John Roberts 9

Hi Chris, Thanks for your input and clarification I think I will just get stuck into the build, see how it goes and them make some decisions once I have some partly constructed balsa in front of me! Cheers, John

Hello I intend to start my own build sometime next week and I will post a few photos as I go along. I might omit the wing dihedral to make construction even simpler. I note that Chris refers to this being OK in the RCM&E article (June 2013 edition). Also, the plan suggests that the aileron torque rods, which drop down into the fuselage cavity, look at though they might get pretty close to the wing mounting plate. Has this proven to be an issue in practice? I guess that it would be possible to install the servo the other way up and have the aileron pushrods on top of the wing instead. A more elegant solution would be to relieve the ply mounting plate either side of the captive nut in order to allow an extra millimetre or two of torque rod movement. I can't imagine that the model will require huge aileron deflections. Cheers, John

Hello Frank Thanks very much for taking the time & trouble to find & post this information for me. Very much appreciated . Cheers, John

Hello I friend generously gave me a lightly damaged PA Addiction (now repaired) but I don't have the build manual. Could someone post the recommended control throws and CG so that I can finalise my set up please? It doesn't look as though PA make their manuals available on their web site and a google search didn't throw up very much in the way of helpful set up data. Thanks in advance for any help you can give. John

  We already have more than enough regulation in our lives without wishing more on ourselves! In an earlier life my hobby was club level motor racing. This sport become more & more controlled and regulated over the years. Costs spiralled as competitors were forced to comply, more enforcers were employed by the authorities (the competitors paid for them of course!) and it eventually just wasn't fun any more. Yes, we need to fly safely and with respect to others but lets err towards the minimum amount of regulation consistent with meeting those objectives. And, as others have observed, people are perfectly entitled to fly without any certificates or club membership etc. The more rules, regulations & bureaucracy we have the less welcoming & inviting our hobby becomes. We should be doing everything we can to encourage newcomers, not putting up potential barriers. Finally, the comparison with driving licences et al just doesn't stand scrutiny. The August edition of the BMFA News pictures a young man of just 10 years who recently passed his A Certificate! (Congratulations to the youngster concerned ). No further comment required. John       Edited By John Roberts 9 on 20/07/2013 21:08:45

Hello This is probably a bit of a long shot but does anyone happen to know what covering material is used on this model please? I am trying to match the metallic blue/purple film that is used on parts of the fuselage and on the leading edges of the wing and tail feathers. Thanks. John

Posted by Dave Macgregor on 13/07/2013 23:21:32: Thanks guys for the advice.. one quick question... HK related.. Do you not end up getting wacked with import duty and alike? As I have been caught out before.. Cheers Dave There is no import duty if you buy from UK Hobby King. However, as you will see from this thread Click Here you can expect the final cost to be about 10% above the advertised GB£'s price.

I am a very infrequent user of HK but, in my limited experience, the various additions for currency conversions and PayPal transaction charges etc. add not far short of 10% to the advertised GBP prices. Use this as a broad rule of thumb and you shouldn't get a nasty surprise at the checkout. As John Privett observes above this isn't an issue when buying a few quids worth of odds & ends but is definately worth taking into consideration for anyone spending tens or hundreds of £s.

Posted by NigelH on 12/07/2013 17:34:33: Good for you. What I'd like to know is why Hobby King charged me about an extra £5 in the PayPal invoice for a UK warehouse purchase. This is quite a high percentage of the supposed price and although the HK and PayPal invoices match in terms of dollars, it looks like HK are using quite different exchange rate compared with PayPal. I believe that someone else has previously mentioned this on here. I have noticed the same thing too. The explanantion is that your PayPal account will almost certainly be set to make payments in GB Pounds. HK, however, always require payment is US Dollars (irespective of the fact that you bought from the UK warehouse) and so PayPal then convert your GBP payment into US Dollars and naturally they add their own currency conversion fee onto the transaction cost. Sneaky!

Hello Robin. I have done recently exactly the same modifiaction (on another very similar E-Flite model) and it works perfectly well. The main thing is to use a very small needle file and only remove the smallest amount of material possible so that the aluminium motor mount locates snugly on the 4 bolts that pass through the firewall. Done carefully the motor mount cannot move around. This could only happen if you make the slots too large. Just work steadily with the file removing a little at a time. You need to make all four slots the same size so that the motor is centred correctly. After filing away a little material offer up the motor mount to the firewall (with the locating bolts in place) and you will easily see where more filing is required. Rinse and repeat this process until the mount is a tight sliding fit onto the four bolts. I used 4 x M4 Button headed bolts with flat washers and nyloc nuts. Feel free to PM me if you are unsure about anything .

Personally I would just elongate the holes in the motor mount.   Make sure to elongate each hole equally and dont remove too much material so that the motor mount is centred & fits snugly onto the four mounting bolts, all should be well. If you use decent nyloc nuts & flat washers, this will give you a really secure motor mount (in fact, probably far stronger than the 4 small countersunk screws that secure the motor to the mount). Good luck! Edited By John Roberts 9 on 09/07/2013 19:38:06

Thanks for the replies so far . I was also a bit surprised at the amount of lead needed to get it balanced but it looks like that is normal. Tim: I have fitted a 28mm inrunner motor that weighs in at 125g plus a few extra grams for the prop & adapter. Thinking about it, the original Zagi was (as I understand) originally designed as an unpowered wing so a rearward weight bias with the motor slapped on the back perhaps isn't surprising. I will aim to get the CoG bang on the recommended 20cm back from the nose but, to come back to the original question, am I correct in thinking that slight nose heaviness is a safer set up than slight rear heaviness? Thanks again.

I am just setting up my first flying wing (JP Zagi 480) and would appreciate some thoughts on C of G. The instructions recommend a balance point of 20 cm back from the nose. If I want to err on the side of caution is a slightly nose heavy attitude preferable to tail heavy (as per a "conventional" aircraft) for a maiden flight? Even with the battery (2200 3S) in its most forward position it looks as though I will have to add 100g of ballast to the nose to get it to balance. Is this the norm for a Zagi? Thanks.

Posted by Sparks on 10/06/2013 16:19:33: On both my Wot4 and Acrowot Foamees, the first thing I did was to throw away the metal U/C retaining self tappers. Drilled and tapped M5 threads and used nylon bolts to hold the U/C. I've broken a few bolts due to heavy arrivals and wheels encountering pot holes. With over 300 flights clocked up between the planes the plastic U/C mounting platforms have remained in place. I commend this mod to the house! I did exactly the same mod on my foam Acro Wot although I use polypropylene bolts rather than nylon which I found to be a bit too strong. Highly recommended mod that takes only a few minutes to do. I have broken a few bolts with heavy landings which I am sure would otherwise have been enough to rip out the entire mounting plate. Edited By Sparks on 10/06/2013 16:20:39

Hi Terry I had to laugh when I read your post, it made me feel like a naughty schoolboy who hadn't handed in his homework on time!!!!! The Courier is now officially finished: That said, I have to confess that I rather dragged my heels over the completion of the last few details. Mainly this was because Iain, as documented elsewhere in this thread, has had a bit of a fraught time with his and I suppose that subconsciously I have been delaying the day when I have to bite the bullet and fly mine. In any case my flying abilities are still below the standard required to get the Courier off the ground and to land it again afterwards so there isn't a huge rush.......................or is that just more delaying tactics on my part? Good to see that your excellent progress is being maintained despite the diversions due to weather & gardens etc. Cheers, John.

Hello Patt Very best wishes with your build. I have enjoyed mine very much but be aware that it isn't just an assembly job using the supplied parts. I think we have all found that there are quite a few grey areas that have required a bit of extra thought and builders intuition. That said, there is nothing insurmountable to overcome and personally I found the little challenges to be a positive bonus that added to the enjoyment of the project. I mainly used aliphatic glue for my build. A few small areas required CA but, overall, aliphatic gives more working time and allows for components having to be repositioned and moved as you assemble them. I don't have any CAD drawings but, to be honest, the CNC kit as supplied was pretty good. Yes, there were a couple of minor things but definately nothing that would warrant the trouble of having to have them recut. The two items that occur to me are the wing ribs which aren't notched to take account of the balsa skins. I think we all worked around this by fitting capping strips to the ribs and this has proven to be an elegant solution that adds only a tiny bit of weight in return for a much strengthened wing........so for me it turns out to be a better solution than having notched ribs. The second issue is that the upper wing fairings were supplied in 1/32nd ply which I found to be far too rigid and, therefore, very unwilling to take the required compound curves. Simple solution, use 1/32nd balsa or 1/64th ply instead. We are only talking about a few square inches of material so nothing to worry about really. There is lots of good building advice in Tim's original thread and much of this is also available in the article he wrote in the magazine. Plus, there are also lots of hints & tips in this build blog which address most of the icky bits you will encounter. Finally, I would suggest that you set aside a goodly amount of time to build your Courier because it definately can't be gone in a week. I am happy to share knowledge & experience with you too . Cheers, John

Hello All, I haven't posted anything for a while but I have been following progress most days. Iain, I know you are gutted about what happened but your resiliance & determination to get the darn thing sorted out & flying again is commendable /respect . And Terry, as usual, your build is looking great. I used 1/64th ply for the top fairings because the supplied 1/32nd stuff was way too inflexible. Balsa will work a treat but I found that when the wing is firmly bolted in place it does tend to press up against those fairings so make sure it is all good & strong. I have been patiently doing the covering on mine and it has taken far longer than I expected due to all the compound curves on just about every surface. I found that one piece of film would take me 2 or 3 hours to get right (I know, I'm a slow coach!!) and then I needed to take a good long break before I was ready to tackle the next piece. I still have the engine cowl to cover and fit which will probably be a pretty awkward job. Once that is done it is really just a matter of assembling everything and waiting for a nice calm day. I guess that the colour scheme won't be to everyones taste. Although not by design it is somehow reminiscent of a Japanese WW2 warbird..........all I was after was something that I could easily see in the air and that would enable me to quickly distinguish the top from the bottom. Hopefully my scheme achieves those objectives even if the aesthetics don't appeal to everyone. Cheers, John