David Ovenden

Well my 2 Seagull models have been fine. Neither too heavy nor poor flyers. I like my Seagull Chipmunk a lot. It's got a 125 4 stroke engine and hasn't had any structural problems.

Its hard to imagine any way a vertical split like that could occur in normal circumstances without there being a manufacturing fault or metallurgical flaw with the con rod.

Why would any business sell a whole range of branded and desirable items at prices that would result in a massive loss for the company on every sale?

Which for me means its not worth spending any time on. In real life the plane would take off. End of story

Very nice restoration. Almost tempting me to get a copy of the plan!

I would try removing them and soaking them in hot water with detergent. Then a scrub with an old nylon brush. When they are dry again you could give them a rub over with very fine wire wool. Just the tyres not the hubs!

How did you cut round the outline of the "pilot" ? Hot wire? Old white foam is pretty crumbly stuff!

Great job Murat. It will be a fine model again when you've finished the rebuild. So nice to see an "old" model given a new lease of life.

Ahh. Old habits die hard Paul! Always had a flask of coffee in the UK, and still often do now. Though it's French brand coffee of course.

I have 2 old metal tobacco tins ( given to me by a neighbour -I don't smoke) The smaller one contains some glow plugs. The other has accumulated over the years various screws, nuts, washers, small lengths of brass tube, some silicone fuel tube, wheel collets, a clevis opening tool, small tube of epoxy etc Takes up hardly any room, but is amazingly useful and has saved the day many times.

My recollection us that the OS FS80 was rated at only 1.1bhp. The first version FS90 was 1.3 and the OO FS91 surpass improved that to 1.6bhp. Whilst these bhp figures don't proper idea of give real world performance, they do show that the old FS80 wasn't the most powerful engine. However, a perfectly good engine for its day. And still a useful motor now.

Nice. Once it's rebuilt it should be a great improvement but no doubt more thirsty on fuel.

Is it a Saito 150?

That's a very long way in a Zoe on an old battery. Bon courage!

Well, eBay will have automatically added 20% on to the seller's price to cover "VAT" as the item is coming from Italy!

David, I can't really give you the solution to you dilemma. However, like others have said, how much do you need a new tx. I'm still using a JR 10X tx with 2.4g module to fly scale models with flapsand retracts. I do also have a JR XG14 set, but honesy don't use anything like all its features even on twin engine scale electric models with flaps. I'm not suggesting you use JR radio. Just have a good think about what you are likely to want or use. My XG14 has telemetry, and luke Peter, I have a Unisens voice alert add on. But I almost never use it! Maybe you should stick with Spektrum as you are familiar with the way their radio works and understand their programming systems? My experience has been that good pilots can fly well with almost any transmitter. But expensive/ sophisticated equipment doesn't (on its own) make you fly any better! Or perhaps it's just me?

For me it's always OS F for four strokes. Nothing else I've tried is as good as the OS plug. Enya no 3 and OS no 8 are both good plugs for 2 strokes .

My Great Planes 1/5th scale PT19 had a one piece wing. I sawed that in half. Then added wing tubes, put in split flaps, remade the U/C mountings and fitted Robart oleo legs with 4 1/2 wheels. It looked and flew so much better after that. If we can build planes from plans, kits or from scratch, then surely we can modify an ARTF to match what we want?

I've never used any barbs or wire. My silicone tubing has never come off any tank or engine. So far!

Amazing work Dave. As usual!

Manual on the HK site. YEP programme_card.pdf

You could call it a VFC. The vertical fuselage component.

Very interesting mechanical and electrical principles used in this Toaster. Clever ideas to provide "low-tech" automation. However, I would have thought mechanical wear and tear plus deterioration of the ni-chrome wire would lead to reliability issues and be very difficult to repair. Anyone had one of these?

We have a Breville Edge Deep Chassis 2-Slice Toaster | Brushed Stainless Steel [VTT981] It is better than others we have had and toasts pretty evenly. My wife makes her own bread which is taller than standard sliced bread and it works fine with that.

The mode 1 vs mode 2 debate has been "done to death" many times previously. Fortunately for Tony (OP) - and any other locals interested in learning to fly - the club offers both options. So let's just be happy that the facilities and good will are there to help folk get into our fine hobby successfully.