The Wright Stuff

Good question, and one I asked myself not long ago! My charger does not have a discharge setting! My solution was a 50W, 12 V lightbulb - the kind you get in bathroom ceilings. The GU5.3 fitting will conveniently plug straight into an EC3 connector on the battery, if that's what you use. Trial and error told me that it takes about 9 to 10 minutes to discharge to storage voltage from fully charged. Since this is about the same time it takes to discharge the battery when flying, I think it's a safe discharge rate for a 3S lipo. As you said in the OP, you don't want to leave it until the bulb goes dim, but time it, so you only discharge to a safe level. Obviously, do this with the same precautions you would use to charge the battery, and don't touch the bulb, or place it on anything flammable or meltable, it WILL get VERY HOT! I just use the garage floor! And it goes without saying: don't leave unattended!!! Ian   Edited By The Wright Stuff on 13/01/2014 12:14:19

I was in two minds about whether to post this, but I had a rather unpleasant experience last night that I thought would be good to share. I fly in the evenings after work mainly, and last night seemed like a good opportunity before the clocks go back and the weather picks up. I am quite often alone at the field, which is quite remote, and I arrived last night surprised to see a couple of cars parked on the access road. My first thought was that fellow fliers had turned up for a last hour of flying before darkness and didn't fancy driving through the mud, but upon getting out of my car and attempting to speak to them, I realised that they were not model fliers and probably had no idea that this was the access road to a patch. I politely asked the two lads to move the cars so I could get past, and rather than reversing out onto the road as I expected, they continued up the track and parked on the patch itself! As I followed them to the parking area next to the patch, I expected them to drive off, but they just sat in their cars on the patch, scowling at me. I tried to speak to them, but they wound up the window and ignored me: clearly I had disturbed whatever it was that they were doing. Since I was on my own in a very remote field, I decided at this point that discretion was the better part of valor, and drove off. There were just too many scenarios in my mind's eye. I suspected that they were up to no good, it clearly wasn't safe to fly with the cars on the patch, but I didn't fancy a standoff. If I had a model in the air, that would leave me very vulnerable, and frankly, my model/mobile phone/wallet/car/life were more important than getting a flight in. In my dark imaginings, I even asked myself whether deliberately flying a model into someone would be considered a measured form of self-defence if I was attacked. It ruined my evening, but then I asked myself afterwards whether I had over-reacted. They had not actually done anything illegal (perhaps apart from trespass as non-club members), but as I felt intimidated, I chickened out of approaching them further - what a world we live in when our first reaction in a situation like this is to assume the worst! Was I rational, or am I a cynical victim of media-fueled 'don't talk to strangers' scaremongering? So, have any other members had any similar experiences (or worse)?

About 40 minutes from home, or 5 minutes from work. Since most of my flying takes place after work, it tends to be a summer thing! Clocks go back soon, then it won't even be possible to sneak away early!

Well, it's easier to fit it into the car, now!

OK, in the same manner, punctuate this: a woman without her man is nothing

Come to think of it, the control line guys do as well...

Sad news indeed. Interesting that the report expressed surprise that he wasn't wearing a helmet. I'd never heard of any model fliers ever wearing helmets.

I had a balsa built up trainer that I spent 2 years building in my youth. It did about ten flights in as many years. I was so terrified of flying it, I never did, and never really learnt to fly confidently. A bit older and a bit wiser, I look back and think I may as well have flown it and crashed it than not flown it at all for fear of crashing. Got back into the hobby with an ARTF to re-learn on, and never looked back. All the nerves were 100% associated with the time I'd invested in buiding it!!!

I've not used the EX, but the T6J is fabulous. It was my first 2.4 GHz radio (indeed first computer radio), and it was very easy to learn to use. It also has the bonus of a 5th proportional channel in case you ever want fully continuous flaps! I thought the lack of rechargeable battery pack with the 6J was a negative at first, but actually, using dry batteries is far more convenient - a decent set lasted over 80 flights! I agree with FilmBuff - it's lightweight and has a great 'feel'!

I've been thinking about this and it seems that we are currently in the time in history when the aids are common enough to be a talking point, but not adopted widely enough to be commonplace. We may think differently when looking back 20 years from now. Hence it is in our nature to be sceptical. A lot of it depends upon whether or not the beginner ever intends to fly without the aids. As time passes, the technology will develop and become more widely adopted, and it may be that the aids will become so available that it will be feasible to get through an entire aeromodelling 'career' without having to fly without. It will certainly bring a wider variety of models within the flying ability of the relative beginner. If that sounds cryptic, then think about the parallels: If you've only ever learnt on electric, how will you be able to set up an IC engine? If you've only ever reversed a channel using the transmitter, how will you learn to rewire a servo? If you've only ever learnt on 2.4 GHz, how will you learn to use a peg board? If you've only ever flown RTF models, how will you learn to scratchbuild one? The answer in each case could be: 'I choose not to'. That's how I see it progressing: a new branch of the hobby for the people who don't have (or want to) invest the time to learn without aids. Do I like or agree with this situation? Well, I'm not sure, but that's how I see it playing out!

Cars that drive themselves are not far away. In a few years from now, it'll just be possible to push a button on the transmitter that says 'go for a flight'. Camera's will monitor the ground position, a laser gauge will monitor the height, and a pressure sensor will measure the wind speed. The model will take off, perform a circuit, and land, all by itself. Fabulous technology, but as a hobby, what's the point? I think a similar thing when I look at people flying FPV. In a few years, there will be simulators that talk to Google Earth - then what is the point of a physical model at all?

Saturday weather now looks a write-off: heavy rain all day!

Futaba recommend 4.8 to 7.2 volts, according to the manual. If it's possible to increase the size of the pack to 5 cells, and still fit it in the model, I'd go with that. If not, then go with 4 cells, and ensure they are fully charged before each use, and accept you have a bit less headroom.

From another post, you mention the Futaba T6J. This certainly needs a 5 cell (6 volt) pack.

I would probobly just recharge anyway to be on the safe side. For a NiMH using a trickle charger, that would be fine...

If your radio is a 35 MHz set (as I assume if it came with a 4 cell NiCad battery), then the pack you suggest above is perfect. If you have a 2.4 GHz set, or intend to upgrade to one in the near future, then it might be worth investing in a 5 cell pack. If the second sentence doesn't make sense to you, then go with the first sentence!

To he honest, if you're just upgrading a single pack and don't want the complexity of getting a new charger, etc, I'd just go for a 4 cell NiMH: will be the same shape size and weight as your NiCad, and you can use your existing charger. Treat it exactly the same as a Nicad except that NiMH can have a slightly higher self discharge, so you need to to charge it shortly before flying (i.e. within a week)....

Olly, that's as good a definition as I can find anywhere else! This would work fine in practice if everyone else left a 2 second gap, too! A14 commuting hell!

Tailgating: totally agree it's mad. A two second gap to the vehicle in front is fairly easy to define, so it's fairly black and white. Middle lane hogging: agree with the principle that it's bad, but I'm not so sure it could be policed. What is the definition of 'the road ahead is clear'? What is an acceptable gap to the car in front before you are deemed to be hogging the middle lane?

Hi there, I have vision in both eyes, but my right eye is very dominant over my left - spent years with eye patches over my good eye as a kid! I've noticed that when flying close to the sun, or in bright conditions that make me squint, I instinctively close my bad eye anyway. I'm told by my optician that this is a normal response. I don't see any difference with my flying with my left eye open or closed, but then, arguably I've never had full binocular vision anyway. I can't for the life of me see those 'magic eye' puzzles. I'd love to know whether this is impeding my flying ability, but as CS says, I've lived with it all my life, and my brain has always had to cope. It would be REALLY insightful if one of the more experienced flyers on this forum blessed with two equally good eyes could do the experiment for us! i.e. try a circuit with one eye closed (3 mistakes high). It would be interesting to know the effect... Cheers, TWS

Am thinking of getting one of these, but all my batteries are 3S and this model needs 4S. I'd be slightly surprised if this couldn't be flown on a 3S - it has a similar wing loading and span to others in the Dynam range (e.g. Trojan, Spitfire) and they are all fine with 3S. Anyone tried one of these yet, and how much power is needed to fly it in a scale-like manner? Cheers, TWS

Hi Eifion, I'm in exactly the same position, got it from Kings Lynn, but haven't built it yet. I also have exactly the same reservations about flying it - been flying my Parkzone T-28 to get in some practice. I intend to follow the tips laid out here, if you haven't already seen them. Cheers, TWS

Hmmm, just did some longhand trigonometry and wish I hadn't - it's horrendous. BEB is correct that all non-linearities cancel out when: the control horn is the same length as the servo horn, they are parallel at the neutral position, and there is no offset in the lateral direction. John is correct that this non-linearity is NOT preserved when the horn lengths are different, except in the approximation when both arms move at small angles (sin angle ~ angle) and is best visualised by the (extreme) example he gives. To all intents and purposes, the pivot lengths will be close enough in a real model to make no material difference away from the angle of the control surface replicating the angle of the servo - and even then, there are other factors that will dominate any small exponential tendencies, such as flexing of the rod, slight differences in the plane of rotations, etc. Currently pondering whether the question: "Is linear rotational motion possible?" would make a good philosophy question...

Thanks for all the advice and reassurance - I managed to get a couple of hours in yesterday evening and will keep on at it...

Hi BEB, Have to say that you have a point, but that's kind of looking at it from a worst case scenario. You could save money by taking your own food, for example - I doubt Steve has much control over the pricing of the food stalls! In any case, I don't think the organisers have much flexibility to take the price much below a tenner, anyway, so say it was £9 (the price of the LMA shows). You've only saved £8 out of your £124, but the organising committee have taken a big hit on their income... But anyway, you've persuaded me to come along to the Nats for the first time this year!