David Holland 2

If you are using brushless motors you just connect the three wires to the ESC and test (without props if you value your fingers!). If the direction of rotation is wrong, swap two of the wires. David

Hi Chris, I mounted 2.5g servos in the nacelles and made little 1/16 ply bellcranks, holes toughened with cyano, connecting to the inboard end of each aileron and interconnected upper and lower with plastic and tube and heatshrink. Worked a treat. David

Honestly, Chris, you won’t have an issue with the weight, if you were to weigh the individual parts rather than the laser cut sheets I reckon that would reduce your 327g significantly. I tried 2s lipo but found the power dropped off too much when the pack voltage dropped from the freshly charged state (i.e. fine at 4.2v but not at 3.7v) and there is not room between nacelles and fuselage to fit bigger props. Enjoy the build, let’s us know how it’s going. David

Hi Chris, apologies for the slow reply but I had to dig my Rapide out to weigh it. Mine came in at 12.8 oz (365g) without battery. I went for brushless and counter rotating props and use a 600 3s lipo (1.6oz/44g). Covered in Solite and airbrushed with Humbrol. I was careful with weigh control but not obsessive and I think you would struggle to get as high as 20oz. Flies really nicely, not as tip stally as you would think, but needs very calm winds. Lovely kit to build (in fact I am building a Dumas Tiger Moth as a light weight project while recovering from some fairly major surgery) but the 1/16 square stringers are very delicate as you will find!! I rate the Dumas kits very highly and am about to order the Taylorcraft as a follow on from the Tiger. David

Sorry it’s not r/c related but just heard that Sir Frank Williams has died. A Formula One legend and a true gentleman. David

I, too, built one last winter. Nice build, good quality and complete. On a calm day will waft around for ages on a 2200 3S. Nice model. David

Pretty sure it was 3s, David, it was not short of power. David

I’ve had one for some years and decided, like you David, that it needed some rudder. I just modified the central fin. Flies ok but is a bit tip-stally so needs some speed. Looks good in the air apart from the fixed gear. Don’t fly it much and it’s not one of my favourites. David

A bit like the radio, the pictures are much better……….

And you don’t need any upgrades……………

The courier has, literally, just delivered my third foamy Acrowot. I flew Acrowot 2 (564 1/2 flights under its belt) on Thursday, took my eyes of it for a second to look at the timer then tried to fly a clubmate’s Wot4 (it’s the chequers under the wing) for a few seconds when I looked back. Did not end well. It was my “fly every time” model and I can’t imagine life without one! I will take a lot of convincing that there could be a better everyday model, performance, impeccable manners, fly in a really wide range of conditions, fit in the car in one piece, looks good and pretty fair value. Love ‘m. David

A much belated thank you to everyone involved with the Winterton autogyro meet this year. What a brilliant weekend, first model aircraft do I've been to in years, and I had a blast. Mine is the Ken Wallis lookalike "Revolver" and although Richard test flew and trimmed it for me at the 2019 (I think, the last one, anyway) NATS and I managed to fly it myself, I have struggled to get it airborne since. He, and several others, spent a great deal of time over that weekend showing, and talking me through the take-off technique and today, the first opportunity since July, I successfully flew it at my home club site. It aroused a great deal of interest from my club mates, several of whom scuttled off home to dig out the relevant RCM&E back number!! It is going to be a regular flyer from now on. There were several examples of another pusher autogyro, the Mantis, I think, at Winterton. One of your designs, I believe, Richard? Was it ever published and are the plans available? Thanks again, everyone, for a great weekend, see you next year. David

If it were ever a possibility for the future, I’d definitely be up for a Mossie……….. David

Apologies for the slow response but we have had positive COVID tests in both my daughter’s families and my mind has been elsewhere for a few days. Thanks for the replies, the XT90 anti spark connectors seem the neatest solution so I’ll get some ordered. Thanks again, David

Evening, gents. Had a problem on Thursday with a 6S pack, connection was erratic (two other packs worked perfectly) and it seems that the spark when connecting high voltage lipos has eroded the plugs. I'm aware that this is a known phenomenon and I remember reading the solution, involving a capacitor, I think. Can anyone supply details of the fix, please. David

Making my preparations for this weekend, can"t find anything to say the fly-in is not going ahead. I've only one autogyro, can I bring a couple of fixed wings in case of accidents (?)? Any facilities for battery charging? That's me questioned out, see you tomorrow. David

Only pride!!

Can anybody guess what might happen if you mistakenly fit a reverse direction prop to a Tomboy and then hand launch it.............? Duh, this hobby has so many ways to make you look an idiot.??

We get loads of Red Kites showing us how it should be done!!

Had a day like that today, great bunch of old blokes, some lovely flying from a huge variety of models, warm, light winds, perfect. I personally inconvenienced the electrons in 15 battery packs and took home the same number of models in the same number of pieces that I arrived with. In my book that is a result. David

I thought it was Dolly the sheep and anyway it's very rude talking about a mod like that. I would never think of doing such a thing. Like an apple, sir????

Gentlemen, need some help here. You may have gathered that I have contracted a mild but persistent dose of Retro R/C. It started with the symptoms of Galloping Ghost and has progressed to Single Channel button pushing and I can definitley feel the early signs of Reed Emulation affecting my judgement, I caught it from three irresponsible club members (Roger, John, Gareth, you may well look guilty) who have been spreading it with no thought for their clubmates, abetted by messrs Garrity and Green. To be more serious, we really take for granted the ability, with modern radios, to trim all the flight controls from the transmitter while the model is airborne. Not so with S/C, so a series of flights and tweaks are required. I have dialled out the persistent left turn, the climb, stall, climb, stall flightpath and found a nice steady mid position power setting for the quick blip throttle. The problem is that full throttle is vastly overpowered, enough to completely disrupt the model's equilibrium, and you can't avoid it as the throttle is sequential, off, mid, full, mid, off. I have measured the mid throttle amps/watts with a wattmeter, reading about 32 watts and have downsized the prop to one (6x4) which draws about 38 watts at full throttle and set the mid position to give about 30 watts. My question is whether the wattmeter readings are comparable across prop sizes, can I expect 30 watts on a 6x4 to give the same performance as 30 watts on a 7x6? Looks a no brainer but I have grown very wary of "gotchas". My flight with the Tomboy this morning was a complete delight, lovely straight climb out at mid throttle, nice positive turns and a cracking glide with motor off, absolutely addictive. I bypassed single channel in my youth cos I could not afford it and by the timeI was working, 27meg propo was here so I bought a Futaba M series (still got it!) and a Super Sixty and have been dabbling ever since, about 65 years of aeromodelling and counting. Thank for your thoughts, David

I claim the fifth amendment!

Thanks for the input, guys. I think start with the CoG on the spar and adjust as necessary. Loved the Aeromodeller article, John, it was a different World, eh? Enjoyed the video, Phil, and it solved the rudder actuation problem for me. I could not work out how to get a pushrod neatly to the rudder now ten minutes on the lathe and I'll have a nice little ali torque rod connector for a servo! Really enjoying this retro R/C diversion. David

Oh, no it’s not. Not if our club is anything to go by. David