Tony Harrison 2

Posted by G1940 on 06/12/2019 15:11:52: ...Both my DB Moths (58" ws) are on 4S 4AH LiPos with Emax motors. Geoff I have one of those part-built, to be completed (I hope!) some time in the next couple of years. Interested in what you say. I wonder if you've posted here in the past about your DB Moths? I could use some tips. rgds Tony

Posted by Doc Marten on 04/01/2020 11:22:22: Have you looked at Conoflex blanks Tony? I used to use slow setting epoxy on the bindings and waft a lighter flame around them to expel the bubbles. Hello Doc - hadn't heard the name "Conoflex" in years but I see they're still going (someone needs to modernise and edit their website, badly!). In the 70s & 80s they were known for very good beach/surf rods, but they never made the sort of short (six or seven foot) high-grade carbon blanks on which I build casting rods. Never used your lighter-flame trick but I'll keep it in mind. rgds Tony

Posted by Bruce Collinson on 03/01/2020 21:03:17: Tony, Pacer comes in small quantities, down to 2 fl ozs and is well stocked in many model shops, and I think I’ve seen it in tackle shops too. Zap by another name. Don has a point. If hypothetically you mixed a batch (using the Redding scales, I trust), used half of it either thinned (I use meths but now I’m circumspect) or heated a little to make it runnier, you could soak it into the wraps, let it go off which it will a little quicker having been warmed, fridge the other half, warm it to room temp and use it full strength as the gloss coat. Worth a try? My scales are PACT. Had them for maybe 25 yrs plus. The first set arrived completely inert. I spoke to their customer services who said, what the hell has your postal service done to my scales? but replaced them without quibble. Back in my club level competitive days I was loading 300 .38 wadcutters a week and came to rely on them absolutely. I did check calibration quite regularly but found a Dillon 4 stage press to be very accurate even at a rate of knots. When the state took my pistols away (but we’re all much safer ...) and I started rifle shooting, I weighed every charge which was hardly a chore with the PACT scales. Back to the thread, as it were, Z Poxy (Pacer) finishing resin would do it, I’m sure. I assume you use an electric rotating device whilst applying and drying? At the Hardy Bros factory 30 years ago, when rods were still made in Alnwick including the blanks, we saw racks of 30 odd rods being coated up on one large rotating rack. Anyway, good luck with it. And finally, on a trip to my son in Los Angeles, I had a .45 and 100 reloads and was hitting a half size pig silhouette at 45 yards, once I worked out how far off the sights were. The sand bed backstop helped. Like riding a bike .... BTC Thanks Bruce - I'll look at Pacer again. Your suggestion about double coating is worth trying, too. I know the PACT brand, recall it's well known for handloading scales. Re presses, I never owned a progressive, only ever had two RCBS single-stage presses even for loading lots of .45ACP when I used to shoot Practical Pistol. You don't say what breed of .45 you used in LA - Long Colt, ACP... I had four 1911s in succession, best was a Series 70, miss them dearly. As you say, we are of course far safer now, no gun crime whatsoever, no knife crime either... Yes, I have a very simple but effective rod-rotating setup bought on Ebay from a guy in the US who makes them - works perfectly well. You mention blanks - 30-40 years ago one could find a limited selection of decent shortish blanks suitable for (bait)casting rods, which are what I build, but now I have to buy abroad - latest purchase is a CTS 6' blank from NZ, excellent quality. rgds Tony - I'll try Z-Poxy.

Posted by Martin McIntosh on 03/01/2020 20:45:33: Tony, You can buy it in 1l cans and by weight is much cheaper than Tufkote was. You could maybe share it out between mates. It is the stuff used for public house bar tops I am told so that these could be used very soon after application. The other thing I use a lot these days on scale models is Dulux Diamond Glaze in satin. Water down 5% and it brushes on quite well. Not totally fuel proof but two or three coats will cope with 5% nitro just about. OK Martin, but even one litre is a huge quantity considering my requirements. I looked up Dulux Diamond Glaze, and on the Dulux website it lists the smallest at one litre - "from £34..." Prepared to pay rather less than half that, for something very high quality which meets my requirements exactly. Still, I'll see if any chums need some Sadolin. rgds Tony

Posted by Martin McIntosh on 03/01/2020 10:57:33: Mick Reeves sells epoxy coating but only in minute jars. It made a good job of my Stampe cowl when sprayed on but would cost an arm and a leg to do a whole model. It is thinned with cellulose. Anyway, what`s wrong with the Sadolin product I suggested above? Martin, thanks for the tip - will check the Mick Reeves site. I did look up Sadolin PV67 but since it's designed to be used for floors, it seems to be sold only in large volumes - far too much for me to get through in years, and expensive! rgds Tony

Posted by Bruce Collinson on 02/01/2020 20:33:26: Tony, Have you tried epoxy resin at an appropriate viscosity? Good quality, e.g. Pacer, accurately mixed with cheapo digital scales and probably diluted a little using alcohol? I recalled that traditionally, guide whippings were two-coated anyway, a thinner coat for the mechanical fixing/soaking the thread, then a second coat for gloss/cosmetics. Long tome since I had to do one however. BTC Thanks Bruce - no, haven't had any common or garden epoxy resin since I built a canoe years ago. I'd have assumed it was available only in fairly large volumes such as I bought for my canoe - and I wouldn't have relied on it to stay wholly clear without discolouration. But it's an interesting idea - by "alcohol" do you mean perhaps isopropyl? Yes, I generally use a colour preserver (thin stuff) even on top of NCP type thread, just to tack it all together, prior to a top coat of hard gloss epoxy/polymer. Looked around and found Rustin's, a 250ml pack on Amazon for under £11 - considerably cheaper than one can pay for a very much smaller quantity of special coating stuff sold for guide wraps! Might go for that, though not until I've looked at the Pacer stuff you mention. rgds Tony ps On the "Epoxy" thread I see you mention digital scales again - for handloading ammo. I've loaded many thousands of rounds in various handgun and rifle chamberings, tried some good digital scales - and found them unreliable, a bit flaky. I went back to a really good manual balance scale, a Redding custom-tuned by a guy in the US. Edited By Tony Harrison 2 on 02/01/2020 21:46:44

Very interested in these materials, always looking for a cheaper alternative: I want a very tough, clear coating that levels well, isn't too thick but will often do with a single coat, has a reasonable working time of a few minutes, and doesn't discolour over a period of years... It's actually for coating the nylon-thread wraps holding fishing rod guides in place. There are a number of proprietary products I've tried over the past 40 years or so, but they're sold in tiny quantities, shelf life is poor, and dealers charge shockingly high prices for the very small containers... Which of the products mentioned here would you recommend as having the qualities I mention? Thanks, Tony ps Interested to see the mention of Rustin's Plastic Coating, didn't know it was still around - my late dad used to swear by it for covering the small pieces of furniture he built.

Posted by Carl Robinson on 25/12/2019 22:07:43: Thanks everyone. The nearest two clubs to me are Blackdown and East Devon. I will have a look at both. I dont plan to buy anything yet until I have a look and hopefully have a try first. I like the idea of eventually getting a suitable trainer and getting a balsa kit to cut my teeth on building something. Carl, I know nothing of the clubs you mention, hope they prove worthwhile. I was in the same situation a very few years ago, so allow me a few comments. Probably like other clubs & societies (I've belonged to quite a few, helped to run several), r/c model aircraft clubs vary hugely in character. I visited some to check them out. Don't know your own preferences, but I am averse to heavy discipline! I value expertise and common sense health & safety (etc) combined with friendliness and a fairly laid-back atmosphere. One club I visited locally (Devon) was very well run, great facility, but the way tuition was arranged, and flying conducted, ruled it out for me - all too rigid, heavily procedural, hierarchical and so on. At the other end of the scale I visited (and briefly joined) a club with virtually no organisation - a bit too lax, though I preferred that one to the first... You'll find a variety of approaches to tuition for newbies, too, with most clubs (not all, some make it clear they don't encourage newcomers...) holding out the possibility of tuition, though in some cases this is more optimistic than realistic! With one or two clubs I found it all but impossible to arrange someone to tutor me at a mutually convenient time & date, plus in this country the weather conspires to muck up the best laid plans: my best flying and most reliable, helpful tuition has been in France where my club has a big site and the better weather (well, spring to autumn) permits visits to be scheduled far more reliably Probably your best bet is to suppress your personal tastes and just go for the club that offers you the best tuition - full stop. When you've learned to fly properly you can shop around for a club that fits your personal tastes and inclinations and character. It's what I should have done. Re those balsa kits, I understand your desire to get into that! Wanting to renew my youthful interest in building traditionally constructed kits was a key motivation for me too. I built a couple, and they flew very well under supervision - clearly my building skills hadn't disappeared. But when you have a go solo and crash one badly, it's upsetting... I'd advise buying an easy-flying foamie such as the Bixler 2, cheap replacement fuselage/wings if you do crash badly. Check it out. You'll find the right club, I'm sure. Took me a while but I belong to two, a medium sized club in France (owns its own large site with great facilities, good social life too with regular barbecues, quite laid back); and a very small informal English club of like-minded souls, friendly and co-operative. Best of luck, Tony

Posted by Marc Bonner on 23/12/2019 22:04:36: Where can I get some epoxy glue without a trip to the model shop tomorrow???? I prefer to buy my Araldite (which I prefer to other brands, used it for many years) from the long established hardware shop in town, costs a little more but I value this shop. Otherwise, you can find it on Ebay, often discounted. rgds Tony

Posted by Paul Marsh on 23/12/2019 18:38:24: If you delete your cookies, or log in on another computer, the discount will come up again. Every time you log in, cookies are stored within your browser, so for the first time, no search before, and the 10% discount came up, 2nd search, and the cookies were flagged as such and reduced to 5%, and so on. I find it works the other way around, on certain retail websites: the cookies note your visit, you don't buy, return later - and the price is reduced a bit, to encourage you to buy this time... Seems to be like this on travel (rail, air, car hire etc) websites. Easiest way to avoid cookie (and other) recognition is to use a VPN and change locations; the Opera browser very usefully includes a VPN, and it's free. rgds Tony

Gentlemen, thanks for your advice. After the alarming experience of full throttle on switching off my TX I removed the prop, as suggested! Puzzled by Brian's reference to "throttle calibrate" but will do that. Re flaps, there aren't any and I certainly wouldn't want them at all, but I've seen Internet references to flaps on the Bixler 2 - I suspect this model has slightly different names in different markets, certainly no flaps on my model clearly described on the box (new this year) as "Bixler v2". I shall try swapping, first, the aileron & rudder connections; and Colin's suggestion of substituting another RX is a good idea, will remove a AR400 from another model and try that. Not sure David's suggestion of "Mode 2" is applicable: I've heard of these different modes but not sure my basic Spektrum Dx6i has a switchable facility for this. rgds Tony

Posted by Peter Christy on 21/12/2019 12:26:02: ...I normally avoid Currys and PC World like the plague,....Pete Hi Peter. Very wise to avoid the possibility of a scam! They're so frequent now... But re your mention of Currys, a couple of years ago they had a cooker that seemed to fit my aged mother's requirements - this was her nearest branch at Botley, Oxford. Naturally I wanted to take her there to see the item, wouldn't dream of buying a thing like that online. It turned out, after various time consuming phone calls, that it's not possible to phone an individual branch to make sure an items is in stock, before driving ten miles to visit! They do not release the branch numbers! We bought instead from an independent local dealer, good price + service. I wrote directly to Currys HQ to tell them what I thought of their weird policy. I too avoid Currys and PC World like the plague. Best, Tony

Bought a new Bixler 2 earlier this year, after the disappointments of crashing lovingly constructed traditional model kits... Assembly is very simple: I've built two planes so far, each of which flies very well (under close guidance from experienced chums) so I know the basics. But I have problems getting this Bixler going. It was complete except for a battery and RX: I bought a new Spektrum AR410 from Stan Yeo my regular supplier, liked the idea of an internal antenna, used their 400 models previously. This matches my Spektrum Dx6i radio. Servo leads are all connected into the correct bits of the RX (unmarked! had to check online, but all are in the right sockets). Throttle, elevator and rudder all work OK, got them centred; I know one should disconnect the battery first when shutting down, but I've tried powering off the radio first - which causes the throttle to go full on! I hear there's some kind of "failsafe" for this but no idea what that might be... Main problem is the ailerons do nothing: slight noises from within, but no movement. Tried swapping over the two aileron leads inside the fuselage, changing polarity on the RX connection - no improvement. Faulty kit, or am I failing to do something obvious? Stan says he's had no AR410s returned, and they seem well thought of. BTW it's confusing when surfing the Net for info since there are references to the Bixler 2 having flaps - mine just has ailerons. Thanks - Tony

Posted by Engine Doctor on 11/12/2019 13:24:52: You could also try Rapid RC Justin keeps a good range of lipos in stock . Followed your link since I need a couple of LiPos - the Rapid site is one of those amateurish jobs with not terribly good navigation, so I gave up and went back to Al's Hobbies. Good site, products, service IME.

Couple of people here have recommended the Bixler 1.1 as being safe & easy to fly, and I am most probably going to take their advice. Quite likely to attempt this on my own - believe me, I have good reasons for not having found it as easy as some suggest to just join a club and, bingo, get flying tuition! Things happen, and my lifestyle is not as stable as it might be. If the Bixler doesn't work out I'll look around for paid-for tuition. Great advice from many people, thanks - no, I haven't been trying to run before I could walk, certainly not trying to fly Spitfires etc, just had complicated and sometimes unfortunate circumstances. I'll get there in the end. Regards, Tony

N.Wales? Rains even more than in Devon, where I spend much of the year. The Lake District? I once went camping in Wester Ross, got rained out, returned south to near Kendal - where it was even wetter. Wettest place I ever visited... Here in my part of S.France it was at least 28 degrees today, same forecast for tomorrow, next Sunday 30 - with no rain. My kind of weather.

Posted by Wingman on 09/05/2019 10:38:04: ... When it came to model aircraft flying (got bored with helicopters!) I am self-taught - I just threw money at it until I stopped crashing! I've thrown probably too much money at it so far, but haven't stopped crashing! Beginning to wonder if I should throw money at something else more productive, like fishing... Thing is, I got back into this game in large part because I like building, and the two planes I've built so far were very rewarding, and each flew well under supervision. Just don't want to keep building, without flying them too. Take your point about paid tuition, thanks. rgds Tony

Grateful for the wealth of helpful advice & support here, and since I cannot reply individually, let me explain briefly. My difficulties in learning to fly are self-induced. First, I move between England and France – I spend much of the year’s best flying weather in the latter. In England, I’ve belonged to 2-3 smaller clubs; I looked around and didn’t like the larger, more intensively organised clubs: they would have offered me very organised tuition, but I found them a bit too organised, disciplined etc for my liking. And through no fault of theirs, very helpful people & friends (highly experienced, generous with their time, good instructors) were unable to continue lessons I started with them – I’m talking for instance about their having to move house, and in one case die… Aggravated of course by my confusing habit of switching countries a few times each year. Percy, those are the “difficulties”. So, Jon wonders why I “cant fly and yet are attempting solo flights” – it’s because in the absence of an instructor, and because my light kit-built high-wing trainer (Carl Goldberg 54” span Mirage 550, not a Spitfire!) has flown a couple of times very nicely under supervision, and because I fitted an electronic stabiliser, and it was a very calm sunny day, I thought I’d have a go. Did some taxying trials first (long smooth airstrip) then sort of lifted off naturally but things went pear-shaped. My other self-built plane is an old electric glider, very gentle and stable but which I’ve also managed to crash/damage slightly – now repaired – since I commit basic errors such as not gaining enough height initially, over controlling, getting disorientated… Thanks for the advice about paid tuition. Will continue to consider the possibility, and report back. Best, Tony

Thanks chaps, very helpful. I'll look into Picasim further, and/or get hold of Phoenix - which I believe is discontinued but still obtainable from s/h sources. Best, Tony

There always seem to be one or two ads in the aero-modelling mags for commercial tuition in r/c flying, never contacted any of them but I wonder if anyone has tried this and can recommend a teacher in my area[s]? Yes, I know all about joining a club for instruction, tried that more than once, currently a member of two, but there are difficulties - not to do with any reluctance on my part to follow instructions, I hasten to add! Got interested again in model aviation a few years ago but I still can't fly, very frustrating - and crashing lovingly-constructed (or expensively bought) planes when attampting solo flight is a bit depressing. Paying for lessons might be cost effective. rgds Tony

After yet another botched attempt at flying solo*, rather than give up in disgust and do knitting or yoga instead, perhaps I should give flight sims another try. I had a version of Phoenix a while back, think I got it on Ebay, but never really liked it, very clunky graphics. Just looked at the Picasim site, free download I see but not sure if it works with a TX (mine's a Spektrum Dx6i) or mouse. Any suggestions about this or an alternative? *My few flights are measured in seconds before an ignominious bump or catastrophic vertical plunge: yesterday's lasted a teeny bit longer before my docile (it's flown a couple of times under supervision), lightweight high-wing trainer went out of control and dived into the ground, demolishing its nose plus some other minor damage. Hope the motor's ok.

Posted by Caveman on 27/04/2019 23:01:49: Tony, what you have appears to be a 'New A3' The manual is available here **LINK** See the 5th and 6th items down, NewA3 and NewA3L The difference between the two is the flight modes they provide, but they both like exactly like yours. Presumably you know which functions your is supposed to have (?). Hope that helps. Cheers GDB Yes it does - a lot! Many thanks, and well done for finding that. My own searches just turned up what I must now think of as the "old" A3V2. Seems eccentric of them (or maybe just Chinese) to give the very different new model the same designation as the old one... Yes, I'm OK on the functions, and I trust that with these correct instructions I'll get to grips with the stabiliser. Thanks again - Tony

Posted by Denis Watkins on 27/04/2019 18:24:15: The Gismo Tony, smooths out any voltage drops, e.g. you operate 3 servos simultaneously at the end of the day with a low battery, then the capacitor discharges to get over the momentary loss, so plug into a spare channel or Y lead Denis, many thanks I understand. Not sure whether any special free channel might be better than another, but I'll experiment. Rgds Tony

Initial attempts at installing this stabiliser have been foild by dodgy instructions, definite mismatch between instructions and the item, and possibly my stupidity. I am technically literate, honestly! But the chief problem is that the instructions/installation guide on the Hobbyeagle site quite clearly refer to a model that might be called the A3 V2, but is NOT the same in layout or features as my A3 V2... And it would help if I knew what on earth that gizmo is alongside - the battery or capacitor or whatever, with the 2-conductor lead to a servo type plug. The guide I downloaded shows a jumper-type system for setting modes: my stabiliser has a completely different PCB layout and more "In" pins, one of which is marked "Mode" - but I have no idea what to do with it, or how one might use it... Any suggestions? Ta...