Christopher Morris 2

Hi, was looking around for a simple kit to fly rc electric plane & there is a few out there, like the ben buckles & alike, but not quite what I was looking for. I have also seen many good models that are more or less hand designed & are very good for a very low price. I Would look at it being a 2 or 3 servo trainer type & I thought i would try to build one, Mabey from plans with some adaptation. 1. Has anyone found better materials to use & avoid 2. Can you see any problem making the fuselage wider for ease of working on? This would still be tapered. 3. What sort of thickness on materials

Posted by mal brewer on 28/07/2020 18:55:16: Posted by Geoff S on 28/07/2020 17:53:29: Coalville is in Staffs, near Burton-on-Trent. Geoff I think you'll find that Coalville is actually in Leistershire................Mal It was an LE postcode.

Posted by Stephen Smith 14 on 28/07/2020 19:12:19: Posted by Christopher Morris 2 on 28/07/2020 08:47:50: Hobbyking are by far the worst on P&P charges & even worse, they want to charge 3 lots of P&P because they are sending from three areas of the world.   What a shock, what did you expect? You don't find this out until you check out. A fiver in the UK is ok & about the same for the EU, but i don't expect £50 & £60 P&P from china when many other companies post-free. I think the reason for the high price on P&P is they haven't sorted the weight of the items &v are saying its going airmail. I deducted 1 item off my order & it went from £55 to £28 & it couldn't of weighted any more than 3 ozs Edited By Christopher Morris 2 on 28/07/2020 21:30:18

Oddly enough, i just received a faulty power supply from Bangood & having to go through the rigmarole on sending it back. The other od thing was it was posted in the UK via Royal mail with a postage label that looks like its covering a china postage label. Was sent from Coalville UK, where ever that is.

Posted by Peter Christy on 28/07/2020 10:45:35: Posted by Cuban8 on 28/07/2020 09:17:43: My neighbour was quoted £300 for a car service by Halfords. Bill actually came to £350 because the vehicle required "specialist fully synthetic oil" not included in the service menu ..........in a bog standard Ford Focus???? I wouldn't trust Halfrauds to service a push-bike, let alone a car! They are notorious for "fixing" things that don't need it and over-charging for everything they think they can get away with. Halfrauds and Kwik-Fit are the two places at the top of my "avoid at all costs" list! -- Pete A friend of mine brought a new Kia when they fist came overhear. And in all fairness, it looked like a Merc & was better equipped. 1st service came up & they collected the car & left him with the service car while the service took place & brought it back serviced & valeted. "This was all free on the 1st service" KIA service was at Halfords, not sure if that was where it was taken, but a good job was done. That means it must have been serviced elsewhere. But his bill had Halfords on it. But yes, i would trust Halfords as far as i could through them. Its another store that shows its in stock online at your local store, when you get there, nothing.

Just put a post up about overseas retailers. **LINK** & Bangood is one of the better evils. But i have had things take 8 weeks to arrive. It seems to be more customs in china & the UK that doesn't help the speed of things. I have made orders to China may time's of up to £300 & never got charged at this end on customs. But in saying this, Bangood is an intermediary for many hundreds of companies & one order to them of several items come as individual items in the post. So looks like a less expensive purchase. I believe that customs go buy the value of the package being less than about £100. But i did buy some goods from the USA once of about £900.00. + £88 P&P Got a 12% import duty +vat & the Royal mail charged me £20 for collecting the fees. So this was £216 in P&P & taxes. yet still saved £178.00 on buying from the cheapest UK outlet.

Bangood, Aliexpress, Wish & Hobbyking. All have a bad habit of taking orders & using the excuse that it’s lost in transit or out of stock when it doesn’t turn up. It’s funny that when working for myself for 40 years & sent out thousands of estimates, not one got lost. Yet about 10% of the invoice wasn’t received. “Yeah” All of them, you have to check every week to see how your order is proceeding as you don’t always get email updates. Now, in all fairness, if i have had a problem, i was refunded in full. But can take a good week or so & the aggravation that is involved with it. Other things to watch out for are Bangood has a bad business practice of advertising an item on google at “let say” £99.00 & when you get to the site the price may have changed by +£30.00, even worse, they sometimes show the price the same as advertised & it’s sometimes increased at the check out by £30.00 + possible insurance & P&P. AliExpress, Wish & Hobbyking, are similar but load it on the P&P Hobbyking are by far the worst on P&P charges & even worse, they want to charge 3 lots of P&P because they are sending from three areas of the world. It’s easy to say don’t use them, but if you can afford UK prices, “fine” but i am looking to save money. I am still up far more on the money side & found Bangood the best of all these evils, as its easier to speak to someone, but you have to watch out.

Thanks, everyone, & some good tips.. I should have tried searching harder as there was a good page in the forum. **LINK**

Any recommendations of a Ben Buckle alternative dihedral style plane. Looking for a 2 servo no aileron simple to fly electric beginners plane around 60" Whilst shopping around, the ben buckle's were very short on the ground. Thanks

Posted by Denis Watkins on 26/06/2020 16:57:39: Posted by Christopher Morris 2 on 26/06/2020 16:40:31: Posted by Ron Gray on 26/06/2020 15:45:33: I belong to a couple of clubs so have a choice of 4 sites, two of which are very close to me. I also go flying in some fields behind my cottage, farmers don't mind, but then I'm only flying DLGs and hand launch 'planes there, the big stuff is reserved for the official flying sites. I am a newbie & my local club is really sticking to the rules of COVID. &, as i haven't an A licence yet i can't even use the club or get any training. Just unlucky on when i took up the hobby & could of saved £100.00. what with BMFA & club fees. With the advent of wireless buddy connection, our small club has one new candidate in the air. He had a list of tasks to follow prior to arrival and master and slave are operated 2 mtrs apart I spoke to the club & said i had a wireless DX6e & 8e, but they didn't want to upset the kart. I believe that the club is eligible for a grant of some sort to do with this COVID-19 & didnt want to lose this.

Posted by Ron Gray on 26/06/2020 15:45:33: I belong to a couple of clubs so have a choice of 4 sites, two of which are very close to me. I also go flying in some fields behind my cottage, farmers don't mind, but then I'm only flying DLGs and hand launch 'planes there, the big stuff is reserved for the official flying sites. I am a newbie & my local club is really sticking to the rules of COVID. &, as i haven't an A licence yet i can't even use the club or get any training. Just unlucky on when i took up the hobby & could of saved £100.00. what with BMFA & club fees.

Posted by Ron Gray on 26/06/2020 13:51:00: Looks good Chris, I use the RSSI single strength on my TX to locate a 'lost' 'plane but that relies on the RX still being plugged in, when I say I use it what I meant was I have used it once when I lost a 'plane in fog (don't ask). Found it in the middle of a field of sugar beet. Sounds like you were in the Norfolk area. The strange thing is i am in the kings Lynn area & i have been looking all over for a place i could practice on my own. Not easy out this way. Farmers will get funny about it & there is a lot of overhead wires around hear, plus quite a few wildlife trusts. The crazy thing is, i move up from London & there is far more places where i used to live. Within 1 mile of my house, there was 8 rugby/football pitches 2 large parks & 2 open spaces. cant win lol

Posted by Alan Jarvis on 26/06/2020 14:05:46: Where can you buy this? Gone up £3 since i brought it. but have a look around, there may be some cheaper. **LINK**

Just started playing with this tracker unit that cost £11.00 & the size is Size(L x W x H): 66mm x 46mm x 17mm/2.60" x 1.81" x 0.67" (Approx.) & weighs around 57grams I have taken it out in the car & its been very accurate. "Down to 5-10feet" It works on the mobile network & i use 1P mobile as they charge £10 for 4 months & everything is 1p per minute. That £10 pound never runs out & is part of your calls. So a text is 1p & a 1 hour call is 60p. You can use the unit to track or just find a lost plane via one call & it will send back a google map of where it is for 1p. This unit will do a lot more, but just as a simple sample if i send a text to the unit of "check123456" it will send back Now, this has also been running for 7 days with no charging & i have asked for details from the unit about 15 times. The slight downside is if you try this on the move, it can be about 20 yards out. But when its static, IE crashed, very accurate. One other thing is the battery cover i believe would come off in a crash, but a good rubber band or tape would solve this. For the price, I'm happy & i am sure there are many other uses.If you have a USB plug-in the boot of your car, 24/7 monitor.

Some interesting theories on what to do. Change to ic/glow engine & fuel? Like the plane's sound, but my club has noise limitations at certain hours, but not with electric. Also,, the fuel smells & cost £25 a gallon. + the conversion of at least 4 planes. Pass Generator? got to agree with others about the noise. Surely, not from the ones flying noisy fueled engines.lol Solar is a great idea's, but think i would need a few panels to get a quick charge on my 5000mah 4s ones. Batteries are another good idea along with solar as i would also have another use & could use it to charge the batteries for free at home. My trailer would be nice for adaptation for this use. Just depends if i can find cheap batteries & panels. The other alternative? is i just buy some more lipo batteries for my planes. lol

Posted by Jason Channing on 16/06/2020 18:31:49: Use a generator Laugh, i sold an old honda generator 900watt about 2 years ago as It got in the way & hadn't used it for a few years. Talk about shot yourself in the foot. I would kick myself if i hadn't shot myself in the foot.

A power pack looks interesting as an alternative. There are quite a few videos on this using the Li batteries, also some interesting ways to make a spot welder for putting them together. Now having a friend looking at this for his electric bike. I think I will take him flying & he can pedal to recharge my batteries.

Hi, the largest i would be using is 4c 14.8v 60c 5000mah.

I have a T240 Duo multi-type battery charger for my lipo's, that also has a 11-18V-DC input for charging off another battery. Would there be any preference/best option between a standard car battery & a leisure type? to do this sort of work.?? "besides price" Thanks Edited By Christopher Morris 2 on 16/06/2020 15:21:05

Sorry, mistake.  Edited By Christopher Morris 2 on 13/06/2020 10:27:58

Thanks, Romeo, Can you remember if it was 2,3,4mm Proplex as for some reason there is a doubling in price from 3 to 4mm`Not sure why.

AH, Tanks guys, a good bit of info. I forgot about the Range. What do you prefer for cutting this material? IE: Hotwire, Stanley, scalpel. Like the jar lid. I may be older, so i will keep the Ovaltine lids. Also, i drink Douwe Egberts so coffee lids are out as i think the glass lid will make it nose heavy. Edited By Christopher Morris 2 on 12/06/2020 14:20:04

Always looking for a cheap alternative to the hobby. Any cheap recommended modelling foams out there you can recommend. IE: packing materials, insulation boards & alike. Also, any recommended paint finishes as i realise some paints will melt many foam's. This could be for plane, boat, hovercraft. Also, any foams to avoid. Thanks Edited By Christopher Morris 2 on 12/06/2020 11:49:11

Thanks for the replies, BUT I'm an idiot. I should of given a bit more thought when purchasing. The battery discharger shown below isn't suitable as its only a 3-6 cell & the battery leads shown earlier is only a 2cell. But will be handy on all my other batteries. What i wanted to do was plug this in the JST plug to save from keep unplugging the A lead off the DX6e & damaging to the transmitter. Edited By Christopher Morris 2 on 09/06/2020 14:49:09

Hi, i have a lipo battery as per photo & was curious if the leads A & C are different in any way "Besides the plugs" 4000mah 7.4v 8c. IE: Are they just joined together inside. Or has one got a diode or similar attached to it? It was just a case of could i charge or discharge from either. Thanks Edited By Christopher Morris 2 on 09/06/2020 10:03:07