Plummet

What is the power consumption of the solenoid? There will probably be some markings giving the voltage and current. I think it is from RS. If so, can you give us a part number and we can look at the data sheet on the RS web site. Plummet

Something to consider. Solenoids take either no current or sometimes a lot of current. The last thing that you want is to flatten your radio receiver battery in flight, So if you do use a solenoid then it would be wise to run it from a separate battery from the radios. To hold the wings in position the solenoid will need to be energised all the time (unless you have some sort of locking mechanism.) Thus a lot of current may be needed for a long time. Might a better solution be to have a small motor driving a screw thread with a 'slug' on it that does not rotate, and so will move along the thread. A rod attached to the 'slug' moves the wings. This has the advantage that the wings will stay in place without the need for any electric current. Of course - if you were doing that then you might use a servo anyway - but this might not be worth as much credit for your project. Good luck Plummet

I spoke nicely to my dentist, who introduced me to his dental technician, who gave me some dental moulding stuff. You can heat it in a microwave and place the object you want to mould into it and let it cool. Then you can use plaster of paris to make a solid rigid copy. Does this help? Plummet

It looks like Wings, Wheels and Rotors in "Bradford" has gone as well. Plummet

I have a house full of hammers, but can I find one when I need it? When my mother-in-law was alive we would ring her up before we visited her and ask if there was anything that needed doing. Sometimes there was, and I would put any needed tools in the car before driving half way across the country. Only she would often tell us that there was nothing needed doing, so we didn't take the tools. When we arrived she would come out with "Could you just ... " I would have to go to Wickes and get whatever was needed to do the job - which several times included a hammer. On our return it would eventually be put into a safe sensible place - and thus be lost! Plummet

An interesting topic. I was reading in a scientific magazine (honest) that someone had a theory about the accumulation of unpaired socks in a sock drawer. They looked in their wardrobe, and came to the conclusion that socks must be the larval form of the coat-hanger. So the question is, what do servo screws become after they pupate? Plummet

Oh dear! A over T. (Aileron over tail.) Plummet

Invasion. The word is invasion. They are not inversion stripes. Plummet

No! That's not what taildragger means. Plummet

Posted by Charles Pic on 22/03/2017 13:07:15: Thanks Plummet I will save both these recipes and definately try them, although it may take me a while to get around to it. In the pakora recipe the coriander seed is ground, just as the cumin is? Correct P

As promised - bengal potatoes. Ingredients Potatoes (Duh!) Panch Poran - see my previous posting. I have seen a little jar of it in the supermarket containing 25 gm, (I think) for £2.85 ish. We buy bags of 250gm for perhaps £1.25. (Guesswork) Ground dried red chilli powder Ground turmeric Ghee or (second choice) vegetable oil. Ghee is butter with the water taken out. You can buy it in tins and it keeps forever in the fridge. You need a heavy pan with a well fitting lid. We often cook then in an aga oven, so a pan that can go in the oven is good. Equally we cook them outside on a camping stove. Scrub and de-grobie the potatoes, but do not peel them. Chop them into largish chunks. Put a dollop of ghee or oil in your pan and heat it. Add panch poran seeds. Perhaps a desertspoonful or two. Let the seeds heat and sizzle and start to pop. Add the potato chunks, and stir to coat them in the ghee (oil) and seeds. Add turmeric (1 tsp) and dried red chilli (1/2 tsp +?) Stir again to distribute the spice. Put on the lid and cook them on a medium heat in their own steam until they are cooked through. Stir occasionally, but try not to waste the steam. (30 mins or more. Different potatoes cook at different speeds. Size also matters.) There is usually no need to add any water, but if you have problems getting them to cook through you can add a spoon or two of water to make some more steam. That's it. Plummet

Posted by Charles Pic on 22/03/2017 07:11:44: Hi Plummet. I know you said PM for your recipes, but if you would be willing I'd really love for you to post your Bengal potatoes and pakora recipes to this thread. I have a feeling they will be right up my street and I have a cupboard full of spices including panch phoran and whole garam masala. Pakora is something I've enjoyed at Indian restaurants but never known how to make. Both are veggie of course, which will go down well with the missus Oh well ... OK ... First things first. Spices. In almost every case we buy our spices whole and grind them, in a coffee grinder reserved for the purpose - in small batches. Spices bought ready ground are poor relations in flavour. For my cooking the most important are cumin, coriander, chilies, and turmenic - which is an exception because we do buy turmeric ready ground. The chillies we buy are the big dried dark red ones that are sometimes called Kashmiri chillies. These are not too hot, but do have lots of flavour. Panch Poran (spellings vary) is an Indian five spice mix - equal parts of mustard seed, fenugreek seed, fennel seed, cumin seed, and kalonji. Kalonji is either onion seed or nigella seed depending upon where you look. Chillies - wash your hands well after handling or cutting them. Do not touch your eyes or other delicate places - be warned! Fresh Coriander - you can buy this as small expensive bunches in supermarkets or in large cheaper bunches from ethnic shops. If you can buy from an indian or pakistani shop - do. You will save a fortune over supermarket prices. Pakora ... Use ordinary split red lentils, a.k.a Mysore or Massoor Dhal, Put perhaps a mugful in a bowl and generously cover them with cold water. Leave them to soak for at least 30 mins, preferably an hour or two. Drain off the excess water. Either use a stick blender in a suitable container, or a liquidiser to convert the lentils into a thick creamy pale pink goo. Add a bit of water if needed. - you can add it but not the opposite. The pink goo is the basic pakora mix. (I have seen recipes that use various flours to make the mix, but this is my recipe.) Now add flavour. The mix soaks up flavour, so don't be miserly. Incidentally - the pakora mix is a bugger to clean off things if it dries. Get utensils, bowls etc. in soak asap. Flavours ... Start with lots of ground cumin and coriander seed. For one mugful of lentils I would add about a desertspoonful of each - perhaps more. Chilli. Obviously, to taste. You can add ground red, or finely chopped fresh green (perhaps two or three - depending on their power) or both. Garlic and or onion - chopped - add plenty. A bit of salt depending on your sense of taste. I don't bother with it. Mix it well. That will do - but ... read on. Heat some oil in a fryer or pan or wok. When it is hot drop desertspoonfuls of the glop into the oil and let them fry until crisp and brown. (Hint - black is overdone. ) When you have made a few plain ones you can start to play. You can add all sorts of stuff, and coat vegetables in it. Chopped fresh coriander Florets of cauliflower Mushrooms (I always add some crushed black cardamom seeds with mushrooms.) Shreaded cabbage Slices of potato (use a lower heat but for a longer time to make sure that the spud cooks, or steam the potatoes first.) Oh ... Whatever you have - experiment. That's enough for this message. Bengal spuds later. Plummet

I am the main cook in our house. I am in the middle of baking bread at the moment. Indian food is a speciality. We live near Bradford so getting good cheap spices is easy. We would NEVER buy spices from a supermarket. They are ridiculously expensive and often lacking in flavour. My most regular recipes are Bengal Potatoes - potatoes cooked with a mix of whole spices. V. Easy. Pakoras. Soaked red lentils, drained and whizzed up to make a thick creamy paste. Add spices and chopped veg to taste and fry globs of the stuff. Costs pence to make. I laugh when I see the price of them in the shops. As for baking - A favourite that I invented ... To simple four egg victoria sponge mix add a pear or two, peeled, cut off the core bits and coarsely chopped, and a couple of Mars Bars. These have been kept in the fridge so that they too can be cut into cubes. Stir and bake. Steak and kidney pies, with loads of onion and some spud and other veg so the filling is rich and thick and unctious. If anyone is going camping to the LMA do at East Kirkby they will probably see me in action in the Sunday Catering tent. Plummet p.s. Yes, I am overweight! p.p.s  PM me if you want detailed recipes. Edited By Plummet on 21/03/2017 13:17:09

We're Yorkshire folk. Said of my Grandfather ... He's so mean he'd nip a currant in half. Plummet

My family's version... Child - "Mam, What's for tea?" Reply -"Bread and pull it." Flapitt's family version... Child - "Mam, What's for tea?" Reply -"Bread and pull it and a jump at the pantry latch." Old Auntie - "Sonny, could you bend down and pick that up for me. I've got a bone in my back" Confusion ... Someone round these parts might say. "Wait while I have put my coat on." Then at a level crossing it used to say "Do not cross while the lights are flashing"! Nowadays ... Please tidy up. As a kid I would hear .. "Just side that up will you." Nowadays ... Please close the door. Then... Put wood in t'oil." Literary reference ... In Alice in Wonderland the dormouse tells a story about three girls who live down a treacle well. 1. As a kid molasses was known as Black Treacle, and Golden Syrup as treacle. 2. In the Ironbridge gorge there are caves known as the tar tunnels. I have heard that another name for them was treacle mines. (Although my recent web searches have failed to confirm this.) We had a friend who trained to be a nurse in Cardiff.  She worked in the William Diamond ward.  (Web searches have confirmed this one.)  In typical fashion the name William Diamond was often abreviated to Willy Di. Plummet Edited By Plummet on 19/03/2017 16:05:36

Razor blades are thinner than scalpel blades. (Blood risk warning) Take a double sided razor blade - break or cut it in half lengthwise and then wrap the broken edge with masking tape (to reduce blood risk and increase gripability.). You can use the ends of the cutting edges to slice the sides of the rib slots. Then you can cut out the notch with a scalpel. Plummet

Posted by Doug Campbell on 05/03/2017 22:18:11: Unless you had hammerite smooth this is how the finish is supposed to be. Hammered enamal hence hammerite. No, no, no, There is a huge difference between a smooth hammerite finish that looks blodgey (and rather nice, in my opinion) and a surface that will grate skin (that I got.) I was using 'smooth yellow hammerite' on a car bodyshell. It looked far from pristine! Plummet

No comment re fuel proofing - but a word of warning in the case of the formulation of Hammerite is still as it was. Read the tin carefully. When it gives time for recoating believe them. If I remember correctly, they say something like "recoat before 24 hours or after a month" I got caught with this. If you cannot recoat quickly enough the paint comes up in cracks and craters like a miniature lunar landscape. Plummet

Posted by Paul Jefferies on 27/02/2017 14:45:25: <snipety/>This requires further thought...... Can't help you there! Plummet

Just a silliness ... ("What else do we ever get from you Plummet?" I hear.) I saw the thread just started on the 2018 mass build, and someone was saying that they fancied a twin. So how about changing the Sharkface into a Hammerhead Sharkface, and installing two motors in the hammerhead extremities. Incidentally, I searched the interwebnet for "hammerhead sharkface" and found that there was a character so named in an episode of Spongebob Squarepants.   Plummet Edited By Plummet on 27/02/2017 10:30:25

Bouncebounce Crunch, I don't know how old you are, but if you are in the age group you might look up the U3A in your area. I know that there is a guitar group in our local U3A - and my beloved has been learning the Ukukele (sp?) with another group for some time. **LINK** Cheers, Plummet

Flappit and I have just done ours. We tried to take our own photographs against a plain wall, but we could not avoid glare from our spectacles. We both wear our spectacles all the time, anw we could not get enough light without using flash or getting bad shadows. We decided to bite the bullet and went to a professional photographer for our mug shots. To our surprise he told us to take our specs off. Once we had the photos we tried the on-line renewal process. Flappit had no problems. I however had a struggle. I tried all the mugshots we had, both the professional ones and our own attempts. The upload procedure tries to check the photo is acceptable - and it rejected all of them. We had another goat taking them, without my specs, and eventually managed to get one past the initial recognition systems. It then said that it was failing the next bit of the process. It could not make out the outline of my face. It did, however give me the option to submit it if I thought that there was a good reason for the problems. The one it accepted was the one I thought would be least likely to be accepted. Those who know me will know that I am equipped with a large scruffy white beard. I explained this on the form, paid my money and waited. We had to post our old passports back to them. Interestingly Flappit's and mine had to go to different places. A few days later our new passports arrived, mine a day or two ahead of hers. Our old cancelled passports were returned to us a day or two later, hers before mine. All the way through the process we received emails informing us of the progress of the applications. .

Ahh. I did hear that my ex-boss had produced a rug-rat. Plummet

I find that you are not PM-able. It tells me that you do not have a public profile. Perhaps you could PM me. (Click on the penguin and look for the "send a message" link.) Plummet

How complicated is the software? Being biased by having spent a working life in IT I would never choose Visual Basic as my language of choice. I will PM you. Plummet