Winters Here Who's Been Flying ?

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Lovely flying in the video link up to the obvious point...

You have touched a pet hate of mine though! I hope you won't take offence at me poking my oar in unasked, but it looks like you picked up and carried the model while reaching through the prop arc - and then exercised the rudder while walking back (are you mode 2?) Hopefully you activated a cut-off on your transmitter but I wince every time I see someone relying on a switch - or luck - to guard against the possibility of a nasty injury.

I'm just pointing this out as you're obviously a very competent flyer and someone I'm sure is looked on at your club as a great example - it's good for someone of your abilities to be seen to operate with best practice. Glad the model survived undamaged!

Edited By Martin Harris on 16/01/2016 22:20:11

[Ben H]

Thanks Martin. Good point and yes I do have (and had activated) a throttle cut on a switch as well as failsafe set to 0% throttle. Despite many crashes blamed on radio gear failures or weird erratic behaviour, I believe they are very rare, so I do trust the radio to keep the throttle locked off. However I accept your point that others may not realise I have throttle cut and your right, it is bad practice to put your hand through the prop arc. Thanks for pointing it out

[Martin Harris - Moderator]

Sorry to pick on your example but based on experience at my club it's a message that can bear repeating whenever the opportunity arises - certainly a subject that always comes up when I'm instructing and when I conduct an A test.

I think that in safety terms, it raises the question of whether a throttle lock switch is assigned to a make or a break contact. Switches can and do fail - as can wiring connections to them.

With that in mind, as well as other factors, human and mechanical, I always try to make the point that you should handle an electric model with its battery connected in exactly the same way that you'd handle an IC one with the engine idling...

[Toni Reynaud]

The south coast had light winds from the north west and light cloud cover - nearly perfect conditions. A good few people on the patch, and I managed to maiden the latest foam Hercules. Got it down in one piece, but some workshop time is required to sort out the balace point and the main U/C lock in the down posotion.

 

 

Not a bad day, all told.

Edited By Toni Reynaud on 17/01/2016 07:34:37

[Jack Banner]

Great weather at the field yesterday. Cold but low wind and enough cloud cover to help with the low sun. Had a few good flights with my Heli's and then tried some planes. Too wet on our water logged strip though so had to stick to hand launched only. Good day though!

[..]

Had an unexpected chance to go today and what a day to have , very light breeze sunshine and it wasn't to cold, I got several flights in with my acro wot and maidend a couple for some club members. The first was junior 60 3 channel thing that was massively tail heavy making it very hard work, got it down in one piece so back to the drawing board with that.

The second was a Nigel Hawes Whizza , this was a handful to start with but after a few circuits she was trimmed & tamed. Twitchy on the elevator I landed it & we toned down the travel, I would have liked to mix in some expo but the guys aging 35mhz set didn't have this feature unfortunately. Second time up and it was a blast , a lovely little plane.

Unfortunately the owner put it in later in the day so it's life was short but very sweet.

[J D 8]

Was able to get to the club field for the first time since October, Must be rust on the stick's as I wiped the UC off two aircraft. Still it was good to get some proper flying in and meet the guy's.

[Colin Carpenter]

Got out this AM early and it was -5 deg, brilliant sunshine and zero wind. Mud was frozen solid - lovely conditions and my favourite flying weather ! Took both Sebarts and had two flights on each . My fingertips gave up after an hour . Had to pour my coffee on the gate padlock ! Couldn't move it ! Back to rain , wind and mud by Friday . Colin

[Former Member]

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[Colin Carpenter]

Percy - I prefer early morning as by mid day the sun is in your eyes at our site and I am not a lover of summer heat and humidity ! As a result most of my flying is done on my own , I generally don't recharge at the field. The good thing is other club members don't see my mistakes but I have only lost two planes in 4 years. One due to DSM2 and the other flying into fog that crept up one side of me and being an idiot I didn't notice it . Not bad for 1300 flights ! Colin

[Ben H]

Another early bird here this morning. -2 degrees at the field on arrival and the ground was nice and solid for a change. I had the same problem as you Colin, fingers were going numb after 10 minutes or so of flight! Managed to get five more tanks of fuel through the new Extra 330sc. Some crosswind landing practice by lunchtime as the wind picked up to about 10-15 mph. I don't know what it is, but I love the look of an aircraft crabbing over the strip on finals! Didn't want to push my luck any further though so called it a day...

[Colin Carpenter]

Blimey ! Ben ! Where's your site ? American plains ? All I can see in my patch is hedges, trees and mud. Jealous ! Very nice model by the way - terrific colour scheme . Colin

[Former Member]

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[Ben H]

We are pretty lucky Colin! As Percy rightly says, it's fairly high up at our site. It's also a full size farm strip, with cracking views of the Dorset countryside! It's been pretty soft of late, but at least it doesn't flood... Let's hope this cold dry spell continues!

[Former Member]

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[Erfolg]

There bucket loads of the stuff here in the privileged southern Northern Powerhouse. Bucket loads of what you are thinking, photons, quite a change for us. A real change.

Saturday was a good day, when a narrow path was mowed, with a manual mower and scissors, just a bit boggy for a proper mower, to create a landing postage stamp ,Sunday was a snowy day, watery sun, a model stuck up a tree, a bit of arboreal maintenance required,

Which brings us to today. Which started with a little testing of my Delta with a number of Lipos, Although they will all charge to 4,2v per cell, when on load i found that my Delta was giving 134w, yet on other packs i was getting 170w. All lasted the full 6 minutes full power motor run. Would an extra 30w make much difference?

At the field I found that the extra watts made all the difference, no more did my model sink towards the ground on launch, now moving briskly out and up. So the mystry of the misbehaving model has been solved, A Duff Lipo. Once again could the model loop with confidence at the end of the timed slot as it did at the beginning.

It seems we need a gizmo that puts any lipo under load and provides an indication if it is good or otherwise condition. My lipo voltmeter tells me how the volts are, without a load.

The weather was so good that I flew a second model, just for the thrill, the PZ Albatross, although this nearly ended in tragedy, as the motor shut down, running out of power. Seems that i need to reduce the timer time.

Still a bit chilly here, although the last 4 or 5 days have been pretty windless.

Just need the grass mowing now,

Edited By Erfolg on 20/01/2016 22:20:29

[David P Williams]

You're all mad! This time of year is for being warm and cosy in the workshop sticking bits of balsa and ply together, not freezing your extremities off in a muddy or frosty field.

When I was younger I was quite happy with cold weather, but now in my mid sixties I very much prefer to be warm, so I'll be staying in the workshop fettling and adding to the fleet for a few weeks yet.

[Andy Meade]

"There's no such thing as bad weather - just the wrong clothes"

[John Brooks 2]

Flew yesterday for the first time this year.

Slightly out of practice

Good flight

Bad landing

Back in workshop repairing my Canadaire seaplane.

Nothings changes.

[trebor]

Wish I had gone, better than wasting time sorting my laptop out

[Colin Carpenter]

David - I have always gone out all winter since I started this RC lark in 1969 ! Wether it be boats , helis or planes . Much prefer cold frosty still mornings to summer heat. Just put on a thick coast and scarf - no layers for me .SWMBO thinks I'm mad as she sits indoors wrapped in blankets , hot water bottle ! I must let her have the heating on and shut the windows ! 😈 Colin

[Andy48]

When the field is flooded there is only one thing for it....

Was a tad cold, with a thin layer of ice on the water.

[Terry Walters]

Hooray!! Popped my 2016 cherry this afternoon on the track outside my house (No! No! No! Not that - model flying of course! Tut! Tut!)

Haven't flown anything for about 3 months which included a 10 day trip to the UK, 5 weeks in Oz to visit my eldest son, Xmas and a run of horrible wet/ grey/mist weather that seems to have ended today!

As a new age Enginista I do however have to admit that today's flying was with my leccy Fun Cub!

Fellow IC enthusiasts please forgive me - I couldn't help it! !

Feel better already! Hopefully my 2015 lethargy and loss of RC mojo has now been left behind!

Edited By Terry Walters on 24/01/2016 15:22:18

[PETER BRUCE - Eastchurch Gap]

Hi all. Our flying site is near the sea so we always get a fair wind but with all the rain we have had the field is not that good at all. As I was getting frustrated and the flight sim was not cutting it I got some of the other lads interested in the idea of slope soaring - we even went out in Storm Desmond...

Now we are getting the best of both worlds - Too windy, go slope soaring.

So dont be glum - look at the video and get some stick time. Enjoy. Peter

[Steve Colman]

A very good weekend over here, especially today with temps hovering just below 20c at midday, blue skies and very light winds.

All the regular faces were at the field and a wide variety of models were flown as always. However, the highlight of the day was the maiden of a Viper Jet by Carlos. The model was flown beautifully and Carlos nailed the landing too. Look forward to seeing the model more as the season unfolds.