John Stainforth

Some videos have appeared on Facebook of the first flights of my S6b, courtesy of the British Waterplanes Association and Seaplanes Scotland. I am posting the links here: The first, from the British Waterplane Associations Facebook page, shows Ian Redshaw (who piloted the first flights) doing final tuning of the engine with me holding the nose of the plane up: https://www.facebook.com/100000748249121/videos/pcb.2643030045993299/138055481863848 This second one shows the first take-off (with a bounce!) and then Ian trimming the plane: https://www.facebook.com/100000748249121/videos/pcb.2643030045993299/250276530330413 The third, which appeared on the Seaplane Scotland Facebook page, shows about a minute of fly-pasts from the second flight: https://www.facebook.com/100000901542611/videos/287149706159872/ Remember to increase the resolution of the videos (in the Settings) and turn on the volume to hear the Laser 200V engine sound!

I understand your need to streamline production as much as possible by standardising parts, but I think it would be a pity if this was done at the expense of backward compatibility with some of the existing engine models. Surely, increasing the capacity of the 200V to 210 only requires increasing the stroke by about 5%, which is something like 0.06", and then ditto for the diameter of the crankshaft. I don't think the small increase in stroke would be much of an issue in accommodating the new engines in planes designed for the old ones, but changing the spacing of the mounting holes on the backplate and engine mount could be quite a pain in the neck. Hopefully, there is enough leeward to maintain the current spacing of the mounting holes on the engine mounts even with slightly enlarged crankcases.

And here was I thinking that you may have designed the world's first 2 1/2 cylinder engine!

Now that it is a flight-proven design, I am indeed thinking of making a short kit available; without any accessories, just laser-cut wooden parts. I am starting to talk to some laser-cutting companies about this. I probably will put a pilot bust in there now. There is a whole lot of other scale detail I could add, but I don't know if and when I am going to get round to that! I have started design work on another Schneider racer (the Gloster VI "Golden Arrow), and I have more energy around that at the moment.

Are you replying to me? I had a very able pilot in the form of Ian Redshaw, and we came up with this clever scheme (called RC) whereby he could remain with his feet safely planted terra firma. Why Jeffrey Quill? He never flew the S6b. If I put a model pilot in the plane, and have to name him, I will call him George Stainforth!

My 1/5th scale Supermarine S6b, which I completed over a year ago, finally took to the air yesterday. Ian Redshaw kindly did the first two flights - he did a superb job. The model flew really well. It handled well on the water, took off very easily, and needed only some up trim (probably because CG was set slightly forward at about 28% MAC). The Laser 200V seems to be a perfect match for the model, which balanced correctly without any added weights. The weather was good, but rather gloomy, so not very good for photos. Nevertheless, I am attaching a few pictures here.

Has anyone heard of any problems with OS and Saito 4-strokes caused by the positions of their carbs? (I haven't.) Having a more centralised carb generally makes it easier to place the tank in the correct position.

E10 was not an initiative of the oil companies, and I am pretty sure they don't make more money with this fuel than E0.

Wow, you are tempting fate with a comment like that!

I had a Toyota Prius in the US for 16 years, where they have had E10 for much of that time. Sometimes "gas" stations don't add the ethanol, or forget to add it. (The ethanol is delivered separately there and simply added into the underground petrol tanks at the gas station, in the right proportion.) I watch my mpg all the time and I found that under typical driving conditions my Prius would do 48 mpg (that's miles per US gallon) on petrol without ethanol and about 45 on E10. I could spot the difference between the two fuels after just a few miles of driving. So I think E10 is of very debatable value for the environment, particular when the energy to grow the ethanol crops (corn) is taken into account. In the US, the whole E10 was generally viewed as a subsidy to farmers.

The biggest problem when flying models in strong winds is the ground, where they can get blown over hard or off tables etc, if one is not very careful. Once in the air it can be great fun. I particularly like being able to land more or less vertically

I like many of the Permagrit tools, but the one I have used the most is the long, wedge block with coarse/fine grit on the opposite faces; probably followed by the short block. If I had to chose just one, I would go for the long wedge block. (Might as well get the wedge block; I don't see any advantages in the one without the wedge.) For special applications, I make my own sanders by gluing sandpaper onto strips of wood or cardboard tubes, etc

I can't remember all the unsuccessful ones, only that they had violent confrontations with the ground!

Rich, You are not thinking of the Veron Pinto by any chance, are you? My brother and I had one of those in 1963, powered by an ED Super Fury:

If it's plaster board every time, there's obviously no point in trying alternatives.

This is method I use, a la Dave Platt. A picture speaks louder than words: here is one of a fuselage under construction on a plate glass worktop. A single straight line is drawn onto the glass for the fuselage alignment. Then a keel template that conforms with the lower profile of the fuselage (cut from 1/4" balsa sheet) is glued straight onto the glass on top of the line with CA. The keel longeron of the fuselage is placed directly onto this template, to which it is attached with masking tape. The outer sleeve of the wing tube sits on small balsa crutches to ensure horizontal alignment. To maintain alignment during fitting of the tailplane and the sheeting of the top of the fuselage and fin, additional crutches are added to support the lateral longerons of the fuselage. (This is very similar to full-size aircraft construction methods.) To answer Martin's query, these crutches are glued straight to the glass worktop with CA, but not to the longerons themselves. The whole fuselage and wing tube is then sitting very firmly on the glass worktop, correctly aligned in all planes, without any rocking whatsoever. A plumb line can be hung from the ceiling to check the vertical alignment of the fin/tailpost. When the fuselage is removed from the work top, the balsa crutches are simply knocked down and the residual CA is scraped off the glass with a modeling knife. The glass top is then cleaned with meths to remove the marker line and any remaining glue. This only takes a few seconds and leaves the glass absolutely pristine and shiny, ready for the next building operation. I used to use plaster board to build model planes when I was young, but a glass top is now my much preferred method. Of course, you can't use pins with this method. As Dave Platt says, amusingly, in one of his videos: "Don't trying using pins, it's hell on the thumbs"!

I usually find the simplest solution is to do serious sanding out of doors, with the wind behind me!

Which waterplane meeting was that?

Agreed. I think it's a no-brainer to check the voltage before every flight, with a load meter; it takes all of five seconds. Then one can envisage where the battery is on the discharge curve. (These curves seem to be rather similar for all batteries, although LiPOs fall off a cliff). A safe bet is not to fly once the voltage, under load, gets down to about 105 to 110% of the nominal battery voltage. I have never had any problems with NiMH batteries with this approach. The only problems I have had is when I have left a plane turned on by mistake at the end of a day - discharging NiMH batteries completely seems to destroy them.

I find the hassle of changing out US threaded components for metric more of a hassle than living with them, particularly as some of the US stuff (e.g. Dubro) is of good quality. It's easy enough to check the fits. Threads that are too small are obviously too sloppy often to the point that clevises can be pulled off, whereas ones that are incompatible, and tight, jam up to the point of crossing the threads. I keep drawers of metric and US threads, but only check threads with a new model, or when I am transferring gear from crashed models.

One method for landing a "hot" model (particularly on a hard runway) that I found works for me is to fly it in very flat with no flap for a "wheels" landing and then flick on spoilerons (ailerons up) the instant after touch-down.

I sold my house in Houston, because I couldn't maintain it at a distance during Covid. I gave the entire contents to charity and all my model planes (at least six) and all the RC equipment, which were in the house, to the model club I belonged to in Houston. So that was a write-down of just the modelling stuff of several thousand dollars. Here in the UK I have spent a bit, buying several replacements!

I too thought you were just about done, yet there always seem to be more moulds! Anyway, it's a fantastic master-class in moulding.

I have a device called an Airopult, which restrains the plane from moving both forwards and backwards. This has vertical posts that go in front of the tailplane, to prevent forward movement, and smaller posts that go behind the undercarriage to prevent backward movement. When one is ready to go, with the engine running, one just presses that black foot pedal at the rear of the device and the vertical posts in front of the tailplane hinge forwards, releasing the plane. The small posts behind the undercarriage collapse forward as the plane moves forward. I fix the rear of the device to the ground with heavy duty steel tent pegs (see photo). The device works very well, but it was a little pricey. I am not sure whether it is still available. But I will continue to use mine on model flying fields that do not have restraining benches.

Have you disconnected and reconnected all the electrical connections, including extension leads, to eliminate the possibility that this is caused by a poor connection somewhere?