Roger Adams

When I last did this it worked OK but with a major caveat.  There was a delay of about 1 -1.5 secs when transferring control to the student (35mhz). Taking control back to the master was instant. The technique was for the instructor to get the plane straight & level, press the training switch and pause before saying "you have control", this pause prevented the student putting in big control movements because of no response during the switch over.  I can't remember for certain the exact radios, but it was probably a 6x?? 2.4 Ghz, and a 7CAP 35mhz.

Erfolg, I agree completely, if any of my posts appear critical of the police it was not intended.  They attended within 10 minutes of initially being called and maintained an occasional presence during the period of the occupation.  They also tuned up within 5 minutes of the evacuation and assisted in securing the entrance against further invasion.  It was clear thet the officers that attended were equally frustrated at not being able to do anything.  To quote one officer "the legislation exists but it is not enforcable".   My frustration and anger is more directed to the politician and the baby boomer generation that has allowed our society to degenerate to the point where the human rights of the law breaker are upheld against those of the victim.

IanN you are right on both counts.    Whilst I was earning my crust in London yesterday a group of about 12 members has tidied up and rectified most of the damage and I think the field is probably operational again.  I have to admit we were extremely lucky in that the damage caused was a lot less than might have been expected.  In fact the major damage was done to the entrance which appeared to be done with the intension of making it easier for them, or another group to re-occupy the site.  I think if we had not been so quick to errect a barricade then we would now have a second phase of occupation which would have been far more destructive.  The initial group were not the stereotypical traveller, being articulate and with clean high spec vehicles that were mostly less than 2 years old.  Those who turned up whilst the barricade was being errected though, were far more stereotypical, and i believe would have been far more destructive.   On the second point.  The reason I posted the information is that not only will he remain "a sad and twisted scumbucket", he will also know that we know he was responsible.  This means he will have to go bed each night wondering if there will ever be any retaliation. 

One other point I have decided not to hold back on any longer.  The club chairman was on the field yesterday gently winding up any of these people he could.  He obviously touched a nerve with one who retaliated by stating that they "the unwanted" had been tipped of as to the presence of the location by a former club member who they had paid for the information. They then went on to name and describe that person and also referred to an act of vandalsm that occurred on the field last summer.   I don't intend to name that person, who is a 'B' rated pilot that can sometimes be seen flying the shows, but it does show that the community that we value so much might have a bad apple or two.

No A.A. the farmer has always been very supportive and I don't think he sees this as the clubs fault in any way other than the well tended grass was very inviting.    The landowner also has the right to dictate who comes on to his land here, subject to rights of way etc.  However it seems that removing unwanted trespassers is almost impossible. To quote the police, "the legislation exists but it's unenforcable".  As so often in this country the rights of those beneath the law, out rank the rights of those above the law.

I should have posted this over the weekend but I was too angry and it would have been an irrational rant. Friday evening our patch was invaded by ‘travelers’.  They broke open a locked gate and drove their vehicles onto the privately owned land.  The police were called within 1 hour of the original break in but were powerless to do anything about it.  Within that hour around 30 caravans and mobile homes had been established and they were entering and leaving the site at will, despite the presence of the police. Once the initial shock had subsided then the overriding emotions are anger and impatience.  The worst is the frustration of being able to do absolutely nothing.  To see these people behaving as if it’s their right to abuse the grass runway and refer to it as “their holiday park’ whilst the police look on with apparently no authority, is particularly galling.  The fact that the locking chains on the gate had been visibly broken and the land owner was saying he did not want these people on his land did not seem to even enable the police to prevent them, or their vehicles, from exiting and re-entering the field at will.  In fact the police even seemed obliged to step aside and let them pass. With the protection of the police presence we were able to empty out container cabin to remove any item of value that we could carry. So were able to at least establish the safety of most of our equipment such as the lawn mower etc.. They left last night having broken down and removed further sections of fencing to leave a completely open entry 30 – 40 feet wide.  We were fortunate to see them leaving and within 20 minutes, had a 38 ton vehicle parked across the gap whilst the farmer dug a huge ditch and embankment to prevent further invasion.  Whilst this work was being done at least 2 other groups (presumably summonsed by the jungle drums) appeared and seemed very annoyed at being prevented from entering the field.  This confirmed the interpretation of why the entry had been enlarged shortly before the group left. The main point of this post is to serve as a warning to all other clubs, particularly those in the area (we are based near Lichfield, South Staffs) that these groups are now back on the road and looking for somewhere to camp. At the time of posting they are in Rugeley with a huge police presence moving them on again. Edited By Timbo - Administrator on 01/06/2010 14:14:52

58   ic sport ic scale   Age 13 KeilKraft and Aeromodeller plans (C/L & f/f glider) then big gap from 15 - 52

Like Timbo I would initially suspect the Y lead.  I have had similar issues solved by replacing a servo extension lead.  I suspected that in my case it was to do with the connection of the servo to the extension which was reconnected when the plane was assembled for flight.  It was also very intermittant but went away with a replacement of the extension.

I would like to re-iterate Phil B's point about the fact that many a first model ends up in a bin bag.  There is a big difference in the time investment in building a model and assembling an ARTF.  No matter how much you enjoyed the building, this means there is a much higher emotional attachment to the model.  The bottom line is that as soon as you take off you have put the model in harms way, and the higher the emotional attachment the more nervous you are when learning to fly it.  These nerves will hamper the learning and make it less fun.   Take the advice and learn to fly a cheap, solid and expendable trainer whilst you build the 2nd or 3 rd model at the same time.  You will then be able to fly your pride and joy more enjoyably without to many nerves.

A good home is waiting here

That would be about .43C, close enough I reckon   Thats got me off the 13 posts tally

One other point, if you charge the TX battery through the TX charge socket, don't exceed about 1 amp even if its a high capacity battery because the main board may not be able to safely take the power.

Further to nigels reply, charge the 600mAH at 0.6 amp max.  If you had a 1800mAH the maximum charge rate would be 1.8 amp etc.   I also have my 2nd sigma, (The first was stolen) I think they' are excelent.

Picking up on Brian's point I was discussing this survey with some club colleagues in the pub earlier in the week.  There is certainly an anecdotal opinion that the midlands has a mode 1 bias.  Given that the north south classification divides the midlads it would be interesting to see whether the statics were changed significantly if the analysis was done over 3 areas of north, middle and south.  Of course this opens up the debate of Wales, Scotland Cornwall Isle of Mann etc..  It might be too much effort, especially now the snows gone and we can return to normal life.   Great survey   Roger

I also think an imformal 'fly in' would be a excelent idea.   Peter, as I understand it ,you don't need an instructor in your club to get examined.  Your club officials should be able to arrange  for a BMFA examiner to visit and conduct an A test.  Though I would presume this relies on you being a BMFA member.

I fly Mode 2   I fly in the West Midlands   I learnt in the  West Midlands   I learnt from an instructor. (Thanks Bigsy)   PS the answers apply to my son as well, so thats 2 replies (Thanks again Bigsy) 

To me the main advantages are:  The isolation which means that the servo bearings are not subjected to a continual load on the side facing rearwards.  The fact that the rudder can be trimmed by lengthening/shortening the single short connection and the sinsitivity altered by changing the length of the servo arm connection and/or the bar connection.  These adjustment are far easier (INHO) than with a direct connection where trimming requires both sides of the loop to be altered and where sensitivity adjustments are made by moving both sides in/out, which may mean the cable runs are no longer direct.  I thought in your instance that it might also allow you to move the servo location off the centre line without compromising the rudder operation.  I believed that mounting it the centre was causing you problems.   I think that all the methods used to connect servos with control surfaces have potential problems, push rods can flex, snakes can introduce slop by the inner being loose in the outer and the outer flexing, closed loop can introduce complexity and multiple failure points.  Each of these faults can be mitigated and personal preference is probably the final arbiter.  I am sure that given the care and consideration you apply to each stage, whatever you do will work fine.   Roger

Thats exactly what I mean

Hi Andy, been following this thread with great interest.  Whenever I fit a closed loop I mount a 'T' bar centrally in the fuselage close to the servo tray and run the loop wires to this.  I then use a conventional short pushrod to connect the 'T' bar to the servo.  This gives a number of advantages over direct connection to the servo.  Firstly the continual load placed on the servo bearings by the tension in the closed loop is eliminated.  Secondly the trim of the control surface can be finely altered by adjusting the clevis or ball joint used on the servo link.  Thirdly the positioning of servo is more flexible since it doesn't have to be mounted centrally.  Fourthly the sensitivity can be changed by moving the connection point on the 'T' bar closer or further from the pivot point without disturbing the closed loop cables.  Of course the extra connection does introduce the potential of additional slop but I believe the advantages out weigh the disadvantages.   Congratulations on reaching the 1000 posts.

I remember reading an article about building a Lysander from the Denis Bryant plan in the first RCM&E that I bought.  The builder made the reflectors for his landing lights with egg shells. IIRC the eggs werehard boiled, and then the dumpy end was glassed to give a bit of strength.  The egg was then opened and the inside of the shell was spray painted.  Also had the advantage of being able to eat the mould

Hi Andy, I would endorse Timbo's suggestion of the Ashlock connector.  I haven't used any other method since I found them.  The proper crimping tool is a must though.

Thanks to Richard Bond, and and to Shaun Chant for the info and the link to the build thread. The thread is excelent, I've just spent most of the last 2 hours studying it.

Thanks for looking David. I have had the idea for a while now of building a Defiant of about 1:6 scale because I have never seen it modelled outside of the Boulton & Paul Heritage Museum, and like Alex I too had the Airfix kit. I have scoured the net for a plan and never found one, other than an old free flight version. Consequently I have been thinking of attempting to scratch build, which I have found to be quite a daunting prospect having never scratch built before. Any help in finding a plan would be much appreciated before I loose my remaining hair trying to teach myself to use AutoCad.

Alex W.'s report on Scampton shows a photograph, and makes reference to Dennis Richardson's Boulton & Paul Defiant that was built from a plan by Dave Anderson. Do you have any contact details for the plan?