ROY DAVIES 1

Every time I handle Depron it snaps Your a Hero Good luck. I have a kit YS11 to build it's in a box for the moment, it's had 2 birthdays already !

I am not sure that this has got a supercritical wing like the ATR and the Dornier 228. I can envisage a deep stall scenario if the correct angle of attack is held with a bleed off in speed or increasing drag on the climb out.

Looks like an on old Super Tigre wire needle valve will fit that 40. Lovely high quality build motors. I had 2 of their 4 strokes which I bought new in a closing down sale in Germany - 2 for the price of one ! Also had a 30cc 2 stroke and a 60cc twin 2 stroke. Beautiful build quality needle bearing top and bottom ends. I still have an OPS 'hot' glow plug I had it in my hands 2 days ago. I met the agent a few years ago and he said he didn't have any spares any more he claimed he'd binned them all !! because the company were hopeless with back up. OPS broke up when the two brothers went their own way. The UK agents name began with 'J' methinks and could have been in Southampton and was more a boating shop but he did OPS aero engines.

Spektrum DX18 for me More Tx than I will ever need cleared the rest out. Got here via OS single channel, MinX, Rcm&E homebuild, Sprengbrook, Fleet times 5, Skyleader, JR, Hitec Aurora, Dx6 Dx 8 and now Dx18 and a few others odds in between as well.

I don't want to ruffle feathers but I have sold loads of small vintage items on eBay Some of theses items are impossible to get theses days. 4" MS wheels are like the proverbial, unobtainable. If you have tyre and no hub there is a hub if your hub has worn holes there's a hub ! A year ago I cleared out I sold 4 or 5 wheels from the 1950's by Shuco Hegi someone wanted them and other items from early Japanese kits from the mid 50's Just in case you think I harbour junk I am almost over the hill but have worked through all the Spektrum Tx's to an 18 which is the only radio I now possess. I sold my single channel one 50 years ago. By the way it's 'sheer'

I will add a sketch or images of a sample I could make up of the above tensioner if you like. They are simple to make.

When I was fiddling with full size piston aero engines many moons ago we were taught about 'ineffective crank angles' This was the point when the piston was at top dead centre there was no movement of the piston to left or right of about 5deg' same on model ones too. I believe that this is what we are seeing with the slack rudder cable with the rudder horn hard over. I have countered this in the past by placing the cable attach' holes slightly behind the rudder post to compensate for the lack of the positioning of the rudder and horn on the pivot centre of the rudder as is the practice in general on full size aircraft. I have also made other tensioners (compensators) to fit in both lines using ballpoint pen compression springs or similar and piano wire these work quite well in taking up the slack. They can be made with limited compression to limit 'over stretch' and are set up not to overload the servo. The servos of yesteryear were a bit less powerful than todays. I only had 3 or 4 in those ! days got a few now though.

On full sized non powered controls this problem was cured with a 'Pacific tensioner' And if my memory serves me right Flair produced one years ago. Dudley Pattison of Flair was a full size home builder so maybe he was inspired to produce a smaller copy. The full sized consisted of a round pulley (bellcrank) at the cockpit end with both cables from the rudder horn doing one turn around the rim on the 'left' and the same the 'right' both cables met at the middle of the pulley where there was a slot with a tension spring attached to the pulley and on to a sliding block in the slot to which the cables were attached The cables were pre tensioned to a given value so as not to have a too slack or tight cable. The tensioner was connected to the pedal via a rod to the rim of the pulley. A similar system was used on old radios to keep the tuning needle cord tensioned. I made some from 2" x 1/8" nylon discs 40 years ago worked great with no 'blow by' on the rudder. Simpels tchk*

I have cleaned loads of engines using a few techniques. The dishwasher is great but the soda in they tablets will eat the cleaner bits of alloy and the baked on fuel will act as a barrier and be slower to clean and therefore will give you a variable result plus you need to strip it if you can. Bead blasting is one of the best but it has to be GLASS beads or plastic media, all bearings will have to be removed and the castings will need a good blast with air or a hot soapy wash and a dry under the grill. By the way glass beads do not alter the sizes on the components as it doesn't remove any metal. Industrial hot washing works to and Trichloroethylene baths if they are still available The following method is one I gleaned from a US mag' and it will clean solid engines. It is not for the faint hearted or careless types and does carry some risk but it works. You will need some anti freeze (Pure Glycol) an old saucepan some thin wire a small camping stove, leather gauntlets, goggles a wooden scraper and a wooden handled brush with non nylon bristles. Take any plastic bits off the engine and tie a long - ish wire to a lug. Put it in the saucepan fold the wire over the side and cover with anti freeze. Place it on the lit stove in a safe out door area away from kids and pets and allow to boil for 20 minutes or so, don't breathe the vapour. when it's boiled gloves on and lift out the engine. Take care when it splashes the liquid acts lice liquid solder and bounces and is very hot. Test your engine with the wooden scraper to see if it's loosened the goo if it hasn't put it in for longer. You can put the engine in in component form if you wish. You can hold the motor with a pliers and brush the gunge off - always brush away from you. This method does not discolour the alloy in any way and leaves the engine as it would have been before it got gunged up. When it's cold you can strip your motor to give it a wash out as above. You can leave the motor for days as glycol is also an inhibiter against rust. If you have a little splash just think what it must have been like to be a pilot with a shot up engine pouring glycol into your cockpit in WW2 ! TAKE CARE.

Did the 27 single, reed and prop' and 35m meg route then changed over to a DX6 then an DX8 and a retirement present of a 18 month old DX18 is where I am now. I now posses no other radios ( I had Hitec JR Futaba) as they were 'hanging about ' and not being used so I turned them into money before the @bubble@ burst I would like a DX9 as the spoken prompts will help an old codger like me. So a part ex may be waiting any takers. Roy

Firstly I love this project, great work. when in Aden in the late 1950s 37Sqd'n operated the shack against the rebels throwing small bombs at them and shooting off their guns at them. They used to fly low through the wadis playing these games but on one occasion they were fired on from the hillsabove by some very unfair arab players in the game with Browning machine guns. When they got back they hurriedly fitted a Frazer Nash upper turret so they could fire back on even terms. So this could be an option for your mode AN UPPER turret ?

I had to fix drum and bobbin sanders years ago as part of my job. Most bobbin sanders have rubber hubs with expander in the hubs and when they spin they expand some more - not evenly. The drum sanders (2 drums for a coarse and fine paper) were belt fed and had machined drums with knurled pinch rollers to hold the abrasives sheets on. the abrasive sheet were quite coarse to avoid clogging and good dust extraction was essential for that as well. If the feed system stalled or failed you would burn the surface irreparably. I think we used 80 and 120 grit Aloxite type papers for their anti clogging properties as do the timber industries and until a few years ago so did I on my sanding blocks, you just knocked them on the bench and they would self clean - lasted for years. I would think if you can get a suitable drum for a router table set up using a box to guide the stock, you would have to push and then pull the strip through to complete the trimming but you may waste some at the start and maybe at the end too. I cut triangular stock on a wooded 'v' tray on my band saw, you have to extend the tray through the blade via a cut to give the wood support , try that method.