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Braddock, VC

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Posts posted by Braddock, VC

  1. If you can get one, a Flair Magnatilla is a great build and even better flier, provided you don't over power it. I've had best results with a TT 42 GP with a 12x5 graupner grey prop but my first one, which helped me onward from a junior 60, was powered by an Enya 35 plain bearing engine, which was more than adequate.

    Failing that a uno-wot or wot4 mk3 with one of the above engines and a suitable instructor, is a great combination.

    I really enjoy flying my wot4s just above the stall, they fly so slowly it's unbelievable. They can also fly fast but slow is quiet.

  2. I've used mine in a flair fokker d7, seagull i-sport, wm midget mustang and a large piper cub, I think from YT international.

    TBH I think they are too heavy to fit in any of the wots, despite what people say.

    I use westons liquid gold 20% fuel and get about 9500 rpm with an apc 14x6 so I think it's safe to say it outperforms many 60 size two strokes propped to meet the 82dBA recommendation. It also slightly outguns the saito 82 with the same fuel and prop but is so much smoother, it ought be to as, iirc, it's about 200+ grammes heavier.

    FWIW I have a second seagull i-sport fitted with an OS 61 Fx and it has a similar performance, to the best of my knowledge, as my original one with the 80 up front.

    The D7 would knife-edge all day and never needed any ballast to meet the required c of g. It suited the midget mustang but overpowered the cub to the extent it would torque roll if the throttle was opened too quickly.

    Mine is sitting there unused but will fit it back in the D7 as soon as I've repaired some battle damage.

  3. I remember Bud Morgans, it was an extended trip for me from the western valleys, train to newport, then change to the express to cardiff and a walk to the castle arcade. I went there several times to buy glow fuel for my B class racer and also bought an enya 15d in the late 50s that was very short lived following a line cut in combat.

    I also remember a model shop in either Paignton or Torquay that displayed (for several years) an uncovered KK Scout biplane (I think I'm pretty sure that's what it was) in the window in the early 50s, started me on a love affair with bipes. Funny how I'm so useless at flying them.

  4. Youngsters were cut out of the hobby by the vulnerable persons claptrap. I'm selfish I don't care anymore, I do care that I can't readily get components for my glo engines but I have enough to keep me going. I'm so pleased that westonuk still ships fuel.

    I enjoy what I do but I won't be overly disappointed if it all crashes I have other things I can do with my time. I've cancelled the subscriptions I had to two modelling mags as they just churned out the same old same old etc and I don't miss them, I still get Sticks & Tissue as it's free and generally without a hint of PC, unlike some placeswink

  5. I seem to remember Christophe P-R used a wot 4 to practice with prior to his sponsored career. Obviously back then it was a kit built model. I think it was the classic version.

    I certainly love mine as an all weather flyer, so much so that I can't be bothered to build an acrowot much as I like that as well. But there again electric it isn't.

    Edited By Braddock, VC on 20/06/2020 16:45:31

  6. Posted by Ron Gray on 20/06/2020 14:54:20:

    I just thought I'd weigh the powertrain I propose for this model and, with batteries (10s) it comes out at 2Kg. Now a Laser 155 weighs in at, say 1Kg and a full tank (500cc) weighs about 120g, that's a lot of difference! Am I missing something here?

    500 cc of fuel weighs more than that, probably nearer 400 - 450 grammes. You also get free noise with a laser.

    I had a turnigy 26cc gas engine in one of mine and an OS 120 surpass mk2 in the other. The engine doctor is spot on regards the inherent weakness abaft the trailing edge of the wings, exacerbated if one fits the servos back there.

    Lovely well mannered plane even crashes gracefully. Rudder is a pain if you flip them over on landing though.

  7. I hope Malcolm is still checking this thread out, I have lost two planes down to throttle cut.

    I fly ic and when throttle cut is switched in I found out that the throttle stick is disabled, I use the cut in conjunction with idle down so when both are applied the engine stops. One switch for idle down and another for cut.

    Is it possible to set the throttle cut so that the throttle control isn't disabled? I've not had this problem before on ff8, 9 and 10.

    Incidentally the switch was applied accidentally in both instances.

    Also I can't get throttle cut to work when the throttle control is reversed, is there a fix for this?

  8. I hope Malcolm is still checking this thread out, I have lost two planes down to throttle cut.

    I fly ic and when throttle cut is switched in I found out that the throttle stick is disabled, I use the cut in conjunction with idle down so when both are applied the engine stops. One switch for idle down and another for cut.

    Is it possible to set the throttle cut so that the throttle control isn't disabled? I've not had this problem before on ff8, 9 and 10.

    Incidentally the switch was applied accidentally in both instances.

    Also I can't get throttle cut to work when the throttle control is reversed, is there a fix for this?

    Edited By Braddock, VC on 06/06/2020 07:42:29

    Edited By Braddock, VC on 06/06/2020 07:43:53

  9. I bought a dremel corded drill about 18 years ago, one of the locking lugs on the case has broken off, I also bought a dremel chuck about a month later. IIRC at the time the chuck was about a 1/3 of the money I gave for the complete drill, even at £16 (?) it remains a bargain.

    I had thought about replacing the drill with a cordless one but don't use it often enough now to justify.

  10. Back in 2004 I bought a stack of saito 82s at the Nats, I sold off three old diesels and got enough to pay for the three 82s and went on to buy 2 62s and 2 125s. I used to run them on southern modelcraft hi-lube 10% nitro and 20% synthetic oil.

    One day one of the 82s stopped and couldn't be turned then a few months later another one did it. The conrod had seized onto the crankpin in both instances. I bought one new con rod and used some crocus paper on the pins and sold off the engines except for one 82 and one 62 which I still have.

    I never used to run them lean and all my OS and OS clones continued to run perfectly as did my 3 lasers, all bar one of my OS + clones have had new bearings as they were just starting to brinel, same with the lasers. I found a source of stainless bearings that were well priced and most have those fitted. I did toy with the idea of using boca bearings ceramic bearings but I understand the races on them are steel.

    One thing I don't understand is why Jon says the front bearing takes all the load in lasers, I've changed bearings in my 70 and 80 at least twice and the 100 once (the 70 and 80 are from about 2003/4 and the 100 is much earlier) and in those instances the rear bearing was showing signs of distress whilst the front one seemed to be as good as the day it was installed, I changed them anyway but it seems to me all of the firing loads and prop thrust are focused on the rear bearing and the only time any undue thrust is placed on the front one (unless it's a pusher) is when a starter is used or when you inadvertently stuff the plane in nose first at high speed.

    On some of my OS types I've not been able to get the front bearing for one reason or another and the original has been recycled though I didn't remove the front bearing from the casting. One of those, a 52 surpass, has since been pulling a southerner major around since it replaced a 2 stroke in the 90s.

    I always try to ensure that I run the engines at full throttle for a short while after flying and store them nose up so gravity drains any residue from the bearings onto the backplate. It seems to work.

  11. I bought a couple of those cheap servo testers and link up 3 servos at a time to each, that's 6 all told.

    Leave them running when I go in for a cup of tea etc for at least 1/2 an hour.

    Any that get hot I complained to HK about and send them back for a credit.

    I've sent back about 3 corona early ones and no turnigy ones so I always buy turnigy ones now if I need new servos.

    I also have a stock of hitec 422, 322 and 311 s which I use, none of them overheated. I only do i.c. models btw.

    FWIW the plastics on both corona and turnigy cases are inferior to the hitec and futaba servos I've had. How do I know?

    I recovered 4 lost planes two fitted with either corona or turnigy or a mix, one with futaba and one with hitec and most of the lugs on the first two were broken, water had gotten in and shafted a couple, hitec and futaba worked straight away with no broken lugs or leakage. I still have one plane out in the Lydden triangle, I'll find it one day, if I live that long.

    The consensus for losing some of the planes was that they dipped below the horizon and the failsafes cut in stopping the engine. One was structural and one was pilot error, well 2 if you count in I missed the structural damage.

  12. For future reference, westonuk.co.uk are/were the uk distributor for magnum engines (aka asp & SC) and used to keep spares.

    One would probably do better to phone an enquiry through as nothing is listed on the website.

  13. Is the model likely to need noseweight, if you can assess what the amount is likely to be sheet lead can be laminated into the cowl.

    I've had good results with the lost foam method of laying up, make the cowl from white foam so that its final shape includes the thrustline, spinner position etc and paint with emulsion, dark green or whatever colour you fancy.

    Lay up your glass cloth or chopped strand mat and paint your resin on around the foam, polyester is the better of the choices for this. Try to get the outside as near to the outline as possible. Don't get the resin on bare foam btw.

    Once the resin goes off, about 15 minutes iirc, start filing the outside to your final shape. Use cellulose filler to make up any low areas and keep reducing the coarseness of your abrasive until the finish is acceptable to you.

    Whilst doing this please wear a face mask as not only will it keep the dust out but also the bits of sputum that pass coronavirus on.

    You can then paint on a thin layer of gelcoat and sand that back until it suits you. when you're finished sprinkle cellulose thinners on the foam inside the cowl and watch it shrivel up cut and scrape the last knockings out, the paint will remain stuck to the resin and will show you when all the foam is gone.

    It's probably going to take about as long as making a plug and mold to lay up a conventional cowl. It's smelly and dusty but the results can be stunning.

    HTH, remember Brian Taylor used to use polyester for the cowls he supplied and I have two, one's been around since the mid 80s in the last century, the other is 10 years younger and still in use. They are solid and easy and quick to repair btw.

    Edited By Braddock, VC on 11/02/2020 21:10:55

    Edited By Braddock, VC on 11/02/2020 21:14:26

  14. I don''t know if ever anything good can come out of illness but my youngest brother who turned into a complete recluse after his wife dumped him phoned me tonight to see how I was.

    First time we'd spoken for a long time even though I've been leaving messages on his phone, sent letters , birthday cards and xmas presents - proper tonic it was but there's no getting away from it it's the downhill stretch for now.

    I bought a second hand wot 4 the other day, wife went barmy as I drove fro Dover to the other side of london to pick it up. Looking forward to getting back into flying, spent today fettling it, new servos, tank and plumbing had to glue some doublers in for the rudder and elevator servos but it's ready to rock and roll now, if the engine works.

    Got to keep positive.

  15. I had my op in Jan 2003 followed by RT, bye-passed the NHS as the first consultant was a first class wally. So now, 17 years later just had my first heart attack at 75 and have a problem with an irregular heartbeat; this followed complications having stents put in the arteries around the heart, ended up with 3 eventually and the cocktail of drugs I now have to take is growing by the day.

    Hope springs eternal but I'm waiting til the next surgery's done before coughing up my smae and caa membership.

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