Peter Jenkins

Toto It is certainly true that going electric means that you just plug in the battery and go, On the other hand, you need to buy your fuel up front i.e. the packs, which can mean either you spend a lot of money or you need to have in-field charging and two or three packs. With glow motors, once you have learned how to start and tune them then you just need to refuel and go, always assuming that your Rx pack has the capacity or else you just carry two with you. I could get through 6 flights a day with my IC powered Wot 4 with no problem of Rx battery capacity and that was a 4 cell NiMh of 1,100 mAh. In truth, provided you have someone who knows how to start and adjust a glow engine there is little that needs fiddling with. You just need to choke it the required number of turns, check it's not flooded by turning it over, apply the glow start and then the starter. In fact, I sometimes dispense with the starter and use the chicken stick to tap the prop in the reverse rotation direction and the engine then fires and runs the right way. When it's a cold day then an electric starter can give an instant start but once it's run once then the engine will be happy to start on the reverse flick as I described. Provided you have set up the plumbing correctly, you just add fuel and fly. This is now almost as simple as connecting the battery to an electric motor. OTOH, you don't need to extend any tender loving care on an electric motor when you have finished flying or clean down the model - unless you have a load of mud on the underside of the wing caused by the wheels! Running a glow up to operating temp until the tank supply is exhausted is a good way of looking after the engine without any after nun oil being necessary. Of course, empty the tank first and then put a couple of turns of the hand pump to add just enough fuel for this procedure! When I was practising for my B, I could fly 2 full B schedules on one tank full. You may find that being able to fly 2 A schedules per flight once you get to that stage would also be helpful in speeding up your learning curve.

Chilli Breeze?

Well one failed penalty kick settled it. Well done to both teams but I have to take my hat off to the ABs for almost winning it with 14 men for most of the match. Particular praise for Wayne Barnes, his team and the TMO for defusing a number of situations that could have got out of hand.

Game over. SA wkn from here.

Disagree. My view is SA by a v small margin. Ah, now thst the AB s are down one, I think that might swing ot their way. OTOH SA has just lost its only hooker.

Looking at your proposal Adrian, the two "wood pillars" add little to the strength of that former. If you are concerned and there is space underneath to clear the pack, add a vertical ply member across the full width of the fuselage - 5 mm wide should be sufficient. That will provide a very strong T beam construction that would probably be weight neutral if remove the ply webs you have identified. Just a thought.

The reason for shear webs, or in this case, a full depth spar, is to form a closed box section or tube. Aeronautical structures, once you get past the all wood early aeroplanes was to provide the torsional stiffness without resorting to external bracing. If you look at all aeronautical structures they are based on closed tubes. This gives both bending and torsional strength from very light structures. Consider rolling a piece of paper into a tube and sellotaping it together along the length. A sheet of paper has no torsional rigidity and appears to have little chance of carrying any weight. However a paper tube is a very different animal. It has both bending and torsional strength. The D box formed by the full depth spar, or alternatively shear webs, together with the wing skins and leading edge, form a closed tube giving the wing great torsional stiffness. Without the shear webs, and without a fully sheeted wing, the structure is easy to twist. So, as you deflect the aileron it would twist the wing and negate the aileron's effect. Structures lesson 1 from aeronautics. This is also called a stressed skin or monocoque construction.

Erfolg I find your post quite extraordinary. The BMFA has always been more than just an insurance provider. The main thrust was based around Areas since travel nationally was difficult pre-motorways. Areas organised contests, and some still do, while the National Championships were organised by the BMFA head office (SMAE trading as the BMFA). As regards the NFC, you are about 6 years behind the times. This was a big issue from the beginning of the NFC and was much discussed in Council, on this forum and the whole NFC issue was voted on at an EGM. The issue of future of the hobby has also been discussed at Council, Area and Club level. It continues to be. The Achievement Scheme is a fundamental, and not a secondary, activity of the BMFA. It touches all those who fly radio control models. I'm sure you added your views to each of these points in the past. So, I'm curious to know why you choose to raise these issues as if they are new?

Thanks Phil. I have enough for another 10 aircraft Adrian as the roll is quite big!

Hi Adrian, you might find it easier to manipulate the packs by replacing the velcro on the battery tray with some non-slip matting. That's what I've been using for the past 5 years. It works very well provided you remember to strap up the 2 retaining straps!

I cannot imagine a small shop today giving up retail space for such a cabinet in the first place Robin. They have a tough enough time just surviving now, not to mentikn the point Peter Miller has made. I thknk you are living in a dreamworld if you think such an approach would succeed today. Yes you could advertise it on social media but, as we all know, thieves look on that as sn invitation to go and steal stuff. Just look at how mzny rural churches have had the lead stolen from their roofs. This is not a problem limited to towns and cities.

Sadly Robin, in this day and age, the green cabinet wouldn't last long. Either vandals or thieves would see to that.

Fiddle Sticks, if you compare anything with what it was 22 years ago you will find it has all changed. Why do you think our High Streets are struggling? The impact of the internet and the growth of out of town warehouse type operations are what are closing down the High Street. Try and find a Bank Branch where you can talk to someone about your account - you are pushed on-line. Things change so you either adapt or flounder. I sometimes have to buy stuff from the EU or the USA as the part of the hobby I follow has only 1 retail outlets in the UK only 1 of which has the stuff I need. The cost of holding stock is another big issue these days. OTOH, the growth of laser cut kits done to order were never there in the "old days". We made do with die crushed parts. Balsa is being hoovered up by the wind turbine industry and that drives up the cost of balsa. That wasn't there 22 years ago. Personally, I've never seen such a wide choice of good quality radio equipment at a reasonable price. It is unrealistic to expect everything to remain the same as 22 years ago. There is a thriving FPV drone racing community and even a world championship with big money prizes - who would have thought that would happen? Today, the internet is uniquitous and if you don't use it then you are missing out big time. You Tube has many tutuorials covering how you do stuff. If, like me, you'd never thought of looking on YT for "how to videos" you will be surprised at what you find. I entirely agree with PDB that we tend to forget thst our biggest potential recruiting ground is those approaching retirement or already retired. They have the time and usually some disposable income to light up their retirement.

Well Fiddlesticks, you can sit there are wail or get up and do something about it. Which is it going to be?

They may well have been knackered but their replacements were immediately under pressure and leaked 4 penalties. I'm convinced that the old sneaky blokes would have used their cunning to negate the new SA props. We shall never know of course. Doesn't get away from England performing better than SA for 60 mins. They should have enginerred more drop goal opportunities since they seemed unable to break through the finsl 10 m

Good call Jonathan. Look forward to hearing how you get on with your Gangster and your aerobatics. Good luck.

I would have kept Marler and Cole on as I think they had the measure of the SA front row. Still, it was the best performance by England for some time.

You might find it helpful at the end of every building session to write down what you need to do next including saying don't forget to leave room for the tail plane. I used to find that a useful aid so that I didn't have to trust my dodgy memory!

Hi Nigel, if you have the time, you might find my build blog on the Gangster 75 that shows how I decorated it and also my experiences when flying it. I increased the size of both the elevator and rudder and wish I had increased the size of the ailerons as well. The blog is here.

LiFePO4s can be charged insitu though.

Software swiches, Powerbox Digiswitch V2, are not mechanical and can regulate a 2S LiPo to give 6v 7.0 v, 7.6 v or the full voltage. They are immune to ic engine vibration. Can be used for LiFe, LiIon and NiMH. I see Nexus are selling them for a discounted price of £45. They last a long time!! - https://www.nexusmodels.co.uk/digiswitch-v2-electronic-switch-regulated-output-powerbox-6430.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjw4bipBhCyARIsAFsieCxRNHPZYty0KKJYV43ZCu0ctz3Edl8EkOY23ybKsOolelWb0cDMBakaAp0ZEALw_wcB

👍 you could also try an 11x8 if more prop clearance is needed.

I gave up on velcro as sometimes it was a real struggle to get the battery out. I now use a non-slip rubber pad and strap the pack down with velcro straps over to hold the pack down onto the battery tray. None of my packs has come loose despite flying snap rolls every flight - I'm talking about 2 x 5S 5000 packs so weighing 1.2 kg. It makes removing the pack sooo simple. Undo the velcro straps, unplug the connectors and lift out the pack. Never going back to velcro to hold batteries to the tray.

What pitch with the 12 inch prop did you use Nigel?

The other useful tools to play games with are different kv for the equivalent power motors and prop pitch. A higher kv will allow you to use a smaller diameter prop with a higher pitch to get the same power. It is quite common for an electric prop to use a higher pitch than you would for an IC solution. As an example, I bought a second hand 70 size aerobatic aircraft that had a Hacker motor with a 425 kv. It was intended for a 6S pack. I wanted to use 5S packs and ended up putting a 17x12 prop on that gave the performance I needed. However, changing to a motor with a 580 kv allowed me to bring the prop diameter down so a 16x10 prop gave the required performance as it was turning faster. It also gave me an extra 1/2 inch of ground clearance that made all the difference in preventing the grass being cut on take off! The aircraft is a tail dragger though.