David Ashby - Moderator

He did design a Sleeker 2, a little larger with a slimmer fuselage. It flew but he didn't pursue it so the plan wasn't published.

Excellent work Alec. Dad is still around (he's 91 now), so I'll show him your '37', he'll be very pleased. I still fly mine, the wing join did make me a little concerned but I needn't have been, it's perfectly fine for the task in hand. Looking forward to seeing yours complete and flying.

Back to the hill today. Pretty eventful it was too. The police arrived, all blues and twos, looking for a ‘vulnerable individual’, we chatted but couldn’t help, then flew. Flying buddy Alan lost his model and, while we looked for it, I spotted a chap sitting alone just below the edge. Ran back to tell the (by now) 4 officers in attendance and led them to him. There was a bit of noise, they cuffed him, confiscated a very large bottle of spirits and took him away. Then some walkers, who’d been looking for a lost phone, found Alan’s model and returned it unscathed. Otherwise t’was pretty quiet 😁

😬 adult nappies Steve. 👍

Hill day yesterday but had to share it with these folks. No hardship, we get on well. I was chatting to a parascending chap whose wife was up, needed a pee yet was having trouble landing... there are practical solutions apparently... Anyway, I flew the Cluster F5J and Centi-Phase in the thermally breeze.

Welcome Jon, another glider man, top notch 😉

Breaking news folks, effective 22/9, J.Perkins Distribution is the new distributor for Futaba here in the UK and Eire. Perkins will be servicing equipment themselves too. Press release is here.

Thanks Matty, I do appreciate your thoughts. The member you refer to has now been permanently banned. His last post was entirely my fault as, in a moment of thoughtlessness, I let it through when I really shouldn't have. It has since been removed. I've been admin and/or moderating here since early 2007, just after the site started, and while we've certainly seen a few trouble makers over the years, instances like this are pretty rare. But we should keep the COC relevant, updating where necessary. I'll have a think and see what others say here for a few days. One thing we (your mods) have certainly noticed is how the forum has begun to self-moderate over the last year or so. That's really nice to see, perhaps a sign of its maturity and the value people attach to the community. People are far less likely to be silly if they know there's a good chance they'll have their hat put on straight by other users.

Nice drop of sky over the field today.

Still recovering from the Southern Model Show bring'n'buy that my club runs. Very busy, some sellers were a tad optimistic with their pricing, but there were some some bargains too. Amazingly I managed to resist the urge as, in the past, I've got something home and, of course, wondered 'why did I buy that!' 🙂

Flying buddy, Pete, had one of these Avios/HK Hercules flying today, first time I've seen one and very nice it was too. Couldn't resist pointing the camera.

Resource is limited I'm afraid and, at the moment, techies are immersed in the migration of the model boats and model engineering websites to Invision software. They've promised to return to MF as soon as they can.

At the moment there are technical issues that are unresolved I'm afraid.

Well, whatever next! Yesterday I started a little diesel engine for the first time all by myself 😀 A Boddo Mills .75 in dad's 36" Tomboy (rudder elevator). The tank had a 2-min run time, the model climbed slowly then floated down with a few suggestions from the Tx. I have to say it was great fun and I was a bit smitten....

Fantastic job.

That should all be fixed now Tech say. Seems fine to me.

Ads mid-article now stopped which seems to have cured the back page problem.

Yes, like Leccy, I've found the battery to be pretty snug. The battery leads and connector seem to pass the battery in place when the hatch is closed. Mind you, a mm or two movement won't be noticed with the gyro on. Make sure you power the model up when it's level of course. I gave the '109 away but have just tested my Mustang. There are multiple trim beeps and a centre tone in both directions, so perhaps it's your Tx Rich. Just make sure you test fly in 'Midd' mode unless your life isn't exciting enough 😉

We have one 11-year old and a 15-year old. Both very keen and learn quick. Their parents bring them along. I saw that video a few weeks ago, it's very good. A few years back, when I was in the editorial hot seat, I asked Andy Ellison to write one of the magazine's '10 things' articles on the subject of encouraging youngsters. You can read it here and very good it is too. The thing I took away from it is that it has to be fun, if it isn't then youngsters will just move on to something that is.

Apologies Brian, Tech have noticed this and are fixing.