Which was the best decade for the hobby?

[Ray Wood 4]

Hi Sonny,

I started trying to start my dads Mills 1.3 diesel back in the early 1960's when I was about 8 years old, once you have smelt the Ether rthere is no looking back, still have a PAW .5cc in the Mini Tyro & a replica Mills 1.3 in the enlarged Keilcraft Eaglet.

Never did get my dads engine going but I tried for years, the fuel was probably past it's best

Regards Ray

[SIMON CRAGG]

Posted by Percy Verance on 08/02/2019 13:52:48:

As good as it would be to have a steady influx of younger members Robert, there are sometimes new flyers in their 30's and beyond whom enter the hobby thankfully. Not all whom try it stay, but there seems little we are able to do about that......... Some I know have unfortunately had less than pleasant experiences as club members. Like people, clubs can differ.

I also wish our future looked stronger.........

Edited By Percy Verance on 08/02/2019 14:00:24

Our club peaked at about 65 members a few years ago, but now we have 40 members fully paid up for this year. We have a new web site, are on the BMFA club finder. have adequate instructors, a fantastic flying site, a warm mobile home complete with "shop", have interesting monthly meetings and go out of our way to make sure the members come first, at a safe and well organised site. We were hoping for an influx of newbies after the recent CH4 model series. So far (and I know its early in the year), we have attracted two complete novices and four ex-members. We have no "youngsters" at all. We are very positive about the future and believe we are as proactive as we possibly can be. No doubt about it, the hobby is changing rapidly!!

[Piers Bowlan]

Sounds like a great club Simon, where is it? Hope it is near me! (Dorset)

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[MAD Dave]

fao Piers - Wareham!

[SIMON CRAGG]

Posted by Piers Bowlan on 08/02/2019 14:27:22:

Sounds like a great club Simon, where is it? Hope it is near me! (Dorset)

Hi Piers

If you PM me, I'll give you all the gen.

Simon

[Martin Dilly 1]

Can I have three decades please, all consecutive? I’d go for 1950 till 1980. This was a time when I was first a member of the Croydon club (not the Croydon Airport one, which flies RC and didn’t exist till around 1970), which was an enthusiastically competitive free-flight club with seven consecutive annual wins of the Plugge Cup at a time when a hundred or so other clubs were competing for it. There were four model shops within five miles of home, and half a dozen model flyers living less than a mile away. If you wanted diesel fuel you went along to Boots and, at the age of fourteen, bought a pint of ether, four ounces of amyl nitrate, went into the garden shed and mixed it with some paraffin and Castrol R. Nobody died. We managed to cross roads when there was a gap in the traffic too, instead of pressing some button and then waiting while the gaps went past till a beeper went and stopped cars that weren’t in sight when we arrived. But I digress.

What made it such an enjoyable period for the sport was that there were several free-flight venues within easy reach of London at various times - Epsom, Fairlop, Chobham and Bassingbourn, with a contest almost every weekend at one or another. The big appeal of free-flight was, and still is, that the sole aim of competitions is duration; a stopwatch shows how successful you are, so it's pureely objective. It’s man versus the elements, rather than the opinions of a panel of judges. We competed against ourselves as much as with others, and making subtle adjustments to the trim or the structure (which of course we had built and probably designed ourselves) would improve the performance for the next contest. I suspect that the stamina of a younger body helped too; I’d certainly think twice now about a 400 mile round trip drive to a contest in Yorkshire, but we seemed to take it in our stride then.

[gangster]

Sonny you ask if the diesels are more reliable than Glow or petrol. I don’t think any type is more or less reliable. Although some of the old diesels were so variable some barely ran at all In recent decades all engines have been good. I think It’s more a case of suitability for RC use. Please someone correct me if I am wrong but I wonder if vibration and poor throttling cause the diesel to not be the engine of choice for RC. Now can someone correct me if I am wrong but didnt Irvine produce a 40 sized diesel? Or has the old memory misfired

[Former Member]

[This posting has been removed]

[Maurice Dyer]

The 1970s . I had hair ( but no money or time), now I'm a pensioner I have money but no hair. And beer was 15 pence a pint.😁

[Peter Christy]

Diesels do vibrate a bit more than glows. The higher compression ratio demands a more substantial piston and con-rod. However, my experience with PAW 1.49s is that they throttle extremely well, and fitted with a silencer, are just as quiet as electrics!

The only downside is the oily mess left by the exhaust! Although fresh diesel fuel smells great, the exhaust residue doesn't! It gets everywhere, and the smell lingers on your hands for ages!

On the upside, the extra vibration helps keep rubber band powered escapements working!

--

Pete

[Nigel R]

"It's good to see ED diesels back on sale via Weston UK"

I think the designer of ED motors from way back when is involved with Weston. They also make the old ED twin needle carbs to order as well.

I've never seen a diesel that throttles as well as a glow. My dad used to routinely run PAW motors and they were a bit on or off, and pickup times were glacial. Glow fuel can cope with a remarkably wide range of mixture strengths and still fire well enough. I've always assumed that was behind the excellent throttling response of our little motors, despite their deceptively simple carbs. Best example I can think of is the OS FP or LA type motors, for instance, just one needle, the simplest throttle carb around, yet they can pick up instantly and run consistently well at all speeds.

For our purposes, glow is just objectively better (sorry, diesel fans).

Compare and contrast also the average petrol motor carb; petrol needs a finely controlled mixture, pumped carb, two or three needles, etc. See also how much time and effort Jon at Laser has put into developing a carb that accurately regulates the amount of fuel needed by their petrol 30cc 4 stroke.

[Cuban8]

A few of my club mates and I had a brief period where we went 'diesel mad' - must be thirty years ago - don't know why, just seemed a good idea at the time. All PAWs, 1.49s & 2.49s IIRC and with R/C throttles on the 2.49s. I liked them, never had any problems starting or tuning, but the deal-breaker was the mess of the exhaust residue. Some don't like petrol models in their cars, well, an oil-soaked diesel is far worse in my opinion and as Pete says, the heavy odour lingers and gets into everything. Newer chaps should imagine a smell like a smokey paraffin heater, mixed with the smell of a badly burning coal fire all with a certain oily-ness that lingers around a petrol station. That's nostalgia for you though, and many would pay handsomely, if Airwick produced a spray of the stuff - not me though.

I suppose if diesel was all you had or could afford (back in the olden days) then you put up with it for the sake of the hobby, but with lovely little glow engines readily available, we soon sold the diesels and got rid of the oily models, disgusting cleaning rags and polluted hands. Whatever floats your boat, I suppose. BTW, still have a Manx Engineering (ME) Heron diesel in the back of my engine cupboard, it's too nice to get rid of, but I don't suppose I'll ever run it again.

Edited By Cuban8 on 13/02/2019 09:59:06

[Jon H]

Posted by Nigel R on 13/02/2019 09:38:45

 

I've never seen a diesel that throttles as well as a glow.

 

Not quite as smooth as a glow but its pretty close

 

That said i do agree with your comment on the whole. Diesel engines have not been developed to the same degree as glow and the effect of engine temperature on the relative mixture, as clearly shown in the video above, makes them more difficult to set for use at all rpm's. I really have to coax the engine up to full power when its cold but once there its pretty good. I was a bit over compressed in this video, but i didnt want to mess with it as it flew fine at this setting. 

Edited By Jon - Laser Engines on 13/02/2019 10:03:16

[Cuban8]

I suppose it's the paraffin content of diesel fuel that causes the unpleasant part of running those engines. Is there a more purified alternative?

[gangster]

Cubab8. I can assure you that replacing the parafin with white spirit is easily as messy and smelly

[Nigel R]

Jon - takes a while to wind up! But that motor is a thing of beauty. The throttling is far better than I remember the on the PAWs.

I don't dislike diesel, although reading my post it does sound that way. They definitely smell!

[Jon H]

Posted by Nigel R on 13/02/2019 11:24:09:

Jon - takes a while to wind up! But that motor is a thing of beauty. The throttling is far better than I remember the on the PAWs.

I don't dislike diesel, although reading my post it does sound that way. They definitely smell!

Yea it needs to warm up before you can give it the big one. You can speed up the process with richer mix and more compression, but then you have to faff about resetting it again. I just let it warm up. Since this video i have made some mods to it and its easier to get it going now. I flew it for a short time in a model but the engine was too big for it and the tank position was all out of whack. I would like to build something like a DB Bistormer 72 for it and cruise around on something like a 15x5 prop. Sadly i dont have the space right now. I already have 10 airworthy models, 1 on the building bench, 3 waiting to be built (i have all the gear for them), about another 15 in 'stock' and at least 4 models on my wish list to buy! add to that about 50 engines sat spare in boxes. I think i need to see someone about my addiction. Do they offer radio modellers anonymous?

As for the diesel smell the combination of ether and paraffin is distinct to say the least. Add castor to that as well and it does pong stink up the place. There is not really much that can be done about it though.

[Nigel R]

hope I'm not dragging the thread off a bit here

is the engine internally adapted much from the glow? have the cams been retimed for low rpm operation?

I guess the carb would change, smaller venturi?

" I would like to build something like a DB Bistormer 72 "

Oh heck no - you need a second one in a six or seven foot Me110

[Jon H]

Its got a new head (clearly) but beyond that its pretty standard. The 100 and 80 have different cams...i cant remember what i did with the 70, i will have to take it apart and look!

As for the Bf110..nah, i still have my eye on that seagull mossie....

[Ian Jones]

I came in to this hobby relatively recently but by co-incidence with this op I have been thinking how straightforward it was around 2005. A multitude of models to choose from (and see at my LMS), engine prices were the lowest they have ever been and restrictive legistlation was nothing more than a few paragraphs of the ANO.

At that time I could also see a clear path forward to progress to whatever type or size of model I wished to go for, with just a few extra bits of legislation relating to large models the restrictions were few.

So it was a great time for the hobby but I will also remember that it was a great time for me too because in addition the aforementioned I was doing a great deal of model flying and loving it.

The demise of so LMSs, ever burdoning legislation, less choice of traditional models, less choice of engines that are becoming more expensive, has meant that for me a lot of the pleasure was diminishing by 2015. (Now I even question whether or not it's worth carrying on).

So despite my decade not starting and ending with a zero I would go for 2005 - 2015.

Edited By Ian Jones on 13/02/2019 17:29:39