Gordon Whitehead 1

Hi Chris, I'm looking forward to another super fly-in tomorrow . See you all there. Gordon

The reason that her mention of security stuck in my mind is that it was part of one of her put-downs to our BMFA, LMA etc representatives and aeromodellers in general which said that the DRES scheme was coming, we could do nothing about it, and she didn't see why her taxes should subsidise the system.

Posted by Chris Berry on 30/09/2019 18:52:19: Who is leading you to believe that Gordon? Who has said anything about national security? Baroness Vere in one of her comments I read about on this or the other thread.   Edited By Gordon Whitehead 1 on 30/09/2019 19:18:18

Posted by Chris Berry on 29/09/2019 21:19:28: If the models are not being flown then neither the owner nor pilot will need to register. No fly no register. We are being led to believe that we will be required to register our models for national security reasons. It occurs to me that not registering all flyable drones and models in circulation will leave a gap in their traceability and render the scheme less effective, if not actually worthless, for security purposes.

Thanks Martin. I skimmed the page too quickly. Some modellers have said that they plan on not registering until next year, presumably with their models in storage somewhere. If the models are in storage then the owner will be responsible for them and their safe keeping. I wonder if that will mean that the owner should register from day one as being responsible for the models per the first line of the Operator ID section, even if they're not to be flown for a long while.

Have you tried the BMFA club finder? here Enter your town name and distance your'e prepared to travel. There are a couple of BMFA clubs within 5 miles of you on the Wirral. Gordon

Posted by Martin_K on 29/09/2019 10:18:40: The CAA Drone and model aircraft registration and education service web page has been changed. Has the £16.50 registration fee been abandoned? If not, where is it mentioned? I can find no link to a fee from that page.

Hi Andy, your photo re-awakens happy memories of many hours of fun with uncomplicated models and thanks for posting as I have no pics of my own. It looks as if you've added a spot of crash-proofing by securing the engine mounting plate in position with the then ubiquitous elastic bands. I'm intrigued by your tailplane, which sports elevators. I remember the Conquest as a simple bang-bang sequential escapement for rudder-only use and in fact preferred it to the compound version which I think was called the Compact. Did your model have a compound escapement, or did you just add an elevator which was ground-adjustable tor trim? Gordon

Hi All, I'm late on parade again Steve, you've got mail More reminiscing follows! The Schoolmaster was both a Top Flite kit and a plan published in Aeromodeller, now available on Outerzone of course. I built mine from the Aeromodeller plan - I can't remember if I bought the plan or drew it up from the reduced-scale page plan shown in the mag. As I'm a Yorkshire tightwad and proud of it, probably the latter. The Rand GG actuator needed careful setting up of the high and low pulse rates for success. I remember the way that I did it was to re-tune our TV set to a harmonic of the 27Mhz we used at that time, and drove my wife crazy whilst I counted the beeps from the loudspeaker against my wristwatch's sweep second hand. The pulse rates had to be 4 pulses per second at low rate and 12 pps high rate. So I'd probably try to count pulses for 5 seconds or so and drive myself crazy too. The TV screen was meanwhile a mess of zig-zags. My next GG venture was a Phil Kraft Flea Fli with OS .15 power and dihedral increased to 10 degrees per side. With no ailerons and just rudder, elevator and motor for control, that model was surprisingly successful and would loop and roll quite well. The Tx was the RCME Unijunction Pulser Tx, and Rx a relayless Macgregor superhet with a home made switcher which was eitehr a Radio Modeller or RCME design. Thank goodness for modern radio gear. I spent hours and hours back then going through advertisers' lists in electronics magazines sourcing the cheapest components to build my single-channel and GG outfits. Then making the PC boards and soldering it all up. I guess that modern "smart" TVs aren't smart enough to be re-tuned for setting up a GG actuator though. Gordon

Does anyone know the type of drone used to attack the Saudi oil refinery?

When all this lot becomes law and we have registered and paid up, will we still be legally allowed to fly models weighing less than 7kg at altitudes greater than 400ft?

Posted by Geoff Daunt on 29/08/2019 18:30:13: I have just purchased the above 8 channel Rx. There are however 11 ports. On row one the first port is Bind. However why is this there when the binding is undertaken by the bind button on top of the Rx. I have just used the button and bound it to my JR Tx, so no necessity to use this port. Can it be used for something else?? <snip> Any explanation appreciated. Hi Geoff If you were to mount the Rx in a location where the button was difficult to access, you can probably plug a servo extension lead into the bind port, and use a normal bind plug plugged into the extension lead's socket. What makes me suggest this is that I use the older AR9020 rx's which don't have inbuilt telemetry, and require a TM1000 telemetry module plugged into the bind/data port. The TM1000 is bulky and has a bind button buried in a hole in the case so that it has to be operated with a stylus, and my modules are installed with the bind button inaccessible. In my case I link my TM1000's to my Rx's with a y-lead, and bind using the more conveniently located spare y-lead socket instead of the stupidly inaccessible button. In fact this arrangement is useful as it means the TM1000 can be located anywhere it will fit with no worries about binding or re-binding if swapping to another Tx. Gordon

Hi Steve You bet I remember you! Who could forget all the glorious fun we had flying our single channel rudder-only models on that pond-riddled field by the Bispham Tech? Way back around 1970! We were so lucky to have that flying field so close to our homes, especially as it eventually became absorbed into a large housing estate Was it Barry's model that went awol and flew round the back of the college tower, re-appearing on the opposite side still in a right-hand turn to arrive back at our launch area? Then there was the time we were both aerobatting our micro-robots and we ended up, quite by accident, in the classic WW1 combat pose of both planes flying directly at each other nose-on. The planes met and each lost one wing panel. However, your model also took off mine's tailplane whereupon my plane went into autorotation in a flat spin with the DC Dart still howling and landed quite softly like a helicopter. Your model's tail was more firmly fixed, stayed on the model, and rather unkindly stabilised it like an arrow flight so that the model arced into the ground in a series of fast consecutive rolls, again with the engine still on full chat as we had no engine throttling. I wonder if you remember my rudder-only Merlin-powered pusher delta with which I accidentally entered a loop with too little airspeed, the model stopped whilst pointing vertically upwards, and then proceeded to fall backwards torque rolling, well before we'd ever heard of torque rolls. Then there was Bill with his beautifully crafted scale single-channel models, one a Mercury Aeronca Sedan, another a very complex Armstrong Whitworth FK-3 WW1 bipe which he gave to me. Bill's attention to detail and total mastery of construction and finishing of these and several other scale models had an enormous influence on my future modelling aspirations. I also remember a Galloping Ghost Topflite Schoolmaster with Elfin 1.49 and Rand actuator, as well as a single-channel Elfin 1.8-powered P E Norman Gloster Gamecock which I brought with me from Leeds where I had built it on the 10th floor of a 14-storey block of flats and which I think ended up in your hands with an OS .15. These, and many more wonderful memories. Email is on its way! Kind regards Gordon

As it's an old British engine the gudgeon pin might well be a standard imperial diameter. Back in the 1960's I made a gudgeon pin for an Elfin 1.49 from either piano wire or silver steel rod, I can't remember which. I bought the Elfin from the late great and well known in East Lancs Arthur Garnett. It required the replacement gudgeon pin after it returned from a rebore, necessitated by a shaft run when a Frog polystyrene 7x4 burst, and it arrived back from the servicing with a gudgeon pin that was too short. Further to Jeff's fuel suggestion, Ron Moulton's Model Aero Engine Encyclopaedia recommends the same 70% ether/30% oil (redex in his case) along with 1% amyl nitrite - if you can still get that from the village chemists as in days of yore. Maybe the petrol mix will substitute for the amyl nitrite. Gordon

FWIW, silencer article writer and fellow club member John told me that he included the item link in his article submission, but evidently it was edited out. Probably because it was very long, like the link I posted above. That EAN number is a much neater search term. I googled EAN to find out what it is and it's apparently the mfr's bar code no. Other item idents to look out for if posting a thread link to an Ebay item are GTIN, UPC, MPN. Thanks for the tip, ED Gordon

Posted by Cuban8 on 30/07/2019 11:19:24: Re the Petrol engine silencer............etc snipped I searched using " stainless steel model engine silencer " and found https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw=stainless+steel+model+engine+silencer&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=m570.l1313&_nkw=stainless+steel+model+engine+silencer&_sacat=0 (The link thingy didn't work for me) Edited By Gordon Whitehead 1 on 01/08/2019 20:30:05 Edited By Gordon Whitehead 1 on 01/08/2019 20:32:21

The rigging wires on the Precedent Stampe clearly have the function of supporting the anti-vibe rods

It is based on the full size Steve, but maybe a bit clunky. Also it just struck me that my Jungmeister's wing came off as left and right pairs along with the bracing attached. The anti-vibe rods simply stayed in place. I believe that the Stampe wings are one-piece, making this system inconvenient to assemble. On my 1/5th scale leccy Tiger Moth I used a setup copied from Dennis Bryant's .60-size Tiger Moth. Dennis' model had one-piece wings and this plug-together version might work better for you. Hope it shows on the pic as it's a screen grab of my CAD drawing. The wings on my TM come off in left and right pairs, so that on my model the rods stay locked on their wires when I remove the wings for transport. Gordon

The skewers are anti-vibration rods which I assume are used to stop the wing bracing wires vibrating and rubbing against each other. Here's how I did it on my 27.5% scale Bucker Jungmeister. It's a near-scale version of what I saw on a full size Jungmeister. The stainless steel flat wires are what Flair sold for their 1/4 scale Tiger Moth. The clamps are cut from the same wire and drilled for the minute screws sold by Mick Reeves, who also sells flat wire. The rod is birch dowel. Gordon

Hi Martyn My Acrostar flaperons' first stage flap deflection is 5 degrees, and full flaperon is 8 degrees. I haven't needed to program in any elevator or rudder mix to correct attitude or help turning. Aileron deflection on the flight mode I use for all normal flying and landing is 10 degrees each way with no expo, so on full flap each aileron retains a bit of up-throw at full stick deflection. I always set up new model control surfaces with 10 degree deflection each way, irrespective of kit recommendations if it's a kit, and progress from there. The Acrostar's ailerons and elevator are just right for me with these deflections, but it needs as much rudder as possible which works out at 30 degrees. The model flick-rolls easily with these deflections on rudder-elevator alone with no aileron input needed. ie no need for extreme elevator throw to flick-roll. On occasion I have forgotten to raise the flaperons for the following flight (brain-fade after a fast battery change) on both this model and its predecessor, the Sebart Katana, and wondered why the axial rolls were a bit slower than normal until the penny dropped! No unwanted tip-stalls have ever occurred. I think the main point to remember on landing is to keep the nose down a bit to maintain airspeed against the lift-induced drag which could slow the model to stall speed, rounding out for landing only when the runway threshold has been passed. This is my SOP for all flapped landings anyway. Gordon

I'm waiting with bated breath to see what additional silencing you're going to fit Martyn, to keep our farmer's wife happy. Ref landings, for more years than I care to remember I've always drooped strip ailerons as flaperons to help slow the beasties for landings. Some elevator coupling might be needed when the flaperons go down to counteract unwanted changes in attitude. My latest beasty using the setup is my Acrostar, and it was especially valuable this afternoon in the zero wind conditions. Just don't droop the ailerons more than their up-throw, and if necessary arrange to couple a modicum of rudder with aileron to help turning when the flap switch is operated. Coupled rudder isn't always needed, and is found by experiment - which needs a few successful landings of course Gordon

Here you go  original Perry instructions. If I recall, there's a fine slit in the spraybar which you ensure is clear by passing a piece of notepaper through it to remove any debris. Gordon   PS. I flew HB .20s and .25s with Perry carbs for years with no probs. Edited By Gordon Whitehead 1 on 15/07/2019 20:25:57 Edited By Gordon Whitehead 1 on 15/07/2019 20:27:20

Whilst the 2.5 mile exclusion zone is probably a permanent feature for the heliport, it's not clear whether the cops and firemen and their detection apparatus will always be there too. So this was some sort of success at an event venue, but not necessarily repeatable on a day-to-day basis when there's no racing happening. Eg, a couple of weeks ago my wife and I were enjoying an ice-cream sitting on the quay near the base of the 199 abbey steps at Whitby, when a a small drone flew from some point further along our side of the harbour and then proceeded to buzz back and forth along the quay maybe 25ft up. It would then buzz back to its starting point, seemingly land in the middle of some rocks, and then return a few minutes later. It paid our side of the outer harbour three visits before we left. I don't know if any official action ensued, but it was a noisy little thing that couldn't be missed by anyone nearby. I just wish that I'd had the wit to try videoing it on my mobile. I realise that this report adds nothing to the foregoing, but such occurrences must be fairly regular across the country, and I must add that I found it very annoying.