Matt Carlton

I stumbled on this supplier the other day; Simacon Insulation EPS sheets 1200 x 2400 x 100 for £18. Delivery available apparently. XPS sheets (blue) 600 x 1250 x 100 for £40 (4 sheet pack) Danopren XPS foam Whether this is good or bad quality or price I really don't know, I just put this here for your info! Cheers Matt

There are a lot of people who collect engines, run them, tinker with them and never fly, or intend to fly a model. Steam rallies are full of static engines burbling away. I cant see many folks sitting with an 12v car battery and an old starter motor just quietly spinning away. But who knows.

Agreed Peter. What threw me off is that what is drawn as the Centreline of the wing is actually the dihedral break for the left wing panel. If that is the case, then the dihedral brace is drawn correctly, but the top view is wrong, as it extends further into the rib bay than would be the case if the brace shown were used. So, my plan is to make a centre section using CS1 to support the UC plates, splitting the ribs to fit the brace. Then make two panels using R1 (without the slots for the UC plates) as the root ribs. Micro servos in their sides will go in bay 1 of each panel to keep the tips light. Having no servo in the centre section will give a space to put a 6 pin connector like a mini jst to make rigging easier. I'd also go for a bolted wing rather than bands. Thanks again Matt

+1 for laminating epoxy. If I don't have that, normal epoxy resin glue works if slightly warmed and spread with a cut down credit card or similar. I tend to try to do as much as possible before assembly so those tricky corners are covered, and before engine mounts etc are attached. Use a cotton bud or similar to make sure you protect inside and holes for control cables, mounting bolts etc. It's also worth arranging a little drain hole in the tank bay in case of a burst tank.

Posted by Peter Miller on 23/10/2020 11:09:31: I have been saying for some time that the real problem is overpopulation. Possibly the Covid 19 pandemic is the worlds first attempt at reducing population!! Not too successful, world. Try again World!!! Peter - Have you read a book called 'Portent' by James Herbert? I did a lot of stuff about Lovelock and Arne Naess. It's interesting if you view the Earth as an organism in its own right. Are the things we see, the pandemics, floods, fires etc the 'immune system' of the planet simply trying to fight off an infection (us)? Whatever the case, the planet clearly cannot support a perpetually increasing population without some regulatory effect happening that we can't avoid. If it's not Covid, it'll be something else. War, famine, exploitation, disease, violence. All symptoms of over population. Rats in a barrel.

People adding 'gate' onto the end of every scandal. News presenters and reporters trying to extract a 'soundbite' rather than actually listening to the interviewee. 'Scratch built from the xyz kit' If it is from a kit or a plan, it isn't scratch built. Americanisms "So" is not an opening for a sentence Dumbing down and trying to make documentaries "exciting" with random angles, over loud music and a complete lack of information. Checkout operators and others, especially in post offices and council offices, more interested in gossiping with their colleague than serving the customer. Pretentious coffee shops where it takes 10 minutes to explain that you really do just want a normal cup of coffee, which is usually awful and costs £5.75 Restaurants which can't cook a steak after asking how I want it cooked. The complete lack of manners and courtesy which some people seem to exhibit. Dropping litter, swearing and shouting loudly in restaurants, treating shop staff with disdain etc. 'Is everything ok for you?' seven times during a meal It's a long list. I am a grumpy old man.

Duplicate Edited By Matt Carlton on 22/10/2020 19:00:04

It looks very much like someone built a magician from patterns and with a built up wing. It's nicely done anyway. I would lay odds on it being a home brew or a bitsa.

To add to what others have said. Any wing section has a 'zero lift' angle of attack. A cambered wing like yours could potentially have a zero lift angle which is negative. Let's call that 1 degree negative. Let's also say that when trimmed in level flight, the wing is at 1 degree positive. So, when inverted, you'll need to generate the equivalent of negative 2 degrees AOA just to accomplish ZERO lift. Let's assume that the wing needs additional negative 2 degrees to generate enough lift inverted due to the positive camber. So, now you need to apply sufficient down elevator to generate negative 4 degrees compared to that required for level flight upright. Do as you will with CG and trim, a cambered wing will always require a fair bit of down elevator unless you rig the wing at a negative incidence.

How about a Mascot from DB Sport & Scale? Or a Fiesta 4 from Pegasus Models? Enjoyable builds and possibly a bit more suited to average weather conditions.

I didn't see the delivery price. That's a bit steep. Thanks for pointing that out!

Also available; 6082 T6: 600mm x 100mm x 3mm for £10.50 Clickmetals   Edited By Matt Carlton on 18/10/2020 17:07:39

People not "in the know" often assume that size + scale = money. If it were a good quality, accurate, detailed build it would probably be worth the price, but it is a long way off that. As it is, if I were buying it, I'd expect to be taking out the radio gear, engine, retracts etc and tossing the airframe. £250 maybe.

Thanks chaps. I don't need it enough to muck about too much, and it just 'feels' like it's had it. It might be fine, it probably isn't. I gave it a bit of a clean up and the staining is very stubborn. Also noticed some pitting around the top of the liner. Given the source, I suspect that this hasn't run for a long time and was part of a house clearance or similar. It's worth more as a pair of wheels, a sheet of plywood or a prop. Thanks everyone.

I have also seen the throttle trim used in petrol models. A small push to break microswitch would be installed so that with the trim fully back, the switch would operate and break the ignition circuit. That way, one could have a remote 'kill switch' back in the days when you'd have 6 channels at most. We got quite clever at making one function operate off another. Full down elevator to trigger a tow release was fairly common. More common in control line than RC, having multiple linkages connected to a single control enabled all sorts of additional functions and features from a limited set of inputs. Y- leads, servo reversers, microswitches and multiple bellcranks and mechanisms were the order of the day until recently when really small cheap servos and electric retracts and so on became readily available.   Edited By Matt Carlton on 16/10/2020 19:31:19

Duplicate     Edited By Matt Carlton on 15/10/2020 21:21:41

I think it's because eBay had always thrown up oddities when people pay over the odds for rubbish. Way back when eBay started, people were selling polo mints, playing cards and any old junk for the novelty. I guess people are banking on someone being foolish or naive enough to pay silly money for rubbish. After all, it's not costing them anything and they are selling to a vast marketplace.

Whatever charger you choose, versatility is your watchword. There is very little point in buying a charger which won't grow with you. So I would venture to suggest that you look for one which will charge, balance and check up to at least 6S. It's really useful to have a variety of leads, as well as being able to use DC and AC power sources. I use an Overlander RC6-VSR which will charge up to 6S Lipo at a max current of 7A, whilst also being able to balance, storage charge, discharge, monitor and check packs. Does everything I need and more, as I can charge my Tx and Rx batteries and my 12v field battery. It's all auto shut off and peak detect and is pretty good value at about £45. Charging AA and AAA batteries for the home is probably better done on a Cheap charger that will charge 8+ batteries at the same time as the chemistry is a lot more forgiving than LiPo. That's only my experience, do others may have an alternative view. I have no experience of the chargers you mention. Cheers Matt Edited By Matt Carlton on 15/10/2020 17:16:16

£54.99 for a 20C 3200 3S pack seems a bit steep?? £35 for a 35C 3350 3S pack from SMC £47 for an 80C 3300 3S pack from Overlander

Agreed Peter. I have a bit of a pet peeve concerning terminology.     Edited By Matt Carlton on 15/10/2020 14:30:53

"Oh, it's one of those, I had one, it was a load of rubbish" "Is that new? I've got one in the shed you could've had for a tenner"

It definitely seems that the problem with some brands is a matter of consistency rather than being inherently awful. I run an old ASP 40 in s SLEC FunFly and it's fine. The idle is a bit high, but maybe an idlebar plug might help. I guess it's the 'luck of the draw" and that's the problem and the death knell for cheaper IC. Nobody wants to part with a decent chunk of change on a gamble and a faff when they can buy an equivalent outrunner which will be much more reliable and predictable.

£11 isn't bad, probably worth pondering, but I'm not likely to have a use for the engine anytime soon. If I can flog it for spares, I can put that money into another model. That might sound like a drop in the ocean, but sadly, I don't have the seemingly bottomless wallet that many of my model flying colleagues do! If I get £10 for it, that buys a set of wheels and a prop. After 6 months on furlough wages and two visits to the garage, every little helps!

I'll just leave this here: Bargain     Edited By Matt Carlton on 14/10/2020 19:12:50

Are we likely to see Lipo supply issues as Lithium demand goes through the roof for Electric vehicles? I'm keeping hold of my glow engines. Methanol isn't likely to run out and can even be a by product of biomass energy. I suspect that glow powered models are actually a greener option when the whole product lifecycle is taken into account.