graeme jones

For anyone that's interested, I've started a build thread for my current project, a 2 metre F3A design, on the GBRCAA forum - http://www.gbrcaa.org/smf/index.php?topic=4663.0 Graeme

Buried away in the middle of today's Budget speech was a sentence which went something like "The Government will take measures to stop foreign companies avoiding VAT by storing goods in the UK and selling them online". None of the TV commentators have mentioned this yet and no detail has been given. It could increase prices of goods from one of our favourite suppliers by 20%. Graeme

On a more positive note, the BMFA news item does say "Individual disciplines will therefore be holding their own National Championships at dates and venues to be confirmed". Does anyone have any news in this regard? Graeme

The BBC is running a story today about an airliner that returned to Heathrow shortly after takeoff because a laser had been shone into the cockpit by some idiot sat safely on the ground. There were apparently more than 1400 such incidents reported last year. Not accidents or near-misses, deliberate acts of incredible stupidity. So, using the logic of some of the previous posts, should there be a National Register of Lasers, to "distance the legitimate users from the rogue element"? Graeme Edited By graeme jones on 15/02/2016 08:35:21

No. In any case the cost (to us) of registration would be prohibitive. Factor in the cost of Civil Servants to administer, premises for them to work in, computers etc. etc. and you would soon be on the wrong side of £50. Per model. I too remember when we had to have a licence to use R/C equipment. That was scrapped because it cost more to administer than it ever took in licence fees, and the government then had more sense than is the case these days. I haven't voted because it's a non-starter. At least I hope it is. Graeme

An interesting discussion of some value. BEB - let me try an analogy. Most of us pay taxes, but do those people know which Income and Corporation Taxes Act imposes the requirement to do so? It doesn't matter which Act, Section and Paragraph says what, just that we know it should be paid. Similarly it doesn't matter which ANO says what, only that we know the principles. For example, my common sense tells me that I should not fly a model if there is undue risk of causing injury or accident. Just because I cannot tell you the paragraph, page number and section of which ANO says that does not make me irresponsible. I like some of the comments above e.g. licences for model cars. Very witty. Regarding the BMFA news in general, I thought this was a pretty good issue, taking 15 minutes to read instead of the usual 5. The F3P stuff was fascinating. If anybody isn't happy with the content I'll repeat the advice of John Cundell, one-time editor of Model Boats magazine, "you could always write an article yourself, or even a regular column". Graeme

BEB - you might think I'm irresponsible, I don't. I think it's time the BMFA came clean and admitted that what started as a scheme to improve flying standards on a personal, voluntary basis, is now a licence to fly. Some of these new questions would be more appropriate to a Police promotion exam. than a hobby. Graeme

Terry - just a thought but could either Tx be affecting the tacho? Try both with the Tx at least 50 foot away. Graeme

Bit of confusion here - Methyl Hydrate is Methanol - CH3OH - the basis of all "glow" fuel. So the answer to the original question is yes, mix with Castor or a suitable synthetic oil and you have normal "straight" fuel. Graeme

Bob - or does the "suck" I.E. the pressure drop in a venturi, increase as the square of the airflow speed through it, drawing relatively more fuel? I've always suspected that the idea of speed leaning out an engine is a throwback to control-line days. My experience with RC is that motors in general neither lean nor richen with changes in speed (of the aircraft that is). But I have had exceptions. Graeme

Engine Doctor - no offence taken, I'm just hoping for a solution to the problem for me and for Justin and Pyro. I've been so frustrated by this one and I'm sure they are as well. Fuel is Model Technics Special Four Stroke 5%. That's 5% nitro. 9% EDL and 9% castor. Southern Modelcraft do an identical mix which also works well (see fuel info. at Just Engines). I standardised on it some years ago and use it in all my engines now except the old ones like HP40's which don't like synthetic oil and run very well on castor straight. I don't think Justin and Pyro have said which fuel they use, just that both Saito's use the same. What we need of course is someone to say " I had that problem and cured it by XYZ"!!! Graeme PS if it's not raining tomorrow Plan A is to run some engines.

Martin - it's a fuel filter, since replaced with one of a different make. No blockage since all 9 oz of fuel will run out of the tank under gravity. Engine doctor - see above. That's why I tried with a separate tank strapped to the outside of the fus. Poor practice? Both my Hirobo Shuttles have a filler valve between the 2 pipe tank and the engine and they run OK. A new thread might just be duplication, since the problem APPEARS to be the same. Different engines yes, but both 4 strokes, both not developing full power and won't idle correctly and both sounding wrong. I'm happy to keep quiet for now unless I find the problem and wait for the OP to sort his. Graeme

Because at the time the pic was taken the engine was still full of storage oil and hadn't been run. It was drained and flushed with fuel before use. By the way and before anyone asks, plenty of oil comes out of the breather while running. Makes a mess on the canalizer. Graeme

Braddock - I've already checked the mount and its fine, like this - there's not excessive vibration and, as I've said, taking the cowl off made no difference. Also the installation is very similar to the old aircraft in which the Mk 2 ran fine. Justin - one thing I forgot to say is that the exhaust note sounds "wrong", rather like your Saito but difficult to say exactly what is wrong with it. Graeme

Justin - very similar symptoms to your Saito. Starts OK but wont run above 8000 RPM on a 13X6 (was 10500 in the previous aircraft) and won't idle below 4000. It's in good mechanical condition, correct timing and rocker clearance, new plug, new fuel, new filter, new tank etc. etc. Very frustrating. Engine Doctor - didn't think the bearings were the problem so I've just checked. No detectable play up, down, sideways, backwards or forwards. Although it's an "old" engine (OS 70 Surpass OS No 34000) it hasn't had a great deal of use, about 50 flights in a Wot4. I replaced it in that aircraft with an Irvine 40. It's been layed up full of oil ever since and is in excellent condition with no visible wear. Yes, I've had it apart a few times and yes I have put it back together correctly (I'm not new to this, back in the 70's I was taking HP40's apart and swapping parts to "blueprint" them. More recently I've stripped and reassembled 2 OS48 FS's and 4 OS26 FS's and they all run correctly). Timing dot in line with the pushrods at TDC, rocker clearances both 3 thou (of an inch), good compression, valves moving and sealing correctly, no broken valve springs. By the way, I've also tried 4 different fuels, the original MT 5% 4 stroke, a new gallon ditto, the castor straight that I always used in the Wot4 and some fuel that a clubmate was using in his Saito, all with the same results. Now for the strangest bit. I have another OS 70 FS. This one is an FS 70S II, OS No 34700. It's had more use, about 80 flights, and ran fine last time I used it in April. They are not a direct swap because of different carbs and exhausts, but with a bit of faffing about I swapped it for the old one i.e. in the new aircraft. Confident that this would solve the problem I set off for the field and started it up. Guess what? Wouldn't rev above 8000 or idle below 4000!!!!!! Aha say the experts, it.s overheating inside the cowl. Took the cowl off which made no difference whatsoever. So the problem has to be with the tank, right? Wrong! Strapped another tank to the outside of the fus. and have the same problems. Exit club experts muttering into their beards. Next step is to try each motor in the old aircraft. Graeme

Justin - I'll be very interested in the answer to this problem, as I've spent much of the last few months trying to get to the bottom of a very similar problem with an OS70FS. I've tried every possible cure with no change. The club experts persuaded me that it was fuel that had "gone off" so I bought fresh. Which made the problem worse. I'll give you the full details if you want to compare notes. Graeme

Peter - well done for getting some funding, always the most difficult bit. Not sure it would work for this area though, it's a very long way from one end to the other and most people just won't travel. Perhaps I'll have another go at contacting local clubs with a view to forming a South Wales group. Tried a couple of years ago and didn't have a single reply. The new owner of my LMS is the BMFA SW area Education Co-Ordinator so I'll run it past him as well. I'm planning to do some practice this weekend for the GBRCAA Championship event at Hurley, but I'm the only entry yet for Clubman. Come on guys, come and have a go! Graeme

Martyn - I would answer No to your question, because if there were absolutely no restrictions such as you list I wouldn't be flying model aircraft at all, I'd be flying full-size or travelling around the world or....................... (sorry, daydreaming). The fact is that I do fly model aircraft and have done for 55 years out of my 61. Why? Because I enjoy it and can afford it. Why F3A? Same answer. I used to race model power boats but stopped when it became too expensive. The main reason I can see for a lack of interest in competitions is that most model aircraft clubs simply aren't set up to promote it. Contrast that with most model car and model boat clubs where competitions are often the driving force of the club. There are many other factors, as you say, but until we can get clubs interested I don't think the number of competitors will increase. So, how do we get CLUBS interested in promoting/hosting competitions? Graeme

SR71 - thanks for that - nice pics too, but they show up my mismatch of colour for the cowl! I wasn't so happy by Sunday morning after 2 nights without sleep. If the noisy campsite issue can't be sorted I'll be in a B&B next year. As Peter has said several times on this thread, most if not all the F3A pilots are friendly and helpful. It's not an atmosphere of dog-eat-dog, cut-throat competition. Some pilots get very nervous but there's a big element of fun as well. Chris - I don't really understand the lack of entries but then if you'd asked me 2 years ago if I would ever compete in the Nats I would have laughed and said never. That I did is all Peter's fault. Willyuk - it would be great to see you there, and perhaps at some of the GBRCAA comps as well? Peter - yes I hope so too. I'll email you with some ideas on that. Graeme

Donald - the turbines I saw produced very little noise, but I take your point. Although with a leisure battery to run the fridge overnight the turbine could be stopped, the wind often drops at night anyway. Not sure I agree about the "etiquette of silence" though. I had to come home from the Nats early Sunday morning because I had no sleep at all Friday or Saturday nights. Dogs barking, people laughing and shouting, car doors being slammed, cars being driven about (I think by people who couldn't be bothered to walk to the toilets), quadcopters being flown - all of this until at least 2 AM, I doubt I would have been able to hear a small turbine myself. Oh, and of course there was what I assume was a disco in the trade area, which didn't even start until 11:30 PM. And farm machinery in the distance. And some caravans/motorhomes with generators left running despite the campsite rule that they be turned off by 11:00 PM. And all of this was in the QUIET part of the campsite. How much worse was the NOISY part? Yes, a small petrol genny would be an answer, but a good, reliable quiet one would be expensive. Foxfan - yes I've had a look at some of the canal forums but most seem to use large solar panel arrays or a commercial version of what I'm thinking about. Not sure whether you mean more flight batteries, which wouldn't solve the problem with the 12V fridge, or more leisure batteries, which are expensive and very heavy (I would need at least 6 80Ah batteries to give the required energy storage). Graeme Edited By graeme jones on 31/08/2015 20:31:21

Phil - I have a couple of solar panels, of the briefcase type from Maplin. Rated at 13W each I bought them for £40 pound each when they were on a halfprice offer. Rated at 13W each they produce a maximum of 1.4 amps when used in parallel. To produce the 8 amps I need means solar panels rated at 150W, costing at least £500 and weighing more than I could carry. And the sun would need to shining. So no good at night or in typical British weather. Of course wind turbines only work when the wind is blowing, but it always is when I go flying, usually too strong and in the wrong direction! Graeme

On a recent holiday to Anglesey, I was interested to see boats moored in a marina using small wind turbines for electrical power. Now that I've started in a bit of competition work I need a way to charge flight batteries (12V 50W charger) and keep my food cool (12V 50W fridge). My car battery and leisure battery combined can only supply 100W for about 8 hours ( with a 50% safety margin to avoid deep discharge). I've looked at small wind turbines by a couple of manufacturers but prices start at £600! Has anyone out there built their own or experimented with such a device? I'm thinking along the lines of a medium size brushless motor and a five blade turbine of about 500 mm diameter, but can't figure how to match the slow speed of the turbine (1000 RPM?) with the KV of any available motor. Gears to match the speeds mechanically would be noisy and reduce efficiency. Any ideas? Graeme   Edited By graeme jones on 31/08/2015 16:00:16

Peter - I made it to the Nats to fly in F3A Clubman. Flew in both rounds on Saturday, first flight was dire, but then I hadn't flown since the N Berks comp at the end of May because of health problems and poor weather on the few days when I could have. Second flight was much better thanks to some help from Adrian who called the sequence for me. I couldn't stay for the rest of the weekend, had to come home Sunday morning after making my apologies to Matt. The problem was a lack of sleep (caused by the overnight noise in the "quiet" part of the campsite) threatening a return of my poor health, which could have made the return 200 mile drive impossible. Biggest disappointment with the competition was that there wasn't any. In spite of all your efforts and encouragement with this thread over nearly 2 years, mine was the only entry in Clubman. Intermediate and Masters weren't much better with just two entries in each. Come on guys, WHERE WERE YOU? Are there reasons that can be addressed, such as the format of the comp over 3 days? It can't be the standard of flying, you would only have had to beat me, so what's the problem? I'm going to take up the issue of overnight noise on the campsite with the BMFA, since there's a simple solution. If anyone wants to make any other suggestions which would lead to an incentive to compete next year, but doesn't want to contact the BMFA themselves, please PM either me or Peter so that we can pass them on. And as my boss used to say, don't tell me the problem, tell me the solution. Graeme

Sean - very odd, but the text of your message doesn't appear above, although it does in my email alert to your post. Yes I'm certainly interested, Goetre being only a few miles away. Can't remember if I gave you my email address, which is [email protected] Graeme