toto

New low bounce wheels arrived today for the otter. The stock wheels are solid ..... All I need to do is fit them. A wee job for another day soon. Toto

Hmmmmm

No worries. I can see the wisdom in strengthening these tailplane parts though. They do look like a definite weak link. A couple of cocktail sticks drilled along the length of the plastic to foam connector joint makes sense. Or .... order in some carbon but I think the cocktail sticks covered in epoxy would do enough as well. Toto

He certainly will Grumpy ....... I have put him on stand by. I'll charge my transmitters anyway ...... won't do any harm. I maybe even start reading up on my BMFA Regs etc and look at the A test requirements ...... its been a while. toto

Just been dealt a major body blow. The motorcycle club have the site this weekend ..... that means no flying. What a disaster. Oh well ..... looks like the Tiger 60 build will see some progress this weekend instead. I'm off to cry in a corner. ☹️ toto

Phew ..... old cowl rescued from bin for purposes of a practice piece. Some glass fibre cloth ordered from online. Meanwhile ....... The Beaver reassembled under the watchfull eye of the mutt ( Lulu ) in the kitchen. Not a huge amount of room left once its on the stand ..... but enough. I connected up the NX8 and bunged in a 6S battery. Ran it through its paces. Safety cut off switch tested and works. as do throttle, elevator, ailerons and rudder. My dual .... or triple rates were all to pot for some reason so I set them again and they all work fine. set the timer alarm for 7.5 minutes as I know I easily get that. It may be changed again at the field once I remind myself of just exactly what I am being left with on the battery after a 7.5 minute flight. All I need to do is transfer the settings on to the NX6 and set up the student link. That is for tomorrow though. cheers toto

I'll have a look through your posted threads as it looks like it will take a bit of digesting. Thanks for posting it up. Toto

I actually tossed the old cowl in the bin ..... but it's probably recoverable. In hindsight I should have kept it as a practice piece. When I sent for the new one ages ago, they actually sent two so I have a perfect spare. I'll check to see if its retrievable tonight when I go into the shed. My intention was to disassemble the Twin Otter to free up my model stand for the Beaver ..... get the wings on and give all the controls and settings .... including the buddy box ..... a good testing out. I'll see how far I get. It looks nice outside so it would be a good night for working on the Beaver with the shed door open. Even better outside but the less my neighbours see the better. Toto

Hi Piers, I like the idea of epoxy glossing the inside of the cowl. Do you apply a mesh or pause and just cover with epoxy by brush or is it simply just a brushed coat of epoxy straight on with no mess/ gause? I think I may also dismantle the tail again and strengthen that joint on both elevator halves. It would not take long and would add terrific strength. Cheers Toto

Back to the buddy box for now maybe. If it were me .... I would be requesting it to my mentor. Toto

Or pulling over on the freeway to alter my dang pants. Anyway need to go ...... its time to make a buck. Toto

And it's Thursday already ..... a quick week so far due in part to the Monday Bank Holiday. I feel it in my gut that the weather is going to play a blinder. A nice T shirt day would be good. That will bring the club members out..... and the midges. Roll on Saturday. Toto

Tailplane it is then. Toto

Its a thing of beauty Grumpy. As ever ...... I'll not be flying it anytime soon ..... I have a successful partnership with the Super Cub and I want to keep that going but it will be one of the first out of the hanger when the time comes. ..... Unless of course my mentor takes a fancy to it and entices me to take it along for " another " more successful maiden for a bit of light relief from the usual flying programme ...... I can always dream ..... 😄 it does actual fly well and it is a heavy beast in the air ..... sounds funny but you can almost feel the weight as you fly it .... weird or what .... cheers toto

So ..... bringing this back from the dead now that my FMS Beaver has been repaired and getting close to being back in the " live hanger " squad. This has been on the back burner for some time. Never been maidened or even close to it. I have had a bit bother with push rods etc and now its time to refresh my memory as to where I left off. a few things as far as setting up the Beaver for another test run over the next couple of weeks but the Tiger 60 will have the cob webs blown orf and revived towards it initiation. I think my mate Aidan will enjoy this one as well as he has a vested interest in this. stay tuned for further activity coming soon. toto

So ...... the FMS Beaver is repaired and just needs a trial run with the wings on. The repairs have been covered on My FMS Beaver thread. i wont repeat it here. I have to bung a battery in her and see where I left off as far as binding to transmitters and setting rates etc. I'll cover that on the beaver thread as well as I get around to it. Possibly through this week at some point. Now I can move on to getting my other two projects back out of oblivion. .... my Tiger 60 and my Domino. Now that the light nights are back ..... I'm up for getting these two back into the " ready and able " stable. great stuff ..... keeps me busy through the week as I wait for stick time. cheers for now toto

And ..... up end her .... and ........ now job done ..... cheers ..... toto

OK ...... so we tramp on and the first on the hit list is the wheels ...... from these heavy thick plastic jobs with no give in the hard plastic tyres .... to these rather nifty numbers with a more flexible tyre ..... onlt downside was the others were actually ball raced. never mind. then ... its on to the front cowling ....... but first the prop needs to come off ..... so off it comes ..... and here is a shot of the damaged cowl ..... and the front end without the cowl .... some plastic fixing points to take the self tapping screws that hold the cowl in place. two of the above .... one either side ...... and one on the top of the cowl like the above ...... on with the replacement cowl ..... doesn't it look pretty ....... but wait ...... don't forget the go faster stripes ......... both sides of course ........ then its back on with the prop ...... and on with the horiosontal stabilisor ..... dont forget the fency thing which has been glued into position with Alphatic glue ( foam freindly of course ). which just leaves the reconnecting of the elevator horn. I'll go back to that as I should have done it before setting the elevator fence with glue and don't want to risk disturbing it. So thats for later. I'll need to fit the horn rod, try on the wings, check out the servoe etc with the transmitter and also check all the transmitter settings, bind to the student transmitter as well and set the dual rates etc etc. apart from that ..... Job done toto

Hi Grumpy, the tailplane is perfectly useable but having a nice new shiny one returns the model to its " new state ". I'm delighted that its coming back into service as I really have a soft spot for this model. here are my new parts ...... The star of the show ..... the new horiontal stabilisor ...... Hussaaaaarrrrrrrr ....... the sound of many clapping hands ........... The new front cowl ........ and the crowd goes absolutely ballistic ............ and some fine and dandy new wheels ........ Ohhhhhhhh ..... this really is just too much. I'll be back with some lovely fitted shots. cheers for now toto

The above was a waste of time ...... parts never arrived and not worth chasing. I took a second attempt to by outside the UK .... this time from NSW Australia ....... came up trumphs ..... took my order a couple of weeks back and arrived today. Happy man I can now make use of my FMS Beaver again. Tonight I will be fitting the following. Horizontal Stabilisor Front cowl A set of Dubro wheels The Beaver is back ....... from the ashes ...... should have been a phoenix kit. Cheers Toto

Some great news ..... My FMS Beavers horizontal stabilisor arrived today .... all the way from NSW Australia. ..... Huzzarrrrrrrrrrr. My Beaver will be back in commission again at Long last. ( a year actually ). So tonight I will fit my new part and keep my repaired version as a spare. I will also fit my replacement Cowl ......... andddddddd ......... my Dubro wheel set that I bought for it ages ago. They will hopefully take some of the bounce out of the landings as its a heavy model with an undercarriage of soft cheese and wheels like bricks. Nice little job for tonight as I sit watching the last two batteries discharging to storage level ..... like watching paint dry. Happy the man Toto

Hi Aidan .... you enjoy your motorbike weekend. It does good to have another interest and yours sounds like another healthy one. I used to go to the trial bike trials up at the falls of Killin every June when I had my caravan up there and by luck the weather was always on our side which was just as well as the competitions took place over the falls of Dochart .... a rocky outcrop over the river Dochart. as you will know .... trial bikes are at the opposite end of the speed scale but what a skill as these guys take their machines over incredible ..... sometimes gravity defying rock faces. Some as young as maybe nine years of age. ..... crasy. I have a few amatuer photography shots of the action. I will try and look them out. cheers and enjoy toto

A rare ray of sunshine .... 😄 thats good as my attention is fully on discharging and I am nearly at the end of the road with that. happy days ..... one step closer to Lipo management heaven toto

Well .... looking forward .... as usual ..... we are meant to have a mini heatwave coming ..... I'll believe it when I see it. however ..... it does ( believable or not ) give room for optimism. In fact, even without the heatwave, we have been doing rather good on the whole the last few weeks so I'm booking myself in for a Saturday session. The batteries are already charged and I accept that charging them this early ahead of Saturday, they may lose a bit of their Oomph. I also know that the past has shown that even with a less than fully charged battery, I am getting 7 minute flights with around 30% being left in the tank so happy to have that " early charging " option. I dislike having to rely on me being available on the Friday night before the Saturday to do my charging. If anything untoward crops up .... it puts me either under pressure ..... or means a night shift in the shed. I'm already thinking ahead as to what I shall be doing. ....... Uber focused ...... 😄😄😄 roll on Saturday toto

Back to the shed for another discharging session. Following the concerns of my charging set up, I decided to change my charging set up ..... slightly ..... and since it is a reasonable night ..... I moved it outdoors. should anything untoward happen ..... I have a master plan ........ I boot the table clear of the shed and let them burn out in the open. I really must remember to pick up a fire extinguisuer as part of a slightly more robust plan ..... meanwhile ..... fingers crossed. toto