John Lee

Get yourself a couple of boxes of these pins & you will not use any other. They are about half the thickness of T-pins & very, very sharp, so they do not split the wood so easily. The needle is inextricably linked to the head. Available under various Brand names (Pichler, Kavan, Graupner) and from the popular stockists (eg Sussex Model, Leeds Models, Nexus) in addition to the link.

As well as stop-start driving there are substantial regenerative savings when operating in an undulating environment, you use energy in the climb but regain much of it in the decent. It always tickles me on the return journey after slope soaring that upon descending from the mountain & rejoining the main road I have a couple more miles of range than that I started with.

You can see from this report from my phone app that I recover about 62% of the energy used with regeneration: Of no concern to me. In 6 years of driving PHEV & pure EV's I've never charged at a motorway services. Nor did I fill up with petrol or diesel at those places in the preceding years. With a little forethought there are better options.

I renewed my car insurance last week, they are both on a multi-car policy. Kia Soul EV increased by 62%, MX-5 by 67%, no change to my circumstances other than I'm a year older. The Kia was also serviced last week, I got the first 3 years services thrown in for free when I negotiated the purchase of the car, its MOT was £45. I was offered the next 2 services for a combined cost of £269.

and if you multiply that out by the millions of journeys being made daily how many man-years of life are being wasted and how has that been fed into the benefits equations?

I fitted them to the first Mk3 I built in the mid-90's. We were still using plastic geared Futaba 148 servos back then & when I deployed, at probably higher speed than I ought to have, one side promptly stripped the gears & the asymmetry led to an 'interesting' moment. I never fitted them to any subsequent Wot 4's.

It will be interesting to see if Ripmax GmbH (their German company, a separate legal entity) retains the Futaba distribution for mainland Europe.

Under the 2010 Equality Act Insurance Companies can age discriminate if they base it on a reliable risk assessment. See this Citizens Advice page.

I have both, I inherited the Fusion from an Estate sale. The Fusion is really good as a specialist Fun-Fly model but IMHO is not a patch on the WOT 4 as an all round sports model. The Fusion is much lighter loaded, has a flat bottomed wing & huge control surfaces all of which enables it to turn inside out in its own length, but then limits it in the wind & extended path manoeuvres. The Wot 4 is more 'planted' & you can tear around the sky from horizon to horizon. Both great models but complementary to one another rather than one being the substitute for the other.

I think this could be another 'ask 4 modellers & get 5 opinions' thread! For what it is worth I prefer the parallel wing version. I've built 5 Wot 4's from kits for IC over the decades since Chris first produced the kits, 3 straight winged & 2 tapered. Wore out one through oil soakage, lost two in mid-airs, one had a very short life thanks to inadvertently mixing American & metric threads on the elevator k-link & the last one is still in the loft for nostalgia, though I don't fly IC anymore. I've also assembled 2 ARTF's, sold one which was replaced by my present Wot 4 Pro which I electrified. As ED said it is a personal choice, both fly extremely well with, perhaps a 90% commonality in how they fly. I prefer the ability to take more liberties with the straight wing version at slow speeds, but there is little in it. The Wot 4 Pro is my favourite & if they put it back in production I'd snap up another for stock the day it is released.

No, provided you pay off the amount outstanding each month the card is entirely fee free. I got it a few years ago (when I was working for another card issuer!) primarily for use when holidaying abroad but it is equally useful for none sterling on-line purchases.

I use my Halifax Clarity Card for any none Sterling transactions (Including HobbyKing). There are no FX transaction fees, you get the Mastercard rate of exchange & Section 75 protection. My last transaction:

USB-C have the option of four different charging voltage levels of 5V, 9V, 15V, and 20V. The charger & device should shake hands on connection so that the the correct voltage & amperage is recognised. It sounds like the correct protocol is not being exchanged between the charger & drill in Richard's case, but without proper testing or substitution you can't know which is at fault.

Published today https://publicapps.caa.co.uk/modalapplication.aspx?appid=11&mode=detail&id=12328 Extract: Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) The use of drones and model aircraft continues to grow as new technologies and capabilities are introduced. As of 31st March 2023, there are 513,860 active registered drone flyers and operators – which consists of: ▪ 215,140 Active Operators: of which 6,275 are Organisations and 208,865 are Individuals ▪ 298,720 Active Flyers: of which 5,917 are under 13 and 292,803 are aged 13+ ▪ 14,638 Active Remote Pilot Competency Qualification Holders ▪ 3,620 Active Specific Category Operational Authorisation Holders ▪ 30 Active Recognised Assessment Entities ▪ 3 Independent Flying Associations In December 2022, the CAA published an updated version of CAP 722: guidance and policy on the operation of unmanned aircraft systems within the UK. A full list of RPAS CAA publications is available on our website. There were 80 accidents/serious incidents involving RPAS reported to the CAA during 2022. This is a decrease from 2021 where 129 reportable accidents/serious incidents were reported. In 2022, 50.6% (41) of reportable accidents and serious incident MORs were reported as loss of control incidents. This was the most frequently reported MOR category in 2022, and between 2017 and 2021 where loss of control accounted for 52.7% (168) of high severity occurrences. System or component failure was the second most frequently reported high severity occurrence in 2022 (21% of these MORS) and the five years prior (23.8%). In 2022 there were no fatal or serious injuries reported, and this is the same as the previous five years. All RPAS reportable accidents and serious incidents are required to be reported to the AAIB, regardless of weight of the drone or if they are being used for commercial purposes. Between 2017 and 2022, there were 334 high severity occurrences involving RPAS reported to the CAA, an average of 56 per year.

On my 4mtr Ash26 I use 2 LiFe batteries running through a Jeti Max Bec 2. My dual Rxs (1 2.4Ghz + 1 900Mhz) are linked as a main & satellite so use the same output from the BEC. Matty's suggestion of the OptiGuard is also a good one - I use one on my 6S models.

AliExpress 9mmx7mmx500mm should do, at £4.91 for 2 with free postage they must be worth a punt. Link Lots of others on the site if you want to wade through them.

CHIRP (Confidential Human Factors Incident Reporting Program) is a charitable trust promoting aviation safety and has been run for manned aviation for many years. They now also have a 'Drones' section. The latest Newsletter includes an incident with a model aircraft & is quite flattering to us model flyers: "CHIRP Comment The consistency of reporting amongst modellers is excellent and almost certainly better than the Drone community........." Link

I'd suggest a good blast of an electrical contact cleaner spray that has lubricating properties. There are lots to choose from eg https://www.screwfix.com/p/wd-40-contact-cleaner-400ml/92716 (note not ordinary WD40)

First thing is to isolate where the problem lies. Check the Tx output - turn the roller to the 'Monitor' screen, operate the flaps & see if one or both of the aileron channels move. If they do than dive deeper into the TX or just set up again on a clean memory. If they don't then the problem is in the Rx or model wiring.

The fuselage is made of blow moulded plastic - some sort of polypropylene(?), like washing up liquid bottles are made of. Virtually nothing short of Stabilit Express (or the Deluxe Materials equivalent) sticks to it, so screws for holding the internal bits are the order of the day. As far as I'm aware none of the kits had plans for the wings, they were all ARTF's. However all is not lost. The RC Hotel always have one or two models in the hangar with these fuselages. As the body survive most crashes they are recycled with any odd wing of the approximate size and they all seem to fly pretty well. I'd suggest looking through something like Outerzone & finding a 'near enough' wing as a basis.

That fuselage was used by a number of different manufacturers in no end of configurations. T-tail, cross-tail, V-tail, straight dihedral, polyhedral, 3 channel, 4 channel etc. J Perkins distributed a number eg - Easy Pigeon, Green Sleeve, Seagull, Blue Bird. They varied in span from about 1.8-2.5 metres - so pick what ever configuration you want!

The British Gliding Association has a Club search facility & offers vouchers for gliding experiences. https://www.gliding.co.uk/buy-voucher/

https://www.modelfixings.co.uk/helicopter_bearings.htm

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-noise-systems-to-stop-silent-electric-cars-and-improve-safety ‘From 1 July 2019 all manufacturers must install an acoustic sound system in new types of quiet electric and hybrid electric vehicles to improve road safety.’

I hope so too! They have made quite a number of changes since the RX-8 went out of production( wider apex seals, direct injection, plasma coatings etc). However I think the biggest contributor to a trouble free life will be the fact that the driver will have no direct control of the engine. No hitting the 8500RPM limit on the upshifts any longer, the computer will control the start up, warm up & cool down while the engine will always operate around peak efficiency at about 4500rpm, with the battery pack being able to smooth out demand.