Tom Gaskin 1

Plus one for the Proxxon saw. I've had mine for 3 or 4 years now - always useful to have it in arm's reach. Tom

Plus 1 for Bill - his wings are excellent. Tom

BCM exhausts were the best that I found when I was running petrol powered helis - far quieter than the 'exhaust diverters' that came with the engines. Although since growing up I have completely cured the noise issue by going electric! 😉 Tom

Just got back from a very blustery session at the Sussex club field. Four of us braved the wind for the morning. I re-maidened my ancient foamy Wot4 but did not bother to get the Cougar 2000 out of the car. Battening down the hatches ready for fifty-mile an hour winds later this afternoon (and for the rest of the week if the forecast is to be believed) Tom

A glorious day here on the south coast. I counted sixteen cars at the field this afternoon. Kiwi, Mam'selle and Hanky-Panky all others an airing 😃 Tom

I second the bathroom cleaner & wet wipes approach as well. Used in conjunction with a soft detailing brush you can get into the 'pores' of the foam to make the model sparkle again. You could then give it a coat of Future floor sealant (something learnt from making plastic kits) to preserve the finish. Tom

Some fascinating discussions here and also memories of school trauma with the physics laws! I do think that we are getting bogged-down in the science though. The quick answer to the OP is 'yes you can'. In the days of brushed motors (last century) we did need all of the help we could get in order to get the blessed models to fly for any length of time! Nowadays we have so much more power and efficiency to call upon that the type of prop on your electric motor is not terribly important. Tom

Use them if you have the right size. E props are lighter as they don't have to put up with the power pulses of IC, certainly I use what I have in stock, whether IC or E. Tom

Jolly slow to launch this morning, all other sites I visited worked fine... Tom

On a lot of flat-plate wings used by Chris Golds he would also droop the leading edge to give a higher lift section. His 29" span Sea Vixen is one that springs to mind, with 32mm fans. Tom

A lovely day here on the south coast - wall to wall blue skies for the whole day. The batteries got a real caning 😀 Tom

Chris, I obtained it from a good friend complete ready to go, so can only comment on the flying. I do recall that he was not impressed by the kit in general and fit of parts. There is a build blog Here on the mosquito. Tom

I have their Mosquito, originally powered by two 40's, now flying on a 5S2P 8000 electric setup (two 5 cell batteries in parallel in the fuz, feeding both motors. It is rather porky but fly's we'll. Tom

These generic motors ran on six or seven cell NiCads, and providing you kept the plastic end cap (the brush holders) cool you could run them on eight cells. So either two or three cell LiPos will work depending on the cell count / voltage limit on you esc. The standard propeller hub on these models accepts the Graupner or Aeronaut blades so you can still experiment with prop size - just swap-out the soft hinge bolts for M2 steel cap head bolts - we used to see high revs bend the hinge bolts and then destroy the prop/spinner, followed by the front of the model! Tom

Another competition session with the Hanky Pankys, a bit choppy for the balloon bursting but I came home with the winners biscuits and a complete model 😃 Tom

If I recall, Futaba are the only RC firm to use that polarity on their chargers, all others use the JR orientation. Tom

Check out the FUN-TU plan on OZ, it's an all-cardboard twin designed for two .20's Tom

@Rich Griff last century there were a number of plans using corrugated cardboard for the primary structure with a bit of ply for high-stress areas. Tom

On my Boddo Twin Tub the parasol wing has threaded rods embedded in the wing that pass through the cabane, with nuts & washers to secure it. It does mean that the model has to be inverted to assemble it, but using my SLEC model table it is no bother. Tom

+1 for the SLEC balsa stripper. Mine is about 45 years old now and always comes out to produce the stripwood/depron - as KC says, use many light strokes (and a sharp blade) to make the cut. Tom

George Stringwell is another advocate for the Mylar/Tissue route. Years ago I followed his guide to cover the open structure of a 2 metre 'Silver Cloud' glider that is still going strong today. Mike Woodhouse's website is a jolly good place to start. Tom

Wind-chill down to minus five didn't deter the SRFC Hanky-Panky formation dancing team this morning. Lovely and sunny but oh-so cold!! Tom

Got some flying in yesterday at the Sussex RFC's field with about half-a-dozen other hardy souls. Today is sunnier but very windy and a lot colder, so I'm going to stay in the workshop. Tom

Me too! It wasn't doing this about an hour ago... Tom

I use what are known as 'running gloves" - made of very thin synthetic material that keeps the wind off your hands, while being thin enough to still feel the sticks. Alternatively get hold of a 'tranny mitt" to put both hands and tx in, there is even room in the mitt for one of those fishermans' hand warmers 😀 Tom