Richard. W.

Firstly, my apologies for not updating this post earlier. Many thanks to everyone giving their advice, it was all helpful. I eventually managed to fathom it out but If anyone else encounters problems with installing this particular make of gyro, here are a few tips or pointers which may help, since the translated instruction sheet supplied in the packet is at best, unclear and at worst, wrong. Denis is totally correct about the 3 tiny dip switches. They are actually numbered 1, 2, 3 on the gyro itself but the numbers are so small and lightly embossed, I could only just make them out with the aid of an Optivisor and by holding the unit at an angle to the light. Here the instruction sheet is wrong as it shows a diagram of the switches but the numbers are reversed, so 1, 2 and 3 on the diagram is 3, 2 and 1 on the unit. These switch settings are critical depending on the control layout of your model so make sure you get it right. When connecting the wiring between the gyro unit, servos and receiver, the diagram is fairly easy to follow but when you plug the single power feed wire into the receiver, remember it's the switch feed to the assigned switch on your transmitter. This may seem obvious to many but it threw me for a while. I knew my chosen switch was working fine but I couldn't understand why I was getting power to the gyro regardless of what position the switch was in. After quite a few hours of head scratching and frustration, I realised I'd plugged it into the permanent live. Simply reversing that connection sorted it out and the gyro now powered on and off as it should via my transmitter. The main problem I had was figuring out how to reverse the gyro effect on a control surface.....The instructions describe a series of flashing lights. Blue for forward and Red for reverse and explains how to change the direction if needed. Great. Wonderful. Easy.....Providing you get the sequence of flashing lights to start with but I didn't... Everything else was working as it should but no matter what I tried, all I got was a steady blue light indicating the gyro was working but nothing flashing and no way to reverse the deflection. .....And here's the key!.......If you only want the gyro to effect one or two control surfaces (as I did) you MUST connect the wiring for all three!... This is not explained on the instruction sheet but is the only way the unit will perform it's sequence of flashes. It's now a simple matter to change direction if needed and once done, the leads for any control surface you don't require gyro assist on can be unplugged and removed. One final point, which is described on a YouTube video but is worth mentioning again here, is that the gyro is designed to operate on a three position switch on the transmitter. One for stabilisation, one for aerobatics and one for off. If you only require the unit to aid stabilisation and so connect to a two way switch, you can't just assign the switch because the gyro won't turn off, it will only switch between stabilisation and aerobatic...You have to fool it into giving you an "OFF" by setting the aerobatic effects to zero in the transmitter. Thanks again for the help with my original post and I hope my attempt to explain things now I have it sorted out, will aid others who may have similar issues in the future.

Denis.........I shall try swapping the switch to channel 6, thank you. .......Everything else is as it should be, as per your post. Denis and Dwain........... That's the problem. The raised tip drops it's aileron (wrong way).....However the main aileron control moves them the correct way. That looks confusing......I'm trying to say that the gyro deflection is adding to the tilt instead of counteracting it.    Edited By Richard. W. on 14/05/2020 19:42:18 Edited By Richard. W. on 14/05/2020 19:50:17

Hello, all....I hope everyone is keeping safe and well. My question is in relation to the "P1-Thunder" gyro. I'm trying to reverse the direction of correction. I've read several threads on other forums, which mostly seem to say that it works well but is a pig to sort out. There are a couple of videos in languages I don't speak but so far I can't find anything which helps. In this case, the gyro is fitted within the wing of a fixed wing aircraft to work on the ailerons. The wing is a self contained unit with it's own power and rx. The ailerons each have their own servo with a "Y" lead connection. The ailerons work as they should and in the right direction with the aileron control on my tx. The gyro switch runs from aux-5 on the 6 channel rx and is programmed to a two position switch on my tx as I only need "ON" or "OFF" (it's for stabilisation not 3d flying) So far so good... The ailerons work as they should on the stick and the switch turns the gyro on and off. The "Gain" adjustment on the gyro seems to work as it should, as does the throw setting for it on my tx, except the gyro moves the ailerons the wrong way. I can reverse the CH-5 aux on my tx but it makes no difference.....According to the gyro instructions (translated from Chinenglish) the gyro should cycle through a series of light flashing sequences when it powers up, denoting each axis, before settling on a steady blue light (for regular operation). Mine isn't doing this......On powering up, it flashes blue, rapidly, without sequence for a few seconds before showing steady blue until I operate the gyro switch which turns the gyro and light off. Switch on again and it comes back straight away, with the light going immediately to a steady blue..........The rapid flashing blue only happens when I turn the rx power back on. I read a comment elsewhere which said that the gyro will only work if  physically connected to 3 servos so I hooked it up to two spares as a test. This made no difference, just the same rapid flashing and constant blue. Sorry this post sounds really long winded but I'm trying to include everything which may be relevant. The radio is RadioLink at9s, which I'm perfectly happy with. Everything seems to be as it should , except I can't figure out how to reverse the gyro throw direction and am at a loss as to know what to try next. I have the feeling it will be something quite simple and more likely gyro than radio related but have got to the point of frustration where I don't know what to try next, short of another gyro.  Edited By Richard. W. on 14/05/2020 19:32:07

I always build in the traditional, old fashioned way....ARTF/RTF or whatever, just don't hold any attraction for me.

Guys. Many thanks for all the advice. I shall invest in some good cutters (Maybe even find some "Bilbo" ones) ........and an angle grinder. Scavenging thin sheet steel seems to be the way to go although I'll see if I can buy some strip to tide me over the current project. Once I get set up in my permanent workroom, I want to vastly improve on my metal working tools and skills. I can at least solder, silver solder and braze (although I can't weld) but at some point I want to invest in a small lathe to turn my own fittings, etc... Thanks again and Stay Safe.

If this post is in the wrong section, could a mod or admin please move it. Hi, all. When building from a published plan or your own plans and there's a need to fabricate a bracket or similar part from steel, where do you guys buy the material from? I have the facility to bend it, drill it and grind it but cutting is a problem as I only have a hand held hacksaw, so cutting strips from a sheet is out......Small cuts, such as cutting lengths from a strip is ok but not cutting the strip itself. In the past I've used bits of that steel banding that's sometimes put around packing crates, etc but I can't seem to get hold of any now.

I'd say you were fine to fit them. As long as the rx is away from the ignition, the switch placement shouldn't matter. I have a petrol plane with the switches very close to the ignition and have no problems.

Hi, chaps... Sorry if this comes a bit late, looking at the dates of previous posts. I've been using the AT9S since the beginning of the year. I'm the only one in my club to use RadioLink but several members have held the tx and some have flown one of my planes with it. The comments from club members are that it's comfortable to hold, the flight controls and switches feel smooth and fall to hand naturally. A couple have said that if they weren't so heavily invested in another brand, they'd buy one tomorrow. As far as the range, all I can say is that I flew a 78" span model almost OOS due to pilot error on a breezy day and one of our experienced flyers managed to get it back for me......All the controls were responding perfectly but the plane was a tiny dot in the distance. Now I'm no expert, either on electronics or piloting so I can't have a technical conversation about how it all works. ... But work it certainly does and very well too, actually! I'm not mentioning or knocking any other brand and I'm not trying to sell RadioLink to anyone. This post is simply in answer to the OP's question. Yes. I use RadioLink and I'm very, very happy with it. The only small niggle I have has been mentioned in a previous post and that's that the screen is impossible to see in sunlight. If that's a deal breaker for you then look elsewhere but other than that one issue, I can't fault it.

**LINK** This is the type of iron used for covering models, David but small free flight models are covered in tissue as the iron on coverings are much too heavy for them. The best way to get tissue to stay fixed to an undercambered wing is to dilute some waterproof, white PVA glue and paint it onto the bottom of the ribs and stick the tissue to it. Let this dry completely before misting with water to shrink the tissue..........There are other ways. Some people can do it by just using dope as an adhesive but I always found the glue method easiest. Hope that helps.

I don't know whether you can get a full size building plan of Caprice, David but if you can't it is certainly possible to scale up an A4 drawing. Any plan can be scaled up or down to whatever size you wish but of course it involves more work and it isn't for everyone. When you feel ready to try cutting your own wing ribs, whether it's free flight, radio or control line, the method I prefer if there are several ribs of the same size is to cut one rib from 1/16" ply. Take care with this one and sand it so it's just a fraction smaller than you need....Just a fraction, the thickness of your craft knife blade.... Make two pin holes in the rib and superglue two pins in so the points poke through about 1/32". These are just to prick into the balsa and stop the template from sliding......Now simply use the template and a sharp scalpel type knife to produce as many ribs as you wish.. Keep the template so that if/when damage occurs, it's easy to make some new ribs. The main thing though, David is to enjoy yourself and have fun with the hobby.. Don't feel under pressure to build a certain model or to fit radio. Yes, the models mentioned in the replies above are all sensible choices for a beginner but it's going to be YOUR model so you have to have a feel for it or the build will become a chore.......Just don't decide to build a Spitfire as your first model.

I tend to agree with you, Piers. Free Flight was fun and very enjoyable to me for many years. There's definitely a nostalgia value and it teaches the art or skill of trimming a model to fly. That said, there are the downsides previously mentioned, regarding space, more restricted flying days and frequent long walks... As you rightly say, even the cost isn't a factor as it was a few years ago.......A flyaway is certainly less likely although not impossible as one of our club members lost a model last summer. I wasn't there to see it but apparently it was at altitude and he suffered a total loss of signal, along with catching a large thermal... Away it went and hasn't been seen since.

No problems, David.. Asking questions is always good and I for one am happy to help where I can......The only thing which is annoying are those people who ask questions but really only want you to agree with their already formed opinion, so ignore any advice given which doesn't agree with them. To give you some idea of what people here are saying, many years ago now I lost a model O.O.S. (out of sight) at Old Warden....It was fitted with a fuse dethermaliser which went off but the model still shot upwards........The model wasn't a high performance, duration type, it was a little "Cherub" (Vic Smeed plan I believe, of about 30" span) powered with a 0.5cc D.C. Dart.......I'd only fitted the dethermaliser for a bit of fun as the model should never have needed one really but the one time it did, the damn thermal was so strong it made no difference.

My first 30+ years in the hobby were all free flight but it will be 15 years or so since I last built one so I'm out of touch with current trends and regulations. I must confess to many happy years free flighting but one of the main problems was always space. Clubs tended to negotiate use of old airfields for flying meetings so you couldn't just turn up and fly whenever. If you were really lucky, the weather would be flyable when you had a meeting. Even then, models would sometimes fly beyond the airfield boundary and some form of dethermaliser like the one described and shown earlier were a must. I don't have the ability to walk too far these days but even if I could, I no longer see the fun in a half mile hike after every flight, coming back with my feet caked in mud from some farmer's field or being scratched to ribbons in the undergrowth, hopefully with the model in one piece. The glory days of free flight are fast slipping away as space is lost and more and more regulations restrict flying. With radio control, you don't need the same amount of space so clubs tend to be more local and have flying sites rented from a local farmer or land owner. These are often available to members seven days a week so poor weather conditions become less of an issue and landings are usually only a few yards away from your feet. Although I look back on my free flight time through rose tinted glasses, radio control is certainly the more viable and sensible option these days, in my book anyway.......Being far more of an old school plan or scratch builder than a flyer myself, I admire your desire to build from a plan. Whatever you choose, enjoy it and learn from the experience.

Thanks for the comments, chaps. The last thing I want to do is start any kind of flame war about the various brands of radio out there. They all do the job and each to their own, etc... I used Futaba 35 meg but simply couldn't justify the cost of their 2.4 sets of similar spec to the AT9.S........ Before buying I spent a couple of days trawling all the reviews I could find and there wasn't one which rubbished Radiolink. The only niggle I've found is the screen is almost impossible to see in sunlight but for my needs as a club sports flyer (fixed wing only) I can live with that. The throttle cut function you mention, I have found and it does work.. For glow engines it's perfect but the plane I'm setting up with a petrol engine has an optical kill switch which should simply cut off power to the ignition module so no spark at the plug and the engine stops, regardless of the throttle receiver setting..........I shall keep trying, lol... I know it's ME and not the equipment but that's what's so infuriating. It feels like I'm back in primary school when I need a degree in computer science, just to go flying.

I bought one of the commercial flight boxes sold in kit form. Only small but it does the job well enough and is much better than the DIY effort I made many years ago. Weight is the main problem. Admittedly a medical condition means I can't carry too much these days but luckily our field's parking is next to the pits. Even so, with a 12v gel cell battery, fuel, starter and the various tools, spares and other bits most of us cart along just in case, I still know I'm lifting it out of the car.

Hi, all. I have recently purchased the said transmitter and on the whole I'm very pleased with it. My problem and reason for this post is that the transmitter is far more advanced and capable than I am and trying to set things up, even after printing off the instruction book, is driving me mad. What I understand about computers and similar technology could be written on the point of a pin and still leave room for the Lords Prayer. Anything much beyond a F.B.H. is out of my comfort zone. All I'm trying to do is assign a two position auxiliary switch to work the optical kill switch on a petrol engine but without success.. I know it's me and not the equipment as I somehow managed to mix the kill switch with left aileron after an hour of button pushing.....Luckily a fellow club member at our field managed to knock that off for me. I know for many, this sort of thing is second nature but I get so frustrated when what I know should be a two minute job takes me two hours and still isn't done. The instructions do try to explain how to assign switches and they're quite well translated into English but the more I try to follow the steps, the less I seem to understand and my head explodes. People have told me that it's just a matter of playing around until I find the right section or menu...And they're probably right but after the aileron incident I'm frightened to start pushing buttons as I then don't know how to undo a mistake I've made. Short of hiring a teenager to come to the field with me, can anyone explain in VERY light and fluffy terms what I should be doing? I'm obviously missing something out during my attempts but apart from managing to hook it up to left aileron, everything else I've tried leaves the kill switch light glowing at me (maybe that should read "Mocking" or "Laughing" at me). Sorry to have rambled on a bit. I can't be the only one to have these problems....Or maybe I am!

Some great feedback coming in, guys. Thank you all. I'm lucky in that my club patch is fairly isolated and doesn't have as many restrictions as some. Obviously safety regulations are enforced and you couldn't run an unsilenced motor but we don't have to actually measure noise levels... That said, I have been told about the DLE 20 being loud. The suggested fix is to plug one of the outlets and restrict the other. Yes, there's a drop in power but for my flying needs and subjects, that wouldn't be an issue. Good point about offsetting the battery weight with a smaller tank, Bruce. Another thing to consider. ......The weight issue was just something I thought about for the smallest petrol motors. For 20cc and above, I wouldn't be concerned and especially with some of the really short nosed, biplane types the added weight up front is a bonus.

Thanks for your input, Bob. The fuel mix was another point and I'm glad you reminded me.

Checking out various engines on the web, I notice the size of gas/petrol engines getting smaller. I like the idea of gas for their prop swinging ability, economy of fuel and because they're less fussy of tank position but I can't help thinking that with something like a 10cc gas engine, once you factor in the extra weight for the battery pack, ignition and kill switch, the choice of airframe (scale subjects) would be limited. Surely for engines of this size which aren't heavy drinkers, a decent 4 stroke would be more viable?..... I can certainly see the benefit from 20cc and up but below that size I'm unsure. Several members at my club run gas motors but all are around the 35 to 50cc mark. Only one of them is a scale fan like myself and he's never thought about the smaller engines. Perhaps in something vintage, like "Black Magic" or similar, they'd look the part and do the job for some relaxed summer flying? Any thoughts? Experience?......I might risk a punt on the RCGF 10 and have a good look through my plans.

Hello, Peter. I'm in a similar situation in that I recently returned to the hobby after a 10 year break.. All my stuff had also been stored in the loft for that time. It's 35mhz and was almost new when I put it into storage so I was reluctant to just change it all to 2.4 simply because that's what most people use today. After joining my local club, the general advice was to keep using it until I feel I want to change. Of course there are one or two members who said I must change "Because everyone uses 2.4 nowadays".......BUT..... Just because 2.4 is today's choice, it doesn't mean that 35mhz doesn't work any more. Remember that many of the people in your club will have used 35mhz themselves before switching, so will be perfectly able to assist you if needed. Aside from the advantage of not having to wait for a peg anymore, there is now plenty of top quality 35mhz equipment being sold for peanuts, so for my pennyworth I'd suggest you replace all the battery packs (TX and RX) then do a quick check to make sure everything powers up and operates as it should........And go fly!

Posted by Martin Harris on 31/01/2019 22:54:09: One of these will pay for itself several decades sooner though! Hehe......Very true! ..... I have a couple of those kicking around and they do work but I find I struggle with them stripping 1/8 sheet and wouldn't attempt thicker sizes. Another consideration for me with power tools is size. My build area is an upstairs bedroom so any equipment has to be carried up there. I have sclerosis of the lower spine and pelvic joints so heavy lifting is out and I try to organise tools of this type so that they're kept together at one end of a work table and can be moved along into clear space when I need to use them. The small physical size of the Proxxon saw is another thing in it's favour besides it's quality.

Thanks for the great input, folks.. I have to agree about Proxxon, having a few of their tools already and the cost is offset by knowing it works and will last.. I shall probably invest in their band saw first then see if I can justify the table saw later....Even if it's mainly used for stripping sheet wood as Percy mentioned, it will soon pay for itself.

Hi, all.... I'm looking to improve things in the workshop and would like to introduce a power saw for cutting ply formers and similar.......The thickest I can imagine ever cutting would be 1/2" balsa. I know that different saws are designed to do different jobs but I can't justify the cost or space for every tool, so is there one type you'd recommend as a good all rounder?...I was thinking of a scroll saw with a guide to handle straight and curved cuts but was hoping to get some advice first.

Posted by Stephen Jones on 26/01/2019 19:20:31: Posted by Stearman65 on 26/01/2019 14:19:58: Iv'e had many hobbies over the 70 years since I started model aircraft, from scuba diving to ocean sailing, my current wife (24 years), knew what to expect when we married, so I have no complaints. Now are you telling us you`re wife is 24 years old or that you have been married for 24 years Steve If his current wife is 24 years old, I'm surprised he's got any energy left for mogglin'.!!

I have to say that my wife is brilliant (Yes, I have to say that) ...........Seriously though, she's very happy and relaxed about my hobbies. I have both the utility room and a double bedroom exclusively for mogglin' and all she asks is that I keep within those limits and don't spread stuff to other rooms. She's even tolerant of the smells from dope, thinners, resins, etc.......... As for spending, it's not an issue. Our finances are 100% combined and once the bills and living expenses are paid, the surplus is ours to enjoy. As long as she gets a couple of weeks holiday in the sun every year, away from all thoughts of work or hobbies, she's happy. Yes, I'm very lucky.. Took me two attempts but this one's a keeper, lol.