Leaderboard

This topic is of interest to me as I am all electric and this is a topic about keeping track of lipo charged state that's what I expect the posts to be about. Unfortunately in life and inevitably on here there are some who take over a conversation, or topic on here, and take it in a direction that is of interest to them. Here there are exclusive IC modelers who comment on electric topics just to make a point regarding the sound of IC engines. Then once mentioned more IC electric comparisons are made with the addition of fire risks culminating in the admission that they know nothing about electric. To me this becomes as tedious as TX brand bashing and foam bashing. Does it matter is the question I think it does because the forum is a source of expertise and this sort of 'uninformed nonsense' reduces the quality of the content to the detriment of us all. Steve

Well, turns out waiting for parts has really done me a favour because I’ve noticed a load of things I need to do before sheeting. Tonight I’ve been working on the stab & it’s been great, as previously said I’ve noticed a few alignment issues and it’s really helped. I e also glued foam & started shaping it to the rudder, if it’s over or under the profile I can sort it out so all good. Tomorrow I think I’ll start the elevators but I’ll be using light ply and not birch, this should help keep the weight down and still maintain the strength. Also had a good drink, why not Anyway, happy Easter to all ???????

Great day at the flying field with about half a dozen of us and nearly no wind. Snoopy is getting the hang of the Dr1 although his landings seemed to be getting worse as the day went on! No damage and those tight rudder/aileron turns are super to watch The BH mossie hasn't been out for a couple of years and although very pitchy on the elevator need to cut its second flight short due to port engine noise! Lastly Mr Gruffalo was being a right animal with persistent loops and spins, apparently to verify the lipos would be suitable for the mossie later!

Flaps about there. Super rigid with the twin proskin skins.

Yes, I think that one was the first design and the Coachman a reduced size but it still performed well and has a bit of size in the air. Interestingly the next model I built after the Coachman was David Boddington's Aerobat. I do the wing ribs by making a ply template and, the two wings were exactly the same semi symmetrical size and shape - the only difference was the spar layout. I lost the Aerobat when I let it get it down wind and throttled back before I turned and of course it spun in. Taught me a valuable, if some what expensive, lesson about the difference between air and groundspeed. I have enjoyed watching your Mini Super build and think I will have to do one at some stage. I expect an OS 15 LA would do the job.

Another nice covering job with hk film extra slim? just finishing off my swinger II ,published in Dec 69 RM ,it should have taken three weeks to build ended up being three decades! Just need to find a suitable silencer for the Merco 61 III from my collection.

As a training officer I would take issue with the E Flite Apprentice being a good trainer, it's too lightly wing loaded and underpowered so flies too slow and won't fly to windward in any significant breeze. We had a spate of people a few years back who learnt on this and what they universally all found was a lot of difficulty transitioning onto the next model and they were all trained with the the assist receivers substituted for non assist receivers as well. Just too easy to fly to teach you to fly in my opinion.

Several years ago i bought off ebay a small spark engine very kit/home made status motor but tight and 'free' bar some gumming-up of old fuel (caster oil maybe) but a nice engine. It came with a wood (old) prop, 11" x something, all good. I fancy having a go at getting this engine to run. The engine is complete almost, it has the contact breakers but no coil etc. Being a period looking engine i want to find parts to get it going, but to look period too. The engine won't end up in a plane, but this is just a 'tinkering' project. Can anyone steer me please to a source for parts?

Simon, there is nothing specified for re-enforcement. But certainly lots of people suggest its necessary. The wing pieces are printed vertically, so the filament effectively wraps around the wing. Hopefully the carbon rod I put in, will help the strength and keep it intact

That's pretty much what we do. Yes, using the Apprentice limits the days learners can fly but they don't have to worry about the wind too much - they have plenty to learn as it is.

Very little chance of a short if you are careful with the lead length and arrange it so that the positive male pin can never come into contact with even the edge of the negative female socket. Since I fit a doober on that positive pin, until connecting up in the model, there's close to no chance of a short, even if the pack is on a metal bench. A wee wrap of tape around the leads removes any chance of connecting the pack to itself. I did try an ill-fated foray into Deans connecters years ago, but these connectors come and go with such regularity, that I settled on JST plugs for my tiny lipos and 4mm on everything else, simple, easy to solder, zero bulk, easy to make up parallel packs with minimal fuss. Those are the reasons I continue to use them. For a couple of recently acquired models and large capacity packs which use 8AWG wire, I've got some of those much chunkier connectors, but I don't like them.

Someone is now posting engine plans on Outerzone, usually from the Motor Boys plan books. These are available as FREE downloads in .pdf format, direct from the aircraft plans page. The M-B plan books have been available to download from the internet for some time, and I'm reliably informed that there is no problem with breach of copyright.

I generally fly with a static thrust about equal to or somewhat greater than the weight for every model I've built, even my Flair Sopwith Pup. Its a dead easy rule of thumb and works every time. All mine are electric, and its really very simple, you don't have to fly on full throttle!

You'll have it finished for Easter Sunday at this rate...

If you want to power a WW1 aeroplane in a scale like manner then you need just enough power to take off and keep it just above the stall speed, nothing worse than a Sopwith Pup type flying around like a Merlin powered fighter.

I used to do like Leccy but the risk of short is still there so XT60s and 90s for everything now.

The numbers you distrust Doug, pan out beautifully. A .60 will comfortably fly 4Kg. Anything less would be wallowing close to stall most of the time.

My eyesight is not what it was....my iPad wouldn’t boot up. Turns out I was using the kids’ Etch-a-Sketch

Minded to agree with Philip. The Apprentice is disarmingly appealing as a complete, ready to go package. I started with one on my return c. 7 years ago. I don’t think I ever flew it with assist on. I can picture very clearly my first “landing”, very calm day, doing circuits. The best flier in the club was supervising and to my surprise, as it came past at about 20 feet, he encouraged me to gently throttle back and said, if you keep it straight, it will do a very nice landing. So it did. 200 feet upwind of the strip. Nevertheless, a solo landing. shortly after that I was assigned to a single tutor who excavated an ancient 6’ span high wing taildragger with an ASP 90 4 S-T which was so old he could not recall how he came by it. It was thoroughly intimidating after the Apprentice and drank lots of Laser 5 BUT it would fly in wind way beyond the Apprentice’s limit, it was easier to see and like all bigger models it sat better in the air and was just easier to nudge round in circuits, then approaches etc until one day I was let loose with it and awarded the club Green Peg, which is a slimmed down A Certificate meaning competent to solo, albeit with someone keeping a careful eye. I was so enamoured of it that I bought a Maxford Mentor fitted with a Zenoah 25, a bigger dead ringer but a high wing trainer/tug which moulders in the outside Mancave. At least I learned about 2 stroke petrol. so many mistakes with the Apprentice. LiPos which only now fit my starter. Deans plugs which are a right faff to solder. Components which you wouldn’t really want to recycle. Arguably, a trike undercart. It’s a bit like learning on a front drive Japanese automatic versus a rear drive manual, easier to pootle round benignly holding up the rest of the traffic but ultimately limited. I don’t think I ever flew the Apprentice again and passed it on to a new trainee when I flew my first Wot 4, which was electric, but I had grasped some of the dark arts of methanol and indeed in the last 2 days I have enjoyed flying an Excelsior with a Saito 100 and a Wotty with Laser 80. I packed a big electric 8S Saphir both days and never rigged it. Bigger is better, subject to the strip length. It’s easier to transition from glow to neutrons rather than vice versa. Bearing in mind I was 60 when I returned and had only reached 2 channel Middle Phase 25 years previously, if I had my time again I would have stuck a Laser 90 up front and put the power of the Yeti and Savox servos in it and not wasted hundreds of pounds on a certain mass market Chinese radio system which did cause aforesaid 6’ trainer to crash, in front of my family, subsequently attributed to a duff receiver, replaced foc. The £20 receiver, not the trainer. What do engineers say? Buy once, buy well. I’ve flown smaller trainers, a Boomerang and a leggy Kadet and wouldn’t want to start there. Nor the T 180 which I built and eventually flew twice 6 years ago. I saw a trainee progress rapidly on a Wot Trainer last year, flew nicely. Electric foamies are easy in light wind but a slightly higher wing loading seems to me to be a better long term solution, teaching proper take offs and landings. BTC

So a bit of a retro vibe with this one. About 4 years ago I got hold of an incomplete Dave Smith Models Excelsior 150 kit. It was missing some wood, the cowl annoyingly, but most of it was there, and I paid £45. My chief engineer and mentor (old man) decided we would make a few changes. So we (he) swapped the slab tail group, for a built up one, lightening holes down the back end, which enabled us to move the elevator servo half way down the back end, and have a relatively short carbon pushrod, inboard, concealed onto a braised horn on the elevator joiner, (very neat). We also moved the rudder servo to the back end in a turret position, which again enabled a much shorter closed loop assembly. The chair leg mahogany undercart mounts in the wings were binned, and replaced with foam and the undercart was moved up onto the fus. Skip rat (old man) with bulkhead template in pocket, managed to rummage through various boxes at Weston park and source a reasonable looking cowl for a quid. In the meantime I had acquired a Rossi 53, yes the least desirable of their range I understand, as it is supposedly slightly long strong in an attempt to be quieter for the European market I read somewhere. Anyhow given the notorious mid range Rossi throttling, I have combined it with a Weston throttle pipe, spinning a bolly 11.75x7. The colour scheme was unashamedly a mixture of stolen ideas off the web from far more creative folk than me… covering is 90% hobbyking film, savox and hitec digi’s and AUW of 5lb 9oz. I think it looks alright, hope it flys ok.

I never would have thought of wallpaper paste, but I have heard of people using brown paper. My girlfriend has recently done some decorating, and I'm sure she'll have some paste going spare....!

So here is the Body with the Lite-ply glued over the 1/4 Balsa section, you can also see the 1/4 inch Spruce Boom and Mast along with the Battery mount plate and the parts that make up the Motor mount which incorporates the undercarriage wire. Bolt holes are drilled while both Boom and Mast are in position to aid removal if they become damaged. I covered these with Solar Film and cut away small sections of the film to aid glue to bond the parts better. So for me it was now a simple case of sliding the Battery plate over the central body then I can begin to add the Ply Motor parts. Hopefully you can see how theses parts key into position which in turn acts as a jig for the Battery plate. Wood glue is used to glue the Battery plate into position any excess can be wiped away to leave a clean finish. Triangle stock Balsa can now be glued onto the rear of the motor mount making a secure bond between the Battery plate and the Body. Now we need to add the Undercarriage wire guide. Make sure you get a nice tight fit. I needed to add another layer of Ply to come level with the 10 swg Undercarriage legs. Which is a simple 90 degree bend. Steve

As you also do, go methanol or petrol, problem solved,,,?,

Even simpler charged no elastic band , discharged elastic band .

It landed smoothly on its belly.. No damage at all.

I also managed to get a few pictures of Murat's Polaris and his excellent save when she lost power on finals - the model landed out, but I believe there was no damage done.

Maiden flight of my Flightline Hawker Sea Fury today - I'm really enjoying these 1.2M foamies at the moment, the 10cm extra wingspan belies the large difference in the volume and feel on the ground and in the air, compared to my more usual 1.1m foamies. I couldn't get the flaps operating correctly, so disabled them for the maiden flight, but the model was as good as gold. Thanks to my pal Derek for the excellent piccies.

My DEPRON Polaris that I build and maidened recently.. Great flier. 6mm Depron. 2212 2400KV motor. All in weight (with 2200 MAH 3S LIPO): 625gr.. Doculam covered with vinyl on bottom.

Pleased with how my new build Chris Foss Acrowot flys, fitted with an OS55AX.

First new build that I've finished I the same year it was started,Wik jonny from an original kit

Back to the plot. I saw this on Facebook.