payneib

Still not flown since the May bank holiday. Was keeping my fingers crossed for Sunday, but the forecast is looking like another wet weekend.

I've only used start/stop with a manual - it requires the car in neutral and foot off the clutch to work, not sure why that's coming on whilst you're parking. Lane assist seems ok, and I've heard a few people say they've been saved by auto braking. One thing I thought I'd never use, but now really love is a gear indicator on a motorcycle. Really handy to have a quick glance at the dash when something/someone interrupts your flow. Also as a biker, I absolutely love blind spot warnings on cars. Apparently the art of, "turning your head to look out of the window" is dieing out, so it's really nice to see a line of little yellow warnings pop up in wing mirrors (that are also very rarely used), as I'm filtering past traffic. Hopefully they'll come up with something soon that stops, "sudden acceleration syndrome" in automatics. The only thing I can think of is stricter application of age related medical disqualification.

Soon be midweek again, bright sunshine, dead calm, and I won't even be able to see it through a window.

I've not flown at all for the best part of two months now. I got as far as attempting a fast taxi last time out, but had an issue with a defective retract unit. I doubt I'll bother trying the Hurricane again this year - I'm just not practiced enough on the sticks to try anything remotely interesting, like maiden flights on over weight warbirds. There's no sign of a let up in the weather forecast for the foreseeable, so I reckon my season is done.

Because some people have more than one kind of switch - switching on a Powerbox Digi switch is exactly that - a long press followed, by a short press. An easy mistake to make when changing between models. The lights are also difficult to make out in bright sun. Ultimately it was a friendly heads up that there's a potential issue with these switches depending on individual set ups. Obviously that's gone down like a lead balloon on this famously "friendly forum". 🙄

Which is all well and good until you activate the lipo mode by mistake. But what evs.

Or you're running a 6v NIMH pack, or you have a battery fault? Would you rather maintain control or not?

And if you're using a 5v regulated supply on a small model?

The problem is, I don't think there's a way of setting them to anything other than 2s, so if you're running a 6v NIMH, or a Lipo through a regulator at 5v for example, it'll cut after very little usage, trying to protect lipos you're not even using. It's also easy to put it in "Lipo mode" by accident.

I've got a few of these. One thing I will say, is to make sure you do NOT use the "lipo mode". It cuts the power at a set voltage to protect your battery - great on a car or boat. Not so great on things falling out of the sky.

You can't see the relevance between the original question of, "Will there be affordable second hand electric cars for poor people?", and a screen shot of affordable second hand electric cars available for poor people? I don't think I can help you with that. As for if they're much use at that price: anecdotally, a recently divorced friend of mine bought a £1500 Leaf, and uses it for her 60 mile round trip commute, "granny charging" over night every night, from a 3 pin domestic socket, saving £200+ a month on petrol. That £400 car available on eBay requires a £200 part - not dissimilar to my first car, which cost £400 and needed £200 worth wheel bearings and axle bushings to get it through a couple of MOTs.

I'll post this simple search for you again then. 👍

And no-one has seen fuel cheaper than £1.40/L in the last couple of years. So the point stands, electric is cheaper than petrol. Odd that you're not so angry about the price difference between petrol and diesel, when not everyone can use petrol. 🤔

Do you not have electric at home in Scotland? I'm currently paying 21p/kWh. Maybe look at more than one data point when you're cherry picking.

When you talk about gas, are you talking about natural gas, or petrol? Because the price of natural gas isn't relevant to the discussion of electric vehicles Vs ICE. Unless you're running your car on natural gas (does anyone still use LPG or not? Haven't seen it in years), or using a gas fired home generator to charge your car, it's entirely irrelevant. If you're talking about petrol, then electric is definitely cheaper.

Whilst we're randomly cherry picking stats in a pointless game of Top Trumps, let's talk about the Pikes Peak Open Class record for the last 6 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_I.D._R

Is there finally going to be a benefit of Brexit then?

It's on my very short list to replace my Fiesta early next year. Should get my commute costs down from £200/m to about £40/m.

MG5

The problem I have is everywhere aft the cockpit box is very fragile. The aft turtle deck is very skinny stringers. As long as I only touch the ply box front end, it's golden, but I've had more than one slip, trip and tumble on our less than even field and rested it on the tail, or handled the wrong bit and ended up with very minor repairs. Other than that though, the easily removed lower wing does make for fantastic servicing access without building in a hatch. If I did convert to split wing on a BUSA kit, I'd leave that centre section on the supplied wing bolts and dowels.

I found an eBay seller based somewhere near Chicago, who "accidentally" fudged the package value a bit to avoid "dat gadumb govment overreach" (taxes) when I ordered my 1/6. Kit+£60pnp, delivered to my door was less than the going rate (£250) for a BNIB Flair kit that I'd have had to have driven cross country for.

The only thing that puts me off the BUSA kits is undoing the rear U/C mounts to fit/remove the lower wing. It's just about manageable at the field in 1/6, but a big 1/4 bird is going to be a nightmare. If my club had tables it'd be easier, but alas, I'm generally rolling around on the floor. Rigging will be fitted, functional or not. That would be a lot easier on the monoplanes though.

I don't swear at the Pup! I do laugh though when you've packed up, gone home, emptied the car, and come back to walk the dog, all whilst I'm still undoing wings. This'll be a job for either the wife's Kuga or what ever replaces the fiesta, hopefully in Jan/Feb.

I was supposed to be making this purchase early next year, but a change in circumstances is making it more likely to be much sooner. I've had my heart set on a 1/4 scale Mick Reeves Camel for a while now, but there's a few details about that kit that are making me second guess the choice. Apparently it's pretty much perfect scale, with lots of self formed, soldered wire components - something I'm famously terrible at. So I'm open to other options. In order of subject preference, I'd say Camel is top, then DR1, SE5, Airco DH2, Bristol M1, Pup, then Eindecker. There's a BNIB Quadra 30 sat waiting, and will work in any of those at 1/4 scale. Camels: obviously the MR kit, which is a beautiful full kit with split wings for easier storage. But there's also the BUSA kit - essentially a bigger version of their 1/6 kits which I'm familiar with, and the wire's prebent - would need modification for split wings though. DR1s: I only know of the BUSA kit and a plan on Sarik. Is the ground handling a problem? SE5s: Loads of these around. BUSA, DB Sport n Scale, Sarik, any pros and cons on any of the kits? DH2s: pretty rare, don't know of any kits. And probably a storage and transport nightmare. M1: Belair/Fighter Aces do a parts/plan pack (between the two of them), but it's still a lot of scratch building. But these and the Eindeckers are probably the most "useable" toy aeroplanes. Pups: Everwh like the SE5s, but which is best? Eindeckers: I don't know of any in quarter scale.

Evening All, I'm currently doing some rework/repairs on a kit built Acrowot - removing a fluffed learning application of glass fibre, doing a much better job of reglassing the fuzz, then covering the tailplane in fabric and Ez Dope. Due to the brutal nature of removing the old glass, the hinge lines on both rudder and elevators aren't perfect. Usable, but not perfect. Is it worth doping some fabric over the gap, I was thinking top and bottom, to make sure I don't induce any flutter? Obviously applied with deflection built in to ensure there's enough flex for full movement. Or are there any other options?