Peter Jenkins

You should never repair a prop that has been damaged. If a blade you have "repaired" comes off and injures someone you will be in a bad place! Eric - I bought a 5 blade prop for my EF Sea Fury from the States. It ended up costing me £80 because the vendor insisted on using the Freight Forwarding agent for fear of running foul of US law on exporting products! So do check what the shipping and handling costs will be before proceeding. The other problem may be duty when the item enters the UK. Worth checking so that a $30 part doesn't end up costing £80!

Another East Anglia Area Workshop on the FW A and B Certificates will be held at the Ramsey MAC (Warboys, Cambs) on Sunday 11th September. Full details are here as is the point of contact for more details. Remember, it's not just Examiners who find this useful, Instructors will also find it useful to review what they are teaching and Candidates will be able to see and hear what is needed to pass these tests.

Robert, measure the root chord and tip chord. Add together and divide by two to give you a rough mean aerodynamic chord (MAC). Then at the mid span position measure back 25% of the MAC and mark that position on the root - do this by drawing a 90 deg to fuselage line from the fuselage to the 25% MAC point. This will give you a safe CG position. After that, it's a matter of moving the CG aft so that the aircraft is comfortably stable but does not require a lot of down elevator to fly level inverted. Move the CG aft in small steps. There is no need to measure it as you can feel the effect as you move the CG. I only ever use a measured CG as a starting point for trimming. The lady who flew the Olympus has set her CG position where it feels comfortable for her. The CML recommended position may or may not be correct as some manufacturers can provide some duff information on CG position. The other way to determine CG position is to get a precision aerobatic pilot (not a 3D pilot who tend to opt for a more aft CG for 3D manoeuvres) to fly your aircraft and give you their views on the CG.

Graeme - thank you for bringing out the value of learning to fly aerobatics. When things go wrong, as they do from time to time, you have plenty of experience of looking at your aircraft in strange position not to be fazed by it. The fact that you saved your model is what other non-aerobatic pilots might consider as being worthwhile spending some time on for just those situations. Another aid in visualising aerobatic manoeuvres and how the model will look to you is to use a stick model. You can either make one yourself or buy one. With your modelling skills I would think you'd make one in that looks like the aircraft you are flying in around 20 mins with some scrap balsa. As you move the stick model to either side of the box you will be able to visualise what the silhouette should look like. This is especially useful in edge of box down/up lines to get the wings level so that when you return to S/L flight you don't have the aircraft heading in or away from you. I speak with authority on this - that is aircraft flying in or out! I find it takes a lot of practice to gauge the correct attitude in order to come out on the correct line. That's what practice is for of course!

Congrats to WillyUK - you've come a long way in a short time - keep up the good work. Alex did win Gold, while WillyUK took Silver and Philip Lewis the Bronze in Clubman. Oh yes Linda, there will be another NPOD in 2017 and possibly some Clubman Events. So, all you pilots in East Anglia keep an eye out on this website which is where the info will be placed on these events. Your Club Sec will also get a note but by subscribing to the News section on this page (right hand side on the menu) you will get an email as soon as the event is posted on this website.

Hi Ross - yes, you have quite a few up there who can help. Don't let them talk you into paying SebArt prices when you can find some great B J Craft offers from Bondaero! Good luck and do post on how you get on with what ever you decide to buy. Peter

Hi Ross, I don't think you need to spend £1,200 on a 50 size F3A machine. Take a look at the Bondaero offer of airframe, motor, ESC and digital servos for £275! Either the Axiome or Nuance will do you nicely. BUT, the most important thing is to be able to land the aircraft properly. Banging it down will damage the undercarriage as in most F3A aircraft this is a relatively weak structure. If you are still struggling to fly the Clubman as a full schedule you will not need a Mythos 125 at the moment. These 70 size aircraft will, if you enter competition, serve you up to Masters. You also need to be able to trim all F3A airframes, 2 mtr included, to fly the way that they should. If you have not already found the trim chart on the GBR/CAA website, it's well worth consulting. as is this section on getting started in Aerobatics. If you are in the East Anglia Area then please pm me and I can give you some more advice. Peter

Thanks for the heads up on brown paper FB3. My wing veneer hasn't, despite its age, split so I think a rub down with 600/800/1200 paper will produce a nice surface which should take film without a problem. JS1 - thanks for confirming that the HK film is good. As I've got some Profilm I might use that as the "base" coat and then use Solar trim for the rest of the design.

Alternatively, roll inverted and then push down elevator. At least you know that if you get to the top of the bunt you'll get round it safely!

More questions on flim. Can you mix Profilm and Solarfilm or do they object to sticking to each other? I've got a mixture of these two films and the ideal colours and split between them! Does Profilm give a better finish on veneer and balsa - assuming both are finished with 1200 grade paper? Thanks in anticipation!

Sorry for not responding earlier Phil - life got in the way! Yes, I'm tempted to have a go but.....then I'll have to paint it with rattle cans and I'm not brilliant at that!

Ross, what sort of aircraft are you flying and what is the power plant? That's the first part of the equation when wanting to fly larger loops. If you pull up into a vertical climb with full power applied how far will it climb before it runs out of speed? If the answer is, not far, then forget trying to do big loops because you haven't got enough excess power. If the aircraft just keeps climbing then you have the basis for doing large diameter loops.

Mowerman!

Good. I recorded it so will look forward to watching the series.

Disagree with Geoff Sleath's premise on only having an objective assessment as diving, trampolining, gymnastics, to name but 3, are all judged and are, therefore, subjectively assessed, yet seem to come up with results that are generally well accepted. I would suggest aerobatics, probably not F3A or IMAC standards, but like full size gliding did when it was in the in Olympics, define a standardised model (including powerplant, servos and radio) so that you take the equipment out of the frame as much as possible and focus on piloting skills alone. Perhaps provide the aircraft for the competitors but then some models will be better than others despite them being "the same". F3A has a pretty wide following in the world so I would expect there to be a significant take up for an Olympic aerobatic championship. The other problem is that there is a 2 year cycle for the World Champs which is interspersed with a 2 year cycle for Continental Champs. Difficult to see where the Olympics could be fed into this but I'm sure it would be possible to find a solution if there were a desire to make it happen. It won't happen? Well, why not? What about golf, beach volleyball, bicycle moto cross to name but 3. As an Olympic sport, we might then see Lottery Funding although that requires a pretty well documented case on how you are going to win a medal and, not since the Kenley World Champs in 1962 (I think), has there been a GB World Champion so perhaps there might not be any funding forthcoming on that basis after all. We do have GB World Champs in Control Line Speed but I cannot see that discipline having a hope in hell of getting onto the agenda.

I followed the link John and found that at para 2.1 of the notice there was a link to the new ANO. I followed that and now have a copy which I am reading carefully .

Thanks guys. Your help is much appreciated. I hope to post a picture of the finished article but don't hold your breath as it might take me some time!

Nice scheme Bob - one that should help when checking for wings level as the model flies towards you. Thanks for that input ED. Will have to decide on whether to use Solarfilm or Profilm. Anyone had any experience of using the Hobby King coverings?

Thank you Percy. Strong Wot4 influence there I see!

Wow! Thanks for the input guys - much appreciated. As ever, there appear to be pros and cons with sealing the surface although glassing with 18 g cloth does sound appealing but likely to result in a less than perfect outcome for a first timer! The next problem will be deciding the colour scheme! The undersurface is decided - quarters of black and white on each wing and tailplane so I don't get confused which way is up! The top and sides are what are currently challenging me. Any hi vis colour schemes you can recommend? Oh, they must be in keeping with the 1980s though!

Pity they don't take the same approach with Test matches! Have to listen to TMS and rely on Channel 4 summary on TV at the end of the day. I'm not sure that blanking out everything else on the programming list for the Olympics will win them many fans though.

Thanks for those suggestions Percy, I might just get my 800 and 600 grit paper out and rub down the veneer gently and then go over the wings with a tack cloth before applying the fllm.

Hi, I'm building an old Gangster 75 kit that I was lucky enough to buy. I've now reached the wing finishing point and want to get a good surface on the veneer before film covering. I was thinking of using sanding sealer and talcum powder but wondered if the sanding sealer would penetrate the veneer and dissolve the foam core. I'm sure there are lots of you with ideas on how to proceed so await your answers. Many thanks.

BEB - for what it's worth, I needed to spend 3 months with the tray before my flying skill returned to my neckstrap/thumbs regime. Like you, I found that as I got into complicated bits of flying, I tensed up and twisted the Tx so that my thumbs were restricted in their movement. This is missing from the tray. I also had to learn to go from thumbs to finger and thumb which I would say took me longer to get a grip of than just using the tray. I fly F3A aerobatics and I note that there are those who use trays, those who use neck straps and those who just hold the Tx without any other support. Since these different ways of using a Tx seem not to affect where these pilots come in the World rankings I guess that using a tray must be a personal choice. I do know of one guy who trains all his students from day one on a tray. Not sure if any have tried thumbs only and whether it was better or worse. One thing I did get moved, by the distributor, was my trainer switch which I swapped for my Ail D/R switch. The original idea was to use the trainer switch as a snap switch but as my Tx has Stick Position Switches that was not necessary. It is useful to have the Trainer switch in its new position at the top of the Tx though.

Try this.