Jack Bagley

There once was an old modeller from Devon, A rude peasant Fred Dewdney now in heaven, we all read his letters with glee, we old readers of RCME, is there anyone else who remembers old Fred, It would be nice to hear in this thread.   Best wishes , Jack.

  "I'm a trained gun dog, but dummy ducks are something else, come on"!!

Hello all,                 Sorry I've not been around for a while, but  a few of lifes' little complications occurred, old age can be hard sometimes!!!  This thread caught my eye as during the nineteen eighties, I purchased a flying boat kit. I can't recall the name, but it was a sleek looking single engine scale job made by Pilot kits. It went together perfectly and resplendant in pure white, with all the red scale trim, it really looked the part. Near to where I then  lived in Oxfordshire was a reclaimed quarry tuned into a lake which our local club had gained access to. I took the model to the lake and over the nex three weeks or so, I managed to give my clubmates much amusement with my antics with this confounded machine! It just point point bankedly refused to fly. I originally installed an O.S 40 as per instructions,beautiful motor that ran like a dream. No lift. "more ower" said the local"expert", so an OS60 was installed, this did give it more speed, bigger bow waves, quicker to the point where the speed boat chaps did incredibly sharp turns to avoid various objects on the surface, but still no air under the hull. Again, "more power" came from the expert, so, you guessed, an OS90 was duly installed. A few hundred pounds the poorer, I arrived again, by now it had becme time for all other modelling activito cease to enable the crowd of so called "mates" to assemble for another round of jeers and belly laughs, all in good fun ofcourse! A quick few checks and we were off again, wow, youshould have seen the speed on the water of the thing, and the flying spray behind it! It suddenly lifted to a few inches above the water, refusing to climb any further. In the adrenalin rush that accompnied this achieved flying state, I forgot to observe the  members netting boundary fence. The model became a shredded bag of grot, the club members and I retired to the Pub,and I have never ever attemted a flying boat again!!! All the best to you all, Jack.        Edited By Timbo - Moderator on 30/03/2009 22:48:52

It's New Years Eve , so here we go into a very broke and puzzeling time ahead, let's sincerely hope that we may all weather out this very worrying period as we start 2009! I wish every on of you a Good New Year,                   Sincerest wishes , Jack  

Hello All,                 This is of coarse, the time of year when all my modelling grot disappears from the kitchen to make way for my eldest daughters' entry to make room for the family to sit for Xmas dinner. Being a widower now, I miss the "Jack, can you please put your toys away, we've got company coming,  go and get the booze" , so on and so on. But I'll have my big flying toys out again soon, so a very happy Xmas to everyone at the mag, fellow bloggers on the threads and all finger flickers everywhere.   All my best wishes for a great new year too! Jack  

Yes please enter me for this one, takes me back to buying Wot4 some 20 years ago, fantastic FUN!

Please enter my name for this fabulous draw!         It's such a wonder to behold!

Hi friends,                   Cool, I must remember that in future! Mind you, I've never flown with any form of electric motor propulsion, so it would be a completely new departure for me should I ever get the urge to do so! The main reason that I haven't is that so many folk purport to have some problem or other that prevents them securing total and repetitive success with this medium, or am I missing something here? It may well be my age of course, but I still have a mental block when it comes to using electric motors, and this stems from a disasterous period of becoming involved with electrically propelled model boats in the sixties,(  nineteen that is!). Any form of enlightenment may be appreciated by this author, but it will need to be pretty convincing stuff!!     Well, my best wishes to you all, Jack.

Hi Andy,               Cool or what! Nice to read your reply, just wish I could get to Cowley, but work bekons strongly for the next few weekends.                                         Best wishes to you all, Jack

Hi Timbo and friends,                                        Curious to hear of Andys' misfortune, but sometimes swamping CAN occur if there are stronger signals from commercial users about. The thing a lot of folks fail to understand is that although the signals are not coded or matched to our system in use, the strength of the offending signal can be such that it simply blocks our low power signals from being present at the Rx antenna, rather like a tide swamping the beach. This is not due to, I suspect the slightlly more powerful model control systems in close proximity, but a powerful commercial communications signal, or even local radar sub harmonics being the culprit. Just think of the reception of your mobile phone, and how other "grot" operating nearby affects the quality and ultimate loss of signal, the same criteria applies to our 2.4 Ghz systems, no matter how reassuring the manufacturers instructions may be. I really feel for Andy as there is nothing more disheartening than going home with a bag of bits! Well that's my two penneth thrown in for what it is worth!  Keep propflicking and thumb twiddeling for ever!  My best wishes to you all, Jack. 

Hi Timbo and friends,                                         Many thanks for your very kind words Timbo, I shall just carry on as usual then! My confidence in method and discipline is now reassured!  I'll see what happens next time there is a weather break, it's just been so bloody awful over the last few weeks that my thumbs seem to have frozen  in the "lock up" mode.              All my very best wishes to you all, Jack.  

Hi Timbo and friends,                                        Absolutely fascinated by this thread! I can put my hand on heart and say, I still  fly my models into the ground all by myself on occaisions without the kind assistance of the gear manufacturer! It's all in the thumbs dear hearts I think!  Anyway, I have a legitimate excuse these days, AGE!!!!!  Seriously though, I have read the reports, tests and experiences with open mouthed wonder and thought to myself, "Wow, what have I been missing? I could never imagine myself getting so involved with heart attack provoking worry about stuff and things going so technically wrong whist flying. I'm in the category of build it good, prepare it good and just FLY. My inner self discipline takes over and on auto pilot, charge the batteries, prepare the fuel, check the plugs etc, etc, and in the main it all goes together pretty well, but on reading this thread, I'm going to have to drink an extra glass of claret before letting my model get airborne!!!   All the very best to you all, Jack

Hi Colin,                Like it!  I'll check the label for best before date!                                          Best wishes to you all, Jack.

Hi Ron & Christopher,                                         Many eons ago, I used to "boil" out old motors that had b ecome gummed up with castor oil residue, as instructed by our local expert and it actually works! Saves on smell, castigations from one who has to be obeyed etc. Re oiling with a thin machine oil also works wonders afterwards. Of course, once I started to use Synthetic oils, this problem hasn't occured. I would try boiling in a saucepan with just a hint of detergent for about 15 mins, followed by a thorough drying and oiling.  Keep on "prop flicking" chaps, One day the results may astound us!                                  Best wishes to you all , Jack  

HI Ron 2,                  Sounds pretty cool to me, Funny but I actually got a few revs out of an anchient twin plug Merco 60 on Sunday. It ran splutterinly for about 30 seconds, never to be heard again! So like youRon, I put it back for another day!  Will I never learn?     Best wishes to you, Jack

Hi Chaps,                   Sounds interesting to me, but when I have indulged in this sort of exercise, running up old motors from the "box" under the bench, I usually find that they are just "shagged out" with age and use and I shouldnt't have kept them. But we all do it, just can't bring oneself to actually chuck them away, so back in the "box" they go untill next time I feel like, " oh, I can't remember when I last ran or used this one so I'll just run it up to see" etc and around I go again! I'm glad that I don't appear to be the only one who spends hours just pointlessly flicking props over in the vain hope that a great powerful roar will emit from said object! Best of luck anyway, we old prop flickers must stick together, (there's a pun in there I think!)                      Best wishes to you all, Jack.

Hi Timbo,                  Many thanks for your reply, I'm suddenly pleased that I haven't been living and flying in a sort of fools paradise. I might even go as far as to say in my case, "ignorance is bliss"! The only minor irritation that I have experienced with the Spektrum radio is positioning the satellite Rx and antenna in some of my more compact models. Usually though, a glass or two of Claret oils the grey matter enough to overcome this! The chaps using Futaba radio would not encounter this problem. Would be interesting to see if this aerial space diversity system is really needed, any comments from either Spektrum or Futaba on this? It does however pay to angle the Tx antenna to relative vertical whilst holding the Tx in your most comfortable flying attitude. I use a cradle case as I find the Tx most uncomfotable to hold when using the standard strap and hook. I do hope that every one else enjoys their flying trouble free as do Timbo and I!                            Very best wishes to you all, Jack 

Hi Chaps,                   Just back and have been reading this thread with some considerable interest. I have put a couple of thoughts and comments out about the Spektrum radio on other threads as I have experienced it over the months, but in all honesty, I have not come across the problems that some of you seem to have. Through the grapevine though, I was warned of the possibility of "brownouts" occuring in certain conditions such as every one in the thread has described, so applying due dilligence, I have since used a separate lipo for the servo supply, and so far I haven't had a problem with either "brown out" or any range loss. There were a few glitchy spots around on 35Mhz, but since "upgrading to 2.4Ghz, no problems. This has just been my experience with the gear for what it's worth. Other chaps using Futaba 2.4Ghz don't appear to have had any of the described problems either. I must confess to not having flown with electric motors at all, so maybe, I still have a lot to learn about this new "black art".   I do wish you all well with this problem, meanwhile, best wishes to you all, Jack

Hi Owen,                Nice of you to reply, and thank you for the good sound comments. I do believe you could be right on all the things you point out Owen. Yes, this hobby of ours does indeed keep the old grey cells operating, well the very few I seem to have left! But your comment about getting the craft of dexterity moving within youngsters is a very good one. It is not an easy task, as you rightly say, they are consumed with electronic gismos that won't get them off the sofa. But we now have a rule book for life practice that's a yard thick, and that in itself doesn't help! But keep up the good work Owen, we need good chaps like you around.   All the very best, Jack.

Hi Owen,                 Sounds indeed that we are from the same era, and as you quite rightly say, what will the boys of today remember that was productive in their youth. Having said that though, the rule book of society has become so thick and full of stuff and nonsense, that little wonder the poor souls cannot move without some form of check up. The freedoms that you and I enjoyed are gone for ever it seems, how ever regretable that may be, it's a fact of life! Oh well Owen at least you and I and a few more of our time can at least look back with some happiness!                                                    Best wishes , from Jack

JETSOME,                    I'm glad it gave you a warm feeling, nostalgia does one a bit of good sometimes I feel, and I confess I still enjoy making the odd wakefield, mainly Ron Warrings' Warrings Wakefield design to plans I purchased from the Aeromodeller simply eons ago! I now find it more and more difficult to buy the original specified stuff, example, single weight tissue paper, shrinking dope and the original rubber strands for the motor etc, but more often than not, I find some dear soul who has just what I need spare, but they are now getting thin on the ground. Oh halcyon days I hear all of you mutter into your good claret. Very best wishes  Jack.

Hi Myron,                 Thanks for your reply, and basically you are quite right, I am an "old time" modeller in a world of what you term "suits". I sort of fell in love with aeromdelling in the early fifties whilst studying my "A" levels. On the common near to where I attended a "suits"  boarding school one summer afternoon, the local coal man arrived in his car with about five rubber powered Wakefields. He drew a crowd of we boys around, proceeded to tell us all about them then he got me to hold the fuselage of the first model out while he prepared the the rubber motor. The flight that followed seemed to us to be nearly endless, the prop folding as the tension lessened and it gently floated back to earth. I became totally enthralled with this fascinating machine. The sports master then arrived, and instead of threatening us all with twenty laps of the gym, he chatted to the man, then announced that he would set up a model club within the school and it all started there really. The man we all knew was a Mr Reg Baker, truly a master modeller who taught about five or six of us all the rudimentary modelling skiills of which I for one remain truly thankful for this very fruitful introduction to the hobby. Sadly Mr Baker passed away during the sixties, but he is still remembered on the few reaining school reunions held by a few remaining survivors. One day perhaps Myron it will be possible for me to send you my life profile, but for now, I'll just send you my best wishes. Jack.  

Hi JETSOME,                         Many thanks for your input, I'll try the route you suggest and see if after buying the kit I might squeeze a few words out of the manufacturer! That's most helpful. What I would like to be able to do you see, is draw up a model of decent size, say 1.5 m span or thereabouts using these materials if possible. We all know the rules of thumb with wood and Glass fibre when drawing up a plan, but as you point out, there is nothing that I can find that is useful to me in this respect, but you have given a bit more "shove" to it. Thanks, All the best Jack.

Well Guys,                     Seems we may have started the important chaps grey matter whirring again, many thanks both Timbo and David. Best wishes, Jack  

I must agree with everything Timbo has said, it's an absolute nightmare trying to find certain threads. There is no logical catalogue of where they are, start or even a simple guide instruction cue list as to how one might just find a particular thread. The idea of giving us group "therapy" is just a nother way of establishing little cliques of modellers that won't expand their horizons. They tried this with computer groups and it had to end because no one used the forum at all in the end. I hope the teckies are'nt just throwing in "red herrings" to put you off the scent! Jack