Tony Campbell

Flyboys, and Aces High

Flying in groups will never prevent accidents from happening. In fact, just to be argumentative, you are more likely to be injured as a result of someone elses 'accident', and the more people present, the more likely it is to happen. Yes, of course, should you be injured to the point of not being able to summon help yourself, a flying buddy would be available to assist.   I may very well be injured by something stupid I do when alone, but how would I be able to claim against, or sue the club because I injured myself doing 'whatever', with my own equipment?  Fortunately, my own club has no such rule, and long may that continue.

Posted by Stephen Grigg on 21/11/2009 10:28:28: I broke the top of mine Phil,put a new one on and it was totally uncontorllable.The nice weather arrived and I havent been near it since     Stephen, what you need to do, is take the fybar off carefully, turn it thru 180 deg and refit. They are actually handed. Another way is to take off the top blades and reposition them on the opposite sides...... not sure if that is very clear but, the top left and right blades can be swopped so the left goes where the right was and vice versa.  I know it looks like the flybar can go on any direction because the top blades both have a ball link sticking out, but trust me, they dont. The flybar has to be fitted a certain way round. If however you break the ball link on one blade, just swap the blades around, swapping the flybar to the other side does not work.  Been there done, got the tee-shirt  

Posted by Timbo - Administrator on 22/11/2009 10:30:51: I have a Rippy Alienator ( bought 3 years ago to replace one which died   Was it natural causes?

Hi tommy,   As far as I know, the seperate RX's aren't in the country yet. I think Amerang are expecting them anytime now.

Sorry to dig up an old post but the comments made above regarding turning the plane inverted to start it is completely unneccessary.  If the engine is correctly primed, ie, not over-primed then it will start happily regardless if it is upside down, sideways on or back to front.  However, the comment regarding oil pooling round the glowplug does carry some merit, although it is most likely to be normal fuel mix rather than just oil. This only applies to start up however and all model engines can (notice i said can) get a bit unhappy if left to idle too long, this is generally caused by the plug cooling down past its optimum.  I also applaude the comments made regarding not twiddling the needle........ wish I had a quid for everytime I've seen someone doing that when it wasn't needed......... normally followed by a deadstick and long retrieval. One tip i had from just engines, was to fit a fourstroke plug in an inverted 2 stroke to help with engine cuts at tick over. Care had to be taken with piston to plug clearance, using 2 plug washers if needed. It certainly worked though! 

Someone posted earlier in this thread about the insurance company failing to pay out on stuff because he didn't have the reciepts. I think, most companies will happily allow you to photograph all of your valued items and send them the photo collection as a matter of proof. I think however, the best bet if you are going to do this, is to contact them and ask if you can check with them what type of items are covered under your policy and what to do about items you have that you no longer have reciepts for. Most will happily accept photographic proof as long as you have cleared this with them before (god forbid) you have to make any claims.  I know my broker, Swinton, advised I done this with anything i had, that I didn't have documented proof of. Just a thought, and you never know, it might just be the thing that helps dull the blow so to speak......

I have just finished spraying auto paints over a solartex covering and was wondering what I can use to protect the finish.  I dont need it to be fuel proof, just finger mark proof. Is there a certain type of varnish that is recommended for over the top of these cellulose based paints?  I know you can get water based or spirit based, but dont know which would be best, bearing in mind that it doesn't have to have fuelproof qualities.  Does anyone have any experience of this, and if so, what did you use?....... a brand easily available from B&Q etc would be nice

You, are a very nasty man.........     when you gonna cras... sorry. test fly your squall?

I use Zap and throw the lids away...... I use a t-pin in the hole which does 2 things, it stops the CA running out if i inadvertently knock the bottle over and it also leaves a nice clear, same size hole everytime i pull it out. Must investigate the builders merchant type CA and activator Edited By Tony Campbell on 26/10/2009 23:11:51

Hehehe....... Dont be silly Garny, that would have been the sensible thing to do , luckily though, the spraying of the first colour went very well doing wet on wet and as of now 07:30 this morning, I've had a look and the finish is really nice!!  Lets hope the second colour and masking goes as well   Thanks so far to everyone who has dropped in with advice. it really is appreciated  I'll keep you all posted as to the final result, with a pic of the final finished model if it looks at all presentable...............

Have used solarfilm and tex...... never had an issue. Would love to try profilm as I hear it gets around curves even easier. The only time i ever used prymol was to join two colours over open structure. If it had been on a foam wing, i.e fully supported underneath, I wouldn't have used it at all. I have generally found it to be pretty forgiving on heat settings, but does leave traces of its colour on the sole of the iron. Prob just my bad technique

Yeah, I know the trick regarding paint creep and use it a lot when spraying plastic kits (airfix). I normally use tamiya tape because of its razor cut edge, that and it doesn't seem to lift paint at all. I've used it on freshly sprayed acrylics that are only 30mins to 1 hour dry and it doesn't lift those.  I think, the best bet is to try it tomorrow on an inconspicuous area. As to leaving it on, I normally lift masking tape straight after the last coat and with these cellulose paints, I think the general idea is to lay each coat on top of the last just after it has flashed off, i.e nearly wet on wet. So, the tape will only be on about an hour at most.  This is the problem, its the paint which is relatively new to me, not the techniques.  I guess taking it steady and laying on thin coats, and taking the tape off, pulling away from the wet line will prob work best. As for the tape lifting the paint, a small test tomorrow will tell........ I'll post back with results, good or bad!! Maybe it'll help someone else out there if they attempt the same

I have just finished spraying the under fuselage colour onto an airframe using cellulose spraypaint (i assume it is cellulose as it says to use cellulose thinners for clean up). How long is it recommended to leave it before masking up on top of that colour? 24 hours?....Longer?   I was going to go for 24 hrs, but don't want to spoil the ship for a ha'perth of tar so to speak...... or to put it another way, because I'm an impatient person and cant wait to see how it turns out Anybody have any experience of  the above, cos I'd welcome the advice. 

Yeah, you're right. The wheels for my Magnatilla cost an arm and a leg.  Actually, come to think of it, the 'Jammy Yorkshire Git' mentioned above, bought them for me!!!  Still haven't paid him back.   And being a Scottish git myself, it could be a long drawn out process..........   Have to say though..... brialliant building blog, really enjoyed reading every bit of it.Edited By Tony Campbell on 11/10/2009 17:40:12