Martin Dance 1

Tickets, no queue when I arrived. You can buy tickets at the gate. Not a huge crowd, but with a dodgy weather forecast not surprising. No great trade presence, again not surprising considering it's a new show. Reasonably diverse flying display. Give it a go.

I've just returned from Popham. I'm not sure it was an opportunity missed. The weather unexpectedly played ball, the wind was light and sky overcast. A reasonable turnout of pilots demonstrating a good range of models, including those you might well see at your club site. The flight line was reasonably close to the crowd line so you didn't need binoculars to see the models. The trade presence was limited, not surprising really in these early Post Covid days. Would you take the risk of attending a new unproven event? Clearly Popham airfield is needing to diversify in order to survive. The infrastructure on the field, marques, Toilets etc; where left from a car event that happened the previous weekend. I guess the organisers got a better deal that way. The site is well positioned to attract a southern audience, the A303 runs past the airfield, providing easy access from the south and southwest. Give it another year or two to develop and it could be a very good show.

I suppose there are a number of ways of looking at old (classic) designs. Quite a number are still flying having been built many years ago or indeed recently from an old kit but without modification to the basic structure. How many of these do you see falling from the sky as a confetti of pieces? Not many. Of course if you build a classic design and use a power train several times more powerful than the original design used without modification, expect problems. However if you are building a classic model then power it appropriately and fly it appropriately. Don't expect your Kwik fli 3 to execute 3D type manoeuvres As far as control linkages are concerned, all forms have their place. I recently built an Ugly stick using the original plan from Outerzone. Built to the plan and as strong and straight as an Ox. My only mod is using two aileron servos because I didn't have any bell cranks but I had two suitable servos! It's powered by a contemporary K&B 45. I don't expect it to fall apart in the air or to do harriers.?

A likely source of reasonably priced drilling machines are companies that buy up old machines. Many will be from schools that have decided that design technology no longer fits the image they wish to portray. Bowerhill which are in the Swindon area are worth investigating. The good thing is that most pillar drills used in schools are single phase. If I was buying again I would go for a floor mounted pillar drill rather than a bench drill. The reason being that eventually you will need to drill a hole in a part that won'r fit on a bench drill! You can guess how I know!

My experience of Lidl tools is that they are of decent quality as long as they are not intended to cut stuff. Drill bits, end cutters, pliers etc tend not to work well Clamps hammers etc are fine as are power tools. I speak from experience of buying Lidl stuff for hobbies other than modelling.

Jeff, Having eliminated the glow driver as the source of he engines failure to start the problem lies within the model. That probably means gaining access to the engine and fuel tank exactly the situation you wanted to avoid unnecessarily by having a glow driver which indicated the functionality of the plug. Much as I love gadgets as much as the next flyer, they are often not the simplest solution to a problem.? (help my emoji file is playing up)

Having followed this topic for three pages, much of it very interesting, I'll modify my original observation. Have a known good plug in your flight box. At the start of your flying session put plug into glow clip. Plug lights up? Yes. Remove plug from glow clip return it to flight box. Attach glow clip to glow plug/ remote glow clip on model. Start engine and fly ( after removing glow clip from model). Motor doesn't start, refer to my earlier post. Can't get much simpler or reliable. ?

It's worth remembering that glow fuel with a synthetic oil is not new technology. I ran an OS25 on synthetic in the 1970's. First with Castrol MSSR, not particularly successful. Then a fuel with ML70. The engine had many gallons through it without issue. I believe ML70 has been developed over the intervening years so using it in a 'new' old engine shouldn't be a problem I stopped using the ML70 based fuel as the supplier, GMax fuels stopped making it in model quantities.

Simple remove plug from motor attach your glow igniter. Glows yellow red, replace plug in motor go fly. No glow? Plug is dead, replace or plug igniter is discharged, recharge. poor connection between plug and igniter, repair. Perm any one from 3 to get the answer. Sophisticated glow drivers produce exactly the same result. The only advantage is if your motor is fully enclosed is you don't have to remove the plug in initially.

Let's add another bit of confusion to this topic. Larch is a softwood, quite common in the UK and it's deciduous. Holm or Spanish oak is a hardwood and it is an evergreen! The difference which defines hard and softwoods is down to the cell structure. Thee are a number of spruce species which would be suitable for model building. The best would be Sitka spruce but it is in short supply. If you have a decent timber merchant near you go along and ask to browse thee softwood stocks. Look for timber with a fin e grain, closely spaced annual rings. If you have the facility to saw it down to the sizes you want buy it.

Sorry but the stereotype thing does work. However the more annoying trait which is not related to vehicle brand is the habit of many drivers of signalling their intention as they turn the steering wheel by which time it is blindingly obvious what they intend to do. This is particularly annoying at mini-roundabouts when the car approaching the roundabout signals left. Signalling two or three seconds earlier would allow me the opportunity to execute my in a timely manner and help smooth the flow of traffic.

Jon, a laser cut kit is a cop out! Do it properly, download the plan from Outerzone and cut all the bits properly, like wot I did LOL.

Interesting Nightflyer, I have all three in my hanger! Mamselle is oldest nearly 20 years and is 1.5 times original size. Tomboy is a bit newer about 15 years and powered by, you guessed it Mill .75! Ballerina recently finished sports an AM 10. Not flown yet but I suspect a bit overpowered.

My first R/C model was a APS Lumpers, nylon covered and as tough as old boots. Macgregor transistor tone Tx, the big grey box one, RCM&E Cotswold tone Rx, home built and an Elmic sequential escapement. First flight was from my village recreation ground. Friend launched it, the model was powered by an AM15 diesel. Flew really well flight lasted something like 10 mins and I landed under control nearly at my feet! Luck I guess. It was reported that during that flight I came under anti aircraft fire from the nearby council houses. Someone with an air rifle, they missed. Had many flights with that model. At one time hitting a telegraph pole. retrieved the model, it looked OK until I shook the wing, I had a nylon bag full of balsa chips! Re built the wing and had many flight with the model after that. Lost it with a flyaway. Radio failure I guess.

this will increase everyone else's chance.

I agree with Peter the 11" sanding block is excellent, bought mine not long after Ian started the business, so it's quite old, still cuts well. I have quite a range of Permagrit tools. Ones that I use regularly is the block with the 45 degree ends, useful for getting into corners. The lat plate one gets used regularly too. In fact all have their uses.

I suspect the requirements of 'quick' and 'accurate' could be mutually exclusive, or expensive. A laser cutter would give you both but cost effective? There is the investment in the machine probably several hundred pounds and the investment in time needed to learn how to program it and operate it. if you are looking at looking at the long term and a substantial number of models, great idea. If you are like me one or two models a year not so good. So its back to hand methods. Making large numbers of identical parts e.g. wing ribs, templates and sandwich method is probably the quickest and insures identical ribs, or identical to the templates. For formers etc in balsa my preferred method is photocopy on my printer then spray mount onto balsa and use a scalpel and steel rule for straight lines freehand for curves. I use a scroll saw for ply parts. Apart from that an evening spent cutting is quite theraputic especially as the pile of parts grows!

It seems that there is several types of light ply using different materials. Poplar is one timber in use but that seems to be sourced from different Poplar species. Mantua models stock light ply, beautiful stuff, white in colour and dead flat not all light ply is like that. Snag, the pieces are only 200mm wide, so could be expensive to make fuselage sides from it. In the 79;s Graupner used a balsa ply in some of their kits, again beautiful stuff, don't whether they sold it as a sheet material.

How on earth do you manage to come up with a £13.70 starting bid ? No views of the inside of the mould. It looks as if it has been carefully stored out of doors so the mould surface is almost certainly useless. Can you offer 0.137 pence for it/?

Reading kc's post I have a Syncat in the fleet, built a good few years ago. Flies well. The interesting feature is the wing construction. It's a built up and tapered wing. You only need one rib template because it uses the R H W Annenberg's 'equiangular' section. An interesting way of producing a tapered set of wing ribs.

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.