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Trevor Crook

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Everything posted by Trevor Crook

  1. I plan on going, weather dependent. It was the only show I went to last year, enjoyed it.
  2. Matty, there was in fact a fire related recall on the Kona electric a couple of years ago. https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/manufacturer-news/2021/02/25/hyundai-recalls-electric-cars-due-to-battery-fire-risk#:~:text=Hyundai will recall 82%2C000 electric,well as the Ioniq Electric. Although this article doesn't mention it, I think there were a couple of dozen fires worldwide. Hyundai have done the prudent thing and issued a recall to sort it, and its not a factor that would put me off buying an EV. They are still rather pricey, and the charging infrastructure is still pretty rubbish, but I'll get one sometime soon hopefully.
  3. Wow, looks like prices of home generation/ storage in France is much higher than here in the UK, for whatever reason. Presumably that's the smaller battery 500 - the 40kWh version has a WLTP range of around 200 miles, although this equates to about 160 in real world use. Most cars, electric and combustion, don't readily achieve their WLTP figures, although the Hyundai Kona, Kia e-Niro and Soul seem to get close.
  4. Indeed, and for smaller models the little Spektrum antennaless receivers are excellent and not too expensive.
  5. Given that new builds apparently have to have an EV charger, I don't understand why the government don't go further and mandate they also have solar panels and storage batteries, where appropriate. This would probably cost less than £10k per house, negligible when new builds where I live start at around £400k. Surely that would significantly reduce the grid's average gas consumption? I wasn't wishing, I remembered what this guy said on this video, which admittedly is a year or so old. About 14 minutes in, he says a solar array and battery come in around 8-9k. Even if this is a bit light, in commercial volumes I would expect 10k to be realistic.
  6. Given that new builds apparently have to have an EV charger, I don't understand why the government don't go further and mandate they also have solar panels and storage batteries, where appropriate. This would probably cost less than £10k per house, negligible when new builds where I live start at around £400k. Surely that would significantly reduce the grid's average gas consumption?
  7. John has summed up the DSM2/X situation perfectly. I have a Gen 2 DX8 which does both -2 and -X protocols and it has served me well. A year or so ago I treated myself to an NX-8 because I fancied the voice alerts and wireless trainer. I bought it rather than the DX8e because of the diversity antennae, although my DX8 only has one and has never given a problem. I always try to angle the antenna at 90° to the model, and I notice that although the 8e antenna only pivots in one axis, this should still be possible. If you don't need 8 channels, the NX-6 could be a cheaper option. Is the 8e supplied for dry cell operation? The NX range is Li Ion powered, with charging via a micro USB socket. Mine runs for many hours, even though I have the display back-light permanently on.
  8. I'm about to return from a holiday in Southwold, Suffolk. A couple of days ago my wife overheard someone in town ask a shop assistant where he could get petrol. He was told that there hadn't been a petrol station in town for 10 years, the nearest one was 5 miles away. Sure enough, I had to search on Google Maps for one today and divert from my drive along the coast to fill up for the drive home tomorrow. Ironically, 2 minutes walk from our holiday let is a public charger, albeit only a fast (7.2kW) one. It had been unoccupied each time I passed, and I had a nose at it today. It looked fully functional, accepted contactless payment as well as an app and RFID card, at a quite reasonable 35p/kWh. Looks like I would have had less trouble keeping an EV topped up than my petrol car! We're going to need many, many more of them though if EV sales keep increasing as they are though. Last years second best selling car overall was the Tesla Model 3, behind the (mostly I.c.) Vauxhall Corsa.
  9. Whilst out shopping today, I was reminded of the e-bike posts a couple of days ago. A chap emerged from a side turning on what looked like a standard push-bike, but with an I.c. engine in the middle of the frame. I couldn't see how it was connected to the wheels. As he got onto the main road, he pedalled like the clappers, the engine fired up very noisily, and he took off up the hill at an impressive rate of knots without pedalling. No number plates or helmet, and I suspect far from legal!
  10. Rich, there are likely to be several YouTube channels with reports on the show, not least the Fully Charged channel.
  11. A Jag I-Pace, VW ID3 and BMW i3 are all regulars at our field. Many of the latest models (MG ZS, new Kia and Hyundai models) have a vehicle to load facility. This provides 240V mains up to about 2-3 kW, very useful if you want to charge at the field or make a brew.
  12. I would recommend keeping a little power on for landing because there is loss of elevator authority at low speed with full flap. If you get it right, she can be settled into a tail down landing, if not a full three pointer. I remember reading that the full size Mossie should always be landed tail up.
  13. HQ, that's fine work, you are making me wish I hadn't sold mine now! I too used a better canopy from Sarik. I got the matt finish by spraying with Plastikote matt lacquer.
  14. It would need someone on here who is really clued up on rf data protocols to give an informed opinion on this. I believe, as said, Bluetooth uses a 2.4Ghz band, but probably a totally different protocol to our sets. I think the latest FrSky txs use Bluetooth for the wireless trainer link, which suggests it doesn't cause issues with the model rf link?
  15. Lost in admiration for you guys!
  16. That looks really good, and it should fly well with that wing loading. My 1.5m Avios Spitfire and my son's 1.6m Flightline Spit will both fly for a safe 8 minutes plus on 6s 3300s, which is fine for us. Far easier to get better scale appearance with electric - you can swing a scale prop, and, with an inline water-cooled fighter, no chunks of aluminium poking out of the cowl.
  17. That looks great Martin. Could you not fashion an exhaust from some aluminium tube? If you have a local model shop they may have a K&S metal stand, which normally includes ally tube. Forming the curved section is the tricky bit though.
  18. She flies! I briefly visited our field and had a 5 minute maiden. The grass was fairly damp and not that short, so I needed lots of up to start the take-off run as she wanted to nose over. Lift off was smooth, with a steady climb out. Power is adequate for more than scale performance, but not too excessive. The only trim change needed was a few blips of up. Taken to height, the stall was fairly benign, with one wing dropping gently. Rolls are nice and axial, and loops satisfyingly large. I didn't explore inverted flight on this occasion. I then tried the flaps. Take off setting is about 20°, landing about 60°. Neither caused a significant trim change, so I decided to land using the flaps to reduce the chance of a nose-over with a high speed arrival. She came in nice and gently and settled on her wheels. She started tipping forward when I tried to taxi back though. I checked the cg in case it was a bit forward, but she balanced dead on the spar as shown on the plan. I'll try bending the u/c forward a tad, I can't guarantee I bent it exactly to the plan template. Another winner Peter, even with extra weight and flaps. Looking forward to many enjoyable flights.
  19. I have direct experience of the Provost and Gnat. Both fly really well but the Gnat is much easier to launch. What problems do you have with the A10, it looks the perfect airframe to be a good flier.
  20. Max Thrust Riot flies well, not too floaty for a foamy and aerobatic enough for the next stage. It's got a fiddly little battery box though, and no room for something bigger than a 2200 for more duration.
  21. I posted these on the Stampe SR7 thread in the Peter Miller area, but thought I'd put them here too. The model was scratch built from the magazine free plan, and uses a 4s setup that I had lying around. It's a bit heavier than the prototype at 4.75lb (with battery) but I have added flaps and fairly heavy wheels, which together with a larger than needed motor has put the weight on. There's lots of wing though, and I've propped it to about 450W, so all should be well. Non stop high winds since it was finished a couple of weeks ago, will wait for a calm day to try it.
  22. My Legionnair flew nicely on an OS40 FS, as did my SE5. Luckily I kept the plan for the latter and now have an electric version built from it, flies really well and doesn't deteriorate. I remember being disappointed when I bought their Fokker DVII and had to build it without a full size plan.
  23. Neil, I've got Picasim working with the NX8 - took a bit of mapping and mixing but I can now fly the sim. If you (or anyone else) want to know what I did, let me know here.
  24. Neil, I've had a very quick play this morning, and can report that, with the USB setting as shown in the video I attached above, the NX8 communicates with a PC using the cable that Spektrum provide. I tried running Picasim, and the joystick inputs need remapping, ie the sticks don't operate the functions they should. I spent a lot of time sorting that out with my FrSky setup, so I think any dongle would be the same. In a nutshell though, you don't need to buy a dongle, the NX8 talks directly to the PC. I haven't watched the part of the instructional video that covers the Realflight simulator, perhaps that covers function mapping. I'll report any progress I make with Picasim. Someone else may be able to advise on fpv sims.
  25. This video shows how to connect it to a PC via the USB port to the Realflight sim. I haven't tried it with mine yet as I already had a sim setup with an FrSky Tx and dongle, using the free Picasim simulator. I don't know if the NX8 will work with that sim, but I'll give it a try in the next day or so and report back. Picasim includes a quadcopter, it's not a bad simulator for free.
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