John Lee

Muck Boots Artic Sport on the feet, RCGloves on the hands.

I've been restoring my LiPo's to back storage charge for a few years now using an ISDT FD100 discharger &/or my chargers. It soon became a routine upon returning home to bring all the batteries to 3.8v/cell, whether they needed charging or discharging. If I bring a few batteries back unused I often use a parallel charging board with the discharger. The batteries seem to be lasting better. I've no data to support that statement but subjectively that is the case & certainly puffing has been totally eliminated, including those used regularly in EDFs over 3+ years. A side effect is that for charging everything is always in balance for parallel charging and I only ever have to charge from 50%ish.

There is an extensive thread from 10 years back with plenty of suggestions: It is interesting to follow the thread with the change from scepticism & outrage at the start to 'a fantastic buy' at the end for the dedicated RCGloves. I've been using mine every flying session in the winter over those 10 years and they are still as good as new, better in fact as they have become more supple over time. I've also got a spare second pair still new in the packaging but it looks like the originals will outlast me!

That is not going to happen. To quote the CAA Future of Flight Industry Update September 2023: "The 2023 version of the strategy introduces significant new areas of focus, such as better enabling activities outside of Controlled Airspace, facilitating more access to the UK’s airspace for more of its users, and integrating, as opposed to segregating, the growing activity of ‘new entrants’, including BVLOS Drones, Advanced Aerial Mobility, High Altitude Platform Systems, Space Launch, etc." The same update does recognise our legitimate use of this airspace: "We are supporting a thriving drone and model aircraft industry in the UK, as of 31/3/2023 there were: • 513,860 active registered drone flyers and operators • 14,638 Active Remote Pilot Competency Qualification Holders • 3,620 Active Specific Category Operational Authorisation Holders • 30 Active Recognised Assessment Entities • 4 Active Associations (BMFA, LMA, UKFPV, ARPAS-UK)"

I can't be definitive but it looks like they only did 25-46 aero & 21 car sizes: The same 1994 mag has half a dozen retailers advertising these engines, eg: but in the next edition of the magazine that I have dated 1997 I can't find any reference at all to any Royal engines so it looks like it was a fairly short term venture.

I've only ever seen Royal engine in US magazines. This is from a 1994 copy of the American RCModeller:

This is from the latest AAIB Monthly accident bulletin. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65671bacd6ad75001302fc86/AAIB_Bulletin_12-2023.pdf There is no evidence of any enforcement activity following this accident despite the pilot having had no training or qualification (would not have happened in BEB's day!). Likewise there is no evidence that this will not be undertaken, although by implication it seems to have been left to the University to correct matters going forward. "AAIB Bulletin: 12/2023 DJI Mavic 2 Pro AAIB-29098 ACCIDENT Aircraft Type and Registration: DJI Mavic 2 Pro No & Type of Engines: 4 DJI electric engines Year of Manufacture: Unknown (Serial no: 163CJ1JR0A780V) Date & Time (UTC): 27 March 2023 at 1000 hrs Location: Liverpool Type of Flight: Private Persons on Board: Crew - None Passengers - None Injuries: Crew - N/A Passengers - N/A Nature of Damage: Front left, rear left and rear right arm modules damaged and damage to the camera gimbal module Commander’s Licence: None Commander’s Age: 28 years Commander’s Flying Experience: 0 hours (of which 0 were on type) Last 90 days - 0 hours Last 28 days - 0 hours Information Source: Aircraft Accident Report Form submitted by the pilot and further enquiries by the AAIB Synopsis During a short flight the unmanned aircraft collided with a building. The pilot reported he inadvertently pressed the wrong control lever. He did not hold the necessary qualification to operate the aircraft. The operator has implemented new procedures to prevent recurrence. History of the flight The unmanned aircraft (UA) had been purchased by the university to assist with research. The university had registered as an ‘operator’ with the CAA. On the day of the accident the aircraft was being flown by a research student. It was his first flight of any UA and he had not undertaken any training. He was intending to evaluate how the aircraft could be used to assist his research. He decided to fly it from the window of his living quarters on the third floor of the building.........." As you can imagine it did not end well!!

If you don't want the bother of removing the paper then Webbies have original Depron back in stock: https://stevewebb.co.uk/index.php?srch=depron

Tastes vary but I set mine up exactly as per the recommendations on page 22 of the manual when I assembled it in 2015 (no ballast needed) & have never felt the need to touch the settings since.

So it is! Good job I never noticed as I don't read German because I have used it successfully a few times over the years. 😀

Agreed, but it does seem to have a very long shelf life. I bought this pack 10+ years ago & keep it for those occasional difficult jobs where nothing else will do. It still seems to work as good as new.

Have a look through this thread for some more suggestions:

Accepting that Leccy's figures appear in the 'Join us' section of the BMFA Website the latest posting under 'News' is pasted below. I cannot find any later 'statement on membership fees's yet:

+1:

I expect that this is the one from Deeside MAC published in December 2016, I think (from some old correspondence, I don't still have a copy). I seem to recall that it was based on some Maplin hardware with Arduino or similar linking it to a Sim based mobile uplink. The site is still active & reporting on: https://www.wunderground.com/dashboard/pws/IUNITEDK515#history

Press the 3 dots on the top right hand corner of your post & 'Report' you will have the opportunity of adding a message.

There are more suggestions in this thread:

.....or just 'Copy & Paste' the photo into the post.

I have a Netatmo Weather station which also enables me to read other Netatmo outdoor modules, of which there a half dozen or so within a few miles of our strip. But for decisions to fly on the day I use the short term forecasts ('TAFs') for the local Liverpool & Hawarden Airports which are updated every 6 hours. These are accessed through the Met Office Aviation Briefing Service (you have to register but it is free) &/or the AeroWeather App. eg (not a flyable day today!) eg: For longer term planning I find the MetOffice's YouTube channel the best source. In particular Tuesday's 'Deep dive' gives a very comprehensive overview using the MetOffices, European, American and sometimes other Counties' weather models. They explain the differences & probabilities in an 'adult' fashion with no dumbing down and you can soon build up a good picture of what to expect up to a week ahead.

Parcelforce won’t accept LiPo’s from retail customers but will take them for Account holders. Search ‘Help & Advice’ on parcelforce.com for full details.

I've had one of the MX-30 R-EV's launch editions ('Edition R') on order since the beginning of the year which should be delivered in the next couple of weeks, they had their UK Press Launch last week. It will replace my Kia Soul EV. I accept that the rotary will not be as efficient as an Atkinson cycle ICE used in many PHEV's but as I guess 95% of my driving will be on pure EV it is not a big factor in the overall running costs. I ran a Prius PHEV for 3 years that averaged 191mpg which shows the minimal ICE use with my driving habits. The big appeal of the Mazda to me is the fact that it always drives as an EV with the performance, quietness, ease of driving and connectivity I have come used to.

I've had a couple of Premier Tiger's in the past, lost the first in a mid-air. The other got rather oil soaked, I passed it on to a Club mate who refurbished it, converted to electric & it is still flying. Lovely flying model. I've still got a scan of the instructions in my files which are will attached in case they are of use. It is split into several sections due to the limitations of my scanner at the time. Tiger Moth Part 6.pdfTiger Moth Part 5.pdfTiger Moth Part 4.pdfTiger Moth Part 3.pdfTiger Moth Part 2.pdfTiger Moth Part 1.pdf

...and I joined the floater club during the summer with this Circle Dancer. They, quite literally, could have come out of the same mould!

Yes, with the temperature 6 degrees this morning it was time to pop the LiPo warming pad into the carrying sack. Four quid from Amazon/eBay stuck to a bit of insulating bubble wrap using USB power, it has been doing a good job for the last couple of winters.

The Avanti is the fourth 50mm Arrows EDF that I've got and in order of preference I would rank them: 1) Hawk 2 Avanti 3) Viper 4) T-33 That is very much down to my personal preference and I have no doubt that many others would have them in a different order. All are really good (I would not keep adding them to my collection otherwise!), I enjoy them all and one always accompanies me on every flying session. The Avanti flew well right out of the box with very nice control harmony. With 8 flights to date I find it is not as fast as the others in the range, I suspect that this may be a combination of it being a bit more draggy &/or having a more restrictive airflow into the fan, it has a grill over the breather hole unlike the unrestricted others. It is very 'groovy' in flight & does all the normal rudderless aeros without effort. Low speed handling is exemplary and it gets way from the launch & back on the ground without any drama. It looks good and has a nice 'sit' in the air. I use 1300mAh 100c 3S batteries on all these models which I find adequate, but I can appreciate that many will want to try a 4S in the Avanti &/or try & free up the breathing to give it a bit more high speed urge, but I will enjoy mine as it is. Hope that helps Colin.