Nigel Heather

Thanks - I have seen your response and sent the screenshot you requested - BTW my first contact was on Thursday at 18:50 over a day earlier than you say.

So more developments. Today I got an email from CAA that my registration has been renewed. But BMFA portal still shows that I am not registered. Clearly something has gone wrong with their processing Take payment - YES Send confirmation email of registration - YES Send confirmation email of payment - YES Pass information onto CAA - YES Update their database - NO I guess at least I know that it is done, just would be nice if it appeared in the BMFA Portal, otherwise what is the point of the Portal if it can’t be trusted to be accurate. Would be nice to get some sort of response from BMFA. Cheers, Nigel

I'll certainly be doing that next year.

I thought it might have been because I registered directly with the CAA last year but checking back I did it with the BMFA last year - so can't see how there is a problem. Yes email is the same with the BMFA and CAA. What's more not only is my renewal not showing but my current registration has been removed.

Yesterday I got an email from the BMFA advising me that my CAA membership was expiring soon and asking me to renew it. I logged into the BMFA portal and could see my CAA membership which runs to 21st Feb, and just in case I might forget if I left it I decided to renew then and there. I selected the renewal, paid the the fee and got a success message on a couple of emails confirming registration and payment. But when I checked in the portal it no longer shows that I have CAA membership. I left it a day to see if it just needed a few hours to update but still nothing. According to my portal I don't have CAA registration. Anyone else seeing this - I did reach out to BMFA yesterday but haven't heard anything from them yet? Cheers, Nigel

@kcand @EarlyBird Thanks for all the advice - that is very useful. A question about the plans - I have a few ideas myself but would be interest to hear your suggestions. The plan included in RCME is not large enough to show the fuselage in one piece - instead it show the front section (about 750mm) and the rear section (about 350mm). Did you find it necessary to create a single piece fuselage plan, either by cutting and joining the plan (once work on the reverse side has been completed) or making photocopies?

Bought the latest RCME, primarily for the Chilli Breeze plan. I’m comfortable building from plans, happy to cut all the parts myself, including ribs and formers, but one thing I struggle with is visualising what wood I need to go out and buy. I don’t have a local store so I can’t buy as I need so I’d prefer to buy it all at once to keep postage costs done. Wondering if anyone has created a shopping list of what wood is needed to complete the build. BTW I know that Sarik do wood kits including laser cut parts but I’d prefer to do it all myself. Many thanks, Nigel

Maybe they work like this. A few months ago I bought a 3D Printer system from Elegoo to be fulfilled from their UK warehouse. I had an issue with part of it and had to return it to them. In separate emails they provided two different addresses in the Midlands. Confused that they gave two addresses I checked on street view on Google maps. Neither locations were branded as Elegoo, both companies had different but quite generic trading names. When I Google I found they they were both general Logistics companies. I suspect that Elegoo don't really have a UK warehouse they just contract it out to import businesses. Wouldn't surprise me if HK do the same.

Sorry, but there is no way that AV databases hold copies of every software file (or even a tiny fraction of them) to be used for comparison. They use algorithms and design patterns to look for suspected trojans. And those algorithms sometime result in false-positives. For example, if a piece of legitimate code has been written in an irregular way it might get marked as a trojan. They may of course hold more details for known trojans and viruses which it does search for. But there is no way that it hold copies of every software file so that it can compare with what is actually stored. Licence and IP issues aside, just thin how large that database would have to be.

Bit disappointed to see that the money we pay is all for nothing. Watching Vigil on BBC and there was an activisit flying a drone over a military base whilst there was a live flying exercise in progress. Said he was a bird watcher, saying he used his drone to spot birds and there was no law stopping him from doing that. And the Police acted like he was right. I'm joking of course, it's just a drama, but did irritate a bit knowing that the hobby is highly regulated but the BBC presents it as a 'you can do what you want'. The drama even made quips like "this is not a drone, this is an RPAS, drones are what you fly down at the park".

Just answering your specific exam question, yes, I believe it will generate more thrust. Of course as others have said, if you just remove a 2 blade and replace it with a 3 blade the results are undefined because there will be extra drag, extra current, so there is no guarantee that the powertrain could turn the 3 blade at the same RPM. But if you can turn a 3 blade with same diameter, same pitch, same RPM then it will generate more thrust.

Just renewed mine - 50p increase on last year because I dropped the rewards card (it was nice to have in the wallet but found I wasn't using it). Will miss the magazines but to be honest, I never really read them, just a quick skim through before consigning them to recycling. Not surprised by the magazine becoming a costed extra - I sensed it was heading that way when the number of pages and the quality of the paper increased. I'd not be surprised if the paper magazine ceases if insufficient members stump up the £10.

Another reason why the ‘innovation’ rationale is complete BS is that 3% from each registered operator amounts to around £60k - anyone that has worked for large organisations will know that is peanuts and not enough to achieve anything. If they were really doing ‘innovation’ they’d need to spend millions.

A hell of a lot of words to bamboozle, or to put people off reading, which ultimately say nothing at all. Please in plain English, and written concisely, what exactly are they going to do with this 3% that they are extorting. My guess is to just pay the increased ATOS hosting invoice.

My question would be “what do I get from this ‘innovation’s. What is this ‘innovation’. And don’t say to fly lawfully, because I was getting that before and that is increasing by 5.3% - I get that prices increase but very suspicious about the extra 3% on top for a vague and undefined ‘innovation’. If I were to guess CAA - we want to increase by 8.3% Government auditor - sorry price increases capped to 5.3% CAA - okay, how about if we increase by 5.3% and we bung on an extra 3% for ‘innovation’ Government auditor - what’s this innovation CAA - it’s innovation Government auditor - oh go on then, as long as it is not a price increase

Hi Simon, When you say you used foamboard are you talking about the stuff with paper lining either side or the stiff without paper (like depron)

Nice - where did you get the plans for this - or is it your own design?

Quick Google says SEMFF (South East Michigan Foamy Flyers)

Interesting comment about the Riot. I have a Ruckus and whilst I agree that the airframe goes together quickly I found the battery and electronics bay very poorly thought out. In fact, I take note, that although the manual goes through the assembly in minute step by step detail, it practically glosses over the ESC, battery and receiver fitting, doesn't show any pictures of how they expect it all to fit in a sensible easy to use way.

As I read it, the airframe is black but he want to adds some yellow contrasting decoration. The advice given to paint it white is referring to just the decoration parts as an undercoat so that the yellow will cover more easily and more opaquely. From my experience of painting plastic miniatures for wargaming I know that the colours red, yellow and white are notoriously challenging because the pigments used do not provide good opacity. White used to be okay, but the pigment that did a good job was lead based and is now banned in Europe so white paint doesn’t cover so when now. My experience is with acrylic paints, it may be a different for enamels and lacquers but I doubt it. Yellow is probably the hardest to get an opaque cover and takes many coats to achieve. So if using paint, I’d recommend an undercoat first. The latest fashion in miniature paint is to use a pink undercoat for yellow, many swear by it, but that does alter the tone of the yellow, so I’d probably stick with white or light grey. Cheers, Nigel

Out of stock of 3/16" and based on the low advertised price suspect they have been out of stock for some time but they do have the 5/16". This is basically the same story everywhere I have looked in the UK - no problem with the 5/16" but either no listing for 3/16" or if it is listed they are out of stock. The proper 3/16" Flite Test Maker Foam does have paper on both sides.

It's been an interesting read. Question though - if I was really determined to use genuine 3/16" (5mm) Flite Test Maker Board because it is lighter and the paper peels off easily is there anywhere in the UK where I can buy it? See plenty of places selling 5/16" (8mm) but not the 3/16". And strange thing is that if I go to the official Flite Test Store they only sell 3/16" which is making me doubt whether the 5/16" is even genuine Maker Board. I've looked at stuff on Amazon, there are some good packs there but again, is it the same as Hobbycraft stuff - I assume so. Cheers, Nigel

With the suggestions of using Depron do you add paper for strength?

Looking at the build videos, you only peel the paper off one side or just in parts. Typically where you are forming curves you peel off the paper on the inside to make the foam board bend round the curve.

What is there to use for foam board models in the UK? Ideally, I would buy Flite Test foam board but not so easy to find in the UK and very expensive when you do. Quite jealous of our American friends who can buy a pack of 50 sheets for £100. I am aware of the Hobbycraft 5mm foam board sheets, but consensus is that it weighs more than Flite Test foam, also the paper layers are more difficult to remove. Speculation is that the glue used to adhere the paper is the cause for both those challenges. Means the models tend to build heavier but in particular come out tail heavy. I am also vaguely aware of the Vitrex underlay from B&Q, but don’t much more than it exists. Anyone use anything else - in particular, anyone know where to get Flite Test foam board in the UK at a sensible price?