Matt Carlton

Hello all, My venerable Eclipse 7 tx has chewed up its Nimh to the point that it won't hold charge for very long. Rather than change tx, which I think is unnecessary, I was trying to find a new pack. No problem stateside, but here? Seems a rare beast. I asked Overlander but they won't make one up with an Elco plug. So, does anyone know where I can find a Futaba female to Elco male adapter? Or alternatively, a 9.6v square pack with an Elco plug (ideally Eneloop)

If you were to cut a hole in the fuselage under the wing, you could potentially move the servos back. That would leave space for a small Lipo. It looks like you could conceivably fit the power unit for an F5k model in there. Something like this: https://www.armsoar.com/products/f5k-armsoar-powertrain-1806-kv2450-20a-esc Which is very compact and on 3S would be ample. So the quick answer is yes, depending on how much effort you are willing to make to acheive it.

Just because the photo's came out quite nicely.

After a bit of a delay and indecision about covering, we're nearly there.

Read the plan, get to know it and understand what the designer intended and how to get there. Visualise how things fit together. If you can't make sense of it, ask before you get started. Cut out all of the bits as much as you can and put those bits in a box and make a kit. That way, you won't be scrabbling around to try to make/cut pieces on the hoof because you need part x to make part y fit to part z. It is a lot less hassle than trying to cut parts as you need them. Make a list of all the other bits that you will need and get them ready. You might find that some of them (snakes, servo mounts etc) need to be fitted during construction. Nothing more annoying than eg not being able to fit a top decking because you need to fit snakes inside first. Keep all the offcuts, however small. Scrap is really useful for fillets, gussets, filling gaps, making supports etc. Plan ahead and don't build yourself into a hole. For instance, finishing a fuselage before fitting the wing could mean accessing formers for wing dowel holes becomes difficult. Don't assume that the position of various holes in formers on plans will be right for your motor/servo/snake/pushrod etc. Lay your rc installation out on the plan and work out where those holes etc need to be for YOUR equipment. Take breaks. Stand back. Take your time. You can easily get caught up in something and get too far before you realise you made a mistake earlier and find it difficult to undo. Making templates from card or paper is sometimes more accurate than following a plan for windshield patterns, decking sheeting patterns and so on. Some things, like stringer slots in formers, are better done from the model than from the plan. Use the plan as a guide, but ultimately, there can be mistakes, errors or variation which means that the right position to get a good fair stringer line (for example) is slightly different to the plan. If you find it hard to make a particular piece (for example cutting thick ply) then cut two from thinner ply and laminate them together with epoxy, rather than struggle to accurately cut the thicker material. Making sure that your model is straight and true is more important than sticking slavishly to a plan. If something looks off, check, especially if printing plans yourself or using very old (possibly distorted) plans. Plan your covering before you build. If you have projected seams over an unsupported area, a bit of thin scrap as a covering support can save a lot of headaches later on. Hope some of that helps somewhat! Cheers Matt

After deciding that my previous effort at "Amelia" didn't really pass muster, I've decided to build another. A few lessons from the first time round, a few inconsistencies and draughting errors on the plan (possibly age related distortion?) and a couple of weeks got me to this point. Lots of fiddling, sanding, fiddling, sanding etc to go, but looking ok I think.

Regardless of whether you stick with the engine you have or change it to another, it will always be worth exploring different props and matching them to the airframe. The effects can be quite dramatic and transformative. Well worth the cost imho. Too many people have decided a model "flies badly" and given up on it, when in fact, some tweaks to prop size, cg, control throws etc could totally transform it. Recommendations (prop size, cg, control throws and so on) are a starting point, not an end point. Fly, note, tweak, repeat. Standard practice in Free Flight and something I think we could apply much more in RC than we typically do.

Jon - do the Turnigy props run fast because of some advanced design, or are they just "optimistically pitched" as it were?

12x5, possibly 13x5, maybe even an APC 13X4W, the point being that a larger prop spinning at a reasonable rpm is better on this kind of model than a smaller one rotating faster. We need reasonable static thrust, we don't need huge pitch speed. With all the drag of the airframe, trying to go quicker isn't going to happen, but we can use a big, low pitch prop for reasonable acceleration and braking at the lower speed bracket it'll be flying in.

It is interesting that some "classic pattern" models, for instance, Terry Westrop's "Loaded Dice" use quite a lot of side thrust. I assume that in this case, it is there to try to keep some purity of line in vertical manoeuvres? Especially prior to the advent of rudder/throttle mixing etc.

There's a tendancy to assume that unless a model flies like an overpowered WOT4, takes off in 2 yards, climbs vertically out of sight and "hauls ass" then it is underpowered. There is absolutely no need to overpower a model like an SE5a, especially if you want it to fly like one. Pretty much every Flair Se5a I have seen or flown is happiest with a 52 size 4 stroke at most. Decent diameter, low pitch, wide bladed prop and you don't need a 1:1 power to weight ratio, that's what wings are for. Takeoffs can be longer than 10 yards, it's quite nice actually to fly scale and "on the wing", especially when there's a lot of wing area as with the SE.

That's a very good point to be fair, but I'm never particularly satisfied with my models, I can't seem to stop myself rushing the build even though I really enjoy the process and rushing inevitably causes c**kups!

I had a Selestra for a time, which was reasonably competent in a breeze if ballasted. Plans are on outerzone. Possibly a bit outdated today. http://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=12334 I also had a Valenta Dragon F3b glider which was very good without needing too much ballast, so quite versatile. Moulded though, so may not suit you. http://www.valentamodel.cz/en/index.php/dragon-29-a65

That's a point GG, especially when it seems that particular servos become unavailable quite regularly to be replaced by a similar one that won't fit in the place you planned for it

On a similar topic, I was looking through an old "AA Book of the Car" from about 1970 and it was quite telling how many "jobs" were considered a normal part of owning a car, things that the modern car owner would never even contemplate doing.