pete taylor

maidened today - a naked and unashamed Spitfire Mk1 from Czech company, Savex. (actually the kit is a MkVb, but has been altered to represent a Mk 1) All composite construction with exquisite surface detail, mine is powered by an Axi 4130/16 (385 kv) on a 6 cell 4000 mAh LiPo pack and swings a 15 x 8 prop for effortless performance! Now on her way to the paintshop

Posted by Kevin Fairgrieve on 16/05/2016 19:47:29: Posted by bert baker on 16/05/2016 18:32:52: Defo not a Mystic or Magician, Galaxy models Norwich Edited By bert baker on 16/05/2016 18:33:43 Galaxy Models was Ipswich. Pegasus Models is Norwich. Both had versions of the Mystic and Magician. Indeed I recently built a second Magician from the Pegasus kit. Kev Galaxy originally had shops in both Ipswich and Norwich. The Norwich one became Pegasus later.

Just a quick post to give credit where it's due. I ordered an Axi motor from Electric Wingman yesterday at 1500 and lo and behold... it was with me at 0830 this morning - Free shipping too!! Excellent service from a highly recommended store. I'll be back

For what it's worth, I flew using an original DX6i for years without so much as a glitch. When the new (black) DX6 became available I bought one and transferred all of my models over to it and set the various models up as required in the memory of the new Tx. I was very surprised when I began to experience one or two episodes of strange behaviour with what had otherwise been perfectly well-behaved models, eventually leading to 3 crashes. The first I put down to servo failure, the model failing to pull out of a shallow dive. The second was a warmliner that felt generally sloppy in the air when it had previously been perfect. The sloppy, unconnected "feel" continued throughout the flight and resulted in a hard landing that cracked the fuselage and caused considerable damage to the wing. The final straw was a semi-scale GeeBee with impeccable handling that inexplicably rolled hard right immediately after take off and spread itself along the runway! After each incident I examined the radio setup and found no irregularities with the actual equipment itself or with the RF side of things. I had by this point become suspicious of the new shiny transmitter and after careful consideration I bought a Taranis with FrSky receivers and set about learning how to use that as well as a Turnigy i10. Guess what?? Everything seemed to return to normal, including my model attrition rate. This has been the case for the past 12 months now, so perhaps everyone will excuse me for drawing what I see to be a reasonable conclusion that my DX6 was at fault. Strangely enough, I fly with 2 others who experienced similar problems with their DX6's and had no problems before or since they got rid of them. It's a pity really, as it's a great Tx with very user-friendly programming features. I did at one point consider modifying the DX6 to use the FrSky RF section and keep the Spektrum programming features, but decided to go with the Taranis in the end. Spektrum have always denied having any issues with this radio, as they did years ago with the brown out issue, so I've drawn my own conclusions and will avoid the brand in the future.

Posted by Peter Miller on 03/05/2016 18:19:37: Hi Pete Looks great. Bring her up gthe field sometime Dusty Thanks Dusty, I'll do that very soon.

Thanks Simon. I'll have to sweet talk the camera man and make an offering for the weather, but I'll see what I can do tomorrow. One thing I checked today was the flight time - set to 5 mins as a default, I found that it leaves 35% in the batteries, so 6 mins plus should be comfortable.

Cheers Andy!

Airbourne again today. A little dark, but it was a chance for a quick pose!

Thanks John, she really is a beauty and has bucket loads of presence. If the weather plays ball again I'll get some video on Monday. Jim has a partial website up and running with contact details on it and a couple of other interesting models - Saab J-21 anyone?

I flew the Canberra today and in a word - Awesome! First attempts were unsuccesful, partly due to the length of the grass at the strip and flat calm conditions and partly because I'd forgotten to file a flat for the axle on the L/H main undercarriage leg! Just as she was about to become airborne a sharp swing to port brought things to a halt. So...back to fix the axle, by which time a nice breeze had got up...we're in! Take off was completely uneventful and she climbed out with plenty of power to spare, so throttle back to 75% and retract the gear as we went into the circuit. The sight of the unmistakable PR9 shape against the grey, sunlit clouds really is superb! A couple of clicks of right aileron were added on a trimming pass, but apart from that nothing was needed, so full throttle and up into a steep climb for a wingover into the downwind section again and let her gather speed to come back round for a very majestic roll (mental note to increase the roll rate) and a few more general circuits to check out the stall etc (Non-event) before winding her up again for a big loop - beautiful! I gathered speed off the loop exit for a fast, low pass then up into a big reversal. Things got interesting at this point...as the 45 degree down approached I was aware that the aileron response was extremely sluggish and the ground approaching fast!! A large thumbful of rudder helped the Canberra to roll out before smiting the earth then I slowed things down to see what was happening. As I passed by I saw that the port aileron linkage was hanging down - that explains it then - only 1 aileron working. I guessed that this might be a good time to land. The wind was by this time at 45 degrees to the strip so, with 1 aileron not working I struggled to line up at the first attempt, so round again for a long approach (she glides forever!) This time everything came together nicely for a gentle touchdown. What a model! Like flying a Rolls Royce really - big, smooth and with a magnificent presence in the air - A keeper for sure and worth every penny and hour invested. That's the first and last time I'll be using linkage stoppers for anything but nosewheel steering linkages! I'll change them for good ol' Z bends and metal clevises tomorrow. Video soon hopefully.

Lightning progress (well; not very lightning actually!)