Danny Fenton

Hi Kelvin, I am hopeless with exams, and got very nervous too. I was lucky my examiner was very fair and put me at ease. The emphasis is on safety, a stat I read recently was that most exam failures are down to not having read the BMFA notes. I read through them twice and that was enough. Don't sweat it you will be fine. the questions are for example: "give two examples of when you should not fly?" and "where should you not fly?" they are fairly sensible really.

Great news Richard really look forward to hearing how the first flight went. Does the glassing technique allow tight contours to be followed? The only bare surface finishing I have done is tissue and dope, but would like to try glass with either resin or poly-c

Crikey that is a worry 40A on 3 cells, (10 volts under load. Thats going to be roughly 400 watts, you are also pushing the battery if its only 12C. All you can do is what you are doing and thats to keep an eye on the temps. The thing people do forget is that props unload tremendously in flight and what seems horrendous static may be fine once the model is moving. This is where the Eagle Tree type inflight monitors come into their own.

We were toying with moving on to the GWS spits and Me 109's after we have destroyed the Formosas LOL again slope soarer versions at £18.99 just move the motors and other debris across LOL

Hi Les, so the Formosa two is not a myth LOL what sort of Wattage are you developing with that set-up? Steve, yep that's our site, though at the moment a trifle damp LOL

Hi Steve, you should dig it out, slap a UH 200 watt motor and one of those UH 1300 batteries and join in, I forecast carnage similar to the Redruth Funfighter display. the standard one comes with a glassfibre spar, we had toyed with carbon but to keep costs down everybody is using the standard glass ones. We also toyed with two aileron servos but the BEC would get very hot on 4 servos and probably burn out. I fly at Greenacres MAC, in Walsall, Midlands. PS they are all different colors, the full spec includes 9g servos x 3. Tempted??

Hi Steve not sure to be honest it was some stuff I was reading on another forum, I have seen ads for the Formosa two but never seen one, I thought they were a myth LOL With a 120Watt setup the wings can be made to flex a fair bit if you are not careful with the elevator, the 220Watt version is going to need for us to be very careful and not pull excessive G's. The guys in the states with the 400watt versions probably have to glass them to take the stress. To me they should be kept cheap and simple £18.99 so it doesn't matter when they break! We are thinking of flying them en-mass, in the evening at the next fun fly, weather permitting, want to join in?

Hi Peter, I agree totally, the airframe doesn't need glassing. But it does look a bit foamie otherwise. Mine floats in nicely at 500g and the only evident damage after three months flying is from contact with other Formosas LOL. If you are pulling 12A then I think you are closer to 120Watt which is what mine had originally and adequate for limited vertical. The six of us with identical machines are being slightly looney LOL you need a lot of power for combat I mean formation.....PS I have heard some of our friends across the pond are fitting 400Watt motors in fully glassed Formosas!!! now that is looney LOLOL

Hi Steve yes its pulling over 20A. I tend to find that with some throttle management and the motor unloading in the air it will be okay, I rarely fly at full chat, I will set the timer on the first flight to 4 minutes and see how warm things are, If I cook the battery then thats a lesson learnt. At £10 a battery its not so bad, we will have to wait and see. With 6 Formosa's all fighting for the same piece of sky throttle management may well be out the window LOL

Hi Richard, I am amazed that you have managed to get away with the weight, I am curious to know how it flies. We now have 6 at our club all in various states of build, we are using identical batteries (United Hobbies 1300ma) and identical 220 watt motors. Mine has come out auw of 500g spot on. It is ready to test fly if the weather would just co-operate, the others are coming along nicely. We aim to fly them all together en-mass, supposed to be formation but it will degenerate into some form of last man flying LOL It flew brilliantly on the 120Watt motor I can't wait to try the upgraded version with 220Watts!

We were going to try this with a slight twist at Our fun flys this year, we were going to have a simulator tent with a couple of laptops runing flight sims so that prior to the public having a go with the models on buddy leads, they had to have a briefing on the simulator. The first fun fly was not well attended by the public so it never got of the ground, but we still want to try it at our other two fun flys, YT and Electric, later in the summer. I think its an excellent idea, provided you attract some non modellers to have a go.

I know what you mean, I am starting to look at Catalinas and Sunderlands LOL My thumbs are starting to seize up!

LOL Indeed, I for one have never had so much as a glitch (ruined it now!) on my PCM9XII with JR Rx's but they are £90 each. Some of the members are using Multiplex Rx's and have had similar success. I do wonder whether the power levels we are allowed to emit are too low. Do you know how the output levels compare to other devices? Mobiles etc??

Hi Timbo, yep its "squarehead" LOL, it is always possible I have the wrong end of the stick(scuse the pun)LOL I was in a group chatting with him at club night on Wednesday and that was my take on what he said. I knew that he had a previous problem but thought that was resolved some time ago. That would explain how they had reported back to him so quickly, which did surprise me. I do hope we find out what is going wrong, whoever is to blame, so that we can make reliable choices. We are all wondering which way to jump.

LOL indeed Scott, let us know how the Gee Bee goes?

Hi Timbo, I am only saying what we found, the fact that the three other models all displayed the same problem using that Tx says to me it isn't a useage problem ie they were switched on in the wrong order. My friend is not daft LOL if it were a model installation issue then it should have shown up in previous succesful flying sessions. The range checks did show control up to 18 feet, then the controls all started moving with a 1 second delay. as the range was increased further then the failsafe cut in. It is most odd. As you have seen the thread elsewhere you are no doubt aware of the reply from Horizon after they tested it? No fault found.

Hi Scott, If its the same Gee Bee a friend has got it flies really well. The threaded rod is a lot stronger than you think (I thought the same LOL). Used singularily I would agree, but combined they are plenty strong enough, we have used them in models with 5KW motors and they are solid. They do give and bend on a serious crash, but I would rather that than damage the motor.

A friend who flies with a Spektrum 2.4 suffered a Tx failure at the weekend which resulted in the model diving into the ground at full tilt. When the transmitter was tried with the other three models he was intending to fly (all fitted with 2.4 Rx) all had lost range, full control only being effective over about 6 yards, so the problem was clearly the Tx not the Rx. Anybody else have any instances of this?

Hi chaps, if you look at the mounting plate (1/4 ply) it mounts on the original bulkhead with allen keys, these line up eith the IC mount. 4 bolts and its back to IC. The threaded rod allows the motor to be positioned EXACTLY where you want it, I never can find a comercial mount that positions the depth just where you want it LOL The one error I did make, is to not use a locking nut against the rear nut (bulkhead side), that way if you take the motor off the settings are not lost. The other thing is the studded rod is less than a pound for a meter from B and Q. If you look really closely you will see that they are not studding in this case but 4 inch long 4mm bolts. The heads are counter sunk and epoxied to the back of the leccy 1/4 ply mount. Good luck with the Gee Bee a challenging model if slowed down too much LOL

Greenacres Model Aero Club is having a power Fun Fly on June 23rd and 24th. For more information please see http://www.greenacresmac.co.uk/ For more information

Until bit "A" doesn't fit bit "B" LOL then I guess the CNCing needs tweeking if its easy then I would do the same as you thats not lazy that's conservation of energy. Sounds fun, I for one would be fascinated to see the process you go through to develop a design, I am still in a cave and take original sections from manufacturers drawings (If I can get them) and then monkey about with scanners and scaling. Painful and laborious task.......

I believe that your BMFA membership covers you insurance wise, provided you are flying with the landowners permission, but I am not certain of that. If you fly at a park where model flying IS NOT permitted then your insurance is invalid. If you have no CE label on your transmitter your insurance is also invalid, (beware buying radio gear from abroad) Some flying sites such as ours require you to be a member of our club, and to have registered with the the local council to fly, that in turn means you must have an A to fly solo. (Soap box time LOL)I appreciate there is a lot of beurocracy nowadays, and I for one hate it, but if we don't play by the rules and something happens we all lose, the councils will stop letting us fly models in parks frequented by the public. I have recently heard of a very experienced flyer who flew toward the crowd at a show and something went wrong, somebody was seriously hurt, the flyer was jailed. If you want the BMFA to back you up you must play by their rules otherwise you really are on your own, and if anything does happen we will all be under very close scrutiny.

Hi Toni, welcome back, my friends birdie 10 is converted to electric flight and goes very well. If you have access to the plans that would be very helpful to Leccyflyer as he is struggling to find the plans.

Hi Tony, I look forward to seeing the Typhoon, sounds like it wont be long. Have you built a prototype and if so how did it fly?

Hi Andy, no you haven't missed anything at all, you are quite right, as soon as the switch is released control is regained.