Dai Fledermaus

I should have added that in hindsight, the signs of a possible battery failure were there. The stop start system had developed a mind of its own in that sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. Winter driving with the lights and wipers and heated rear screen probably finished it off. Also, I've learned that in the case of a new AGM battery where re coding is necessary, the car's ECU doesn't actually do anything with that new information other than to reset the battery's charging profile. It doesn't cross reference that information with anything for example. You could just change a few digits of the existing code to effect the reset.

I thought the issue with the battery in my 2017 Skoda Fabia might be of interest. One evening, a few weeks ago, the alarm in the car suddenly went off as it was parked on our drive. I tried cancelling it with the remote, but it continued for five minutes or so, then stopped, at which point the car went dead. Nothing worked. No central locking. No engine management lights. The following day, however, I found that the battery voltage had dropped so low that my smart charger wouldn't kick in as a temporary fix and neither I or a neighbour had jump leads. Obviously, I needed a new battery. Manufacturers recommend you change them every five years or so. Mine was clearly living on borrowed time. So, having shopped around online, I found Halfords and EuroCarParts had the Exide 027 battery I needed for around £145, with Halfords wanting £27 to fit it. But then I found a battery specialist in North Wales called Taymar who were selling it for £89.99 including next day delivery. I was initially suspicious about the price difference, but I went ahead and ordered it anyway. I have to say their service, packaging and communication was excellent. In less than ten minutesI had fitted the new battery and I was back in business. Now, here's the bit that caused me some head scratching, my car has stop start capability and there seems to be some misinformation on line about battery coding when it comes to cars with this feature. I don't pretend to fully understand it but some cars with stop start, need to be told that a new battery has been fitted via a code and an OBD-II reader. However, as I subsequently found out, this only applies to cars with an AGM ( absorbent glass mat) type battery, not as in my case, an EFB battery. In fact EFB batteries don't have a code on them because it's not needed. You live and learn.

It's very confusing Tim. The blurb on the Hobbywing website clearly says the program box supports the Skywalker V2 series. https://www.hobbywing.com/en/products/led-program-box_general82.html And the the Program box is show as an accessory on page for the aircraft range of Skywalker ESC's. https://www.hobbywing.com/en/products/skywalker-v2-series274.html I messaged Hobbywing in China two days ago, but I've had no responce as yet. I can of course programme the ESC using my transmitter, but as I've got the program card, I may as well work out how to use it.

I've recently bought a Hobbywing Program Card and a Hobbywing Skywalker 40amp V2- ubec ESC. The program card comes with various labels to relabel it depending on the ESC brand and the application ie car, boat or aircraft. My problem is that the Skywalker ESC isn't covered on the program card instruction manual, although, clearly, both are made by the same company. I can only assume that the Skywalker range is new and the instructions for the card haven't been updated. The two yellow and black labels, supplied, are marked Table 1 for flyfun V5 and Table 2 for Platinum V1/V2 appear to be the only ones suitable for a model aircraft ESC Anyone know which label do I use?

Lidl has these little dovetail pull saws/ Japanese saw, in stock from March 3, with 2 blades 17 tpi and 22 TPI. £7.99. I can't recommend them enough. Absolutely brilliant for model making and larger jobs. I've had one for several years now and it's still very sharp. They don't seem to stock them very often, so I'm going to buy another.

I can't recommend this book enough. The story of how Rolls met Royce and the car and aircraft engines the company produced leading up to the Merlin. Full of facts and interesting anecdotes. £4.99 for the Amazon Kindle edition. https://books.telegraph.co.uk/Product/Graham-Hoyland/Merlin--The-Power-Behind-the-Spitfire-Mosquito-and-Lancas/24834013

I agree, Jiffy is an absolute pain. His 'what they should be doing' style of commentry is very irritating. Nigel Owens insightful comments were useful though.

Good to see Ireland win the Grand Slam this evening. 😊

I know you do it just for fun Matt, but I'm sure forum members would be interested to see one or two of your videos. Colin.

I've only just noticed your post Murph. Sorry no one has got back to you. I can't explain it. Maybe there's a glitch with email. In the short term, You are more than welcome to turn up at the field. It's weather dependent of course, but there'll be someone there most Sundays and Wednesdays and more often as the weather improves. The gate at the bottom of the track, leading up to the field might look closed, but if it's unlocked, there'll be someone there. Please close the gate behind you. I notice Stubbsy has just responded to you, so we'll find out why no one got back to you.

I'm just about halfway through reading this book, but I can't recommend it enough. A kindle edition is available on Amazon for 99p https://beesemporium.co.uk/products/hurricane-the-plane-that-saved-britain-by-adrian-stewart-paperback

A recent article from The BMFA News about the Club https://bmfa.org/bmfa-news?fbclid=IwAR3HrpWwWS7L9a3-x9fp9UKYltIUWVglqLxEqRpCop5X320-_st7JYZ7TIg#178-august-2023/44/

If you're ever down this way Griff, you'd be welcome. My wife is a Bangor girl, so she could translate. 😊 Hwyl fawr

A Day Out Out At Valley Flyers courtesy of club member Matt Stubbs

We are a small friendly BMFA affiliated club, situated a few miles north of Pontypridd, near the villages of Nelson and Treharris, within easy access from the A470 We fly IC and electric, fixed wing and rotary wing model aircraft from a private and regularly mown field which allows ROG take offs. Surrounded by farmland it's available seven days a week. There is vehicle access and plenty of adjacent parking. We are currently seeking to increase the number of active flyers in the club and would welcome new members of any experience level as well as those new to the hobby. We have members available to assist new flyers. For more information please contact Email: [email protected]

Our club currently has 20 members, almost all of a certain age, and like other clubs, our number has dwindled in recent years. The club pays £70 per cut, going up to £80 next year apparently. In addition to this, the clubs pays for his fuel for the mower and any parts or repairs like replacing drive belts etc. I don't think the Club is being parsimonious or unreasonable in exploring other options and it might well be that we have to live with the present arrangement, but I thought it worthwhile finding out how other clubs manage.

Thanks everyone for your feedback, lots of food for thought here.

Our club field, perhaps the width of a football pitch but not as long, is currently cut by a club member using his own ride on mower. He makes a charge for this service, which excludes fuel and any repairs to his machine, but as we're relatively small in number, the club is finding it a struggle to fund this, not insignificant, cost without a large increase in membership fees next year. So, the answer might be for the Club to buy its own mower, not a ride on job, but a self propelled petrol one capable of mowing a decent size strip instead of the whole field, which is what I suspect most other clubs do. We would not be able to keep the machine on site for security reasons, the local scrotes would have it away in next to no time, so it would need to go in your average hatchback or estate car. I'd be interested to know what sort of machine is used in your club and are there any safety or other issues around Club members using it.

After another session in the beep department this afternoon, I've managed to activate the brake. More by luck than judgement.

Afternoon. I've been trying to activate the brake on a 4-Max 30amp ESC I bought recently. I have a white 4-Max Progcard, not that old, but after contacting George Worley at 4-Max, I've discovered that my Progcard only works with the older 4M - ESC's not the newer 4M - HESC's. Apparently his supplier wanted to increase the price of the ESC's some 30%, so George found another supplier, hence the older Progcards don't work. The newer cards are mainly black so as not to confuse the two. In all fairness, he's trying to be helpful, but the information sheet he's now emailed me is in Chinglish and hard to follow and I still haven't managed to activate the Brake. After 5 minutes of it, I've got beeps going round in my head. Short of buying another Progcard, can anyone help?

David, This video is a year old and the presenter doesn't mention Radiomaster which seems to be flavour of the month now, but it might help illuminate the darkness. Like you I'm trying to get to speed with the latest developments, but the danger is to buy something that has bells and whistles which you'll never use.

Copy of part of the email I had off them yesterday:- Dear , Sadly the continuing economic situation and general decline in the hobby has let us to the difficult decision that it is no longer viable to continue the website so we will be closing it soon. We have never really recovered from the effects of Brexit and have struggled to cope with the lack of overseas sales and product availability this has brought about. So we are having a closing sale of 25% off everything for around one week. A lot of our stock has already been disposed of but there are still a lot of great bargains to be had, but if it says out of stock there will be no more, so be quick! To take advantage of the discount you MUST apply the Coupon Code CLOSE25 in the coupon code box on the shopping cart page where the 25% discount will be applied to your order. Please note that this discount applies to website orders only, not telephone orders.

Thanks fellas, that's fairly definitive.

I've been away from this forum for a few years, so forgive me if this subject has been covered previously. I did do a quick search, but I couldn't find any reference to it. I know that it's a legal requirement for model flyers to register with the CAA, but where a club is affiliated to the BMFA, is there any obligation for that club to ensure that its members are not only registered with the CAA but that their model aircraft carry the required ID?