Jump to content

Peter Jenkins

Members
  • Posts

    3,365
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    7

Everything posted by Peter Jenkins

  1. I very much doubt Dodo, if there is going to be any traction on the back of such a big human story as the Sub Post master disaster. Being able to fly toy aeroplanes without let or hindrance is just not going to get any traction with the general public on the back of such a huge story.
  2. The short answer to your point is that "No, it hasn't become inintelligible. It just requires you to do one of two things. Work out what you want to achieve and find out how to achieve it. Control reversal is one of the easiest to achieve in my opinion and I cannot see why you have difficulty with that yet are happy to solder various leads to terminals. I use JR equipment and it may be JR has a better user interface than your Tx. It takes 4 button pushes for me. 1. Select main menu 2. Select Reverse Sw 3. Scroll to relevant servo (JR hepfully names the servo e.g. THRO or RAIL (for right aileron) and click on it to reverse the servo. 4. Click to exit. I agree that not all Tx manuals are helpfully written and sometimes don't tell you.what is useful about a particular function. But picking servo reversing as being complicated is quite wrong. Once you have got your mind around what you want to achieve, mixing is also pretty simple. As en example, most of Chris Foss designs have a powerful secondary effect of rudder i.e. roll in rudder direction. If you want to use rudder for slow rolls you need to mix out the rudder induced roll. You do this by mixing opposite aileron to rudder. It needs a bit of testing to get the amount of mix right so a case of fly, land, tweak and fly. For my Wot 4, with the mix switched in the aircraft now just yaws but doesn't roll. It really isn'tbthat difficult. However, if you know nothing about how an arroplane flies and nothing about how to use a computer radio there are plenty of on-line resources to help you. Failing that, post on this forum and you will get help. It really isn't that difficult. I'm 73 by the way. ALSO, PLEASE CAN WE KEEP RID OUT OF THIS THREAD?
  3. I hope it didn't leave too much of a hole in his roof when he removed it! 🤣
  4. I bought a pair of RC gloves when the price dropped to £50 and they were pretty good. However, unless you fly with them all the time, the change over from summer to winter conditions means that you lose the fine control you develop with gloveless fingers. These kid leather gloves are the same as used by RAF Aircrew and they always fly with gloves as this was found to offer some protection if there were to be a fire in the cockpit. They however go for the skin tight fitting to give the required tactile feel which is no good when you want to keep warm! The idea behind RC Gloves was to use the next size up from a close fit and to don a pair of knitted inner gloves (provided) to provide the insulation to allow you to fly in freezing conditions. I found that the slight "give" in the fingers of the gloves was difficult to get used to. However, when the guy was selling off his stock at £25 a pair, I bought a spare pair for me and a smaller pair for my wife who suffers from cold hands. I'm still using the originals and find them excellent but I always take them off to fly as I'm almost always flying an tough aerobatic schedule. I use a pair of Zippy handwarmers that live in my trouser pockets and warm my hands up after flying before donning the RC Gloves again. I think the basic price of the high quality leather gloves was always going to dissuade us model flyers from forking out £100 for a pair of gloves for use in the winter! Needless to say, RC Gloves is no more.
  5. Martin, Remember that all licenced strips have an associated Air Traffic Zone around them. This is usually 1.5 nm radius around the centre of the strip and 2,000 ft. Most tend to use a common radio frequency to advise transit but not all do. I fly from such a strip so our Club has a rule that requires a spotter who also monitors a radio receiver for any inbound aircraft. We land when we either see or hear an inbound aircraft. However, it took a request to Wattisham to stop Apaches flying across the airfield at relatively low level! The Apaches now skirt the airfield using the ATZ boundary.
  6. Well, I've still got "my" Stampe. I only got it after reading your thread. It was built by a club mate who sold up all 10 of his models and let me have the Stampe for peanuts for helping him to see his other models. It really is a lovely aeroplane to see flying around. It's got an OS120FS pump in it and that is ideal given the twin tank height problem - the pump delivers a supply at a constant pressure to the carb regardless of the aircraft's orientation.
  7. Fascinating read. I looked her up on Wikipedia and that gives some more interesting information on her. Link. I was lucky enough to attend a dinner to celebrate the umpteenth anniversary of the third Schneider trophy win at the RAF Museum on an occasion when each table had a surviving B of B pilot. Sadly, the chap on our table was on his last legs and didn't say much. However, I did manage to meet Geoffrey Wellum, whose book "First Light", I had recently read. Had I know he was going to be at the dinner I would have taken the book and asked him to autograph it. He was wonderfully laid back about his contribution to the Battle and, like most of the pilots of the time, said that he just did his duty. We had this chat standing beside the Schneider Trophy. It is enormous. The size of a Mini - the original not today's BMW version. Solid silver and it was guarded all the time by two uniformed guards. Quite who was going to nick this without a fork lift truck is difficult to imagine! I will say this about Lady Houston, she certainly knew how to pick her men! Well done madam and thanks for being in the position to fund the 3rd Schneider Trophy win. The only bit of bad judgement was not seeing through Edward VIII. Thank goodness he decided to abdicate to marry that creature thus ridding us of a Nazi sympathiser at the Head of State as war beckoned against Nazi Germany.
  8. Arthur, You have to realise that the airspace above your house is not owned by you and which you can decide on how you use it. The Government owns the airspace - all of it! In the unlikely event of model flying as we know it today becoming unviable, so will being able to fly modest EP planes. Do you not understand that? In any event, I do not believe that there will be any curtailment of the type of model aircraft flying undertaken today. There may be an issue over the use of RID or NRID for model flying sites that are not identified as "authorised" sites - one hopes that the CAA will look to the 4 Associations to carry out this activity on their behalf as it will save them a great deal of trouble. Yes, this may impose additional costs on some who are unable to fly at an "authorised" site and that will be unfair. Sadly, life is unfair!
  9. A friend invited me to his birthday treat which was a flight in a 737 simulator at Cambridge Airport (UK not Mass). The instructor set me up for an approach into Kai Tak and said he would look after the flaps and power and between the two of us I managed to land on the strip and stop in time! I guess that flying toy aeroplanes has some benefits. It was great fun but I'm glad I didn't have to deal with the flaps and power requirements as well as flying the aircraft!
  10. I think Arthur, that your final sentence reflects that you have just reached the barely competent level of flying. If you wish to remain there, then that's your decision. Your story is very similar to mine and I really only advanced my flying once I reached retirement age. If you approach your flying with a degree of commitment you would be able to improve your flying skills such that your final sentence would become redundant as you would be able to gain far more enjoyment out of the hobby, or sport, than you currently get by just taking your model home in one piece after your visit to the flying field. Occasionally, there are pilots who find it very difficult to get the hang of flying beyond the survival level but in most cases this can be rectified by focusing on analysing why you are having difficulties and what to do about them. Sometimes that is beyond the reach of the pilot at which point you should look around to identify those who turn up, fly to a good standard and take their model home in one piece virtually every time. Ask them for some help. Of course, you might be perfectly happy to continue to fly at the level you describe in which case that's fine. Those of us who have been flying models for some time and have reached a reasonable level of competence have been well aware of how the introduction of multi-rotor drones as well as autopilots have created difficulties for traditional model flying. However, many of us have been following the whole saga and responding to the initiatives proposed by the CAA. The BMFA has played a major role, and if you think they haven't, then you are extremely poorly informed. Had it not been for the initiative taken by the BMFA, and their CEO in particular, EASA would not have made the rules that they have and life for our European brethren would be far worse than it is. The BMFA, and other associations in the UK, were also instrumental in getting in to brief the Secretary of State for the DfT and he, very helpfully, gave a set of directions to his staff that has ended up with us being able to operate under Article 16 which, with the exception of having to register at a cost of half a gallon of glow fuel, has allowed us to continue flying as we have always done. The current RID issue, will, provided that enough RC model pilots respond to the CAA's questionnaire, I suspect end up with some sensible solution that does not require those who operate from Club sites from being much affected. The issue will be how we can extend a similar regime to allow the use of farmers' fields and slope sites without having to fit potentially expensive electronic RID equipment to our aircraft. Whilst I only fly from Club sites, I fully appreciate the need to fight the corner for my fellow pilots who don't. One of the reasons that the BMFA exists is because those pilots who wish to fly in competition at both national and international level work hard on behalf of everyone to achieve the solutions that enable them to enjoy the sport at the highest levels. In my experience, very few BMFA members actually understand that there are only 3 professional staff in the BMFA who are focused on these issues. The rest of the BMFA is run by volunteers. They don't have the same rather shameful approach that you are adopting of "I want to just look after my interests".
  11. It's not surprising that your ASW 19 is difficult to see when it's all white with just 2 small red wing tip markings. Even full size gliders are very difficult to see head or tail on as their cross section is very small compared with a powered aircraft. The other issue is the blue sky in the photo. I find it is the most difficult sky to deal with as regards seeing the orientation of the aircraft. That's why F3A models have very jazzy finishes with contrasting colours in order to let them be seen not just by their pilots but also the judges. They also have highly contrasting top and bottom colours as per the photos below. The fuselage is exactly 2 m long while the wings are around 1.8 m span. I find the best conditions are when it's completely cloudy with light coloured clouds. As I say, a pure blue sky can make it difficult to see the aircraft's attitude clearly. Some scale jets with the sort of grey finish of today's combat aircraft are difficult to see and orientate particularly in cloudy conditions when they tend to blend into the could. As you can see from the photos, F3A machines are anything but designed to blend in with the sky!
  12. As far as I understand, there is another bit of analysis going on for flight crew licencing for the professional drone operators. I would think that they would accept our current method of training as set out by the BMFA/LMA and leave us to regulate ourselves. The BGA operates in a similar fashion but is far more rigorous than we are. It may be that it will soon be a case where any pilot signed off to fly unsupervised will have to have passed the A Test. Grandfather rights should enable those who have been flying for yonks to keep flying but we all have to do the RCC every five years or every year if you are an Examiner.
  13. Well Matty, I disagree with your general thrust that the Government is trying to make life as difficult as possible for model flyers. However, we will have to wait for the full plan to be rolled out over a number of years before either of us can be sure of what might or might not happen. I can see that there might be merit in some form of "airway routing" in the below 400 ft area. However, if we have our flying sites identified then it shouldn't be that difficult to allow direct point to point routing and avoiding all the identified model flying sites, full size airfields, danger areas and other notified sensitive areas. At the moment, if it comes down to no RID or NRID required at notified sites then I suspect the vast majority of us will not see much difference. The issue then becomes how do you go about getting new notified flying sites since we can easily lose a site with a change of owner or planning change.
  14. Got a message saying I didn't have permission to access the thread! Perhsps once the Mods have resolved whatever issue it is, they will reopen it - or not!
  15. Well, that is pretty much the FAI rule. The 140/170 m refers to how far out you fly. The norm is 150 m out. The rule you quote gives the top of the box at 60 deg to the horizontal and 120 deg wide or 60 deg either side of centre. 60 deg to the horizontal @ 150 m = 853 ft. In practice, many internagiknal pilots fly a bit further out at 170 m it is 966 ft. Since the AUW of the a/c is, in 2024, going to be 5,500 g (IC a/c with fuel this time and electric aircraft with the flight pack) in the UK there is no height limit provided you are not in controlled airspace and maintain unaided visual contact with the aircraft. A 2 m aircraft is very visible even at the edges of the box and 1,000 ft high. Have you heard of Christophe Paysant Le-Roux? Since he and other French F3A pilots have been very successfully using those parameters (in the last 20 years CPLR was World Chsmpion 9 times and runner up once. Do you seriously think a French Government would legislate against such success?
  16. Arthur I think you have a lot of misunderstanding about aeromodelling. Your understanding of what the BMFA does is so far off the mark as to be comical. You seem not to understand that, unlike common land, there is no such thing as common air. You do not own the air above your house - the Government does. Furthermore, drones, or UAS, are not a recent invention. The last company I worked for before retiring, had a drone system that was designed for the Military that could be controlled just by providing way points. It was fitted with a camera and flight control system that provided photo intel to the soldier. This was back in 1998. Since then, as multi-rotors have taken on some fixed wing roles, the usage extends to: monitoring crop health; transmission line inspection; emergency service assistance; structural inspection; environmental monitoring and surveys; professional film making and many other tasks. Some of these activities hsve been performed using manned aircraft which greatly increases the cost of the activity. In some cases, the military has been in the forefront of paying for the development of techniques plus the hardware/software to execute these tasks. A more recent innovation is to use autonomous air taxies and there is a company called Lillium that is developing such a craft. I do not know how things are going to pan out but I do know that providing the Government with our views is a good way of safeguarding our sport/hobby. You will note there are many more potential users than the ones you focus on. You will have seen the way that commercial drones are being used in todays wars and since they are so much cheaper than using traditional manned aircraft to do the task. The military view is to use UAS to do dull, dirty and/or dangerous work. All of the above would require both the airspace both below and above 500 ft to be managed in a different way. Why? There is no see and avoid function that has yet been devised yet.that will allow an unmanned aircraft.to operate safely with manned aircraft. The camera drone devotees are just one of many who have a need to use drones to help them either to reduce the costs to their business or to offer a service to existing businesses that provide significant benefits. Just saying you just want to fly park fliers in close proximity to you without let or hindrance shows you have not understood the bssic premise of what this whole exercise is about. I also think you are wrong in saying your view represents the majority of radio control pilots. Finally, don't dismiss those involved in competition. They happen to be the people who step forward to help run the BMFA, argue our case to the Government and do a great deal of the organising that most folk don't see and, frankly, don't care about.
  17. Paul - you are being a silly billy. You know full well that the FAI rules to which F3A aerobatics are flown require the flight to be conducted at 150 m distant out and not above 60 deg to the horizontal - trigonometry gives that height as approx 850 ft These are 2 mtr class models and can easily be seen at that height since the judges need to see the model to judge how well the manoeuvre is being flown. Surprisingly, a clear blue sky is the worst for being able to see the model. A totally cloudy sky is very helpful!
  18. Arthur, I really think you are conflating a lot of different things with a view to blaming drone flyers unfairly. I fly a type of aircraft that could be described as being a million miles away from standard club flying. Should I be constrained? I fly an ARTF 2 mtr competition standard aerobatic aircraft. A small number of pilots build their own 2 mtr aircraft and fewer still design, build and compete. I fly competitively and I quite like to watch videos posted on YT that show people flying the schedule I fly. I also attach a key chain camera to my aircraft so that I can view the video off line to check for how well I have wings level, point rolls are correct, how much I'm drifting in or out from the desired line and so on. We regularly fly at heights up to 1,000 ft, occasionally higher. Should we be criticised as drone flyers as we predominantly use ARTFs even though the same ARTFs are flown in international competitions?
  19. So, don't confuse me with facts my mind is made up. Well,we really must all submit our responses now!
  20. Welcome Nudge. I take my hat off to you for FPV racing as I think that with the need to fly through obstacles and avoid the ground is very definitely a high skill set. For my part, what drives me is flying precision aerobatics in competition - another skill set that requires considerable effort to learn and score well. Both are competitive sports that a lot of club pilots don't wish to touch with a barge pole. A real pity.
  21. Just sent the latest AirProx Board Newsletter in which the issue of Electronic Conspicuity features in a near miss between a full size glider on a final glide and a light aircraft in a head on but crossing path. The key point is that EC is not a panacea for look out and look out is not a panacea in its own right! The interesting thing is that the glider pilot took immediate evasive action when they got the warning of the other aircraft. The light aircraft received the warning too late to take evasive action. Might be worth referring to this report in our responses.
  22. I know that if you fly for hire and reward in a light aircraft that you need the aircraft to be on a Public Transport C of A and the pilot needs to hold a commercial licence. The tragic death of that footballer who trusted his life to a cowboy who flew him from the UK to France and then ended up losing control of the aircraft as he wasn't a rated instrument pilot was a classic case in point. To fly for hire and reward with a model aircraft also requires the right insurance not your ordinary insurance. The Policeman should have checked that and he'd no doubt have found that was not the case. The guy had said he earned his living from posting videos on the internet. He should have been prosecuted in my opinion.
  23. As S of S Defence, Shapps will have a keen eye on what the CAA is proposing as the MoD has spent years discussing flying UAS outside their ranges. As we have all seen, the use of drones in the Ukraine war by regular military has gone up exponentially. Being able to conduct military training outside ranges may be a wish for some in the military. Hence, my view that Shapps will remain engaged - albeit from a different viewpoint and without being completely in charge.
  24. My comment was to contrast the FAA and CAA. I was told I was wrong. I merely answered his question using his words Ron.
×
×
  • Create New...