Adrian Smith 1

I bet that was interesting, Peter. 🥱

Well I must admit I didn't get the email alerting us of the website update. I only got the request for a new password email. 😒 All good now with order history still intact.

Just heads up on a computer glitch at Nexus Modelling Supplies. As an online account user I was surprised to receive an email last night from Nexus asking me to activate my account. All sorts of alarms started ringing naturally with cyber scamming etc on the rise. Anyway I spoke to the guys there this morning and the reason this occurred was because they have swapped over to a new online platform (American devised), and all its customers received this email to input a new password. This has caused a headache and conversations went on until 1am yesterday and started again a 6.30am this morning reassuring customers (30k or so potentially) that this wasn't a scam. Anyway just for those who don't know.

Lovely job there, Ron. An education for us all 😀

I managed to get down to the patch this morning for the first time for a few weeks. As I am a bit ring-rusty I decided on flying my trusty GW Sbach 342 50cc electric. The conditions weren't ideal with it being dull and a 10 mph semi-crosswind, but beggars can't be choosers. The sun did try and show itself briefly but that was about it. Despite the conditions and a plane that can be a bit lively at times, I had a great time and it was good to blow the cobwebs away. PS. I must work a bit harder on the right roll as for some reason I get her to wobble a bit first session for a while. The left roll is perfect, however. . Cold fingers I imagine. 🥶

Amazing, Dom. Something to aspire to. Thanks for sharing 👍

Yes I log every flight on a spread sheet with details per model of flights, trims, EPAs, Expo, lipos and discharge rates/capacity. Spec of motor and ESC +prop size added along with temperature and weather conditions and wind direction. That pretty much covers it all, but it is a useful exercise. Not so sophisticated as you LF but serves it purpose.

I would try ebay, Gavin. I have shifted a few large scale aircraft at good prices here in the past. Just load you expectations with another 15% for fees. I always go that route and it's never taken me more than 4 weeks and a lot of our ilk follow the site. Just a thought.

Yup I had one of those Taurus aircraft back in the day. Great fun to build too.👍

Sorry Ron couldn't access your video as it say "This video is private" ! ☹️

As per OP, just to fly my aircraft more than in 2023!! ✈️✈️✈️😁

Managed to get out today for 4 flights despite the grey weather. First time for a long time I didn't need my sunnies on! 😎. Good fun session though.

Final few adjustments before the next four flights. Changed the prop to 23x12 and added expo. The rudder has -30 expo dialled in. Both the elevators and ailerons have -20 expo. Back down to the strip today and while it was quite dull the wind was right at 7mph down the strip for the next test flights. The debrief is quite positive. The increase in timing and higher pitch/lower diameter prop has added more urge to performance and seems to have contributed to tidier aeros. I did notice a slight tail off in vertical performance but that's not surprising given the prop change although the stall turns were accomplished quite tidily. One thing that I will do is take a bit of weight out of the nose (reduce to 2 ounces from 4 ounces) as at the moment I have yet to get her to flat spin upright or inverted properly. I also think there is an argument to increase the EPA on the ailerons and elevators, although I think I might need to upgrade the servos slightly to give more bite in the aeros. That said she does perform them quite scale like if not as snappy as I would like. Anyway I still think she has been a good conversion project and I am very happy to keep flying her.

The silencer on that "unused" LA 40 looks distinctly not new!

A lot to take in there, Peter and I am most grateful for your help and explanation. You have put it all so succinctly that even I have followed the gist of it and it's clear. I did wonder if it was the positive TP incidence with the main wing at 0 deg that was causing my use of excessive elevator trim upwards, without of course knowing for sure why! (I know now! 😀) Poor choice of words to use "unstable" in relation to aerobatic flight and I acknowledge that and like your description. I am pretty sure the Slick CG is more rearward from the mid-point, but it doesn't bother me, but I will check for sure at the next workshop visit. Incidentally now I have an extended bar for my Robert meter I am going to go fully over the Capiche and measure all angles just to satisfy myself and report back on that particular thread. Thanks again 👍

Now I have bit of weather related work shop time, I decided to go over the Slick after about 3 hours flying time. First I regularised the servo arms to allow for the trim and neutralised the TX trims. I still have a fair bit of up elevator dialled in so I thought I would measure a few incidences. Firstly, the motor is exactly 0 degs to the datum line. In absence of guidance that seems fine. First the main wings. Both the port and starboard main wings are at 0 degs as good as damn it to the datum line. Now the odd thing is that the tail planes are both reading at +1.0 degs. They are fixed as per the ARTF build so I am puzzled why that should be. Indeed I am not sure what effect that would have in flight. I am sure there are a lot cleverer chaps here that can tell me. The last thing I am going to recheck is the CoG to satisfy myself she balances mid-range. I don't have too many worries there, as she is unstable enough for aerobatic flight but stable enough to control as normal.

Too much cold for my digits this morning sad to say, GG. 🥶

Great effort, GG. This weather the most difficult thing is to walk out the door. The rest is easy.🥶

Thank you, Philip I appreciate the time you have spent to outline your thoughts. My mantra is that you never stop learning (even after many years in this hobby) and your tuppence worth is worth pounds in value for the advice! 😀 The tip about aluminium strip from Wickes is a great one and there is a store not far from me. I have been convinced now that I should use expo more readily on my aircraft and as the throws on the Capiche are quite wide she will be an ideal test bed. Your info on the servo geometry and it effect is particularly interesting. Many thanks to you and Peter for your very helpful feedback 👍 I will report back after the next flights when the temperature outside rises a bit more above freezing.

Very interesting, Peter. As I tend employ more of a freestyle type of flying (not 3D) I probably can get away with larger EPAs. I take your point about active use of expo and I will add some too including on the rudder, probably not too dissimilar to the values you are using. 👍

Thanks, Peter I will try that. Something else I am considering is whether to add some EXPO. A couple of my aerobats have EXPO amounts dialled into the elevators and ailerons. There are no recommendations in the manual and I must admit I have never been truly convinced it helps me much. The amounts on my other aerobats range from -30 to -35 on the ailerons and -10 to -20 on the elevators. I have not added any to the rudder. These seem a reasonable starting level for the Capiche so I may well give that a go.

On to the elevators. Once again the trim was neutralised. Having done that I noticed the port elevator was not wholly in neutral position compared the the starboard side elevator. That might have contributed to minor roll out in some moves. Duly corrected. I then reset the elevators at 35 degs +/- which is once again intermediate setting. Both EPAs were slightly out by the way. Now the fun bit. The "mean" wing incidences were at 0 degs for both elevators. I did have a look at the rudder, but nothing untoward was found. Depending on how she flies next time I may reduce the weight in the nose from 4oz to 3oz as I am not convinced she needs all of it.

Just for a bit of fun I thought I would check the wing incidences. Now I know you are supposed to check both the wing root and wing tip, but the gauge is not big enough to check the wing root so I had to be satisfied with a "mean" reading. The starboard side was at 0 deg. while the port wing was +0.5deg. Obviously, because I could only take one reading per wing I couldn't see if there is any unintended washout built in.

I have had very productive morning in fine tuning the Capiche. I decided to make sure she was level along the datum line down the fuselage using a spirit level. As an assumption (which proved correct) that the centre line of the main wing F1 where the wing pegs sit is at 0 degs to where the fuselage is being levelled. I made sure that the two peg holes were the same distance from the cockpit shelf in both cases, in this instance 7 cms, before adding the spirit level. The first thing to do then was to ensure the ailerons were in the true neutral position. After cancelling the maiden trims it appears both port and starboard ailerons were around 1-2mm out. I corrected this with the gauge using the TX sub trims whilst making sure the rubber feet on the gauge were equidistant from the main wing trailing edge. Both port and starboard wings were done this way. The EPAs were also slightly out by a mm or two so I reset them from the TX at 25mm +/- which is the intermediate setting according to the manual.

Thanks, Peter. I also have throw meter on a peg which came with an Aeroworks Edge aircraft many moons ago. I just found the weight of it weighed on the aileron/elevators such that it wouldn't give me an accurate reading even with the radio on. The throw meter from Great planes just about does it's job given the size of the Capiche ailerons/elevators. I will look at that next week. Not tried the Robarts incidence incidence meter on the Capiche yet, but it will only be for my info if indeed the bar is long enough. The other side of the GP throw meter is marked in mm so it's easy enough to turn it round by loosening the screws.