Nick Cripps

Have you charged the battery? The flashing red light may mean low battery voltage.

A trip out to the field lake today. All I needed was a pair of wellies and a waterplane. Yes, this is one of the runways...

Sent you a PM, Basil.

Again the manual is your friend for this sort of information: Having said that, 4.3V for a 4-cell NiMH pack is really a "drop-dead" level and I would not be comfortable with using the transmitter at such a low voltage as the drop-off thereafter could be quite rapid. Personally I would stop using the transmitter and recharge it if the voltage went below 4.8V on the screen display. Incidentally, I have just looked at my old DX6i transmitter which has not been charged or used for a few months now. It uses 4 AA Eneloop NiMH batteries and the voltage on the screen reads 5.4V.

You asked for a definitive answer on your thread about the transmitter battery. Hopefully you have now read my reply to that and understand that an external balance lead for charging a Lipo battery is not required if the battery itself contains internal circuitry to do the balancing.

Basil, Your original post asked about the condition of a non-lipo battery, presumably the Nimh battery that the DX7S was originally supplied with. As Wookman stated above, 5.6V hot off the charger which then drops quite quickly to around 5.2-5.3V is quite normal for a 4 cell battery of this type. As far as the replacement Lipo battery that is available for the DX7S then it depends which battery you have purchased. A quick bit of googling shows that both the Spektrum replacement here and the equivalent Turnigy battery here contain built-in circuits that automatically balance the 2 cells during charging. These batteries only have a single 2-wire lead to connect to the transmitter and no separate balance lead. Both of these batteries should be charged using the transmitter's inbuilt charging circuitry. Other alternatives such as that sold by 4-Max here do not contain the self-balancing circuitry and must be removed from the transmitter for charging using a suitable Lipo charger (clearly stated on the web page). Whichever type of battery you choose to use in your transmitter, you MUST select the appropriate battery chemistry (Nimh or Lipo) in the settings menu on your DX7S.

Good day out at Ashbourne today. Weather was great, plenty of interesting models and lots of entertaining banter. Many thanks to Chris and the crew.

Hi Martin, it was good to meet you today and I enjoyed the chat about your foam modelling techniques (and car restoration!). Looking forward to seeing the completed Carvair...

Very well done! Excellent build thread resulting in a stunning model. Looking forward to seeing Phil's in-flight photos over the Orme.

Presided over by 4 officials who earn a fraction of their wages and are continually abused by players, managers and supporters for 90 minutes. Shocking treatment, who would work in that environment every day?

If you make the clunk tube too long there is a risk that the the end face of the clunk can stick to the rear of the tank (by suction from the carb) and stop fuel flowing. The purpose of a groove in the end face of the clunk is to provide a path for the fuel so the clunk doesn't get stuck. I've never used a length of brass tube in the clunk line, I just use fuel tube but make sure that the length is cut correctly so that the clunk clears the end of the tank. Check this by holding the tank vertically with the neck pointing upwards and shine a light from the opposite side of the tank to show how far down the tank the clunk reaches - it needs about 1/4" clearance. The purpose of the brass tube in the clunk line is to prevent the clunk ending up at the front of the tank after, say, a heavy landing which can cause fuel starvation on the next flight. If this happens, just hold the model vertically upwards and give it a shake, you should hear the clunk rattle in the tank showing it is free to move. It's never happened to me (well, the heavy landings have!) so I've never felt the need to include brass tube.

For this model? Absolutely none. I often use the Sullivan golden rods in scratch-built models but that is just my personal preference. There are many similar products that do the same job just as well, including the snakes already installed in the Arising Star. Don't get distracted by well-meaning advice, just concentrate on repairing the the broken bits and fixing the things causing reliability problems. I would be looking closely at the tank setup and testing the engine thoroughly on the ground as a priority.

If you can get your pinkies in there, the best place for the receiver is on the floor of the fuselage. If you think about it, for the majority of the time your transmitter will be under the fuselage so the signal will have a clear path to the receiver. Incidentally, "golden rods" are made by Sullivan...

As mentioned on your other thread, the AR620 and other Spektrum receivers have 2 types of failsafe: smartsafe and preset failsafe. The "default" setting if you use the simple bind process is smartsafe, ie, throttle closes and the other controls hold their position. They do not go to neutral. Extract from the AR620 manual:

This statement from your failsafe check does not confirm that the controls move to neutral when the tx is switched off. The AR620 and other Spektrum receivers have 2 failsafe settings: smartsafe and preset failsafe. Smartsafe closes the throttle and holds all other controls in their current position whereas preset failsafe closes the throttle and moves all other controls to positions preset when binding. In either case, it is important to rebind the receiver after all other control settings have been programmed into your transmitter, most importantly if there has been a need to reverse the throttle after the initial bind. Read the AR620 manual again to find out how to set the 2 different types of failsafe.

For me as a committee member, one of the key benefits of the BMFA insurance is that it is extended to cover club officers' activities. It also provides member-to-member insurance, either (or both) of these may not be included in other insurance policies such as from a sports council (you'll have to read the small print). We had a somewhat bloody AGM and subsequent EGM about 20 years ago in my club when we pushed BMFA affiliation through but i certainly feel it was worthwhile.

Also finished my submission and sent it off. Many thanks to MattyB for highlighting this to us all and sharing his thoughts, and also thanks to the BMFA for their input.

I think you're spot on with that comment Ron. I just hope that the CAA have the sense to make use of the model associations to administer the registration process like currently for models over 7.5kg flying over 400ft or registration of over 25kg models.

Have you tried cleaning the main jet? We had a similar problem with a strimmer that started and idled happily but wouldn't pick up to full throttle. One of our club members had a look and fixed it by taking out the main jet and cleaning it. Apparently they can suffer from a build up of a varnish-like coating which obviously limits the fuel flow. The main jet was not easily accessible as it was retained by a non-standard bolt so the head needed a slot to be filed in it it to allow removal with a screwdriver. Worth a look? Incidentally, I had the same problem with the gas burner in my caravan fridge a few years ago.

Just look up Flitetest

Well, that's the last time I believe a weather forecast from John (Michael Fish) Stones, who claimed that Sunday would be the best day of the weekend. It started out ok, a bit overcast and breezy with the occasional sunny patch and was looking good but, around 1pm, you could see the storm clouds all around and the rain soon started. Not heavy and not too long but it remained very windy for the rest of the afternoon. Of course, all we heard all day was how good the weather had been on Saturday... Still, as always, it was a good day out with the usual friendly welcome from the Don Valley crowd. I managed to maiden the Arrows Hobby L-39 which flew well but seeing Paul Marsh's example made me realise that I need to invest in some 4s packs as mine on 3s was quickly running out of steam in the climb. This was the scene early on with Paul just landing his Pilatus PC-9.

I'm sure your new helpers will do a good job - unless they drop a clanger! Boom, boom (as Basil Brush used to say)!

Before cutting out formers, check the height and width against the plan and side views of the fuselage.

Just taken delivery of my L-39. Looks a decent bit of kit but the supplied decal sheet is rather poor so I'm going to try and make some suitable insignia using transfer sheet. I haven't set up any switching of the gyro, it will be permanently in "dynamic" mode to give a bit a protection from the effect of wind gusts on such a small model. I'm away for a few days from tomorrow so maiden will have to wait for next weekend at Don Valley. I'll let you know how it goes.