Peter Jenkins

I take it you mean Andy Symons. I would just observe that I have quoted from the 2025 booklet that Andy will have been instrumental in getting published. Tour interpretation does not fit with what is published.

I don't think so! Here's what the 2025 B Test says on the Stall Turn. Throttle may be used to ‘kick’ the rudder to the side for the stall turn, however the candidate must avoid performing either a ‘wing over’ or ‘chandelle’ or allowing the rudder to be pushed over the top of the aircraft in a semi-circle.

Just what I was thinking Jonathan!

For which market is this product destined?

That I could see. Thanls Ron.

Link doesn't appear to work Ron.

Made a last minute decision to go out and practice for this weekends competition. It was moderately windy - around 15 mph at around 60 deg to the display line but I though would be good practice at keeping the aircraft from being blown in. I was the only one at the field so was able to rattle through 4 flights with varying success! As you can see from the photo, the day was grey and at 11 C a tad cool. Still, it was good to get in some practice even if the individual flight scores were rather disappointing but, given the flying, only to be expected. I should point out that I'm using the Flight Coach system and its latest module that provides a scoring system based on the FAI judging rules. The program is still at an experimental stage but gives useful feedback that is based on the aircraft's actual flight path.`

No, the Red Kite has a forked tail whereas the buzzard has a triangular one. That's the main distinguishing feature. The Red kite is on the left in the photo. They are very similar in other respects. I know this because I was trying to identify whether it was a Red Kite or Buzzard flying over the house a couple of days ago so did a Google Search and got the gen!

Love the buzzard photo Kevin!

I'll have to bring mine along for some formation flying Ron!

You said it Paul!😉

Hi GG, I was just making the point that when you draw a surge of power from a battery, in this case my pack powering the motor, then there is a drop in voltage. The same holds true of a Rx pack that is independent of the Motor pack. Since Adrian is using an Opto isolated ESC then his Rx power comes from a separate battery. Perhaps I didn't explain it as well as I could have!

When I look at the power draw on the motor on my electric F3A machine, there is a significant voltage drop when a lot of power is demanded. I wonder if what you are seeing is just that. You must remember that voltage drops when there is a significant power draw from a battery. If you find that you don't have any servos hitting the stops then my observation would be that it's probably nothing to worry about. It's the issue of looking at something that we couldn't access before and being taken aback at what is happening. Remember that the IR of the battery or the BEC will have a say in what the voltage drops looks like as you draw a surge of power.

That's fine Learner. Just thought I'd throw in my penny's worth.

Hi Chris The prop hang is done at less than WOT unless you are right on the limit of 1 to 1 power to weight ratio. I am not talking about that situation. On the ground, with the aircraft restrained you place a brake on the ability of the aircraft to start moving and thus to reduce the load on the prop. For electric motors, where if you over load them they will eventually burn out trying to overcome the load on them. An IC engine will just slow down and stop in the same situation. The two power units are fundamentally different in their characteristics. For an aerobatic aircraft, whether 3D or precision aerobatics, you want more far better than 1 to 1 power to weight ratio. In the case of precision aerobatics, as opposed to 3D, you are looking to fly the aircraft at the same speed throughout the manoeuvre. So, in a large loop, you are looking for power on the way up and drag on the way down. The modern F3A machine is built to be draggy to help in this respect and the use of electric motors with ESCs that provide proportional braking is a great help. The introduction of contras and now governor ESCs moves us to a very different way of increasing drag when you want it and power when you want that. I would suggest that your experience may not have included how to set up a modern aerobatic aircraft where drag is actually quite a good thing as you are trying to operate in quite a narrow speed range. The excess power needed in precision aerobatics and the airframe drag and prop drag a way of combating the effect of gravity on up and down lines. The old F3A models were the other way around where engine power gave speed and that was needed to produce the large vertical manoeuvres since the engines were limited to 10 cc. This then evolved into todays' situation where we no longer have really fast aerobatic aircraft. In general, they look, and are, relatively slow. Next time we're up at the field I can show you what I mean. Peter