Huggy

Makes me laugh how some people get carried away on EBay, and end up paying more for something that they could have got from an online dealer as a straightforward purchase! In any case, anything I fancy aeroplane wise that comes up on there is generally collection only and at the otyher end of the country. Have had a couple of good buys though, like my DX6i transmitter. Loving the idea of the E-Boat chicken coop and canopy cloches!

Been quite breezy down on the Sussex coast lately, though nice and sunny most days, but quite a few guys out at the Hastings 1066 patch yesterday. Enjoying flying my J-Power Sky Surfer, and after a fairly short motor run it stayed up for ages using the wind - and judging by the seagulls around the plane it must have been a bit thermally too, as they weren't doing a whole lot of flapping to stay up there either! Had a few succesful flights with battered and rebuilt PZ Decathlon - thanks to my flying buddy Steve for that, I'd given up on it - which despite being a bit small for a breezy day flew pretty well and landed OK too without undercarriage and no folding prop or prop saver, as the wind enabled a belly flop arrival from a foot or two off the ground. Not exactly text-book stuff, but it works

I'll go for 33

Building those sort of fuselages needs to be early evening accompanied by Paul Jones' Blues show or Bob Harris Country! Thing is, building one with 1/4" balsa takes no longer than a teeny indoor one with 1/16 or less.... and I've just gone cross-eyed doing one of those. Getting everything square is my bete noir, must make my next build something bigger. Got a couple of ARTF things to do first - that should take - ooh - a day? With tea breaks. Seriously, great to see a few more stick n sheet balsa jobs coming out again, nice one.

LOL yeah I'll leave it til next winter when everyone's forgotten

Hate to be Mr Pedantic David but....... isn't 13th a Sunday? Or maybe it's Saturday March 12th...? Time to bin that 2010 calendar bro' (you wondered why the magazine deadline's were getting shorter didn't you) Will bear those in mind for next winter then and hunt out some plans for lightweight things with wings

Now then David, what and when is Malcolm's all-RC night? Only got one indoor r/c model as yet, but be interested to know (especially as winter currently seems like wanting to go on all year..... or is it just me? )

This Saturday March 5th at the Angel Centre, it's a good night Then April 2nd next

Look forward to hearing more about this - winter Sundays for indoor flying are good for me, am only about an hour and a half from Dover Would it be free-flight, r/c or both?

Thanks David, sounds like a plan

Been a while since anyone mentioned these, but I've quite taken a fancy to a Parkzone T28 for my first low-wing rc attempt. Their Super Cub has been such a joy to fly, and I've got a couple of other things to finish, but the T28 looks good and is relatively cheap. I see that David, for one, flies or flew, one without the u/c - what if anything do you do to protect the aileron servoes, and minimise "skid marks" on it's bottom?

True I'm afraid, but there is still club flying at the site with Hastings 1066 club, as well as the Pevensey based Hastings club, so not quite a desert!

Had an hour on Thursday afternoon last, cold but fairly calm and sunny, buzzing the Flying Wings Mini v-tail about.  Last night was one of only a handful of folk to defy the gloomy snow-laden forecasts and go along to Tonbridge for some indoor fun.  All went well, helped video my flying buddy Steve's long term bet-winning attempts to get his Flying Flea to - well, fly - which it DID  (tis on U Tube), and had my first indoor RC session with newly acquired PZ Ember 2, bought on sale from SMC. What a terrific little aeroplane!   Managed to avoid all static objects, walls, other flyers etc, cant believe how long those tiddly little batteries can be made to go for.  Back to Hastings before overnight snow did turn up - it's all gone now.

Love old buses and trucks! All you need is a vertical radiator radiator grille with a badge on it, welcome back 1950s (and beyond).  Together with austerity, ration books and rickets, but then you can't have everything!   Guessing 1933 for the single decker bravedan?

Love those buses bravedan! 

Well, all I'm gonna say is, in this age of litigation and blanket law-making, just one big accident between a fast flying, heavy and fuel-laden jet model and, say, a bus full of kids, and we'll all be looking for another hobby. The powers that be, lawyers, and local government won't differentiate between a 500 gramme foam slow flyer and anything more hairy.  I hope the BMFA and it's insurers find a way of distancing themselves from the more extreme stuff, or ensuring that only qualified pilots can make use of same.

Gulity on both music (bass player with similar musical inclinations to BEB) and motor racing fronts! Does seem a lot of it about among the ranks.   Don't personally race any more - mostly did Autograss and Stock Rod type stuff over - ahem - quite a lot of years - but still involved in racing as part of my business, and do a bit of commentating too. I do race in online games though, surprising number of old farts among the young hotshots in various rFactor based leagues dotted across the planet. Much less healthy than being out there in the fresh air with a model aeroplane or two of course but whattaya going to do when it's pitch dark and the winds howling eh?. Love walking, which at least stretches the legs and stops me being a total couch potato. One of the best things about living here in the UK is all the footpaths and decent maps to find them with.   Like your GTO John, that'd do for me.  Does / did your lad race BriSCA F1 ? The Magnum was big enough!

Great idea gents!  Electric power id definitely the Way Forward!

One really good thin Cyano I've found with an effective thin nozzle that doesn't clog up too much is the Loctite Precision one that you get from tool & hardware shops (and boot fairs) - much better than some that are marketed for modelling.

Love indoor free flight, and have a collection of small, mainly rubber powered things to do it with, nearly all stick and tissue built ranging from Peanut scale and "NoCal" profile - such as a Jodel Bebe and a newly build Piper Cub - to the well known Hangar Rat, with various things like the Peck designed Prairie Bird and a half-scale Achilles in between. Will get round to a picture album soon, though I can't claim most of my models are all that pretty - more functional !  Like those Depron models of yours, Stephen, very neat.      I don't have the finesse for the real slow flying ultra-light contest things, but nice light models that don't thwack the wall too hard are all good.  Hope to do more indoor meets this winter than last, they are good fun. Am hoping to go to Wallingford this Sunday for one of the all-FF sessions, though it's a fair way from where I live; but at least you have a rough idea of what the weather will be like indoors!  Am keeping my newly developing R/C "skills" on the outside for the moment, dsafer for all concerned! Edited By Huggy on 22/10/2010 15:27:11

Posted by Erfolg on 22/10/2010 13:00:11:   I guess that electric modellers could easily be +30% of the aeromodelling population. Many ARTFs are electric only, yet not as many plans are provided (i think) reflect this situation.      I bet the percentage is going up; just lately I seem to meet long serving ic men who, once having a close look at electric flight, and either trying an ARTF model or converting one become very enthusiastic about it. We could certainly do with the rather fine free plans we get here reflecting that trend. It seems that traditional building is staging a bit of a comeback, so more plans for electric power would be welcome I'm sure.  Many ordinary club fliers seem to be quite happy with fairly small, light, models that can be kept ready for a quick nip down the field when the wind drops a bit.

Great - first calm morning for a couple of weeks down here, and sneaking off to the field, at the other end of town,  via roadworks induced traffic jam before starting work led me to discover that the council had found it a nice day day too - to mow the entire area. Back in the car, home again. Hour and a half wasted. Should be working. Fed up. Ba! Gertcha!  etc

I've built and flown traditional balsa / tissue / dope free flight models on and off for many years, for flying outdoors and indoors, and still do, but well thought out foam ARTF models have helped get me into RC, as has the great progress in electric flight. Brilliant! And foam models don't necessarily make a wet or slightly breezy day  a no-fly day either.    At the same time, if I fancy building a new stick 'n tissue creation, there's nothing to stop me, and there are plans aplenty, though Balsa prices make this much less of a cheap option than it once was. Nonetheless, I fancy I am getting a whiff of enthusiasm among model flyers who have possibly started since the ARTF revoluition kicked in to try their hand at traditional building projects, thus making them AeroMODELLERS,  and I'm sure RCME - and the other mags - will start to reflect that. I'm a recent convert to RCME as well as to actual RC flying, and the plans we get here are most welcome.My enthusiasm for model aeroplanes and their construction and use is now greater than it was a few years back....even if it is causing me to dip deeper into the funds from time to time.....   I do agree, that certain publications have been too much loaded towards big, expensive, and worryingly fast (in the wrong hands) ARTFs,  but that, I fear, is where much advertising revenue comes from, right...?        Coincidentally, I also earn much of my living from photography, and Ken's right on the money - there's no way you'd get me going back to using film now, and digital has led me to produce more photos, not less, while developing new skills and ideas at the same time.  

Well ta all round, chaps. Sounds like I've done the right thing by buying one; it is the low-power version, which I'm sure will do for starters - and if it doesn't, Jeremy's conversion plan looks pretty darn good!   

Thanks guys.  SMC have been very quick, and the box is already sitting in the hall.  I think a leisurely approach to getting it kitted out with the radio etc will probably be best, but I bet I won't be able to resist it sooner rather than later.  My days out with HZ Super Cub and V-tail foamie have been a bit limited by windy conditions last week or so - a pain as I had this week off - but I've been getting on OK with those, so I should be ready to try something with ailerons by the time spring comes around.     The FF model in question is about the same size as the Cub, so shouldn't be too bad. In any case, it's quite a tough old bird the Bugaboo and has served its time well, including leaving bits of itself in the trees at Old Warden etc, so if can make  it a rudder / motor only job it can be flown a bit more often at our club field.