Cuban8

Sitting at home getting over a dose of Covid (Mrs C8 has it as well) and your post made me laugh out loud. Many dead sticks....metal door stop....mine doesn't start etc etc what a load of junk they were. Had a big row in a model shop over one that they'd sold to a beginner as a package years ago and it was useless. Got satisfaction in the end when they agreed to take the heap back and sell the new chap a new OS.

Ditto all the previous comments. I'm certainly no expert and find landings the most challenging of all the manouvres even after being at this hobby for over fifty years. For what they're worth, a few tips that I've been given oven the years and discovered myself by sheer persistence...... Don't have too much height on finals... Don't lose airspeed and wind up dragging the model in..... A good and reliable slow running and idle on an IC engine is a big help..... Landing off a curved approach is much easier with warbirds and heavier models in general.... Don't have too much elevator movement available and avoid expo on the elevator if at all possible.... If you've got the room, don't land! Hold off the last foot or less and let the model do its stuff. Adapt technique to the model being flown - no one size fits all. Good luck.

Good news indeed. OK the prices have gone up but at least the option is there to make a value judgement whether to buy or not. See on the Aliexpress site that a Magnum 120FS is available at a little over £200. Obviously, VAT and duty will need to be paid so not so much of a saving over a UK sourced item. Whether the UK market is still up for engines like this considering how electric power has become mainstream now, only time will tell. They'll sell engines, but I guess nowhere in the numbers that were being shifted ten or twenty years ago.

Richard, what a lovely job you've made of your Spit - very accurate colours and detailing. It's amazing what skills within our hobby there are, yet rarely get the exposure that they deserve. BTW, my Spit is also in the markings of Geoffrey Wellum, he of 'First Light Fame' - nowhere near as authentic as yours though.

Still doubtful about an RX fault........do you have another RX that you can use and see whether that works as expected and therefore eliminate/confirm a problem on your original RX? What you are trying to set up should be quite straightforward. Not saying an RX is incapable of being/going defective, it's just that it's such a rare occurrance it's vital to eliminate all other possibilities as much as poss.

No problem. Unlikely to be an RX fault - something amiss with a setting I'd think. If you start from scratch with a standard wing/model setting i.e Thr, Ail, Ele, Rud etc as you would for a normal F/W sport model and all's OK, then it's doubtful that the RX is the cause of your problem.

Interesting that your Spit came out at 12lbs - the sort of target that I was seeking but wound up a couple of pounds over. IIRC Brian Taylor quotes something like an AUW of 8lbs for his competition model - goodness knows how he managed that. The Typhoon looks to have a nice thick wing and not too much taper - imagine a touch of washout as well, don't know, haven't seen the plan.

BT's advice shown on the Typhoon plan about keeping the back end as light as possible behind the CG point is so vital - and something that I took my eye off during my build of his Mk1a Spit.....been doing this long enough now so I should have known better. Reckon I'm 2lbs over weight at 14lbs which isn't such a show stopper once up and away - the model flys perfectly well once plenty of airspeed is gained, but takeoffs and landings do need so much care and attention. I Don't expect any model of this type to fly like an Acro Wot, but it's not worth making things unnecessarily hard for yourself. The undercart takes quite a load as well. Shaving some weight off by moving certain things forward where I can, and I also suspect that the CG given on the plan of my Spit is quite conservative. My own calculations show a possible rearward allowance of about a further 8mm back from BT's plan position and will save a worthwhile amount of nose ballast given how short the nose of the Mk1 is. A dangerous area to be experimenting with - so I'll take great care with any rearward change in CG, although given that I found the elevator response during the twenty or so flights I've had so far with the model so far to be very benign, I reckon there's some room for adjustment and nose ballast and hence overall weight reduction.

Perhaps this might help - do you have the full DX8 manual?

Yes, very interested in following progress.

Same sort of figures in both of my two clubs. Difficult to get people to commit to being available on a regular weekly basis, although better to say no rather than messing learners about by being unreliable. Older members who are prepared to teach are usually retired and fly during the week - just when younger types are at work! Not always the case, but we've run into this recently and although not a complete show stopper it does make things less easy. In my own experience, when I was working I'd fly every Sunday unless the weather was very bad - I'd usually have one pupil on the go. I've been retired for a number of years now so I can get my flying fix at any time during the week - I still fly at weekends, but it might be two or three weeks between visits depending on the weather and other activities.

I use one of those during the winter months under my Bonneville that's covered and stored in my unheated brick built garage. Just keeps the bike a few degrees warmer than ambient and prevents condensation. Works for my application but I doubt that the very low heat would be very effective in a larger area, certainly without very effective insulation - don't notice any improvement in the main garage space when I go in there - after all eighty watts is very little.

I really do take my hat off to the people who put themselves out to boost our hobby. If I may be permitted to say that I've done a bit of that myself in the past and know how difficult it can be to make progress and not become disillusioned. I've passed that particular baton on to others, but still remain in the background doing more in the way of admin stuff (memberships etc) which I enjoy immensely. I know several people who have over the years, worked on encouraging young folks via after-school modelling clubs - building a project 'plane and getting it up and away on the sports field, but I don't recall any of that effort resulting in juniors seeking to join a club and developing that interest and first experience. I would be a mistake to believe it's worthless to even try the approaches that have been described - but I'd beware of putting in too much in the way of resourses and don't be overly disapponted at not getting the response that one might like. I'm not naysaying or being grumpy, but feel it's worth flagging up the fact that the world of many practical hobbies such as ours, have lost much in the way of a following since the days of my youth, and have been in decline since the availability of affordable home computers and the games explosion that followed in the 1980s. I'm not pointing a finger solely at the obsession with gaming per se resulting in our hobby's challenges today - certainly there are several other contributing factors - but the attraction of the 'virtual world' is very powerful compared to our often spartan and cold flying fields, where a moment's inattention can result in a destroyed model and no game reset button to press.

Well written articles - not a crashed model or the usual 'big boys at play' stuff. Nicely Informative and welcoming. Can't see how you'd improve on those. Was wondering 'who' Willy Howe was......now we know.

Have you noticed a significant reduction in flight times with the battery since new? Does it tend to get warmer than it used to in same or similar models? If no to both and you say there's no puffing of the battery I'd say the battery was fine. I understand internal resistance figures and their meaning, but for normal sport flying go by more practical evidence before chucking out an otherwise perfectly usable unit IMHO.

Welcome to back to the hobby, Bob. So sorry to hear that you've had a false start in the way of finding a club - from your description, not exactly very friendly in tone. "Restricted" indeed. Don't be put off, it might just be the way an individual tends to be in his little fiefdom within that particular group - chances are the club itself is fine. It does happen, and I've had experience of this sort of nonsense in the past. To put it bluntly, if you've stumbled across a not very happy bunch of old curmudgeons, better to find out now rather than later. Good luck and hopefully you'll be up and away very soon.

You're not unusual in not being able to find good homes for old models. Very sadly, both of my clubs are having more and more garage clear out sales of deceased members' items as time moves on. Some stuff goes but in general, most just sits in the club house for a couple of months and then finds its way to the dump.

A very impressive website RW, clearly a lot of time and effort has gone into it. My only slight concern, and this is to be found on many public club websites, is not to go into too much detail about Insurance, rules, safety, paperwork, achievement schemes, CAA etc. At first point of contact, which a club website may well be for a prospective new flyer, we don't want to put them off by too much focus on those points at this stage and having them click away to another hobby at the thought of a load red tape and copious Health and Safety regs to steer through, which isn't the case at all. I must read through my own club's website and check its tone is not too off putting in that respect. Not saying ignore them entirely, but just keep the wording light and as non-intimidating as possible. Plenty of time to introduce the details on a visit and to explain how flying legally and safely is really no problem at all.

Annoying at being taken for a ride by what sounds like a dishonest seller. Most people are honest and not deliberately out to scam others ‐ often it's a case of different standards of how people describe fair, good, or excellent condition or maybe not having a clue about what they're selling in the first place. A motorcycle that was described as being in excellent condition and that I had a 150 mile round trip to view many years ago was actually a wreck when I saw it. To say that I was annoyed with the bloke is an understatement. Turned out to be the sellers dad who I saw and he'd been lumbered with it and had it dropped in his lap, so I felt bad about berating him at the time after I'd calmed down. Too old for all that stress now. Always a gamble buying used anything - just have to stack the odds in one's favour as much as possible. My friend took a chance on quite an expensive complete aerobatic model on BMFA a while back, and needed to make a four hour round trip to collect it on the sellers say so that "it would be worth his while" as he put it. I saw the model on the field soon after and it was a cracker.👍

My all means make efforts to publicise your club and try to boost membership - but don't expect large numbers to come beating a path to your door just because of a bit of advertising or spending a lot of time and effort on it. We're operating in a very different world now, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try our best to show how great our hobby is, but keep expectations realistic. Trad hobby clubs and other local societies of many types are not having a great time either. My wife's local geology club probably has no more than six or seven years in it because of its ageing membership. In the local leisure centre where they meet, there is also a plastic modellers group using another room - I often wander in for a chat with them and It's clear that their meetings have become way smaller in the last few years. I have contacts in several other model clubs apart from the two that I belong to and the story is the same......they are just about maintaining numbers or seeing a small decline each year. A few clubs may buck that trend. My main club has seen a steady drop from almost 150 members 25 years ago, to a low of 80 just before Covid - we're now back up to 86 because of a few new (not beginners) members this year coming back to the hobby. I'm hoping we'll maintain that number on into 2025, but chances are we'll lose a couple - either giving up through advancing age, loss of interest or very sadly, the final call. On the brighter side, one of our new recruits this year was a youngster and has the honour of being our most junior member.......he's 36! BMFA membership figures will make very interesting news this year. Starting out in our hobby has never been easier - no building or practical skills needed with the advent of some really good ready to fly models. The reliability and plug and play of electric power together with reliable radio. Unfortunately, if the interest isn't there in the first place, then I don't know what can be done.

Neither myself or Mrs C8 ever recall being taught the metric system at school in the 1960s. Not difficult, we just picked it up as we went along and especially once we both started work. I'm certain that when my first job sent me to college day release for mechanical engineering in 1973, the technical drawing course was still in imperial and there was talk of English and American projection to confuse matters IIRC. I was never really very much good at all the mechanical theory, which however important tended to send me to sleep - one time for certain during a lecture on the measurement of the hardness of metals delivered by a very dull bloke himself. Wound up doing and qualifying in electronics, which were all metric SI units - took to it no problem. Just occurred to me, thinking back - all the lecturers for mechanical engineering were dull and dour characters, whereas the electronics chaps were the total opposite - one chap used to teach part time and had worked at CERN in a senior role - he was brilliant and so inspiring.

Rods, Poles and Perches........Bushels and Pecks........what's the problem😁

Well, if NASA got to the moon and back several times in Imperial measurements it can't be all bad. We won't mention Mars Climate Orbiter, naturally!

Laptop battery died............. The pulse output selection on your tester that you mention enables you select a number of possibilities by the sound of it. Mine just has two. If you are only using analogue servos select 1.5mS or the equivalent - mine shows 1520 micro seconds which amounts to the same thing. Other outputs will be for digital servos and will not make analogue servos happy by causing them to not work correctly/centre/drive to one end/make a buzzing noise and more than likely cause damage.

Two things to consider. A servo is commanded by the RX to move to the desired position by feeding it with a train of pulses (a heartbeat if you like) that vary in duration i.e on time and off time. The more 'on' time compared to 'off' drives the arm to a certain position and vice versa. Most servos will centre at an input pulse 'on' width of about 1.5 thousands of a second. Variations in that 'on' time will turn the arm one way or the other, usually between 1-2 mS. My servo tester has a switch to select an output pulse time to the servos of either 1.52mS or twice that rate for servos that can work at higher input pulse rates. I just use the standard 1.52mS setting. The internals of the servo will work at the 1.5mS pulse time to drive the motor if it's an analogue device, very much higher if a so called digital servo - probably several hundred times a second compared to around 50 for an analogue servo. What is the servo tester that you have - a look at the manual would be helpful to clarify things.