John Clark 2

And it's double top, to win the championship...

LOL At least in the Carribean, when we write that old cliche "it was blowing a hoolie", during the hurricane season it probably would be!

Someone should start a show at Duxford. The venue is MUCH cheaper than Sandown, you can fly anything there, and those who come along get to see the full-size collections as well. Oh, and road access from points north and south is excellent too. Duxford have already said they'll do it. Anyone up for it? JC

Hi Geoff, As you probably know, the market used to be flooded with magazines of all descriptions covering scale, gliders, free-flight and everything inbetween. Unfortunately in today's economic climate, it's hard for them to survive on a small readership. Even selling, let's say, 5 - 6,000 copies of a specialist magazine does not make it viable. There's still enough mags to make the competition for advertising stiff too, and small magazines can't survive without it. Traplet have been good over the years at managing to kep their highly specialised mags going, but even they had to admit defeat with their glider mag (integrated into the electric magazine of course) and the scale one too. It's no coincidence that Nexus (as was) had to go the same route with Aeromodeller, which was only saved at the eleventh hour by Tony Dowdeswell (but not as a 'stand alone' magazine), and Silent Flight. It's unlikely that a new scale magazine will be launched in the UK - sorry to be doom and gloom about it! John

A nice meal from Mr Ashby would be great, trouble is I work elsewhere now so there's little chance! I liked Bertie B too, used to enjoy reading it through every issue. I think like all imaginative writers, the person who penned it was afraid of running out of ideas and decided to go out at the top, which is fair enough. The most amusing aspect of Bertie B was that so many poeple loved it, and quite a few HATED it! In particular, glider guiders seemed to get upset. Hmm, I wonder why (chuckle). Ooh, there goes a sailplane now! Where's my Purdy... Oh, it's toff at the top...

I'm glad my comments stimulated a bit of debate, which is what they were supposed to do! I am aware of course that the 14MZ has extra features but as David said, the majority of pilots won't require them. Obviously the scale boys who like lots of channels and features will continue with the 14MZ. I was a bit disapointed to find Helger don't supply a charger in UK sets. This has led to the blowing of a few internal fuses due to people removing the pack and bench charging it, then maybe not re-installing it properly or similar. I also think the lack of a charge rmight put some beginners off because they probably won't have a bench charger at home. What do you guys think about this?

20 minutes in Swanley Asda is enough for anybody, surely. I used to get sick of being accused of working there just because I would go in during lunchtimes wearing a tie! "Young man. do you know where the chicken is?" Oh, how my colleagues (including those working on this esteemed organ) laughed at that one. Still, we managed longer in the shop when Mr Ashby, myself and a few other editors had a Christmas meal in Asda (oh, yes) just because it cost about £2.30. I'll give you some pet hates of mine: 1). Students who speak nasaly and say 'like' between every other word because they think it sounds cool. 2). Guys who 'borrow' (read steal) my tools at the field. 3). Turkish Delight. 4). Anglia Windows marketing calls. 5). People who hog the quiz machine when my mates and I have been waiting for a go all night (Mr Bailey knows what I mean!) 6). Spiders 7). "Buy a Pizza from your local for just £3.99" leaflets, of which we get about four per day. 8). Trinny and Suzannah 9). Those digital channel quiz programmes that try and steal people's cash 10). Unflyable weather.

Will the introduction of the Spektrum 7 in the UK on 2.4GHz at a great price signal the sudden and violent death of the 14Mz? Discuss...

JFH, There has been a FURORE about this exact problem, and I think I'd be right in saying it was featured on BBC's Watchdog some time ago. Basically, Apple are just not interested in repairing iPods, despite the costs. I'm sure if you do a quick search on the web you'll find lots of stuff on this topic. JC

Surely Model Max is a sort of replacement? I can't see anyone replacing Sandown. After all, the place and format were slightly unique, so any other show won't really be a 'replacement' anyway. The show was partly killed by the 'knockers', many of whom spouted so much rubbish on the original form of this site that you had to wonder if they had a life. One of the worst perpetrators even admitted in private corespondence with me (eventually) that he'd never been to the show - but his mates had told him this and that, so it must have been true! Interestingly, most of the knockers DID go to the show every year. As you say, the slot is now empty - and it is their fault. But of course, they'll be in denial and blame it on the poor bu**ers who were running the event, it being too expensive blah de blah. Surely they can't have seriously contributed to the show's image problem - COULD THEY?

Dave, I presume the boats and paddles are out at Headcorn right now? They were at Redhill when we tried to fly my review Knight Sport 50 for RW last week too. Perhaps we should ask our respective employers to let us emigrate and put ogether our magazines from - say - the Caribbean? (All in the line of duty, you understand...)

This issue came up in my magazine recently, too, regarding a review helicopter. The reviewer (who will remain nameless) has also run them on 6v without problems. The truth is, since the offical JR spec doesn't rate them at 6v MacGregor Industries aren't prepared to recommend it - understandable, really. But, they certainly appear to work on 6v when asked to! JC