Martin Dunn

Thanks for the tips so far ... I liked the one about the air leaks might explain how it got so coated in the first place!!! Any advice on the orientation of the punch mark on the piston con rod would still be appreciated ... should it face front or rear

I've been playing with a cheapish ultrasonic cleaner to clean an old MDS 38 engine. This was secondhand and never used by me, and absolutely caked with castor ...so much so that the carb would not work. Did a full strip down and cleaned in alternate solution of washing up liquid and then hand soap as per the instructions supplied with the cleaner. The carb cleaned up nicely but the body was a different matter. Over several cycles, including soaking for several hours, the  castor softened enough to clean with brass wire brush followed by a couple more cycles to clean. Has anyone found a good recipe/formula for this? Has anyone tried antifreeze in an ultrasonic cleaner? Small problem in that the piston and rod dropped out of the engine  before I could note if the dot on the piston rod faces the front or rear of the engine ... does anyone know? Also, can anyone advise which plug to use with this engine. I have OS A3's and 8's.

I managed to work out there were are number of spare parts left over with this kit but can anyone advise the best use of the control horns supplied. There are 3 long horns ... (1 must be for the elevator), 2 medium horns, and 2 small. This makes two spare. I'm tempted to match the 2 closed loop rudder horns (when fitted) to be the length of the rudder servo arm and then use the longer horns on the ailerons and the elevator. I'll ring them tomorrow anyway and hope to post a response to this which may help others. I also had a problem with the capping strip on the rear of the wing not being glued in place, requiring cutting into the wing covering to glue. Pity that Westons website has no support page to download the revised manual described in the article ... easy enough to do!

I started with FMS and brought a cable from America for my Futaba tx. As a beginner at the time this was excellent and I still use it today on my laptop. As with all simulators finding the airfield can be fun unless you use a background with usable landmarks. I have recently bought IPACS Aerofly Delux and use this on my desktop PC. I personally actually found the models flew more true to life on FMS, with the IPACs models all being very floatly. IPACs however offers competions which help to develop skills ... balloon bursting with a fixed wing is fun! Designed for higher spec PCs the IPACs has far better scenery and model graphics. IPACs also includes some nice jet models including the VTOL Harrier.