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leccyflyer

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  1. leccyflyer

    leccyflyer posted a gallery image in Member Albums

  2. leccyflyer
    Went flying with my boy. Though it was blowy, and from a bad direction, we managed a few flights and had a good day. Lovely skies but a blustery wind. Only a few of us at the field since most had gone to Weston Park.  Started a glow engine today as well, for a clubmate - making that the first time in a few years.  Good day.
  3. leccyflyer
    Mark The Loong Max Tipple cells are excellent and they do seem to come down pretty cool, compared to some other packs with similar ratings. The usual expression at the end of a flight is "They've done nothing", It's not a thermometer, but ot's a decent proxy for one   I've just ordered a few more today. They knock the much more expensive packs that I've owned into a cocked hat.
  4. leccyflyer
    I was asked for details of the lightweight dolly that we use with the Spitfire and other funfighter type models. It's been posted before but it won't hurt to have some pictures and details here. The dolly is made from plastic tubes and mouldings from a broken Wendy house, with lightweight foam wheels on a piano wire axle, some model supports from a dense foam, cable tied to the frame and a tailwheel from the model shop.  http://www.modelflying.co.uk/members/albums/
  5. leccyflyer
    Thanks BEB  That certainly squares up with everything else that I've read recently on the subject. 
  6. leccyflyer
    Posted by Timbo - Administrator on 10/06/2010 19:27:35: Its DSSS thats being discussed not DSM - see earlier posts. Does that mean that DSM2 has a clean bill of health and isn't subject to the forthcoming decision?   
  7. leccyflyer
    Posted by Vecchio Austriaco on 10/06/2010 18:32:51: A forever spare parts guarantee will never exist. When I look at my old 35MHz Futaba I am pretty sure it is difficult to get anything now. Todays electronics don't last forever - so I decided not to wait for the super safe gear with 10 channels and feedback. It is like with computers - there will be always something new, better, a different OS, and so on. So even knowing there may be some issues I bought the Spektrum gear. First one for my son - DX6i - was perfect for the money - so I decided to get a DX7 - even better from a mechanical point of view. In the meantime we have also a DX7SE - as I have to much fear that the stickthrowing flightstyle of my son is dangerous for the DX6i. And between us we have 10 receivers. So even if Spektrum will stop tomorrow selling any receivers I can survive for the next years. VA I'm not talking about a forever spare parts guarantee. I'm talking about a system less than 2 years old by the time next April comes around.  I also have 35mhz Futaba gear (FF6 FF8) and can get any amount of replacement parts and gear for that current sys tem which is more than 10 years old.
  8. leccyflyer
    Posted by Vecchio Austriaco on 10/06/2010 17:50:07: I cannot get rid of the feeling that this forum is dominated by a anti-Spektrum lobby. Here in this part of the world almost 40% of the peope use it and all are happy with it. As we could read above we will not have to throw our stuff away whatever decision will be made. For me Spektrum gives still a good value for the money it costs. So who doesn't like it should look for JR, Futaba, Multiplex or whatever.   VA  That's the problem. I do like my Spektrum gear. Very much indeed.  What I don;t like is the uncertainty involved in buying ten receivers for a system that in twelve months time might prove obselete, in terms of getting more receivers, or transmitters. So far I have five.  There as been some talk that a firmware update might be sufficient to solve any difficulties and if that is the case then some confirmation of that would be  good idea to allay the misgivings of those part way through a conversion.  Given that Horizon have made two major press releases in the past couple of weeks - about compatible receivers and today about the immediate recall of the AR6250 receivers then I don;t think it is too much to ask. I'd hoped that they would do so, merely from having been aware of the situation, but maybe I'll have to ask them directly. Edited By leccyflyer on 10/06/2010 18:13:48
  9. leccyflyer
    John I bought my DX7 last year, but had hardly made any use of it before learning of this. I'd appreciate some forum of statement from Horizon regarding their contingency plans should this decision go against them in April next year. Given that it has been discussed now for several months then it surely warrant that?
  10. leccyflyer
    Credit where credit is due.The July issue of the magazine is a very good read. I read part of it in the car, whilst waiting for someone and still have not read it all. Good content, some proper balsa bashing and all in all worth buying. Thumbs up
  11. leccyflyer
    Oh, I think every club gets a bit of that. It's quite a commitment to go all the way through to joining for some people. They show an initial interest, visit maybe a few times and might even have a trial flight. That seems to be the point that sorts the keen to join from the "just looking" and so we like to encourage that as much as possible.  Having said that, like most clubs, about 20% of the current membership at any time does probably 80% of the flying, week in, week out. There's a large percentage that might only come to the field a few times a year, mostly over the summer months and a certain percentage who never come at all even after having joined.
  12. leccyflyer
    Though it's not my model  (we don't have Kookaburras hereabouts) the HA one has all the disadvantages of a non-silvery colour scheme, retracts and a cowl that doesn't look like it's been liberated from a P-40. The main construction looks to be very similar to the Rippers Spitfire though and reports of the flying characteristics are equally positive.. The avatar is  Big Les (or actually a smaller version of him) - a teddy pilot sold at airshows all over the country. If it's the same as some other poster's then I'll happily change it.
  13. leccyflyer
    Some of the things we've done recently. We have a very simple webpage - a single page with some details of the club and contact details, which is listed on the BMFA clubs list. We do get a fair number of enquiries from there, some of which go through to join the club, but not as many as might be expecte. We don't have the resources to administer and keep a more complex website up to date and haven't found it necessary.  We put posters up in the LHS and in the local libraries and community centres with details of the club and contact details to come along to weekly club meetings..  We have biannual fun fly events, with a BBQ and hope to attract interest from our neighbours and passing trade. WE don;t actually advertise these, but always seem to get a fair number of passers by calling down to the field. There's a club trainer, which is in the air for a lot of the time, taking youngsters, and the not so young, for trial flights. That has produced some new members in the past couple of years- we also waive the usual joining fee if a membership application is made on a fun fly day..  We have a couple of club videos on You Tube, with contact details. That has netted a few new members in the past twelve months.   We also have a stand, with models, a laptop running a flight simulator, a photo display and a video of flying at the club. The idea is to take this to any local events, such as fetes etc as a static display. It hasn't actually produced any new members yet, but it's only had one outing so far at a classic car show. The organisers of such events are very keen to have something like model flying, but you need to think very carefully and suss out the site if they expect any flying, that is a whole different thing altogether, we don;t do flying displays, just static..  
  14. leccyflyer
    My Astro Wattsmeter, that served me well for many years is now mostly unused in favour of a Graupner clamp meter. The big thing with the clamp meter is that it is non-invasive, easy and simple to use, which encourages it's use. The Wattsmeter maybe gets 5% of the use, and only then when I specifically want to test how the batteries are holding up under load.  There's also the small matter of inserting what I measured on mine as 13 inches of extra wiring between the battery and the ESC, which could potentially cause problems. Others' Wattsmeters wouldn't have as much wire, since I retained the original Astro plugs and fitted short extensions to my usual connectors. Nevertheless I still find the clamp meter easier to use, as do those who borrow it. True you don't get any reading other than the most critical amps drawn, which is what preserves your electric bits from letting out the magic smoke. If I were only able to have one meter it would be the clampmeter.
  15. leccyflyer
    There's so much variation in the motors, batteries, receivers, ESCs, propellors and spinners used that it is inevitable that there will be variation in the weight. Now, if only Ripmax could be persuaded to replace the monstrosity of a cowl with the much nice one that the otherwise close to identical model that is supplied with the widely available in the Far East, which also has a retract option.  Edited By leccyflyer on 09/06/2010 12:10:17 Edited By leccyflyer on 09/06/2010 12:12:25
  16. leccyflyer
    The situation is, IMO, a matter of great uncertainty and it has certainly influenced my buying decisions.  I guess we'll know next April, but if the post above is correct we may get an inkling in July. Very much a case of watch this space.  There will be a lot of fairly disgruntled DSM2 users if it turns out that they have invested in a system that they won't be able to buy new bits for next year, even if the existing kit can still be used.
  17. leccyflyer
    The Macondo field has published reserves of about 50 million barrels of oil ( which is about 2,100,000,000 Gallons).  That doesn't mean, of course that all of that oil would come out of the reservoir if the well remains unplugged,.  It wouldn't.  There would, however be a massive amount of oil put out onto the Gulf. It could even flow for years at the current rate of flow.  Leaving the well to "empty" the reservoir and trying to capture or clean up what comes out is not a viable option. The Blowout  Preventer was supposed to crush the pipe shut, but for whatever reason, failed to do so. There was talk of trying to cut the riser, remove the debris and piggyback a second BOP stack onto the remaining pipe, but I'm not sure if there is sufficient length of pipe to allow that. Some accounts have said that the kinked section is right on top of the wellhead, with very little space available. Other schematics, listed as being not to scale, suggest a longer length of pipe before the "kink".
  18. leccyflyer
    The cutting off of  the riser will be done by an ROV. Initially the word was that a diamond wire saw would be used, as that would offer less resistance to the flow that a circular cut off saw blade. The first pictures of the procedure show a circular saw blade being used.  It's worth pointing out that cutting off the riser as part of te next attempt to cap the well will undoubtedly greatly increase te flow rate. The series of kinks in the pipe that sit above the wellhead are restricting the flow somewhat.  When that is cut away the flow will be unrestrained and will be the full flow rate that the well is capable of. In the short term it'll increase the amount of oil and gas coming out and, in the event the attempt to cap the well fails, we may end up worse off than if the riser had been left in place.
  19. leccyflyer
    If it were as simple as putting a plug in, isn't it pretty obvious that it would have already been done?. There's approximately a mile of thick-walled steel pipe attached to the wellbore, in a mile deep water. The kink in the ppie, just above the wellhead, is apparently restricting the flow, keeping it at a fraction of what the open hole flow would be. There are several other fractures and kinks in the pipe - each one of which is also leaking,  Gaining access to thhe wellhead would mean cutting the riser away - which has been put forward as being necessary - using a diamond wire saw.  To get anything into the end of the pipe is similar to trying to use one firehose to stop another firehose from flowing by exceeding the flow rate, but with them just held approximately facing each other. There is no means to pressure seal that interface.  The chances are that this well will only be brought under control when the relief well, which is being drilled to intersect the damaged well in the subsurface, has been completed. That is still a couple of months away. Edited By leccyflyer on 31/05/2010 23:26:22
  20. leccyflyer
    There's a difference between counterfeit - trying to pass them off as genuine - and receivers which use the same protocols, but which are clearly not trying to pass themselves off as something else. The six channel set for $14.95 - about a tenner - is interesting, even if one does not  wish to get one they might has some effect on the pricing of comparable branded items
  21. leccyflyer
    Like these?   Those are scratch built in glass-fibre by a clubmate and use a really nice technique to get that weathered, rusty look. They are painted with brick red matt enamels, then have a layer of salt crystals sprinkled on them, before being sprayed with more matt enamel. They they are put into warm water, the salt dissolves, leaving a heavily pitted surface, which has a further light dusting of brick red matt paint to finish. They look incredibly authentic close up.  Might be worth giving Vortex Vacforms a call to see if they have anything suitable. Here's a link to their webpage  http://www.vortex-vacforms.co.uk/generalpage.htm  - good luck     Edited By leccyflyer on 28/05/2010 18:09:40
  22. leccyflyer

    leccyflyer posted a gallery image in Member Albums

  23. leccyflyer
    Posted by Phil B on 16/05/2010 13:57:32: why do so mant clubs have an extra fee for new members. I will fall foul of this because my job forces me to move house every 2 or 3 years Although the club did did very kindly wave this fee for me In our case it is because of the Club Constitution which grants all members a share in the club assets in the event that the club is dissolved. There is also a degree of additional administration, postage, printing etc for brand new members.  Club membership automatically ceases if subs have not been payed by a certain date and the joining fee becomes payable, with a certain degree of leeway and individual arrangements in the event of financial hardship, which encourages payment of the subs at the appropriate time in the winter months.  If that were not in place then you might expect to get a ruck of members leaving payment of their subs until the decent flying weather comes around.  Our club subs are £42  year for seniors, plus BMFA and £10 for juniors, plus BMFA. The joining fee is £10 for seniors only,
  24. leccyflyer
    Posted by birdy on 24/05/2010 20:19:41: I've never had a mid-air, but I only ever fly with less than 3 in the air, and never with helis; Heli + foamy = expensive confeti + Thrashy, rapid reduction in value, peice of plastic... Some people do scare me slightly (why cant some people fly smoothly?), and I wish our club had a system where you had to call out - I dont like taking my eyes off my model. In my experience the vast majority of mid-airs occur with just two models in the air.  It is quite uncanny how often that happens.
  25. leccyflyer
    Posted by Ed Darter on 24/05/2010 13:11:57: Learn what your fellow flyers styles are and decide whether you are comfortable flying with them. I have a number of good friends who fly but some of their flying styles and mine don't mix too well, we always seem to be in the same bit of sky, So I generally sit back and enjoy watching them fly, and when they are near the end of their flight I'll prepare for mine. Others I am more than happy to be in the air with.Our sport / hobby has risks, you have to accept that otherwise you are in the wrong hobby. There will be mid airs and as long as neither party was being a complete spanner I think it should be shrugged off as a racing incident.  All pilots should stand together though, not only for communication. For 35MHz I was lead to believe this reduces the risk (further) of RX's picking up spurious signals from adjacent channels being broadcast from a different TX. same reason we ask our club members to leave the TX at the flight line when going onto the patch to collect a model. If they didn't do that their TX would be much closer to the flying models and increase the risk of cross channel interference. How big the risk is in reality I have no idea, I suspect very small these days but it doesn't hurt...... Top post  Getting to know the flying styles of those you fly with is a tremendous help in avoiding mid-airs. I won't fly at the same time as one of our very best flyers because the different styles of flying - he flies mostly turnaround aerobatics and I fly mostly circuits  have the potential to put us in the same patch of sky at the same time and with little warning. I'm happy to watch him fly and take my turn when he isn't up, even if there are just the two of us at the field.
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