Cuban8

I've just fitted a FrSky Module to my trusty old Futaba FF8 (DFT module with V8FR -II Rx so no telemetry). Works fine but the servos are so jerky in their movement when the sticks are operated slowly from end to end. Exactly like this **LINK** Seems to be a lot of talk on the various forums about this, mostly contradictory as to the cause. Bruce Simpson of RC Model Reviews puts it down to a difference in frame rates between different makes of radios and there's nothing to worry about! Not too happy, as on 35 Meg the servos are quite smooth in operation.........have I bought a pig in a poke?

Posted by Scruffmeister on 20/06/2014 21:48:52: Thanks all - I actually believe that no in model filter could be a good option. Couple questions: Couldn't particles from the muffler pressure line could enter the tank and then the carb if there is no filter? Thanks! Had a Sullivan ***p trap (their name by the way!) filter on my 91FS powered Super Chippy. Started to get tuning and poor running after about a year's use and eventually found that the very fine mesh in the two part filter had become blocked by fine carbon deposits emanating from the exhaust pressure tap. This was twenty odd years ago, back in the dark ages when I was running a 50:50 lube mix of castor/synthetic, so I suspect that the carbon was from the castor content. Went down the pre-filter route from that point and even now with fully synthetic oil I don't bother with a filter in the model. Every so often I'll part fill the tank and discard the fuel & give the carb a flush through. I've never found anything untoward on inspection.

You'll never get bored flying the chippy! Iconic low wing design that looks so good in the air.........float it around or give a full aerobatic display. I don't own one myself (still have my 20+ years old Goldberg Super Chipmunk though) but other BH models I've seen at both of my clubs are outstanding in build quality and finish (except for the pilot figures supplied, unfortunately). Edited By Cuban8 on 26/06/2014 15:36:06

Posted by Tony Bennett on 24/06/2014 12:41:35: thats just it, he is not a nobody. at the age of 18 he was fighting for our future, unlike lots of 18 year olds today who just want to get drunk and vandalize stuff. Thankfully not all of them.................taught a 14 year old lad to fly R/C 10 years ago...............went on to get his PPL.............now a very experienced commercial pilot.

Think I'll take a break from gardening this afternoon (no flying today) and put the DVD of this on **LINK**

A dear friend of mine, now sadly passed away, was visiting Duxford, and as an ex -flight engineer on Avro Yorks towards the end of the war, was very interested in the museum's York that was under restoration. When he happened to converse with one of the engineers about their work and they discovered he'd been on Yorks, they downed tools and invited him to tour the aeroplane and then bought him a pint (or two) in the bar. A nice touch that Sid never forgot.

Something a bit odd here. Looking at the standard spec of your model and doing a few calculations (with the aid of an on-line static thrust predictor) I'd say that your model's standard power unit should easily be able to produce a static thrust equal to the model's flying weight. Why your model is lacking performance is strange. With the 13x6 prop and 840kv motor (and allowing for losses) with a 3S lipo I'd be expecting approx 8000 rpm. This should be producing around 4 1/2 lbs of thrust, which on a model with a flying weight of only 4lbs, should give a very brisk performance. I'd say that your batteries may be lacking in performance and you need to check that they're up to the job. A good new 3S lipo of 20 or 30C should only drop around 1V when on full load, so if yours are significantly worse than that, no change of motor will help. I'd recommend against guesswork, the only way is to see what's going on is with a watt meter, rev counter and electronic spring balance to check static thrust.     Edited By Cuban8 on 24/06/2014 09:30:30

It's quite astonishing that so many young lads still in their teens were given a state of the art 350 mph, 1000 hp, eight machine gun weapon and then went to defend our home land.Rather makes our 'elf 'n safety, risk assessed, politically correct world look a tad insipid.

Two tanks of fuel is nowhere near enough running in. OS aren't so bad but ASP and similar makes only start to really loosen up after at least a gallon (for a .91) is put through it. I ran my ancient ASP .61 FS for the first time in ages over the weekend and the idle can be reduced to a ridiculously low speed because the motor is by now very loose - still produces plenty of power though at the top end. Just to concur with the Engine Doctor's point about keeping the glow on at full revs - some years back, I had an on board glow system that delayed switching off the glow current for about a second after the throttle was past 1/4. Good idea in theory, but a nightmare in practice with thrown/loosening props after going straight to full throttle.

Is it possible to have a back up power system then??? Cuban 8's idea sounds very interesting unfortunately I haven't a clue what he's talking about. Do larger models have a back up system?? Re battery back up using Schottky diodes...........**LINK**   Edited By Cuban8 on 23/06/2014 07:32:21

Probably a good idea to have a small capacity battery in parallel with the regulator output (via Schottky diodes and with a slightly lower voltage than the regulator) to act as a backup in case of regulator failure.

With decent quality video on almost all smart phones these days, it's probably worth recording the first few flights of a model (particularly one of many £££s). Difficult to argue against good video evidence.

Yes, you've got it basically correct, although your last paragraph is not quite right saying that CP remains at zero at 50% stick or below. Don't worry about idle up 1& 2 at the moment it'll be too confusing.The only point I'd make is that in normal mode, having the pitch at zero at low throttle will probably be ok for very early training i.e. simple hops, but will be no good at all for hovering or simple maneuvering. You'll find that there is no single correct way to setup a heli, pilots have there own preferences and what will work for one will be no good for somebody else. Your heli should come with these basic settings in the manual - best to start there and tune to your individual taste. BTW what heli do you have? http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Basics-Radio-Control-Helicopters/dp/0911295364 This is a great book for beginners wishing to learn the basics of heli setup - I taught myself with it, and am now a competent (non 3d) heli pilot interested in scale.     Edited By Cuban8 on 21/06/2014 11:45:44

Posted by Erfolg on 20/06/2014 18:11:37: I have to agree Rich, I ordered some Lipos for my CS about 5 weeks back, from the Chinese store, still have not arrived. Malaysia post are in the same class as the UK Post Office, useless.     Having waited almost 40 days for my parcel to arrive via Malaysia Post, it's a bit harsh to say that MP are useless - slow but not useless! Hobby King say that we should allow 39 working days for a delivery, so 5 weeks is still a bit too soon to expect anything.   Edited By Cuban8 on 21/06/2014 09:57:59

**LINK** For those that might be unaware, better protection for buyers. Funny, but PayPal UK site still referring to 45 days!! Edited By Cuban8 on 20/06/2014 11:03:46

I'm on my 61st HK order now, all mainly from the global warehouse, although I have used the Ipswich hub a couple of times with no problems at all and fast delivery. Only slight snag with the global warehouse is that the delivery times have become two to three times longer than they were originally because of the change to Malaysia Post for much of their shipping.

Done.

For the life of me I can't see a mass market for home 3D printing................but then I said pretty much the same thing about music CDs when they first came out

I accept my fathers' day card and present with due gratitude, but I wish they wouldn't do it as I'm on the side of the anti commercial brigade (didn't the card industry try to cook up a grandparents day recently?).

Posted by Dave Bran on 12/06/2014 09:41:13: Nasty Business............ I recently watched a member arrive at our patch with a newly built and unflown fun fly ( EP power, big motor and large funfly low pitch prop). He spent several minutes setting up his Tx with a new model memory for it, then took it to the strip, taxied it no more than two metres away from himself, turned it 180 to face it straight back at himself, and stabbing it to full throttle took off, pulling it immediately vertical. Now, to do that at all, let alone with an untrimmed unknown quantity that he'd set up hurridly while at the patch.......................   Presumably your club's committee will be having a word?....................................       Edited By Cuban8 on 13/06/2014 10:46:15

I can thoroughly recommend this company's products, as I bought a pair of bronze tint polarizing overglasses last year, and they have made a tremendous difference when flying in both bright sunlight and hazy conditions. The quality of the lenses is very good and the storage case and accessories are better then the really cheap ones. http://www.i-sunglasses.com/Prescription+Eyewear/Fit-Over+Glasses.htm?gclid=CN3kiv6m9r4CFejHtAod70QALw   Chose these ones http://www.i-sunglasses.com/Over-Glasses-Grande-Polarised-Sunglasses-Large-Copper Edited By Cuban8 on 13/06/2014 08:26:43 Edited By Cuban8 on 13/06/2014 08:29:22

http://www.slecuk.com/catalogue/Servo-Mounts.html Part number SL159S   Have used these years ago - they work well! Edited By Cuban8 on 12/06/2014 19:38:30

The only thing I'd say is to be clear on what you want the model to do and how you want your flying to develop. If you can confidently throw your high wing trainer about in loops and rolls, then a Spacewalker (excellent model) will be no challenge to you and after a half a dozen flights you'll be wanting more. Any parallel chord low winger, particularly the retro style ones with very conservative wing sections and moderate power will send you to sleep on the sticks and you'll think you're still flying a trainer. Don't be afraid of being a little more adventurous; there's no magic involved in flying a low winger if you are confident with a trainer - you don't need the lightening reflexes of a hot shot pilot, so don't hamstring yourself with a model that's far too easy. The Acrowot is the one to go for in the first instance as it can be set up as a fairly responsive trainer, but as you get used to it, the throws, CG and power can be modified to give you a challenge. You'll wonder what all the fuss was about. Edited By Cuban8 on 12/06/2014 11:46:50

Never tried brown paper covering myself, but I do recall a chap in my club who used it very successfully some years back . Very time consuming process though. IIRC he'd also use the shiny cardboard from breakfast cereal boxes as well!

As consumers of ARTFs, we are protected by the sale of goods act which states that any item offered for sale shall be fit for its intended purpose. Well, that's all very well when talking about  electric kettles, fridges, wristwatches etc but unfortunately we always seem to be on very dodgy ground when it comes to obtaining redress over a failure in an ARTF. Order a model by mail order and you can return it, no questions asked - go back to your local model shop with an airframe that's bent as a banana and (usually) you'll get a sympathetic hearing. BUT.....as soon as the model takes to the air we enter a whole different world of hurt.........."we've never had one break before"......"you've overstressed it"..................."used the wrong glue"................."sorry but these things happen". It's going to be difficult to discount any of the above responses, because how on earth do you prove otherwise? I used to work as an engineer in customer service (industrial stuff) and I know how crafty some people can be to 'try to get one over you ' and claim all sorts of rubbish in order to avoid paying up for their mistakes, so I understand that the model trade needs to be careful and rightly so. However, a little common sense and an interest in customer service  will usually sort out the genuine victim from a scammer. A good friend of mine had a very expensive new ARTF model fail after a couple of gentle test flights (wing joiner failure) and the response from the well known UK supplier bordered on the comical in its ingenuity to deflect any blame on the model itself rather than bothering to investigate the issue. I won't go into details, but after several weeks of emails, photos and phone calls going back and forth, the best that could be done was that my mate had a new wing sent out, but the damage to the fuz, engine and very costly exhaust system was down to him! The model remains in bits..........Over a grand's worth of model gathering dust!     Edited By Cuban8 on 10/06/2014 12:16:22