Graham Bowers

One of my pals has red and green wingtip lights, leds. They definitely make orientatian easier. I know “ other tricks” are available, however the leds make for a more enjoyable flight in adverse lighting conditions.

Possible alternative. I've not built one, I'm still making slow progress with a Gnat. https://jetworks.online/product-category/vampire

How does this LIDL specials thing work please? Not a shop I know. Are they likely to have a decent supply, or will it be like fighting for bog roll during corvid?

As well as that, it's much more likely to cause an infected wound than other thorns, so puncture injuries need to be treated with care and respect. I get up close and personal with it quite a bit in my voluntary work.

I came from a Taranis, and before that a Multiplex P4000 and Cockpit Sx on 35 MHz. I bought a TX16S because of the multi mode capability. Many have trouble free service from their TX16S's and apart from the antenna articulation joint breaking, so have I. I am, however, phasing it's retirement from my models due to a loss of confidence. I fly the odd foamy with it, but that's all. Shame, as I love OpenTx and it's capability. I still fly the aged Taranis however have moved to a European brand for my expensive stuff. All we punters have is anecdotes, and here are the ones that led to my decision. 1) One of my clubmates crashed a couple of models. We were checking his transmitter in the clubhouse and I saw with my own eyes how the channel outputs failed to respond correctly to the inputs. He was advised by the supplier this was probably an issue with the ribbon cable connection. He obtained and installed a new ribbon cable and as far as I know it's been OK since. 2) I watched an expensive model of one of our better fliers on finals roll uncommanded into a tree and become a total loss. 3) Fair play to him, he put a foamy up straight away and it flew OK, however upon landing, experienced uncommanded full power on the electric motor and collided with another member's model. He was advised by the supplier it was probably one of a couple of things, however chose to retire it. In a club of about 30, with a handful using the TX16S, those don't seem great odds. When reading stories of problems in RCgroups, for example, or watching on YouTube, one never really knows whether the reporting is accurate, or whether the competency of the operators was the cause - as alluded earlier in this thread. One may read that anything can fail, and qualitatively, that's true. Quantitatively, the industry has data on warranty claims and parts sales however that data is denied to us punters. So taking in to account what I saw, I made my choice. I didn't feel lucky enough.

Depends very much on the individual in my opinion. Some like it that way, some like to push the boundaries. Personally, I tend to get bored when I stop learning new stuff. In modelling and other aspects of my life. In context, "most" is only 51% in whole numbers ;-)

As far as I know it's a throwback to the pre-2.4 GHz days. The thinking being that transmitters closer to models than the one supposed to be in control could cause interference. Happy to be corrected. I've not seen transmitters being left in the pilot area when recovering a model from the strip for many a year - unless practicalities of model size were a factor.

Saved here https://rclibrary.co.uk/download_title.asp?ID=1023

A pointless exercise in cemantics. I’ve read similar in a cycling context.

Fair point. Think my slope models are more robust than my flat field models, too.

Mine too, although it must be said, I don't make the effort often enough. Flat fields are 12 mins or 30 mins away. Closest slope around 70 mins, Leek area. I tend to fly more slope when away from home, easy to take a Weasel ;-)

Good observation, I hadn't joined the dots up on that. Some of my best landings are dead-stick!

For reasons I don't fully understand, I'm happy to launch from the top of a hill in to a wind that'd have me cowering at a flat field. And fully expect the landing to perhaps be little more than a controlled crash. On a slope with smooth lift, good landing area and a light wind day, then a beginner friendly experience may be expected. However they are uncommon combinations of circumstances. I do believe sloping makes for a better flat field flyer, however can't convince myself it's an "ideal entry". Unless that's all you've got ;-)

I can state categorically that every general media item of which I had first hand knowledge has contained inaccuracies and omissions. "Could have done better" is a fair appraisal of the programme. Sadly, however, seems to me to be the position of the bar. Which is why I watch almost no TV.

Yes. However, in context it's an entertainment programme. We aeromodellers can spot all of the daft stuff, but are not the intended audience. If it places us in better light, and Dave Phipps didn't have to bite his lip too hard, than all to the good.