Piers Bowlan

That is dreadful news Matty, I am so sorry to hear this. I pray you make a speedy recovery soon.

Wow, awesome as they say. 👍. No, I think I will stick to my Junior 60! 🤔

Sage advice from David and Cuban8 as usual but Adam has already said he is not able to join a club at the present. It is true, bigger slow flying models are easier to see, whereas small models can get even smaller very quickly in flight. However a very simple model like Adam’s Basic Trainer is quick to put together and won’t break the bank. If he can build it, he can repair it. A proper Aeromodeler no less! My first RC model was ‘Snipe’ from Aeromodeller 1970. Crashed it so many times but the issue was the sticking Elmic escapement rather than the model, although thin ply fuselage doublers would have helped. My second model was Sir Jasper, a bit bigger at 42in and a great flyer. I flew mine on a Cox Babe Bee but I think it would be very successful on one of 4Max’s cheap 1000kv motor sets and a 1300mAh/3s LiPo.

Your Basic Trainer looks like a good choice Adam. My 2p worth is, stick to the plan, don’t try to lighten it, just make sensible wood choice ( rock hard balsa spars and lightweight balsa for tail). The battery hatch could be held on with small magnets or Velcro to facilitate rapid battery egress in the event of an arrival (crash). Don’t over power it and a smaller battery will tend to do less damage to your model if (when) you do. Give careful attention to get the c of g correct (too far forward and it may fly badly, too far aft and it will only fly once!). Don’t be tempted to increase control deflections in the mistaken belief it will give you more control. Take advantage of your transmitter functions (when you get one) like rate switches and exponential. Use proper rubber bands for the wings, not the ones from your local convenience store (SLEC). Test gliding over long grass sounds like a good idea and full throttle on your maiden flight is not mandatory! Good luck, have fun and do post some pictures of your progress if you get time.

So what part of your SC400 radial failed Jon? I only ask as I have an ASP400 radial I bought from Hobby King yonks ago but never run! I bought it to go in a World Model crop duster but life got in the way! What fuel/oil ratio would you recommend if I ran it?

All wings can stall if their critical A of A is reached or exceeded, even ‘unstallable’ ones. At the point of stall if any yaw is present (out of balance) one wing will stall first causing a loss of lift on the ‘trailing’ wing. The wing will drop causing the angle of attack to further increases on that wing with a consequential increase in drag and more yaw... The result is that this doom-loop causes the aircraft to auto-rotate into a spin, ultimately. Some aircraft are benign while others exhibit ‘viscous’ characteristics at the point of stall, depending on their design. Some don’t want to spin, simply transitioning into a spiral dive, while others are very reluctant to come out of a spin without very positive action by the pilot. For instance tapered wings, thin wing sections and an aft centre of gravity can all exacerbate ‘tip stalling’. Also, if any warp in the wings is present or other misalignment of tail surfaces and miss match of the wings respective weights, will increase the likelihood of this unwelcome behaviour. Watching a slow flying lightweight model can be very absorbing but if it is allowed to get too slow or the wind changes direction/speed it can result in a departure from controlled flight. Modifying the design, washout for instance or moving the c of g forward can improve things but keeping one speed up is a good thing too!

Konrad, with or without winglets the Boeing 747-400 (B744) didn’t experience wing flutter. I don’t know why you think it has a low Mcrit either when it is M.83, the B737-200 is M.615. Mcrit (critical Mach number) is just the point at which part of the airframe experiences sonic airspeeds, usually the wings although I think above the flight deck was one area in the B744’s case. Above Mcrit there is an increase in drag and fuel burn due to compressibility effects. Incidentally the B744 was designed to cruise at M.86 although we normally cruised at approx. M.84 as it was more economical, the actual cruising speed determined by the FMC on the basis of weight, altitude and temperature. Alternatively, schedule regularity might determine your chosen cruising speed. A more important speed was MMO which is the maximum certified Mach number (M.92). If you found yourself flying in significant standing wave the aircraft could quickly accelerate towards MMO requiring swift action to close the thrust levers and even pulling out some speed brake on occasion (a 400 tonne 600mph glider!). The auto-throttle could be slow to react. If MMO was exceeded, the high-speed clacker was designed to sound, requiring a lot of paperwork and a visit to the chief pilot’s office (without tea and biscuits!)

My recollection of the Configuration Deficiency List (CDL) for the B744 was that there was a fuel penalty of 1% for each missing winglet although it might have been 1.5%. I can’t be sure as it was nine years ago when I retired and I don’t have access to the CDL now to check. My understanding is that winglets delay the formation of the wingtip vortices and reduce drag at the expense of a small about of structural weight. The B744 winglets are 1.8m high and have a similar effect as increasing the span, which would consequently cut down your choice of gate. Without winglets a 2% increase in fuel burn on a 747 LON-LAX flight might cost you an extra two tonnes of fuel, for example. So the winglets were certainly not cosmetic!

I haven't built one but I do have a Ben Buckel Kit. Personally I don't think it is the spars that are the problem but the wing joiners when using larger engines. The joiners look pathetic and when I do get around to building it, it will be replaced with full-depth ply joiners. I remember seeing a Super Sixty clapping wings over Epsom Downs many years ago. Such a same to witness the demise of such a fine model. Yes, use several rubber bands to secure the wing to avoid tears too!

That is a shame, I enjoyed the video. In my rare dealings with the CAA (full sized aviation) they are pragmatic, sensible people. Please don’t waste their time with reports of ‘I lost sight of my model for a couple of seconds, down wind in low cloud’.

I have sent you a pm Nick.

Barracuda, definitely an acquired taste. When it comes to ugly aeroplanes I prefer the Blackburn Firebrand. (thinks… I must finish mine!) at least it has a ‘proper’ undercarriage.

I have had a Skipper, Libelle, and Multiplex foamies attacked by mice in my garage/workshop. I used to catch them in a home-made bottle trap and release them outside but they loved it so much they kept coming back! Every morning I would find a cross looking mouse drumming his fingers on the inside of the plastic bottle waiting to be let out! Now I use less humane bate boxes and the model attrition rate has fallen significantly. ☠️

If you do find a matching female connector to plug into your motor, you will still have to solder it to the pcb of your Rx. The key to painless soldering, in my view, is 1) make sure wires, pcb and your iron is clean 2) buy a quality iron of the correct size and wattage 3) use leaded pre-fluxed fine solder wire 4) practice a bit to get your hand in 5) with a hot iron solder quickly. 6) is 1) again… check everything is clean! My 2p worth. Good luck 🙂

I’ve seen that too. Pilot desperately hanging onto wingtip while pilotless aeroplane goes round in circles. Bit like full sized control line! 🤣

In a previous life as a flying instructor I always taught my students to never touch the propeller. If they had to turn the engine over always to treat it as if they expect the engine to start, even if they had checked the mags were ‘off’ not ten seconds before. A simple bad connection could make a mag live even when off.

Maiden flight of my KK Conquest glider many moons ago. Dad and I took Mandy our neurotic wire fox terrier with us, - what could possibly go wrong? The model tracked up the tow line like an arrow, manically chased by a barking Mandy. I had an inkling this wasn’t going to go well as the little model slipped off the line. Eventually, as it returned to terra firma Mandy tore round and around in circles getting totally tangled by the cotton line and eventually dancing all over the model excitedly. It didn’t do a lot for the delicate tissue covering and in fact the glider was never the same again!

Probably because the pilot thought, ‘What can possibly go wrong?!’ Back in the day I had a D31 Druine Turbulent. I carried a small pair of lightweight chocks plus a double spike to pin the tail skid to the ground to stop the aircraft tipping onto its nose when I swung the prop. No broken props or fly aways in my ownership fortunately. 🙂

My club has the use of a lake for water planes so no problem with crop rotation and you can always land and take off in any direction. 🙂 So what sort of helicopters do you fly Flybar? I had a dabble with them a long while ago. Fun but I am sure they are much, much better now.

Why don’t you get the plan from the www.model-plans.co.uk site, as Maninder suggested? I have bought plans from them myself in the past. The site says they are for ‘swaps only’ but if you email them I am pretty sure you will obtain a copy.

Is this your motor? You could glue in a couple of forward facing dowels and fix the motor to them with a couple of cable ties (Tie Wraps). Used with Speed 400 motors back in the day. Would need to make a removable cowl or at least accessible through a hole from underneath to cut the ties for motor removal. My 2p/2c worth!

There is nothing as miserable than living somewhere cold and impossible to heat. I lived somewhere like that in a rented cottage in Scotland many years ago. Eliminate drafts. B&Q rubber draft excluders of different sizes and designs work well. Even if your loft has insulation buy loft insulation. Travis Perkins have an offer on at the moment as do B&Q. My insulation above my kitchen/dining room and lounge is 10in thick and the rooms remain warm all night as a consequence. They don’t lose heat. Get a thermostatic timer like this (or several) so that when you wake in the morning and when you come back from work, the place is warm. I know you say you don’t want to cut holes in the walls but if the leaseholder were to give you permission a log burner would be transformational for you (and add value to the property). We have installed a log burner in the last four houses we have lived in. It doesn’t have to be big but you do need to get a good one as not all log burners were born equal!

Even relatively small propellers will significantly reduce induced drag caused by the wingtip vortices. Larger propellers will clearly be more efficient in reducing span-wise airflow and hence enhancing lift. The V 173 and particularly XF5U raison d’etre were their large speed ranges. Large propellers producing prop wash over the entire wing, aid low speed flight. The articulating props (cyclic control) of the XF5U were to facilitate even slower flight but their complexity led to extensive delays. Cost over-runs and the advent of the jet engine ultimately contributed to the cancellation of the project. These radical aircraft were ahead of their time and it is a pity the XF5U was never flown which might have proved ground breaking (or alternatively, quite literally ground breaking!) I hope you get your motor issues sorted on your V173 Simon. Great project 👍

Bob, just google a copy shop or printers and ask them if they can do an A1 size copy in ‘mirror image’ (not reverse). Only cost a few £s. I really can’t be doing with oil or WD40 on the plan to make it translucent, too messy!

I went to a presentation by Nu-Heat in Honiton with a view to fitting a heat pump and underfloor heating to my 1980s bungalow. My conclusion was that they are a good company but it really only suits new builds. In fact at the end of the presentation the lady running it told me I was better off spending the money on insulation and in my house’s case it would not be cheaper to run. I fitted a new gas boiler with underfloor heating- and more insulation.