Kevin J Lloyd

In July I purchased a Joysway Dragonfly which is being imported by Ripmax as I have always wanted to have a go at flying from water and having a couple of large reservoirs just a couple of hundred yards away I thought this would be the ideal model, I forked out £136.00 from a well known model shop (no names mentioned) got it built and test flew it and all seemed to be 100% being very smooth to fly with no hidden glitches, however on my 3rd flight a bird got in the way just as I was taking off resulting in a broken prop and bent output shaft from the brushless motor. For the last four weeks I have been emailing different model shops trying to find spares only to be told that they were not in stock, at a last try I decided to email Ripmax to find out when spares for this model will be available, but their reply was that they do not know when they when they would be stocked, why on earth do Ripmax import models for which spares are always a no no, I have spent good money that could have been put towards a better model with a better after sales service, I will think twice about buying anything that comes from Ripoff Ripmax in future.

The servoless airbrakes from HobbyKing can be found at , not bad for 20 quid http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__28455__Glider_Spoiler_Servoless_Left_and_Right_Pair.html

If you want to check the airspeed, altitude etc over your particular part of the UK of the A380 download the free edition of FlightRadar24 which can be found at http://www.flightradar24.com/ I use this regulary on my Android it also helps pass a good couple of hours when its unsuitable for flying models

Acrowot now back to normal again after finding that the WOT4 Balsa version uses the same size engine mount, the only difference being that the holes in the Acrowot mount are elongated but 5 minutes with the dremel soon sorted this out, now its all back together again I put the servo tester on each of the servos and gave them a thorough testing running a good 30 minutes on each but they were all 100%, I next checked the 'Y' lead I have connected to the wing servos and found an intermitent fault where the two servo leads are joined to the receiver lead, thats now retired to the bin and a new one fitted

A couple of years ago I bought a rather dilapidated Pitts Modle 12 which was produced by Falcon Aviation back in 2004, I have now got it ready for flying again but need to know where the C of G is located, I contacted Falcon but they couldn't offer any help but they added that there were still some of these models flying in the U.K., can anyone help or if you happen to have the build manual could I scrounge a copy. Kevin.

I got my Acrowot in the 1st week of July after reading the posts in this forum, my build consisted of Towerpro MG995 servos, Thunder Tiger 75S engine with a 12.5x6 prop and a 6v 2200mAh rx battery which was mounted below the fuel tank, when I came to balance it I found that without using the cowl it was requiring 100 grams of lead up front. When I test flew it all seemed to be hunky dory apart from the undercarriage which splayed out several times on landing but I overcame this by fitting a fibre glass one that I had in my spares box, all seemed to be going well till this morning when just after take off it started to behave strangely and when I brought it round for a landing the wind caught the wing and in she went, after recovering the model all that was broken was the engine mount, when I got home I checked my spares box only to find I hadn't one of the right size, I then contacted Ripmax to find out on the availability of spares but was answered by a woman who wanted to know my account number, when I told her I wanted to know about spares the rudely told me that they only gave this information to their dealers and put the phone down on me, when I phoned Sussex Helicopters they were very helpfull and even gave me the part number for the mount but added that they checked with Ripmax but they hadn't got the mount in stock and did not know when they would have it in. So the outcome now is to fit my oversize mount vertically instead of horizontal and mount the engine from below or wait for Ripmax (Ripoff) to get the original mount

My Wot4-E has completed almost 4 hours of flying most of which I have enjoyed but on Monday 4 July it met its demise just after take off at around 6 to 8 feet it suddenly went into a right hand inverted roll and crashed breaking its back, upon closer examination to find out the cause of this I found that one of the metal clevis's at the rudder had parted company with the pin which was still stuck in the nylon arm that attaches to rudder, I think I may be able to get away with a repair but I will reinforce it with fiber glass sheet on the inside.

I didn't want to mention it before but I visited the Aircraft Proving Ground website which can be found at http://www.geistware.com/rcmodeling/index.htm , although its an American site it provides a lot of usefull information for us RC modellers, one particular page is a C of G calculator and can be found at http://www.geistware.com/rcmodeling/cg_super_calc.htm , I inputted the required measurements of the Wot 4-E and it gave me a C of G of 82mm, so I guess Ripmax's 90mm was far off but it does seen to fly ok at 90mm, when I next have a bit more time to play with I will alter the C of G to 82mm and of course add a bit more lead and see how she performs.  

Well I have just got back from my local club with the Wot 4-E intact, after initial trimming it coped well with the wind at 15mph (gusting 20mph) although it tended to drfit a little in the gusts but overall performance I am quite pleased with, getting it to land was a little tricky as just when I thought it was going to touch the wind took it up a few feet and it took me several attempts to get it to land, the weather in the NW looks to be calmer on Friday so will definately be giving it another go.

Having just spoken to Customer Service at Ripmax a few minutes ago I have been told and quote "The manual has a misprint of the recommended C of G for the Wot 4-E (Balsa Version) which is 90mm from the leading edge and not 70mm and will require approximately 90grams of lead to balance it", with this I will take it out to my local flying club today and report back later with the results.

My mistake its not over 1kg of lead but just over 200 grams but its still a lot of lead !Edited By Kevin J Lloyd on 31/05/2011 08:27:27

I am using the recommended power set up as printed on the box and the manual, I know of a fellow flyer who converted an original Chris Foss Wot 4 to electric and that balanced perfectly with no extra weight, my own experiences of the Wot 4 using nitro engines used to balance perfectly, as these models are sold under licence to Chris Foss name I'm sure he would have something to say if he knew about the problems. 

 The model has now taken well over 1kg of lead to get it balanced and if it was flown it would be like a flying brick and be lethal if it accidently hit someone, as I said earlier Ripmax  are fully aware of this problem with this version of WOT 4 but they are doing little or nothing to correct it yet they are still distributing the models out to their retailers, I will be phoning them 1st thing on Tuesday morning to get an answer from them failing that I will be contacting my local Trading Standards office as the model is "not fit for the purpose it was sold" and contravines the Sale of Goods Act 1979 Edited By Kevin J Lloyd on 30/05/2011 06:36:27 Edited By Tim Mackey - Administrator on 30/05/2011 08:50:59

I have just received a reply from a post that I put out on the BMFA website and it states that Ripmax are fully aware of the C of G problem with this model but have done nothing about it and renders the model unfit for its purpose, with this I will be contacting Ripmax on Tuesday morning demanding to know what they are doing to sort it out, failing that I will want a full reund from them even though the model is fully built.

I orginally owned the WOT4 Classic & Sport versions when I was flying nitro models, however due to the increasing cost of fuel I decided to go electric, imagine my joy when Ripmax announced they were doing an electric balsa version of the WOT4 which was under licence to Chris Foss. When my WOT4 arrived I was impressed by the packaging but a little dismayed by the contstruction of the model in that they had used the thinnest balsa they could find so I decided to use the setup that was recommended and printed on the side of the box, the model is now built but I am having a problem with the C of G, the instruction manual says that it should be 70mm from the leading edge of the wing but found the model was tail heavy, so I started to attach lead to the motor mount to try and balance it, at the present time I am up to 145 grams and the dammed thing is still tail heavy, has anyone else encountered this problem and if so how many lbs of lead was needed to balance it. Edited By Kevin J Lloyd on 29/05/2011 08:30:00