Antony Wright

lol Maybe you are right Dave :) Whereas electric may not be as popular in the north as yet - it is improving. I dont yet fly electric as I have already stated and yes I have read some of the articles matching cost for cost, but I do believe that eventually it will take a much larger chunk of the hobby. Its only natural. Its like computers. I got involved in them when they were only just coming into the average household. Folk back then said it would never catch on - it was too gimmicky. But take a look now - not only are they in a large percentage of the households but it is being intergrated into everyday things too. I guess some would call it progression (my wife wouldnt). But give electrics a chance to prove themselves and we will see leaps and bounds taking place in all areas including a drop in the prices. We may even see the manufacturerers standardising fittings etc - cor now wouldnt that be helpful :)

Sounds like a good idea Malcolm. Since I havent covered it yet I could easily fit that tube in. I think i shall have a few experiments with it once I get back to building again (taking some time off to help my son move house this week).

thanks Malcolm. The items in question were rather far gone and water didnt do anything for them. Since the originals have been replaced and I still possess them - I'll give it a try see what happens.

One benefit of electric is you dont have to keep buying the fuel as you do for IC. Still I dont mind - I fly IC at moment but I have every intention of trying out electric.

Congrats Angus on going solo. Club rule at our club is you cant go solo till you passs the A test. So I shall have that extra guidance and help for some time yet.

True Graham - but maybe once in a while they could do a special where they print a plan on larger sheet of paper for us :)

Well done Danny. No flying for me today unfortunately as there was too much wind :( oh well better next time for me.

lol - well my wife has allocated my son a space of 10' x 10' so Im not unhappy about it :)

Yup I have to agree with Andy. I felt cheated somehow. Not only was the special free but the mag it was with was cheaper - by todays standards that was 2 for less than the price of 1 :)

Hi Gerry, from SLEC - their number is on my last post above.

lol - love that Alistar. Mine is slightly differnt but simular results. My son is studying carpentry at college at the moment. He asked recently if he could build a reasonable sized shed for a workshop in the garden (my wife's domain not mine). Anyway she ummed and arred till he said "dad can share it with me for his plane building". That settled it :) He is planning a safe area for me to store my things without risking them being pranged with his work.

Hi TC, Give it a go and enjoy yourself. There are a lot of us on here who are either new to the hobby or returning to it after 20 - 30 year gap. None of us think we are to old. On this Beginners section of the forum there is a post with a simular name to your own called "newbies". Come join us there and see how the rest of us are getting on. We are all sharing our current experiences of getting started and you will find a lot of us have things in common with yourself. We look forward to hearing about how you get on. :) Antony

thanks Alistar - that is just what I wanted to know. Im interested in the theory not just what looks right. Im not planning on any scratch building just yet but I wanted to try to understand what effects the choice. Just looking at a plan book may tell you what size is appropriate but it doesnt tell you the why. Keith - thanks for the electric comaprison. There is a lot of theory out there and I knew some of you would know it :)

I remember suggeting a couple of aeroplanes like many others did. Its great that we are actually being asked what we want. Although my own suggestions were not on the final list I still feel I was part of it. Anyway as Tom Bailey has said they will be asking us again in the future. Maybe then we can go for the most unusual we can come up with. But for now lets be satisfied that we have been part of this (I too had to look up what a Sidestrand was). After all how many other magazines do you know of that give us a say in whats going into it?

Well done Angus - good to hear you had fun

Dont know if this helps or not, but I came across the following website yesterday - www.belairkits.com - On it are listed several BT kits (formers etc not full kit) along with several other top designers. I didnt check for plans but the prices are in English pounds so I guess it might be worth having a look there. I emailed them yesterday afternoon around 5 or 6pm and had a reply from them within a couple of hours.

thanks for the encouragement guys - much appreciated. good luck Angus.

thanks Mike - I was wondering whether there was a rule of thumb so to speak. Im sure many out there will support what you have said - but someone somewhere must have had to work it out somehow. Im guessing some of the equation will have to do with the weight of the plane - its intended use - ie trainer, aerobatic etc (determining whether the plane is a slow or fast flyer). Maybe Im just over exercising my brain and should take your easy route.

Ok how do I know what size engine is right for a plane? Let me clarify. Supposing I wanted to scratch build a single engined plane with a 60" wingspan - or a 100" span? Same question but suppose that 60" or 100" span was a twin engined or even 4 engined plane. How do I know what size engine(s) it would require? Im refering to ic engines at the moment (but an electric comparison might also be helpful).

Clarky - Im using a 10x6 on mine

Well second trip to the field is over. Im not sure what happened but I just couldnt get it all together. Maybe it was the change in wind direction coupled with the fact my hands got very cold. Anyway the plane survived - its just my nerves a little in tatters. Apparently its quite common for the second flight to be a little less inspiring than the first. Anyway despite that I still thoroughly enjoyed myself. So what did I do? WEll My circuits were terrible - its the only way I can describe them. The plane just kept going off at the wrong angles and my brain was not compensating quick enough. However I did get to do a couple of loops which were fun - but the real fun came when the instructor got me to do a half loop and then turn and fly off at the top of the loop. He followed that by getting me to fly in low across the strip reducing power as if I was going to land - and then powering up again. real good fun. What did I learn? Well I could repeat what I said at the end of my first post. But I think the emphasis would be on concentration this time. You must keep the concentration up - particularly if the wind conditions are not what you previouusly experienced. One thing I did find was that in the changed wind conditions I found that turns were effected. I kind of had it in my mind that it would be the same as last week. It wasnt. Just having the wind change direction completely changed my problem. Oh yes one very important thing I learned - make sure you dress warm on a day like today. What might be suitable when going shopping and you are constantly on the move is not going to work when you are stood still in a bightingly cold wind. Hopefully I shall get a day when we have less wind and I shall begin to appreciate how hard Im having to cope at the moment.

I dont know about predrilled holes but SLEC do the graph on a stick on sheet - it comes with the supports, nuts and bolts etc. I bought one recently I think it cost me about £15. All you need to do then is buy a 4x2 board and peel off the backing from the graph sheet. All the holes are marked ready for you to drill out. ops nearly forgot their phone number :- 01953 885279

what a nice present for fathers day - a visit to the show :)

mm sounds a good idea - however Ive never been to any airshow so I have no idea where Weston is :(

yes Danny - but there was a delay in them being put up - but Ivwe checked and they are there now. However I did notice that they were put before the last lot not at the end