Geoff S

Hey! I thought you moderators were supposed to keep us in order and here's two of you encouraging very bad behaviour Passing air liners? There weren't many of those passing over Nottinghamshire in the late 1940s and in the early 1940s we would've been commended for downing the odd Heinkel. Geoff

Well, even my grandmother who died in 1968 called the Daily Mail the Daily Liar We used to put Andrews Liver Salts in old medicine bottles put a cork in the top and shook vigorously. The cork flew quite high. Geoff

I was just thinking about static thrust when I realised all the test beds at my former employer (and pension provider ) measure static thrust so I suppose those that design and develop gas turbines must find some use for it. Royce's certainly spend a lot of money measuring it, amongst other things. Not being a mechanical or aeronautical engineer I don't know much about the details I was merely their servant. Geoff

I didn't log the data on my Moth test flight because I couldn't remember how to do it I have altitude logging on my Phoenix 2k but I'd had a a brain fade so I just listened to the current logging in real time during the flight and relied on brain logs (which are brief and short term in my case). I've now rediscovered how to do it so subsequent flights will have data to look back on. Just waiting for some warmer, calmer weather. My 6 minute maiden was deliberately ended early to give me chance to check on energy consumption. I had 50% left in the 4 AH 4S LiPo if the battery checker is anything to go on. Geoff

When I was doing a lot of messing around with motor cycle engines I used a spring balance hooked onto either a ring spanner or a hole drilled into the ratchet of my Britool socket set and worked out the torque from the length of the spanner. I've built loads of pedal cycles from single bikes to tandems and trikes and I've never used a torque spanner. All I use is feel and I've never had a problem with anything failing or coming loose over many 1000s of miles that could be attributed to an incorrect torque application. Geoff

This will give you the motor spec. So you know its limits Geoff

Andy, do you mean next April's RCME? Or another year? Actually when I first played with electric flight I'd only just begun to be interested in aeromodelling and it was in the days of 400/600 brushed motors and NiCads. I did rig up a few static test experiments by having a fuselage on the bench restrained with a spring balance. I also spent bit of time trying to work out how much air was moved by a propeller and how much thrust it would generate based on its density. My excuse is that I'd only just retired as an electronics designer concerned with measurement and control of gas turbine test rigs and I was trying to pretend I was still interested I'm sure I could design and make a rig similar to the Turnigy one but it would take a lot of time, would be a secondary activity and I don't have a whole lifetime left. I'd rather build and fly models (as well as go on the occasional bike ride) and there are no pockets in shrouds Your experiments are interesting on the differences in thrust when the air is moving. I have current measuring telemetry on my Tiger Moth. My intention is to use it on new models for the first few flights to get a better idea of what happens in the air. It was only a 6 minute maiden in a weather window in December and it revealed I was drawing only about 20 amps in level flight and a maximum of 50 flat out. I'm a sucker for measuring instruments ( I bought an Astroflight Wattmeter when they were £50) so I admit I'm tempted to get the Turnigy device which does look quite well made. Geoff

Someone on RCMF a few years ago had built a Puppeteer that split the fuselage behind the wings and I thought then that it was a good idea. I have a Puppeteer I finished after buying it part built but it rarely gets flown simply because it's such a pain to put together at the field and at 60" ws is too big to transport in one piece. If I were building another that's what I'd do - and it would be electric. Both the Flair Puppeteer and the SE5a need a lot of extra weight in the front with 4 stroke glows so with electric motors being so much lighter then just get as much weight as possible up front and as much as possible as useful - ie batteries. I just can't remember his name but I recall he bought a yacht ( a proper one with sails!) and more or less stopped aeromodelling but IIRC his first name was Jonathon. Geoff

In an idle moment I was having a look at the Hobby King/Turnigy motor test stands like this one. I was wondering if anyone had any experience of them - do they work well? are they well made? and, most important, are they of any value in assessing a drive train's performance? I know static thrust isn't necessarily of any great value as thing change once the model is flying but would a gadget like this make valid comparisons between different set ups eg different props and/or battery voltage? In other words are they worth the money? This one is about £60, there's a cheaper version (the Mk1?) over on the EU warehouse here. Geoff

All your electrical parts (motor, esc, prop and battery) match OK and should deliver about 150 watts at around 10 to 12 amps. The maximum continuous current for the motor is 12 amps according to the data I've seen and ideally should be checked when you first operate. So what remains is if 150 watts is sufficient for the Fournier and that depends to some extent on its weight. It's a glider but the full size was aerobatic. It'll probably fly OK if it weighs under 1kg but the lighter the better. So a definite may be Geoff

Well, apart from the fact that there's no such thing as a BMFA 'licence' that looks, for want of a better word 'interesting' Is there any sort of control (apart from motor, perhaps)? It looks rather like those things that look like flying walking sticks with diesel engine at one end that intrepid people fly at the chuck and duck at the Nats. They look very amusing and not as lethal as they appear Geoff

I saw a similar video a couple of years ago but that looked much more cottage industry than this with no discernible production sequence, just people sitting at tables doing a variety of seemingly random tasks. This looks really professional and slick though some of the jobs involved in powered sharp things looked a bit none H&SE . I was surprised how big the covering irons are. I would have preferred a commentary rather than the music which I turned right down. Thanks Geoff

There are 2 SLEC sport model kits. Both designed/modified by a former club mate of mine, Robin Woodhead, who is a superb builder of own design scale models so these should be both excellent fliers and good kits. Both are 80" wingspan and designed for 20cc petrol engines eg the Zenoah, which I think was used to test both kits. I guess they'd be fine with a 120 glow. There's the Astrohog and the Mustfire. Geoff

Seeing the way the pilot is holding his transmitter reminds me of the way one of our club's F3a pilots holds his now. He has a tight harness which positions his transmitter high on his chest. Still, you can't knock it - not only does he design and build his own models but he was a BMFA national champion a couple of years ago. Pity he's Polish Geoff

And there I thought Aldi had started selling model Spitfires Geoff

For my wife and me it's Valentine's Day every day Well that's what I'll tell her Geoff

Lazarus seems to work now, too. It didn't when I tried it earlier. I've enabled the spell checker, too and that's not too bad, either. Thanks for the heads up. Geoff

Posted by kevin b on 29/01/2016 17:53:24: There will be a way. TV license detecting works and there are a lot more tvs than RC receivers out there ! Edited By kevin b on 29/01/2016 17:56:08 I'm afraid it doesn't in any significant way. It's easy to detect if a TV receiver is being operating in premises but not if that receiver is being used by anyone holding a TV licence. Over the whole of the 49 years of our married life we've been pestered by the TV licencing authorities, including threatening ones, because we didn't have a licence. They assume every address should have a licence and if you haven't they think you're cheating. That wouldn't work with FPV equipment. Geoff

Thanks, Brian. Never thought to look there for some reason. On it's way Geoff

Yes, but why can't I use the one embedded in Firefox and which I can update with words I use? Also why won't the forum let me use Lazarus? It's a lifesaver sometimes if I inadvertently lose a post. Both just work with a right mouse click (or left in my case because I can't use a mouse in my right hand - part of the reason I mistype) Geoff

I use various forums and they all allow me to right click on a typo/spelling error (usually the former as my fingers aren't too accurate) and it allows a quick correction. I won't work here and all that happens is that I get a 'PASTE' message. Similarly I can't use Lazarus here to recover and paste text if I inadvertently lose a post. Is there any reason this forum forbids it whereas others (eg Guardian, or YouTube) are happy for me to correct my poor typing? Geoff

Looks very elegant and understated. I like it a lot and I wouldn't have picked dark green and yellow, either, but it gives the model a 1930s period look that suits the style of Peter's design. Geoff

I built a couple of the earlier SLEC (Precedent) Fun Flies with foam wings. I had an Irvine Q40 in he first which was much too powerful for my pre A certificate self and I replaced with a Super Tigre G34 which was perfect and one of the best engines I ever owned (still got it somewhere). In fact I passed my 'A' with it and it met it's Waterloo when the battery went flat as I was on the down side of a stall turn - lesson - don't do a quick recharge when an unexpected winter flying day crops up. I liked it so much I built another and I think it only took a week from start to test flight. (I was a fast and enthusiastic builder then). I can't remember what happened to that one. The main fault with the structure was the fuselage weakness around the shoulder wing. One of mine broke in half after blowing off my stand and the inertia of the engine was enough to snap the fuselage when the wing tip hit the ground. I've been tempted to build another with a built-up wing and electric power but life's too short to build 3 Geoff

Yes, I think I want one but HK is out of stock already in the UK! Here's another test flight in the Netherlands. Geoff

Fortunately I wasn't charged either VAT or duty but I guess one follows the other Geoff