Jonathan M

It's not so much about the right trainer model, it's all to do with the right instruction. Start by finding a suitable local club, preferably with their own trainers and get a taste of flying under instruction. Fixed wing models aren't like drones - they need to be taken off, flown and landed in a very different way, which takes a good deal of time to learn. Even pilots of full-size aircraft find it pretty difficult at first.

Thanks, found it here: https://achievements.bmfa.uk/the-tests/standards-guidelines

Thanks Dick for the chapter and verse. I tried having a look for the current regs, but trying to find anything on the labyrinthine BMFA website remains as hard as it ever was.

To be honest I can't remember if it is strictly still a club rule, but when I did my A Test around 2012 or so the club examiner expected it of me. I was reminded of it when reading through a BMFA examiner's notes file I found on my computer about the B Test which I'd downloaded in 2018, but I don't know what year that version was actually produced (as I'd selected just the content I wanted from the PDF and pasted it into a Word file).

The book suggests a 9x6-7 or a 10x4 for sports/aeros, I'll prob start with a 9x6 then experiment to see which suits the Amelia best once she's eventually flying. How much left to go with the Alley Cat?

Great, really helpful advice Jon, I followed it all. Beautiful little engine - was finally able to get outside and run it up today. Pre-oiled as suggested, fitted a 9x4 prop, used fresh 5% nitro fuel, primed, cleared excess, set throttle to 1/4, then it fired up on the third hand-flick! Here it is chugging away with needle at initial 2.5x open seconds after it first started: https://vimeo.com/911665369?share=copy After a couple of minutes running rich at 5,000rpm the head was getting nicely warm, so leaned it straight to 90% peak, needle now 1.25x open, which read 10,500 on the tacho, then gave it a full 4oz of fuel at various states of throttle: https://vimeo.com/911666585?share=copy Let it cool for half an hour, then primed etc and it fired first flick! Ran that up and down, tweaking the needle a bit to be certain it was in the right ball-park of slightly rich, but didn't worry about the low speed air-bleed yet as ticked over at 2,500 without much hesitation on opening up, so will deal with that more fully once it's in the model with a suitable flying prop. Thoroughly delighted with the engine! All I have to do now is build the model... 😁

I've never understood this requirement. Unless one has such a large model that both hands are needed to carry it back, then (leaving aside a neck-strap) surely it is safer to carry the TX out to the model in one's hand? If IC then the throttle should have been killed completely before the walk out - in which case the issue is redundant anyway. If electric then both the kill-switch and one's thumb holding the throttle stick fully down until one reaches the model to physically disconnect the Lipo before picking it up should not only be safe enough in itself but give you the opportunity of some control should something go strangely wrong and the motor start up. Is this rule universal at all clubs - what do people do?

I have one of these. It is a great charger if you want to charge four Lipos at home in one go before a session, then bring them all back to storage charge afterwards, etc I still use my old Fusion charger for individual Lipos (although it doesn't have a storage function), but really for NiMH flight batteries (has discharge and cycling function) and for my flight-box 12v 7Ah Pb. When flying thermal, I also have a small ISDT field charger powered off a large capacity spare Lipo, which means any given set of four electric-launch Lipos (550mAh to 1300mAh) can be recharged at least once thus doubling their day-session use. So it really depends on what your charging needs are, but if it is for typical home-charging for conventional power model Lipos, then you can't go wrong with a quad-charger like the GT one above.

First session in almost two years of my Gangster 63 Lite which I bought back from a club-mate recently - so effectively a re-maiden! - and the first conventional power RC flying in all that time as well, having only done lots of thermal soaring last year and just one session on the slope. I'd foolishly assumed the TX model memory would translate directly back to the model (with my own RX back in it) so hadn't checked things first at home! Thus the first cold hour was spent with the model on my car roof re-neutralising surfaces, de-reversing some throw directions, and re-setting travels - using my mobile I'd luckily, eventually, found the spec settings and my own amendments in my old lengthy build thread (page 11 out of 16), then in a later post the reduced elevator throws I last used once I'd moved the CG back to almost neutral, etc. Then I spent a while flummoxed as to why the Irvine 53 wouldn't start! Had new fuel, new plug and fully charged everythings... until I remembered that the throttle kill switch worked the other way round! Had three dead-sticks on the first tank of fuel, each luckily without mishap (all my gliders come down dead-stick), until I finally remembered to richen the high-speed needle a smidge from what seemed perfect on the ground but on the ground only before committing aviation! The rest of the first tank was just the usual trimming out and doing circuits etc. The second two tanks were then a complete blast - the whole of the B-Test schedule plus some extended inverted, half-Cubans, etc. Fantastic model the Gangster, just so natural an aerobat! Thrilled that I bought it back, and really chuffed that I remembered - eventually - how to start it and fly it! 😁

Nice one Caveman 😍 Here's a question for the seasoned enginistas: My OS30FS has never yet been run - I bought it quite a few years ago just before they were discontinued and just kept it stored in the house. I've already had the rocker-cover off and dabbed a bit of after-run oil around the moving parts and a bit down the push-rod tubes as it was all a bit dry. Do I need to pre-oil anywhere else?

The shiny 'new' 30 on my brand-new engine test stand assembly, two bits of 1/2" MDF screwed to a cheap workmate clone (much neater than the old fuel and diesel saturated one). Was all good to take the whole caboodle outside for a first run when the increasingly heavy dampness turned to actual drizzle! Instead of starting a new "Dereck Woodward Amelia" build thread, maybe I should ask a moderator to just change the title of this one?

8g was dictated by the 4mm ID of the Dubro wheels. Alternative is JP wheels, but none of the retailers state the ID of these - 1/8" ish? Wing-mounted would be okay with me too, just a question of beefing up the CS structure instead: either one-piece V-struts as per the plan but saddled on at the front as well as the back, or single struts with torsion...?

Thanks for the suggestion Andy - that was going to be one of my main mods, using 4mm wire and 2.25" Dubro low-bounce.

Balsa all now ordered from SLEC at a shade over £50 incl delivery, which isn't too bad considering the shocking cost of everything these days, except bizarrely Oracover which seems to have dropped in price by a third?! Nothing left to do whilst waiting for the wood to arrive except run in the 30FS... 😀

Yes, that'll be a long session of 'mindfulness', but at least you've given yourself a flat-bottomed section!