Building Techniques

This is the first in a two-part article all about cells and batteries; the various types, how to choose and use them, charge them, discharge them and heck, in these green times – even how to dispose of them! In this first part I am going to kick things off with a description of the…

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I’m pleased with the finish on my Verosonic Litespan covering material has been available for many years now, used as a heat-shrink ‘tissue substitute’ on free flight and the more petite, traditionally-constructed R/C models. Whilst the oldfashioned tissue and dope covering application hassles are absent, Litespan nevertheless presents the first-time user with new set of…

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I’ve always been fond of Tiger Moths and I suspect I’m not alone in this respect. Twenty odd years ago I built a 1/5 scale version from the Practical Scale kit which was superb and still available from Toni Clark at Practical Scale in Germany. This was powered by an inverted O.S. 90 four-stroke. I…

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Following some recent threads on the forum discussing the likely output of electric flight motors, and one in which I suggested that building a dynamometer for testing this would be easy, I decided to give it a go. Some horrible wet, windy weather helped with the motivation as our flying patch is completely waterlogged, and,…

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The reliability of electric flight systems can’t be understated when the model is hovering this far from the ground! In part 1 we hopefully de-mystified a little about motor and propeller selection, aircraft types, and speed controllers, so lets tackle that other old chestnut – batteries, and finish off with a bit about radio gear.…

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This is a two-part beginner’s guide to electric flight basics – hopefully in a simple to understand form. It is not a complete A-Z of everything you need to know, but should help to de-mystify some of it, so put the kettle on, get the sticky buns out and come over to the dark side….…

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A good reliable retract system will transform a model like this Having wrung out a sport aircraft or two, many modellers decide that they want to build and fly something more challenging. This often leads to fantasies of flying a sleek scale job, a design that will more than likely date from W.W.II or later,…

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Fancy some stronger metal to metal joints? Then read on… Im sure that every modeller will know how to solder using a normal soldering iron and a lead based soft solder. However I suspect that few know how to silver solder. Silver soldering is far stronger than soft solder and will not melt with the…

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Designer Cyril carr has kindly taken some photos of his Depron bending technique. We’ve recently published three plan model designs from Cyril – the two triplanes and this months Walrus. Some of the photos show just how far you can bend Depron but as Cyril says ‘pressure must very smoothly applied to avoid creases’. He…

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You wouldn't throw away a perfectly good fuel tank would you? I'm not sure if I am the only one who suffers leaks from around the bung in the front of the popular plastic types of tank available from most hobby shops. Perhaps I’m heavy-handed with the screwdriver when tightening the centre screw to seal…

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