barryt

Hi Jon, PM sent.

Hi Peter, From the designer's own thread.  The spars are tapered on the inside because the ribs get narrow so you will notice that the spar slots get shallower towards the tip. If they didn't the ribs would be extremely narrow between the spar slots. So you should taper the spar before laying it down but you can taper it once pinned down but obviously before gluing on the ribs       Edited By barryt on 15/10/2020 14:58:51

Hi Shaun. Congratulations on receiving your Loaded Dice kit. You will find it a very enjoyable build. As Bob Cotsford has kindly confirmed, there is an arrow missing from the plan and that just a simple joining block is required, positioned between the two parallel lines indicated on the plan. It will be obvious when you get there! Here is a picture of the simple wing jig I made. Actually I made 2 and built both wings at the same time! I have sent you a PM with additional info. Looking forward to your pics.

Hi Peter, I really like your Rans Chaos featured in the October magazine. I'm keen to build but how do I get hold of a plan? I only subscribe to the digital edition as magazine deliveries to South Africa are not too reliable, especially this year! I'll keep an eye on the local newsagents, but I have not seen RCM&E for quite a while. Any ideas?

Enjoy the build Shaun. Post some pictures and don't forget to order the canopy. Let me know if you need details of Terry Westrop's simple wing jig.

Thanks all. So I can just ignore S3 in my case?

Well I thought S1 and S2 referred to the rotary knobs. My Taranis X9D+ does not have a 6 position switch. It does have two Sliders which I assume are LS & RS. I've no idea what S3 refers to!

Only 3?

Can someone explain what the S1, S2 and S3 fields represent in the log files? S1 varies between levels 1 and 2. S2 varies between levels 9 and 10 S3 is steady at level 0. I can't find anything in the manuals. Give me a clue!

Hi Shaun, I powered my EP Loaded Dice with an eMax GT3642 motor on 4 cells. That's what I had available. I'm no aerobatic expert, but I would suggest that the model in short kit form is excessively sturdy. Combined with my limited building skills, I felt that the model ended up heavier than it could have been. The long nose and heavy motor meant that the battery was placed well back against the leading edge to get the CG in the correct place. The short kit is an easy build although I did make myself a a wing jig to make sure the symmetrical ribs aligned properly. The model flies well, easily trimmed and does all the basic aeros well. I just have a feeling that if I had built it lighter, it would be better. Guess that applies to most models though! This has been a very popular model in the past so hopefully some more experienced modellers will comment.

Sorry for the long wait. It's winter in this neck of the woods and opportunities for flying the tiger moth have been few.. It really doesn't like crosswind landings. (perhaps that should read 'I'm not good enough to execute crosswind landings'!) I'm glad to report that the problem is resolved but not without some intense head scratching. I'll try to keep the explanation short and I hope it might help someone in future. One additional clue showed up on a subsequent test flight, i.e.'Rx voltage low'. This time it was apparent as a couple of spikes on the telemetry log. This was the first time that the logs actually showed a defect.and, for me, a confirmation that something was actually wrong. The Rx voltage is measured by the S6R and not the MLVSS. I don't have an explanation as to why these spikes showed up in the logs, but the flight battery warnings did not. My Rx and Servo power comes from the flight battery, via a 6v 5A switch mode regulator. Having already swapped out the flight battery and receiver, I made up a new wiring harness (in case there was a poor solder joint) and fitted a new regulator. I made up a test lead for my digital multimeter and measured the rx voltage by removing an aileron servo lead and putting the test lead in its place. Unwittingly, I had made thing much harder for myself with this random choice of test point, as you will see. So much twiddling of Tx sticks and looking for Rx voltage dips on a DMM is not the best setup. An oscilloscope would be more appropriate. The Rx voltage looked rock solid. Eventually, I thought there was a slight dip (only millivolts) while wiggling the aileron stick. (only one aileron servo plugged in). I unplugged that servo and plugged in the other aileron servo to make a comparison. Well it looked the same so I concluded that all was well. So I disconnected my test lead, inserted both aileron servo leads and powered up the model, (no prop fitted). Lots of Tx stick wiggling clearly showed dips in the Rx voltage shown on the Tx display and accompanying verbal warnings. I pulled out all the servo leads and retested, plugging them in one by one. All was fine until I plugged in an aileron servo which clearly spiked the Rx voltage down. Ah ha, is this it? I disconnected that aileron servo and plugged in the other aileron servo. Same problem! I still couldn't believe I had a simultaneous failure of both aileron servos so I took them out and checked the linkages and ailerons for free movement. They were fine and there are little air loads to contend with on a tiger moth. So two new servos fitted and following a successful test flight with no telemetry warnings, and another test flight with all of my original equipment (flight battery, Rx,and Regulator) fitted, I conclude that my problems were caused by early stage failure of both aileron servos. Both the original servos still function using a servo tester but it is quite clear that they are causing electrical noise when running and they are getting worse. I can only presume that the electrical noise triggered the early telemetry warnings even though the the warnings themselves did not directly pinpoint the cause of the problem. Thanks everyone for your assistance, much appreciated.

Hi all, and thank you for your helpful correspondence. I flew again this morning in quite gusty conditions. I used a different voltage sensor as recommended. My batteries are only a year old, always balance charged and stored at 50%. All seemed well and I even opened the throttle to complete a loop. No warnings, so I thought the problem was solved. Then just before landing, a low battery warning. The battery showed 45% capacity on landing. I have just checked the telemetry and while the drop in voltage during the loop is obvious, it again shows a steady decline in voltage level to the lowest point at the end. There are no significant dips anywhere. The data is recorded at 0.2s intervals. At the moment, I can find no evidence that these warnings are real. The flights seem normal and I am landing with plenty of reserve capacity, however the warnings are making me nervous. This model is very draggy and really only enjoys flying at one (slow) speed. If I open the throttle, the prop noise and whistling in the rigging increases, but not much else. Using a 13x5 prop, I need to loose some altitude to get around a loop! I guess my next move would be to change the battery and if no improvement, I'll change the Rx. An approaching cold front will delay a retest for a few days. Watch this space.

Hi Bob, yes, I'll try another sensor tomorrow.

Hi Dennis. The model was originally fitted with a X8R last year.The CG and trim were sorted using that Rx. The S6R was fitted as an experiment last December. No trimming was required with.stabilisation off and the trim does not change with stabilisation on. I upgraded my Tx and Rx software during lockdown, We have only recently been allowed to return to flying and this issue is now showing up..

I have a normal Taranis Tx (v2.2 international software) and an S6R + MLVSS + 40A Current Sensor installed in my Tiger Moth. The radio is setup to provide low flight battery (14.0v for 2 seconds) and low flight battery cell (3,5v for 2 seconds) voice warnings. During a gentle flight, using a constant throttle input, I occasionally receive two or three low battery or low cell warnings. The telemetry data shows a steady decline of flight battery voltage from full charge 16.8v,down to 15v at the end of the flight. Current draw is a steady 16A at cruising speed. At no time during the flight does the flight battery voltage drop or dip below 15v.. At the end of the flight the battery capacity is 50%. Any idea what is causing these seemingly spurious messages? Could it have anything to do with the Rx antenna installation. (RSSI never drops below 56) Is there a site which explains in detail how this telemetry system works? Thanks for your assistance. Much appreciated.   Edited By barryt on 23/07/2020 14:17:30

Geoff. I think you can create text directly in Paint. Select the A on the menu bar and you have a choice of fonts to use. AWflyer, well that was a coincidence! Looks like an excellent result. What covering material have you used? Mine is fabric, which is why I have painted everything. By the way I like your pilot figure. That is going to be another challenge for me. Leaving it for last! Alan, thanks again for the very detailed info. Much appreciated. I am going to try to create something myself using vintage fonts but I can see how useful autocad would be to get a perfect result. I would also need to create some 'LIFT HERE' masks and associated arrows. Luckily I know an autocad fundi so I'll try to get some lessons from him! Yes lockdown has been tough around here. No post, no alcohol, no tobacco, no exercise etc. The tobacco doesn't bother me but some have been trying to smoke the contents of their compost heaps. Well that's what it smells like anyway. The lack of alcohol has been another issue and people have been getting quite creative. My personal favorite has been hand sanitiser and tonic, with ice and a twist of lemon. Interesting times!

Excellent ideas guys. Just what I was looking for. Thank you for responding so quickly. Alan, I have found a local signage company that has some Oramask and is willing to help. I just need to supply them with the artwork. Busy with that now. One thing I didn't ask was are the masks reuseable to any degree? What is your experience? Many thanks for your kind offer to post some examples but I should be ok for now. Just as well really because I am not resident in the UK and we have no lockdown postal service at the moment! Andy, great picture and an interesting solution which i would also like to experiment with. I'm not sure if I could obtain the water slide paper locally so I'll have to track some down on ebay first. I can't recall any RCM&E articles on either of these finishing detail methods. Have I missed something? Here is a trial assembly of L2020 before covering.

The tail of my lockdown Puppeteer (serial L2020) is looking quite bare. How would I go about reproducing the Sopwith logo on it? I suppose vinyl would be easiest. Could someone direct me to a better quality image that could be used by the vinyl cutters? The rest of the model is painted, so vinyl might look a little out of place..Are there other methods I could use to get a more realistic result?

Hi DD. Could it be a lightweight scutter?