Steve Colman

No torment intended Peter although it must appear that way. But. it's not always so balmy at this time of year in the North of the country. In fact, we've had snow as late as April and haven't been able to get out to fly for weeks.

I've been flying a mix of models every day since last Frday. The afternoons from about 1 to 5 have been fantastic with blue skies, almost zero wind and temperatures around the 15 degree mark so I've been making the most of it while I can. I'll be out again tomorrow too.

Merry christmas everyone.

This will explain it........

This young French girl was about 14/15 when she recorded this video. After a few years of posting videos showing her development from an early age she simply sropped posting and disappeared from public view.

Just for once, for a short while at least as a Brit living in Spain, I can enjoy the fact that England have gone further than Spain in a major competition while my Spanish friends at my club suffer a humiliating defeat.

Gorgeous weekend with sunny blue skies. light winds and a pleasant temperature. Today I maidened my Multiplex Twinstar which I bought way back in March 2017. Other pojects taking up my time is my excuse. Just minimal decor applied using packing tape. Maiden was a non event with just a couple of clicks of trim needed. This is my first twin.

That's the TEEN spirit Erfolg.

A classic re-imagined by those young people of Romania. These guys now have several channels promoting young talent, recording and producing covers and original songs across several different bands. This is one of their latest covers.

I also agree.

Returned from flying this morning to find this beauty. Enjoy.

I've been dipping into this thread now and again and I do find the subject genuinely fascinating. I tend to be somewhat neutral in the whole EV v ICE debate and can see both sides of the argument but I had no real world experience of EV's until a couple of weeks ago. A young guy at my club turned up in a Tesla and was kind enough to give me a quick trip in it. I have to say that the minimalist interior was very much to my liking although it would probably take me eons to fathom the touch screen controlling everything. That aside, the actual driving experience, even just as a passenger, was very impressive and I came to the conclusion that the ICE, whether petrol or diesel, seemed somewhat archaic and over complicated by comparison. However, I am not now, or ever in the future, going to have the money available to buy an EV so it will remain within the realms of my dreams much like exotic sports cars or a classic VW camper.

After a few days doing some repair work this is how the G2 looked this morning at the field. I feel happier now. 😄 Test flight to follow soon I hope.

Thanks for your reply Steve, Tomorrow I will assess the fuselage damage fully; it still resides in the back of the car. If I can repair it I will but there seems to be many twisted and mangled pieces of foam it may not be worth it. I don't want to abandon it completely as I have many spares I bought from HK when they were still available a few years ago (but no fuselage) but, a new fuselage shouldn't be too difficult to construct so I might explore this route to begin with. If I do I think I'll ditch the pre-rotator completely and perhaps opt for one larger servo to replace the current two for simplicty as you have done. I do have some home made delta plates with alternative rotor blades which I've used with succes on the Auto-G before. If none of the above goes to plan the Gyroo will certainly be top of the list to replace it, perhaps followed sometime later with the Atom. I really do like the quirkyness of auto gyros and intend to always have at least one or two in the hangar. Steve.

I hadn't flown my HK Auto G2 for a while so decided to give it a go this past weekend. However, minor things like the prerotator flexible drive not working properly and unfavourable flying conditions resulted in a few tumbles during take off attempts and a broken rudder. So, I spent yesterday fixing the problems and went to the field this morning hoping to get a few flights in but things didn't quite go to plan as the attached pics will testify. All the electronics are fine and I have spare masts, heads, main rotors and other bits and pieces to put together another apart from the fuselage but, I could scratch build something from balsa/ply so not all is lost. Perhaps this will be a good option as I was using the Auto-G2 as my trainer before moving on to something like Richard Harris's Gyroo or Atom which I have the parts and plans for. First pic from last time the G2 was flown - following pics from today

This does it for me every time. Absolutely brilliant!

+1 for the East Glider, Solius and Heron. Alternatively, have a look at the models by TopmodelCZ which offer excellent flying performance and good value for money. Their Prelude/Ava and Marabu are within your specs. Only negative is that they do need some work to put together which you may not want.

I'm with Ron on this one.

What about the Multiplex Lentus? Or is a foam model out of the question for some reason?

A friend of mine recently bought a 6m Ventus from the company. To cut a long story short he was not pleased at all! He made a bespoke order with them to include a pilot which they had in stock, a particular registration number to be applied, a Spanish tail flag and a whole of other things which were all agreed. He heard nothing from them for almost two months despite emailing them several times with enquiries re the models progress. When they finally answered him they reeled off a load of excuses and promised him another date for completion which came and went. Turned out that the worker was telling my friend a bunch of lies about the models progress and accused my friend of lying. A letter came from the company owner who promised to sort things out but delays persisted for another couple of weeks. When the model was finally delivered there were several defects to the surface finish; the underside of the fuselage had an area of about 20mm x 100mm that seemed to have had filler applied and very badly finished and there were several small blemishes on the wings. The model registration number was not as ordered, the Spanish flag was absent and one of the decals alongside the cockpit area was peeling off. Additionally, the pilot figure did not arrive with the model although it was in stock and available from the begining. He and I put the model together to check all was ok and there were no problems on that front and the model did look great from all normal viewing distances. Unfortunately my friend had to then go away on busines for a couple of months and I won't get to spek to him again before August. Therefore I can't offer a final judgement on the model and it will be a while before it's fully completely and takes to the air for the first time.

Thank you for the link David. Very reasonably priced kits. One of these might make their way to me sometime in the future.

David, are those Barons the model by Ecotop? I've been looking for something similar for a while.

Frank, over here in Spain I should really take the Level 1 and Level 2 test certificates to fly anything over 250g within the law anywhere outside my club site which is making me think again about the Mavic. Despite it being a bargain, for the number of occasions I'm likely to fly it I'm now thinking it's not worth the investment. About the phone situation, I've been seriously thinking along the lines that you've outlined. It's one thing to be able to download the App but it needs to function properly too, especially with almost 1Kilo of multirotor in the air.

An update. I have discovered that my mobile will run the DJI GO4 App and have downloaded it with no problem. A good friend, who's in the model retail business, has offered me a brand new, never been used Mavic 2 Pro with carry bag, 1 battery and maybe a second, ND filters and charger for 450 Euros. This seems a great deal on a highly rated machine although I would prefer something smaller which I don't have to register and preferably, cheaper. However, given the price/qualit ratio of the Mavic 2 I'm tempted.