FiddleSticks

Hi guys, skim read the first two pages, noticed a few points I can make.. Many of our laws cannot be policed as we have very few resources. They rely on the goodwill of the public obeying them. The reality is that you can get away with a lot in this hobby and most aren't really bothered but if the law exists and something bad happens it gives the authorities a chance to take action. I once heard someone describe this as "it's there if they want to" type of law or "pick and mix" if that makes it easier. Insurers will always try to wriggle out of a payment. That is the nature of their business - take your money and keep it. If you don't play by the rules, they'll use that to leave you on your own. If that's the case and you end up owing stacks of cash to someone, the Bailiffs could end up seizing your RC collection anyway so it's probably best to comply. The CAA has to be seen to be doing *something* to protect the citizens below is airspace. The reality is that they know they cannot police every single modeller, the police also know they can't too. Be considerate and you'll be left alone, be a problem and they can haul you over the coals and quote the law and punishments at you. Many authorities already have the legal right to break into your house - from the fire brigade to HMRC. They don't use these powers though unless they need to. Drones are the real problem the CAA is facing along with anything else that can self navigate.

Can't say I even looked at that topic as it looked political from the title and those always become heated.. Unfortunately this is the way on many forums and I do frequent a fair number of them. Facebook is worse though!

Seen several videos of these little planes being converted to RC lately, must say I'm impressed as it certainly makes it even cheaper to get started in this hobby! Incidentally they're not unique to Lidl, you can buy them in many places. Always loved the innovation that goes with this hobby..

I left the main topic in the all things forum hoping to get maximum exposure / help for it.. Many thanks FS

Hi Guys! Last year at the Southern Model Show in Headcorn my little lad found himself a little electric copter in the bring and buy tent near the entrance. £10 with controller but the lipo was dead and there was no charger. For a tenner and the smile it brought to him, it was worth it so i invested in the battery and naturally forgot the charger. Doh! Due to my stupidity it flew a a few minutes at home on the new battery, nearly took his eye out and then sat silently for another year. This year I got around to remembering the battery and bought another battery for it and a charger. It flies well! Or at least it did until I crashed it and bent the shaft. No problem my son trusts me to fix things, it's a lama, century sell replacement shafts on ebay for their airwolf / lama range so ordered the replacements - not realising that their lama was different to this one and it didn't fit. Whoops. Nevermind, I have one of their Airwolf helos that i'll keep that for so not a big loss. Took his lama to bits and in a weird twist of fate, managed to completely straighten the hollow shaft by shoving an old precision philips anti-slip screwdriver from real robots magazine toolkit (2002-ish) down the hollow shaft which was an exact size for the screwdriver. It straightened up beautfully. The irony is that despite having just 3 blades left (one broke off), this screwdriver will undo the tiniest of screws that smaller precision screwdrivers simply cannot get undone - Odd I know but i swear by this screwdriver! Anyway having shoved this screwdriver down the whole length of the shaft with a small hammer helping it, it miraculously straightened up his helo's hollow shaft perfectly. No more wobbling at the top rotor and it flies lovely once more. My son is pleased but until i can fly it well, he's not wanting to try it (he's 8 and has no idea how helos work - nor can he concentrate long enough to understand it lol). So.. having escaped that disastrous crash by the skin of my teeth and getting his whirly bird sorted, i hit ebay to see what parts i could find for it in preparedness for future woes. Oddly no parts but another identical (ish) helo did turn up - ideal for parts - and despite increasing my bid 3 times to ensure i won it, I bagged it at just £1.20. Yup, you read that right, i got RC helo and controller for £1.20. Brilliant, i can chop it for parts i thought. Better still it actually arrived without going missing! Flew brilliantly too.. until i hit the fridge a couple of times too many and then the same thing - bent hollow shaft. Trouble is it flew.. i can't bring myself to break it for parts. So, last night, overly confident in my previous success, the screwdriver went downthe hollow shaft for that one too only somehow, the bloody screwdriver is now slightly warped itself and the shaft didn't straighten up. Tried hammering it down (with the warped part up), tried rolling it between two thick flat pieces of MDF, still can't make it perfectly straight. Thing is, it did fly really well and being a cheapskate, I wanted to make the most of my £1.20 helicopter and have some enjoyable flying from it without risking my sons. Everyone loves to hear of the bargain of the century and my £1.20 helo was going to make me a hero in RC folklore for decades to come.. and most importantly at work lol. The problem? I still can't find parts. Nor can I identify the maker other than the year 2006. It also has a weird 3 point swashplate which is operated by just two servos and a pinch of black magic. From my ventures across Google, it would appear to be a Colco Lama 3 or 4 - I think but i'm really not sure. The transmitter is the same as the old Futaba Skysport 4 but just has the word LAMA on the Futaba name badge bit. There is literally no identifying marks on either of these helicopters to help me work out who made it and where i might get another hollow shaft that fits it. Please Help! I've included pictures below! The main bird (My sons one - the £1.20 one which i need help with is in pieces at present but almost identical) Ths side panel on the whirlybird: Under the cockpit: The Skysport 4 clone - front and back: I know i could just keep the £1.20 bird for spares but as I actually won a working helo for such a low price and it was a good flyer i'd prefer to repair it if possible and have a bit of fun with it. Any help appreciated!

Always been puzzled by people talking about moving the centre of gravity as if it's some sort of fixed point. On plans I often see it marked on the wings between 1/4 to 1/3 back from the leading edge as though it's fixed. I've trained as a forklift operator on pivot steer forklifts instead of normal counter balance. The question of centre of gravity confused my colleagues but I've always understood it to be a theoretical point which can move - which was confirmed by our instructor. So, what's with it on RC aircraft? From my POV it's just a case of adjusting weight to make it balance how you want it but in this hobby people refer to our like it's some fixed point on the aircraft (when in reality it changes with every change of direction, angle, even the fuel tank emptying etc). Thanks for your input..

Hi all, Just wondering how practical it would be to build a balsa plane from foam instead? Went to Hobbycraft today and their balsa selection wasn't great but they got a bloody great pile of foam board - £4 per sheet or 4 for £12. Grabbed the 4 obviously lol. Plenty of little cheap designs on youtube etc for foam planes but i was just wondering if it's practical for the balsa designs that can often be larger. I don't think there's another balsa supplier around here and hobbycrafts prices were horrible! Thanks, FS

I saw a clever trick on youtube for this.. Use paper and then carbon paper under your plan (you know the blue stuff) and then draw over the part on the plan you want - the carbon will create a copy of the part you've just drawn on the plan. Remember to use something pointy but not sharp and not a pen - maybe a stylus or even a ballpoint that's run out of ink (but not been dropped damaging the ball). You'll then find a carbon copy of the part from the plan on the paper underneath the plan. This is the video: This guy uses plastic milk bottles to trave plan parts:

That's certainly a good looking plane too - shame it's no longer in production though or i'd have one of those!

It's only taken me 25 years! When I was a young'un back in 98, I saw a plane in the November issue of RCM&E that really appealed to me. It was called T.A.4 Top Cat. It was styled to look similar to an F14 but with trainer style wings, landing lights and afterburners that light up plus flaps and an air brake. It really appealed to me at the time but being short on cash like many youths i never got the plans for it. Until today! It took me a while to rediscover the name of this plane and i spent countless hours looking for it previously but i finally found it and then bought it. Cost me £19 but today I've finally taken posession of the biggest bit of paper i've ever had lol. Yes you got it, I'm now the proud owner of the plans for this 25 year old design that has probably been forgotten long ago! Now I just need to find some time, spare cash and some supplies so that I can set about building it. If you've never seen the thing, here's some pictures of it (Oddly the photo shows the airbrake on top but the plans cater for it being underneath): I've only ever built one plane before and that was from a kit and looking back i frankly did an appalling job lol so this will be an interesting and time-taken build. No idea when I'll start it (need to clear some space in the over crowded shed) but once I do i'll post updates.. FS

Oh I use youtube all the time lol. I watch it more than the TV (though there will always be those who don't think of it). I've spent the last 3 days watching videos of RC planes being built from plans as I've just ordered a plan that I saw in RCM&E 25 years ago -finally found it and the spare money for it lol (more on that when it turns up). I've learnt a lot from YT - everything from how to do engine rebuilds on cars to fixing my van and so much more. The great thing about YT is that you aren't restricted to what one person tells you either - I always watch multiple videos about the same thing and use the best bits of advice from each to get the job done (there's always someone with that magic tip that can't be beaten!). Agreed on radio, tons of it available now! Last time i was in this hobby it was daunting, only 4-5 brands and it was expensive! You had to wait two days? That would drive me crazy! Admittedly thanks to ebay I've become a lot more patient these days but even so I still have that silent frustration eating away at me inside that i can't just go and get the thing in a shop down the road and use it the same day. The southern airshow was great for that, a reasonably healthy selection of traders and loads of stuff to be found, bought, taken home, used **same day**. It was marvellous. The only stupid thing is I didn't buy anything to fly.. what a prat!

When i was in another town we had a flying site on a public plot of land and it was also quite good at bringing in new people but where i am now the local club is on private land and limits new members / votes them in. It sounds to me like your club is doing wonders for the hobby so well done to you all for your efforts! Despite some of the negative remarks I'm standing by many of my points - the mags have vanished, things are harder to find (my town has no model shop, I had to take a 40 minute drive each way to find fuel a couple of weeks back) and it seems to me that many kids are console characters these days rather than get out and do something or build something. As someone who's come back after two decades, I've noticed a big difference that perhaps many of you have not. Sorry if any of you thought it was a bit deep but i was just wondering how others manage these days with things only seeming to get more tricky. I don't like mail order myself - it's a pain in the grass but it seems that everything is done online now!

I used to be in the hobby around 22 years ago and have only recently started to get back into it this year - kind of anyway lol. What i've noticed is that model shops are in decline model magazines have vanished (eg model helicopter world and RCM and others) RCM&E seems to have become thinner Nexus has vanished Glow fuel is getting harder to find - the southern model show had NONE this year New modellers won't have local advice and local parts to look at and learn about (eg servo couplings, trays, horns etc - many newbies wouldn't even know what to search for on ebay so it's a steep learning curve without local shops) Balsa isn't exactly easy to find now with less shops Everything seems to be mail order adding extra cost onto things when ordering from multiple suppliers (and delays) So I'm wondering what the future of this hobby is now? From my POV it's looking a bit grim despite the fact it really is a wonderful hobby. One point i'll come back to is the small fiddly parts that you need. It's not possible to guess the name of a lot of them so how do you even know what they are, if you need them and what to search for online? - New modellers will find this very hard. What seems to be growing is the little toy park flyers that you get on ebay. Yeah i bought one for my son, great fun, cheap, works, stable etc.. but not the same as a real model made from balsa with a glow engine rumbling away! Ending my rant now lol..

Dunno, there's plenty of people on youtube who make their own 2.4GHz systems. Must admit it's a project i want to do too but at the moment i've got too many other things going on.

I know it gets windy.. but the show at headcorn was brilliant. Anything going on in the colder months to look forward to? Thanks