John Tee

A long to wait on your own 240,000 miles from home. Need a lot to do to take your mind off things going wrong. Very brave men. John

Didn't know there was a problem until I tried to check the results on their site and got an error message, so missed John's post last night. John

Lead is banned in plumbing where potable water is carried in the pipe ( drinking water) other domestic uses ie gas are ok. john

Flew mine again today and had two flights. A lot better with the Expo in the right sense. Upped the Expo to 30% and then 40% for the second flight. Didn't try a third as I had rebalanced and added a bit of nose weight and was a bit too much so taken it home in one piece to try and remove the weight - made sure it was secure with resin so hopefully it won't break too much foam removing it again. Will up everything to 50%. Club mate reckons 60% but that sounds too much. Looks promising. John

Was it the Orbit PS3 that could be changed from linear to rotary output by changing the servo case top? John

Haven't had time today to check the CG on the Voltiguer as I have been sorting out a shed with a few larger models that I will probably never fly and trying to sort out my magazine collection (from 70's onwards plus some 60's) to make room to move some woodworking tools out of the model shed. Typically it started drizzling as soon as I left the house but I got it done albeit a bit damp. Thought I would start by checking the Expo as it was one of the easier settings check. Got the manual out and read it up and had a think about it. I am sure (without checking the manual that my Futaba needed negative numbers to desensitise control and in the back of my mind I thought my Hitec needed opposite ( positive ) so that was what I set. As you probably already worked out, I had made it more sensitive and so consider myself lucky to get the model back in one piece. I have reread the manual a few times and am now satified I have it correct. Will try and check the balance tomorrow afternoon and hopefully try to fly Saturday or Sunday. Counting myself very lucky, John

I bought a VQ T34 Mentor last tuesday and when I got home decided to order the retracts and power set, the motor I was going to use was too powerful. Ordered on line and the power set was in stock but not the retracts so had to wait to come from distributer ( 5 to 7working day wait) . Both items came yesterday. The system works well sometimes . SMC are a top shop. john

I got rid of the box once the assembly was complete but I did keep the end panel with all the settings and "instructions" as I keep all the instructions for all my models, even after they meet their end (not sure why apart from not liking to throw things away. Still got my single channel gear. Will check my settings but I don't think I am too far out. Will help when I get the CG right, I 'm thinking it is too far aft but not by much. Will have to get the vanessa rig out again. It took off quite nicely after a relatively short run and wasn't a scalded cat by any means but fast enough for me until sorted. Had thought about leaving the wheel spats until trimmed but didn't. Luckily our grass stirp is like a lawn and was no hassle. Any input from Simon would be welcome. john

Your reactions must be better than mine Jeff. Probably not the best model to get back into flying after a long layoff due to lockdown. My excuse is age as I fall into an older age group. Did fly a couple of slower models first to get back into the feel of it. Well done. I will make some adjustments and try again. I used a 3s 2900 battery but have a feeling I used a 4s on the first one. John

Managed to maiden my Voltiguer today. CG not quite right and even with what I thought would be marginal aileron movement was still quite twitchy. Got round the field twice and decided to land, lined up and came in for a very nice landing. I had set up 25% expo and another member suggested 50%. Aileron rates I set at 80% servo travel at full rate, 70%at mid rate and 55% at minimum rate but still sensitive. Will make a few adjustments and try again hopefully at the weekend. Elevator was not too bad.

Booked a visit to the field for tomorrow so hopefully I may have the nerve to do the maiden. Shouldn't worry really as the throws are way less than last time but still a bit wary. Good luck if you do maiden yours. John

I am at the other end of Sussex in Horsham. Refitted the servo in the wing with hot glue gun and it is solid now. I don't think you will pull any of the foam out if you do it gently, only glue on the side into the wing the servo wire runs along the base of the servo.Tugged the rudder and elevator servos all ok, fitted on ply plate glued in. A couple of pics to explain the Rx installation I used.

Jeff, I checked my servos and no sign of excess glue ,but if I remember rightly they were hot glued in. I gave one of mine a tug and it came out this afternoon. I have refitted with double sided tape but not sure it is really secure so will redo with a hot glue gun. I just wriggled it on the control horn to get it out if that helped. Will recheck all the others. Was hoping to maiden it today, but a bit breezy here in Sussex - just as well maybe. John

Firstly, apologies for the underlining, didn't select it but can't get rid of it - tried hitting the underline symbol - no effect. How many older modellers remember these servos? The grey one has a plug that Harry Brooks used back in the sixties. I didn't use the Climax ones as they are waterproof so must have acquired from somewhere but I did use the normal ones. Modern Futaba and midi servo as size comparison. Also found a box of single channel gear and a Remcon reed Tx. Didn't get rid of too much but things are much tidier now.

Sorry if I confused the issue Jeffrey, I don't remember the servo leads being fitted with extensions, I meant the servo discs had a metal arm screwed to the disc to increase the throw. The latest one has no disc just a normal straight arm. My original servos, motor and Esc all survived the destruction so I have spares. I haven't checked physically but the latter motor is supposed to be more powerful. The original was more than powerful enough for me in the short time it flew.

Just remembered another problem. The pushers for the rudder and elevator were a bit short ( and thin) so replaced with 2mm ones. John

I had one last year but crashed on maiden due to too much control movement. For some reason the servo arms had extentsions which made the control surfaces like barn doors. Instead of putting it down I tried to get back to the strip with fatal results. Had another one for Christmas and have set up with minimal movement this time and three sets of dual rates to get me through the maiden. The servos have no extensions on the new one. Vast area inside for battery but placing the Rx for access to the servo plugs was limiting, ended up fitting Rx on Velcro on the moulding that the wing tube goes through which allowed the Rx to sit inside a hollow in the cockpit moulding. Just waiting for time and weather to coincide to try out. Only minor problem with the new one is the cockpit release catch was very stiff and I scuffed the paintwork in that area trying to open it. Sorted now.

Raikkonon penalise for something and dropped out of the top ten. I gained 2 points

Watched the race and saw nearly all my predictions go down the pan and thought I might just get a few bonus points and end up with what I think is my second best score in the league, so well chuffed. Not got any ideas about repeating that so not hoping to rise to much further as I am used to being near or at the bottom. Well done John S. John

Aren't we fliers wonderful. During lockdown our farmer landlord thinned out the trees on one side of our field leaving just a few along the field and behind our hut. Since flying restarted we have already had a model in one of the few trees left. The magnets still work apparently???

Cheers Chris John

Doesn't get any better does it. 1 prediction correct and 3 near misses for podium. Lost out due to corner four situation. John

I don't think we are ripe for takeover as the club losing it's site is nearly 20 miles away as the crow flies from the town in our name and our club field is another 10 miles further away on the other side of town, so their members would face a 30 + mile journey each time they visited, 60mile round trip. John

Like many other clubs I'm sure, we have members who are in more than one club. We have accepted some members this year from another club who are about to lose their flying site after 40 years while they look for a new site. Talking to our Secretary today it appears that we are in the enviable position of having three club chairmen, one from the club losing it's site and another from a club twenty miles away and our own chairman in our membership. Are we unique?

We'll see in three hours time. John