Jon H

2024-12-01T19:35:54Z

Dont loose too much sleep worrying about running in and hold fire until you are ready to put it in the model. To be honest, i would just put it in the model and not really bother with the bench. In either case, when you do come to run it, make sure you get the thing hot as its no good if its stone cold. Running it slobbering rich at 4000rpm will do the engine no good at all and it will simply go rusty once you are done as it will be full of methanol. Just fire it up on a 14x7apc on 5 nitro 15 synth oil fuel. Leave it at 5000rpm for a few minutes to warm up, then full power and tune it for about 95% of maximum performance (this tuning should take less than 10 second) i would expect to see 8800-9200rpm which is fine, just check the revs after you tune it. Dont use a tach to tune. Set the slow run needle, double check top end...done. Should take about 5 minutes from first start to get all that done. Once set just play with the engine up and down the rev range with a few blasts (5 seconds or so) at full power, some hard accelerations from idle etc. When another 5 or so minutes of this exercise have gone by give it a good 10 second blast at full power and pinch the fuel to stop it.

With that done let it cool, refuel, check tune, fly using full power only in short bursts as before. After 2 or 3 flights go for peak tune....extend the full throttle allowance a bit...and you are done.

There is so much hysteria about running in engines. Its a non event, just tune it up and get on with it, just dont try and run it flat out all day and it will be fine. A maiden flight is stressful enough without also having to worry about an engine that is coughing a wheezing as its miles rich so just tune it up and go for gold using slightly less throttle. If you feel so inclined you could shoot some 2 stroke oil into the crankcase and rockers before you start, but OS are normally pretty good at this. If it were an ASP then it would need some lube for sure.

Friday at 18:23

other than the front door the place seems very draught free which is good. On the garage front the whole house sits on top of 3 garages and i only have control over one of them so there isnt much i can do there. I do plan to chop my garage in half and make a workshop, but i plan to glue the partition wall in with nothing but expanding foam so one swipe with a knife will have it removed. no drilled holes, no need to ask permission 😉

I do wonder though how much of a problem is cold air under the floor? My old place sat on a concrete slab on the ground and that must be worse than a garage as air worse than concrete when it comes to conducting heat.

Friday at 15:21

6 hours ago, Keith Berriman said:

biggest lost was the loft hatch

Mine is pants and currently sealed with tape! Have a call scheduled with a loft installer company on monday to get a quote for a bunch of works. As i have abandoned the hug scheme for the heaters i now i have to reapply and start all over again for the insulation. It will be summer before they do anything so i am just going to go ahead and get what i want done the way i want it.

Friday at 15:18

I was taught to fly by my dad using a flair pup. Its still more or less airworthy but you will need some down aileron on yours to make it happen. I cant work out how its previous owner as managed to mess up the geometry that badly.

No matter what you do with a WWI fighter it will always be a WWI fighter and it will not fly like for favourite F3A job. I dont really know why people try and make all of their models fly exactly the same as i rather enjoy the nuances of each different model.

In any event i would suggest you fix the ailerons to give a more normal approach but dont bother mixing the rudder on the tx, do it manually. You have 2 hands, 2 sticks, and an infinitely programmable computer in your head which can improvise and adapt far better than your tx can. You can also cant do cross control stuff (aileron and rudder in opposite directions) very easily if you mix them on the tx.

I would also like to point out that many people over power these models as they are very draggy and need masses of power fly fly at 'normal' speed. Normal being relative to a wot 4 or even a 46 equipped trainer. The point is, they shouldnt fly that fast. With a gentle headwind they should waft in just over walking pace and will fly very nicely at half throttle on 50 4 stroke (or equivalent) levels of power.

I have a flair pup in a sorry state of repair which i do intend to fix up as soon as i can. It will be getting a 50 class 4 stroke of some kind, most likely an old OS52 i picked up cheap with crash damage. 13x5 prop (maybe more) and it will be lovely.

Friday at 10:11

12 hours ago, martin collins 1 said:

does this look like a 150 ?

Yes, post 2007 150

Thursday at 19:17

I use a blowtorch until it smokes and then give it the terrys chocolate orange treatment.

Thursday at 19:13

The hug scheme seems to be a bust for heating as they just want to install more storage heaters. Its baffling as they offer the same lack of control i already put up with. They did confirm they use 'wool' loft insulation so i am looking into that and will buy my own smarter heaters.

I would like a log burner, but its a nice thing to sit around on a sunday night and not really a 24/7 heating option.

Wednesday at 23:17

2 hours ago, kc said:

To get back to Jon's situation. He implied he might need to move in few years, therefore I reckon any expenditure should not be just for Jon's comfort but should be on heating equipment that will entice future buyers/ achieve best price. A house that doesn't sell easily due to some obvious deficency in heating system or anything may well lose you the house you want to buy. People paying a good price don't want to do anything when they move - they want it all done for them. It could be that something simple like a wood burning stove would make the elec radiators look better. Or it could be that heat pumps will be so desirable in 2030 that it would be worthwhile installing one.

Given the leasehold nature of the place i cant really do anything that involves cutting holes in the building. That rules out solar, heat pumps, wood stoves (they are nice), and even a gas boiler. If i was going to cut holes and go through all the faff of the work, the permissions from the lease people, and the costs, i would simply install a gas combi boiler as i could then bin the water tank and gain myself another cupboard, and its a system that i know will work 100%. As it is, i dont really think that is an option so i think i am going to stick to plan A and get a hold of those ceramic radiators. They give me the controls i need (timers/thermostats/smart), wont break the bank to buy/install and will be a big upgrade.

I am loosing interest in the grant people as they are simply too slow. Its cold now (-5 tonight apparently), and i dont want to be cold. My improvised oil filled rads can handle down to about 5c outside but once below freezing the place is cold. Their combined wattage is higher than the rads i plan to buy but they lack the surface area to do anything with it so they thermal trip and shut off pretty quickly. The best i can manage this evening is 18c, although its gradually dropping even with the rads on. 17.8c is all we have right now. Unfortunately i need a solution today so cant really mess about waiting for the perfect plan or for a free handout. Had a moved in back in august as planned it would have been another story, but here we are. Also it seems from every interaction i have had with hug they just want to flog me a heat pump. I dont want a heat pump so it might not be worth freezing myself while i wait for them to get back to me.

November 24

1 hour ago, Paul De Tourtoulon said:

I don't want to chop my two lovely trees

They are doing more for climate change than the solar panels anyway 😛

November 24

2 hours ago, RottenRow said:

This is the HUG scheme

Yep, thats the one i am involved with too. They do seem to be pushing heat pumps hard but its not going to work for me as i they would need to rip the whole house apart to fit it all. If im going to go through that i will just get a gas boiler fitted as i know it will work.

We will see what happens though. My EPC is a D, but they are coming round at some point for a look see anyway as they need to check for themselves exactly what the state of play is.

4 hours ago, Paul De Tourtoulon said:

this is a rainy winter day and living on the side of a hill and two big pines covering the panel

Which is exactly when you need the thing to give you power...and it cant.

November 23

i dont wear gloves when flying and instead use a transmitter mit/glove thing. It makes a big difference but i do find it somewhat distracting to fly with so i tend to fly on the slightly more conservative side when using it.

November 23

1 hour ago, Martin Dance 1 said:

As an afterthought and firmly locking the stable door after the horse has bolted. Did you buy rads with built in timers? If not buy a couple of time switches Using a timed programme should make your temporary solution pretty efficient.

no i went with a simple one as i manually turn everything off when i am not at home. I simply dont trust them as these oil filled rads are not really intended for this sort of use. If i get the ceramic jobbies i linked to at the start it will be different as they are designed for 24/7 operation and will be much safer than a 30 quid job from toolstation.

November 23

That isnt a great advert for solar. I know its winter and cloudy, but less than 6% of your usage is a bit of a waste of time.

I did make one discovery that will help. Apparently when decorating i unlatched one of the windows to get the handle out of the way while painting. It seems i never locked it again so one very large window was just cracked open whenever the wind blew on it. I only noticed as the gusty weather today was enough for the blind to move in the wind.

I also went and bought a cheap 2kw oil filled rad so i have something i can leave on over night. This came after a little experiment last night where i got both the living room and bedroom up to 20c before going to bed. I then closed the door at the top of the stairs (normally open to allow heat in from the heater at the bottom of the stairs) and closed the door to the bedroom, leaving the oil filled rad in there in 800w mode over night.

The result? I awoke to my bedroom being 19c, which was fine, but the living room was down to 14.3. Interestingly, this was 2c warmer than it was with the door open and the heat from the storage heater 'helping'. It seems that adding another external wall to the picture offsets any assistance from the useless storage heater.

Anyway i got it all back up to 20c, went out to buy the 2nd rad, and came home to find the room at 17.8. Put the new rad on, 800w setting, and its all ticking along at 19.5c in here with the heater ticking on and off using its internal thermostat.

Not ideal, but its going to buy me time and my curtain bits all arrive on monday so we can get them installed monday evening with a bit of luck.

Bruce, further to your points yesterday my comments about the floors not being cold might be misleading as my old place had very cold floors as it was just a concrete slab below the carpet. i will eventually be replacing the carpet here as its a bit tired and not my preferred colour. I know from when i was painting that the underlay is very much past its best and if you scrunch it up it all crumbles apart. I assume new carpet with a modern underlay would offer decent insulation from below?

November 22

Thanks for your inputs Bruce.

I am not sure exactly where the losses are. Certainly the windows are an issue (i can feel a cold gale down my neck as i type), and my curtains are WIP, but so far i have not noticed the floors being especially cold. I dont know exactly how the place is built, only that the ceiling in my garage at least seems to be plasterboard. What is between there and my floor i have no idea. Its reasonably sound insulated though as i can hardly hear anything when one of the other garage doors is opened under my feet. I feel it more than hear it so i guess that bodes well?

When it comes to fire rating for the garages, one thing i did look into was if the other two have power (they dont) as i didnt fancy sitting on top of someones charging EV when it decides to ignite. Beyond that i was unable to find any details.

Loft insulation is probably 300mm in some places but not all. Some areas are boarded so its down to the thickness of the timbers. I would guess 4 or 5 inches? something like that. My boss put me on to some little feet you can use to raise the boards up to allow additional insulation. Depending what the grant people offer me i may forget them and employ someone to sort it all out. They can fix the current crappy loft hatch, update the insulation, board it for storage, and i might even get another loft hatch stuck in as well. Its a cost, but i should get some of it back when it comes to property value later when i move on.

Damp seems to be no bother. Its one thing i am really pleased with and i have always monitored humidity because of my guitars. My old place was a struggle to keep below 70% and i ran a dehumidifier every day for about 5 hours to drag it down to 58-62%. Here, after a week drying the place (it was empty for several months before i moved in) and then again drying it after painting i havent touched the dehumidifier since. Now its sitting in the 45-55% range all on its own, which is perfect for guitar storage!

November 22

6 minutes ago, kc said:

Surely you are not admitting the modern generations are less tough than my generation!

Seriously if your house does have a flue then make sure it is still in working order just in case .........those of us who can remember power cuts ( 3 hours a night often 6pm to 9pm in 1971 ) wouldn't want to have been without a fireplace. Russia problems could be worse than a miners strike!

built around 99/2000 so no flue im afraid. no idea why there is no gas in this place. Other houses nearby have it

November 22

2 minutes ago, kc said:

We have all got used to living like lords and heating the whole house!

true, but one consideration i have not mentioned is that my assortment of acoustic guitars will not be happy in wildly fluctuating temperature. Improper storage can be very damaging to musical instruments and while none of the guitars i have are worth a life changing amount, i wouldnt want to be replacing them due to damage suffered through improper storage.

Also...its no longer 1950 (we are closer to 2050!!), we dont have open fires and i dont want to be cold.

November 22

1 hour ago, Paul De Tourtoulon said:

Won't something like this on each radiator would do the job ?.

https://www.amazon.fr/Thermostat-Intelligent-Programmable-Temperature-programmable/dp/B0BTBCFLCM

all of the existing equipment is not worth throwing money at. near £150 for the thermostats, probably £200 for an electrician to fit them and then i am still left with heating which is not man enough for the job and wont function as i need. The living room fan heater can only be turned on manually by the remote or buttons on the top, so if the thermostat turns it off thats it, there is no coming back unless its manually activated. The bedroom convector hits its thermal trip almost immediately and shuts down giving very little in the way of heat so even with a thermostat its still useless. Same with the 150w bathroom radiator. I accidentally left it on all day and the room is tepid at best. Hardly warm at all.

The current heaters are all scrap and not worth considering. I decided before i even moved in that It was time to abandon them and move on. The £300 spent on thermostats will be better spent on curtains, a smarter heater or loft insulation.

I knew the heating would all need to be replaced when i bought the place i just i didnt anticipate having to do it so soon after moving in. I put my offer in back in april, then planned to move in by august at worst and have time to go through everything before the cold weather came. Alas my buyers solicitors dragged things out for months and i only got in 5 weeks ago so i have lost my thinking time as a result.

It seems the general consensus is to do more to insulate the loft, beware of spray foam, forget heat pumps, and stick to my plan of ceramic/oil radiators with smarter control (perhaps fuelled by octopus energy).

As i was telling a friend earlier, i can live with expensive and warm, i can probably live with cheap but cold, but what i cant live with is expensive and cold and that is where i am at the moment. If i can keep the joint warm and the bills are in the 150-200 range i can live with that. Its sub optimal, but i can live with it. a £200 bill and only 11c to show for it...no, that is not acceptable.

November 22

4 hours ago, kc said:

I am going to say that cutting down on draughts is a worthwhile way to save on heating. Check the skirting board to floor board/carpet for gaps as well as windows. But of course then you need to make sure that vapour from showers etc is vented in some way to avoid mould.

As for leasehold look into whether you can aquire the freehold - perhaps in conjunction with other owners. Law is changing on this. Worth seeing Government website for current info.

Yep, windows and the front door are this weekends mission. I need to get some curtains, and adjust the front door lock thing so it seals better. Currently i can see daylight round the door so that is no good.

The freehold...ehhh if this was my forever home then i would consider it, but its a load of agro i just dont need. Also the house/flat sits on top of 3 garages. 1 is mine, the others arent. So if i own the freehold i need to then lease the garages back to their owners and....im bored already. I am not a property magnate and i just cant be dealing with the hassle given the configuration of the block. If it was a freestanding house, you bet i would be on that.

Frank...yea cheers mate, forgive me if i dont jump on your suggestion though 😛

1 hour ago, Martin Dance 1 said:

it seems you need to fit some form of smart controls to your existing heating system

My current heating is so dumb there is no way i can make it smarter. The heater in the living room has one button...on. Thats it. A manual rocker switch to turn it on, then a remote with one button to turn on the pretty faux fire effect, one button for 900w mode, and one button for 1800w mode. Thats it, no thermostat, nothing. Its a glorified fan heater and its going to be deleted at the first opportunity.

AT the bottom of the stairs is the useless storage heater. That is timed automatically to the dual rate meter and has dials on it which are fun to play with but do not really make any difference to anything. I am far from convinced its not broken if i am honest.

The bedroom convector has a manual rocker switch on the wall....and thats it. The timer function wont work as the dial no longer spins, the little light to say its on is broken, the door covering the controls has fallen off....Its junk and not worth spending a penny on. I dont even turn it on now as the oil filled portable rad out performs it so i just use that.

The final heating is the 150w heated towel rail in the bathroom. The person who fitted it was clearly a bright spark (not) as they bolted it to the wall and instead of getting an electrician to wire it up with a nice bathroom safe junction box deal they just drilled a hole through the wall into the airing cupboard behind and wired it into an old light switch....this is also going to be deleted asap.

November 22

I have not ruled out getting a gas combi boiler fitted, but it's mega expense and upheaval to fit all the plumbing and radiators so I need to consider it carefully.

I knew the place would be expensive to run with all electric heating, but currently it's worse than it should be due to the lack of control.

While I'm sure insulation can be improved, the main problem is the place is always cold. With the heating on for barely 4 hours a day it only ever heats the air and not the rest of the building. As a result temperature drops like a stone the moment you turn everything off. When I was in the house all day working/decorating the temperature drop was nowhere near as bad. Now, back at work, every day I loose a degree from my maximum and then as a result loose another off the bottom. Last night I got in from work and the place was 11c, fired everything up for 2 hours and got it back to 19, went to the pub at half 8, home at 1 to find we were back to 12c. Stuck the oil filled rad on in the bedroom and woke up to find it at 17c and fairly comfortable. The living room was still at 12 despite the efforts of the useless storage heater.

November 21

Thanks all for the input.

Some more details.

The house is a 1999/2000 era build so the insulation is decent but could be better i am sure. I was chatting with my boss about it and he gave me some info on the modern loft insulation regs and there is room for improvement for sure. Its double glazed but i know its a bit old so perhaps that needs attention. EPC score was D due mostly to the manual nature of everything.

Spray foam, thanks for the heads up. I did hear something about that on the news etc now you mention it so i will be sure to ask about it. If they offer i will just decline.

Heat pumps are out of the question as its a leasehold place and i dont want to be cutting it all apart. I also just painted it and im not doing that again before i have to! I also didnt want one anyway for the reasons some have mentioned.

Buy a new house... i have only lived here 5 weeks after 7 of the most stressful months of my life trying to get the move to go through. The new house/job combo is the culmination of a years work to try and close out a very difficult few years. Im here for 3-5 years i suspect, unless i find a lady friend first...so 3-5 as thats never going to happen.

That panel heater might work well in the bathroom as the current 150w heated towel rail is utterly useless and the only other heating in there is a fixed throttle electric heater which is not ideal.

The haverland heaters look similar to the one i was already looking at. Something else to consider and a track record of reliability is reassuring.

Ron what is the score with the diesel heater? I assume you need some sort of flue for the fumes etc?

I have received an email from the energy grant people and they are going to come take a look around. Heat pumps seem to be their favoured option, but you would almost need to knock the place down and start again to fit one so they can forget that idea.

Forgot to say, solar is also not going to work as only one side of the roof sees sunlight and even then its only for half the day. Also being leasehold i cant touch the building itself without getting permissions, paying a fee etc. 😞

November 20

Looking for insights from the masses.

I have recently moved house and my new abode has utterly awful electric heating which i am looking to upgrade.

The place is a coach house, so 3 garages at ground level (one is mine! Yaay!!) and then the house/flat plonked on top with a stair case up the side and garden out the back. I have one useless storage heater at the bottom of the stairs, a fake fireplace thing in the living room (aka an 1800w blow heater) and a completely useless 750w convector heater in the bedroom which i have abandoned in favour of a cheap oil filled rad as a stopgap solution. There is no gas in the property at all, everything is electric.

My main issues are i have no temperature or timing control over any of the heating, its all manual on/off with no thermostatic control. This means i cant leave any of it running when asleep or out. As a result my 19'c room at bed time is about 16 by the morning and 11'c by the time i get home from work. Naturally, its very inefficient to then try and drag it back up to 19 or 20c only for it to go stone cold again by the next evening so some upgrades are required.

I have my eye on some ceramic core smart (or at least not dumb) radiators (Here), but was wondering if anyone had experience with these or similar, or had a better option?

I would also be interested in views on the best energy supplier etc. I have a dual rate meter and all that jazz so i get some cheaper electric over night, but its the day that seems to be the issue on the finances. My first months bill was near £200 for electric 😞 Im in for 49p a day line rental, 30p/kwh day and 14p night with my current supplier.

I am also waiting to hear back from a mob that offer grants for home efficiency upgrades as i should qualify. They can pay for new more efficient heaters, more insulation etc which is great...But im keen to get on with it so if i just have to pay out of pocket i will.

I dont like being cold, and i dont like being skint...but with my current setup i am both so something has to change.

If anyone has views on any of this im interested to hear them.

November 20

11 hours ago, David Davis said:

It depends upon the aircraft

entirely. The right prop is the one that is right for the model and engine together.

November 19

In theory i have 13 airworthy models but all of them need some form of inspection/maintenance as i have flown maybe 3 times all year and they will all need some attention before i fly again.

November 17

About a year ago through pure chance i was reunited with my old moonraker. Its in a very sorry state, but i will repair it eventually.

November 13

8 hours ago, Nigel Dell said:

I seem to remember, maybe badly, the reason for doing the nose up test was control line models to ensure the engine went from ‘4 stroking’ to ‘2 stroking’ as the term used at the time basically checking the engine would lean out in a climb.

control line is another story as they have to contend with significant centrifugal forces which rc does not. In the tried and true 'we have always done it this way' modeller thinking this was carried over to rc somewhat needlessly.

1 hour ago, CorradoMatt said:

I can't see how the nose up test is "utterly pointless" and i would be interested to understand your reasoning why?

the conventional wisdom is that the nose up test simulates the engine leaning out in flight and tests to see if the state of tune will tolerate this. Its a great theory...but its wrong.

Engines go rich in flight as they unload due to the model moving forward. This will easily cover any gravitational impact of doing a loop or other climb. Engines with tuned pipes or those that see massive rpm changes (racing engines etc) are different, but bog stock fixed wing engines in the normal breadth of models will go slightly rich in flight and the whole nose up thing is utterly pointless.

The other reason for the nose up test was to cover off incorrect tank placement. Most tanks are installed too high and so the needle is set leaner than it should be in terms of number of turns open as gravity is helping the fuel into the engine while on the ground with a full tank. Fast forward 10 minutes and the tank level is low, gravity is against the engine now and then you decide to do a loop. This combination is beyond the tolerance of the engine and so it stops with a lean cut. The nose up test forces you to tune the engine slight rich and so it seems like the nose up test fixes this issue.

The problem is, it is not actually fixing the problem and just masks it. Fuel is wasted, models are messier, and its just the wrong way to fix it. if the tank was in the right place you wouldnt have to do any of it. Top of the tank, centre of the carb. Line them up, tune for peak performance and all will be well.

This is a very laboured point at this stage but i have not done a nose up in nearly 20 years and have no reliability concerns with any of my models.

Another laboured point, but i would also challenge anyone to safely nose up test an 82 inch 23lb warbird with a 60cc engine howling away at the front. The idea of waving a model like that around in the pits is just ridiculous.

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