AVC

Thanks Andy, I'll do

Chris, good point, I take it onboard as well. Norm, thanks a lot, that's a very kind offer. As we progress with the plan, I will let you know and maybe I could borrow that simulator. Indeed, home schooling is challenging and equally rewarding. At the beginning, when we started, we had doubs, especially because in our case as the education is trilingual (my wife is French, I'm Spanish and we live in England), and we were concerned about his language skills, but day after day we are more confident on what we are doing, as we see the (good) results: he already corrects my English sometimes...  Edited By Alejandro Valle Carrillo on 10/03/2015 20:48:46

Thanks all for your ideas, I didn't think on what the others would do, so the basic models, and also the simulator are very good ideas indeed. Olly, I will also propose in the next meeting to have a "closed" area for the visitors (I believe we have enough room). The rope is an easy and effective way of controlling a group like this Steve, thanks for offering your help, even from the other side of the country . In fact, the club is very new and we have a strip suitable for this purpose. This could help to "consolidate" the image of the club. And I fully agree that we must engage the new generations. It is the way of keeping this hobby alive (and also is the best excuse to convince your wife that you need new engines, planes, radios, etc...: "Darling, the kid needs a new Hostetler Cessna 310, with a pair of Roto 85 FSi" ) Thanks all for these good suggestions! As I progress with the plan, I'll keep posting   Cheers! Edited By Alejandro Valle Carrillo on 10/03/2015 18:03:12

Hello all I have 2 kids: one is two and the other is six. When we came to live to England two years ago, one of our concerns / priorities was to try and find different activities for the kids, especially for the old one as he is homeschooler and we want top ensure that he's in contact with other children. We are part of a group of home schooling families in the North East, and the other day I though that it may be a good idea to organize one day for children and parents in the flying strip. I would take some different types of models, including some "lazy" ones like electric gliders, so that the children could even give a safe try to the magic of radio control. Obviously, my biggest concern is safety, as we expect a group of around 12-14 children with the parents (at least with one), so I was thinking on having them all together outside of the strip and make a safety briefing, and also on making some "safety sheets" and hand to them. I believe we will discuss the proposal in the next club meeting, but I wanted to share this with you, because some of you might have already done something similar in the past, and any advice or comments would be more than welcome. Thanks! Alex

Congratulations Jessica. Mike, double reason to be proud: first for the job, and second for her love to animals

That's good Jay, just check that the value is around 28-30% of the chord, or in other words, that the chord is around 268-270 mm. Enjoy!

Thanks Steve, that sounds good! Regards

Hi JayDee According to the manual (available here), the CoG should be between 75-80 mm back from the leading edge (the manual says measured at the wing tip, but in a plane like this with a straight wing, you could measure it at the root as well). In any case, the rule of thumb is, as you know, around 1/3 of the average wing chord (in your case, simply the chord), so I would suggest that these values given in the manual are on or around your own measures (It's a bit concerning that your measures gave you between 81 and 107 mm). Being a new model, I would recommend to start with the CoG at around 28%, even if that means that the landing will be a bit faster, but you also ensure that the model will be a bit less responsive to elevator inputs. As you get familiar with it, you can move it backwards, but I would never go beyond 30-31%, this is not a 3d plane. In any case, If you define yourself as inexperienced flyer, and considering that it is a new model which you are not familiar with, I would strongly recommend that you seek for help, and ask someone experienced to fly it for the first time, to trim it properly and ensure that the plane is correctly balanced. A final comment, although you may already know; just remember that low wing planes must be balanced upside down.. Good luck, and enjoy it!!

Good morning Some days ago I was trying to find on google the website of Maddog designs UK, but I couldn't find it. I found a thread here where a there was a photo of a the instructions manual of a hammerhead, with the internet address there, so I typed it but I received a message that the access was forbidden to the site. I sent a message (via this site) to Richie Carey, one week ago, but there's no answer so far. Does anybody know if they are still in the business? Thanks

Thanks Cymaz, at least I know, based on your experience, that they deliver good servic... BTW great and long topic on the Stampe building, I'm taking lots of ideas for when I have time to finish my own Stampe 😊

Good afternoon I have just placed an order in Brain Cube for cutting a David Andersen's Arado AR96. The price is below 150 quid, including shipping, whereas in other places, for the same kit you could end paying 250, so in principle it looks attractive. I wonder if any one has already used they lase cutting service, and if so, what the results are: are the parts accurate? how long does it takes? etc... Yeah, I know I should ask the question before placing the order,... but anyway, it's done Thanks for your comments

Dereck, I had a confirmed scam story last year. Have a look here, in case is similar to yours... I prefer to apologize for being too much cautious than to regret for loosing my money or my radio, model or whatever I'm selling

In my experience, I have found a sort of mix in terms or responses to emails: last April I asked for a quotation to tide up my garden to a gardening company, and I'm still waiting for an answer, at least to say "we don't give a monkey about your garden". On the other hand, I have had some very good experiences with other businesses. Just to mention some examples, King Lynns Model Shop, Giant Shark or Just Engines are among them. What is really fuming of this attitude is that local and European businesses, especially in our area but also in many others, must compete against prices totally unachievable here (at a cost of quality in some cases...), so they have to compete in service, pre and aftersales, but it seems that the message hasn't come across for some. I do prefer to leave my money in Europe instead of sending it directly to a chinese business, and I have no problem by paying a bit more, but in return, I expect a good service, i.e. feedback, support, etc... If we miss this bit, we'll lose the battle  Edited By Alejandro Valle Carrillo on 23/10/2014 13:11:47

Hi Neil, and welcome. I live in Boldon, and I'm member of the Boldon club, and I've joined as well the newly created City of Sunderland Model Flying Club, with a strip in Fulwell. In Boldon the issue is what John has explained. I fly very very little now (time absorbed by the work and the kids...), but even so I'm converting the "small" stuff to electric because the strip of Boldon is just three minutes away from home. For the "big stuff" (petrol) I expect to use the Fulwell strip when I have time to spare for the hobby. In any case, if there's anything I can do for you, just drop me a message, I'll be happy to help. Edited By Alejandro Valle Carrillo on 21/10/2014 20:08:36

Good evening Recently I bough a second hand Roto 25cc. It has never been used came without the prop mounting plate and the four prop bolts. I sent an email to J Perkins, as they are the distributors of Roto in UK. After two days, I still didn't have an answer, so I decided to send another email directly to Roto in the Czech republic. I sent this email last Thursday night, on Friday at 07:15 I had a reply from Veronika, confirming that the had both the plate and the bolts, 8 € all, and free shipping. I confirmed that I wanted them, and five minutes later I had paid with paypal. Today, Tuesday, I have received the parts here and the engine is ready for break in tomorrow. I am still waiting for J Perkins to reply to my first email, at least to confirm that they have received it. I'm planning to buy a Roto 85 Fs within the next year or so.Obviously, when the time will come, the likelihood is that I will contact Veronika again, and I'll buy it directly from them. I know that this affect the shops that are directly fed by the distributor (and I hate it), but in the end this is the only ammunition that we have as customers against a bad service

To rectify myself: The difference in price with the Roto 25v is 30%-ish Edited By Alejandro Valle Carrillo on 04/10/2014 16:37:55

Hello all. I'd like to ask you about your experience with the Roto engines, and in particular with the 25cc. In "the paper" is seems it can swing up to 20' props, and the static thrust is around 6.5 kg. Is that good? I have had 2 MVVS 26, both (ROTO and MVVS) come from Czech republic, the difference in capacity is just 1cc, both seems to have similar performance, yet the Roto is much cheaper, what makes me wonder what's wrong with it? Is the MVVS over valued, or is there a real reason for this 40% of difference in the price? (quality, reliability,...) I'm planning to use it in a SLEC (Precedent) Stampe, so I'm not looking for 3d performance, but reliability and also a bit of "power to spare" for these difficult moments... Any comments will be highly appreciated Cheers Alejandro

Hi John (et all). The chances to see them depends on what is called "KP index". This index refers to the impact of the sun activity in the high layers of the atmosphere, where the auroras are created. The index goes from 0 to 10. With a KP 5 they can be seen at around 60-55 north latitude, and a KP 10 is visible in France or even the north of Spain. I live not too far away from Kielder forest which 55 degrees north, and also is one of the biggest "light-free" areas in Europe. I know that auroras are sometimes clearly visible here, and in fact Kielder observatory organizes events to "look at the sky", so long the weather allows it (not too often unfortunately). You can check the KP index, and other interesting bits, in this link. I hope this helps Alejandro

I will try to do it this year, so long the work and the family leave me some free time for building. I'm more a traditional builder, i.e. balsa, but I have worked depron a couple of times as well. If the latter is the case, I would suggest the Polaris, a depron version of Laddie Mikulasko's North Star. Plans are available for free here, (although a donation is "suggested"...)The building can be easy and the powertrain is not expensive, and although it's mainly designed for electric, a little .10 or .15 will probably do the job... Alejandro

I'm probably teaching grandma to suck eggs, but the point here is, as Simon says, how the power is delivered. The outcome of a specific powertrain depends on the combination of power, torque, revolutions, prop efficiency, etc. Also we have to be cautious with the power figures provided by the manufacturer, especially for IC engines. I've seen cases where an engine is clamed to deliver, let's say 2hp @ 12,500 revs, yet it's rated between 2,000 and 11,000. On the other hand, it's true that the trend is to overpower. I still remember that the original Stampe Precedent was meant for a .46 glow and in fact the prototype was flown with that size of engine, with and without reduction gearbox, and today we think that a 120 is a small engine for the same model...

Well, as I said I have this option in the radar as well, but whichever one I decide to build, this is not an imminent project. I've got in the oven three serious projects and two small ones as well, and between the work and the family I don't have time to spare, so I don't think I will start any in the next 12-15 months or so. If finally I decide to go ahead with the Pawnee, I will assume that I'll have to spend money on it, but it's not just about the money, it's about trying to find something that can be easily sourced. I have found places, mainly in US, where you can find all the "ancillary" bits of some of the Hostetler models, from spats to windscreens, and this is something that I put in the balance as well before starting a new project. In any case, thanks a lot for your advice, I'll take it on board. And by the way, I see we have similar preferences: I love the Hostetler RV-4...

With this model you can easily go to 7.5 - 8 kilos, which means that you will be around 250w / kilo. This should be ok for sport flying, but it it's power to spare. Mine takes off pretty well, the normal flying routing is done correctly, but don't expect unlimited verticals, and for some "draggy" maneuvers like the knife edge, she looses heigh pretty quickly. When I was building it, and before deciding which engine would I use, I contacted with Mike Clewes to ask about the Saito 150. His answer was that with this engine the model would simply fly, but if I was looking for better performance I should go for a Saito 180, OS 200, or in the petrol side, something in the range of the 30cc. Finally the budged ruled and I have a second hand MVVS fit on her. As I said, the flight is pretty scale, which in the end is how it should be, although sometimes I wish I had some additional power, just to be on the safe side...

Posted by jrman on 26/08/2014 16:59:23: I have the Apache "Penzoil" version with retracts which flies well on an OS 200P. That's exactly the kind of powertrain that you need...

If you go ahead, in my album I have some pictures of the bulding, in case thye help you to get an idea. The bulding is pretty straighforward, I really enjoyed it (In fact I'm thinking of buying another one...) BTW, it's a shame that SLEC has decided to get rid of the retracts version... Edited By Alejandro Valle Carrillo on 26/08/2014 16:47:16 Edited By Alejandro Valle Carrillo on 26/08/2014 16:49:43

Dave, I have the Pepsi version of this (funny story: I bough it when I was living in Spain, I built it in Spain and only four month after maiden, I moved to UK...). The thing is that even if it said that is for a 1.20, you would need the equivalent power of a 1.80. I'm flying it with a MVVS 26 petrol, and it's pretty "scale" if you know what I mean. A DLE 30 would be more adequate to have the extra power for difficult moments. I'm not expert in electric, but I hope this info will help you. Edited By Alejandro Valle Carrillo on 26/08/2014 17:00:54