Barryorbik

I've got the Hubsan FPV and for what it is it's pretty decent but the FPV range is only about 100 yards. Good news is that it has a 5.8gHz FPV link, so can be used with most of the aftermarket goggles that give a better quality picturs and with the prop guards on it is pretty robust. Flight time is only around three minutes but most of my attempted FPV flights are of much short than that, so not that much of a problem !! Barry

We started heading back home early this morning as the rain looked to be set to spoil any chances of flying and most of the traders were packing away. I was slightly disappointed with the trade this year as most traders seem to have downsized stalls and a few of the regulars were missing. One of the highlights of my weekend was having a chat with the revered David Ashby in the BMFA marque over a brew. Looking forward to new venue next year and lets hope the event organisers keep up the good work and that they can appease the traders and locate them nearer to the flight lines, which may encourage more traders. Barry

Our annual pilgrimage to the Nats is only one sleep away now! Hope to meet up with some of you there. Barry

Hi Rich, I have been flying collective pitch helicopters successfully for around three years now but my wife bought me the FPV Hubsan for Christmas and I find it a handful both indoors and out because of its wanderlust plus the picture often breaks up even at quite close range and with fully charged batteries. Treat it as a fairly tough entry level machine but because of the strange format it records the video in and the short flying time it is of little practical use other than to improve your hand to eye co-ordination as mentioned in the article or to annoy the cat / dog ! Barry

We had a similar problem with an esc on a helicopter recently and it turned out to be poorly soldered connections on the motor connectors, one of which was only being held in place by the heatshrink sleeving. Seemed that once the motor had pulsed a few times then started rotating it ran up OK but closing the throttle frequently caused the motor to fail to spool up again and caused the esc to re- arm. Barry

Well done to Steve Bishop and all the other organisers and to Dave Bishop for his entertaining and informative commentary during the day and to Nick who really got the crowd on their feet during the evening flying. With airplanes, helicopters and fireworks it was a great mix for all the family Hope this show goes from strength to strength and we were blessed with almost ideal weather conditions Barry

I had a talk with one of the helicopter elite at the NATS a couple of week ago and his view was why risk a model that is probably worth a few hundred or even thousands of pounds by using a non-compliant or risky 'copy' radio system? Just a thought Barry

Erfolg, I have recently had three fairly new packs (from a well known UK manufacturer) where one cell has gone bad midway through a flight but like you I do not trust my ability to remove the defective to save the other cells. If any pack starts to heat up during charging it is time to bin it. Do you have one of the Wayne Giles ESR meters which measure the internal impedance of each cell by discharging it at a high current for a brief period whilst monitoring the voltage drop to calculate the internal resistance of the cell. They cost around £60.00 but are a brilliant tool for identifying duff packs before it is too late. Barry

Martin, Have a look on the "Heliguy" UK site. They have a forum covering most of the ESKY range with lots of hints and tips to get her flying right. Most of the manuals can be downloaded from the main page and they carry lots of spares too but spares for some of the earlier ESKY helicopters are now becoming scarce. Barry

MCP-x is the way forward, as it can be dummed down to be docile or set up to be a real hooligan and in either mode its tougher in a crash than any other collective pitch helicopter I have flown and they can handle the wind too so great for indoors or out. Best advice I can give to a newcomer is invest in a decent 6, 7 or 8 channel computer transmitter and if Blade helicopters are your favoured brand then a Spektrum Dx6i, (or the newly announced Dx6) Dx7 or Dx8 are the ones to go for. Barry

Haiyin Lipo's (from Electriflyer) are fast becoming the favorites at our club as they perform well above their claimed C ratings and last well. The individual cells are selected for ESR and capacity etc before being assembled into packs, so the costs are a little higher than nano techs but you only buy them once, so though life costs are much lower. Barry

Did anyone read the post a couple of days ago that said there would be no more model aircraft at Barkston Heath because another section of full size aircraft had been allocated space and the logistics of closing the site for outside use was too great? Barry

I've used them quite a few times for odd charger leads and Lipo's and everything I have purchased has been delivered quickly and has performed well. For the electric flyers there are some excellent articles in their newsletters on how to care for them and on which give the best performance. Barry

Eric, Before you venture into flybarless with the HK450 it would be a very good idea to get it flying correctly as a flybarred helicopter as you may need to upgrade some parts to get it flying right before you consider converting it. I have just finished building a HK450 V2 Pro kit for a club member and it required new tail blade holders as the originals did not hold the tail blades correctly, new (Align) main shaft as the original was made from toffee metal and came pre-bent, both the main gear and tail drive gears needed replacing with Align parts as they were warped and eccentric and a new one-way bearing as the original slipped and Align plastic ball links throughout as the originals all came off too easily. The main blades have been replaced with Align ones too as the originals needed half a pound of lead to get them correctly balanced but after asll this work it now flies quite well !! Barry

I returned to this hobby after many years away with one of the first DX6i's. Shortly after purchase it had an issue with noisy gimbals due to the potentiometers but HH UK rapidly arranged to replace the pots and upgrade the trim actuators - all for free and with P&P covered and then they sent me an AR6100 by way of an apology. On the back of this service when I needed an extra channel I bought a DX7 and still use along with my DX8 that I treated myself to early last year. Both of these tx's and their associated Spektrum receivers have proved extremely reliable and I have not had any problems related to the radio link. Maybe I am in the minority but sometimes I feel the problems are related to poorly thought out installations inducing electrical noise into the receivers or dodgy connectors etc. Barry

Hi Airpaddler, Make sure the throttle trim is set to '0' too when you do the rebind or you may still get a few revs from the motor even if its in failsafe mode. I have also assigned the mix 1 (back right switch) in position '1' as throttle cut with its setting at -5%, which is what we tend to do with rotary wing craft as an added safety guard, plus it gives you the option to practice dead stick landings. Barry

We camped from noon on Thursday and our only complaints were the inclement weather on Friday and Saturday and Hobby Kings "product display only" stand. The flying was better than ever and the German jet fliers and Bert Krammer (a true helicopter God) over on the helicopter flight line were excellent additions to an already brlliant event. The boats have never been a massve presence but at least some were on the pool this year. Already looking forward to next years event Barry

Andy, I bought a Toshiba LX830 all in one just before Christmas running Win 7 and I find it much better than a laptop for desk based use, as it has a 23" high definition, LED lit touch screen, so when I eventually jump to Win 8 it is ready for the full experience. It also has a built in DTV tuner, so you can watch/listen to TV whlst browsing the BMFA classified etc. Barry

Our club allows lone flying providing you have passed your 'A' in the relevant discipline. Big advantage we have is that ours is a private flying field with no trespassers, dogwalkers or kids playing football etc and only the occassional flock of sheep to contend with. Barry

I had one of these off my son for Christmas and finally got to try it ;last week at our clubs indoor meeting. As most have said before, left hand circuits were great but mine would not even fly straight with full right rudder applied!!, so clearly some 'engineering' was required. I noticed the bang-bang rudder would not go as far right asit did left because it fouled the tailplane, so out came the craft knife and some material was removed from the tail plane. Another flight and it would hold straight now on full right rudder but still no turn, so more work required. Both of the left wings have up ailerons moulded into them, so some thin wire (stripped from the black tie wrap used to hold the tx in the box)was inserted into the proposed aileron postions on the right wings and glued in with UHU por to allow the aileron positions to be adjusted. Finally two cuts were made in the inner ends of the new aileron positions to allow them to be moved. Result- it can now do slow lazy 8's with ease!! Barry

Thanks Tom, Your Crane Fly MK2 is definately winning the race now, as I just did not fancy making and balancing the blades after my feeble attempts at making 325mm wooden helicopter blades, as my wood working skills and tool set are poor to say the least!! Barry

Thanks for that input Tom. I saw a gentleman flying a fairly compact RC one on the free flight lines at last years BMFA nationals and he had painted one side fluorescent green and the other fluorescent orange, so hard to loose that in the long grass!! Does anyone know the size of the blades on the HK one as I fancy trying to scale the Crane Fly MK2, so it can use HK blades too. Barry

Erflolg, My thinking is the same as yours. Itoo have been looking at autogyro plans from Jochen K for some time and recently at both the pdf's from Tom Wright but like yourself I fancy something a little more transportable and that uses the HK C30 head parts. Looking forward to hearing how you get on with the 3/4 build. Barry

I remember hearing there was a Concord in Edinburgh under cover in a museum. Does anyone know if that is correct? Also does anyone know what happened to the French group that was trying to get one of their Concords flying? Barry

Is it just the angle of the camera or is the tailfin somewhat off vertical? Other than that a fabulous looking and sounding aircraft. Barry