Rafman

I joined in 1969 with 1838 Elm Park Sqn in West Essex Wing rising to the rank of CWO then AWO and I now find myself as a Flt Lt in command of 1476 Rayleigh Sqn in Essex Wing. I certainly got a lot out of the Corps and I am still friends with Sqn Ldr Terry Horsley who got mentioned in a previous post. The Corps has changed over the years but I still get a kick out of seeing the progress that the Cadets achieve during their time in the ATC, and long may it continue.

I arrived at 9am and the Gnats were just lining up at the end of the runway so I was standing right behind them when the leader went smoke on go and I got kippered. Great sight though. The Vulcan was due to do a fly by but unfortunately because the isolated showers didn't appear to be isolated this was cancelled. The first part of the show was great right up to when the rain started, some brave flyers tried to continue but even they had to give in. After about a two hour wait the show started again but by then most of the show flyers had decided to go home, so it was a limited effort but a select few managed to keep it going and the sun came out so all credit to those people that stayed. Because of the rain I took shelter in the TJD stand and that cost me £150 on an E Flite Yak 54 AS3X 3D machine, it was a good buy though at £100 off the normal price.

Ditto for the thumbs up for Hobbyking, I ordered 2 FrSky receivers at midday and they arrived the next morning, you cannot ask for better service than that so well done Hobbyking and keep it up.

This is spooky, I was made redundant 2 years ago and like you it was the best thing that could have happened to me. Got a new job in one month before they even paid out the money for 35 years service. Two months after that got a big cheque from the taxman which was very nice. I am still breathing at 60 have a sports car as well as the model wagon and have been married to my wonderful wife for 39 years. Have loads of models to choose from depending on the weather. Have just taken over a new ATC Squadron which is the biggest in the Wing. Enjoy Flying, Fishing, Shooting. Life is just great at the moment and plan to enjoy it.

Great news and advert for foam models, I initially hated foam models but after flying my first one which was a small Christian Eagle which I still fly on a regular basis I have been sold completely on foam and my fleet now consists of the following: Art Tech Christian Eagle Diamond 2500 Glider Carbon Z Yak 54 Stryker FQ27 Hobbyking P40 Warhawk I am sure that more foam models will join my fleet, I also have an E Flite Ultimate whiist it is not foam it does fly very well.

I mainly use XT60 connectors on most of my models but my latest project a 67" 6S powered P40 Warhawk from Hobbyking uses HXT 4mm red connectors.

I have flown one of these for nearly two years now and it is awesome, one of the best planes I own, it flies fast or slow with no dramas and is neutral trim wise so inverted is easy and slow rolls a dream, I highly recommend this aircraft, they got the design right, however, one word of caution, on my model I had to change out all the servo's because the quality of the one's installed were dubious to say the least. My model is one of the earlier one's when they first came out so I am hoping that a couple of years down the line they have sorted out the quality problems with the servo's, but as a flying machine you will love it.

When I first heard on the radio that there was the possibility of a strike by tanker drivers I thought here we go again, there will be panic buying at the pumps, but to my suprise it seemed normal until the goverment opened their mouths and fuelled a crisis, which I believe was carefully manufactured to get the response we are seeing now, on the news this morning they have made an extra 32 million pounds in fuel tax revenue just from the panic they have instigated. What is needed is for the good old public to take no notice of what the cronies in power say because they are pulling the strings and we are dancing to the tune. I say calm down go back to normal and deal with a strike as and when it happens. We should be looking to reduce our fuel buying to bring about an impact on tax revenue and then maybe the price of fuel might go down slightly. I won't hold my breath on that one rafman

I will give it a go Ta Steve

Congratulations on passing your A Cert, sometimes it is better to do it by the suprise method as that means you do not have time to think too much about it and just get on with it and pass.

Went to the field yesterday, fantastic weather, no wind with clear blue skies and flew 5 flights. 3 with my Carbon Z yak 54 and 2 with my art Tech Christian Eagle Bipe. Don't normally come out of hibernation until april so bonus

Like a lot of other people I have had a fair range of different radios over the years, started with Acoms then went to JR for a time then a brief excursion to Sanwa (1 day) even tried Digifleet before returning to JR for many years. When it came time to swap over to 2.4g I initially went for a Futaba 6EX but soon outgrew that and finally settled on a 10C which has never missed a beat in the time I have used it. I only have and use genuine Futaba receivers with it but would not swap it for the world, easy to program and a delight to use.    

Hi Rob,   Like you I am involved in the Air Cadets as OC 1474 Wickford Squadron in Essex Wing, apart from that I also go Fishing, shooting and have a sports car for weekend jaunts if I am not flying models that is, occasionaly I spend time with the wife and grandkids mainly over the winter period when it is too cold to do the other things.   Steve

I will have a guess at 53 and 61   Rafman

I fly Mode 1 for fixed wing as that was the mode I started with many years ago, I subsequently went on to fly Mode 2 as well being an Instructor for both, interestingly enough I fly helicopters on Mode 2 as I tried one on Mode 1 and found it difficult.   RAFMAN

I recently purchased an E Flite Carbon Z Yak 54 in PNP guise from Inwoods from the Rougham Show and a wave of joy swept over me as I got home and looked in the box, it was some time before I found the energy to put the model together which was a walk in the park and visions of the maiden flight started to form in my brain. Just the Rx and Battery to install and switch on to check all was well when out of the blue the right aileron servo decided to go to full travel and then the other way in fact anywhere but in the middle. A quick look on the web at the problem pages revealed a trend towards multiple servo failures and it looked like I was in that unhappy band of brothers. Remove said servo and ping off an e mail to HH and await a reply. No reply or acknowledgement received I decided to swap out all the servo's as I now could not trust any of them. Frustration as it is not a cheap model and having to wait for an order from Hobbyking to arrive then having to modify the servo seats and leads to swap out the suspect items. this I managed to do on Saturday and on Sunday I took it over to my field for the maiden flight. Suprisingly no nerves at all. I think I had resigned myself to accept whatever was going to happen. Opened the tap and off she went as smooth as you like and one click of downtrim and she was flying perfectly. What a model, it is an absolute pleasure to fly and I have it on 50% rates and get 6 minutes of adrenalin filled flight out of a 2650mAh 4S Nano Tech lipo . On full rates it is manic but still very controllable, in essense it was well worth the wait and frustrations to get over the problems seen on the web, but I still maintain that I should not have to go to these lengths having paid over £200 for the plane. Looking at the servos fitted by e flite I took one apart and the build quality is terrible and in my opinion is an accident waiting to happen, so if you have one of these and your servos seem ok it may be that you are lucky or are on borrowed time to a potential failure of one or more of these servos, I hope that HH and E Flite are doing something about the quality issues and that all will be well for future models.

Just ordered a new receiver for my Carbon Z Yak 54 (Futaba 617 2.4) from model shop leeds, ordered monday afternoon and it was delivered tuesday afternoon. What a great service, and the price was sub £50 for the Rx. There are bargins out there from UK suppliers if you search around, and with that kind of turnaround and service it will keep me going back, so well done model shop leeds, excellent service, first class customer relationship and long may it continue, would recommend them to everybody.   Rafman

Hi Paddy,   I had exactly the same issue with my 2500, I had to change the Aileron leads on mine. What you will find is the lead artech supply is not a genuine Y lead, rather two single leads glued together, when I tried to seperate mine I damaged the outer casing of the plugs which meant they were scrap. The pins you see on the end of the plug are merely adaptors pushed into a female connector and they can be removed so that the shrouded male plugs on a conventional Y lead will fit, once you remove the adaptors you will see what I am on about. As I changed the leads in the wings I had to also change the feeds from the Rx as the Aileron/Flap Rx lead is glued as described before, another thing to be aware of is the thickness of the wire used in the Artech leads which is very thin when compared to genuine Futaba/JR types. Good Luck with your 2500 they go up like a homesick angel and are an absolute delight to fly.   Regards   Steve

Hear Hear,   Although Dowding was going to retire once the Battle was won the final insult was when he retired he was not promoted to Marshal of the RAF which was the norm at that time. Park as you say was shunted aside although he did make a come back during the latter part of the war and materminded the desert campaign. The rights and wrongs of 12 groups big wing theory have been debated at length, the fact remained that it took time to assemble 5 squadrons at the correct height and position to attack in numbers which normally meant that the bombers had hit the target and were on their way back when 12 group got to have a go. 11 group were too near the coast for the big wing to work and often 11 group squadrons had to gain height by flying inland first then turn to fight.   Mistakes were made on both sides and I think it fair to say that park and Leigh-Mallory never saw eye to eye and it was a combination of both tactics that worked, helped of course by the Germans biggest blunder which was the switch from airfields to bombing London.   There I will get off my historical soap box as I am going to the Hop Farm tomorrow.   Steve  

That must have been really inspiring, the sight of a spitfire over London some 70 years after the battle was considered to be won on that day in 1940. It seems a shame that it has taken that long to recognise the leadership shown by Keith Park and indeed  Hugh Dowding which led to the ultimate victory in the skies over england that summer.  I grew up living on the back of RAF Hornchurch which closed in 1963 and now you wouln't even know that there had been an airfield in existance let alone one that was a sector station and bore the brunt of the battle along with all the other 11 Group airfields. If I may just make one correction to your story in the guise of accuracy. Aldertag or Eagle Day as it became known was in fact August 13th 1940 when the battle was considered to start in earnest with attacks on several RAF AIrfields. Sept 15th is considered to be the day when the tide turned against the German onslaught and the plans for invasion were scrapped. Still of course a very significant day and a good day to have a birthday on so happy birthday to your son and long may he remember that day.   When he is 13 why not encourage him to join the Air Cadets especially if he is thinking about a career in the Air Force. I joined when I was 14 and at 55 I am still there as a Squadron Commander. Hope you don't mind my small correction.   Steve

Well at the moment I am flying an Art Tech Diamond 2500 which goes up like a homesick angel and gets at least 3 flights from the 2500mAh battery. My first foamy was the Art Tech Christian Eagle which threw a prop blade the other day and shook itself to bits. Waiting to repair the damage and it will take to the skies once again.   Steve

Well the Gods were shining their light on the Bickley club once again, what a superb day, I can honestly say that I have never had a bad one at Bickley yet and the electric day was my fifth one attended. Nice to talk to David Ashby in the morning and what a friendly and relaxed atmosphere. I would like to say thanks once again to the Bickley Club for all their efforts that they put in to make the day so enjoyable, this was my brothers first meet and I think that he was most impressed. Looking forward to the next event .   Steve

To answer your query David, the answer is NO the AMFC is still a good club and I have been a member of it for over twenty years, without trying to take sides lets just say that there was some disagreement within the club from some members who have decided to go it alone and form a new flying club using land provided by AMFC's old landlords. AMFC now forms part of the Stow Maries airfield musuem site which is restoring the old airfield back to it's former glory of the 1917's era. The decision of the new club to only fly 2.4g is a very sensible one and provided both clubs operate within their designated airspace should not cause any problems, so it is always nice to see the emergence of a new club and I wish them well in this venture. Pre 2.4g would have made this impossible for obvious reasons, AMFC has been on this site for over 35 years and with the continued support of the new airfield owners will continue to fly from the site.

Unfortunately my brother and I went on the dreaded Sunday and we got there early so were one of the first in. The trade show was only partially open and most were debating about packing up and going home. However, I was not going to leave empty handed so purchased an E-Flite Blade Msr helicopter and a gallon of fuel. First time we decided to go to this show, can't help the weather so will give it another try next time but will make sure that I check the forecast for the day before driving all the way there for 30 mins, it did not represent good value for money.

Hi JB,   I used to have the Goldberg version of the Ultimate fitted with an OS 61SX and a Tuned Pipe and that had a large lump of church roof up the front as well to get the balance right. I put it down to the Tuned pipe which ran through the fus almost to the tail, but it flew superbly. I sold it to my brother last year and he removed the OS 61 and replaced it with a 110 four stroke and guess what, it still needed the large lump of lead up front so bang went my theory on the tuned pipe. I guess that the basic design being a fairly short nose moment will always require some extra weight to get the balance correct.   Steve