, if one wants to buy an ARTF it's still possible at an increased, but mostly affordable amount and you might have to wait for delivery. People like Sarik and others do a fine job in offering service and choice for building projects of all types and complexities and of course, a few kits are being manufactured if one seeks them out.

Like wise in the RAF (and other services).

I can't imagine how your wife came to sit on your transmitter 😆

Hi Graham, yes i do have that. Having a read now. Give me a couple of days so i can run it through the 600dpi scanner at work and I'll send it to you.

Deltic was supercharged; inlet went straight to combustion chamber. I expect it is probably outclassed in terms of emissions by modern 4 stroke diesels of course, but the Deltic was from a time long before direct cylinder injection and the fine control that current ECUs provide, but there was no oil in the chambers.

Oh dear, did I upset ken, then maybe my post on the British summer should also be taken down, it does stereotype British wet summers. Maybe watching 'Richy Gervais' for an hour would be a cure for the suffers.🥳

Thanks for drawing our attention to it. Yes - it will have to be removed. Although it was a funny joke it could have been misinterpreted as stereotypical. It is difficult for older people with more old fashioned senses of humour but in these times when we are more aware of sensibilities there's a responsibility on publishers to ensure that minority groups aren't offended. Sorry, but so many of us enjoy this thread which you created and it would be a shame to lose it.

You're not losing it Geoff - I split this away from the Ripmax thread as it was going way off topic and deserved its own thread. i It just happened that your reply was the best place to start it!

Thank you for calling the fishing help centre........................... Please hold the line. from a lad i follow on twitter(X) ... ken anderson...ne...1..... fishing dept.

Hi, Glad we inspired you ! We are not expensive, so drop by and get a scan. A dedicated 3D scan from our RevoPoint scanner (down to 30 microns) will always work better and produce better detail than a simple/free phone app(and I am well practiced at creating watertight printable meshes from your data). We can supply your raw scan data if you require, or a finished (and painted if required) pilot bust or a kit to produce a full body pilot of yourself. Prices start at £18. Visit our site; https://www.facebook.com/scalemedown Regards Matthew & Gwen

  Hi everyone, I have just bought a new Overlander 6V 2300mAh receiver battery. On the label it says - "Standard charge 250mA for 10hrs'. OK, I thought, I'll just use my old Futaba Tx/Rx wall charger just as I used to do with my old 4.8V receiver batteries. This states an output of only 4.8V and 70mA. I connected it all up and indeed the little red light came on to indicate charging. Then when I went back to check after an hour, the red light had dimmed. I checked the connection and no difference. So I left it and checked again after about 90mins. By now the light had almost disappeared! This is a new battery so it shouldn't be fully charged after such a relatively short charging period surely. So, after pondering for a while I decided to use my faithful Graupner Ultramat 16 charger that does have a NiMh charging program. I decided to use the manual programme as I do not want the delta cut off to cut in. I set the charge rate to 0.3A and plan to leave for about 10hrs. I will keep checking the battery for temperature (feeling by hand). The battery has now been charging for 25mins and it has 115mA(?) put in as indicated but the voltage is indicated as 7.17V(!) Isn't this voltage already getting too high considering it's supposed to be on charge for 10hrs ..... !!! The battery is cold to the touch. I must say I have very little faith in this battery at present, especially as I intend to use it in my model on Thursday. How can I be absolutely confident that once in the air this battery will not let me down, especially after a few flights? I do have a voltage checker showing red, amber and green when system is switched on in my model. Would it be safer to use a 4.8V NiMh 1200mAh battery that I can charge on my Futaba wall charger for the required time. My model has 4 servo's and my radio is 2.4 Spektrum. Also, I have read somewhere that new NiMh batteries should be 'cycled' after being charged for the first time. John. Edited By JohnnyB on 17/05/2016 10:57:15

Johnny a fully charged 6v battery should peak at about 8v .3 is a good charge rate for the first charge !