Piers Bowlan

Nothing in life if free, even air!

Weights with lightening holes. Love it 🤣!

Doesn’t the collett go on the motor shaft?

My own take on it is that 4S would be the ‘sweet spot’ using that motor which potentially could give you 700-800W with a suitable prop without frying the motor (hopefully). More than enough but you don’t have to fly it like you stole it, you have a throttle! You could give George Worley of 4Max a ring and ask him for advice on which set up he would recommend. You don’t have to tell him you already have a motor, besides he might recommend another. 😊 At the end of the day to some degree it is about how you want the model to fly. Just check with a Watt meter before you commit aviation that you are in the right ball park.

Toto, you ordered a couple of 14x7 props for your Quantum motor, (as recommended by Kings Lynn Models). I just wondered if you will have sufficient ground clearance with that sized prop, bearing in mind the Force46 prop range is 10x7 to 12x6? Perhaps you might consider lengthening the UC a tad, if so. Just looking ahead! On the Quantum motor spec sheet it suggests a 12x9W (presumably W is wood?) Might be worth running the figures through e-Calc or find a friend tho can. I guess you will be running it off a 4S LiPo?

So a pretty major change from IC to leccy, having installed your engine. Not a criticism but what is your thinking behind the change? Just curious.

Please put me down for a Tempest please Richard. I hope Graham is not sitting around drinking tea too much, there is a Tempest to build!

I have a new un-run OS30 FS bolted to it’s ply bulkhead, I just need to attach it to the rest of the airframe! Peter’s Alley cat was a free plan in RC Model World, I forget the year but I will dig out the article to check.

The Ohmen is a very nice electric model but if you are going to put a 30FS in it why not build one of Peter’s IC designs like his Alley Cat? The wing is identical to his Ohmen incidentally. I started building one years ago…I must finish it some time!

Look at any Peter Miller design and you will find shear webs added between the ribs (with the grain vertical). Even 1/16th balsa shear webs add a lot of strength for a minuscule amount of weight gain. ‘Egg-crate’ construction with the ribs slotted onto the spar used to be popular, particularly with smaller designs. Some of David Boddington’s designs featured this, amongst others. The Sky 40 not only has a full depth spar (WS1) but also the upper and lower members. Belt and braces!

This design does not have ‘shear webs’ as such as it has a full depth slotted spar (WS1) over which the ribs fit, ‘egg-crate’ style. The upper and lower square section members of the spar were added later. The end result is pretty much the same though; a strong structure.

I thought I might have a crack at one of these, let us know how you get on Steve. 👍

On my Westwood you can turn the engine just by pushing the grill on top of the engine if you remove the plugs. Personally I doubt the starter is jammed if it was previously turning over, albeit slowly. Have you tried removing and cleaning all electrical contacts particularly removing the solenoid, as on mine if there is corrosion/oil between the solenoid and frame there will be a poor earth connection and very high resistance, hence the hot wiring. If it is very cold too the amps will go through the roof and the battery(s) will simply give up.

Personally I tape the back of the sheets and lay them on a sheet of cellophane and weigh down to ensure they are flat. Then I drop SMALLs dots of cyano along the line of the join to tack them together, being careful not to glue my weights to the wood! Once dry I lift from the board, remove tape and run cyano along the back of the joint line where the tape was. The cyano is drawn into the join by capillary action. The only downside of cyano is that it is so hard it does not sand well so aliphatic may be better. I find PVA doesn’t sand well as it is rubbery but then I have never tried it for joining sheets. Does take longer to dry though. More than one way of skinning a cat (apologies to moggy lovers!).

I guess it’s a case of horses for courses, I was just about to start a thread on how great this issue is! We are getting into the building season and as far as I was concerned there was plenty there to get the building juices flowing. I find Tony Nijhuis’s mini jets inspirational and in this months mag the complex shape of an F16 convincingly reproduced in a micro format. Not big enough? Get the photocopier out and enlarge to 130% for a 68mm fan version. I like simple quick-build models, Wingamagig and Pronto look like a lot of fun. Just take a look at the plans on Outerzone; minimal outlay in time and money representing maximum bang for your buck! Pronto could be great for a first time builder and a simple leccy conversion, if that is your preference. Wingamagig? Well, I am into flying wings so I may give this cutie a go. With it blowing a hoolie outside Al Foot’s depron autogyro could be just the ticket for a bit of indoor aviation! Try something different to get you out of your comfort zone, it won’t break the bank either. There was plenty there in the rest of the magazine so I despair if the only comment some people can make is that the paper is a bit thin! 🤣

£500 for a new mini in 1967 is equivalent to £11,200 today. It was a cheap, basic car with sliding windows, and initially no heater, radio, and a funny plastic cord you pulled to open the door from the inside! They were great, I had three old ones back in the 1970s. Today a new VW Up starts at £14,000 I believe, yes more expensive but just look at the spec. safety and comfort of modern cars. Sorry, a bit off topic.

I seal the paper with another coat of thinned PVA. Takes paint well. 😊

Corona DS929MG spec says 4.8v to 6v. Personally I wouldn’t run them on a five cell NiMh pack, even if it is old and down on capacity. Off the charger the voltage may still be in excess of 7v. They are not HV servos.

I have dozens of Corona servo, mostly DS339MG. Never had a duff one, centring good and powerful for their size. i had a case lug break off one once, following a severe crash but hardly surprising, I just glued the servo back in the model. In the past I have bought a couple of duff Hitec servos which were dead out of the box. One was a high-end one too. I just sent it back to the supplier for a replacement.

Incidentally, a notable omission from your vast collection of tools Toto, since you mentioned sanding, is a permagrit sanding block. Once you have used one you will wonder how you ever managed before! Not cheap but on my list of essential tools.

Another one to consider Sam if you fancy building something a bit bigger is Peter Miller’s ‘Little Miss Honky Tonk’. It has a 59inch span and a very low wing loading of under 16oz/squ ft. Peter’s original model was powered by an SC 52 four stroke. The Sarik short kit is £199 (also on offer) here. Peter’s build thread is here. As you can see, it has a parallel chord wing which makes it a little more straightforward to build. The recommended electric setup from 4Max is this motor turning an 12 x 6 prop on a 3300mAh, 4s LiPo. Incase you are tempted!

Done ✅

Thank you kc, that would be great, my old mags are not easily accessible just now. Thank you.

You are right kc it was your sharp eyes that spotted it, but like you I won’t count on this anomaly being corrected! Personally not being supplied with hardware like a fuel tank and engine mount ( for my electric model), wheels that are too small for my grass field and ‘rubbish’ control horns that I consign to the bin, is a plus. I would rather pay for good quality balsa than hardware in a kit that I will never use.

Sam on page 4 of the very long thread I linked to, there is a discussion about the LE length of some of the ribs being ‘wrong’! Despite this many models have been built from the plan without too much head scratching. It didn’t put me off at any rate, but I thought I would give you the heads up on it anyway, since you asked.