Phil Green

Try flying an aerobat on Reeds!

I dont use it on anything. Just move the stick less 🙂

Many of mine use a single 18650 Lithium cell, direct without a booster. Same for transmitters but 2S. No need to remove and a charge lasts absolutely ages. The cells are bought as Lidl 'Parkside' drill packs, these are really good cells that I also use on my ebike: https://mode-zero.uk/viewtopic.php?p=5800

Trigger Point is a current equivalent, I enjoyed it, they're repeating series 1 right now https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigger_Point_(TV_series)

I know you know, but its apparent that some of your viewers dont 🙂

Balance connectors are wired in parallel. Inside the battery, balance neg and power neg both go to cell 1 neg and the last balance wire goes to the last cell pos and power pos If it would physically fit, you could plug your 2S at the bottom end of any socket 2S to 6S 🙂

thats assuming cell 3 has gone Bonzo, wont work if you removed cell 1 🙂 Its because after removing cell 1, the 3S plug starts with the redundant balance wire, which would have been the negative that everything is kelvin-referenced to. You'd have to shuffle them all up one pin, which is a lot of faff, easier to add a 2S balance lead as you did 🙂

I think you've completely misunderstood Jason. Assuming cell 3 was the faulty one, the disconnected balance lead (one wire) is from the positive of the removed cell 3, and hence this wire is redundant. The positive power lead which is floating after removing cell3, is moved to the pos of cell2. Its very simple, not at all dangerous if done by someone competent, and not 'daft', in fact personally I think its daft binning of perfectly good Lithium 🙂 Edit: I just watched it again and realised that its cell 1 that has gone, so the balance plug does need to be changed after all, sorry Bonzo thats me speed-watching. If cell 3 has gone then 3 wires of the 4S balance plug can stay, the last wire is redundant and can be snipped or insulated away. In Bonzo's case its cell 1 so its easier to replace the whole balance lead than to shuffle them all up one - its only 3 wires so not worth messing about 🙂 In order of ease of fixing, a bad cell 3 is the easiest. A bad cell 1 is a little bit more faff, a bad cell 2 is double the effort, more so if its a PCB for inter-cell links - I probably wouldnt bother.

Sorry no, me & Geoff were both talking about the resulting 2S battery having a 3S balance plug, the faulty cell is gone at that point 🙂 You treat the repaired 2S battery as any 2S, except the balance plug (which is now a 4-way with only3 wires connected) goes into the 3S balance port. The balance ports are simply commoned so the charger sees a 2S 👍

Yep, several of my 2S batteries started out as 3S. I mostly use a blunt plastic tool rather than a Stanley knife. As Geoff says, theres no need to change the balance plug, just remove or insulate the 4th wire if its a 3S to 2S fix.

A club stipulating a transmitter mode is just wrong! You should fly whatever is comfortable for you, whatever that is it can be buddied to whatever your instructor uses. Because my interest is in retro gear including Reeds, I'm equally comfortable with either, but my preference is mode 2, in fact quite a few if my transmitters have only one stick unit. My point is that with minimal effort its possible to buddy widely disparate systems (including Reeds) 🙂

I wouldnt expect it to have done much damage Jim, there is most likely a crowbar diode & fuse across the power input. The fuse is likely to be just a thinner PCB track but could be a physical fuse, either way it should be visible and costs you nothing to look. If so its an easy DIY repair to solder some fuse wire across the blown fuse track, or replace the physical fuse if there is one.

Alarm bells right there...

Are you all absolutely 100% certain it was the bank calling? How do you know? This is often a key part of the scam... and they are very, very good at it. Has anyone received their 'replacement card' ?

After a transmitter fell over, and opened the throttle of an electric model that was being retrieved, we got rid of this rule. I think it was only there in the first place because it was in an SMAE 'standard club rules template'.

I recall the name Ron Broughton from the comp days... dont remember his models though

...and they keep pulling up ele when the lift falters... 🙂

As Geoff says, its a trivial job to replace the cell. Easy peasy lemon squeezy 🙂

Be aware though that on many slopes motors are strictly not allowed, not even if unused, props removed or taped-up. Best to ask at the sloping club before risking the loss of their site. And anyway, you dont need one! I have a 'spare' Wildthing (of three!) that I keep for that very purpose, to let others fly it, I even have 2 trannies for it, mode 1 and 2 ! Last time we were at Nonts it was gusting a measured 50mph, hard to stand up and really difficult to launch. We had a mid-air and my Wildthing (another one) recovered downwind and hit the rock face at (50mph + flying speed). Damage was the fin, one elevon and little bit of re-taping 🙂 Hats off to Alan Head of SAS 😃

Yes last year was a bit extreme... but we did fly didnt we! I recall you were the very first to fly in the spot landing comp, in a wind gusting over 25 you dropped it right onto the spot and left us thinking 'who is this?' 😄

My Dad started me slope soaring as a 10-year-old, the Sheffield Society of Aeromodellers was then exclusively a slope club. Primarily S/C in the early days, then through Reeds & on to a Staveley analogue propo. Dad took us all over the country doing all the big aerobatics & pylon racing comps, absolutely loved it, got to know Ken, Chris, Pat... 35 years of sloping later, we moved up to Ponty and I joined PANDAS - this was the first flat-field, powered model club I'd flown with. To be honest I found power flying dull, very two-dimensional - repeatedly flying boring clockwise circuits and listening to others moaning about the wind - (what wind? 🙂 ) Scratching on the slope in light conditions is somehow at the same time tense and relaxing, yet teaches you the art of trimming, about air movement, to have a light touch, to work for rewards. Battling stronger winds teaches instant motor reactions against violet turbulence, about energy retention and changes of glider behaviour & response over a huge range of airspeeds. Both teach you to pace yourself, with patience and determination when climbing to the summit! 🙂 Our club field, Ponty racecourse, is superb - we're privileged to have it - but its the same every visit. Nont Sarahs, Pule Hill, Baildon Moor, Callow Bank, Filey Brigg - its a different experience every time you venture out. This might well go against the majority but I think you'd learn more and faster on the slope if you avoid extreme conditions. Maybe dont look on it as a precursor to boring flat-field flying but as an exciting and rewarding activity in itself ! 🙂 Cheers Phil

Shaun buys his centres of gravity from ebay in A4 sheets... 😉

I'd suggest it's the combination of a low-KV motor and a Heli ESC that expects a high KV so as standard the timing will be way off. Pete is your Lecky Heli man, he'll know for sure 😊

Donks ago I had a special slide rule that did capacitance, inductance, resonance, series/parallel, etc - no idea what happened to it, might still be up in the loft 🙂 Re log tables, the name "Frank Castle" comes to mind, but I may well be wrong...