Ben B

What I've traditionally done for sub zero flying is get some gloves and cut little holes in the end of the thumbs (I'm a stick flier). Worked well for 4 channel planes but quads with their modes, arming switches etc don't work quite as well. For this winter I've got a banggood transmitter mit and a 12v 20W silicon heating pad- I've stuck the silicon pad onto a thin sheet of ali to act as a heater spreader. The heating pad is powered by a lipo through a basic PWM power controlled (so I can adjust the power from inside the mitt). Only real issue is the fact that I have to keep on changing lipos- 3 minutes a flight!!!

Personally I'd first learn to fly with a nice cheap ARTF and then learn to build. Trying to learn to fly something you've built while traditional can stretch out the whole process. I built my first plane (Precedent Hiboy II), tried to teach myself to fly around the unique way I'd constructed it and eventually gave up and got a simple semi-ARTF. Then moved back to the Hiboy and have a ball. IE there's a place for lovingly built hand-crafted planes and there's a place for semi-disposable ARTFs...

Fit the biggest you've got until you've checked power being drawn.

A 6*5.5 APC might well do the trick (and will obviously be cheaper than a new motor) but really it's time to invest in a wattmeter. A 1800kv motor on a 3s on a 6*5.5 will probably pulling near your ESC limit. Your battery will copy fine. Most motors that size will also handle high teen amps. But really you need to be able to measure the watts being pulled otherwise you're really asking for something to go pop. Even if you change the motor you need to ensure you keep within your ESC limit.

What current are you charging at? Internal resistance could have gone up causing the voltage to spike under charging but sag when disconnected. Equally its worth manually checking the volts- I've had a few battery checkers go south and give wierd readings.

My oldest plane is a Precedent Hiboy. I started building it just after completing my GCSEs- that was 28 years ago.... I know people like knocking Precedent planes but I think 28 years of regular flying including flying through a few trees is quite good going! Compare that to my latest ARTF which already has ripped covering and I haven't even flown it yet!

There are videos on YouTube of them. Their slightly unorthodox control mechanism appears to make them no as ready to control as a standard plane- or rather they are easy to fly, I just don't think it would work on a confined place.

If you go down the lipo route get a cell checker / alarm also. Nicads/NIMHs you can deep discharge fairly low without impunity. Not true of lipos. A brushless ESC will likely have a Low voltage cut-off suited to lipos, probably not true if you're still using a brushed set-up / esc.

Not sure if this is the problem but self adhesive Velcro is really bad at sticking to foam. A really effective trick is to glue a thin ply / balsa plate onto the foam then attach the Velcro onto that. The velcro will hold onto the wood much better. An alternative is to smear the foam with epoxy- again the Velcro will bond much better.

I must admit I rarely fly mine nowadays. Looks lovely on my desk but when flying its just too lairy on landing. My method now is to come in hot a long way away, almost do a low pass then chop the throttle and haul on the elevator to do a long flair. With the improved u/c its fine doing this- the stock would bend. I also think the wing just doesn't work that well. All in all you just have to fly it fast and using lots of space, kind of defeating the point of having a small (park flier) plane.

It appears this is a known problem and can be solved by switching off digital text (whatever that is) in settings. https://www.cnet.com/forums/discussions/samsung-tv-turning-off-when-on-one-channel-only-617444/

I thought I'd post this just in case it's useful information to other r/c fliers. When I tried researching the topic 18 months ago it was very difficult to get definitive answers. Basically, flying with lithium batteries is fine as long as you take them in hand luggage. It's often very difficult to get a definitive answer if you ask the airline how many you can take or to confirm it's okay (at all) but the honest truth is the only people who know you have lithium batteries are the airport security and they tend to either just follow the CAA rules https://www.caa.co.uk/Passengers/Before-you-fly/Baggage/Items-that-are-allowed-in-baggage/ or just want to ensure the brick shaped thing with wires coming out of it isn't something more dangerous than a lipo..... The CAA confirmed to me that the airlines can have more stringent rules than the CAA regs (which are the bare minimum) but try to get a consistent simple from an airline customer services person! I gave up trying to ask Ryan Air whether their "2 lithium batteries" only applied if (as per the CAA) the batteries were above 100Wh..... Apparently the final decision is the pilots but that has obvious issues (I suspect if you ring the airline and ask for the contact details of the pilot MI5 would turn up the next morning!). So it appears the rules are 1) hand luggage only 2) preferably have some way of demonstrating they work (I take my quadcopters in hand luggage so that sorts that out)- a battery voltage checker seems sensible as a plan B 3) have them in a lipo sack 4) terminal covers seem a sensible precaution (as a nod to CAA regs)- xt30 and xt60 covers are easily available, things like HXT 4mm I just wrap the plug in insulating tape. Deans I just wrap in tape- it would be possible to get another Deans and insulate the solder tabs but I think this is more of a risk (the insulation could come off) than just having the battery connector wrapped in tape. 5) having the batteries at storage voltage seems to be sensible (not that anyone has ever checked in my experience). So far I've done eight flights with hand luggage that included 3-4 quadcopters, a lithium sack of about 30 batteries (max capacity was a 4s 1300mah) and so far I've only once been asked to open up the luggage so they could swab the batteries. Flying out the UK they seem more cautious (another time I got asked what was in the case but not asked to open it up). Flying into the UK they don't seem to care- though the xray man at Menorca airport yesterday did give the picture on the xray screen a Paddington stare for about 2 minutes before apparently deciding it was just some quadcopters and associated batteries. Hope this is of use to someone. I was really stressed the first time I flew with lipos in the absence of clarity from the airline. Truth is security just want to check they're not explosives. Now I don't stress about it- in fact I'm secretly hoping one day they'll ask me to prove the devices work so I can do some Tiny Whoop power loops through a metal detector gate :D The other thing if flying with r/c clobber is just check for banned tools (e.g. sharp hex drivers, knives etc) and put them in the hold luggage. I keep all my quads, goggles, transmitter etc in a suitcase (for easy transport to the flying field) and it's amazing how much of the stuff in the bottom of the case would have been taken off me by the security at the airport.... By all accounts they're not that keen on cable ties either (for obvious reasons)....

Are batteries restricted? What batteries (type and C rating) are you using? How new / old are they? When using cheap batteries in fast electric planes I've been forced to land with 50% useful capacity left due to voltage sag (which in itself kills performance). If in doubt have a look at what MR racers use...

It would be useful to clarify what you meant by "run out of charge". Was this based on voltage from telemetry / lvc cutting in?? What was the resting voltage of the pack? If you're pulling high amps on a low C battery you'll only ever use a small proportion of the true capacity....

I wouldn't get a mini wot4. Not if you need safe. I fly it with an AS3X receiver which is obviously very similar. I used this so I can fly in windy weather. Even on a calm day it's a hand full. It's just too small and twitchy for a noob. IMHO anything below 1M is a handful.

I love my Precedent hiboy. It's still in my loft in one piece 26 years after I built it. It was difficult to build it wrong and it was as strong as a Panzer tank. Issues were from lack of power (I flew mine initially on an OS35FP and it was underpowered and take off runs were very long). I still like the way it flies- responds to commands, tolerates wind well, no adverse yaw etc, suitable for bank+yank to begin with, will roll and loop etc. When I want to tutor someone I bring it out. The only issues I had with mine were from the motor. As said it was underpowered and the remote needle extension (OS offical part) gave me no end of jip with the motor going deadsticks. A TT40GP with the same extension had similar problems so was not an improvement!!! But then learning how to land deadsticks is part of the "fun". Main issues were long take-offs and poor ground control (no steerable nosewheel) and the need to touch down gently as the undercarriage would splay. I concur to a degree with the suggestion- if you can fly this you can fly anything but I'd phrase it differently- it taught you to fly properly!! If they still made them I'd buy another and that's more than I can say of some of the planes that followed....

It depends how the wind is orientated to the landing strip. And it stops being fun long before it stops being safe IMHO!!! Also there's a difference between a day with a steady 20mph wind and a day blowing 10 but with 30mph gusts. I live about an hour away from the strip. Anything about about 15mph (with 20mph gusts) and I'll go fly a quad on the local park rather than making the journey only to find its too windy to fly a plane!

The best use for telemetry IMHO is for checking signal strength. I never used to use telemetry when flying fixed wing but since moving to quads (and having my quad go failsafe 200m above a volcano- thankfully long dormant) I tend to use it quite a lot. The annoying thing was that in my "volcano" flight I hadn't set any telemetry alarms! After it fell from the sky I checked the tx and it was showing all kind of signal issues!!! Had I known.... Of course recently I worked out how to get signal strength via the OSD on my quadcopter so it's somewhat less important. My main use nowadays for telemetry therefore is for pack voltage. On a punch out or fast run I'm trying to keep up with the quad and checking voltages takes a back seat- the vibe+tone lets me know volts are getting a bit sketchy.....

Posted by Biggles' Elder Brother - Moderator on 21/05/2018 12:36:40: I thought I would relate a recent experience - it's not a scam as such, but none-the-less it is (in my opinion) dishonest dealing and one to watch out for. I ordered an expensive (~£350) ARTF from a model supplier via their website. This trader was not in the UK they were in Europe - in an EU country where I think you could be generally assured of fair dealing. I ordered from them because they were the only place I could find with the model in stock and it was marked as "in stock" on their site. No one else had this model and maybe that should have sounded alarm bells in my head. Anyway - I bought the model and paid, in full, via PayPal. I received an email confirming my purchase and very quickly the item was marked as "dispatched" on my account page on the company's website. A week passed, I had no tracking number and no sign of the model. Mmmm? So I tried to contact the company, just to ask politely at this stage, when I might expect delivery. I tried their website contact page and their email address but with no joy. No one would answer. I even tried telephoning, but that just got a recorded message. Now I'm quite concerned. We are two weeks in, I have paid but I have no model and no one is talking to me. So I decide to "kick" them into action, I start a compliant in PayPal. Now if you have done this you will know it is a two stage process; first they set up a "resolution centre" where you and the seller can discuss the issue and see if you can reach a mutually acceptable resolution. If not, the dispute goes to a full dispute and PayPal will arbitrate. Boy! Instant response from the company - but not in the resolution centre - they send me an email directly. It says that they have the model but "cannot" dispatch it until I drop the PayPal dispute - then they will send it. They are not happy. Now the problem here is if I drop the PayPal dispute I accept that the problem has been resolved and PayPal will not allow me to reopen it. That would mean I would be without any protection as a buyer at all. Given their previous lack of response I was not inclined to be trusting of this company. I could close the dispute, they don't send the model and there would be very little I could do about it! So I copied their email into the PayPal Resolution Centre (so there would be an official record) and refused their kind offer. I pointed out that they had my money and the model, that isn't the way things work normally! I gave an undertaking, in public in the Resolution Centre, that I would drop the dispute the instant the model arrived with me. No answer. A number of days pass, I send notes though the Resolution Centre demanding either my money back or the model - no answer. So, I issue an ultimatum, either they refund or dispatch by 17:00 CET the next day or I escalate this and go for full PayPal arbitration - which they will obviously lose. All I get back is an email repeating that they "cannot" dispatch while the dispute is open. At 16:00CET the next day I remind them that they have just one hour before I press the button. At 16:40CET I received a notice from PayPal that they had refunded my money! The big lesson to be learnt here I believe is always buy through a system that offers protection, PayPal or a Credit Card. If I had paid for this directly on my debit card - I'd have been sunk. BEB They actually wouldn't have had your money- Paypal would be holding in. As soon as someone opens a resolution centre dispute Paypal claim back the money and only hand it over once the dispute has been resolved. Hence, I suspect, their refusal to post until the dispute is resolved. Equally, if they'd posted when they said they had......... Strange that they did that via their own website though, on Ebay sellers do it (mark as dispatched before it actually is) because Ebay monitor how quickly things are marked as dispatched and them (as well as the 5 star feedbacks) decides on seller fees.....

Timing over-aggressive causing over-heating motor? ESC too hot?

Might not be the issue when electric

Not a lot in this case. It means you're connected to the website via http rather than https. Https is a secure connection so someone on the same network cannot see what you are doing. With http interception is possible. Not that I'd stress too much- the most they could get is your modelflying login credentials.

I can remember my first ever flight. I was staying down in Devon with my family (I must have been about 12) and we went to a flying club near the beach (now sadly closed). I really just went to have a look at the planes but was offered a go on a 4 stroke (OS surpass) Junior 60. It was quite an exposed site with a brisk breeze but it seemed to handle it okay. I was flying quite reasonable circuits (to the extent that the plane owner wandered off). Unfortunately I was accidentally drifting with the wind towards the sea. It got quite a long way away when I realised I couldn't remember whether I was flying away or towards me. By this point the owner had returned - I asked him if he wanted to take over- he promptly advised me he couldn't even see the plane In the end I did some rudder turns to check which way it was flying and then waited.... and waited... Eventually the plane started getting a bit bigger and we got it back. I think I must have been about halfway to Lundy Island!!! All in all quite a memorable day - I can remember one person landing his Precedent Funfly - he was landing it and it was about a foot off the deck on finals when the fuselage fell off! The wing fluttered down, the plane was fine, no harm done!!! New wing bolt and some more fuel and off again!!!

The only reason glow engines will disappear is if they find someone has been doing something nefarious with the fuel! Like many I suspect, I have to get my fuel via courier already due to there being no local model shop. I can't imagine we'll ever get to a stage were it's impossible to get fuel via post. And until that day comes I'll include glow engines in my fleet- I just prefer them to electric for most uses- though I don't think a glow quadcopter would work that well

Wierdest feeling I had flying was when the clevis on the elevator came open during a flight and I lost total control of the elevator. Luckily it was a fairly stable trainer type plane. I twigged fairly soon that I had no elevator control and so didn't try bank and yank turns- instead I did big lazy rudder/elevator circuits and did what I'm quite embarassed to say is one of the best, smoothest landings I've ever managed! Probably because for once I had to fly it down to the strip rather than just dump it onto the patch!!! But that first 10-20 seconds of "oh my goodness" was quite a nasty sensation. It was difficult not to subconsciously apply up elevator on the landing even though I knew it wouldn't do anything