Geoff S

I just use a spirit level on the tailplane and my Robart Incidence meter on the wing. A smartphone with a suitable application will do the job just as easily and quickly. It's even easier now that I have my adjustable model stand, and using magazines as packing is no longer needed.

Back in the 1980s I edited a national cycle club magazine (Tandem Club) until a serious incident with a cat put a stop to hard cycling and started me on the path to aeromodelling. The magazine came out every other month and was posted to the 2000 members. It was hard work, but much eased by the positive feedback I received. Without that feedback, I don't think I would have bothered.

Absolutely. I notice that the BMFA isn't listed as part of the General Aviation Alliance. In this respect, perhaps they (or we?) should be. As an aside, I noticed on the same web page that the Gipsy Moth flown in the film 'Out of Africa' by Robert Redford's character is up for sale. That's the aircraft my icon aircraft represents (mainly because of the colour scheme).

Reminds me of a 300km bike ride I endured back in 1988. It only rained once - it started just after we set off and never stopped all day!

I watched it for the first time and I was glad to do it on the iPlayer so I could skip the boring bits. I can't say I was impressed, mainly because it was so superficial - nothing was covered properly. Obviously it didn't do us any harm and the Astro Hog eventually flew (at Buckminster, I think). I liked the Reliant bit. I can remember when sub 5cwt 3 wheelers were popular because you could drive them on a motor-cycle licence. There were a lot around in the 50s and 60s (Bond Minicars, Meschersmitts, BMW Isettas, Berkeley etc). I was surprised the Reliant designer never mentioned the sporty Scimitars - they had 4 wheels. There was a garage at Newhaven, Derbyshire that specialised in them at one time.

I met him a few times when he came to the RR(Hucknall) Scale weekends. He was very approachable and once even started a chat with me at one of the Elvington Christmas events. One of my favourite models is my 58" ws Gipsy Moth (a slightly modified Cirrus Moth). I feel he would approve my very amateur 'improvement' 🙂 He was nothing if not practical!

I haven't solved clogging either, but I have found a way round it by cutting the spout short and fitting one of the spout extensions I seem to have acquired over the years and starting again.

I first got involved with computers when they were made of discrete germanium transistors (GET103 mostly), had actual toroidal magnetic core store, main storage was a magnetic drum with multiple heads, input was usually via 80 column cards and output was either a line printer, punched cards, or 1" tape. No vdu, no keyboard but tons of switches and lights on the front. When I went for an interview for the job, I had to 'google' the local library to find out exactly what a computer was and what it did. GEC manufactured the ICT 1301 for ICT itself. The machine even had hardware sterling (that's £sd) multiply and divide by 10 built-in. Registers were binary coded decimal with 1 2 4 8 lines. And it ran with a staggering 1mhz clock speed. We spent our days with eyes glued to huge Tektronix oscilloscopes, fault-finding. There were some clever blokes on final test with me. One played the clarinet and wrote a program that played Mozart's Clarinet Concerto as well as Christmas carols in 4 parts played on 4 different machines (we had about 10 on the shop floor at a time and it was probably the most expensive musical instrument in the UK). This was in the early 60s (I was in my early 20s) and it was (mostly) a lot of fun being at the cutting edge. So you can see why I get a bit blasé about the latest gadgets and can take it or leave it - I've been through it all several times over the last 60 years 🙂

I used a lot of Poundland CA and found it OK, but it seems to have disappeared from our local shop except for the very tiny bottles that are worth carrying unopened in the toolbox for field repairs and then discarded. I've been us 50gm bottles of Volden stocked by B&Q -for around £6 (can't remember exactly) but it keeps well on the bench. Spare bottle in the 'fridge.

When I wore out my first Riot (for some reason, the ailerons became reversed - I never worked out why or how) I took it apart to salvage what I could (the undercarriage is on my Liddle Stik) the fuselage has a substantial plywood skeleton which makes it very strong. You only have to take out the steel weight at the front to get the CoG back a bit and increase the throws a bit to make it very agile. I never moved up to putting a 4S LiPo in any of mine but I would think that's another step you could take. The foamie Wot4 is NOT a 'step up' from a Riot. Nothing wrong with the Wot4 (I only have a wooden one (actually two) ) but it's just a similar model.

I added spar webs to my scratch, plan built Das Liiddle Stik back in 2020. It's been one of my 'go to' 3S models ever since. I also slightly modified the ribs so that the top and bottom spars were at the same angle to allow easy fitting of the spar webs. As the drawing. The spars aren't in line. My ribs. The wing with spar webs but no sheeting to complete the 'D' section or cap strips on the ribs ... and the complete model. It's pretty rugged (so far!)

Well, I've ordered the 'buy-it-now version' of the Parkside digital gun. Thanks for the suggestions. One thing I did use my old one for was to open my weekly jar of olives (I'm addicted to them!). Sometimes the metal lid is so tight it needs some heat to expand it a bit. Not been too bad for the last few weeks, but I don't have the grip I once had so the gun had another use. I've also used it to heat glow engine crankcases to get the main bearings out. It's a handy thing to have available.

@Engine Doctor You're right, but I'd love to know what contsmibation means 😜 It's a lovely word, and I'm delighted that, as an electrically powered model builder/flyer, I avoid it.

Interesting so far. I hope there's more to come.

While it is amusing, it's also very common. Exactly the same thing happened at RR, where I worked, when there was a paved path round a grass patch that was shortcut in exactly this way. IIRC, they gave in and paved the popular route 🙂

If you have a smartphone, then there are applications for levels that work well. I've had a Robart Incidence meter for years and find it useful for checking biplanes, particularly the top wing, which sometimes seems to hang in mid-air with minimal reference to the rest of the model 🙂

I think my wife used a Word Perfect version at one time. I never did. The first dedicated editor/word processor I ever used was Wordstar and that was before mice were invented (the computer version, that is, not the mammal!) and cursor navigation was all by keyboard control characters. I wrote all my early Assembler s/w on it.

Well, I do need one fairly quickly. My old one got frequent use - mostly for shrinking electrical insulation on connector etc. It had no temperature control - what temperature would you set for (say) shrinking film on a built-up wing? I just used to waft mine around and avoided keeping the heat in place for more than a couple oof seconds.

The router's working fine as it is. I have adequate data speed for both my wife and me to watch any video streams separately and simultaneously. The only s/w updates I want are those relating to security. I've written enough s/w in my time to be aware of the temptation to do just a bit more for personal amusement and satisfaction to be wary of it in commercial environments. I use an ancient version of MS Office Pro (97) which does more than all I need, and an equally ancient version of Photoshop likewise. As hardware gets more powerful, much of the power is absorbed by programmers and data hungry high level s/w packages. I only use what I need or what I find useful.

I still use the Frank Castle's 4 figure tables I've had for 60 years! I find the trig functions easier and more certain in printed form - I rarely use the log tables, but still get my slide rule out occasionally - it hasn't ever needed new batteries in a similar amount of time 🙂

Actually, according to the plan, it's 1 deg positive. Nevertheless, much less than 5 deg, which does seem a lot to me, but I'm no aerodynamic expert.

Thanks, Philip. @Andy J Other than the balance connector, does any battery we use have anything more sophisticated? It's quite complicated to monitor the current delivered or drawn from every cell in a battery.

I sometimes isolate one branch of the motor feed from the esc to prevent the motor running, rather than the whole system. If that fails (unlikely) then I still have control of what is now a glider. It also avoids extending the battery/esc leads, which should be kept as short as possible.

I simply don't like leaving electrical equipment on when not needed. I never have. When I was working, I always switched any equipment I was using off before I went home - oscilloscope, signal generators, logic analyser etc. I just do the same now. The router power supply is plugged into the same mains distribution unit as my PC, so gets switched off when I switch off my PC in the evening. In any case, we probably don't get wifi from the router upstairs anyway - wifi doesn't penetrate thick stone walls very well.

What was the problem on the maiden? Not so bad that your modified Wot4 didn't get down in one piece, I assume.