Kevin Wilson

My last foamy build the hinges were so floppy I rubbed an extra (thin) coat of Por over the top. If you get stiff Por hinges you have either used too much glue, or more likely not tapered the foam to a thin point. I was very sceptical about the technique, until I tried it. I am totaly converted to the idea now, and they are so easy to maintain by rubbing extra Por along the joint if they look a bit weak. Not sure I would use glue hinges on anything heavier than an EPP plane though.

To reinforce what has been said above. When dealing with HobbyKing (HK) be aware that any order in excess of £15 (goods) from the international warehouse will attract VAT (goods & p+p) and a hefty collection fee from Parcel Force. Only buy low value orders from International w'house, or accept the 'unexpected' cost. It can be cheaper to split your order into multiple sub £15 orders than pay the vat and the £8 collection fee. When you are looking at an item on HK, if it doesnt say (UK Warehouse) in the product description it is NOT coming from the UK warehouse. Sounds obvious but lot of people have got caught by this and complain bitterly about it.

I was lucky enough to work in an office that had a commercial laminator and I sweet talked the young lady that ran the machine into saving the roll ends for me. There was a fair bit on the pair so I think she swapped them out a bit early She said she swaps them out rather than have them run out 1/2 way through a big job. So Kevin B's suggestion may be fruitfull.

I fear gentlemen that you misinterpereted my words, clearly misunderstood my meaning. I have great respect for the history of our hobby. I have enjoyed flying since '79 and learned to fly on 2 chanel 27AM. The vast majority of my models are plan built, and the last one was an own design. It would be nice to see some up to date content showing how far our hobby has come. I am sure 3D helicopters would strike a chord with younger viewers, and certainly some multi rotor coverage would make it very relevant. The recent increase of the Dynamic Soaring record to over 500mph is probably worth a program in itself. I just found the recent reruns of very old programs dated and unrepresentative.

These old programs really should have a warning notice before the broadcast. Something along the lines of... HISTORIC ARCHIVE FOOTAGE. This program represents modeling as it was many years back, and does not represent current practice. Please refer to up to date sources, such as the excellent RCME magazine, to see exciting models and short ariels. Uninformed people may come away with the idea that a helium balloon controlled by a 27MHz AM 'Divining rod' is what we all really think of as 'FUN' Modeling has moved on so far as to make these programs well and truly obsolete.

Proper planes indoors! You have me interested Steve. Have you scaled the plan down? It might be a bit big for my normal indoor venue. Rgds, Kevin

One of those would make a great field charger for batteries. I bet there arn't many left in working comndition. An uneducated guess regarding the exhaust would be that it got poked through a hole in the fus as close to the unit as possible.

I am just south of the London boundary and I have found Lidl to only get the offers that the manager thinks will sell in his store. I have often not located one of the offers in any local store. Its not just an Ireland thing. On the Other hand, Aldi seem to have a random distribution of their weekly offers. Most stores seem to get most if not all the weekly offers but in varying quantities. Talking to the staff it seems they have little information or influence on what they will receive.

It seems logical that each site has restrictions on the type of model that can be accomodated. For example there are very few places that would / could / should allow a pulse jet to operate. I know of one club that operates adjacent to a fertiliser factory. Obvious risks & consequences there. Set Clear rules on hours, size, noise, propulsion, speed as appropriate. All members to agree & sign up to the limits (including existing). Then police and enforce those limitations. As your club works now then the limitations are already established and (tacitly) agreed by the existing members. It just falls to the new members to understand and accept the limitations of the site. It is the policing/enforcing bit that is difficult. but I expect you know that already. Edited By Kevin Wilson on 02/12/2015 14:39:47 Edited By Kevin Wilson on 02/12/2015 14:40:14

Perhaps if Maplin were to read the complaint as "Staff giving Maplin a bad name" their PR might take more interest. Perhaps it would be worth giving the local paper a 'free story' and and opportunity to educate the public. Also an opportunity to publicly distance ourselves from such iresponsible action. I am no rule book evangelist but that is a sizeable quad to be flying in an RF confused environment. Edited By Kevin Wilson on 25/11/2015 10:59:01

Like I say, it certainly caught me by surprise Gary. i wouldnt say I fixed it; more a fudge to prevent it happening again. I have an idea of the make/model but will check before passing false info.

Gary, check your esc functions as expected. I have one esc that constantly recalibrates its end points. Using the trottle cut my DX6i sends a -125% on the throttle chanel. The esc sees this as the new zero point, consequently when I release the throttle cut switch the esc sees -100% and being greater than -125% starts the motor spinning. Made me jump the first time it happened. A 7x5 on a (potentialy) 400w motor bursting into life even at low speed is not nice. I inhibited the throttle cut on that model!

Interesting to hear of some real experience with this as I have just set up a bench trial of differential throtle using 2 esc a V tail mixer and a rudder servo. With the intent of using on an indoor foamy twin. I did intend to tame down the throttle differential somehow, hence the bench trial. Sounds like if I continue, the maiden should be outdoors with plenty of space...... and plenty of glue!

A low pass.... or a little work with GIMP I do fly my EPP Foamys in the garden, there is about 20' drop from the back door to the end of the garden which makes things easier. Oh I wish I was good enough to fly the Fizza in the garden. Landing would be interesting!

G scale American outline. probably LGB. Embarased and slinking away in my anorak

I set a 1C balance charge every time. I will suffer the slightly extended charge times for the peace of mind. As you state 'newbie' I will clarify 1C is 1x the battery rating. i.e 1000mA = 1A so a 1000mAh battery gets a 1A balance charge. Likewise 2200mA = 2.2A so a 2200mAh battery gets a 2.2A balance charge. This is irespective of the cell count (2s, 3s, etc).

I made a Fizza last summer. Just got my compass out and made my own ply disc. Doesnt even need to be that neat, The final sanding of the nose smooths out the bumps.

With my EasyStar (aka Bixler) I found it important not to put on too much power at launch. The high motor position will push it into the ground until it atains flyimng speed. As Alan found 3/4 throttle, level throw and wait for the airspeed to come up. It is probbably my learning to fly with very low powered balsa trainers that I have the opinion a good push level or slightly down is the safest for hand launching. A nose up throw would invariably lead to a stall, wing drop & crash. Of course we have very generously powered (overpowered?) craft now that will almost pull out of your hand without a throw. Witness my indoor foamies that are launched vertical and push the nose over when you get altitude.

I cut myself a "Leadfeather EPP Yak" using the plans from RC Groups. It is very similar to the FLASH but a bit smaller (32" ) Very cheap and flies awesome but doesnt like too much wind (does fly but becomes quite a handful) If you are only flying outdoors The Handyman or Parkmaster might be a better idea. HobbyKing have a Yak 54 and Yak 55 that are similar construction and offer a choice of 900mm & 1200mm respectively. Kevin Edited By Kevin Wilson on 16/11/2015 08:04:39 Edited By Kevin Wilson on 16/11/2015 08:05:00

Ah! but you do get a propeller.

I lost my EasyStar canopy doing a bunt. The Bix is a copy of the Easy* so relevant. I made a new one with some balsa sheet and a bit of clear plastic (acetate). Fixed in with Magnets. Fitted better than the original due to the less than perfect landings. Anything less than 90deg IS a landing OK!

Control link on 5.8GHz? Hmm! not sure if I fancy that. I cannot see the benefit. The only real benefit to 2.4GHz over 35MHz is the crystal free digital transmission. Of course the higher frequency gives the bandwidth to achieve those protocols, which we do ot have at 35MHz.

Due to the blind stampede into SMART Metering I have seen quite a few companies do a sales number on my employer. They come in and fit new meters next to our existing meters (at our cost of course) from which they suck the data into 'the cloud' and charge us hansomely to get our own information back. Funily enough when we need to read a meter, insted of logging into 'the web' we go and read the old meter as the SMART readings are invariably wrong. Still, not everyone can be a management consultant.

Much closer to a HK Sky Mule. The twinstar is too curvy. I considered re liverying a Sky Mule to make a stand------------way--------off scale Islander. With the different fuselage lenghts, engine configurations and Trislander there is plenty of mileage in this UK designed & built aircraft.

I work next to a very large high profile flying site in W.London (with website) and it always makes me laugh how people buy houses next to it, then complain about the noise! Incidentally that mob are knocking down houses for a new runway; so all you need is friends in high places.