Bruce Collinson

Don, you might want to try to pull your post re the fallow deer in case the balaclava wearers trip over it. They appear to have no sense of humour whatsoever. Percy, this modeller fits your profile of living in the country, black lab and an SUV which does indeed have 4wd. Latter is the Boss’ car except for Wednesdays and Saturdays when it’s quite good at swallowing increasingly large planes and all their paraphernalia, plus alternate Saturdays from Sept to Jan when it nearly swallows the lab and loads of kit for the shooting season. The 4wd comes in pretty useful then, too. So does the lab. A broad church, aren’t we? BTC

Well written CB. I'm just off to the LMS for fuel and a prop. Doubtless other retail opportunities will arise as a direct result. BTC

Steve, Wot's a Podenco? BTC

Since when did this forum automatically convert a question mark into a grinning yellow symbol ... and I dare not finish the sentence properly with punctuation ...maybe Big Brother really IS listening to me. I was never paranoid until they all conspired against me. BTC

Completely agree with Ikura and just want to commend everyone who has contributed for avoiding any mention of UK's proposed 5G infrastructure main contractor, Huawei (prn. "Who are we?". BTC

Go for it Rocker, a long warm day’s flying is enhanced by the ability to recharge some of your LiPos and fly them again. I have an AGM leisure battery with a smart charger to keep it topped up and I believe these are the current vogue for this application. i guess like most things in life, buying well at the outset is the order of the day so get a large capacity battery. They’re very heavy. BTC

Chris, sheet lead, legitimately, can come from a roofing supply merchant. Any friendly local roofer or jobbing builder will have offcuts kicking about. BTC

Sorry Peter, a technophobe with an I-Thing isn’t conducive, plus England v West Indies is on Eye-Sky. BTC

That may be some time then, shame as I share your views about ARTF undercarts. Mine have progressively been upgraded although to be fair Foss undercarts bend quite a bit before they cause structural damage, and nylon bolts head off lots of that. Do I recall a recent thread advocating a beefed up plate with a flimsier sacrificial plate between it and the uc? BTC

In case there are silent watchers out there, mine maidened today, mostly satisfactorily. Very little trim needed, ailerons needed softening more than my default 25% expo, wanted quite a bit of down elevato inverted with c of g at 147mm. then I had a bouncy cross wind landing which didn’t end well. Still, the undercart plate needed beefing up anyway. otherwise, very happy with it and its Laser 100 BTC

Having drifted off post a bit, I feel justified in this three pen’orth. as a relatively recent returnee( 3 yrs) I am sliding back into what work and life kept telling me, which is that re-labelled far eastern tack notwithstanding, you get what you pay for, the cheapest option is very rarely the best value and my current philosophy of buying slightly higher capacity/quality/provenance than is strictly necessary, as an investment for the future, is therefore entirely justified. As someone asked when I unveiled my new radio, “will it make you fly better?”. As I replied, “no, but it will make flying well more enjoyable ... and crashing easier to isolate and attribute to numb thumbs, not the Curse of Spektrum.” BTC

K Jon, ta. Never realised there were performance issues with intake manifolds. It's back to the heatgun then, now it smells of nitro! BTC

Is it considered appropriate to ask a technical question about Lasers here without gratuitous sideswipes concerning production levels? I'll assume it is. Jon knows I have a tank height issue with a Probuild Infinity and a Laser 100 which I may have solved by moulding a Sullivan Flex tank and installing it below the u/c plate. It ran a treat when first fired up last Sat, upright, inverted and vertical (sorry Jon, they made me do that). Hoping to maiden very soon. The tank and lower cowl are still falling out with each other and the tank will need further moulding before it flies with the cowl fitted. Question, prompted by a clubmate; is there any reason not to fabricate an intake manifold extension to raise the spraybar height about an inch and move the tank to the top of the u/c plate? Said clubmate has a similar arrangement on an OS, milled from solid aluminium. Thoughts? Might not be worth the faffing ... BTC

Spookily, now mine’s in action at the strip there’s been some interest and a club mate has bought the components to start one, proposing to make sliding cradles like yours. He’s going to beef up the tray to stand his flight box on it. i need another as it’s default for cradling models in the mancave now. I made curved Y-shaped crutches for mine and am very happy with them. Got the cigar clip right, cup holder still to go on and the ice bucket will have to use a cable tie but fitting the humidor used up most of the shelf so will have to be shelved .... as it were... Can’t see how to do the slides through the foam but I will show this to clubmate Jeff Ellis, see above, who was an engineer. It’s a great bit of kit. BTC

Never had one but mine was off a gentleman (in the old sense) via Ebay, another West Country man but not as Far West as you (Apple put those caps in) for under a third of retail. Wing was new, fus was fair but it was sold with no canopy. I figure it will fly to trim and fettle without it. Asked Probuild and they were distinctly non committal. JH is threatening a boy’s outing to Lidl for a pop bottle. He spoils me. No idea where it is. BTC

At least you have a canopy .......

The weather’s frustrating, isn’t it? We had mild often sunny, dry weather but a fresh blustery 10 to 20 mph wind at 45* to the strip so I only dared fly once with the Wot 4 which has been in A & E and felt odd. Good landing though. ran up the Laser 100 in the Infinitelyprotracted to check the tank/carb position etc. What a sweetie. First turn when primed, held 9100 on its running in prop, apparently no issues with the plumbing generally so no more excuses. Rx and Li-ion going in, c of g to settle, loose trim to fix (now there’s a helpful patina of engine oil on it), rear hatch bolt, locknuts and Loctite on clevises etc. Then wait for a 7mph straight wind. Club mates helpfully fettled the throws and rates in the new radio. BTC

I fly mine on such a LiPo. A standard Overlander 30 C will just fit. If I remember later I’ll check the dimensions. Mine has been into A&E twice and I don’t rule out that the first bulkhead might have enlarged slightly although it flew on these from the off. BTC

Cylinder spanks everything for finish and is the fussiest to maintain. When we used to cut our strip it was a biggish ride-on rotary, most efficient. 1/4" = cricket pitch, doesn't it? Depending on size of strip, biggest you can afford, manipulate and garage, so as to minimise non-flying time. BTC

seems to be a consensus emerging. Richard W, what you allude to, bung/constrict the stock exhaust outlets, got the DLE 20 below 82dB but only by a whisker, cost 900 rpm and was unacceptable. Bit like battery-only cars, far too heavily compromised to be practical, yet. BTC

Noisy. Observation suggests to me that in the larger sized petrol 2 strokes, there’s a huge after market in silencers and their typical airframes will accommodate a wide range of silencers. Some of them are effective. A smaller frame, especially scale, may be harder to configure with an effective silencer. There’s a peculiar bark at an annoying, long range frequency with many/most petrol engines so it’s a potential problem depending on your site rules. I gave up with a DLE 20 which was pretty well ideal in every other respect and chopped it in for a Saito. On the weight point, the Toni Clarke Zenoah setup runs on a 1s LiPo which weighs very little. I’ve no idea about your target weights but I doubt whether the ignition system would be a weight determinant, especially when offset against the much smaller tank you can use. As for an extra 5 L fuel can, I found it the least of the issues in flying glow, leccy and petrol on the same day. Oh yes, there’s the smell too unless you shell out for Aspen. Hope this helps. Keep us posted. BTC

There are commercially available plastic horns with a long sweep forward and if the Mancave wasn’t so untidy I’d find one and tell you what to look for. Might well be Multiplex. Modelshop Leeds has them. BTC

News. Jeremy's maidened today with c of g per the "wrong" plan, 147mm, no geometry checks per the above, ASP 120; reportedly "flew like a dream" with minimal trim but low-ish rates/throws. As I am about to change the rx in mine I will need the flying deflections/rates but it does sound to need very little to change to make it fly very well. I will post the settings in due course. The coal-face sadly kept me away from what sounded like a very successful session. Hope it gives you enthusiasm to finish and fly yours! BTC

Good one from George at 4Max, as with all things electric. Buy once , buy well. BTC

The only conceivable connection between this post and the title at the top is the fact that I will not be able to progress any of the numerous projects this Sunday, when the weather might be flyable. No tubing in the Infinitelycomplex 90, no re-maiden of the PTSD Wot 4, no heart transplant for the Yak, no running in of Lasers, playing with new Yeti radio or even vacuuming. Got to go to Twickenham instead. Do you think they’ll let me in with a bottle of French red and a gilet jaune, to express my heartfelt thanks to M. Micron and his progressive policies concerning Brexit? Not been before, just want to ensure the dress code is compliant. Not that I’ll be wearing a dress. BTC