Nick Cripps

Here we go with the answers to Round 1. Round 2 to follow shortly.

To be fair Martin, I set that question then had to look up the answer myself before including it in the quiz. The rest of them were dragged out of what is left of my brain. Is it normal that I can remember obscure aeromodelling facts but completely forget the list of jobs my wife left me when she went to work this morning?

I think I can guess which ones you got right Jon, well at least one of them 🤣 I think it would be better to refrain from posting answers until each round is completed then we can all discuss them without giving the game away. Keep the scoring going though.

The first round is about well-known names in the hobby:

With wind and rain lashing the windows and no prospect of flying for the next few days at least, I thought you might like to have a go at this little quiz to keep you amused. I put this together for one of our club nights last winter and it seemed to be well-received so I hope you enjoy it. It consists of 5 rounds of 5 questions on various aspects of this wonderful hobby and is probably biased towards those who, like me, are lifelong aeromodellers, and they should find it fairly easy. Having said that, there are still some questions suitable for the relative newcomers, including a round on the laws relating to model aircraft operation which everyone should get right! I'll put up a new round each day along with the answers to the previous day's questions. Good luck! Note 1:- the judge's decision is final but correspondence will be entered into and is actively encouraged. Note 2:- no AI programs or castor oil-based products were used in the making of this quiz.

Those results look spot on, Toto, well within the capabilities of both the motor and speed controller. I would be surprised if the ESC didn't feel warm after a minute and a half's run time at full throttle! What you don't want is for it to feel hot to the touch, the next stage is burnout! I would also ditch the paint stirrer prop and put an equivalent APC on it.

It's a few years since I last tried it and what surprised me today was to see that as I swapped over the aileron position it would initially start to spin inverted in the opposite direction before dropping into the knife-edge spin. The Wot 4 does it well Peter but you'll probably need to increase control throws quite a bit above your normal F3A settings, especially the elevator. Let me know how you get on (perhaps we should follow this up in your aerobatics thread?). I'll explore it a bit more myself next time as I cut the session short today due to deteriorating weather conditions.

The knife-edge spin is often known as the "Hanno Screw" after the many times champion aerobatic pilot Hanno Prettner who I understand invented it. My method is to put the model into an inverted spin (with rudder and ailerons in opposite directions, as you say Peter), slowly open the throttle and then reverse the ailerons to match the rudder direction. The aircraft then rotates around the wing rather than the fuselage in a conventional spin. Make sure you start with plenty of height for this one as it descends very rapidly in knife edge! NB - sorry if this has already been covered in the Model Airplane News article - it timed out for me and wouldn't open.

I wasn't planning on going flying today thanks to forecast winds of 15mph gusting 25mph so nothing was charged and ready to go when the WhatsApp messages started coming in this morning. The field is still soggy but with only small areas of water I decided to quickly remove the floats and install the winter wheels on my trusty ARTF Wot 4, knowing that the OS55AX would drag it through any weather. Of course at the field, the wind felt stronger so there was considerably more talking than flying going on but a reasonable turnout despite having to still drive through a flooded section of the lane approaching the field. I just had the one flight, stretching a tankful of fuel out to over 12 minutes, including several touch & goes and 3 separate landings which had to be across the width of the runway as the preferred runway (in the prevailing wind direction) still had patches of surface water. I also discovered that the Wot 4 was capable of knife-edge spins, something I'd not tried with this particular model before, so a worthwhile and enjoyable trip out this morning. More wind and rain to come over the next several days but a better forecast for Saturday - fingers crossed!

I would round the trailing edges off, it looks better. There may be a benefit in square edges (or even concave) on top-level aerobatic models but for a vintage-style model like this, aesthetics beats function every day.

To ensure it goes into extra time, please put me down for both, Richard. I've been quietly watching this and your earlier threads from the shadows and have enjoyed the entertainment so I'll be pleased to join in and help keep the project (and hopefully future ones) going.

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: