Trevor Crook

Thank you for your clarification Andy, it should now be clear to everyone what, if anything, they need to do.

I confess that I hadn't taken the RCC test until I heard this change was afoot, having had a B cert for decades. Although I had read through Article 16 previously, as required, I felt that taking the test was worthwhile as it makes sure you have actually read most of it. As others have said, taking the test itself is pretty straightforward and I regret being too lazy to do it earlier!

https://bmfa.org/bmfa-article-16-authorisation-re-issued-for-2025 This new issue removes the achievement scheme and only leaves the RCC and DMARES tests as acceptable compliance. I only found out because our club sec. attended a BMFA achievement scheme meeting just before Christmas and warned us it was coming. I'm a bit surprised there has been no communication from the BMFA on this, and that the CAA can move the goalposts having issued Flyer ids recently. I guess they argue we must always comply with the current issue of Article 16. Railway modelling is looking an increasingly attractive alternative hobby!

Don't think it's been widely publicised, but apparently as from January 1st 2025, the CAA is no longer recognising the BMFA Acheivement Scheme to comply with Article 16. Previously if we had an AS certificate prior to 2021 we didn't have to take the RCC or DMARES test, but now we do to stay legal.

I've also heard that the FMS Mustang seems underpowered, which puzzles me slightly as I have their 1400mm BF109F and that flies really well on 4s 4000 packs that are only rated at 20C. For reference, I measured that they deliver about 60A at full throttle. Admittedly it doesn't have the vertical performance of my 6s Avios Spitfire, but will still pull decently large loops, take off at 2/3 throttle and cruise realistically on about 60% power. I guess it depends on your expectations.

Interesting. I've still got my original Mk24 Spitfire which has had hundreds of flights, the only failure has been a retract wearing out. I've also had their Me110, Spitfire Mk1, Me109, Trojan, Tundra and Vampire. My son has had a similar number, and neither of us have had a servo problem, so I guess we have been lucky and you have been unlucky. I did have an elevator servo fail in a Dynam Hurricane though, fortunately during a pre-flight check.

Nice job, Geoff. That's how I replaced the pilot in my FMS 109 for a better one. It certainly looks a great model, I've been very impressed with Durafly models over the years. Leccyflyer, have you had bad experience with a servo in a Durafly model? I've had loads of artfs from Hobbyking, including many of the Durafly brand, and the only servo issue was with the Durafly P40 flap servos. However, there was a covering note in the kit saying they had had a duff batch, and 2 spare servos were included!

That's an extreme example! First comparison example I looked up (sourced from kerb weights given by Honest John) : BMW X3 - 2 tonnes; BMW iX3 (electric version) - 2.2 tonnes, so a 10% increase. I think a Tesla Model 3 weighs about 100kg more than a BMW 3 series, version dependent of course.

Indeed. 1l of fuel contains around 10kWh of energy. My daughter's diesel SUV does around 45mpg, which equates to about 1 mile/kWh. Her husband's larger, faster Tesla Model Y does 3.5 - 4 miles/kWh (depending on the season) so even if all the electrons came from fossil fuels it would "burn" far less. In fact, during the last year only 36% of the UK's electricity came from fossil fuels.

Very sorry to hear you were a victim of this, just hope you (and the other 1400-odd folks) can get insurance etc. sorted as quickly as possible.

Took this picture this morning at my 92 year old father in laws house. He had the cereal gift airfield still unopened for decades. Last year my granddaughter was doing a WW2 project at school, and he wrote down his experiences as a wartime child for them, and gave them the diorama to display. They were very impressed by both. Now he doesn't know what to do with it! Don't know why the picture was inserted upside down.

I built the first 1/24 Spitfire around 1969, when I was 15. I got another a couple of years ago at an antiques centre and started it. Unfortunately I manged to spill glue into the box and ruined the sliding canopy part, so put it all away in disgust. I got inspired by the recent Hornby series which featured the new 1/24 Mk IX, and emailed Airfix to see if they still had any spares for the old kit they could sell me. After a couple of email exchanges with me providing photos of the number on the box and the page in the instruction book, they sent me the appropriate set of transparencies f.o.c. So impressed with the service that I'll probably buy the new kit when I've finished the old one!

Brilliant! Inspires me to do a bit more on my old Airfix 1/24 Spitfire Mk1. Going more carefully with the glue than when I built the first one - "Plenty of it, flood the cowling!"

With subscription, I paid £55 for 13 issues, and got a nice hardback WW2 aircraft book thrown in. 13 issues from Smiths would cost £82.55, plus a trip to the town. I think I'll keep subscribing.

I thought you'd get a year's warranty on the whole transmitter, you even get 2 years from Als Hobbies. They list genuine replacement batteries as "available to order", but who knows how long that will take!