TinPot Pilot

continued However he still looked something like a failed audition for Quasimodo with red burns on his arms and expanded blobs of foam sticking everywhere. My comment that the scalding simple made the hairs the foam was sticking to come out easier was not met with the enthusiasm I felt it deserved.I forgot to add that in retrospect rather unwisely he had set out to do this deed in the hallway of his house (the only place he later explained with sufficient headroom for the canoe - achieved by poking it up the stairwell.Having extricated him we now were faced with the problem of a canoe construction kit embedded in a still gurgling block of foam which was now irrevocably bonded to the hall and stairs carpet as well as several banister rails and quite a lot of wallpaper.At this point his wife and her mother came back from shopping......Oh yes - and he had been wearing the pullover Mum in law had knitted him for his birthday the week before. Be warned!

I'm sure most of you will have heard this warning before:- On the Subject of the Expanding Foam A friend of mine once built a canoe. He spent a long time on it and it was a work of art.Almost the final phase was to fill both ends with polyurethane expanding foam.He duly ordered the bits from Mr Glasplies (an excellent purveyor of all things fibreglass) and it arrived in two packs covered with appropriately dire warnings about expansion ratios and some very good notes on how to use it.Unfortunately he had a degree, worse still two of them. One was in Chemistry, so the instructions got thrown away and the other in something mathematical because in a few minutes he was merrily calculating the volume of his craft to many decimal places and the guidelines got binned as well.He propped the canoe up on one end, got a huge tin, carefully measured the calculated amounts of glop, mixed them and quickly poured the mixture in the end of the canoe (The two pack expands very rapidly). I arrived as he was completing this and I looked in to see the end chamber over half full of something Cawdors Witches would have been proud of. Two thing occurred to me, one was the label which said in big letters: "Caution - expansion ration 50:1" (or something similar) and the other that the now empty tins said "approximately enough for 20 small craft"Any comment was drowned out by a sea of yellow brown foam suddenly pouring out of the middle of the canoe and the end of the canoe bursting open. My friend screamed and leapt at his pride and joy which was knocked to the ground as he started trying to bale handfuls of this stuff out with his hands.Knocking the craft over allowed the still liquid and not yet fully expanded foam to flow to the other end of the canoe where it expanded and shattered that end as well.A few seconds later and we had a canoe with two exploded ends, a mountain of solid foam about 4ft high growing out of the middle, and a chemist firmly embedded up to his armpits in it.At this stage he discovered the reaction was exothermic and his hands and arms were getting very hot indeed. Running about in small circles in a confined space while glued to the remains of a fairly large canoe proved ineffective so he resorted to screaming a bit instead.Fortunately a Kukri was to hand so I attacked the foam around his hands with some enthusiasm. The process was hindered by the noise he was making and the fact he was trying to escape while still attached to the canoe .Eventually I managed to hack out a lump of foam still including most of his arms and hands. Unfortunately my tears of laughter were not helping as they accelerated the foam setting.Seeking medical help was obviously out of the question, the embarrassment of having to explain his occupation (Chief Research Chemist at a major petrochemical organisation) would simply never have been lived down. Several hours and much acrimony later we had removed sufficient foam (and much hair) to allow him to move again.

Hi Gary I noticed HobbyStores are advertising free postage on over £30 purchases, to Mainland UK. They do some multiplex but you will have to search and see if they do what you want including a green cub!

Hi UM The VQ 60 hurricane is available here but is stated to be suitable for a 91FS.It is also available in brown at a considerable discount The smaller 46 at 58.5" wingspan is stated as suitable for a 70fs and is available in brown and grey I'm sure they are available from other sources but that should start you off. Don't forget to review it if you buy - there don't seem to be many modern VQ reviews about and the older ones are not too complimentary.

There is an extensive range of free plans here which you can examine before you download so you should be able to find something simple, and some of them come with the origonal magazine build article. If you are looking for something easy to fly the oldtimer high wing models are usually benign, incalm weather anyway.

How about a real challenge - the Mak 10 with its extending telescopic wing.

Sussex models do a few of the easy build range - the full range is here if you want to order from America.

Blacksmith Products on ebay also do a small range of 2.8 mm screws, you didn't say the length you needed.

Why not send a quick e-mail to Just Engines who should be able to send you genuine OS spares, probably a bit more expensive but could be sorted out today.

What is the vertical height between the pump and the surface of the fuel in its container? I find that my pump has a limit on the distance it can pull fuel and the pump is easiest primed when it is held close to the fuel level in the can. The tube to the pump should therefore be shorter than the tube from the pump to the tank i.e. short suck, long blow.

The link works OK for me although it takes a while to load. Now how do we make a scale model do that?

Thanks Terence, I had noticed the cub some time back and thought of buying it on a number of occassions. Your report has spurred into action and it is now winging its way to my door! Hopefully it will fly as well as it looks.

I've gone for competent since I've just got my "A" but lately have been doing a lot of repair work!

If you don't get a useful reply ,can I suggest you try a kitchen timer from a pound shop! My transmitter doesn't have a timer but the kitchen timer is LOUD! can be clipped to the transmitter, and is very easily done.

Myron, one thing not mentioned is that there is a release agent on the surface of the foam which helps prevent sticking! Wash the areas you want to stick first and let them dry and you will have fewer problems. Uhu Por is also good used as a contact adhesive ( if you don't want to use cyano ) but will slow down your build ,waiting for it to dry, and you only get one chance to get it right.

I have used them although I haven't yet connected up the motor I bought. They seem to be a fairly conventional China model shop although they are not as professional as HobbyKing i.e. no tracking is available for a package and you will get little info past "your parcel has been sent". The items I purchased came in about 2 weeks which again is fairly typical.

Mark, I have a number of ARTFs and haven't built from a kit as yet. However I have rebult a number of planes after crashes entailing cutting new ribs, insetting new balsa,replacing broken ply, recovering and rehinging and in one case fitting the wing from one plane to another. Am I an "aeromodeller" yet? or am I just playing with toys?  Edited By TinPot Pilot on 07/08/2012 11:01:15

How about this, it is only single chanel but could be easily converted to electric. There are thousands of free plans on this site and I do remember seeing some specifically for electric but you will have lots of fun hunting for yourself !

Might watch the archery - I've got this plane stuck about 30ft up a tree, can't get a ladder near it and was wondering.......

Sorry to hear they are going.I got a Christmas present from their sale rack ( via Post Office ) every year. I'm hoping to get some of them flying when I get a bit more experience.

There is a detailed description of an "upper" cockpit build here that may be useful

Daithi, the website says it delivers to GB only, so it looks like we are excluded - we will just have to order from China!!

They call it a UK warehouse and will only ship to GB ie the island containing England , Scotland and Wales, so it is not available to Northern Ireland and the other offshore islands comprising the United Kingdom. Why not be accurate and call it the GB warehouse? I live in the United Kingdom and will still have to order from China!

It seems to be working normally now.

This video shows up if you google " Decathlon walkaround "