Jump to content
Please be aware of scammers when using the Sale/Wanted forum areas

Charles Smitheman

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    248

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Charles Smitheman

  1. Charles Smitheman
    This is my Sig Spacewalker II, well powered by a lovely Laser 150.
  2. Charles Smitheman

    Charles Smitheman posted a gallery image in Member Albums

  3. Charles Smitheman

    Charles Smitheman posted a gallery image in Member Albums

  4. Charles Smitheman

    Charles Smitheman posted a gallery image in Member Albums

  5. Charles Smitheman
    Have to say thanks to you all for the heads up on this one. I snuck off work and got one yesterday. Plenty at the Gap RD Wimbledon branch. It looks very good.for the price. No more excuses now to get building. I also got the jiggly cut into the corners thingy (general purpose cutter sander?) which looks great. With a fine blade it should have model building applications too. I was thinking perhaps for removing a skew fin perhaps.
  6. Charles Smitheman
    RIP IC. Just send me your engines then....
  7. Charles Smitheman
    Great stuff, thanks for the memories!
  8. Charles Smitheman
    This brings back many memories. Keep up the good work.
  9. Charles Smitheman
    Thanks for that link. So the bucket of water is a good idea after all.
  10. Charles Smitheman
    "has anyone ever had a serious problem with properly treated Lipos?" Yes. Many years ago when a 1300 mah 3s pack cost £50! As I was plugging the connectors in to fly the model the pack short circuited inside and burned briefly, but only at the wiring connection end. This was inside the pack and nothing to do with the bullet connector outside that I was plugging in at the time. On reflection I suspect that there was an insulation fault where the balance wires were connected to the cells inside the pack. As soon as the wire had burned loose from the cell, the fire went out. I was lucky. So the fire was caused by wiring, and not a spontaneous chemical reaction. I have also some years back had a new pack where there was a dry solder joint between one of the balance leads and the cell. This utterly confused my charger at the time and it tried to over charge the cell. I was watching and detected it in time. This could have been disastrous. So in my experience the lipos are more likely to do something nasty whilst they are being handled in any way. Now I only purchase top brand packs and use a top brand charger.   Fire extinguishers: I always have a CO2 extinguisher to hand. These would not extinguish a burning lipo as it releases its own oxygen, but it would help lower the temperature. They are excellent for liquid fires such as petrol. And no mess at all. The problem with all extinguishers is that they don't last very long. And they do nothing if not pointed properly at the base of the flame. Seconds count.
  11. Charles Smitheman
    Laser cut rib sets for the Caprice are available from igull ebay shop. Easily found with a google search, I do not know how to put in a link. I bought a set for the Graupner Cirrus last year. They are immaculately made. If I did not have a ridiculous amount of projects I would be building another Caprice, my first one in 1969 was a really good flyer, and I have many fond memories of it.
  12. Charles Smitheman
    That looks nice Peter. What is the wing section? Symmetrical or semi?
  13. Charles Smitheman
    I am also a 35Mhz user on my older models. If your RX are PCM then they are almost as good as 2.4. FM RX are more susceptible to glitches, and not really good enough for electric models. However some are better than others. The benefit of this is that I keep on being given more 35Mhz rx's! The big challenge is remembering to extend the TX aerial before flight. I always partly extend it before startup, as a reminder. On 2.4 I am using FRSky rx with Futaba TX. I have never had a problem with this setup, unlike the other make I had earlier. In my experience most radio problems (with better quality manufacturers) are caused by the RX battery followed by the switch and harness and wiring, and then by broken aerials. Maintain these and the rest goes on for ever.
  14. Charles Smitheman
    I always test them on a servo tester. What saved my bacon on one occasion was load testing some new servos (grab the disc whilst it is moving) the servos just froze up in the position they were last at. If unplugged and plugged in again they again worked as normal. I had a Savox MG servo jam up in flight a week back, fortunately on rudder, so the model survived. I think the gears may have become damaged by vibration. Again after landing and a bit of wiggling it started to work again! I have replaced it with a Futaba3010 which seem to be good, although the response is not as crisp. The model is a Capiche 50 with a Saito 82, so quite some stress going on. As stated previously choose servos to match the application.
  15. Charles Smitheman
    That's a great picture Peter, the rough runway and the control lines are the only clues its not the real deal! Glad to hear about the throttling. that's the most important bit. Do you recall what oil content and type you used in your fuel?
  16. Charles Smitheman
    Aha thanks Denis, I missed that, but that is for the .30 Edited By Charles Smitheman on 27/06/2017 08:49:55
  17. Charles Smitheman
    I have had one of these for a few years. It may or may not have been run, and I have no instructions for it. I am mounting it on a (Svenson?) Baronett as I prefer a flying test bench. If it runs well my plan is for something a bit better. Perhaps an ANEC. From the web I have found some info. Props 7x4 or 8x3 giving 2800rpm to 14000rpm. 10 to 25% nitro recommended although one owner found it ran best with hot plugs and no nitro. So my questions are: Glow plug type: it is currently fitted with two OS8. I suppose I could try these. But they may well be incorrect for this engine. Fuel: I have been having outstanding results with Optifuel 12% four stroke mix in my larger engines. This has 20% synthetic oil in it. Is this enough or should I add some castor? I read that small engines such as Cox last better with castor. But I would prefer not to if it is not necessary. Are or have any forum members used this engine? I would appreciate any feedback. Thanks, Charles
  18. Charles Smitheman
    +1 for Eneloops... Every one I have bought still works perfectly... so far! The oldest must be much more than 5 years now. I am very interested to hear the nature of the failures so that I know what to look out for.
  19. Charles Smitheman
    Hello Piers, Yup I have plenty of differential on my Tipsy. Personally I don't like using rates as I like to keep it simple, less is better for me. I do use quite a lot of exponential though, depending on the model and how it feels. I recall a club mate reaching for the retract switch on his F3A model, but operating the snap roll switch instead.... BAM!
  20. Charles Smitheman
    Hello Geoff, I have just completed one of these Tipsy's, with modest electric power. It had cheapo 9g servos on the ailerons, and Towerpro 9g mg servos on ele and Rudder. I have now changed the elevator servo to a Hitec HS65hb, which has better resolution than the Towerpro's. I think you can get away with cheaper servos for electric, but the elevator did not feel nice, hence the change. If I was doing it with i.c. I would have used better servos throughout, such as the Hitecs. Saving weight with lighter kit is important in my view with a small model, the lighter ones fly much better. This model needs bags of elevator travel to stop it tipping on its nose on takeoff (well my one does) , but therefore is a bit touchy on elevator in the air. So this showed up the sloppy-ness in the lower quality servos. I have yet to try it again, it was a bit windy last weekend!
  21. Charles Smitheman
    Several years back I was asked by a club mate to make him one Sebart Angel 30 out of two damaged ones. So I got the worst bits. The nose on mine was missing, but I was able to put the intact nose of the good one on to the scanner to print off the shape. I used the photocopy to cut new ply parts. Then I used block balsa to get to the finished shape. I now have a nice flying model.
  22. Charles Smitheman
    Hmm, tempting. Maybe its time to get the wind up.... That's a sebart btw!
  23. Charles Smitheman
    Well done what a remarkable achievement. Now lets see: Old Warden on Sunday, to break the journey, Buckminster on Monday, and 3 hours drive home! Very tempting.
  24. Charles Smitheman
    Most enjoyable. I imagine the filming was a lot more difficult than making the model.
  25. Charles Smitheman
    Hello Martin. That explains it very well, thanks. I think there is a chance that the braiding is damaged, so I will follow Percy's suggestion, and send it to Mr. Ridley. Many thanks.
×
×
  • Create New...