Peter Christy

Let's face it - most of the miscreants who have been caught and successfully prosecuted were apprehended because they were spectacularly stupid! No disrespect to any Plods out there, but they are busy enough just catching the local roughnecks, and have neither the time nor the experience to catch drone pirates. If they can't be prevented from providing drugs/weapons/who-knows-what-else to high security prisons, then we're all doomed!

Nice to see that the drone registration programme is having the desired effect on the ne'er-do-wells: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwy7x7e37d9o

Bought my wife a new doormat:

And for anyone snowed in: And for those looking forward to balmy summer days:

It might well be if you don't have an internet connection, or an iffy one. Many rural locations down here have little or no connectivity - not even mobile phones - once you get away from the big towns. -- Pete

Well that all sounds good. Its a while since I used Weston fuel, but never had issues with it in the past. However, the only oil I would recommend is Klotz Techniplate (NOT Super-Techniplate! It contains castor oil!). That's what was used in Bekra heli fuels, but they are not so easy to get hold of these days. The only other thing I can think of is that the engine is running lean for some reason. Are you using exhaust pressure? Is all the plumbing secure? OS do seem to like exhaust pressure, but if there are any leaks, they will cause a lean run. More nitro will enable you to run a richer (and hence, cooler) mixture. I normally run 15% in the few OS powered helis I have, but 10% should be adequate. You can't buy anything over 25% in the UK any more as it is held to be an explosive pre-cursor, and can only be purchased if you have an explosives license! That much shouldn't be necessary in our mild climate anyway, especially since most of the UK is not significantly above sea level. The reason to avoid anything containing castor is that heli engines tend to run a fair bit hotter than aeroplane engines anyway, and castor can cause all sorts of issues, even in small quantities! I've seen it turn into coke in silencers, effectively blocking them, although that was after prolonged use. It will varnish up both the inside and outside of the engine though, increasing internal friction and making cooling more difficult. I know there are folks out there that swear by it, and in an aeroplane - with plenty of draught past the engine - you can get away with it. However we are in the 21st century now, and the only place castor oil belongs is in medicine or a museum! (Gets off soap box! 😉 ) I know some fuels contain a splash of castor, but they shouldn't be used in helis! -- Pete

They should be OK. Japan tends to be hotter than the UK in summer, but they also tend to use more nitro! Having said that, 10% should be fine. What fuel is it? More to the point, what oil is in there? Also what plug are you using? What silencer? All these can have an impact on running temperature. I never recall any of my Shuttles overheating, back in the day, but then again, I was running Irvines, not OS. However, my son used to fly his with an OS, and never had any over-heating problems. -- Pete

Geoff: PM sent!

If you want to send me the old one, I can try and flash it here and send it back to you. You might end up with two! 😁 -- Pete

Geoff: You don't say which MPmodule you have, but if you go here: https://downloads.multi-module.org/ there is a handy little selector box to help you. If your module is not shown there (iRange?) you probably want the STM32 4in1 version. You probably also want the EU version, and it also allows you to select your preferred channel order. Hope this helps! P.S. The module type box is scrollable, though it doesn't look like it! P.P.S. You also need the serial version to talk to Frsky or similar transmitters. The PPM version is for old JR Txs. -- Pete

You might well ask! Ours is normally Thursday (early), so we put them out on Wednesday evening. Of course, that was Christmas this year, so we were told collection would be Saturday (yesterday). Of course, that never happened! We're currently running a book on when we might get a collection. Current favourite is next year...!

Geoff: If you need to update the mpmodule, the easiest way to do it is from the transmitter itself. The difficult bit is locating the right version of the firmware! Make sure you get the version where the channel order is the same as you use on your transmitter! As an ex JR man, I always used to make mine follow the old JR order of TAER, and I can't recall what FrSky's default is. This is important, as the module will re-map the channels for protocols that need it - Spektrum, like JR, is TAER, so if your FrSky is set to the FrSky default, you will need the remapping to make the throttle failsafe work on the right channel on some Spektrum gear! Once you have identified and downloaded the right firmware, put it on the transmitter's SD card in the "Firmware" folder. Then if you select that from the system menu on the transmitter, it will ask you if you want to flash the external module and do it for you. Saves a lot of messing around trying to do it from a computer! -- Pete