Mouse

Hi there Thank you for all the reply's, After reading all the posts I have one another question, I have some Ersin 5 core multicore leaded solder, is this what some of you good people have recommended as mine does not say what the ratio is. Also to answer phil green, it is a hexcopter I am building and the li-po leads are connected to one of the frame boards and power is sent through the board to various points where the esc's are then soldered, it makes for a far neater instulation than having wires run everywhere. Thank you Mouse.

Hi there just a quick question, my wife bought me a model aircraft for christmas and i have to do some soldering on the power distribution board, and i am confused as to wether i need to use flux or not. one shop has said i do not have to use it because non leaded solder does not need it, another shop has said that non leaded solder is no good and has given me some leadded solder but has also said to use a paste flux for very thin wires only but when i watch build blogs for this model on the internet most people use a liquid flux. Could you good people give me your oppinion on this. Thank you Bill.

Hi Dave as in my first post I have already tried to contact Hobbyzone who are also called Horizon Hobby U.K., and I am not sure if I could screw into foam that easily, could you please elaborate on how I could do this. Watched the tutorial from Ian and maybe Velcro is possible but in the past I have had problems getting the Velcro to stick to the foam and parts have become detached, this was using the manufacture's supplied Velcro, or is there a specific brand I should look for ??. I have tried to edit the heading to avoid confusion but cannot find out how to do this, sorry. Thank you Bill.

Apologies. Hobbyzone delta ray. Bill.

Hi there Just a quick question I hope someone can help with. I am looking to get a hobbyking delteray but because of limited space in my truck I need to find out the height of it from the belly to the top of the fin (without the undercarriage attached) when on a flat surface. I have tried the horizon hobby's website and have even tried to ring them but cannot get an answer, the nearest shop that I can go to and see one is about a two hour drive away, I know the fin is glued in place so I cannot remove it every time I want to take the plane out.. Thank you Bill.

Thank you all for the replys, and the explaintions. I did wonder why you would balance a plane upsidedown, especialy as i want to fly it right way up (joke). Bill_B, comment noted and agread with, just waiting for the wind to drop now. Mouse.

Hi there The model in question is a parkzone sport cub and i am having great problems setting the c of g correctly. when i try to set it with the plane upside down (as i was shown to do by a member of my local club) i just cannot get it right, the c o g always seems to be to far forwards or to far back, no matter how small the movements of the battery are, i have even tried four differnt types of battery. However if i turn the plane the right way up and support the wings from underneath the c o g is on the right spot and if i use a differnt battery i only need to move it a small amount to obtain the correct c o g. Is it o.k to do it this way and why does it make a differance what way up the plane is, most of the items on the internet show planes both ways up with the same c o g. Help please Bill.

Thank you for the replys. After what has been said i think i will go for flybared, the cost is a major insentive and so is the fact that i will have to do less setting up of my tx. Bill

Hi at the moment i have a "toy" type heli from century a f45 which is fixed pitch 23 inch rotor dia and its own tx. my next one will be collictive pitch and as for flybar or not i am still thinking, I will probely go for flybarless as that seems to get the most votes as being more sutable foe a relitive newcomer. Bill.

Hi all Just a quick question for now. I am looking at getting a 450 size heli and am looking at either a blade or align 450 size, I know that a blade will work with my dx6i but will a align work o.k as well. I am not looking for a heli with to many bells and whistles as I am only just starting but I have got to the limit of what my current heli can do so I am looking to upgrade to a heli that I can continue to learn on. I am looking to get one ready built and my L M S seems to specialise in blades so I need to take this into account as I will need help to set it up. Thank you Bill.

Hi and thank you for replying, especially Glyn for the photos and FWAL for his kind offer. I still have some of the Sundela left and would like to use this as I am limited for space and not able to have a large board, I am looking at about 30 inch by 12 inch. Do you all think that two thicknesses of 12mm ply glued together would be o.k as I have quite a bit of this laying about or should I look to one of the other suggestions. Thank you Mouse.

Hi there I am hoping to build the dawn flyer as my first ever build and decided to build parts of the wing to give me an idea of how to do this and try to see how they fitted together seeing how the plans are quite poor on this point. I brought a sheet of Sundela hobbyboard on the advice of my local hobby shop and glued a 20 in X 12 in piece to some 3/4 inch flooring grade chipboard as recommended by the shop using industrial grade pva and then weighted it down for a good 10 days, the result was a perfectly flat surface on which to build. However after doing just one wing section over three weeks I have noticed the entire board is now bowed across it's length to a depth of just over 4mm in the centre, it is not that the building board has pulled away from the chipboard but it looks like the Sundela has pulled up the ends of the chipboard, is this likely ???. The rest of the Sundela sheet has also warped and I have even had two of my truck wheel and tyres on it for two weeks but as soon as I take them of it just bows again. Is there any way I can get round this as I do not want to throw the board away because of the cost and it seems to grip the pins quite firmly which is something I like. Thank you. Mouse.

Yes I know that would be the obvious way to go but was hoping to find out before i next go flying as i dont want to cut into his own flying time to much. Mouse.

There seems to be a lot of divided opinion on this. I am now debating keeping them at about 80% so that if i get a sudden chance to go flying it will not take to long to top up my battery's and i think (hope) that they will be o.k for a few months in this state. Mouse.

Hi BEB I have been following your build with great interist and have a couple of questions. firstly right back at the start when you fitted the moter you had to quite a lot of trimming and fetteling to get it to clear at the top, would it not have been easier to just move the motor down to cleare the top longeron or is there some reason why this cannot be done. Secondley being very new to flying i thought that the leading edge on wings had to be curved to help with it pushing through the air i.e less resistance = better efficiency and longer flight times but i notice in your last set of photos that the leading edge is still flat fronted, can you tell me why this is. Thank you Mouse.

Hi and thanks for the reply's. The gent who is teaching me to fly is not the owner of the transmitter, that is owned by another member who only fly's heli's so does not have much experience of duel rates on planes and he has been kind enough to put my plane in his model memory so we do not have to enter it every time I fly, my "buddy" uses a different make of transmitter to spektrum that is not so easy to buddy with. To be fair I have not pushed the point about duel rates as I only asked once if it was possible and he said he was not sure as he did not use spektrum transmitters and that if I get into trouble he wants to be able to regain full control just by using one switch and not having to switch rates as well, which I think is a fair point., but I will now ask the owner about what Mr.B. suggested. So can I take it from your reply's that I cannot just switch between high and low rates on my transmitter when I have control of the plane as I seem to be able to adjust trim without affecting the master transmitter ???. Mouse.

Thank you for the reply's. I have decided to go down the bulb discharge route and go with what Ian has suggested but I will get a bulb with a holder and put a xt 60 on the end and possible fit a switch so that it will be easier to connect/disconnect. Mouse.

Hi there I have only just started to fly and another member at my club is teaching me using his dx18 attached to my dx6i by a buddy lead. The problem is that I am finding some of the inputs are to fast for me at the moment mainly ailerons and I would like to turn down the rates, however my "buddy" does not think this is possible as his transmitter is the master. Is this correct as I do not want to question him over this as I do not want to come across as knowing more than him. I know that some people say that you should learn with what you have got but surely it is better to learn in a more comfortable manner and then increase the rates as I both feel and get more confident. Thank you Mouse.

Hi and thanks for the reply's Olly, you say that you have kept your lipos for an extended period of time but could you say what that is as I am looking at a month or so, and also what state of charge should I keep them at if I do discharge them % wise. and if I go below that I assume that it is o.k to recharge up to a "storage voltage". Mouse.

Hi there I am relatively new to flying and the use of lipo's and regularly see posts about storing them when not in use. However most of these posts seem to be about charging a discharged lipo up to a storage charge, what I want to know about is how to discharge a fully charged lipo down. At the moment I have 5 lipos all 3 cells and about 2200 mha and when I go out I charge them up before I go but sometimes I do not get to use them all or on occasions I do not get to go at all which leaves me with all fully charged battery's and I might not get to use them for several weeks. When I used to use ni-cads in buggies and boats I used to use a car headlight bulb to discharge them down to when they went dim but I am not to happy about using the same method for lipos. Any advice please. Mouse.

BEB glad to hear that you are going to do a detailed build, I personally think it's what is needed and hopefully will encourage more people to try and build there own plane. I know it will give me more confidence to not only build the dawn flyer but also give me a better understanding of how to build generally so I can go on to build some more obscure early aircraft in the future, (maybe even do a blog). One thing I would like to see with ref to Dawn flyer is to do with where the two wing halves join as on the plan it seems to show a hole underneath what I think are called the root ribs ( the very first R1s) although to me this whole area seems quite vague. Good luck. Mouse.

Hi there. Please excuse me for butting in but I am also trying to build the DF as my first ever build and it is not going as well as I was lead to believe it would be. What I want to do is build it a bit larger ( about 58 inch wingspan) and so I decided to make the only fuz and the wings from the root rib to the ailerons to test my skills and see how it fitted together using the free plan before I scaled it up. The main problem that I am having is how the wings fit to the fuz involving wing bolts etc. as the plans seem quite vague on this point, could I please ask that when you build this section you show exactly how to do this as it would be much appreciated. Also could anyone explain why when the rear of the fuz is attached to the front part you glue a flat part to the angled fuz sides as I think would have made more sense to sand this part of the main fuz flat to give a flat to flat surface instead of a angle to flat surface. Thank you Bill.

Hi all Thank you for all the reply's and advice, I particularly like the one about using superglue to start with and then p.v.a,and also the many votes for sellotape. The reason that I was not going to fly the plane is because it only has a wingspan of 18 inches ( it is a Eastbourne monoplane) and is designed for rubber power, (even though the box says electric as well ????), and I was not intending to cover it, however after what has been said I think I will now give it a go and have at least one flight. I was thinking at one point about getting the plan enlarged and trying to cut the parts myself to make a larger model but it seems to be designed for fixed wings which would be a problem to transport. Mouse.

Hi all I have only been into flying for less than 6 months but early on I decided that I would like to build a plane of my own to fly. With this in mind I recently brought a cheap balsa kit to practice on, to help me learn how to read plans and to see if I have the skills etc... however I have only just started and have run into two problems, the first is that the plans say to build one fuselage side on top of the plan and then build the other side on top of that and when dry split them apart. my first question is surely if the glue joint is good then it should not be able to come apart or do I put something like tape etc. between to stop them sticking to each other ????. Secondly the glue I was sold with the kit does not seem that good, it is UHU hart but it seems to take a long time to dry, normally a couple of hours which when gluing wing ribs is a right pain, is this right as the instructions seem to be in German. Is there another faster glue or do I just need to take it easy and slow down a bit ??. Sorry forgot to say I will not be flying this plane. Thank you Bill.                   Edited By Mouse on 10/12/2013 18:55:14

Hi all Just a quick update, I bought a 80 watt iron for just over £ 7 from a local tool shop, they are Chinese made but mainly sold in the U.S A, hence the low price. Gets up to heat quickly and does a lovely job, nice and shiny joint, will probably get a lower wattage one next time I am near there. Thank you for all your advice and tips on how to do a proper job. Bill.