Chris North 3

Its looking fantastic. I am envious of your skills and patience!

Flite test spit fire or racer - both are easy to make from and fly great. I didn't have foam board so made mine from 5mm depron with packing tape on one side. **LINK**

Having read along with this thread, it seems that your ideas are not the problem here Peter but rather the ability to peak your interest enough to commit to the effort required. Perhaps then there is an opportunity here to identify someone (may I say younger without causing offense?) from this thread that is interested in getting into model design that could work with you to do all of the leg-work of getting your ideas on to paper and into the air. You could then act as director and mentor showing how to get the design from brain to drawing board to building board and into the air. While face to face is obviously the best, given all of the communication options available to us these days this could just as easily be done remotely. RCM&E is always calling for ideas for new articles and so perhaps his could be a good follow on to your previous design article. I know Lindsey Todd's articles on Renaissance covered a similar topic but - and no disrespect to Lindsey if he is reading - this was from the point of view of someone who has designed plenty of models and so some of the interesting parts, such as material sizing, were not really explained in much detail. Anyway its just my opinion and worth any more than anybody else's, but it would be interesting to hear the process from both the new designer and the mentor's point of view for the same design activity.

I would recommend the Flitest Spitfire (original speed build) - there is a free plan to download, a build video to follow on line and the plane flies great - I actually learnt to fly with one - plus it has a good all round appeal. Everyone can either build their model at home or you could have a club night build along session. Only suggestion I would make is to add some strength around the wing holding lugs to prevent them from pulling out of the foam in a unscheduled arrival. Ac couple of square of plastic from an old credit card or club card is ideal.

Looking good.

Looking good Geoff. I love the idea of a laser but just not sure I would get much value out of it given the amount if building I'm doing. Following your build

I may be wrong but I understood that Pheonix Sim was part of the Spektrum / Horizon brand as it was always bundled with their transmitters and had a number of the various Spektrum based planes. When they took over Greatplanes they also took over Real Flight sim and so rather than keeping both going they have chosed RF and closed Pheonix. This is why all the Horizon Hobby planes are now on RF instead. I have found RF to be just as good and less graphic intensive

Thanks for the feedback. Sounds as if new is the way to go!

Great looking build and nice detailed build blog. I was thinking about PS2 as a next build but now I see what Peter is working on............

Hello - I have a 4 cell 2000mAh NIMh battery in my 10J transmitter that came when I bought it a number of years ago. For various reasons I have not used the transmitted for around 2 years and now the battery is discharging very quickly. I am using the transmitter on my simulator to get the fingers and thumbs back in action but the transmitter battery only lasts about an hour before I get a low voltage alarm. I have tried charging the battery with the battery charger on the NIMh setting at 2A (=1C). It charges to full in around 10 mins and then discharges very quickly once back in the transmitter. My question is is this pack dead or can it be resurrected? if so how do I go about doing this? Alternatively can I use a lipo as an alternative to the MIMh Tx battery pack and if so what would be a suitable size? Appreciate any advice

Cheating a little as this is not 100% finished as I need to add some wind screens and pilots but its close enough to be ready to maiden. Peter Miller's Ohmen, scratch built using the free plan from October 2018.

So there are a few things left to do but essentially she is ready to fly - although for various reasons that may be a couple of weeks away. Left to do: Adjust throws to correct max values; make up and fit windscreens; make up and fit rear head rest; cut a hole in the base of the hatch for cooling air to escape; find a couple of pilots; make up and add a few decals; buy some locktight and apply to the motor mount and wheel collet screws. I had hoped this would be a quicker build that the Batty but again 6 months seems to be my time frame. Given that I generally have to travel every other week and when at home get to spend an hour a night, 3 or 4 times a week then I am fine with that - plus I find the building relaxing so have no problem how long it takes. Thanks to all those that that gave support and advice along the way and especially to peter for your ongoing support. I'll post another update in a few weeks time or whenever I get the chance to test fly her. Looking forward to it!

So with that it was time to clean up the work room and to take a few photos...and here they are: A couple of arrows to show the CoG position - stole that ideal from your model Peter!

Well this weekend I managed to get a few of the final items complete on the Ohmen. With the rear end in place I was able to mark-up the horn locations for the rudder and elevators and once these were in place i could trim the snakes to length. This took a little juggling but after a bit of adjustment to get the servo arm lined up at the center position - the arm is never at 90 deg to the servo for some reason! With all of the control complete the next task was to cut the undercarriage legs to length as i had previously bent them from a single piece of piano wire. I initially tried using a hack saw but soon realised that the cut off disc on the rotary tool was a much better option! Once cut the wheels were attached and collets installed to keep everything in place. A small flat surface was ground into the wire surface using a sanding disc (again on the rotary tool) to help key the collet grub srew. The under carriage legs were inserted into the locating holes in the base of the fuselage and pushed home. Now I had contemplated buying some double 3mm wire clamps however the postage from the UK was twice the value of the clamp - insignificant I know but its the principle! So instead I used some flat clamps and made up a couple of guide rails from 3mm ply that I covered and then aligned either side of the under carriage legs before drilling some pilot holes and then screwing everything in place. I am sure that 2 clamps would have been more than enough but 3 seemed a better choice with the full width rails. And then all of a the main build was done ....well almost but we'll come on to that shortly!