Richard Ashworth

One more suggestion. If you are going to use nylon U/C bolts, drill 6mm holes in the battery tray over the U/C T nuts. Put a slot in the end of the nylon bolts before you use them so that if/when they break (through old age or whatever) its wing off and unscrew the shaft of the bolt left in the T Nut with a screwdriver. Saves half an hour of fiddling trying to get the ‘plug’ out with (if your lucky) pliers or more likely a drill.

Brian Coopers Friday post reminded me of an event a year or so ago. I had been flying an often flown 5 year old model (only one in the pilot box) and as usual until then, iPhone in back pocket. On straight and level downwind on preparation for landing the motor noticeably lost power. I assumed the battery had part failed in some way but then found that any movement on either aileron or elevator produced either reduced or exaggerated control surface movement. I somehow managed to do a 180 deg and got it lined up on the runway (model is docile and normally easily controlled at low speed) but then 50 yards short had a final reduction in power, it nose down and hit the ground nose wheel first (prop lost a blade (next to fuz), bent nose leg and a fuz former came loose). Tx switched off and left in the pilot box, went to the plane (wall to climb on the way) disconnected plane battery and took it all back to the pits. First check battery, 50%. Powered up tx, replugged battery in plane, all controls normal reponses. Felt phone in back pocket and spotted that five minutes prior - at time of event I had received two WhatsApp messages! The model easily mended and has flown 30 odd times since, same tx (Spektrum DX9) Rx, battery. Phone left in car since. Comments re high power phone activity noted.

Suggest Google AR8010t fault. There are postings in 2015 that that RX NEEDS to have a satellite Rx attached before it works, conformed by Horizon.

Will the picture be the right way up 50/50

Many Thanks - Off to ‘Sand Pit’ to play “getting it right way up”. Apologies to all with aching necks.

Sorry for inverted pic, I assumed the feature had been sorted in the time / new forum since the last pic I posted ? years ago.

First, post covering, mating of wings and fuz. Stil work to do but now realising how big it is!

When you fly model planes isn’t it easy. When you spend more time looking for lost planes and doing repairs it’s time for a visit to an optician. They may get bad press but Specsavers got me referred for cataracts early on (pre restarting the hobby) and I have not in 30 years had a problem with new glasses (varifocal).

I’m in the final stages of making one - electric, 1200W. Top hatch is easy - just razor saw cut a middle section out and ply face all four cut edges, a couple of bamboo pins at the front and a sprung hatch pin at the rear. Slight angle on the rear cut, to make inserting and removing the hatch easier. The cockpit sides are easily adjusted to fit the “new” gap between front and rear decks. The biggest challenge I had was getting a single battery plate piece of 3mm ply (with cutouts for cooling and battery straps) to fit. The fuz sides narrow both front to back and top to bottom. Solved with rails on both fuz sides deep enough for 5000 6S battery and a piece of card as a template slowly cut down size. Ply tray cut to template and final adjustment then epoxy front and both sides. Its probably the most solid front on any of my builds! There are minimal instructions with the kit, no plan, brief written overview with throws & CofG, some general sketches for facings on veneered parts and a bundle of A4 photos some of which are confusing as they show both pre and post what looks like a 2005 minor design change on rear former and wing bolt/bolts. I would agree it’s an easy IC build for an experienced builder but even after six previous leccy kit builds including conversions, I have done a lot of head scratching and learned quite a few new (old) construction techniques. I have to admit I felt a tad overfaced for a while at the start. I am putting a reg no on the wing F-JGFI. French CAP origins and thanks to a friend - Just Go For It! Biggest oops, on one aileron I got giddy, wanted to progress quickly, and put the leading edge facing on BEFORE I had built the bolt horn into the wing (photo 15th Jan no 22). Easily remedied by cutting out about 4 cm of facing, fitting the horn and splicing in a new piece of facing. Think twice etc. No build photos but will post a pic when complete - simple colour scheme, bright red fuz, white with red aileron and tip wings.

I Always learn something from another persons build/ mod. Count me in.

6 kits put together, 6 marked but only one twice. I was on double blood thinners for the first three planes and a quick dab of claret on an about to be covered, or hidden inside the fuz. It was then wrap in kitchen roll and walk around with finger pointing to the ceiling for up to half an hour! Now on a single thinner so just rolled in kitchen roll. Thought about Cyno but have experienced fingers stuck together, say no more. May not be linked to the christening but all the builds have flown well.

I did a DB S&S Barnstormer 63 two years ago. Not a difficult build but still ‘fondly’ remember the 33 bits of balsa that went into the built up tailplane! I Electrified it, reduced the dihedral (as per instructions) by 50% and added ailerons across the 4 outer bays in each wing. Very stable, flys smoothly on 1/3 throttle (200W), loops effortlessly on 450W. At 100ft, get the power right, two clicks of aileron and you can put the tx down and have a drink watching it gently fly around in 200ft circles. On a light wind day you can choose which wheel to land it on! Enjoy the build and flying it, it’s sturdy and has presence.

I think I am getting there with understanding RID but can anyone suggest what will be the consequences re the following. I live north west of Leeds literally 300m within the Leeds Bradford airport FRZ and fly fixed wing at the North Leeds MFC BMFA registered site.. If RID happens what’s the situation re setting up a model at home with RID at some stage built into the Rx? Could someone picking up the signal report me for flying in my garage, or God forbid the TX/RX just not work if Geofencing also happens? So far a lot of the discussion is about swapping modules at flying site but none of us (that I know of) build or do initial setting up there.

And just remember that on connectors, all metal that will remain visible after the male and female are plugged together, should be insulated with heat shrink tubing! With bullet connectors after I have the motor rotating the right way, standard anticlockwise, I put small wraps of red or green insulation tape on two of the the leads either side of the connectors so that if I need to take the electrics apart they are colour coded for quick reassembly.

Also watching, thank you. Not into warbirds but have now built four increasingly difficult electric sport plane flat pack kits (all self designed electric conversions!) with a fifth, Elan 100, part built. I follow most build blogs on the site and like most forumites have learnt and taken ideas from them all.