Martin Dance 1

Have a look at this lot on Ebay eBay item number: 193694741158 Beautifully photographed and such a bargain. Look at his other items he's certainly free with the '0's' after the first number

I've never owned an MDS so can't comment! However I've owned and run most of the engines on the OP's list, and some! ST and Enya top the list for longevity and reliability. Two motors I owned did give problems. The first a Taipan 40, an Australian made motor for those unfamiliar with the make. My first one ran OK and was reliable but not very powerful. One day when re-fuelling the fuel filler tube disconnected and sprayed fuel allover the engine. On turning the motor over a myriad bubbles appeared all over the crankcase, the casting was porous, the replacement engine was just fine. The second was a Jen 57, never did get that to perform reliably Running perfectly on the ground, takeoff and it would either go lean or go rich or just cut. Rebuilding the carb made very little difference. The final straw came one day, engine started and idling prior to take-off and BANG an abrupt stop. The crank pin sheared off. So all makes can have 'Friday afternoon' motors.

My response to the 'non fault accident you were involved in' is to agree with them but then say unfortunately the amnesia I suffered following the accident means I can't remember any details, you obviously have them just send me the cheque. They always hang up. I recently discovered another way to really annoy the 'market research' type caller. They obviously have your name, address and phone number which I confirm they then ask your age or age group which I refuse point blank to answer. They reiterate the question several times getting increasingly annoyed then they hang up. Try it it's good fun!

Ah! but then all you have to do is build a pair of wings for the fuselage and a fuselage and tail plane for the wings and you've got two models, oh hang on...

If you have a copy of the original plan, find your local copy shop and get an enlarged copy made. It's usually quite cheap, probably no more than £5. If I was doing the Coquette I'd probably go for 45 ins. The fun bit is then selecting the appropriate wood sizes. I've done a Vic Smeed Mamselle and a Hot Canary using this method. I've simply measured the resulting wood sizes and then applied the TLAR principle to finalise my choice.

The seller should also add 'rare' and 'collectable' then the skies the limit even if there are three more on the same page!

It may well be David's prototype, but my recollection is that many of David's designs were actually built by David Toyer at the prototype stage.

You could try Workshop Heaven who stock 3M 'reassuringly expensive' microfinishing and lapping film if you want some very fine abrasive paper.

If a couple of conversations I've had recently are indicative then no the hobby is not on its last legs. The first was with George at 4max, How's it going? 'Doing 16-17 hour days at the moment' Same question to Ian at Modelbau UK 'Very busy'. You decide.

I was there in '66 and '68. Health and safety? Remember the vast majority attending in those days were aeromodellers and well aware of the potential risks and used to dodging models.Also remember back then R/C models were in the minority at the Nats. There were far more control line and free flight models than R/C. Those were the days were it wasn't unusual for a F/F model to land in the C/L team race circle whilst a race was under way! The Dave Platt T28 was the stand out model of the '66 Scale event. Stood looking at it for a long while and stood about 3-4 yards away when Dave took off for a competition flight! Not any more.

Balsa is a very variable material even through individual sheets, I once cut a 4 inch by 1/4 sheet into four equal size pieces. There was nearly 10 gms difference between the lightest and heaviest piece! If you want to be OCD, and why not? But a set of 'drug dealers scales'off ebay so you can weigh each part, Over the top? Not really build a pair off wings without paying attention to the weight of each component can mean one panel weighing much more than the other, this will have a much more significant effect on the models performance than a slightly miss selected piece for a spar.

I have a DB Piper Cub. I fitted an OS 61 FS, pre surpass, and it's too powerful, unless you think a 60 degree angle of climb at full throttle is scale like. I agree with John Stones that even with careful throttle use it isn't pleasant to fly. I reckon a motor in the 48 to 52 range would be best. Also that vintage of OS four stroke wasn't that reliable on low throttle with the motor fitted inverted.

In simple terms for a canard which has a fore plane with elevators. The elevators move in the opposite sense to conventional elevators at the rear of an aircraft. So with the elevator moving downward the aircraft pitches up and with up moving elevator the aircraft pitches downwards. With an all moving fore plane with the leading edge moving higher than the trailing edge, i.e more positive angle of attack the aircraft climbs and vice versa when the trailing edge moves higher relative to the leading edge, reduced angle of attack. Note however you will need to ave the fore plane at about 5 degrees of positive incidence to get stable flight.

Due to restrictions imposed by carriers Lipos tend to be dispatched at between 20-30% of full charge. Many will have a note with them advising the purchaser to charge to storage level at least as soon as possible. Storage voltage about 3.6-3.8 v per cell. A fully charged new lipo should show 4.2 volts per cell. so 3 cell is 12.6 v. Hope that helps.

Another six feet to the right and I would have through the gate.

Why not make the numbers a feature of the model? Letters as large as possible across the top of the wing, preferably large enough to be read by satellite or a passing survellence drone. That will fox some jobsworth when checking up on your registration.

The demographic drift is nothing new. I joined the SMAE (BMFA) in 1965 aged 16. One of the items I received when I joined was the current copy of the SMAE newsletter. One of the prominent articles was one bemoaning the lack of young people joining the hobby. OK the drift is much more serious now, but it's not new.

I agree with Andrews post (post 2). However bearing n mind that you used 1/32 balsa and presumably joined 3-4 sheets edge to edge using shrinking dope could lead to problems. I would be inclined to use either banana oil or a non-shrinking dope for attaching the tissue and subsequent coating of the fuselage. Again all well thinned at least 50/50 or even thinner and use more coats as a consequence.

Postage from the USA to the UK using US mail is expensive. I wanted an IC for my Ace TX earlier this year.The IC cost about $10. Post to the UK $30. Post within the lower 49 states $7. I have a friend who has a property in Florida. Guess which shipping option I took?

Single stick Tx's were/are very popular in the USA, all of the US manufacturers and the major Japanese manufacturers offered a single stick,(cuddle box) TX. These occasionally come up on ebay. Most will be 54 or 72mhz systems. However conversion to 2.4Ghz is not the end of the world. Again Mike Ridley is your friend. Occasionally on ebay more modern modular radios with single sticks from either Futaba or JR are offered. However be aware these tend to command premium prices. These of course offer an easy conversion route using an appropriate 2.4Ghz module replacing the original module.

I'm not surprised members are moaning if you need an Allen Scythe to cut the strip. Its a piece of agricultural/ horticultural history designed to cut tall grass for haymaking etc. If I remember correctly it still leaves a stubble about a couple of inches long. Hardly the bowling green that most people wan to fly from, although dancing might be a possibility.

Simplest way to check the straightness of a rule or straightedge is to place it on a flat surface, a piece of white contiboard is ideal and using a sharp pencil draw a line along the edge(s).Then flip the rule/straightedge over and align the same edge with the pencil line at the ends of the rule/straightedge. Now draw a second line. It should coincide exactly with the first line, if not it's not straight.

I suspect that there is several levels of indicator non use. The prevalent one around where I do most of my driving is not to indicate left, particularly annoying at roundabouts where you are waiting to emerge this trick often causes a hold up. The second tier is to indicate after the front wheels have already indicated a change of direction and the manoeuvre is under way. The third tier is to ignore the signals of others driver indicating left to change lanes driver in nearside lane in blind spot decides to ignore it and scrape along the other cars side. The final and this is almost unique to BMW drivers is to approach a motorway junction. and to squeeze into the often quite small gap between two vehicles and onto the slip road totally ignoring the half mile empty space after the second car which would have made the manoeuvre much less risky.

I went to W&W on Saturday, it was quite warm! The wind being a from the crowd cross wind clearly made display flying tricky, especially for the smaller lighter models which once airborne would tend to drift away from the crowd line. I suspect that there isn't enough space to have two flight lines but with the present single flight line models are climbing turning away long before they reach the end of the crowd line. The relatively short crowd line was a positive plus for Sandown Park shows. The Weston Park crowd line is a bit shorter than W&W and that helps with the appearance of the flying displays. Also at Weston the displays are being flown through a 'canyon' of trees which places a back ground close to the spectators, not a feature of North Weald airfield. The trade stands at both shows are strung out on a long single line. I wonder whether arranging the trade stands in two probably shorter rows facing each other making it feel busier more 'market like feel would help and perhaps placing the Bring and Buy in a more central location might help.

Just switched on my cynical mode after I read this. 'The drone registration scheme is a top priority for the Government.' That would account for our failure to leave the EU on the 29th March, too busy dreaming up a drone registration system AND ' Any alternative approach for model flyers must be achieved without imposing undue burden on the state and the taxpayer, whilst also being efficient and enforceable, without compromising the integrity of the policy.' So HS2 and other vanity projects aren't going to impose an undue burden on the state and taxpayer then?