Plummet

Before I retired I used to work in a University. Part of my job was to "help" with some of the teaching. Since I generally had more experience with the topic than the actual lecturer I also prepared a lot of the course materials. When the students moaned about things I would often reply "You learn by your mistakes. It is our job to get you to make as many mistakes as possible." Plummet

Re. an early comment about putting the glue in the fridge ... The SuperPhatic glue bottle does say "Do not freeze" on the label. so the fridge would be a bad idea. Yes I do know that the post was retracted. as the advice was for CA glues. Plummet

... and of course, any trees or shrubs that you plant run the risk of being model magnets. Plummet

Posted by Erfolg on 07/01/2020 12:22:53: My next issue will be a small tree that is on its last legs, which I will try and identify with a view of replacing like foe like. A word of warning. It is often advised that you do NOT plant a similar plant to one that has been removed, especially when it was poorly. It could just mean that the new plant gets the same disease, or at best, is planted into soil that has already been depleted of just the nutrients it especially needs. Plummet

Have a look at **LINK** What do you think? Plummet

May I ask a dumb question ... The servos are identical aren't they? The same make and model, and bought together? Plummet

I have no experience with it, but just the other day I saw a video on You Tube of a bloke making a foam cored wing using canned expanding foam. Is there any way you could create a mould or skin to enclose the space to be filled and to then inject some foam. As the foam expands, you would need to have bleed holes to allow excess foam to escape. Plummet

I did an experiment last night. I glued four scraps of balsa onto a scrap of depron. 1. Aliphatic glue on the face of the depron. 2. Superphatic onto the face of the depron. 3. Aliphatic onto the edge of the depron. 4. Superphatic onto the edge of the depron. This morning three of the joints seem good - one failed easily. This was number 1. OK? Plummet

Posted by Don Fry on 13/11/2019 15:53:45: SuperPhatic is good. I've tried it. Does plain common or garden aliphatic not work as well. My research told me that aliphatic was not good - but ... Does it depend upon gluing to a cut edge? I wonder if the coating that protected the depron from the cyano might also stop aliphatic from sticking to the surface of depron. I feel a bit of experimentation coming on. Plummet

Posted by Outrunner on 13/11/2019 14:39:56: Plummet. Have you tried Uhu Por?Safe on most things and will stick most things. Much lighter than epoxy and no mixing. Phil. Yes. Everything gets covered in strings of glue! Plummet

I am building a small and lightweight wing. I had seen the suggestion that you could use depron instead of balsa for the wing ribs. I researched into what glue to use to join depron and balsa, and I got the answers - epoxy or foam safe cyano. I do not like using cyano, but plumped to use it in this case. I found my cyano, but was not sure if it was foam safe. So I did a test. I glued scraps of balsa and depron together and waited to see the result. Success! The joint held and the depron seemed fine. So I start attaching the spars to the ribs. It seemed OK to start with, but then the depron around the spar slots starts distorting. The cyano was attacking the depron. My test piece had the balsa glued onto the face of the depron. All that I can deduce is that there is a surface coating on the depron that protects it from the cyano. That coating is not on the cut edges, and so the cyano attacks it there. I have now used epoxy! Plummet

There is an article in the Guardian website today about the "drone" legislation. After all the guff about "drones" which of course fails to differentiate drones from model aircraft there is a final bit In a bid to soften the blow of mandatory tests and fees for owners, the CAA is launching an accompanying “drones reunited” site, citing research showing that more than one in four owners claims to have lost a drone. The platform will allow the CAA to return wayward drones, an occupational hazard that results from loss of power, poor signal, technical failure or operator error. A CAA spokesman said the site would “give something back to the community, helping responsible drone owners and operators to be reunited with lost drones and continue flying”. Now isn't that sweet of them? I wonder what they will charge for that? Plummet

I have exchanged emails with Cambrian, and they confirm that they have modified the kit to have no built-in sidethrust. Any necessary side or down thrust can be added using washers behind the motor mount. Plummet

Posted by Slickriff on 29/08/2018 14:33:07: Finally got round to building this. Main structures went together in a couple of hours, but I have now stopped as something seems odd to me. The fuselage sides are handed, and I have them the right way round, but looking at it there is a built in side thrust.....to the left. That seems the wrong way round to me. Am I missing something? Having read the above I have started to build my Little Midge kit. I carefully compared the two fuselage sides and they seemed identical, and there was no way to distinguish between them. I have carefully made sure that the fuselage formers are set at right angles to the sides. So it appears to me that the firewall will impart no sidethrust. I am wondering which part of your construction might have produced it?  Or has Cambrian changed the kit slightly? Plummet Edited By Plummet on 28/10/2019 11:16:45

Is it useful to know that they have one on display at the Air Museum at Elvington near York? Plummet

Was the original model that started this thread this the Wot4 plan that was being sold on EBay a few years ago. If so "I THINK" the story of its history dates back to when the original Wot4s were produced. In those days "I WAS TOLD" Chris Foss was only producing the foam wings. So he released a plan for the fuselage and tail and sold the wings to go with it. Then someone designed a built-up wing to use in place of Mr Foss's foam ones. These two plans were what was being sold - "IF I AM CORRECT". Can anyone confirm this story. I built one of these years ago, and it flew beautifully from the start. Until folk flying a couple of warbirds caused me to fly away from the strip, and I was distracted - loss of concentration - too far away - loss of orientation - the inevitable! I really must finish the re-build sometime. Plummet

Well ... If you want unbreakable then ... there is always the Prangster - if they still make it. It is mostly made from foam rubber and plastic sheet. My Mrs and I did our early learning on them and they are still in our cellar. However, they are oddities. Being rather flexible, they behave a bit differently each time you fly them. The undercarriage is a laugh. The mounting dowels wear their holes and become loose. The only part that we would break is the plastic nose/firewall. Other folk used to break the wing spars - but we reinforced them by epoxying carbon fibre thread along the top and bottom surfaces and had no problems. Once we got the confidence to try a more conventional model then we realised just why the more experienced pilots did not like them. They had their use for us, ... and they are ugly! Plummet

We had one of them when I was a kid. A great bit of kit. A word of warning - the castings that hold the blades can be brittle. Ours broke when it collided with a large stone hidden by long grass. Plummet

Following the thread on prostate checks I would like to kick off a new, parallel thread. A few weeks ago my wife, aka Flappit, had a routine mammogram. A few days later she was called into the hospital for investigations. They had found a couple of tiny ( < 1cm ) tumours in her breast, and she was given another mammogram, ultrasound exam, and biopsies were taken. A week later the biopsies were analysed, and she needed treatment. There was a cancellation the next week, so she went in, had the op, and came away the same day. She was sore, but remarkably well considering she had a full general anesthetic. Today, a couple of weeks later, we returned to the hospital for the dressings to be removed, and to be given the pathology results. They indicated that the op had been totally successful, and there is a very good chance that all is well for the future. On the day after the op, a male friend of ours told us that he needed a mammogram. We have since heard that he has nothing to worry about, but we did learn that 1 in 10 breast cancer cases are in men! SO... Gentlemen. Have your prostate exams. Ladies and Gentlemen. Do have mammograms if called in for them. They can be life savers. Plummet

Another vote for encouraging the tests and exams. Both my Father and Grandfather had bad problems from the prostate. I was tested over the winter and was all clear. However, this afternoon we came back from the hospital after getting the results of another operation. All was as good as it could be. A few weeks ago my wife, aka Flappit, had a mammogram and they found a couple of tiny tumours. The good old NHS has been marvellous, she had the op, and today she had the dressings off and got the pathology results. The op had gone well and everything is as good as it can be. So, get your prostate exams and encourage folk to go for their mammograms. I will start another thread so that Ms. Aeromodelers might be encouraged. Plummet

Yes. I took the opportunity, just after I had posted, to nip down to the allotment before it started raining. What is the saying? Human plans are a chance for the gods to have a laugh? (I am saying that and I an an atheist?) I dried off. So rain on and off all afternoon. It would not have been fun on the flightline if the event had gone ahead. Plummet Edited By Plummet on 10/08/2019 17:35:55

Well looking from my window 30ish miles from Elvington it looks like the right decision. Its overcast and gusty with the prospect of it getting worse. Plummet

Of course the whole thing would have been a lot harder if trees grew on the moon. Plummet

A related topic is "Earth Loops". If you have a number of mains powered thingies connected together, for instance an amplifier, a tuner, and a CD player and they are all connected to the earth through the mains leads you can get a mains hum because there can be a complete loop of earth cables and ground leads. This can pick up any oscillating magnetic fields and be heard on the speakers. (Using earth in mains powered equipment seems to have gone out of fashion though.) Plummet

Posted by Percy Verance on 21/05/2019 22:04:38: I never have a problem Capt. I simply pick mine up off my doormat each month......... Using a litter picker to save my back! Plummet