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Willyuk

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Posts posted by Willyuk

  1. I am just rebuilding a laser 150 v twin and have been experiencing the same. I have now done one cylinder. I placed a piece of triangular balsa inside the combustion chamber, then covered this with a piece of ply. Now the valves cannot move. I then put a small G clamp on to the ply and one side of the spring retainer. I could compress this far enough to slip the collet on one side, then slip it around to the other side and put the second collet in.

    I found working inside a bag impossible btw. I may try that again on cyl 2/

    good luck

  2. Based on my experience, using a flight testing school helped me enormously. I was in a club but found it hard to get regular tuition. I used Midlands flight training and was able to schedule sessions 2 or 3 times a week. That made a big difference, regular consistent flying with a good instructor. Used their planes also. One of the benefits is that Colin Chapman was happy to leave me to attempt to get out of trouble when I inevitably lost orientation. He only stepped in at the last moment.

    It worked for me. It might not for others.

  3. I attended two of these, one before I did my B test and one after. I am not an instructor, just a club flyer. I found them really worthwhile. I learned a great deal about the test, what the expected standard is and WHY, which is important. It certainly gave me an insight into what the BMFA want to achieve with the scheme and also how difficult it is to obtain and maintain a common standard. You will see the differing interpretations of the rules that some examiners turn up with.

    you will enjoy it.

  4. If that does not work try a new battery. I had a similar problem, sometimes would work and sometimes not. I tried switch cleaner, phoned dremel suppport ( just offered a discount on a new one). In the end i bought a replacement battery, not a dremel one but £8.00 substitute from germany and it has been fine ever since. Note that i checked the original battery voltage etc. and it seemed fine.

  5. Get a set with interchangeable lenses. Not necessarily those advertised for model flying which can be pricey. I got a set for shooting with 4 colours from light yellow for dull hazy days, bronze for some sun to dark grey for very sunny. I find with that set I can always find something to assist with glare. About £30 from outdoor shops

  6. The anhedral tailplane is not dead. The latest F3a designs from B.J.Park have the option of an anhedral all flying stab. They seem to work quite well, used by the UK team in the recent world cup in Argentina.

  7. your views welcomed​​I have been parallel charging my 5s lipos for some time now and have a question for the experts about how the cells are balanced across the packs. EG. I charge 4 5 cell lipos, the charger only sees 5 cells, so all 4 cell number 1 are seen as one cell. The charger then balances between the 5 cells in the "pack". So it must average out the 4 number 1 cells, the 4 number 2 cells and so on. I have noticed that when looked at as one large pack, it shows all cells as equal but when I check each individual pack each cell is different across all of the packs, i.e I have 20 cells at slightly different voltages. Add them all up and they are balanced. Is this a problem?? Recently I have been parallel charging to 4.15 volts and then finishing the charge for each pack separately so that they all end up at bang on 4.2. Is it worth the effort or does a minor variation matter in terms of longevity etc.

  8. Matty is spot on about having a sufficiently powerful charger. With the right gear, parallel charging is a godsend. I use 10s flight packs made up of two 5s, 5000 mah lipo packs. These are not cheap and so having more than 8 or 10 battery packs, i.e. 4 or 5 flight packs is prohibative. When i go flying i like to have more than 4, 8 minute flights so parallel charging is the way to go. I use a powerlab cellpro 6 with the parallel charge board. With that set up and a decent leisure battery i have managed to fly more than enough. I usually put the first pair of batteries on charge immiediatly they have been used, add a set after a further flight and have even had six packs being charged at once, thats a 30 amp plus charge rate. The only issue i have had is the need to balance charge the batteries individualy from time to time. That ensures that the cell voltages are matched and helps bring the ir into line.

  9. Well, I have just checked and I first posted on this thread on the 8th of April 2014, asking Peter what an NPOD was. At that time i had only recently passed my A test. 2 years on and I have just returned from competing at Clubman level at the Nats. What a journey it has been and what a rewarding 2 years of effort, although I realise that there is a huge amount more that I could do. For anyone contemplating trying to improve the precision of their flying I really recommend giving an NPOD a go and taking it from there. I have received huge amounts of help, not only from Peter but from everyone involved in aerobatics. I was very wary of entering a competition as I am not a competitive sort of person and did not want to look an idiot in front of anyone else but the friendliness and assistance shown by everyone took that fear away. During the past 2 years not only have I learnt a huge amount I have met some fantastic pilots and made some new friends.

    Give it a go!!!

  10. as hobbyking always charge in USD and the currency exchange is carried out by paypal or credit card, then we will already have to pay more. The price in £ on the website is just an indication, look at the bill you get and you will see.

  11. Wright Stuff,

    In order to make you life simple,on landings, just develop a routine that enables you to check the strip while everything is nice and calm. For me, I always wait until established on the downwind leg of the landing approach, at which point, usually with the aircraft opposite where I am standing, I can look up and down the strip to check it is clear. If it is, call landing in a nice loud voice, drop the wheels if need be, set idle down to lower engine revs, you can then get on with establishing a nice base and final. If you have the time and all is going well, a quick final glance down the strip to ensure it is clear.

  12. MattyB has hit the nail on the head, I am a futaba user and as I said am thinking of upgrading. I would like a colour touch screen as In think it simplifies programming compared to buttons and dials. The SZ looks good but as Matty said is compromised in certain areas. The 18MZ also has features missing compared to say the Jeti. Futaba do not seem interested in finding out what we want and providing those features, so forcing a move away. If the SZ had verbal warnings, call outs etc. I would buy one but I am having to review my use of Futaba systems.

  13. Having digested all the above and spent quite a few hours programming my 14SG for my needs, I find a few things small things lacking that Futaba do not seem to supply in one transmitter:

    I use conditions( flight modes) for my electric aircraft but have to use the glider setting on the 14sg, which removes a couple of useful mixes from the list, so I have to use a Pmix, but this goes across all conditions, so is a little annoying. The 18SZ and MZ allow conditions in aircraft mode BUT, remove the countdown timer voice function which I like a lot. The 14SG and 18sZ allow a stick position warning beep, which I like but the 18MZ does not have this feature. The 18MZ allows voice warning of condition change, which I would like but the other two do not. There are many other other mismatches and I would guess that it is not a technical problem simply a marketing decsion. Why do Futaba do this?? Surely if a feature/function is a useful addition it should be on all radios, or failing that the top of the range should allow them all I would think.

    The upshot is that whilst I like futaba and am comfortable with the programming system, I have to consider moving away to get the features I would like. Can I use Frsky? I do not have a PC but use a MAC, so am I right in thinking this screws up the programming side of things. Move to Jeti? all those receivers to replace? also do I want to spend lots of money on a system I have never tried or seen?

    I bet requests to Futaba are useless. does anyone else find this frustrating??

  14. But as i said do not want a subscription, i simply wish to purchase individual issues. On the rcm&e ipad app they all cost £4.75 or thereabouts. For example i bought the feb2015 issue for said amount, i would like the march issue for the second half of a feature but baulk at a fiver for the other half, the rsst of the mag adds little. So thats a sale lost,

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