Martin McIntosh

Glad you like it Bill. Thanks, Martin.

Noe sold.

I have tried both methods and still not sure. My TN 72" Mossie had the ESCs in the nacelles, with the correct low Z caps and survived the maiden, but next time out, unbeknowingly, one motor`s revs dropped on take off. You can guess the result. It now has them in the fus. My 81" o/d Lanc has them in the fus and no overheating problems. Similarly my 64mm fan powered A10 has them in the fus. I think it depends on your choice of ESCs.

Perigee by Tom Brett, joint winner of the first F3A W/C at RAF Kenley in 1962. Upgraded with electric retracts. Includes West 36 with short pipe, all servos, 1800 mA/hr LiFe pack. £350. (Aylesbury, Bucks).

Tucano with YS 63S motor, all servos, 1100 LiFe pack and electric retracts. Winner of local scale comp. and very little used so it is pretty immaculate. Flaps fitted. £350 (Bucks).

Delta 362 by Peter Russell. Everything except Rx. Motor, ESC, all servos, electric retracts and a pair of 2700 mA/hr Lipos. Very little use so immaculate condition. £130.

No they were not, but saved doing expensive damage to the motors which were tuned to perform way over the revs which the manufacturers intended.

On my last flight at the 1977 F3A W/C the motor went very quiet just after take off. On inspection the plug element was completely missing. The OPS rear bearing picked that time for its cage to start to break up. Well worth the effort to strip down your motor and consider fitting new bearings, even if they look fine. I used to replace the bearings on HP/Webra/OPS every six weeks of intensive practice. (Four flights a day, four days a week)

Well, almost all of my stuff is JR DSM2, 3x DSX9 plus a 9X2 other than a Taranis set which I do not get on with and a TGY 6i and 10i which I no longer use. Quite a lot of RD921 Rxs plus Spekky AR 7000, 9000 and very many Orange 9 ch plus some 6 ch ones. The Orange ones are still available from HK and are DMS2 and DSMX compatible. The BMFA for sale site lists many JR/Spektrum Rxs with satellites at very reasonable prices. Nothing much to wear out on a DSX9.

Clear canopy wanted for the 64" version (original size).

Shepeiro, PM me if you would like a roll of proper 60/40 solder for future use.

Looks like a Parkzone one which I was recently after. Blew up the Rx when trying to codge it.

If you have electric retracts then these should shut down if overloaded, otherwise use a separate pack.

At one time I would have used a 4.8V NiMh pack but a 6V one gives insurance against a cell dying ( they go s/c when they die). I would avoid Lipos because you really should put them to storage level after every session; not practical for an i/c model. My `go to` now is 2s Life. Even a 700 mA/hr pack with your stated set up will last for many flights. 1100 or 1800 better still. Most servos these days are quite happy on 6.6V. Unfortunately HK have not had many of these in stock for a long time. When they did the prices were a small fraction of the cost of other types (£2.50 for a 700 for instance). They maintain their charge at full seemingly forever when not in use.

Never had an interference issue on DSM2, the only reason that it was discontinued in this country is that the EU did not like the idea of grabbing two frequencies and hogging them. I believe that the AR 600 had issues.

Nothing beats pins for holding stuff down properly.

You need something that you can easily push pins into using a blunted pair of wire cutters. When I built my new workshop in 2001 I obtained two benches 6`x3` to which I glued 3 or 4 mm lite ply. Should have used 6mm. The benches are metal framed and nice and flat. I would avoid magnets depending on what you intend to build since a wing for instance often needs to be left overnight while the glue sets. Never looked back on this set up.

Wanted. Innards from a crashed Parzone model, motor Rx etc.

Plugs could be micro molex. If so then you would need to source sockets and pre crimped wires; not worth the bother. Exactly what is the length and width of your boards please? I may have some to fit but if you wish you could send me the stuff you have for me to look at. I have, in the past, replaced broken limit switches and am (was?) fairly good at repairing/modifying servos etc. Very similar to what I did at work everyday.

You don`t need relays or anything else, that`s what the amps I sent you are for. Just remove the limit switches from the amps and wire in yours. Forget trying to use a servo amp because retract ones are simple on/off switches, not proportional.

Dead easy. Solder three pieces of brass tube to a small piece of copper clad PCB. Block off the centre one with a blob of solder to park the fuel line on when not in use. Connect one to the tank and the other to the carb and mount this under the model. Simply fill and drain through the clunk connection via a U tube between the two. I use this arrangement whenever possible.

Had to get rid of my beloved Audi A6 3.0 TDi Quattro three months or so ago because at 18 years old it developed a warning light which would have been far too expensive to sort out. Had three Volvos in the past, 164 3l straight 6 auto, 2.3 245 Estate and a 2.1l 240 auto saloon. All pretty simple and reliable but the 2.1 would not get better than 20mpg. The V90 estate was the car with the longest load length that I could find and got hold of a very nice example which even has a Tempra spare wheel! With all the so called mod cons and driver aids it is very complex to get my head round the touch screen which is not advisable to play with whilst driving. I found that I could disable the stop/start (for one of the three driving modes) quite easily but it only lasts for one engine start. Operating the Satnav whilst driving is a definite no no and even changing the heater settings on the move is dodgy. Why do they have to make things so difficult now? Volvo should take lessons from Audi regarding driver controls.

Not familiar with Saitos, but are the carbs twin needle or air bleed? If the latter, then closing the throttle will not impede the fuel flow so unless you use a clamp on the line or arrange it with a U tube which can be parked on a blanked off tube it will probably syphon.

As has been said above, modern surface mount electronics are to thank for the reliability we have enjoyed for a long tome now. No big electrolytics to vibrate off. I cannot remember when the JR DSX9 came out but I saw one in use at the field, had a quick look and shot off to the local-ish shop to buy one. Still using the original Rx plus very many more; JR, Spektrum and Orange, the only failure being an AR7000 which was stored in a mate`s heated shed an totally died.

Never locked, blue tooth on and paired to PC, nothing happens.