Jon Walter

Just a thought, guys. When I started out in 1974 with my Horizon 2 channel and then OS Cougar Mk 1 gear, I seem to recall that servos weighed about 2oz each, the Rx the same, switch was another ounce, and the battery pack weighed 4 oz. All in all around 15 - 16oz. Some contemporary stuff was around the 20oz mark eg FLC, Digimax etc. Servo outputs were around 2lb, roughly the same as a 9g servo. Modern 4 channel stuff weighs 36g for the servos, 6g for the Rx, no switch and battery is in the ESC. To my addled brain this represents a weight saving of 14 to 18 oz. Factor in the massive power available from brushless electrics, and I find myself wondering why we need balsa as a material. We all love working with it, true, but in the 40s people were still building with spruce, bamboo etc because there as no balsa available. We can use different materials and still get the same performance as we had in the 80s and 90s, which wasn't shabby. it make take different techniques and a bit more work but it can and will be done. Having said all that I do hope we can still buy balsa in the future; I suspect that technology will move on, and providing structural damage hasn't been done to the balsa industry, we will see prices stabilise as well as supply. Here's hoping!!