Andy Stephenson

This one has a nasty ABS cowl, if that helps.

I am reconditioning an almost complete Wot4 built some decades ago that was left to me, but I'm trying to work out just how old it is. The price on the box says £46 so it must have been some time in the 80s. Can anyone speculate when the kit might have been purchased.

It's a complete pain when removing the internal filleting to fit an engine mount to a new model if you didn't make provision beforehand. I decided to make a gadget to get round this which I found most useful on an almost complete Wot4 that was left to me by a deceased friend. He'd built it with little idea as to which engine to fit or even if he was up to flying it after a long layoff from the hobby. I have decided to finish it but it needs an engine so I chose an Irvine 61 out of my collection as the most suitable. Some time ago I had this same problem, of my own making, that time, so I made a drill with a gouge on the end which is turned 180 degrees to operate from the inside of a predrilled hole. The idea is that it is threaded through the engine mount hole and clamped in a drill chuck. The drill is pulled into fillet, milling away a perfect counter-bore for a captive tee nut to be installed. Care has to be taken not to pull too much as there is a danger of coming all the way through the firewall.

There are people who just don't like Xjet because he's outspoken and has done some silly things in the past. There must be plenty of other videos of planes, model and full-size with Swastikas on the tube that haven't been objected to.

The funny thing was when I was at the NEC guess where, Brum. The stand fitter was just putting the finishing touches to our stand but the carpet wouldn't quite clear the door to the green room at the back so he pushed a piece if strip metal under each side of the jam and fixed it by carefully placing a wood screw in the middle and gave it an all mighty wack with a hammer and drove it straight in with a single blow. That's why they call a hammer the Birmingham screwdriver.

RAF pilots are not allowed to use polarised glasses because it might mean they miss a specular reflection from a distant enemy aircraft.

Modelfixings has a good selection of O rings listed by size.

By the time you get into the actual page for posting ads, that warning note at the top of the main page is no longer visible and I'm not one for reading instructions anyway, particularly ones that warn you how to behave because I already know.

I've noticed the lack of pictures in the classified listings and some even complaining they have trouble uploading. There seems to be limit on file size they don't make clear. I just listed a Tx on the site and when first trying to upload photos it said uploading but no thumbnail appeared until I sent a cropped picture which did appear so I re-saved the troublesome ones as a smaller file size and then as if by magic they came up. I'm guessing the file size limit is about 5MB but it seems as digital photography improves the file sizes get too big to be handled by the site.

You could email RCJapan and ask if they can get hold of the parts or go direct to Enya.

Edgeflyer, Try RCJAPAN You may need to know the exact Enya part number as they have a large number of spares listed but no pictures for most of them.

To remove the valves from a Laser, I made a balsa block which fitted into the combustion chamber of the cylinder head. The block stops the valves moving when working from the top of the cylinder head. The spring needs to be pushed down so that it releases the two collet halves which secure the spring retainer so that it can be removed along with the spring. The valve can now be pushed through the head so that the seating can be checked and cleaned. I found it only necessary to do this to the exhaust valve due to carbon build-up. The collets are tiny and are easy to lose and given the spares issue this procedure is best carried out in a clear plastic bag.

I've had a few Saitos and they all come, as new, with the low-end set far too rich and as a result run very lumpy at idle. Don't be fooled, they will pick up from a very rich low-end just fine but that doesn't mean they are adjusted correctly. Leaning it till the vibration evens out will still leave you with a reliable pick-up.

This guy on RCG has an interesting idea for fuel-proofing paint... https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?4716997-How-Too-Make-Paint-Fuelproof

I tried thinning emulsion paint with windscreen wash but all it did was make a mess. You could try methanol, which is one of the constituents of washer fluid as it is completely miscible with water.