Christopher Wolfe

Little Jane asked her father "Daddy, where does my intelligence come from?" Father replied "You must have got it from your mother, ................... because I still have most of mine!" .... and .... A bloke and his wife were driving through the country and had not spoken to each other for over an hour after an argument. As they drove past a farmyard with a full pigpen and a few donkeys the bloke remarked "Relatives of yours?" His wife replied.................."Yes, in-laws." * Chris *

That reminds me of when after a few years of marriage my darling wife remarked that when we were married she thought that I had lots of money because I flew model aeroplanes. It was with a wry smile that I told her that was why I didn't have lots of money 😊 * Chris *

I subscribe to RCG and lately when logged into RCG site (Via Firefox) I have noticed the occasional uninvited download request of a PDF or an HTML document in the background that was not requested. Sounds dodgy to me. Beware! * Chris *

I have used a right angled bend on the end of the wire pushrod with a corresponding hole in the side of a carbon fibre tube. Insert the wire and juggle the end into the hole. Then insert a dowel plug of suitable diameter to fit inside the tube with a groove cut to suit the pushrod wire diameter and epoxy into place. It won't pull out. * Chris *

Use this tool to see who is watching, takes a bit of learning though but the results are interesting wireshark. if you go online then let the fun begin 🙃

I have made a few nice vintage style fuel tanks by recycling the clear plastic tops that come with some drink bottles. Check them with your intended fuel before using. Regards * Chris *

Toto, have you tried what was advocated a while ago and using a Wattmeter or Ammeter to measure the battery draw whilst selectively connecting servo's? To kill four ESC BEC's in a row either you are dead unlucky or there is a problem somewhere in your setup. * Chris *

For a beginner builder I don't think that a 'short kit' is the best option as a bit of experience is required to select the appropriate remaining parts; longerons, stringers and wing spars. A full kit from one of the above mentioned manufacturers would (hopefully) include suitable selected grades of wood for the airframe. Next problem is selecting suitable adhesives, but that is well covered in many recent threads. Best of luck, enjoy building. * Chris *

Actually, that's just like what the serious Free Flight F1C flyers have been using for over a decade. Incoming thermal detected, glow on, push, disconnect glow and launch. Quite handy for use with folding props on a screaming .15 doing 20K+ RPM 🙃 * Chris *

Just like here in Australia, when the mobile towers go down a UPS would be of little help - 500 down in yesterday's storm Yesterday's thunderstorm damage in Victoria, Australia * Chris *

I actually taught some of my early pupils (my children) to fly around with basic manouevers and then land before before I talked them through how to take off because I thought at the time (quite a few years ago);- What's the point of teaching them to take off if they cannot land the model? Being aged 9 - 13 it actually took them about three weeks to fly solo and I was quite proud when my 9 year old daughter gave a 13 year old lad a lesson in how to fly a model - Next flight he did not crash and break the model due to pride (or loss of it) because all his mates were watching 🙃 Model was a pretty tame vintage model (like what D.D. is setting up for his friend) so when things got a bit awkward I just told the students to reduce throttle to 50% and let go of the sticks. Lots of mistakes high of course. * Chris *

Sorry John I must beg to disagree with this statement. Sure, it is easy nowadays to dial in a bit of trim when engine thrust varies but is it efficient? As a free flight tragic I have found that to trim an r/c model (aerobatic or otherwise), fine tuning the thrust line is as critical as fine tuning the c/g and the control surface. To fly fast without significant trim changes, it is also important to also have not only the thrust line through the c/g but also have the wing and the horizontal stabiliser along the same thrust line and ideally the fin/rudder equally distributed. As an extreme example, I fly a few model floatplanes with the engine mounted above the (high) wing; they often require quite a bit of upthrust for stable flying characteristics. The same applies to full size aircraft of similar layout. * Chris *

I remember my first and only 'ARF' model. (I won it at competition). Some of the glue joints were almost 1mm wide (I suppose that's why 'gap filling cyanoacrylate was invented, it was designed for for inaccurate builders) 🙃 Soon assembled and abandoned the model, it sold within a week at the local model shop 😌 I actually felt sorry for the person that purchased it as I had never before seen a model built from such cheap and crappy materials. So nowadays I build from that magic material called 'scratch' which is not obtainable in model shops or online and quality control is just down to one person 😉 * Chris *

Is there a difference between an aeromodeller and a model flyer? This might open a can of worms, but it needs to be said. I have noticed that some people whom purchase a 'ready to fly' plastic foamie stabilised model (so called 'Park Flyer') actually call themselves aeromodellers. To me this is a traversty of the term 'Aeromodeller' in the traditional meaning of the term when an aeromodeller actually built (and maybe designed), flew and trimmed a model aircraft themselves. Is there a difference between an aeromodeller and a model flyer who flies $2 worth of plastic drink cooler material material in a park, when the only effort required was to open the packaging, charge the battery and let the autostabilisation system handle the finer points of actually flying the model? I was bemused by the change from SMAE to BMFA but in hindsight this makes sense as the establishment obviously saw the writing on the wall. Then of course the 'Model Flyer' magazine appeared with paid ARF and foamie reviews which did not help the traditional aeromodellers to advance with their constructional skills. So I put it that there are aeromodellers and there are model flyers, some of whom will hopefully evolve into becoming genuine aeromodellers. Over to you. I have my flak jacket on. * Chris *

A teacher was showing a map of Australia on the whiteboard. "So who can show me where Tasmania is?" Mary stood up and pointed to the correct location. Teacher said well can anybody tell me who discovered Tasmania? Johnny said "Well, Mary did'!

One thing that bemuses me is that some people go to much effort to build a great lightweight airframe and then hang great slabs of balsa on to the flying surfaces for control purposes. I am referring to;- rudder, ailerons and elevators. Just take a look at many classical aircraft (WWII fighters especially) and whilst the airframe may have been 'stressed skin' the control surfaces were often a lightweight structure and fabric covered. As they were not load bearing structural members (as opposed to a wing-spar) they were quite adequate for their intended purpose. I suspect that the original designers knew their stuff and maybe wore out a few slide rules to reach this conclusion. 'Hangar rash' is not an issue for a model as a well designed and braced laminated outline might flex and absorb the odd knock better than a solid lump of wood, but it's best not to bash your models into doors in the first place. * Chris *

As I was putting my bin out I noticed that my neighbour had not put his bin out so I asked him, "Where's your bin?" He said that he'd been on holidays for a few months. So I said "So where's your wheelie bin?" He said "Well I've really been in prison so please don't tell the neighbours."

Steve, you might consider shortening the nose a little. The original balanced with a 70's style .60 2 stroke engine which were pretty lightweight compared to your Saito FG21. (I averaged the weight of most typical engines from the period by checking reviews at the usual websites) I did the calculations for fitting a Saito FA-100T to my DB short kit and came up with the conclusion that about 20mm reduction in the distance from the CG to the front former would be required to avoid adding lead to the rear end (even after servo's and flight battery moved aft a bit. My rudder and elevators are also built-up (as opposed to sheet) with pull-pull controls so already lighter at the rear end. The Mighty Barnstormer is a great design, best of luck with your build. * Chris *

This reminds me of:- Miss, can i get into trouble for something that I didn't do? Well, of course not. Great, 'cos I didn't do my homework.

I actually built this Free Flight version about 25 years ago Siebel Si 201 and it's still flying sweetly. Very stable with no vices. The only mods that I made were to add a thin steel thrust washer between the prop driver and the crankcase to prevent aluminium-aluminium galling and the wings were flat (no aerofoil) to make it eligible for the Free Flight 'Ebenezer' category. It won it's first comp (pilots choice) so as others have already remarked, get the thrust line correct. Fly it gently, it's a stable observation aircraft, not a fighter 🙃 * Chris *

This is actually quite sad as I met a bloke in Sydney (about 1993) and he was an ex Stuka tail gunner and all he told me that the pull out was quite terrible but somehow he survived for 5 years and then emigrated in 1949 and managed to raise a family in Australia. * Chris *

Did he work for Boeing?

I did my training according to this standard NASA Soldering requirements and have worked in the industry for a few years or two so I might be a bit picky. The photos that toto provided indeed may from this 'bad batch' as the wires do not even have a meniscus to the PCB pads and are just 'Blobs'. As I said, a decent Q/C inspector would have identified these defects - but that costs $$$ * Chris *

Dear toto. The soldered joints on the connecting wires is abysmal (VBATT, GND and the 3 motor wires). Unlike the SMD components which were presumably machine placed and soldered the connecting wires appear to be hand soldered with pasty looking cold soldered blobs. No individual conductor wires are visible and there are traces of flux residue between the wires (although these might be remains of the FET's) To me this indicated a lack of Q/C. Next time spend a few more quid for something of better quality, it's probably cheaper than a new arf. * Chris *

Total Watts from battery 570. So just over 140 Watts per motor+ESC. * Chris *