John Lee

Again I would say look to what your Constitution says - that is the document that states how the Club must be run and should govern your actions. If you have adopted the BMFA model Constitution it will state something like: GENERAL The club shall be called XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX and will be affiliated to the British Model Flying Association. ............. Alterations to this constitution can only be made at an Annual General Meeting or at a General Meeting called for that purpose. Any Proposed alterations must be submitted to the secretary in writing at least 14 days prior to the meeting. In which case it is quite clear that to change No 1 you need to do No 3. The relationship between the BMFA & SMAE is governed by UK Corporate law & is not applicable here. For those interested it is explained in Section 1.1 of the BMFA Handbook.

What does your Constitution say? Either specifically or in regards to a change to the Constitution. Follow that procedure, it will probably be a simple resolution at an OGM or AGM. Think about who else will need to be informed, eg bank, BMFA, landlord, they will probably need a copy of the minutes showing the passing of the resolution.

I'd suggest that you don't overthink it. They have been flying in their thousands, if not tens of thousands, without problems for the last 64 years - see the launch below. So they are well proven. Whilst there may well have been the odd failure in that time I expect the standard of building, and the odd material selection, has also been, let's just say, variable. I'd just build to plan. Mine was bought second hand about 10 years ago, has balsa spars and is still going strong.

But one of the things about the registration system is that it makes it very easy to prosecute the miscreant if they are caught or identified. Anyone with a drone in a suspicious circumstances can be brought before the magistrate or judge & if they are not registered it is slam dunk guilty. There is no need to prove intent, endangerment etc or have clever lawyers wiggle the way out of the prosecution.

If you have not done so already give the rudder assembly a close inspection Leccy. I was flying my FMS SuperEZ on snow with floats last week. I found a recessed grub screw which when removed enabled the bottom portion of the rudder mechanism to be removed. I've not seen the PA-18 floats but it is possible that it has a similar design.

With ice, snow, grass and mole hills on the strip it was agreed that FunCubs were the appropriate weapons of choice. They are Chris's immaculate original, Phil's in Hazel Sig's clipped wing full size colour (or should that be color?🙂) scheme and my NG version. Splendid little session before the cold & fading light won.

I think the bottom line is either option can work satisfactorily & it very much depends on your preference, time and budget. Over the years I've now got 3 chargers, two of which are dual chargers, each with its own BatSafe and parallel board. One of the combinations is a SKyRC Charger and BD380 discharger combo. After each flying session all the batteries are brought back to the storage charge of 3.85 volts, using a parallel board if in the same state of charge, otherwise individually. That lot takes no more than 30mins. The morning before going flying I hook up all the batteries I want for the day using as many or as few chargers either individually or in parallel, with every battery being at the same state of charge parallel charging is safe, easy and dependable. Everything (up to 20 batteries in theory!) is then charged in 40mins. I believe in only using quality equipment for my charging regime, ISDT, SkyRC & Toolkit. The parallel boards are ISDT which each have 32 fuses for protection.

Could? Maybe, depending on a lot of variables such as the quality of the ESC and receiver, their placement, the routing of the connecting leads and where the Rx's aerials are situated and orientated. But I have a couple of F5J gliders where the Rx is mounted directly above the ESC separated only by a 1mm glass fibre plate and there are zero issues even at the limit of visibility of a 4 meter span model. The Rx's aerials are however passed through the fuselage side so have a clear view of the Tx. As ever do a thorough test before committing to flight.

Still minus 3 here at mid-day so unsurprisingly Billy No Mates at the field. But I had an enjoyable hour in the flat calm sniffing out tiny bits of local lift.

If you read the Handbook site: https://handbook.bmfa.uk/ it clearly says: "All changes since the last edition (except typographical errors) are shown in red text in the online version and are 'side barred' in the downloadable PDF version. See here."

Welcome! The answer is yes,.....but: The basic Throttle, Elevator, Aileron, Rudder and Gear functions will work. As also will servo reversing, expo, travel adjustment and sub trims. However most of the rest of the programming will be inappropriate to fixed wing and may be rather confusing - it is a complex set and the way of programming from when it was introduced 20+ years ago was not intuitive. The set also had a small lithium battery with a 5 year life to keep the memory intact. If it has not been replaced in recent years that will need attending to. An on-line search will show you how, as it was a common issue in the past. The manual is still also available on-line.

At the risk of thread drift I'm afraid an electric Islander can never be convincing. The full size was renowned as being one of the most efficient machines ever invented by man....................... of converting AvGas into noise 🤣 Actually I think it was the Trislander with its fin mounted engine that was the origin of the joke, but that would not work in this context. And it is just a joke, I'm quite a fan of electric twins.

§ So I tried this today on my MPX TwinStar (the one on the left as you look at the photo), you can just see them mounted under the engine cowl with one light pointing out and one in, with the alternating red/blue flash... ...and I wired them up with this tape, so much easier than wires with a retro fit. Again it was just another 15mins to fit them with hot glue, and a few dobs of solder and flew them this afternoon. I need to pop another one or two on top as in a banked turn those underslung ones are, of course, obscured. Nevertheless all in all very successful, thanks for the tips Phil. The other TwinStar belongs to another Phil who put me on to these lights in the first place. I'm going to order another batch.

The CAA show the ID requirements quite clearly and they apply whether or not you are operating under Article 16: https://register-drones.caa.co.uk/registration-requirements-for-drones