Bruce Collinson

It’s “aye”.

Isn’t it to do with additional drag at the wingtip, or did I dream it?

And do try to keep abreast of things!

Focus on his rosettes.

I generally use the scrap change in my pocket, which won’t roll off, then weigh on the digital scales and use an equivalent weight of wheel weights, lead or lead shot poured into a cavity and glued in.

Remember the one about the dyslexic pimp? He opened a warehouse.

Apparently it’s hereditary. It runs in families.

Consider only stabilising one aileron, if it saves clutter. I’ve seen it done successfully. BTC

No. Still fishing line, totally different.

Try gel spun fishing line, zero stretch (unless you need it). Cyano the knots when fettled. BTC

How much JL? Couldn't find any pricing anywhere yesterday. BTC

PS hadn't heard Morris had emigrated, saw him at Elvington last year, surely?

Noise/loss of sites/petrol 2 strokes etc; beware, they are loud and moreover they have an unpleasant bark, a high pitched noise which, subjectively, is "worse" than a methanol equivalent and far worse than a 4 stroke methanol. We have had to impose stringent restrictions on 2 stroke petrol following a noise complaint. Meter tests confirm that 83dB is mythical without a very meaty muffler system, usually a very big can and the combined cost (ignoring the jewel-like offering from Ali Baba) ends up more than a 4 stroke. Stock "mufflers" utterly useless, may even amplify sound. Our perception is that the frequency may carry further than a similar 4 stroke. Was it the mag or on here 18 m ago, a reasoned piece on how to (eventually) get below 83dB? Well worth searching or await a 14-yr old on here to send you the link. Yes, thrifty and clean; smelly petrol in the car; good ones well set up seem to fire on choke then run immediately; bad ones a world of frustration. If the maker lists an OS 61 then wouldn't a stock 90 4 stroke fit the bill and sound a lot nicer? I learned on an SC 90-powered trainer which was docile and reliable and I believe there are lots about; 4 out of 5 seem good, parts (bearings) available ... ? Only a 60A ESC if running on solar so might seem ample. Or, better, find a Laser. More docile, more robust, even more jewel-like than Ali Bubba's petrol one and almost infinitely serviceable (more so whan Geoff gets the spares to Will Sherwood ...MSL...). BTC

Yep. The Supra Fly remaining hors de combat with wing repairs, and a modification to the elevator servos to remove suspected asymmetry in the single pushrod setup, I dug out the Curare after a couple of years when I saw a reasonable weather forecast (a lie, as usual, cross strip bumpy wind). The only trike setup I have, old retracts demoted to fixed. The Clevis popped off the nose wheel arm on every landing, including the one by a much better pilot than me. All this after I discovered Mr. Mouse had chewed through the ESC to rx feed. Refixing said clevis was keyhole surgery but we gave up after two operations and it’s now in a queue in the hanger for modification. Did fly adequately, straight, bunts better than the Supra Fly but slightly underpowered so might be a new motor too. I always sensed that the ply mount plate for the retracts was a bit poorly supported and I suspect that Far Eastern factories are skimpy with the glue in places. The front of the plate needs a lot of stress distribution, easy in a kit build, one of several compromises in ARTFs. I did try to replace the shiny Chinesium legs with proper piano wire but my bender scarcely put 2 deg in the 6mm wire, hence the straight legs which I think were my downfall at Buckminster. I was compromising my geo-political tablets of stone by surfing for sprung Oleos but the oft-cited website was sufficiently impenetrable that I lost the will to live just as I decided to put a fixed u/c onto the fus, which is now sourced (LMS) and in the repair queue. on top of all this, it seems J. Perkins are launching a Kwik-Fli ARTF at Weston, so here we go again …. BTC

My understanding of torque rod fixed UCs is that they (can) have a long torque spring which is in compression under load, trying to push the fixing block out of the top of the wing; easier in theory to make robust than the opposite force, trying to rip the retract out by tension with a twisting load from front to back. As Nigel R observes, the length of the fixing plate is relatively short. I observe experienced peers straightening legs after every flight. Must improve my landings. BTC

As I feared, one pulled out on first landing (it was windy) and that's it, I've had it with retracts on grass and they are coming out. Denied a chance to come last in Pick 5 too. They are not returning to the long-hangered Saphir either, when I get round to it. Bought a c/f u/c from LMS this morning, just have to adapt the pipe channel to accept it (and mend the wing) UKCAA fly-in with two clubmates nevertheless a very pleasant day out. BTC

I’m running E-Flite 60-120 retracts in a Pichler Prettner Supra-Fly and they were c. £120 from my LMS. As I commented to my mentor at the UKCAA fly-in at Buckminster, as he was wrestling with his Yamada 4 stroke, just add flaps to your engine and my retracts and you’ve got every possible tier of grief in a single plane. The mechanisms are good but they weren’t happy running off the BEC from an 80a ESC and now have a separate rx battery as it appears the voltage was falling off, intermittently. However, the supplied legs are Chinesium. Off grass they seem to bend every time. I’ve just replaced them with proper piano wire from the LMS, I think it’s Kavan. I cannot bend it and there’s zero chance of a full spring turn in the wire so they’re now straight through and will doubtless bounce horribly. Doubtless I’ll find out on Friday at the next UKCAA event. They’re fussy to set up and need the flats to be filed accurately. 5mm diameter wire, to fit the mechanisms. putting 6mm neoprene shock absorbers under them does seem to have made them a little more resilient, as it did to my Wot 4. i don’t have access to tarmac and will probably not bother with retracts in the future. And yes I do need to improve my landing technique, but even so … BTC

Do you consider that BMFA will affiliate such a club? I’ll seriously consider eating my third-best Tilley if it does! BTC

Graham Buckley’s products are excellent and he has a wide range of useful equipment. However if cost is an issue, all you need is a patch of medium (50 gm, not critical) glass cloth about 4” square and epoxy resin. Skinning epoxy is best but it’s possible to use plain 30 min epoxy adhesive if you thin it a little with meths and heat it up a little to make it less viscous. If still an issue, pm me and I will send you the glass fibre patch but you’ll need epoxy resin. I use Pacer as I do for all epoxy apart from some Bucks skinning epoxy, and most cyano too. hoping to maiden my new electric one shortly but there’s rain in the forecast. BTC

"But what about the play, Mrs. Lincoln?"

Good question. I had to add a lot of tail weight to my IC version but it has a big OS 4 stroke up front. None of the others has ever been ballasted as far as I can recall although the last incarnation did have a foam pad at the back of the battery tray which would have nudged the LiPo slightly ... half inch? ... forward from its rearmost position. If the book says 82mm then I will have started there and I don't ever recall needing to move the c of g, although this is a matter of choice and comfort to some extent, once you've flown it. Mine will be approaching balancing in the next few days and as the replacement motor is a little longer than the original, I suspect I will be adding tail weight until I shorten the stand-offs, or adopt studding instead, but that brings us round in a circle to the first point where I waded in, what are the thrust angles. I don't know, but i would want to replicate the geometry exactly, as I've never needed to alter it from factory settings. BTC

I overlooked that you lacked the optional electric accessory pack. You’ll be split for choice. Just remembered, with any ARTF, I routinely glue every accessible joint with Super’Phatic and a fine tip. Ideally do the u/c plate before glassing. Seems to add no weight but it gives me comfort as quite a lot of factory glue joints seem to be more miss than hit. BTC

I still worry that your adapted battery plate will put the battery too close to the firewall and pull your c of g too far forward. I can’t just recall your objection to the supplied battery tray. Also is it a little higher up than the original, compressing your clearance to slide the battery under the bulkhead? If you need to trim the underside of the major former to be able to load a battery via the top hatch and are concerned about loss of structural integrity, make a 3 or 4 mm birch ply doubler and glue it on the back. Clean off the ply release agent first. I’m tending to use Titebond Premium rather than epoxy, as the timber always seems to fail before the glue line, it’s easy to use and grabs in about 10 minutes. Don’t leave the cap open. Pull-pulls are a right fiddle but very effective when set up correctly and worth persisting. Fishing tackle shops are a good source of nylon coated wire trace, crimp ferrules and even 6mm split rings which make assembly easier. On larger planes I generally include a swivel too so that adjustments can be made without disconnecting either end or getting kinks in the wire. I’ve read of the use of gel-spun line instead of wire, lighter, virtually no stretch, can be knotted, great for practicing or even as a dummy just to get the length right first time. As a former angler I have a spool to hand and it’s great for pull-through and for setting the tail square BUT knots are tricky and must be superglued.

As Richard knows, I have broken an odd nylon bolt or two; I think the all-comers record was three pairs during one Fun-Fly. I recall once having to use Martin’s hot tip. Usually there’s enough exposed stub for pliers or grips. Also, I put some c. 6mm dense neoprene under the u/c for a bit more give, which I think worked but certainly left longer stubs.

Hmm ... pics ... dinosaur ... All mine have flown on 4A 4s LiPos with the standard mounting plate, at a slight slant and only glued in in two places, per the kit. Ironically I glued mine last night, not even checked it yet but DON'T glue yours yet, reinforce the upper side of the u/c plate with gf first as it's the first point of failure on the ARTF. It can be deferred by using nylon u/c bolts as they nearly always break before the plate falls off. Also leave the tail till last, it's far less likely to get bashed when you're fitting motor etc and especially the pushrod and cables for the pull/pull. There might have been a slight kit modification recently as I previously had to open out the first former slightly to clear my chosen LiPos but no such issues this time. The enlarged former opening never became a weak point, that was eventually the tail section, much repaired. The battery currently just clears the former and slides into the tray at what I'm hoping to be a spot-on C of G, as this one has been treated to a new motor (and not from China this time!). ESC is zip tied to a vertical liteply plate on the side of the fus between firewall and former, on the side closer to the offset hole in the firewall. I cannot visualise what you describe re the battery mount up to the firewall, but if your LiPos are anything like mine you will have the c of g much too far forward, won't you? I would be very tempted to dry-assemble and balance the whole thing before moving the battery plate any distance. My various electric Wotties have never needed ballast at either end as far as I can recall. I wonder whether mine is younger, even though it was bought a year or so ago? How old is yours? I also recall significant supply chain issues either side of Wuhan flu but not directly linked, when Wotties and Crowrats (anag.) were out of stock; anecdotally there was a container full of them sitting on an oriental quayside, waiting for diesel/payment/inflation etc. Hope I am not teaching Grandma here; you may shame me into leaping headlong into the 20th C and attaching a photo! Just need to borrow a grandchild... BTC