Martin Dance 1

Well I'm not on the Lincolnshire Steppes but in the middle of the UK's silicon valley with a 500 Mb fibre connection and this site is a bit flaky and slow this week.

As an afterthought and firmly locking the stable door after the horse has bolted. Did you buy rads with built in timers? If not buy a couple of time switches Using a timed programme should make your temporary solution pretty efficient.

Jon, In order to solve your heatin g problems in the short term, it seems you need to fit some form of smart controls to your existing heating system. My son has a very similar property to yours, built at about the same time as your except he has gas central heating. He has spent time and money installing smart TRV,s to his system. He now controls his heating using an app on his phone. He works partly from home and partly in an office, but with no set pattern so a simple programmer doesn't solve the problem of arriving home to a warm house. I'm not sure whethern an electric heating system is quite so amenable to the smart control solution.

Hi Jon much to agree with among the other contributors. Octopus I find are excellent, mad as a box of frogs when I met some of them at a show, but as a not for profit company they have much to reccomend them from a consumers point of view. You don't say how old your property is. My son bought what seems to be the same style of property, but it does have gas central heating, which he has worked upon with a lot of smart tech to improve its effiency. As others have remarked insulation is the key regardless of the heating system. Another downside of spray foam on the underside of ties or slates is that if you need work to be done on the roof many comopanies won't touch such roofs or they will charge you a fortune. As with many things just how long you plan to live in the property will affect choices and decisions. If your looking long term, 10 plus years, then solar panels battery storage and elctric heating might be the best option.

On the topoic of odd measurement scales. Whilst at school I would during holidaysI would track down the estate forester, (my Dad was a gamekeeper on a sporting estate) One day the forester was felling s few Beech trees, and he said how many cubic feet do you think there are in that log? I guessed, clearly wrong. So he passed me a tape measure and go said and measure it. The tape was one of those leather cased types that groundsmen and surveyors used. I pulled out the tape to be confronted with a set of divisions I'd never seen before. He explained it was a quarter girth tape, and showed me how to measure the log. Having obtained two measurements, length and girth in quarter girths he used a little booklet ready reckoner to calculate the number of cubic feet in the log.

Been out all day at Popham examining A and B tests as part of a Southern area initiative. Two observations yes wasn't the lumpers one tough aeroplane, my first radio control model Macgregor Tx and an RCM&E Cotswold tone RX, flew well once into a telegraph pole. On collecting the model the nylon covered wing looked fine, until I shook it! Today one test candidate presented with a KK Fleetwing with a OS 25. Took of from a mown grass runway and flew beutifully and so quiet. No you ndon't need excessive power to fly well.

Absolutely right, you don't even have to fly the test maneouvres in the order in which they are printed in the various documents. As far as positioning myself, as an examiner, off to oneside, it doesn't matter which and slightly behind the candidate so I can see what their fingers are doing is very helpful. Also watching them having a couple of practice flights with their instructor before the test helps you assess just how much nerves are playing a part in their performance. Often my comment is if your're being tested today and I'm on the field, you are being watched!

I suspect its the level or ferocity with which these aids operate really determine our attitude to them. I've just changed cars, from one EV to another, but that's another topic! On my previous car the lane keeping assist was quite ferocious and would pretty much take the steering wheel out of your hand, so it was turned off. On my new car the LKA is much gentler, so it stays switched on. Some aids do seem to require an act of faith. The adaptive cruise control will allow you to use it to crawl along in heavy stop start traffic, the vehicle ahead speeds up so do you, but do I entirely trust it to slow me down when the car ahead slows mmmm! maybe maybe not. The speed limit warnings seem a bit hit and miss as they seem to rely on an onboard camera seeing the limit and seeing the correct limit for the road your travelling on. Being pinged for exceeding a 20 mph limit when the road you're on is a 40mph road is just plain annoying.

To try and bring this topic back on track. I've been driving an EV for four years, pretty much to the day. The vehicle is a Hyundai Ioniq Electric. I've covered some 48.000 miles. Long term energy use is 4.8m/Kwh. It has a 38kwh battery. Range in mixed driving is 160 miles, averaged over the seasons. Its current value is around £9000. It's been charged for 99% of its use on a home charger at 7.5p Kwh. I have just replaced this car with a Cupra Born with a 77Kwh battery. So far having covered a little over 1000 miles it is averaging 4.0m/kwh. The upside to this car compared to the Ioniq is the much greater range of around 350miles. So what ? We have son who lives near Glasgow some 408 miles from my home in Reading, we haven't visited him in the last four years. The range of the Ioniq would have meant at least three recharging stops on the journey and as you neared Scotland charging points became further apart, so until last September the last charging point was Tebay services. Yes you could reach Glasgow from there but youn would be very low on charge. Since then chargers have been installed at Gretna Green thus easing the situation. So 48000 miles covered with journeys tothe coast and back without issue, visiting our other son 160miles round trip, daughter, 50miles round trip and SIL 100miles round trip. So whoever buys my Ioniq will get a car which hasn't been regularly charged at high current with a battery which shows no detectable loss of range. This generation of EV's is now hitting the used car market and look like absolute bargains provided you can charge at home or have a source of cheap charging. Why do I say this? Yesterday I charged my Born at a 150Kwh Shell recharge station I charged about 40Kwh, cost about £37.00 so about the same as petrol from the Shell garage just along the road. So buying a new EV and rapid charging it regularly makes EV ownership very expensive. So a used 2nd generation EV charged at home is very cheap motoring.

I would take any data or statistics coming from the motor trade with a pinch of salt. It is a business wherenitnnever rains but it pours! As an example of the curious and self centred attitude of the motor trade consider our vehicle number plates. In the days of three digit and three numbers plates the plates were unchangedin decades. Whnen we stated using seven character plates eg: ABC 123 A, the new reg started on the 1st January and lasted a year. This didn't suit the motor trade because no one buys new cars in the winter so a change of registration happened on the 1stAug. This also quite quickly didn't suit the motor trade because this was during the holiday period and vehicles were apparently in short supply to satisfy the 'new' reg market. The solution was to have two new registration letters per year in March and September, thus using up the available registrations at twice the speed of the earlier system. All to satisfy the motor trade. So a business that manufactures facts/data to satisfy its own ends. I wouldn't believe a word of anything coming out of that business.

The mention of the use of ultrasonic devices being ised to deter rowdy youths in a town centre brought to mind the solution adopted by a CO-OP store near me faced with a similar rowdy youths problem came up with the soluttion of playing classical music on speakers placed on the store. Worked a treat apparently. It just wasn't cool to be seen outside the store apparently listening to classical music! I suggest the 1812 overture possibly with real cannon effects might act as a deterent. If the criminal tried to sue for hearing damage it would be interesting to see how his lawyer tried to make him the injured party.

However to be really cool you should be sipping slightly warm pints of bitter and eating fish and chips, (out of a newspaper of course) 😀

I think modifying models like a junior 60 etc to become mildly aerobatic , B test aeros, is to kind of miss the point of that type of aircraft, which is pottering gently around on calm days, putting the Tx down and laying on your back and enjoying the gentle perambulations of the model. Gentle aeros? How about a Tauri, or a KK Fleetwing or a Falcon 56. all plans available.

Flynn, that's called a wobble saw,used for cutting dados in furniture making, not often needed in modelmaking and also illegal to use in the UK. 😀

A couple of thoughts come to mind. The first was triggered by mentioning your F/F and C/L background, yep you and me both. Could you pursuade your friend to build and then trim and fly a simple F/F model? It would teach him about how a model is constructed and then how to trim the model for flight. Of course it depends whether you can fly F/F at your site. I'm thinking of a model around 30" span 0.75 to 1cc diesel engine. Aiming for about a 50 feet max altitude and around half a minute flight times. C/L of course allows you to actually 'feel' the aircraft. Second thought the Junior 60 was as we all know a F/F design. Why not trim the J60 F/F style and get you friend to fly it Rudder only for a while. You can do the whole flight this way just using the throttle as 'elevator' control. Final thought could it be that flying mode 1 is the issue, consider getting your friend to try mode 2, I obviously don't know the guy so don't know if that's feasible.

It looks like a battery checker. It dates from when nicad or NiMh batteries were used to power Rx's and servos. Simple to use plug into the Rx battery. Green LED's light, good to go, yellow LED's your pushing your luck. Red LED's lit do not fly, insufficent capacity left in battery. The more sophisicated checkers applied a load to the battery to hnopefully give a more realistic assessment of remaining charge.

I think it's welcome to the wonderful world of the tandem wing! What you are experiencing is fairly typical of the type and explains why it was never popular in full size aviation. Look up 'Flying flea'. Apart from JD8's observations I would also check the foreplane and lower plane incidences, it could be that in practice one of the planes is flying close to its critical angle of attack, so that any change in pitch brings that plane even closer to the stall or of course further away from the stall. Modifying the aircraft so that you can change its incidence might help, otherwise enjoy its quirky personality!

I can see one positive outcome from the introduction of automonouis air taxis. Much improved levels of street cleaning to reduce the damage to air taxis and people as these devices take off and land in city streets.

To pick up on the comments above. Pollution, yes one of the reasons for choosing an EV was just because of tail pipe emissions travelling to our daughter involves passing through three small towns/large villages, why shouldnthe residents nbe subjected to my exhaust fumes when I can avoid it? Since last year my S I L now lives in the new London ULEZ just outside Watford! OnenthingnI didn't mention ismjustmhowthe nPublic charging infrastructurehas expanded since 2020. I estimate its trebled in size. Yes there are charging places in Glasgow city centre but they are in car parks so if you stay in a city centre hotel youn will need to park in a car park to charge thus youn will payn not only for the charging but also the overnight rate for the carpark. Paul I find it difficult to believe your friend suffered such na large reduction in range following a cold night in France.

I've been driving an elecric car for three and a half years. So here's my take on the pros and cons of driving electric. First I drive between 10.000 to 12,000 miles a year, so average mileage. Apart from local shopping trips,trips to the flying field and other local social trips which tend to average under ten miles. Visiting two of our children and sister in law involve round trips of between 50 to 100 miles. Our third child lives in Glasgow, we live in Reading Berkshire, so far we have not visited him, more on that later. I have a charger at home and use Octopus Go tariff which until recently the off peak rate was 7.5 p/Kwh This means that an average charge of 30Kwh costs about £2.25 for around 180 miles, my average long term energy consumption is 4.8 miles per Kwh. Other running costs the first set of tyres lasted around 30,000 miles replacements like for like was £500. Servicing first two years £75. However the 30,000/3year service was £450, this involved changing brake fluid and changing the drive battery coolant. Yes the battery is water cooled and the car has a radiator. Now the downsides. The car had a habit of destroying the 12 volt battery, remember the vehicle systems are powered by a 12 volt battery. The current battery, not OEM is OK, but a software upgrade at the last service obviously has some bugs. If the car is left unused for about 36-48hrs the vehicle drains the 12v battery. Highly inconvenient. On one occasion recently whilst defrosting the car, everything on scenario after about 10 mins a low 12v battery flashed up. Odd because when you start the car the 12volt battery is immediately charged from the drive battery, not this occasion. Last uear I hit a deer and damaged the 'radiator' grill. The dealership not interested in repairing it. Tried a couple of body shops who would't quote, I guessed because its an EV. So on the basis of 'how difficult can it be' I ordered a replacement grille and waited three and a half months for it to arrive. Working on the basis of YouTube is your friend I searched for how to remove/replace a Hyundai Ioniq radiator grille,....NOTHING . Lastly long journeys, I mentioned we have a son living in Glasgow, the distance is just over 400 miles. He doesn't have an EV charger so we need to find an Hotel with on site charging. Nothing in the city despite Premier Inns claiming that their hotels have onsite charging (this may have changed in the last few weeks). Yes there are hotels in Scotland with chargers but they tend to be boutique hotels attached to golf courses with prices to match. Until autumn last year the last services before Glasgow was Tebay services in Cumbria, although Gretna services opened charging facilities last autumn. So some very careful planning needed to complete that journey. Finally battery degradation/ loss of range. None detectable during my ownership of the car. Seasonal variation up to 20 miles during cold spells, hasn't changed in the three winters ofowning the car. My PCP deal ends mid year so I am beginning to consider what next. Another EV, prices seem to have inflated since 2020, there is nothing directly comparable to the Ionq. Most manufacturers seem to be going for larger vehicles with the attendant high price. Last year I took a test drive in a Ford Mustang mach e its price was £60000 at least £15000 overpriced in my opinion. a PHEV, this would solve the Glasgow issue and choosing the right model my day to day use would mostly be electric traction. So there is an account of three and a half years experience. I would say don't believe all you read pro and con, both sides of the argument each have their respective axes to grind.

A good eal more info on this on Geeksvarna live just streamed, worth watching

He did well to keep a drone in sight using binoculars. I find it difficult to keep static birds in view in my garden, about 20 m long. If located outside my garden, say in a tree, again I often never locate the bird. Obviously very talented. My thought exactly Erfolg. Not only that he was holding a Tx and flying the drone. As I said earlier the report quoted at the start of the thread is a very poor piece of journalism. So much so |I think we can discount it as an accurate report of the court proceedings let alone the 'offences' themselves.

My club never had any problems getting David to give a club talk, come to float plane flyins or attend any other event we were holding. One day I asked him why he was so willing to come to our 'do's'. The reply was 'simple my son and his family live in Reading so it's an opportunity to visit and see the grand children and do some flying' What's not to like' Fast forward a few years and sitting in front of me in a class ( I taught Design Technology) was a lad, surname Boddington. Now Boddington is not a common name in Berkshire. So I asked him if he had a Grand dad named David,.'Yes was the reply, how do you know'? ' ah! we teachers know everything' I replied. At the end of the lesson he came up with a smile on his face and said 'Aeromodelling' 👍.

The BBC report seems to be a bit dodgy. He was brought before a Magistrates court. Magistrates courts usually have three magistrates trying each case, one acts as chairman. No 'Judges' anywhere. In order to be tried in front of a judge he would hae been tried in a higher court in front of jury. Thje BBC must be fully aware of this. I would suggest that we treat this report with a good deal of suspiscion.

It's fascinating that each time the BMFA News is published there are the familiar rants about 'waste of money' 'never open it/ bin it' etc. Those people seem to forget that there are other forms of aeromodelling; control line, free flight being the obvious ones. The BMFA supports all forms of aeromodelling. Therefore it is hardly surprising that the BMFA News reflects this in its editorial pages. I would add to that by saying aeromodelling is much more than flying an ARTF foam electric model around gently on a Sunday afternoon. Also to those who feel the slightly increased beaurocracy we have to deal with if we choose to fly radio control models can be overcome by flying a control line model.