David E

Must have been a configuration change by my hosting company - I didn't change anything! Glad you can see them now, anyway!

Are they working for you now?

Probably my fault. I think the photos were hosted on my website but it's being rebuilt at the moment. Hadn't expected people to be still looking at it a few years on tbh. Will try to get them back online e eventually. I'll repost here if I can.

Patmc, Roger, (sorry, quote doesn't work in mobile) if the same aircraft gets 34% heavier, it needs 34% more lift, as Patmc says. This is because for stable flight lift is always equal to weight. If they weren't equal the model would be accelerating towards or away from the ground! However it isn't necesssary to fly 34% f aster to increase lift by 34%, as this can be achieved by increasing the angle of attack at the same speed. However, if you increase the angle of attack too much you will stall. This is why the stall speed is higher when you increase the weight. So, you may have to fly faster, but only if needed to avoid a stall. To put it another way, you won't be able to fly as slowly. The plane will feel faster, but only if there is enough power, as the higher angle of attack means more drag! Putting in extra weight without increasing power will actually reduce the top speed, as you'll need more throttle to fly at the same speed. Net result, if I haven't confused my physics, is that adding weight but not power reduces the range of speeds you can fly - you must fly faster to stay in the air, but you can't fly as fast. Does that sound right?

Slippy, mine slows down fine and it's glassed underneath. It has a very tame stall indeed.

If the parcel is already in the post, surely filing a claim with HK will not affect delivery? :-s I have had one or two parcels from HobbyKing take an extraordinarily long time to arrive. But I've placed a lot of orders and all the rest have been within the expected limits. Never did understand why it took so long when it goes by plane though. Maybe customs?

I don't think that signal loss would necessarily be for longer periods, which would be more typical of a receiver brownout. Can you post a photo of your receiver and satellite installation? Are either near the battery pack, ESC, or other metal objects? How far apart are they? Are the two receivers oriented with their antennas at 90degrees to the other receiver's antennas? Is the receiver light flashing upon landing? (This would indicate Rx brownout during the flight, although disconnecting and reconnecting the Rx battery without power cycling the Tx will also cause it.) It's a bit of a long shot, but could the ESC timing setting cause anything like this?

On the subject of location, better not put it in Scotland, might end up in the wrong country

I don't reckon that's how it works. You pay VAT on the purchase, and not on import. http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/taxation/vat/how_vat_works/index_en.htm says: "No frontier controls exist between Member States and therefore VAT on goods traded between EU Member States is not collected at the internal frontier between tax jurisdictions." If the guy was really charged VAT on a parcel from Germany, I think he was robbed.

Shouldn't have had to pay any VAT from germany. Not sure about import duty. Are you 100% sure it wasn't ordered from Hong Kong by mistake.   The handling charges are £8.something for Royal Snail and £13.50 for Parcel Farce.

Just thought people might find it useful to know that the low value exemption threshold on imports has been reduced from £18 to £15 as of 1st november.   In my limited experience of shipping via EMS (arrives via Parcel Farce) recently you are more likely to get stung on VAT (£20 order prior to exemption change) and you get hit with a filthy £13.50 handling fee, which is completely unjustifiable in my opinion. With normal air mail orders, I've not been hit on orders up to about £23, despite declaring the proper value. I suspect that will change now though with the new threshold.   I'm having trouble at the moment with a couple of parcels from HK which seem to have dissapeared to add insult to injury! Now they'll be the wrong side of the exemption cos of the delay if they do turn up too! Edited By David E on 14/11/2011 12:44:27

A quick look at Goosdale Model Flying Club's website suggests that Goosdale's museum might have been a residential property owned by it's founder, who has since died, and the property is now owned by someone else. Some of that is conjecture though!

Hmm, I need a bit of convincing that this isn't just a way of most members subsidising the internationally competative elite.   Co-locating with Cosford sounds like a reasonable idea though if it were to go ahead.   The problem with buying up sites is that they will get developed around and become unsuitable for model flying. The only way to avoid this is what the AMA have done - buy up a huge swathe of farmland around and rent it out for farming. I'm not sure the income from that would be enough to create an income after paying off the loan to buy it.

Nice pic   Why do I get the feeling that this forum isn't very heli friendly??!

The MCPX seems pretty good outdoors as well as indoors. Seems to cope with the wind surprisingly well!   The HK450 is a fairly good bet too, though be sure to read up online about things to check / fix before flying.