Peter Jenkins

So, do you have your own insurance or are you just flying without any? Also, have you registered with the CAA, done your drone test and have a User ID and Pilot ID. If not, then I'm afraid that you are breaking the law. Just saying.

Until the car battery goes flat! I once used the car battery as my source for charging my flight packs. These are 2 x 5S 5000s charged in parallel (i.e. 10,000 mAh capacity) but used in series to give 10S. The first 2 charges were fine but the 3rd charge didn't finish. When I was leaving, I found out why. The battery wouldn't start the car! Luckily, my fellow flyer hadn't yet left so, as I always carry jump leads, I was able to recover the situation. These days, car batteries are actually quite low capacity! Never did that again! So, while a hot box won't take anything like the amount of capacity needed by my packs just be careful! My current car, which is quite software heavy, will even shut down the radio 10 mins after you turn off the engine! Same goes for the interior lights if you leave the doors open - what a good idea!

I was at Odiham when a Wessex went into ground resonance while the rotor was being spun up but had yet to reach the required speed. For those who don't know about this feature, it is a function of a mass, spring, damper situation. If you reach the resonant frequency of the combination, the outcome is rarely pretty! If the rotor is up to speed, the solution is to lift off and that solves the problem immediately. In this case, they couldn't lift off so the rotors ended up contacting the ground and the rear section skin was completely overstressed. The tail rotor and its structure fell to the left while the rest of the fuselage fell to the right and the rotors spread themselves to all over the place. There were two comments that made the rounds and had us in stitches. The first one was from the ground starting crew. A new guy from a fixed wing background was being checked out by an old hand. The were rooted to the spot and, extraordinarily lucky not to suffer any injury. With the helicopter on its side, the new boy said "Does this happen often?" The second one was from the pilot in charge. He was checking out a new pilot on his first familiarisation flight from Odiham. He had just struggled out of the wreckage when the line chief reached him and said in a perfectly calm voice "Can you get if fixed please Chiefy, I'll take it again after lunch."

I have been using a picnic box that heats and cools using a 12 v supply. I carry my lipos in this box - up to 12 off 5S 5000 mAh packs. I plug it in while I drive to the field which takes about 30 mins. The lipos live in the box till they are needed and even after a 3 hour session the last packs are, while not warm, at least not cold to the touch. Here's an example of one from Ebay but there will be many others to choose from. This one comes with a mains to 12 v adaptor so you can power the box when at home. Obviously, you don't want to keep the box heating since it states that it will reach 65 C! A bit of experimentation on how long is needed to reach a sensible temp will be needed.

Rich, you do know don't you that you can email the BMFA with your questions using [email protected]? It's usually the best route than posting on here for a specific question. If Andy needs to answer the question, then the admin staff pass it to him.

Experience is a wonderful teacher! We have all had that experience in some area or other! Thanks for sharing as it might help someone else to avoid this particular trap.

I have a wired connection to my computer but it's plugged into the back of the hub provided by your ISP, in my case, by BT. The hub comes with WiFi active whether you like it or not and sits there transmitting 24/7.

I take it you don't hsve a broadband connectiion to hour house then because if you do you will be surrounded by WiFi whether you use a mobile phone or not. WiFi operates in the 2.4 GHz band which is the band we use for our 2.4 GHz radios while mobiles operate at either 900 MHz or 1.2 GHz. Also, according to you, anyone concerned about WiFi shouldn't fly RC using 2.4 GHz either. Do you fly RC and do you use 2.4 GHz or 35 MHz? Love to understand what is your issue.

RID?

Like much of our language, "freezing the balls off a brass monkey" comes from the Royal Navy. The brass monkey was what you placed cannon balls in but as the brass contracted more than the iron cannon balls, when it got very cold the brass monkey reduced in size significantly thus allowing the cannon balls to fall off! Here's another one. A square meal. When a sailor joined a ship, his plate was cut off a wooden plank so that it was literally a square plate. Sailors got fed regularly on this square plate hence the term. Some of the older hands used to nail little pieces of wood at the edge of the plate to stop the gravy running off. These were called fiddles. So, anyone on the fiddle had a modified plate. There are loads more of these expressions that we use today without knowing their derivation. In the days when the RN ruled the waves, there were a lot of seamen who spread this terminology when they came home.

Hi Toto The previous posts have just about covered things. That having been said, I am always surprised when people who have been running glows for some time express surprise when I ask if they have adjusted the low running needle. The low running needle is usually located on the opposite side from the main needle valve and sunk into the extended throttle barrel. You need a thin flat head screwdriver to operate the needle. For a new engine, it will have been set at the manufacturer when they test ran it but it will still need tweaking. If someone has been playing with the needle then you may have to establish its starting position from the engine manufacturer's instructions. Key thing to remember is that the idle needle controls the engine up to around half throttle before the main needle takes over. The engine will never run satisfactorily, unless the idle needle setting matches the fuel and conditions it was set at, unless you adjust the idle needle to achieve the optimum mixture. Before adjusting the idle mixture though, get the engine fully warm, run it up to max speed and adjust the main needle for max rpm. Then open the needle valve to richen the mixture and drop the rpm by 400. This allows for the engine to accelerate to a faster speed once the model is no longer stationary. Now, you are ready to adjust the idle needle valve. Be prepared to stop the engine, make an adjustment and restart the engine. If the idle needle is too lean then when you open the throttle the engine will die. Open the needle valve a 1/4 turn and try again. If the mixture is too rich then opening the throttle will be accompanied by an increase in exhaust smoke and a stuttering acceleration. As you get closer to the ideal setting then bring each adjustment down to 1/8 turn. A quick way to check if your idle mixture is rich is to check if the engine rpm drops when you remove the glow igniter. A properly set engine, once warm, will hardly change its note when the igniter is removed. The reason for the rpm drop is that the plug is cooled by the excess fuel and does not work as efficiently. Sometimes, using a long thin screwdriver you will be able to adjust the idle needle valve while the engine is running. In this case, turn the screwdriver a 1/8 turn at a time aiming to get the engine to run at the fastest idle rpm as possible. The acid test is to leave the engine to idle at its lowest sustainable idle speed for 1 minute and then open the throttle briskly. The engine should pick up quickly and cleanly. Any stuttering means the mixture is too rich and if the engine dies then its too lean. Adjust and re-try. Once set, leave everything alone. Sometimes, if you have set up the engine on a cold day, you may need to tweak the needles on really hot days and vice versa. It's not difficult to do provided you follow the manufacturer's instructions for initial starting. Once you've made the adjustments I've described above, then do a nose up check i.e. with the engine at idle, point the nose up by about 80 deg and open the throttle. If you have set the engine up properly the engine will accelerate smoothly. Thereafter, there is no need to do nose up tests - they are a waste of time if you have set up the engine correctly. Two final points. If you have an ABC engine (aluminium piston, brass cylinder chrome plated) it must be run in at full throttle and rich for short bursts and allowed to cool off in-between. Running them slowly will cause them to seize. Indeed, you may find that they are very tight to turn over and emit squeaking noises as you do so. That is because the bore is tapered towards the top. You need to heat the engine up quickly so that the metals expand to give a parallel bore with good tight clearance between the piston and liner. If you have a ringed piston, then the running in is carried out at a lower throttle opening and rpm gradually increased through the running in period until you are at max rpm. Both engine types will be badly damaged if you get this wrong.

The biggest advantage to me is that I can check and respond to emails when I'm out and about or lounging around at home as I don't have to tied to my desktop. Messaging apps, like WhatsApp, are also very useful and far more reliable than texts which can sometimes take an age before they appear. But without a doubt, having a camera available pretty much all the time and one that takes far better photos than my Nikon is undoubtedly a huge plus. Paradoxically, when I was working in the defence and aerospace world, having a phone with a camera meant you had to surrender it at the visitor desk and collect it when you left! I still prefer my Sony Camcorder for taking video as holding the phone steady while shooting and then trying to zoom in and out is a recipe for a disaster - at least for me!

A much nicer day than forecast! Only 4 at the patch!

If you read his post, he says he's only got a mobile phone screen to read it off. Makes it a bit painful to read through the Handbook when that's the only way you can read an electronic copy.

Good to hear you are back from your lay off Bruce. Remember to practice the right things! 🙂 Peter

The 2 m Loaded Dice was exactly the same in KE. I needed almost full rudder to establish KE and forget KE loops. That's the big difference between classic aerobatic models and today's taller fuselage models. I can fly a KE loop with about 1/4 rudder deflection.

In the February edition of RCM&E, there is the 2nd part of Mike Delacole's building and flying instructions for the Chilli Breeze. I had been thinking of building this and read through the notes only to find that he's recommended Chilli Breeze builders to take a look at my book. So, if any of you forumites are building the Chili Breeze and would like a copy of the book, please PM me. You may also notice that I have a small section in Keith Jackson's aerobatics section, entitled Home International, where I've written about getting started in aerobatics.

Makes my eyes go funny! Or is it my brain? 🙄

Toto If you think that's bad, take a look at this! This is what I saw when I removed the canopy after landing the aircraft. I had flown the aircraft for 50-60 flights prior to this and neither of the ESCs, motor or flight pack were anything other than slightly warm on landing. There are 2 ESCs in this photo as this is powering a twin outrunner contra motor that you can see on the left. The ESC failed when I was flying towards the downwind end of the aerobatic box and inverted and had just pushed the nose up in order to fly a large half outside loop. There was a sharp crack when the aircraft reached the 4 o'clock position and it seemed to lose all power. Having recovered to level flight it was clear that the aircraft would not make it back to the strip without adding power. I had by this stage closed the throttle. I advance the throttle till I felt the aircraft would make it back at which point a big brown puff of smoke emerged from the fuselage - there is a range of holes on the underside of the fuselage to allow the cooling air out. I got the aircraft back in one piece other than as it was landing across the mown runway the wing tip just caught the long grass and swung the nose in to the grass. As this was at a really low speed I didn't think too much except that when I reached the aircraft it was clear that the port u/c mounting had been broken. Until I was able to examine the innards I had no idea what had happened. When I contacted the ESC manufacturer, he happens to be based in Poland, he said he'd never had an ESC fail before and sent me a new one free. That has worked without any problems since and the original undamaged one has also been faultless. The electronic components in these systems are just picked off the production line. Military Spec electronics come off the same lines, almost always the case, but get a burn in period to check that any failure due to infant mortality is eliminated and to check the performance of the component or chip. They charge the item at ten times, or more, than the commercial item. That's one of the reasons for the high cost of military or civil aviation avionics. No one is going to spend any time in analysing why a component failed as that is just too expensive - unless you are a military or civilian aerospace customer willing to pay the cost of this investigation. Key thing is to have an exit for the cooling air and to feel he temperature of the ESC and flight pack on landing to make sure that they are just warm.

Ditto.

It's been going since at least 2015 Erfolg.

I very much doubt Dodo, if there is going to be any traction on the back of such a big human story as the Sub Post master disaster. Being able to fly toy aeroplanes without let or hindrance is just not going to get any traction with the general public on the back of such a huge story.

The short answer to your point is that "No, it hasn't become inintelligible. It just requires you to do one of two things. Work out what you want to achieve and find out how to achieve it. Control reversal is one of the easiest to achieve in my opinion and I cannot see why you have difficulty with that yet are happy to solder various leads to terminals. I use JR equipment and it may be JR has a better user interface than your Tx. It takes 4 button pushes for me. 1. Select main menu 2. Select Reverse Sw 3. Scroll to relevant servo (JR hepfully names the servo e.g. THRO or RAIL (for right aileron) and click on it to reverse the servo. 4. Click to exit. I agree that not all Tx manuals are helpfully written and sometimes don't tell you.what is useful about a particular function. But picking servo reversing as being complicated is quite wrong. Once you have got your mind around what you want to achieve, mixing is also pretty simple. As en example, most of Chris Foss designs have a powerful secondary effect of rudder i.e. roll in rudder direction. If you want to use rudder for slow rolls you need to mix out the rudder induced roll. You do this by mixing opposite aileron to rudder. It needs a bit of testing to get the amount of mix right so a case of fly, land, tweak and fly. For my Wot 4, with the mix switched in the aircraft now just yaws but doesn't roll. It really isn'tbthat difficult. However, if you know nothing about how an arroplane flies and nothing about how to use a computer radio there are plenty of on-line resources to help you. Failing that, post on this forum and you will get help. It really isn't that difficult. I'm 73 by the way. ALSO, PLEASE CAN WE KEEP RID OUT OF THIS THREAD?

I hope it didn't leave too much of a hole in his roof when he removed it! 🤣

I bought a pair of RC gloves when the price dropped to £50 and they were pretty good. However, unless you fly with them all the time, the change over from summer to winter conditions means that you lose the fine control you develop with gloveless fingers. These kid leather gloves are the same as used by RAF Aircrew and they always fly with gloves as this was found to offer some protection if there were to be a fire in the cockpit. They however go for the skin tight fitting to give the required tactile feel which is no good when you want to keep warm! The idea behind RC Gloves was to use the next size up from a close fit and to don a pair of knitted inner gloves (provided) to provide the insulation to allow you to fly in freezing conditions. I found that the slight "give" in the fingers of the gloves was difficult to get used to. However, when the guy was selling off his stock at £25 a pair, I bought a spare pair for me and a smaller pair for my wife who suffers from cold hands. I'm still using the originals and find them excellent but I always take them off to fly as I'm almost always flying an tough aerobatic schedule. I use a pair of Zippy handwarmers that live in my trouser pockets and warm my hands up after flying before donning the RC Gloves again. I think the basic price of the high quality leather gloves was always going to dissuade us model flyers from forking out £100 for a pair of gloves for use in the winter! Needless to say, RC Gloves is no more.