Kozmyk

That'll just keep flying round in circles ...

What a great man. Sorry to see him go. I built a couple of his boats when I were a lad.Still have the Remora somewhere. And a Moonglow (flat bottomed hull - beginners model)  Did he do the Fairey Swordsman in the Feb 1965 edition? I have one of those too. I didn't build it though. It's too well made for my work  Rave on Vic ...

I used to get it from the local chemists but now I get it much cheaper online.I prefer to get the 90%-100% purity as it can then be used as a thinner for resins and is more useful for cleaning electrical contacts without the water content.  I has various names :- Iso Propyl AlcoholIsopropanol Propan-2-olIPA I got my last lot from here : IPA 99.9% Shiny Hardware Servisol DO do a Servisol IPA 170 but that's the expensive way of buying it : Servisol IPA 170  Servisol Super 10 switch cleaner is a different thing; containing a different solvent and additional lubricants. It is the mutts nuts for electrical contacts and potentiometer tracks. It may even remove castor oil residue, I haven't tried it for that purpose.  A BBC engineer turned me on to this stuff  Colclene, it leaves absolutely no residue. It's what they cleaned their video tape heads with.You have to be quick with it though as it evaporates FAST!   Edited By Kozmyk on 07/01/2011 08:51:44 Edited By Kozmyk on 07/01/2011 08:52:09

Farnborough Chicken Gun - see Pop Culture Also as I recall the MythBusters guys were surprised to observe that frozen or thawed the damage was much the same to the windscreen of the light aircraft target they used.  Revisited - Results Overturned   Re American humour. When we went to unpack a Mackie mixing desk we noticed that all the packaging/handling symbols on the box had been given funny alternative meanings. I wish I had a pic, they were a good laugh. On the mixer itself the extra large solo indicator had the legend "Rude Solo Light" . Why "rude" ? Cos' it's a flasher ...  

Posted by Ian Jones on 06/01/2011 04:07:28: . The only thing I've had any success with is meths but the covering must be sound or it will unstick it.  Have you tried isopropyl alcohol instead of meths? It works well as a solvent but doesn't attack as many plastics as other solvents.That's not to say it definitely Won't attack the covering but it's less likely to.  It was THE solvent for cleaning tape recorder heads because it wouldn't attack the resin holding the laminations together.

Aah! The old Duck Egg Blue vs Sky vs Sky Blue vs Duck Egg Green debate.It still goes on ... There are official documents issued at various times, photographs of varying quality, eye witness accounts and the possibility of hand mixed colours being used.  In the colour pictures I saw as a kid (born 1956) the predominant underside colour for early war Hurricanes and Spitfires was a sky blue tinged with green that my father (and Airfix )called Duck Egg Blue, and he was there on the same airfields. The fuselage band was lighter. When they changed over to light grey undersides the old paint was used on aircraft interiors, waste not want not.  RAF Sky  Interesting if not definitive  Standard Sky  blue skies and duck eggs   

Posted by Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 03/01/2011 17:30:47:  4. Never completely discharge them - aim to land with a bit of juice in the battery.  BEB  I'd agree with you by and large except that a good residual capacity to aim for would be about 20%.This keeps you well away from the voltage drop off and prolongs the life of your lipo. "The 80% Rule" they call it. A lot of ESCs have a Low Voltage Cutoff - LVC set to 3.0V(per cell); where possible, it's a good idea to set it higher. I presently have mine set to 3.3V before LVC and a soft cutoff though some set it as high as 3.6V.Simply relying on the LVC isn't the best idea however because peak current draws can drop the voltage momentarily below the threshold when, in fact, there is plenty of juice left.Monitoring flight times against the amount of current put back in when recharging gives you a better idea. Of course you have to take account of flying style. Hard flying will take more out of your batteries than gentle flying.

At first I got what I could find on fleabay.Then I found this place.Loads of choice on sizes.   FalconRCS Good for connectors and lipo monitors as well. Edited By Kozmyk on 04/01/2011 21:42:33

Posted by Spice Cat on 02/01/2011 23:18:50: The Pancake House. (Pancake; RAF slang I believe for getting on the ground and presumably into the nearest pub)  I always though that a pancake landing was a wheels up affair. After crash landing I guess a visit to the pub WOULD be in order.  ^.^

The Landing Strip Edited By Kozmyk on 03/01/2011 07:17:10

Posted by Phil Wood on 01/01/2011 19:46:22: Sorry guys, not adding anything yet....it's just that my pet subject is physics & I want the e-mail notifications on this one......so I must post because I'm useless with comp's and don't know how to get them any other way. Pol.  You don't need to Post to subscribe to a thread. Look to the bottom of the page and you will see Bookmark this thread , click on that and the thread will be added to your ModelFlying bookmarks as it says. HTH

Very impressive.I wonder how long it'll take 'em to get it fly backwards.

Aah manuals! The best bedtime reading there is. Thirty minutes of instruction manual and it's snores all round.Even when you think you know how a thing works there's often a wrinkle you never quite got the hang of; and there's the answer, nestling at bottom of page 37.Soporific and informative, what more can you ask?

Posted by PatMc on 20/12/2010 15:11:08:  I believe that if they are stored in a very cold environment after charging at normal temp the voltage can increase & permanently damage the cells. This is why lipos should be stored in a partially charged state in these circumstances. Since they are partially charged it then doesn't take much, or long, to top them up.    That right. I charged some lipos to Storage Charge condition (3.8V per cell) then put them on the bottom shelf of the fridge. When I took them out they were at 4.2V per cell. If they'd been fully charged they would have gone over the 4.2V per cell safe limit. Lesson = Cool storage is Good, Cold storage is Bad.  

Posted by Tim Morton on 19/12/2010 17:43:05: Not sure whether a steel cash box would stop much - Lipo's burn apparently with +1100deg C which would just burn right through ordinary steel and glass for that matter.  Best thing is some form of pottery / clay fired bowl (at least that's what I use)  What kind of steel melts at 1100°C?I'd have though you'd need another 300°C or so. BTW I charge my lipos on a steel tray on the cooker. I figure it's used to things getting hot. Edited By Kozmyk on 20/12/2010 13:08:02 Edited By Kozmyk on 20/12/2010 13:08:27

Posted by Jeff Langley on 19/12/2010 16:58:22uddenly thought of something that I don't believe has ever been modelled in any size (apart from Airfix), and would consequently provide something different . I give you........... the Flying Suitcase, the Handley Page Hampden! I'm pretty sure that Frog did a Hampden kit too.  

Nice work. Where did you get your carbon fibre tow material from? And what is that light coloured disc on top of the canopy retaining magnet?

I'm an old rock'n'roller, I've had more vans than cars.All that gear and PA speakers to move about. Currently gone for a smaller van: VW T4 2.5TDI Even though I'm not gigging anymore I couldn't get out of the van habit.

If you want to help keep XH558 flying take a look here:http://www.vulcantothesky.org/ Edited By Kozmyk on 15/12/2010 15:16:11

Wow! A Wendover. You don't see one of those every day.

Posted by Steve W-O on 14/12/2010 12:27:11:  Connect the main leads to the balance leads, the two end balance leads got to the main leads anyway.   Just make sure you know which lead is which, or you might end up with some excess heat or flames.  I see you're logic there but that's just another way of adapting the main lead route as opposed to just using the balance leads on their own. It doesn't really matter to me as I make up the necessary adaptors as required. I was just curious to see if it could be done with my charger in case I encountered a battery with incompatible main connectors..

Posted by Steve W-O on 13/12/2010 17:28:12: Charge it through the balance connector, it is small, so the wires will take the load.  My charger reports a connection fault if I don't connect the main discharge leads; it's a LiPro Quad 6. I'd be interested to learn if there was a way around this.

You could take one of those extension leads and put 4mm bullets OR 4mm banana plugs on the charger end. Or Deans of course.  OR  You could buy one of these Multi Charge Lead Edited By Kozmyk on 13/12/2010 17:55:27

Interesting video.  btw How much weight was added by this ?Did it affect the flight characteristics?

Thought about this later ...  Bell P-39 Airacobra/P-63 Kingcobra - a bit different with it's trike u/c   Edited By Kozmyk on 08/12/2010 10:45:14