Andy Gates

Hi Jon, I too am sorry for your loss and nothing anyone can say will change that feeling. The feeling of loss will diminish with time, but loosing a parent will always leave a gap. For our family, my mum was Christmas. She was more excited about the gift giving and the celebrations than us kids were. Now she is gone, Xmas is a much emptier occasion for us. I wish you and your family well Jon. Catch up with you in 2023

Hi Greg, Welcome to the hobby / sport. My recommendation is not so much model orientated, but look around for a local club and visit it. There will be folks there who will be able to assist when the build gets slowed up by strangely worded or technical instructions, and will be able to assist in you getting successfully air bourne for the first time. If building a balsa model like the Sonata (which I think is a great recommendation), while your boat building experience will be invaluable you will need to remember to try not to add weight or beef up structures. "Build in lightness". Best of luck & keep us posted.

My paper copy arrived this morning KC

I use the ACCST versions of the S8R in all the machines I use for training beginners. I have a 3 position switch giving me gyro off / gyro on / stabilisation and a 2 position "Oh poo" switch. Stabilisation is awful and you feel like you are fighting the plane, I really don't recommend using this at all. The "Oh poo" switch is useful if the beginner does something stupid like flying through the sun, flick it and the plane levels itself and flies on until control can safely be regained. I have tested this in some really bizarre positions and it works like a dream. Never had to use it in earnest but it is a helpful back up. The level position for this is setup after flight testing and trimming, flick the switch 3 times rapidly with the plane in the attitude you want it to assume and it will self set. I have also set my Tx up so that when I pull the trainer switch it operates a flight mode for the students to reduce rates as well as handing them control.

EB that is just what this forum and our hobby / sport is all about - helping people. Nice one.

I like that Brian, furthest around the circuit!

We acquired one of those Robin, that someone had already made a start on. Came with veneer covered foam wings with ailerons and I am not sure to this day if both halves were both from the same model. Boy was it heavy and fast, not what I would call a trainer at all. We had quite a big strip and at times we struggled to keep landing runs on the field. It did fly of a fashion and got passed on. Spot landings with that - now there is a competition / challenge!

I have done the same Ron. £3 cable, £6 delivery but it turns up today not sometime next week if I am lucky with RM. I once ordered 15l of oil which came in a single drum, specialist auto transmission oil about £90. Delivery was via Hermes. Took a couple of days and I received an oil soaked box with a brand new black bucket inside. To say I was not happy is a slight understatement. Spoke to the supplier who refused to believe the date and time stamped photos I took. Eventually they paid up, lost my custom as did Hermes. Posted some really rubbish feedback with pictures and kept getting pestered to modify it which I refused to do. They took it down themselves.

Gents please do post your comp details as I am sure there are many out there taking their first steps into event organisation and every little bit of help is useful. I have taken on club secretary role with no events man & no safety man recruited. I face an uphill struggle so anything is appreciated. I love the sound of the ground handling comp especially as the saying at our club is that "rudders are for girlz"

I did notice that when I read the instructions just out of interest, that the power requirement did seem extreme. "make sure both supply the maximum continuous current of 40A and maximum peak of 120A" All the 3700mAH 4 cell packs I can find are only rated to 30A peak.

It is not that I am not used to Warbirds Jon just that I am used to operating at the opposite end of the weigh scale to yourself. In my fleet I have had 60"? Spitfire (now deceased), but still fly 78" Mosquito, 78" Beaufighter and all are sub 6lb in flying order. I shall watch with baited breath.....

I really hope you don't take this the wrong way Jon and I don't think you will, but you are talking of adding weight to a machine to acquire the correct CoG which is obviously the correct thing to do. The sort of weight you are adding are the weights my (electric) machines fly at which seems alien to me! Even my 80+" flying boat does not quite get to 6lb rtf. Best of luck with the mods but it does sound like an awful lot of work.

I am with Paul on this and use switches. The sliders on my radio have a lack of feel / ratchet which make the positioning indistinct therefore uneasy to replicate routinely.

I am going to try not to muddy the waters too much. I am a club instructor and the biggest key is that the equipment used is RELIABLE regardless of quality / brand. I have seen new folks turn up for a flying session to see the experts matching and adjusting transmitters to try an get a buddy system to work. As an instructor I have my own master Tx which will slave wirelessly to futaba / spektrum / other slave transmitters but my preference is to use my own pre-tested pre-setup and proven reliable system. Plug in a battery to the model and away we go. No issues. To Tiny I would have said to try and get a few flights in with the local club training machines using club equipment before making a decision about buying / repairing radio gear. My kit? Master is a Jumper T16 Pro (£140 new - still available for £124 new), slave is a Futaba F9CP Best of luck Tiny and welcome to aeromodelling.

Are you tallking SIM here or real flight. Can't answer for the SIM but for real flight the answer is yes dependant on the radio system in use. Some systems are easier to apply telemetry than others, likewise with displaying the information or having the transmitter call the info out for you.

The other thing with B+W photography is the use of coloured filters over the lens to help add contrast to certain colours. Typically orange / red filters to add contrast to pale blue skies with white clouds. Something similar may have happened here. I have an aunt in Canada who sent me pictures of one of the planes a relation flew in during training in Canada, a Fairey Battle. Guess the colour - yep orangey yellow

Lamfilm over the top. Same over the leading edge to stop the edges catching and lifting in the airflow.

Did you get sorted ED?

Hawke225 Getting towards the end of my repairs on the Ripmax Wot Trainer. It is a bit on the heavy side to me so I did some research. Spec for the weight on this machine is a flying weight of 2800g, my repaired plane is a little under this but not by much. Spec for Chris Foss UnoWot is 63oz which is around 1750g. The UnoWot is about 1 kg lighter than the Ripmax Wot Trainer, so personally if I had the choice - I would head for the Uno Wot every time. The kit also seems to be in stock in most places. The performance difference will be noticeable.

Have you tried Vortex Vacforms?

I do the same as Ron

Ben Buckle positioned his CoG at 213mm IN FRONT OF THE TRAILING EDGE. Latter bit done in caps as it is an unusual way of measuring. Source of this info is Outerzone

Current OS56 weighs 404g Chris, & don't forget the position of the fuel & tank

Please do not do this. While the intention is probably good, you really must not add unnecessary weight to the tail of models like this. Look at the lovely side view on the photo Chris has posted. There is approximately 1/3 of the fuselage in front of the CoG (I have guessed) and about 2/3 behind. Allowing for the fact the motor will be at the very front end the proportions may even be 1/4 & 3/4. Let us say you fit a 15g servo at the back for the rudder. At a 1:4 proportion, 15g at the back will need 60g at the front to balance the plane. This is not a good idea when you are likely to struggle to get the CoG anywhere close to where it should be when it is finished. Fit your servos either under the CoG or in front if you can. I know you can add weight but planes fly much nicer the lighter they are especially vintage ones. Cracking building, by the looks of it it should fly well.

Sorry Keith, but to me liteply is a bit of an Oxymoron. If you want light - use balsa. If you want strength - use ply. There are many other materials now being used for aeromodelling which are a better substitute than Liteply. For your example of the tail parts, I would much rather make up a frame work version than use sheet both for weight, strength and repairability.