Peter Miller
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Posts posted by Peter Miller
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Try The Oregon ATC2000 camera, 2" Diameter, 4 1/2" long weight 6 ounces. one hour of good video and the highest resolution with a 2 GB SD memory card. Buy it from Firebox.com or even cheaper on Ebay.
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Flanker, have you ever known any conversation, especially in a pub, that stayed on one subject the whole time?
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Fortunately there will always be lots of people who love to build. I am delighted to see that Al is designing his own models, the more the better.
I do feel that the argument that people will start on ARTFs and go on to build is a fallacy for the most part.
Back when plastic kits became popular modellers said that the people who built them would move on to building flying models. In fact it was the opposite and the decline seemed to start at that point.
Recently I was told about someone who recovered their ARTF with Solarfilm and took it along to a club (not in this country) They were asked how they had done it and how to apply Solarfilm.
Oh dear, my tears are diluting my Whisky.
In our small club quite a few members do fly ARTFs but there is not one who has not built models and who does not build the odd model now from time to time.
Still. I keep reminding myself that the vast numbers of ARTFers do keep the prices of radios and engines down and balsawood is still a sensible price and good quality if you know where to buy it. -
I am not sure how you would execute anyone who likes 2000 DB at any time as they must be brain dead anyway.
But think of this, they will never complain about the noise of models because they will be deaf anyway. -
I have to say that Dave's definition of a miniature aircraft goes back a long long way, I seem to remember reading it in Aeromodeller in the late 50s.
Yes, non-scale aircraft are miniature aircraft designed to do a specific task, maximum duration, maximum speed, precision aerobatics or what ever.
To call a scale model a "toy" is utter codswallop! About the same time as I read the definition of "Miniature aircraft" I also read another definition. A toy is something that a child pushes along the floor, a model aircraft is a working replica of the full size. (Solid, or static models excepted of course but even they are not "Toys", They are scale replicas.)
It should fly in a similar way to the prototype. I know we are all guilty of flying aerobatics that the full size could not perform.
Now the interesting thing is this. Look at any really big railway layout, they are normally populated with figures, look at the slot car tracks, OK, they don't exist now but in those days no one said that the figures of spectators should not be there, they added to the atmosphere.
Some years ago I designed a scale PT boat. The photos of that tearing round the pond didn't look realistic until I added a compliment of crew on the bridge and round the guns.
Oh and Snoopy should only ever be fitted to a flying dog kennel for complete authenticity -
Just finished the trainer being used for Piggyback experiments.
It has a heavier engine, a .32 instead of a .25. CG is specified as being at 75mm back from the leading edge. Only took 6 ounces of sheet lead to get it forward to the specified point. Luckily I have a roofing contractor just up the road from my house or the church would have had a new leak.
Must have used oak for the tail instead of the usual orange boxes. -
Just to put in my twopennorth. Strip ailerons can be used as flaperons with some degree of safety. Using inset aierons out at the tip as flaperons is a NO-NO because they generate tip stalls.
Common full size practice on STOL aricraft is to lower the flaps and droop the ailerons slightly thus creating effective washout on the wing.
From what I have read the glider boys drop the flaps and raise the ailerons, i.e. Crow braking.
Flaps coming down generate more lift than drag as they start but the ratio changes the further down that they go.
Trim change can vary from model to model. My Fletcher Defender would pitch nose up slightly as the flaps started to come down and from then on the trim did not change. My Midget Mustang shows no trim change at all. The first time I tried the flaps at a great height I thought I must have twiddled the wrong knob as nothing obvious happened.
When the model got lower I could see that I had full down flap and all that happened was that the model slowed down. -
Tony, Are you by any chance the Tony Jones that I knew at Laarbruch in 66? Flew control line stunt.
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On another thread people objected to the idea that ARTFers are not modellers. Well, I won't split hairs on that one but what I will say is this, people who build their own models, either, kit, plan or OD are craftsmen and those who have only assemble ARTFs cannot claim that.
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When someone says "No skill" I wonder how all of us old timers ever built any models, after all we were not born with the skills, we had to learn them, often without any outside help.
You learn the skills by building.
The other thing is that back in the days when many of us started, R/C was for bloated plutocrats only. We started with simple models, Free Flight and Control line. We learned the principals of building, trimming and control with these.
Anyone remember the cretins in the free flight area at Old Warden who would launch a model, watch it crash, pick it up and launch it again without making any adjustments? They never even thought about trimming.
The daft thing is that people who never build don't know how to repair their models so they just buy another.
Quality is another factor, there are good ones but...
The model I am assembling for the piggy back experiment has a solid dihedral brace. snag is that it is 1/16" short of the depth of the hole it goes into.
Not a problem for me, just take a piece of 1/16" ply from stock, cut it to width and it glue on. What would the inexperienced modeller do?
I am told thad DB models are still producing a range of the old kits, Corben Baby Ace, Centurionand more with others in the pipeline.
Sig still make them, Galaxy Models have their range. There are kits if you look hard ennough. Better still, build from plans.
Finally (Thank God, I hear the mutters) For me half the pleasure of the hobby is in the building. Even if a model crashes on its first flight I never feel that it is a waste because I had hours of pleasure building it.
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Not my muppet this time, well, not the worst part.
Was flying my easy Pigeon and got distratced, lost sight of it. Spent tow days searching and then gave up.
Farmer's son turned up a few days later. he had found it sityting behind a copse. Couldn't get it in the tractor cab so balanced it on the bonnet. It slid off and the tractor drove over it. Not a lot left.
He only got half a bottle of whisky by way of thanks! -
There is some around, not locally to me. Don't forget the Cabbage Patch Nationals gets a bit turn out too.
I will say one thing. It doesn't half open the eyes of those clubmembers who have never seen it.
Likewise when I flew a pylon job (Calypso major with R/C on the rudder to bring it home) Their eys popped out of their heads at that screaming spiral climb and lovely flat glide.
The modern R/C er needs to be educated. -
I was just asmebling the piggy back model. The screws for the control horns are not longenough to go into the backing plates. Typical. Also the pushrod for the elevator runs through holes in the formers, these have been bushed with plastic, result, the pushrods are stiff to operate.
I have huge stocks of screws and I know enough to knock the bushes out. What about the poor ARTFer who doesn't know any better and doesn't have all the bits -
You don't forget, it is still easy. Try something a bit larger and slower for a first go. Mercury Cobra for example or even a 35 stunter.
I have a 15 powered stunter and a 35 powered one.
I I know that RCM&E or maybe the old Radio Modeller did plans for an R/C conversion of the Skystreak some years ago. -
Ouch! I use a cheapy type workmate with a test stand on it but I do tie it to a tree so it can't come forwards.
I remember back in the 50s a Mcoy 35 coming out of the club test stand and going right across the club room, luckily no one was in the way. -
Hi Jetsome. I stand corrected. I didn't have proprtional until about 76. MacGregor.
I do remmeber watching people desperately trying to tune their Txs for reeds. That put me off radio for a long time. I alway preferred C/L. Still like it from time to time. -
I can tell you that plans in the magazines are highly popular and built by many )I am very glad to say!) They don't cost a lot to build and you can select your own grades of wood etc.
My Easy Pigeon, the ONLY ARTF that I have ever liked, Seems to be buuilt out of old orange boxes.
I have just all the club member's dropping because I bought another ARTF. Reason was I wanted to do some experiments with Piggy Backing gliders and I got a price at which I could not build the thing myself, also It gives me time to design another model.
It seesm passably built but the tank position is so low that I do wonder if I will have any problems.
Actually I think that the Chinese are mising a trick. If they sold their ARTFs as kits they could charge nearly as much and save on assembly labour, covering etc although I don't think that they would save much on glue!!! -
You see a lot of reviews mention that some of the joints are poor or not glued. I can tell you that there is one kit under review (not by me) which is so bad that they are not sure if they dare publish the review. Not what I call a good service to the modeller. My attitude has been that I ma there to help the modeller, not the manufacturer.
The old Kyosho Spitfire would lose the retracts on the first landing and half the tail plane was known to be liable to fall of. Two did at Sandown the year they introduced it. Just good old lack of glue.
The trouble is that the people building these things are not interested and don't understand modelling. all they want to do is earn another bowl of rice before knocking off time.
I also know of a trainer some years ago were the spars were like ultra soft balsa. Saw one fail (It was never over strassed) it was replaced by the importer and the replacement failed on the first flight.
They both broke just outboard of the centre section sheeting.
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ECC Telecommander. Trim for maximum current drop, trim for sensitivity using a milliameter. Start the engine the relay goes mad and all the turns come of the escapement rubber. Two 22 volt hearing aid betters, one large 1.5 volt grid bias battery and four pencells. That was the first in 1954.
Then ED Boomerang and a couple of other sets that never worked.
First sucessful one was the RSC Guidance System. In Junior 60.
JETSOME> I didn't think that the Triang Tx came out until about 56 or 57 when I was already in the RAF. I seem to remember that it was advertised along with a cargo boat at the time. That would make it about 50 years ago. IT certainly wasn't advertised when I bought the ECC gear.
I love my FF8. The DX & is great too but I prefer the throttle cut switch option on the FF8.
Never had a linear servo but it strikes me that they have a lot of advantages. -
You say that the mid range is the problem so I assume that the full throttle and idle are about right.
In that case I would not worry too much about the mid range, I would be surprised if you needed more than a click or two (or bleep or two) trim to correct any discrepancy in the mid range. So the Y lead would do OK.
Actually I am surprised that they can vary so much and if I read you right, the variation isn't even consistant. I found my Super Custom engiens worked perfectly in my American Nightmare. Never had any trim problems with them. -
On your paint finish. I would cover with tissue and dope, this adds strength without much weight and fills the grain. The a caot of sanding sealer followed by the pait.
To cover with tissue over the sheet the best is as follows.
Sand smooth and apply a coat of dope, leave to dry. Get your tissue (Model span or equivelent wet strenght light weight from you model shop, Galaxy stock it if your model shop is ARTF obsessed.
Apply another coast of dope, wet the tissue and squeeze out, lay the wet tissue over the area and paint on Celullose thinners, This draws the dope through the tissue.
Leave to dry, don't worry about the white marks. Then apply a couple more coats of dope and a caot of sanding sealer. Rubbing down between coats.
Now apply the paint. You can, with patience and practice, get a finish up like a Rolls Royce in this way.
The tissue is importate for strength. -
Actually I have to tell you that I prefer female pilots.
Oh, and that used to be a very common expression back in our club in Aden. "It'll never fly, its the wrong colour." Green models never did fly as well as other colours.
And talking of such superstitions, have you ever noticed that models fly much better if you accidentally cut yourself and bleed on them? It must be accidental though. -
The alternative of "ongoing" is just as bad as are so many of the business speak terms
I think it is intended to make them sound clever, trendy, with it and hopefully to impress the boss.
Me? I have always been a fitter who called a spanner a spanner. -
You say that even a jet pilot looks wrong hidden under masks and bonedome etc. I think that this may be the answer. You look at a pilot in a model and feel that he is "wrong" even when he shouldn't be because of being hidden under the equipment. i.e pilot in model is wrong no matter how realistic he is.
Rx Lead
in Beginners
Posted
Push the aerial in to one slit and back out of the other, retain the tube to the top of the fin with a pin.
The tube grips the aerial firmly but will allow it to slip of snagged. This way there are no bends in the aerial and it looks neater than bands.