Geoff S

I'm well on with the replacement fuselage for my ARTF Wot 4 Mk2 and I've taken the opportunity to check the alignment and fitting of the wing and tail plane. I thought I'd measured for the tailplane slot in the side piece very carefully, but, it appears, not carefully enough. The wing is 2deg negative relative to the tailplane. I was aiming for 1 to 2 deg positive, so it's a fair way out. On the positive side, the wing fits well, is square, and is parallel to the tailplane in the precut slots. The wing seat need a little fettling, but nothing serious. At least the tail isn't glued so I can modify the slot by cutting and filling to get it to the angle I think is appropriate. Is my feeling that 1 or 2 deg positive reasonable? What would be the effect of flying with 2 deg negative incidence? Does anyone know the actual wing incidence of a kit built or ARTF Wot 4? I only need to lower the front of the tailplane by about 3mm to achieve a 1 deg positive incidence, so it's not an impossible mod and won't mess up the work I've already done to repair the model successfully, too much.

Thanks, all. It's cured OK now, as did the batch I mixed and used yesterday. I was just wondering what the terms referring to time actually meant. I'm aware it's all temperature critical. About 40 years ago, I decked a racing dinghy hull over winter in the garage. It's a concrete garage that defeated my attempts to insulate it and I wore so many clothing layers I could hardly work. I was trying to use West epoxy, but it was hopeless at times. I can't believe my enthusiasm for the job. I don't think I could repeat the exercise now. I tend to use slower curing epoxy/hardener types because I not only believe it makes a stronger, but it also gives more positioning time.

As I sit here waiting for my Zap 30 minute epoxy to go off, I wondered to what the 30 minutes refers. It certainly isn't the time to go hard because it's over 30 minutes since I glued to firewall to my replacement Wot 4 fuselage and the surplus on the mixing board (an old piece of ply) is still softish and definitely not cured (the remains of what I used yesterday, is cured, so there's nothing wrong with the product). I'm guessing it's the time span it's still usable, but there's nothing that says as much. Also, what determines the cure speed for epoxy? I think the part labelled 'Resin' is the same for all types, and it's the 'Hardener' that determines how quickly it cures. But it's a guess.

The only problem with using IC props on an electric motor is that the hole size is sometimes too big, otherwise they're fine.

No, a high IF means so-called 2nd channel interference (another RF signal can beat with the local oscillator and potentially create a weaker IF which responds to the unwanted signal) is reduced because it comes from an RF frequency 2x the IF away (so 2x10.7 Mhz = 21.4 Mhz away). With dual conversion superhet receivers, they have both a high IF for 2nd channel and a low IF for remote RF interference. Because they have 2 local oscillators and 2 sets of IF transformers it makes them more expensive and unnecessary in the modern context of few 35Mhz users.

A little progress on solving my instant jigsaw. Not much to show for a week's worth of effort but I'm near having a kit of parts to re-create the shattered fuselage. So two reasonably exact mirror image fuselage sides and nearly a full set of formers, battery and servo trays. The firewall, battery tray and wing bolt former are survivors of the crash and keen to be re-used. The longerons are 3mm balsa. The top one, being straight is easy but the elegantly curved bottom is a bit of a wood-waster but worth the improved appearance which typifies the Wottie fuselage to my mind. The doublers are 3mm Liteply which I think (hope?) will successfully replace the CNC cut birch ply originals. The top and bottom sheeting for the rear of the fuselage will be 1.5mm balsa as the original ARTF one with some reinforcement where the original formers were. I'm just going to use 6mm square balsa cross pieces rather than try to reproduce the ply formers. I needed extra weight at the tail to get the CoG where I wanted it so, whilst being careful, I'm not being too worried about rear weight. It still needs to be strong enough for my landing technique 🙂 I can't believe it's taken me so long to do so little - but I guess it's par for the course 🙂 I fetched the bare fuselage that i12fly offered me (it turns out he lives only around 2 miles away - I've met him a few times but didn't realise he was such a near neighbour). It's obviously never been completed or flown but it didn't suit the wing without a lot of modification, so I'm pressing on with my build. Apparently it was given to him, so, in my turn, I'll pass it on to someone who'll complete it - or return it 🙂 Thanks Ian.

I wrote off the fuselage (amongst other things) on my ARTF Wot 4 a few days ago. The wing is almost undamaged but one of the ailerons came out, complete with the hinges, as did the rudder. It's 5 years since I assembled it, but I think I used cyano. When I build a model, I always pin the hinges with cocktail sticks (about 2mm dia), as it was an ARTF I used what is supposed to be standard practice but in extremis the hinges came out. I never had any issues with the flying until the ultimate test and, when checked, the ailerons and rudder seemed firmly attached. Personally, if I were building the model, whatever glue I used I'd pin the hinges.

Make a hasty recovery. At least you'll have a decent hi-tech repair (3d printed titanium, indeed!) to boast about when you get to my age - 40 years to go, at least.

sorry posted in error - dumb thumbs again!

Someone on YouTube does revues on Temu and is generally favourable. I'm not sure if it's the same guy, but there are revues on Lidl and Aldi 'middle lane' tools etc. He's British, so it isn't USA-based which many are and thus relevant to the UK.

True 🙂

Not a great rugby fan (nearly 70 years since I played at school) but I've just skip watched England/Ireland game ending in the drop goal in the last few seconds. However, didn't England already have a penalty, and they were playing the advantage, so even without the drop goal, the chances were that they'd have won, as the penalty was in front of the posts?

That is only a problem with mains LED bulbs - an LED torch runs off DC. Mains LED bulbs have a (probably? I've never checked) switched mode converter from mains to dc, which must be causing you a problem. I think eventually houses will have a separate DC circuit for lighting with just one relatively powerful DC power supply, rather like the server power supply I use for my LiPo chargers. But this is grossly off-topic 🙂

We used to sell 90v batteries for battery only radios, mostly used by those with no mains electricity (still quite common in my birthplace in the 1940s/50s). What were useful for experimenters were the grid bias batteries that had outputs of various voltages up to 9v in 1.5v steps from zero. Not sure why they were needed, as grid bias is easy to design into the circuit with a resistor in the cathode. Flat 4.5v batteries also seem to have disappeared. My first head torch used them. Anyway, LED torches are better in every respect.

PM sent.

I remember the days when even a hint of what was to be in the budget speech before the day itself was a big scandal. Most (or certainly a lot) of today's speech has been forecast for a week or two.

I've had a Fun Cub for years and it must have had 100s of flights. In fact, I flew it the day I totalled the Wot 4. I'm just trying to make sure the relative wing/tail plane angles remain the same on my replacement fuselage At least I started out with a balsa fuselage 🙂 The only real problem I've had with the FunCub is keeping the aileron and flap horns glued to the wing. They're always coming loose and I even had to resort to inletting a piece of ply for one aileron hinge. It even survived losing the battery when I did a bunt - it landed inverted and unharmed 🙂

If the s/w works as well as the Horizon Post Office system, it'll be money down the drain. Just as long as Fujitsu have nothing to do with it - they'll claim it works when it clearly doesn't. Facial recognition technology is fairly dodgy, too. Beards tend to confuse it, as do non-white faces. Magic solutions tend to be as etherial as 'real' magic IMO

A foamie Riot fuselage won't work too well with a Wot 4 wing and empennage let alone the 4s Foxy motor/esc combination 🙂

It happens from time to time - I wrecked my lovely ARTF Wot 4 (balsa) on take off a week or so ago. Not sure why, but I like to take off in a scale-like way with a reasonably shallow climb out. Unfortunately, the shallowness was excessive and it hit the ground at speed with bits of wood flying hither and yon. It's taken me until now to bite the bullet and look at the damage. As is often the case on these sad occasions, not as bad as I thought (I was originally going to bin the lot after rescuing the components - moto, esc, receiver etc). The wing is only slightly damaged - just a minor tear in the covering and one wing tip, nothing critical. Motor, cowl and firewall came off in one piece and are otherwise OK as I assume other electronic components are, but I'll check, undercarriage is undamaged as is (as usual) all the tail parts. So it's just the fuselage that is totally unrepairable. A new fuselage used to be available as a spare (about £80) but no longer. It shouldn't be beyond the wit of man to make a new fuselage, even if the 'man' is the inept creature that is me. So, with the aid of copious CA and a fair bit of masking tape I reassembled the bits into something like its original shape so I could make a pattern - thus: And ... Doesn't look very pretty, does it? However, the basic outline is there, and I was able to draw round it and make 2 new sides. The harder bit is the 3mm ply sort-of doublers, which I'm still thinking about. There's a big area of heavy (and expensive) birch ply. Most is discarded in the CNC cutting of the original but I don't have that luxury. I think I'm going to use 3mm light ply with a few holes cut out with a hole saw. I want to keep the overall thickness so what formers are usable will still fit - mostly the firewall. This is as far I've got. Perhaps my Wottie will fly again even though I'm still cursing my total incompetence.

I've done the same - lots of times! I'm very reluctant to complain about a site that's completely free to use, though I do indirectly contribute by buying the (paper) magazine as a subscriber.

When I was a teen repairing TVs, one of our customers had a Mynah bird. Its cage was behind the door where the TV was, so I didn't see it when I went in, but I certainly heard it when it wolf whistled very loudly and realistically. I thought my fantasy of having an attractive, bored housewife lusting after a young lad had come true (it never did!). The bird had a range of incredibly realistic phrases, much better than any parrot I've heard.

That's what I do. If you want a Z bend then use 2mm s/s rod at one end, but I don't think it's as secure epoxied in the rod as threaded (no evidence - just a feeling). I favour a ball joint at the servo end - they don't come unscrewed and have almost zero play. At the control surface, I use s/s clevis with a locknut - it's where you can adjust it most easily.

I've found they're fine up to at least 600mm and would probably work over even longer distances. I also use closed loop a lot and often use snake outer as guides for the wire so they can easily be replaced if necessary. Using the snake outers also means the route between servo and control surface horn doesn't need to be absolutely direct; it can be slightly curved to avoid obstacles.

3mm carbon tube with 2mm threaded s/s rod at each end. Surprisingly stiff without any intermediate support.