Bucksboy

I've just ordered mine from Motion RC Europe, they're now showing out of stock so I must have ordered one of their last ones. I looked at the upgrades and I could buy a 3d printed cockpit set for about £25. But, at the moment they're allowing you to download the files and print your own for free. Well, in my case, get a friend to print them for you. The downside is that I'm not home until November to fly it.

Another vote for the OS F plug. Mine runs happily on 5% though.

Another vote for the OS F plug. Mine runs happily on 5% though.

It’s £4 a year extra. Heavens, let’s worry about something important.

Chesham model flying club own their own field too, they seem very happy with it. If you need a second opinion, contact them and ask their advice. I’m not a member so cannot answer any questions about it.

I fly off the shelf DJI Phantoms and Inspires at over 4 km distance but not in the UK. We use them as they’re relatively cheap and they work well virtually every time. I use them in the search role, going places it’s too dangerous to go in person. I’m sure they’re use will continue to grow but it’s not as much fun as proper model flying.

We laid an AstroTurf strip a few years ago for exactly the same reasons. We were lucky enough to get ours for free but then paid to have it laid. Best thing we ever did, good luck with yours!

We laid an AstroTurf strip a few years ago for exactly the same reasons. We were lucky enough to get ours for free but then paid to have it laid. Best thing we ever did, good luck with yours!

It's a tool that the plastic modellers use to bend their photo etched parts. I'd expect Hannants and others to stock them.

I can get the Russian text translated if you need it.

Chris, Thank you very much, Camsecure seem to be exactly what we need. I see that Raydon Model Aircraft Club already use them. I've emailed both Camsecure and the Chairman of Raydon to see if I can gather further details, looks very promising though. We only use a single photo every 5 minutes as it keeps the power needs of the phone down and allows us to use a cheap SIM card to send the photos from the mobile phone to the website. Our mobile phone looks through a tiny hole that the occasional vandal misses completely, we're keen to not have an external and obvious camera, it will become a target for sure. They found the solar panel fixed to the roof (it was invisible from the ground) and smashed that so an external camera would need to be made of cast iron. Fingers crossed!

We never went down the route of a remote access windspeed / weather station so cannot help regarding the above. Our existing system takes a photo every 5 minutes during daylight hours and this is linked into the Club website. You can see if your mates are at the field before you decide to go or not. A piece of plastic blowing in the wind, deliberately in shot, gives a very rough indication of the wind speed. In the 4 years we've had it the world has moved on. All the apps I've found last night are for beaming a live feed from one mobile phone to another using wi-fi. Be it for home security/baby monitoring etc. This is not what we want so the search continues.

Colin, I saw that opensmartcam are stopping at the end of the year, it's a real shame. It's really handy having a beady eye on the club during the day, time to search the net for a replacement.

Very impressive, please keep the posts coming. They're very informative.

Hitec Aurora. A great, easy to use transmitter. Same as The Wright Stuff, still works, no reason to change.

So, the Police are called, there's someone dead and the house owner says it was self defence. I've absolutely no doubt this may turn out to be true. But, should the Copper just say ok and walk off? The moment he starts to investigate and ask questions the law cuts in and the Copper has to follow certain actions and procedures. All of which are laid down by Parliament not the Police themselves. How do I know? Because I was a Policeman and turned up at a house at 2 am with a householder holding a knife and a dead man in the hall. What to do? You're on your own, help is 20 minutes away and you've got to make a decision that everyone else will debate for hours after consulting the law books for weeks. A luxury I didn't have. Newspapers are there to sell newspapers, nothing else is allowed to get in the way, the more salacious the story the better. The report on the Manchester Bombing was very telling. There was a huge section in the report which savaged the Press and their behaviour. What did the Press report? That the Manchester Fire and Rescue Service held off due to a breakdown in communication. What about the coverage reporting their disgraceful behaviour? Not a word. Hopefully the Police treated the man with all due respect and dignity but he had to be arrested so he could give an account of himself, after taking legal advice if need be. The account needs to be tape recorded otherwise we'll have years of arguing about who said what. There are a hundred reasons, all of which are law, as to why he had to be arrested. Good luck to him.

Blimey, have we got the same plane? I use a Hitec receiver and gear and can't remember having any problems at all. I use 2200 3 cell batteries, shove them in and fly, it's a great plane. The flaps are very effective but does cause the plane to climb on dropping the flaps. Lands and takes off on a sixpence when using flaps too, a real fun plane.

I've never been lucky enough to fly off water but my TN Sunderland is a delight to fly, I never found it too heavy. It drags itself off after sliding over grass whenever I forget my dolly. The plane is huge but is it's a big empty fuselage.

I had trouble giving my away Futaba receivers two years ago at my club. I think I managed to give away two in total, like everything, they are only worth what someone is willing to pay. I couldn't find anyone.

I think experience has a lot to do with it. I'm working in Eastern Ukraine at the moment, we had 3" of snow today alone. This is on top of the existing stuff that has turned to solid ice over the Winter. There are no gritters, snow ploughs or anything, they don't salt the roads, nothing. The agencies that would do these have totally collapsed. It falls to -20C overnight and struggles to get to -10C during the day. And yet, cars, buses and lorries continue to slip and slide but generally reach their location. Admittedly some can afford studded tyres but most cars are doing well to have visible tread on them, never mind studs. Most cars here would be scrapped by British standards. But everyone carries on here fairly much as normal, I can only assume that it's because they get a lot of practice each and every year.

Anything that has the letters DJI in front. I use the Phantom, Mavic and Inspire 2 for work (but not in the UK) and they are faultless. They just work, each and every time. I've not tried the Spark or new Mavic Air though but I'd expect them to well sorted too.

No, I've not managed to make a start at all. I took delivery just after Christmas. Thanks to Richard he kept hold of the box until I was able to arrange delivery. I've had time to get it all out of the box, pack it all back in the box and then return to work abroad. That's where it will sit for some considerable months I'm afraid, together with the 110. The worst thing is that I have the time over here to build, I could easily bring the tools over but I'd never get the parts back again. Everything has to fit in a medium suitcase and nothing worth building will fit in for the return journey. Luckily I fly UAV's here so I whilst I do get a form of modelling fun it's nowhere near 'normal' model flying. I fly, fix and repair the planes along with the amazing DJI Phantom, that has to do for the moment.

I've had the Aurora for about 5 years, it's been faultless. Having the touch screen to programme it is very intuitive. An excellent radio and I've been very pleased with it. I moved away from Futaba as the cost of the receivers was just going up all the time, the Hitec receivers have stayed the same. I've also bought a Hitec clone from Airtek but not used it yet. I saw that it's being discontinued so there should be some deals if there are any left.

Yes. You can fly over the main strip if you're on your own. If others are present ask permission to use the strip, the same restriction is applied to helicopters. Or use the dedicated heli training area whenever you want without restriction. If it flies, it's of interest to most of our Club members.

This is the one, the yellow to make it stand out, the whole thing just looks cool.