stu knowles

A very nice line up of models. Amazing how a bit of weathering brings them to life

One of the guys in our club is a great advocate of the DB Tyo Major, three or four channel. The club was in need of a simple Trainer model and so I recently put this one together. Three channel, with the fus slightly wider than plan to facilitate the battery / esc and servos. SO simple to build and very quick. The wings are foam core with carbon tows laid on the top and lower surface in lieu of spars. Balsa L/e and T/e to be a bit more ding proof and then joined and covered with brown paper / PVA. A couple of layers of 80 gsm glasscloth as dihedral brace and stop the bands from digging in. Then all covered in the cheapest film covering that I could find. The finished wing came in at 300 grammes when a foam veneer wing, also film covered was 550 grammes Most of the wood came out of the scrap box and the fin and tailpane core are foam board with a balsa frame. Motor & ESC came from the Retford swopmeet and was £20 all in. I don't have a full and final cost but less than £50. As a trainer it is superb. Very stable and easy to fly. I'm very impressed with it. I learned with a Super 60 but this one is better. As a means of giving a complete novice some success on their first outing it has proved very good. The only downside is the limited duration on 3 cell 2200 lipos. I may well build another fus with a 20 glow motor just to improve the duration Who needs a stabilised RX?? 😉

This is my 1m 'Thing' now on its third engine, an OS 32. Quite an adrenaline pump on full power.

I have just caught up with your last few posts. A lovely looking model which is a great credit to the builder. I have to say that the thought of closed loop ailerons make me shudder, - Lots of potential failure points like cable slipping off rollers etc, but If you have made it work, well done -

Thanks forthe reply. I think that you have disguised the foamboard rigins of the Sunderland very well. I'd certinly be interested to lern how you did it.

The Sunderland loks very good. I'd be interesteed to learn more about how you did it. The Gull wing looks a very elegant design - and very well covered

HiTec 645 servos have stood me well in many large models. Robust and good value. As with the radio, the choice is huge

Thanks John, Thats just the job!

Thanks John, I shall definately follow up on your suggestion.

Hi All, Sorry to be a pain but I'm back with another question. Well, the same question as in the OP. I thought that I was sorted but as it turns out, not so. In the YT video above the specs for the electric set up used are given as follows;- 2s 280mah lipo Turnigy ESC 10amp Brushless X2204-21 1800KV 10" plastic prop The motor can be seen in the video at time 2.01 It's a pretty flat, large diameter brushless motor slightly different to anything that I have seen before. I should say that I know nothing about lekky and motor designations. I have searched for that motor designation. The ones with the closest numbers are described as for racing drones - which I would have thought are intended for small, fast revving props, the exact opposite of my requirements in the KK Gypsy. I also mailed a well known supplier of well known motor / esc combos but haven't had anything back yet so at the moment I'm at the end of the road. Can anyone point me towards a motor of a similar spec to the X220421 1800KV thats (a) suitable for ultralight models and large slow revving props and (b) Available in the UK. Thanks for reading. If you need advice on glow motors and petrol up to 80cc - I'm all over it but this stuff is a foreign land to me. regards, Stu K

I also thought that I had seen something not too long ago John but I couldn't find anything a few days ago

Hello Jim, Good to hear from you. Sent you a PM. Lovely build of the scaled up Gypsy although in a complete break from the heavyweights I fancy the rubber powered size to waft around the garden in the late evening stillness. The one in the video is just what I imagined. I'm just tracking down the bits needed right now

Exactly like that Shaun, Thanks!

Hi All, In a complete departure from building large models, I recently picked up the re-released Keil Kraft Gypsy kit which I am looking forward to building. I would like to convert it to electric power and probably two channel on motor and rudder. I thought that there would have been quite a few who have already gone this way but on this occasion Mr Google has let me down. I was sure that I had seen something on this forum but can't find it now. Can anyone help or offer a suggestion? A geared motor turning a large prop would be ideal but maybe asking too much. Radio fit not such a problem but thoughts on Motor/ESC/Battery most welcome. regards & thanks stu k

I always use a curve on the throttle to reduce the response at low throttle position, petrol and glow. Without it the response from mid stick to full is minimal. Using a curve makes fine adjustments of power on a landing approach much more manageable. I am surprised to see people advocating against their use, one of the benefits of modern TXs surely?

Pleased that the suggestion worked for you. I don't have to tell you how I became aware that connecting the outlet pipes together gave symptoms of a leaky valve 🙂

If you connect the two outlets together in the way that you have you will get an apparent leak as one tube would be driving the retract and the other will be open to the air. Attach two separate tubes, each with one end blocked and try again

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?359029-Post-scale-decals-for-downloading/page87 There are 87 pages of logos/decals in this thread. I'll let you check if the one that you want is in there

I have flown all of the Flair Scouts and a couple of 1/4 scale DR1's. The Baronette is by far the most difficult of all of them to get off the ground, in fact mine is still in the garage loft with broken spars on all three wings. It happened so often I got fed up of repairing it. My Dr1's were from the Balsa USA stable, so not true scale but powered with zenoah 26s. So long as you were pretty close into wind, take off and landing was uneventful. They have a great shape in the air and are not festooned with lots of rigging. All qualities that make a good WW1 model.

I am starting to think that perhaps opentx doesnt support this scenario, its only supported in the frsky proprietary software. If there's one thing about OTX its that there will always be a way and usually, more than one.

The whole mag content seems to be based on recycling articles from long past and now defunct mags. The plan was a Morane Saulnier N108, which is a bit 'cartoon scale' but a nice looking model, quite compact for a large scale (1/3rd) and without a mass of rigging. It will be the first time that I have strayed from the Sarik plans range. Have to say that their responses and services are much better. Interesting observation Ron, I look forward to inspecting if/when it arrives

Thanks guys, Yes the irony in the name had not escaped me. I'll keep trying until I get a response Stu

Hi All, Has anyone had dealings with Doolittle Media recently? They sell plans from the now defunct AMI magazine andthe Flying Scale Models mag and plan range?? I ordered a plan over a month ago. Nothing received and no response to e-mails and phone calls.

I like your thinking Ron, Excellent!

You've got a lovely pair there James! You definitely have got the hang of this