Frank Skilbeck

Interestingly a broadband router uses around 5-10 watts, so for 24 hour back up you'd need a 240 w/hr battery, say a 12v 20ah battery. A mobile phone would operate on standby for longer than 24 hours and would only need a small powerbank to charge it up. So maybe the back up position is to provide those that need it a back up mobile phone and have the landline divert to that. BTW when we upgraded our broadband a couple of years ago we went to a digital landline, but it's so infrequently used we might as well disconnect it. The only time we had a power cut we called the power company on the mobile to find out when it was coming back. Don't think I've given anyone my home number in the last 10 years.

I have a club mate who races motorbikes, he can get methanol at around £8 per gallon, I've used it to dilute fuel with a high oil content. No problems so far and all my engines are well out of warrenty.

Flying gliders is cheaper still,.......😁

Interesting that the hobbywing 10A UBEC uses a standard servo plug which are typically rated at 6A. The similar rated Multiplex safety switches have dual outputs when using the standard servo plugs. Note that even largish models won't pull 6 amps unless you've got a stalled high torque servo.

you can use a Lipo and UBEC, it will power the rx and servos. Only downside is it's something else that may go wrong, just make sure it has enough capacity for the size of model and servos. Also you'll need to unplug the lipo from the UBEC when you've finished flying as the UBEC will carry on drawing a small current which over a few weeks could completely flatten your lipo. Note also if using a UBEC on a modern radio the reciever volts will be the volts from the UBEC, not the Lipo volts. so the lipo could be down to less than 3v per cell and you won't know unless you are specifically monitoring the battery volts.

that's a car fault not a stop/start feature, I had a manual 520D and it would only stop the engine if the car was stopped with the foot on the brake, second you came off the brake the engine restarted, no need to push a button. 320 auto I have is basically the same, engine only stops when car is stationary with foot on the brake. Starts instantly pressure is released on the brake pedal. All fuel injected cars cut fuel to the engine when you come off the throttle and reintroduce it at low revs, it sounds on your car this isn't happening, and that's the fault, not the stop start system.

Don't bother with a petrol conversion on an engine of this size. My Sig Clipped Wing cub had a side mounted mk1 OS40FS and worked great.

Just get an EV............ 😚

I'd say neither, but 5 years ago my BMW 520D was written off after a driver coming the other way wandered across the central white lines and despite me taking some evasive action hit my rear offside wheel taking it completely off and spinning the car round. I don't think there is a standard for things like lane keep assist (I first came across it in a van we'd hired to move my son in 2018!) some are quite strong and will actually steer the car, other are quite mild, the one on our 2021 Mini vibrates the steering wheel similar to driving onto the rumble strips on the motorway, quite inobtrusive but would alert you. But if you drive within the lines or use the indicator then it never kicks in, so maybe if you find indicating a bit difficult it would be inconvenient 🙄 BTW I'm converted to rear view cameras now.

Don't worry it not like a driving test, if you don't pass you won't have to wait 6+ months for another one. Apart from the flying make sure you.do the preflight checks and.know the local club rules.

Just recently I had to change the switch in an old Majestic Major, it's on 35 mhz and has a battery monitor plugged into the reciever, the first two replacement switches saw the voltage drop into the red everytime the servos were cycled, eventually found a switch that was OK. Well worth monitoring the voltage drop across the switch when under load.

Fokker D7, no rigging and they fly great. Or maybe a D8. MR Camel flies great but mine had very tricky ground handling (it was 3rd hand)

Larger D8, cracking idea. Biggest change I'd consider is the main wing mounting, might be good to have a fixed centre section with plug on wings to make transportation and field assembly easier. I can fit the 54" into my car fully assembled, but not a 6ft one.

Remember they only have to be 3mm high, I just printed a load off on an A4 sheet, then cut them out and stick them on the a bit of clear tape. If the models scale I try to put them inside where they can be easily accessed without any tools. Have also printed a few sheets off for club mates, typically 90 models worth on an A4 sheet 😀

Neither am I, and I don't have a Tesla or use the superchargers, but give it to Elon for making charging your car on the go as simple as turn up and plug in and you get charged for what you've used (or deducted from your free allowance at the moment), . If Tesla did a Model 3 estate I'd be in line for one.

Yep, imagine if you could turn up at the fuel pump, fill up and drive off without ever paying and it was just billed to your account. Ridiculous eh! Much better to put your card in the pump and get pre-authorisation or pay at the shop. Or even better in the US where I had to go in the shop get my card pre-authorised, fill up, and then go back and pay................

Which just shows how inefficient internal combustion is, a BEV will go 3 to 5 miles per kwh of energy where as a lighter ICE petrol doing 60mpg is equivalent to 1.5 miles per kwh.

Depends on the model, if it's a lightweight foamy I leave the floats uncovered. But on heavier models I've balsa skinned them and then glass clothed them. Last floatplane I built was a flying boat, I glass clothed the fuselage using Poly C and just coated the blue foam wing floats with a few coats of Poly C and then painted them.

Any reason you changed to a 15 x 8 prop? I would have thought a lower pitch would have suited a Cub better,

Yep, as JD notes a tight inlet clearance may mean the valve doesn't seal properly on the compression stroke so some charge is shoved back into the inlet. Massive gap on the exhaust valve means it's open for a shorter period so not all the burnt gas is expelled.

0n my older D100, the cycle program uses the values from the charge and discharge settings, so in the charge screen set the charge rate, move to the discharge screen, set the rate and cutoff value, then in the cycle screen set how many cycles you'd like.

If you.have a multimeter, do a continuity check on the charging lead. Also I have one charging lead that gives errors if the banana plugs are fully pushed into the charger, only plug in with a 5mm gap and it works fine.....

I fly pinch with a neckstrap/harness, I do a bit of instructing and advise my pupils to try both and go with what they are most comfortable with. Some thumb fliers find more expo is useful as they find fine control around the center easier.

Practise a deadstick landing on the last flight of the day? 🤪

As Shaun and GG have noted I've done this with a Dx6e as the master and an old DSM2 Dx6I as the buddy, note I had to update the firmware on the Dx6e to get it to work but then it was fine. Note that the receiver in the plane will need to be a DSMx to work with the Dx8e. What is the older tx?