Gordon Whitehead 1

Thanks for your reply Beth. Looking forward to the solution Gordon

Is it just me, or does anyone else find the new viewer released with the current issue inconvenient to use? Before, you simply clicked a right-arrow to get the next page and there it was at the same magnification. Now, clicking on the right arrow shrinks the page below legible, turns over two pages, and then you have to re-magnify it to the size you want and then scroll for the first of the two pages presented. Can we have the original viewer back, please? I don't have enough life left to spend faffing with this worse system. Kind regards Gordon

Thanks for your replies everyone. I took some photos. The end of the spindle has a burr which might be another problem besides the rough finish. I'll see if the Lidl techy wants them. Cheers Gordon

I bought the Lidl version yesterday - Parkside Bench Pillar Drill PTBM 500 E5. £59.99. It looks just like the one on Colin's box pic so is probably mechanically identical except for a few minor details including the colour - mine's green. I'm having a problem mounting the drill chuck. It fits onto a tapered spindle like a Morse taper, and you tap it into place using a plastic hammer as detailed in the instructions. However, the drill chuck will not seat properly and the drill bit has a lot of run-out at its tip. The chuck can be rocked from side to side, even after a lot of tapping with the hammer to try to get it to seat concentrically. The mounting spindle has a rough surface whereas the tapered bore of the chuck is ground smooth and I suspect that the spindle hasn't been ground to the correct taper or finish. Would anyone know if a Morse taper spindle should be smooth, or left with grinding marks on it. It seems wrong to me. I'm awaiting a phone call for advice from from the Lidl service dept, but thought I would mention the problem here, and ask if what I perceive as a problem might be normal with this type of cheap drill unit. Cheers Gordon

It used to be said that rubbing the plan with paraffin will make it transluscent so that you can build on the back. Otherwise, it's not really too hard to trace the plan onto greaseproof paper and build on that, taking care to build the opposite wing of course. I've used the latter method a few times, but not the paraffin one. Gordon

Thanks for this! Our two granddaughters of 8 and 10 years, both loved this vid, along with the dragon and drone heists. Dunno what the dragon used for thrust, but it looked as if it might have been an ornithopter. Further research on youtube came up with some R/C dragon ornithopters which looked good fun typically https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7jdZcHiVRA but the wings flapped much faster.

When you've clicked the link, do a right click and translate to English. A pretty good account about a very brave WW1 pilot. Gordon

Posted by Tim Kearsley on 30/11/2018 19:54:26: There must be an argument for the moderators closing a thread when it descends into such drivel and which has no relevance to the title. Tim. bump

The Pup-E motor-battery installation looks to have some merit. However, the 60in span of the new version gives it 9 sq ft area so it could readily support the weight of a 5S 5000 setup and come in at rather less than 9lb for only 16oz/sq ft loading. Consequently it's to be hoped that the battery tray isn't going to be limited in size to accommodating only a 4S setup. The 5S will allow a lower current for the same power, longer flights, and less strain on the battery chemistry. I'll be interested to see the wing mounting arrangement. I rarely go out flying for more than 3 hours, so fast assembly and dismantling is of the essence. After admiring Ian Redshaw's lovely 1/3rd scale Pup at the recent Ashbourne scale fly-in, an E-powered Pup has been whizzing about in my mind as a possibility for my next 5S lipo-powered model but one or two and this one might be a good candidate. Gordon

Posted by Percy Verance on 04/12/2018 13:43:04: A lipo lasting just 50 flights? Jeez, that would be about two weeks for me if the weather was good. I'm still happily using lipos I bought 2 or 3 years ago....... That would be at least 25 hours, ie one day charging per week per lipo. What make, size and C-rating are your lipos Percy? I find that these days lipos puff depressingly early in their lives, making me wonder just what the life of a lipo is in terms of number of safe charges (ie charges that won't blow 'em up) before I need to worry about the extent of puffing. I have six well-puffed Zippy Compact 5S 5000 25C lipos that are just 2 years old. Each has 17 logged charges. The lipos are always stored at storage charge, and I know how many flights I've had from a lipo because I mark each full re-charge from storage on a stick-on label. Each label has the date of purchase and price, too. Discharge is never more than 50A, ie 2C according to the 5C claim. I always charge at 1C too. My Giles IR meter tells me the actual C-ratings are 18, so discharge is still not too excessive at 2.8C. That's £240 spent on lipos so far for 102 flights between 2 models. And the lipos are puffed about 3mm per side. Luckily the models I fly them in can accommodate the swelling easily, The motor is a Hacker A50-14S (£130), and esc Hacker X70 SB pro (£89) I don't mind spending the money for good quality hardware (eg the Hacker stuff) as it lasts for many years when operated within specs. I have Actro, Kontronik and Schulze escs that are over 15 years old for instance from when I was really heavy into electric flight. But I am wary of spending big bucks on "quality" lipos when I've had Thunderpower lipos puff when far too young. Basically I don't care which is cheaper; electric or i/c or turbine It's a lifestyle thing really and you just have to spend within your means. I have to wonder if the twice as expensive Overlander 5S 5000 35C lipos would better survive what I think is a very benign operating environment in my models. I'm still using the puffed Zippy's, and whilst flight performance is still all I want, I'm not happy with their puffed state. I think I will try the Overlanders next. Regards Gordon   Edited By Gordon Whitehead 1 on 04/12/2018 15:25:45

Posted by Nigel R on 03/12/2018 09:46:47: Does the Foxit programme allow any flexibility on the tile print? In Foxit the full tiled layout can be displayed on the screen. You can choose the amount of overlap you want, and registration marks are printed. You can choose portrait or landscape for the sheets to decide which uses less sheets. You can print just the tiles you want. Also you can print just the bit you want by increasing screen scale to display just that section of the drawing which you want to print and clicking print screen (or some such - memory's hazy). To use the measurement feature you click on comment, then on distance, area etc and pick the scale using the insertion boxes. When printing an enlargement you need to calculate the % increase and enter it before printing ... every time as it doesn't remember the last scale entered. If you want a 15% plan enlargement, the print scale is entered as 115%. The screen enlargement scale is not what's printed, btw. It's a year since I used it to produce a tiled print of a 65in span Krier Great Lakes bipe drawing from my original 47in span drawing which is a .pdf on Outerzone. My memory's now a bit hazy, but my free Foxit download v8.0 from a couple of years ago is very versatile and much more so than Acrobat was when I first downloaded Foxit. I hope they haven't "done a Windows 10" and updated it so that it doesn't work as well as my copy any more. Still, it's free so worth a try. You'll need to experiment to find the features I've described. Gordon

Hi Erf, the program I use for what you want to do is the free Foxit pdf reader download: Foxit pdf reader It's very versatile. Not only can you tile print, but you can re-scale your plan at the time you print it. I've used it to scale up and tile print a pdf plan I downloaded from Outerzone, and also printed out the Laser engines dimensioned pdf drawings to the correct size. The "comment" button brings up a number of tools, one of which is measuring on screen. Using the measuring function enables you to work out the scale factor you want if necessary. Another function it'll do is convert other types of file, eg .jpeg etc to .pdf, which you can then process in Foxit. It takes a bit of experimentation to use it, but it's worth it in the end. Gordon Edited By Gordon Whitehead 1 on 23/11/2018 19:00:14

Thanks Dave, I have a good root around on RCG! Gordon

Looking on Ebay, laminating film comes in many different thicknesses, widths and lengths, and a roll can cost quite a lot, even if it's cheap per sq yard. What's a good thickness and width to buy for starters? Is the dope used non-shrinking, or shrinking, and where can it be bought by the gallon? I've had cellulose thinners from Ebay before, in fact cellulose is my favourite paint. (EDIT - sorry, I didn't see the pic on the previous post!) Does the dope adhere completely to the laminating film or does it peel off under some circumstances? Presumably the laminating film's adhesive is heat-activated like that of the modelling films. Can it be made to pull round compound curves, eg a rounded block balsa wing tip, with heat without wrinkling, and then does the overlap adhere well enough so that it doesn't peel off later? Obviously there's a technique to be learned and I'm wondering if there's a thread or blog somewhere with useful hints. Kind regards Gordon Edited By Gordon Whitehead 1 on 21/11/2018 17:32:28 Edit no 2.  It's probably worth using aircraft cellulose as it'll be plasticised.  I've found that coloured car celluose can craze when used on, say, solartex and make your model look very aged!  Edited By Gordon Whitehead 1 on 21/11/2018 17:38:08

Following a problem with my Paypal account a month or so ago I cancelled the account. No money was lost, luckily. I waited a couple of weeks, then opened another PP account so that I could sell some items using Paypal. What I didn't expect is that despite having been using Paypal for many years, I was treated like a brand new Paypal user. This meant that the funds I received from the buyers of my items would be held by Paypal for three weeks and unavailable to me until they were satisfied that there were no transaction problems. Naturally I wasn't best pleased as the sums were quite substantial. Also annoying was that this restriction would be applied to my "first" 10 sales as a "newby" PP-er, even though I wasn't really a newby to PP at all. Then I looked into the situation more closely, and I found that provided I entered a tracking number the money would be released in 24 hours once a tracked item had arrived at its destination. That's what happened and I'm now a happy bunny. Naturally I have no objection in principle regarding PP's anti-scam precautions as no doubt many folks over the years have been suckered into buying items from fraudulent sellers. But it was a bit of a shock as I had no inkling that these measures had been introduced since I first joined PP. Maybe I should start reading those account change notices they send us from time to time! Gordon Edited By Gordon Whitehead 1 on 26/10/2018 20:04:45

Hi Danny and Martyn, thanks for sharing your outstanding compilations of Fury detail shots. They show just how complex these between wars warbirds really are, and do full justice to the many thousands of manhours that must have gone into the drafting and detail design. One thing that tickled me was the device used to stop the u/c cross-bracing wires from rubbing against each other. What looks like a leather cuff is wrapped round the middle of the rear wire and secured by clamps. Not only that, the wires are airfoil x-section along all their length except for where they cross in the middle, where they're moulded to a circular cross-section, presumably because otherwise the sharper edges of flat wires would have cut into each other due to vibration. I was also astounded at Danny's flying shots of the P-38 Lightning. The clarity and focus are so exact that in the ones where it's doing a left-to-right banked fly-by, you can pretty well discern the pilot's facial features. That's some camera, operated by a very expert photographer! Going through these pics made my day. Thanks guys! Gordon

Hi Stuart. Re bending, cap strips are best pre-bent to match the curve of the rib. To do this, lay the cap strip on your bench, lightly press down on it with a pen barrel or some other smooth rod about 3/8in to 1/2in diameter, and pull the cap strip through, lifting the pulled end at the same time. Repeat as necessary until the curve matches the aerofoil shape. Practice on a spare length of strip until you can do it without breaking the strip. The pre-curved strip will usually attach OK with PVA and a pin at each end. Cheers Gordon

I don't know if this link was posted earlier on this thread but even if it was, it's worth posting again for the sheer elegance of the manoeuvres, never mind the looks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIyGIQs8bSI PS ... ignore the commentary, though it's a shame to blank out the gorgeous RR Kestrel engine sound Edited By Gordon Whitehead 1 on 04/10/2018 22:15:42

The Aerokote was new and applied last winter, replete with brush marks. Also, a second coat following a touch-up after an "arrival" crinkled the original finish I won't use the stuff ever again. I wish now that I'd used finishing resin.

I fuel proof engine bays with epoxy. For the rest of the airframe, cellulose is petrol-proof, and also paraffin proof for jets. I find that it's the easiest paint finish to spray and I like its quick-drying property. However, on a fabric surface, car cellulose will need plasticising other wise the finish can craze with the vibration that the fabric suffers in the airstream. I've never had proper aeromodelling cellulose craze, eg HMG dope. After a recent horrible experience fuel-proofing a model by brushing on Aerokote which set as fast as it was brushed on and then wasn't totally fuel proof, I'm giving up on glows. Gordon

Hi Guys The message I got was an on-screen message headed by a Paypal logo, and not an email sent to my inbox. It wasn't a pop-up as such, but just the plain screen with the message imprinted across the middle of it with a button to press in a similar layout to the normal sign-in screen. Unfortunately neither of the PP agents I spoke with said that the screen I got was a PP message and I was too stupid to ask. I'm still giving it a day or so before I open a new PP account as I'm not in a rush to buy anything at present. As Nigel said, there is legal protection available with credit cards, though happily I've never had to test it. I have had money refunded via PP and Ebay when a purchase didn't arrive, so I'm happy to report that the Ebay refund system works. Gordon

Posted by Martin Harris on 02/10/2018 13:29:06 Not necessarily - I would NOT have clicked on the link but would have opened a new Paypal session from their (secure) website to check my account.Edited By Martin Harris on 02/10/2018 13:36:44 My apologies Martin, but I forgot to mention that before contacting Paypal, I did try opening a new Paypal session from their secure website - two or three times - and always got the same announcement. Paypal recommend trying a different computer in these sort of happenings to see if it's the original computer at fault. So I tried my wife's laptop with the same result. Very tiresome as you can imagine. Getting through to a PP operator by phone was a protracted business the first time. Having phoned up, you answer some basic automated questions and then are given the option of having them call you back, or hang on, in my case for 20 minutes. I chose to hang on and listen to the music because we get more than enough spam phone calls, and after the repetitious procedure I've just described I wasn't in the mood to trust the next call to be genuinely from Paypal.  In a similar vein, if I get a call from my bank, I always ring back rather than carrying on to ensure that I'm talking to who I should be. FWIW The way I deal with spam calls is to look at caller display and if the caller's name isn't given, it's from a number I don't have stored on the phone. Whereupon I wait for the answerphone to reply to the call. If the caller hangs up, it most likely wasn't a genuine call. But if the caller, which includes the hospital or medical centre, begins to leave a message, I answer. Spam calls while we're out leaves the number on the phone's display, but no message. Genuine callers leave a message and I call back. Well, that's how it works for me. Gordon Edited By Gordon Whitehead 1 on 02/10/2018 14:50:46

ED you were editing while I was replying. Like you I try to use PP for everything, and I've never had PP problems before this one. Gordon