Peter Jenkins

Toto, isn't it time to change the heading to fifth (at least) taste of the sky? It's stretching advertising standards! 🤣🤣

Sadly Cuban 8, and all those who share your views, you have missed one vital point. The airspace is owned by the Government. This is quite separate from land and sea where the Government doesn't automatically own all the land and sea. Many people are unaware that they don't even own the airspace directly above their house. Furthermore, there was a decision taken by the EU back in 2014 or so (I forget exactly when but it was a long time ago) where they saw that the use of unmanned aerial systems provided a great way in for a new industry that could avoid getting tangled up with the usual aviation procedures and allow a lower barrier of entry for a large number of companies. The idea being that a lot of new businesses would be enabled by using unmanned systems. Of course, the regulators were put in charge of making this happen which is why it is taking so long. The biggest impetus to unmanned systems, actually any new systems, is, sadly, war. As we have seen in the many wars that have been going for the past 30 years, there has been a growing use of unmanned systems (air land and sea) to keep humans out of dull, dangerous or dirty environments. The war in Ukraine has catapulted hobby drones and the use of FPV techniques to conduct a new type of warfare. This has both reduced the cost of these weapons systems and allowed huge advances in capabilities and methods of use that, sadly, only wars allow. We can expect that the fall out from the use of drones (land, sea and air) will be greatly increased by militaries around the world. What happens in in the military world derisks civil use of these vehicles. You are making the classic mistake of thinking about drones from a model aircraft viewpoint. You need to look far wider and realise that there are real economic advantages to the use of unmanned systems in everyday life. I give as an example the use of drones to check crop health in arable farms. This can be used to determine whether the crop is diseased, the extent of the problem and how well the remedial action has resolved the problem. That, of course, puts drones next door to many of our flying sites. Transmission line inspection is another huge money spinner as it avoids the use of expensive rotary or fixed wing assets. I hope that helps those who are stuck down the "I just want to fly my model aeroplane without outside interference" view. It's about a far bigger picture. On that note, I shall disconnect from this thread as I'm wasting too much of my time fighting past battles.

Since no Government has ever managed to do that and they have thousands of civil servants to draft legislation why make such a song and dance over a relatively minor issue. There are 3 full time staff in the BMFA and only 1 who is responsible for dealing with this matter. He's already explained that he made an error. It amazes me that all those who complain can even manage to put a radio controlled model aircraft together let alone fly it yet can't manage to take either the RCC or DMARES test without making a great song and dance about it. Just get on with it and stop being so precious please!

Got it. Thanks. I missed the obvious.

Hi John I'm confused. This seems to be a battery/cell checker and cell balance. It doesn't charge or discharge according to the description on the link. So, how do you use it to discharge your packs? I may have misunderstood what you said and that you use a separate discharger and then use this checker to check on discharge progress. Be interesting to know what you meant.

It may help you to know that there isn't a single CG position. There is a range of CG positions. The aft most one is when the aircraft becomes neutral in its response i.e. if the nose is lifted up by a gust it will just stay in that position or putting it another way, the aircraft has no stability nor for that matter any instability. Moving past the aft limit doesn't suddenly transform the aircraft into an uncontrollable beast. It will manifest itself as having a very slightly unstable trait so that you would need to return the aircraft to S&L flight using the controls. The forward CG position is usually that at which for a tricycle undercarriage aircraft there will be insufficient elevator force to get the aircraft to take off and once in the air it will be difficult to combat any nose down tendency. To determine the aft limit, arm yourself with some lead stick on weights and stick them on 10 g at a time to begin with to shift the CG aft. Go and fly the aeroplane and if its still very stable add another 10 g etc. Exactly how much stability you'd like for your aircraft will vary depending on your flying but suffice to say that many pilots tend to fly with the CG too far forward and end up with aircraft that handle terribly.

Hardly surprising considering that many people have died due to human failings in aviation. If you don't understand that then you should question whether you are working in the right job. The fatal Concodre crash was down to someone not following the laid down procedures snd leaving out a spacer when reassembling the main undercarriage. I spent a good part of my life at the sharp end of military aviation and it never failed to surprise me how many different ways people can find to take short cuts as they couldn't see the point in doing a lot of unnecessary things. There is the other side of this which is if a mistake is spotted in documentation action should be taken to correct the error at the earliest opportunity. I know of one instance where by following the manual a technician wrecked a helicopter gearbox! At the subsequent enquiry it transpired that "everyone knew that was the wrong way of doing things" - but no one took action to correct this resulting in someone following the manual and causing £0.5m of damage! I am surprised that you work in aviation yet display this attitude.

Andy, as I fly F3A, I always have the cloudbase displayed on XCWeather as well. It's very helpful in deciding whether to give it a go or pass. I look for at least 1,200 ft. If it shows 800 ft that's a bit too marginal. Top of the box is 850 ft.

Well done Adrian. Have you tried looking on YouTube for TS 161Z tutorials? There are bound to be quite a few that might answer your questikns without reading the on-line manual. For Jeti, there are loads of videos and they are pretty helpful. Check out this link and just scroll down the list of videos. Peter

XCWeather for me. Of all the apps I've tried, this is the most accurate but only looking 1 day ahead. We have such difficult weather to forecast that looking 7 days ahead is just the same as gambling!

Well done Adrian. Incidentally, you might like to look at the SM Modelbau UnisensE sensor. This provides from one small sensor package: V, A, height, Vario, capacity, rpm etc. The sensor can be set up to speak to most Txs including Futaba. I've used it with my JR and now with my JETI. You will find an English language translation here. SMB also do a range of other sensors but I've never used any other than the UnisensE and I can thoroughly recommend it. For the price, it takes some beating and, provided you buy the USB interface, you can both set up and update the firmware using the freely downloadable software.

Phew, thank goodness for that. Another storm in a tea cup! We do like our storms though!

Only managed to get out to my other club field. When I arrived, the temp was 2C snd when I left 2 hrs later in the gloom at 4.15 it was 1C. The good news was the wind was almost non existent which was ideal for checking the Anthem's trim with it's new (well second hand) Jeti DS24. Like Kev's, our windsock was also broken. The calm conditions allowed me to check the vertical downline mix and the 2 mixes for ensuring a knife edge and KE loop using rudder and motor only. 2 flights each with 2 intermediate landings to tweak the mixes (I suppose that makes 6 flights!) left me with 2 packs to practise my current competition schedule with a fully trimmed F3A machine. Bliss. The photo was taken 2 days ago but I forgot to post it!

I have a Bucker Jungmann just like that! It has an OS91 FS Pump and flies very realistically with that amount of power.

Decided to open my 2025 account despite the temp of 3C. Got in 3 flights before the cold got at me and the light faded. This was my 2nd flying session since I moved radios from JR to Jeti. I had fitted stronger stick springs but had turned the stick tension too high for the first session so turned the adjusters right down and that seems spot on now. Still a bit more trimming needed for the rudder/aileron KE mix but I was too cold to think straight by then.