andyh

thanks Jon, I shall watch with interest & start saving ?

thanks for that ? what a great thread - not sure how I missed it, the v4 is fabulous. an AcroWotXL with a flat twin in it would be rather good fun ?

I dare say you've been asked this before, but 80-odd pages is rather lot to read - is there any reason why Laser don't make flat twins? many thanks ?

nothing random about it - they both had UK VAT paid at source by the vendor & were under £135 so they weren't liable for duty & handling fees.

goods that are entirely or mostly of EU origin are duty-exempt, but those that aren't - ie most HK/BG/AE stuff that comes from China originally - are subject to duty on orders >£135. this duty can be 0-25% depending on the type of goods. couriers may then charge an additional handling fee for collecting the duty & paying it to HMRC: https://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/advice/online-shopping-do-i-have-to-pay-vat-import-and-handling-costs-ajPOC6A5brEA#import-vat-customs-duty-and-handling-fees-for-orders-over-135

I imagine that having two antennas has its own issues - are they each only able to Tx at half power so that the radio is only emitting a total of whatever the maximum legal power is?

thanks Ron. sorry not to be of any help in that case.

there is (allegedly) a *very* infrequent bug with ACCST 1.x (which your 2015 X4R will be on if you haven't updated the firmware in the last couple of years) causing "channel output error (uncontrolled servo movements) under certain conditions". I've been flying FrSky for ~8 years & I've never knowingly experienced it, but with my piloting, who knows? ? (sparse) details here: https://www.frsky-rc.com/important-firmware-update-accst-d16/ just be aware that you need to flash your RF module to ACCST 2.x too, which then won't work with any Rx's using ACCST 1.x the reason I asked about your X4R & SBUS is that I have a number of regular X4R's: that I'd quite like to get SBUS out of, & which I'm sure are only a solder bridge different from an X4R-SB, which does do SBUS: (apologies for taking your thread OT)

definitely not all (RadioMaster TX16S): (I had this picture already - I didn't take my Tx apart for this thread ? )

sorry to hear about your model ? what version of the RF protocol are you using? ie ACCST 1.x/2.x/ACCESS? there is an alleged bug in ACCST 1.x which possibly could be the cause. out of interest - & unrelated to the thread topic - is it a vanilla X4R that you're running SBUS from, or an X4R-SB? are you using the FrSky SBUS-to-PWM widget to run your servos/retracts?

if an antenna is pointing directly at the RF source, or at 90 degrees to a linearly polarized signal as our Tx's use, it will pick up virtually no signal. the idea of having the two antennas in different orientations is to guard against this happening no matter what the attitude of the aircraft. so yes, it's possible this might have caused the Rx to failsafe. mind you, I see so many people flying with their Tx antennas pointing straight up out of the Tx, so that it generally points directly at the model in flight & so the model is in the weakest area of the torus-shaped RF field that I'm not surprised there are so many "mysterious" brownouts. ?

I think the writing's been on the wall for the UK warehouse for a while - they never seemed to have any stock & I've only ever bought from the EU warehouse in the last few years. I'd still rather buy from HK than Banggood or AliExpress. I hope HK stick around in some form - the Avios/Durafly models are very popular as well as some of the Turnigy-branded stuff. it would be a shame if the hobby lost those products. I wonder whether they might end up being split off from the main HK company to shield them from any liability from the threatened FCC action.

MotionRC have been doing on their website at least since they opened their EU warehouse - HK seem to have copied it off them. I presume it's so you see products that you wouldn't otherwise have seen in your normal browsing - like supermarkets changing the aisle layouts around - but that doesn't make it any less annoying.

click the X in the top right corner of the popup - that stops them (for that session at least).

the same company has been doing trials to the Scillies (not from northern Scotland admittedly) which I think looks very cool & exciting:

personally I think they islanders should give up their powered boat deliveries - rowing boats used to work just fine before these new-fangled "diesels" came along ?

it's a two-week trial. it's undoubtedly easier & cheaper to find a bit of flattish land at each end than build catch-nets & catapults for a fortnight. in places where they do this as a permanent operation - eg in Rwanda & Ghana - then they do exactly as you suggest.

I believe holding the RCC exempts A/B test candidates from the mandatory questions during the test, so it is arguably easier to take it online beforehand than during the test. presumably the A/B test mandatory questions are based on the Article 16 rules now so test takers will need to know the rules one way or the other. I've taken the RCC & it's not difficult. we are encouraging all the pre-A test trainees in our club to take it & most of them pass first time without any trouble. & the rest of them pass second time. ?

I lost a quad in a very large, tussocky field earlier in the year. I was getting no radio signal & no video so the LiPo had clearly disconnected itself. fortunately it had a GPS on it & I was logging the telemetry to my Taranis. I took the last logged position & put it in my phone & walked to the location where I found ... a broken battery strap ... and 5 yards on a LiPo ... & then another 5 yards on ... the quad. ? I have the battery-backed buzzers on all my quads now too

I have a Runcam2 4K which is a sensible, mobius-type form factor for attaching to models - I used to use a mobius but the Runcam2 is quite a step up in picture quality. the plastic coating on my mobius went rather weird & tacky too. ?

I'd say the Ruckus too. you'll need to run it on 4S for comparable performance to the AW though.

http://www.modelair.info/camping/

what do people think of the rudder response on this model? I get horrible pitch-down when using it & the model rolls the *opposite* direction to the direction of yaw. it's most odd & I'm trying to imagine what aerodynamic effect must be causing it - I can't imagine the bubble canopy helps much. ?

your Rx placement looks interesting - if I'm looking at that correctly, have you chopped some foam out behind the Elevator/Rudder servos so you can mount the Rx behind them?

sounds like your CofG could do with coming back a bit - I'm flying mine with a 2.2Ah 4S (with the nose weights removed), with the battery 2" back from fully forward & it could probably do with coming back a bit further!