Richard Walton

Guys, As hort while ago I asked about rc flight simulators and had a great response. Now that I'm in a position to buy Phoenix it would appear that they are discontinuing it. At least that's what Al's Hobbies have just told me. (Enter a few expletives here). I'm now looking at Real Flight. But, yet again, I'm at a loss as to which one/verion to go for. I have a DX6 or a DX6i that I want to attach to it and I'm going to attach my laptop to my TV using the HDMI lead. Can any of you more savvy fliers advise please? Or is there another system I've not yet comes across? Thanks in advance.

Thanks guys for all the great advice. It seems that Phoenix 5.5 is the way to go.

Hi All, I'ma newbie flyer trying to get my A but family duties, work and the weather are robbing me of stick time. I'm looking for a simulator that will run on my windows laptop and that I can plug in either my Spektrum dx6 or dx6i. I'm going to connect the laptop to my main tv via the hdmi ports so that I can get the full field view effect. Here's my question. Can anybody recommend something that will work in this fashion, what would I need and where can I get it please? Many thanks in advance. Edited By Richard Walton on 21/08/2017 22:44:34

Thanks for the advice guys. Much appreciated.

Well as they say, better late than never. I've finally got her finished and here she is... Some notes. She's powered by an OS52 Surpass four stroke. I've installed a remote glow lead positioned just above the cockpit for easy access. I moved to wing mounted aileron servos so that I can set up for differential movement. I installed a fuel cap above the fuel tank. The prop is currently a 10x6 APC but on the basis of if it looks right, I might increase this to an 11x7 APC, because the prop looks too small. The engine can cope, so the instructions say, with up to 12x6 so I should be ok stepping her up a bit. But running in and flying will tell, I guess. I have just a couple questions left on set-up. I've pretty much got her balanced but not quite sure. I'm supporting her on two 6mm dowels with her the correct way up. She just about balances but if I tilt her just a fraction of an inch either way and she tips that direction really easily. If I invert her and balance her she will be slightly nose heavy and I can balance her perfectly with 3 large washers on the tail plane. Question I have is the sensitivity in balance with the plane the right way up due to the bulk of the weight being above the wings. If so am I getting the balance right by balancing her up inverted? I need to add a couple of sticky lead weights to the tail plane to get the CoG correct, but am worried about her being over weight. She ways in at 4lb 14oz without the fuel. Is this too heavy? What should she weight roughly? Anyway, any answers/comment will be gladly received. Peter Miller.... many thanks for great model. I can't wait to get her through her maiden albeit by another club member as I don't yet have my A and am still learning to fly.

Thanks for all the very good advice guys. It's given me some food for thought. Right now it looks like I'll go for the soldered on clevis.

Guys, I'm hoping someone can give me some advice. I'm in the process of completing Peter Miller's Ballerina - I know it's about time - and need some advice about linking up the ailerons to servo's in the wing. I've gone away from the central single servo and installed mini's in each wing. I have already made the links by using a Z bend at the servo end and a clevis at the aileron end. There's what I believe to be a bit too much "slop" in the link caused by the Z bend. I want to install a clevis at the servo also but need to have thread at both ends. Here's the rub - at last you say - Before I go buying an M2x0.4 die and stock, how easy is it to put the M2 thread on the other end of the piano wire links. I don't want to use those solder on extenders as I think they'll add unnecessary weight. Thanks in advance.   Edited By Richard Walton on 06/06/2017 09:30:45

Thanks guys that's really given me some food for thought. Right now the favourite method looks to be a couple of small screws either side... but that may change once I'm in the man-cave. As usual, much obliged.

Hi All, I'm in the process of completing Peter Miller's Ballerina from last year's Mass Build and I'm in need of some advice on how to fit the windscreen. For those of you who don't know this plane, it has an open cockpit and requires a small curved screen mouted on the turtle deck. My concern is how to stick the windscreen on to the fuselage in a strong but tidy method. I was thinking of cutting the shape I needed out of acetate sheet but including tabs at the bottom that I could fit into slots made in the skin of the fuselage. The fuselage is covered in Solartex over 3/32" balsa sheet. Question is what's the tried and tested method, if any? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Thanks guys. I'm going to Maplin at the weekend for some heat shrink tubing, so will see what they've got in store. Much obliged for the comments.

I'm hoping that someone in here can help me please? I'm building a model and need to install a remote glow plug lead. Basically it's the Peter Miller Ballerina from last year's mass build. I've got an OS52 Surpass installed inverted and rather than turn the model over each time I want to start it, I've installed a remote glow lead in the position where the joystick should be, however the leads on my remote starter aren't long enough and I'd like to extend them. I know the voltage is only 1.5v but the wires are quite stiff, which has got me thinking if there's any issues with current heating the wires up. I'm thinking of using the cores from a 240v twin wire. You know the type that you'd get on a household lamp. Will there be any issues with current? Seems a stupid question, but if you don't know these things.... Thanks in advance.

Posted by Peter Miller on 23/12/2016 18:00:21: That looks briliant. Thanks Peter! Coming from you, sir, that is indeed a compliment. It's pretty much as you designed it with the exception of: I went for micro-servos in the wings so that I could have differential aileron throws, and I made the underside of the fuselage in front of the wing removable so that I could get direct access to the SLEC fuel tank. Steerable tail wheel - we have a grass runway.   Edited By Richard Walton on 23/12/2016 18:11:39

Thanks for all the advice guys; it's really appreciated. I looked at the Hobby King film and whilst I agree it is cheaper to buy, the only place I can get a yellow colour is to pay nearly £12 p&p to get it from Holland. Plus I don't need 10m of covering to leave at least 8m sat in the shed. As many have said the additional weight of the Solartex won't be that significant and there will be an inverted OS52 Surpass up front to haul it along. So I'm going to order the vintage yellow and blue as previously stated. Anyway, today saw the first time I put all the structural bits together, so I took a picture or two. Hopefully these will come out below: Edited By Richard Walton on 23/12/2016 17:59:28 Edited By Richard Walton on 23/12/2016 18:05:16

Very late, I know, but I've just arrived at the stage where I can think about covering my Ballerina. But, I have a bit of a conundrum that I would like some advice on please? I'm set on covering the model in Stearmanesque colour scheme. Blue fuselage with yellow wings and fin without the red and white tail stripes. Other club members are singing the praises of Solartex saying how easy it is to use and how so much better it is than Solarfilm. I'm looking at the Vintage Blue and Vintage Yellow Solartex but note that it is heavier than Solarfilm. The Solarfilm website recommends it for use on medium size models upwards and this raises the question of will it be too heavy for the Ballerina? Question is simple then Solarfilm or Solartex? Thanks in advance for any help given.

Well guys I've managed to fix the issues with the cupped balsa. The rear wing was an easy fix. I steamed it over the kettle and placed it on a flat surface, covered it with another and then put my tool box on that. After it dried out it was pretty much "cock on" as they say. The tail fin and rudder wouldn't flatten so I took bouncebouncecrunches advice and cut them apart and glued in some 1/4" square stock before pinning it all down and leaving it to dry. Worked a treat! and by pure luck the inserts matched up. Stupid here didn't think to do that but got away with it anyways. Cheers Guys for the advice; it was very helpful. A couple of piccies for you after hand shaping the leading and trailing edges.

Posted by Bob Cotsford on 28/07/2016 12:35:30: Try sanding the side that's the outside of the curve. Nothing too course, you don't want to reduce the thickness too much. This can 'massage' the wood flat and relieve the stresses causing it to warp. Otherwise I'd damp it with weak ammonia solution and hold it flat while it dries. The ammonia is said to soften the cellular bond so that when it dries it adopts a new shape. It certainly works to put a bend into sheet. Thanks. That's another avenue to try

Posted by bouncebounce crunch on 28/07/2016 10:23:21: Cut a slot in the sheeting ninety degrees to the cupping, add a piece of hard balsa to fit slot, glue in place, sand to shape. lay flat on building board of course before gluing. works for me. I like the sound of that. It'll strengthen the part as well. Thanks for that.

I'm in the middle of building my second ever model (Peter Miller's Ballerina from the RCM&E plans) and it's going fairly ok so far. A couple of nights ago I cut out the tail fin, rudder, rear wing and elevators from the 1/4" sheet stock brought from SLEC. It wasn't until I pinned them out on my flat board that I notice the balsa plank was slightly cupped along it's length. It's not too bad, maybe just less than 1mm across the width. But it does mean that the rudder has a slight vertical curve in it and the rear wing is slightly cupped upwards. Rather than waste stock, I'm hoping that some of you more experienced "balsa butchers" can tell me that theres a fix for this. Something along the lines of heating the cupped side so it expands out and straightens the curve out. Or steam it and flatten it under heavy weights to dry. Any help would be very much appreciated. Regards Richard.

Thanks for the help Peter. After due consideration, and being outbid on ebay as far as £50.00 plus P&P on a few DX6i's, I decided that for the £20 or so extra I'd be best served buying new. So I ordered a brand new DX6i from Sussex Model Centre for £74.99 plus P&P. That way at least I get some comfort form having a guarantee. Much obliged.

Hi Peter, Thanks for coming back to me so soon. I'll look around for a DX6i or similar. Regards Richard.

Guys, The club I'm a member of advise that we provide our own buddy box to suit our own personal transmitter. So guess who's looking for a second hand/cheap buddy box compatible with my Spectrum DX6? Questions Is the DX6i compatible to buddy box mine to? What other units are compatible? What should I be paying for a reasonable second hand unit? Many thanks in advance.

No problem Pete. Thanks for coming back to me anyway. Thanks to the help received I took delivery of one from SLEC yesterday and on initial exam it looks like it'll work fine. I have seen your set-up in the build log and got some good ideas from it. Much obliged.

Thanks guys. Most helpful as always.

Posted by Low pass Pete on 21/06/2016 22:28:14: My Ballerina flies brilliantly on an OS52 Surpass (inverted\). I have 2 of them and never had problems with them or needed spares. Would jump at the chance to get a third if I could find one. Superb engines. Why OS replaced them is a mystery to me. Regards Peter Peter, Thats good news. Thanks. One more question for you if you will. I've arrived at the point where I'm considering engine mounts and former F1. Can you tell me what engine mount you used as a staring point please? The one I have as a spare is just a pair of bearers but the portion that bolts to the fire wall is too bulky and fouls on the engine. Is there a make/model/part number for the one you're using please? Much obliged.

Thanks very much for the advice guys.. That's taken a load off my mind. 😃