Dunkelmann

I joined Sherrifhales, which is 10 minutes away. However it is surrounded by chest high rape plants at this time of year, making it difficult for me to land. I may join another, just to avoid the plants - no other reason as I have been made very welcome and can fly solo without having to get a B certificate. I think there is one at Shifnal but I have no idea where or how to contact them. I looked at West Midlands but my car would never survive the very long farm track for long and it is a bit far away. I may try the Telford club since it is at least a tarmac road although single track. Edited By Dunkelmann on 14/05/2019 19:24:01

Thanks all. I checked out TMAC's site. It was fine but I dislike flying facing the sun so... Sheriffhales PMC is closer and more convenient so I will try to get there on a Tuesday or Thursday but of course the weather will be the determining factor. I would much prefer something on line where I could find out its fees, rules etc. I will also look at West Midlands Model Flying Club, since it is a little further on. Can I ask if its fees at £75 are typical? Cheers again.

Having recently retired to Telford I am about to return to model flying. I can fly but have no certification. I have looked at the BMFA affiliated clubs near me but two have no websites or have out of date details: Sherrifhales Private Members Club and Newport and District Model Flying Club. Do they still exist? If not, any recommendations (e.g. Telford Model Aircraft Club, West Midlands Model Flying Club)? I am a foamie electric flyer. Parkzone T38, AXN Floaterjet, BMI Arrow, and yet to fly Durafly Slowpoke.

Well, I have received my Formosa II. Since this was a no-power-system model, I wasn't expecting certain bits. However nowhere does it say that servos are to be provided by the builder. I have a couple of 9g Hextronik XT100s from Hobbyking and I'll buy a couple more. Bob - I see what you mean about a box of bits. There's nothing about fitting servos or your own motor but that's OK, I'll improvise something. Half the fun will be in designing how to reposition the elevator and rudder servos centrally. It looks straight forward enough. I've thus been trying to source tube and pushrod and swithering between carbon fibre, piano wire, Bowden cable etc. The pushrods supplied come in two diameters 1mm and 1.4mm (according to the manual but I think they are smaller than stated). It's not clear which is for which control surface. I'm thinking of getting about 1.2mm wire as my Parkzone T28 Trojan (about the same weight) seems to use that size. Erfolg, I mailed the distributor who replied: "I have been looking into this but our purchase department still do not have a delivery date for these so we can't confirm any date at this time. Once we have the delivery date it will show up on our web site." So it looks as though they do expect more.

I've looked at some weights published on the Web: 720g(GWS figure), 800g, 950g, 1020g, and yours at 1150g. My battery weighs 180g. Putting 900g + motor weight + battery weight into the calculations mean the plane will have the characteristics of a basic trainer according to the calculator. I'm now getting depressed with all of this I had my Formosa order cancelled on me as the shop's website was out of date with their stock levels. So I reordered with another place I've dealt with before (who were the most expensive for the Formosa 2 in the UK). The alternative was one shop that wanted £14 in postage. It's too late to cancel my motor. But if this shop says it is sold out I'm giving up and will try to find an equivalent. There just doesn't seem to be one however, making the jump from reasonable aileron experience and slow aerobatics to more precise and fast aerobatics difficult. I did consider spending a lot more but I felt the risk of crashing an expensive plane too much. Apart from that I have a bunch of 3S LiPos I want to continue using and the planes I looked at all used 4S. My club is into IC/Balsa and gliders so I'm on my own here. I can't understand how people pick a motor and prop. I thought I was being scientific. I've spent days of my Xmas hols doing this. I've been amazed at the web shops listing many motors by physical size yet not providing a simple search mechanism (e.g. search for a motor within these weight limits, giving out this power and within this range of kV). Instead I've had to spend hours painfully going through each motor in turn. IF... I do get a Formosa II, I'll stick a wood firewall on with a decent mount, pushing the nose a bit further out perhaps to help balance. I guess (yes - I'm not using a calculator) I should get a 300W to 400W, 1000kV to 1500Kv motor.

That's a good tip about the cowl - add reinforcing weight rather than metal weights. I saw a video on YouTube where the modeller made a replica cowl from a pop bottle by first making a base by filling a spare cowl with putty and letting it harden. He then used a heat gun to shrink the bottle onto the base. If I can find wire linkage I may consider moving the rear servo forward if there is room.

Hmmm curious - that's the problem with putting one's faith in calculators. Mind you, I hadn't a clue and started from rules of thumb like 110W per pound!. The Formosa all-up weight is stated as 24.5 oz - roughly 1.5lb and this motor is rated as 187W/20A so it is above the rule of thumb power of 165W. As you say I've no headroom but it cost £11. What's your model's flying weight? I've had trouble sourcing the Formosa II. I got the last one in one on-line shop. Another shop said that they may not be obtainable any more. I'll email the importers. I'm like you and use the same colour scheme now. I use Acrylic paint but toyed with the idea of SolarFilm - maybe it's too finicky but I like glossy paint and acrylic is matt.

Bob, I can only find the NPS (No Power System) Formosa II for sale in the UK.. I've done some research and came across a couple of programs to help choosing motor and prop: Motocalc WebOCalc The latter helps more in choosing props but it is quite simple given a motor kV and a few other parameters. The former is better but it relies on knowing a bit about the motor parameters. Luckily 4Max's Purple Power motors are in there and they have the data on their site to add the PP ones that are missing. After reading that a lot of motors come from the same factories and are rebadged (for example see this page on the "equivalence" between Hacker motors and Purple Power), I came across the HobbyKing Turnigy Aerodrive SK3 series. There are suspicions that these too are Hacker (factory) equivalents. Anyway at less than half the price of the Purple Power I thought I'd not much to lose trying one out. I had a play and came up with a Turnigy Aerodrive SK3 - 2830-1130kv Brushless Outrunner Motor and an APCE 9x5 prop. It's a good quality motor. Motocalc did some nice graphs that helped pick the prop size (Rate Of Climb and Thrust, versus Pitch - once I had decided on the diameter. I had a look at your motor and put it into Motocalc. Static Thrust was about the same (19-20oz) but RateOf Climb was down (909 -> 721). Current draw was lower (15A -> 13.4). It was heavier. Price is much the same though. So I'm off to order the SK3. Now I need to work out how to mount it. I believe the Formosa II has a stick mount system. Since both airframe and motor are on back order I'll have to be patient. Thanks for your reply.

I plan to buy one of these. I have a 30A ESC and need to source a suitable motor, motor mount, prop and prop adapter. I plan to fly it with a 3S 2200 LiPo. I'll be flying from a very rough field (cows and hoofprints) so I may either, dump the landing gear and go for a folding prop, or beef up the landing gear. As a very quick starter I thought of a Purple Power 2831/1000 at 205W. I should finish saying I don't want a rocket, nor do I want 3D. Some nice scale aerobatics is what I'm after as I move up the experience scale a bit. I'd greatly appreciate any advice or experience you would like to share here for me and posterity. Cheers Edited By Dunkelmann on 02/01/2013 14:29:19

Thanks Justin and Jon (and Chris). I've eliminated the ST Model MX2, so now I'm waiting on seeing videos of the new Acro WOT. In the meantime I have my Parkzone Trojan T-28 from 2 years ago. It was my first model and I wisely kept it in the cupboard until now. I've maidened it (5 min flight) and just need to wait until decent weather until I can get it set up properly. When my local hobby store gets the Acro Wot4 II in, I'll be there to get a feel for it. I take your point about the pleasure of building an aircraft from a kit. Although I'm using foam, I'm building a mini power glider from a Hong Kong kit (Kinetic 800). It came with foam fuselage and wings, some plastic parts and the foldable prop - very little else. I had to source the motor and work out how to mount it with a stick mount in a foam nacelle. I bought all the servos, ESC, battery, receiver etc. It caused a lot of head scratching but the sense of achievement and ownership is far more than a Parkzone out-of-the-box. Edited By Dunkelmann on 13/05/2012 13:00:45

Does anyone see my point about wanting "clean" looking flight at slow speeds? Many powerful aerobatic planes have 3D capability. I'm not experienced in this area and I like the look of the Acro WOT4 MkII but given my preferences (sorry 3Ders no offence meant but not my cup of tea), can I fly it or similar in a more natural fashion? My money is burning a hole in my pocket. Guys I really appear to have put my foot in it (pun intended) so if I'm asking the quesion in the wrong place, again some friendly redirection would be appreciated. Edited By Chris Bott - Moderator on 12/05/2012 17:18:18

Perhaps someone can advise me on whether this is an appropriate model to buy. I've been flying foam aileron models for two years and can do simple aerobatics (Immelman, Split-S, rolls, loops, stall turns). However the models are pushers (similar to a Multiplex EasyStar with ailerons). I'm ready to take on a sport/stunt scaleish model (foam or covered balsa) with a 3S battery that would give me flights of say 10mins+. Size-wise I'd say about 40 inch wingspan is a low-ish limit.. I had thought of the WOT 4 MkII, the ST Model MX2 and the Calmato ST EP 1400. I'm not sure about the Calmato because it uses a single servo for ailerons but from what I've seen on YouTube it flys nicely. As for the other two, I'm concerned that these are 3D capable. I loathe 3D as it isn't flying. I want to fly like a real aircraft and stall out at slow speed, not prop hang I've seen 3D aircraft at slow speed and it looks like a motor with a plank of wood trailing behind it. So will the WOT4 and the ST look rubbish unless the speed is very high? Thanks Edited By Chris Bott - Moderator on 12/05/2012 17:12:19

1. Mode 2   2. East Central Scotland   3. East Central Scotland   4. Self taught

I am teaching myself to fly.  But I joined a club for two reasons: 1) a safe place to fly and 2) training/help/cameraderie. Unfortunately the club didn't offer training but there were some people willing to give advice and air time.  It wasn't enought for me so I went up to the field before I thought anyone would be there and started flying on my own. My plane is a Hobbyzone Aerobird Swift with aileron, elevator and throttle.  It is a mid wing pusher.  At first, I crashed a fair few times and had to replace/repair the wings and tailplane assembly.  Now I can hand launch, do circuits and land.  I'm no longer frightened of crashing/fixing!  Total cost: ~£100 excluding extra batteries.  I spend a lot of time on the FMS simulator which has an excellent implementation of the Swift.  I learned to coordinate and not over correct using the sim - note: not in real flight. I see no reason why learning to fly an electric foamie on one's own is a bad thing.  But get a good plane to learn on.  My recommendation would be one with ailerons, mid to high wing.  Yes ailerons, without them it's no fun and unrealistic.  Be prepared to crash so get one that's easily repairable/has spare parts.  Before you fly, get a sim and put in lots of hours on it with a model as close to yours as you can get.  When you can fly on the sim, only then try it for real. Edited By Dunkelmann on 13/12/2009 13:23:00 Edited By Dunkelmann on 13/12/2009 13:25:08

There is an equivalent to the EasyStar - a bit of a clone but for me the advantage is that it has ailerons.  It is called the AXN Clouds Fly (or Floater Jet).  It is a hybrid power/glider.  I am a novice with a few flights and crashes with a Hobbyzone Aerobird Swift.  I wanted to start with ailerons.  I have also flown a Parkzone powered glider with rudder and elevator but it just seemed "wrong".  I come from a "serious" flight sim background so I am probably biased.  I found the Swift not great to fly in borderline wind conditions.  They say don't fly it in above 8MPH winds.  I bought the AXN Clouds Fly since it was recommended as an alternative to the EastStar.  It has a rudder so I daresay you don't need to use the ailerons.  Since it is ARF you could  program your Tx accordingly.  Once experienced on it you have a versatile model that is a glider but also a 4 channel electric. Edited By Dunkelmann on 25/10/2009 10:53:10