Jonathan M

Well done!

I maidened my FF Cardinal yesterday. A bit breezy so got in a lot of model-recovery exercise over half a dozen flights, but hugely satisfying! ? https://photos.app.goo.gl/KzYKm5ktiVnEdv4L6

Fair enough Matt. For some reason I'm feeling a bit tired and distracted at the moment. But given the nature of the (online) world we now all live in its worth looking up Poe's Law...

I'm lost for words reading this. The entire world is incredibly nervous about "sudden" extremely destabilising events in Eastern Europe (think August 1914, September 1939, August 1945, the 1961 Cuban Missile Crisis, Pol Pot, Mao Tse Tung, Adi Amin, Osama Bin Laden, Super Covid, the Spanish Flu, the Black Death, and the extinction of the dinosaurs 60 million years ago all combined into one very nasty "terminal" possibility), and you think an RAF Station Commander is just looking for excuses to stop a bunch of British children in adult bodies having fun with their pretend aeroplanes this summer.

Original Veron Cardinal kit, covered with Litespan, powered by a late (yellow head) DC Dart... all 100% proper FF.

Cheers Andy - I've already joined and have put the various event dates in my diary.

Hi Steve - just seen this. I've got a PDF of the plan and article from PM. Would be helpful though to know where I can get a printed copy and cut parts as well. Cheers Jon

Practicing for my B Certificate has given me something to aim for, has improved my flying skills considerably so far, and has impelled me to build a suitable model for the task - all for the pure personal pleasure and challenge of it rather than because its a prerequisite for anything else. Having said that, it has also got me interested in flying classic aerobatics, for which there are half a dozen UKCAA events scheduled for this summer...

Well done!

Yes, me. I have a good ASP 70 FS from new that briefly powered my ARTF Acrowot, i.e. VGC. PM me if you're interested.

That's beginning to look nicely rhapsodic! ?

Using six bands isn't just for security, it also provides 50% more 'anti-lifting' tension than just using four bands. But don't over-do it either. You do want to wing to release in the event of an accidental arrival, else the impact energy will find the next weakest point which will be the wing itself and/or the fuselage.

Now I know why folk have large propellor collections! ?

Mine is actually ridiculously quiet already on the 12x6 (modern OS muffler fitted) so might give the 11x6 a go... but to be honest my primary focus is now mainly on smoothening my flying and refining the elements of the B Test. She wants to spin right every time, and struggles if I try to force a left spin. Rolls are lovely individually, just need to ensure I can reliably and repeatedly do two consecutive ones in both directions without screwing out. Stall turns good, figure of eights fine, learning to blend in rudder at tops of loops and for cross-wind stuff etc. Lovely model for the job.

Mine has the silver carb, so I presume it is the OS-produced Mk3.

Andy, yes the 12x6 is an APC which I've scraped to perfect balance. Fuel is Bekra (5 normally but currently 10 for the colder weather). I like Bekra because the residue is much less sticky than the Irvine Sport 5 I was previously using. Maybe I can lean the high-speed needle a bit more - what kind of top end revs ought I to expect? PS Just to clarify, when I said verticals weren't quite 'unlimited', they are at least pretty good.

Thanks Peter, useful to have that option in reserve. In the meantime the 53 maxes at 10,000rpm with the 12x6. More power than the 46 (maxed at 11,000 with an 11x6), although not excessively so: verticals are better but not completely unlimited.

Who knows? After I'd helped him collect the litter of foam, I suggested we test the components. Everything worked fine on the ground - RX, ESC, motor, the servo that still had a lead attached - but in the air it clearly hadn't in those critical last few moments from a height of about 50m all the way to ground zero, which I observed. There are only two possible reasons for this: either the TX or the RX. His TX is a new generation black DX9, the RX is a park-flyer type Orange with two diddy stubs for antennae. Had anything like this happened with my Taranis (I gave up on Spektrum three or so years' ago after repeated RF board failure on my new gen black DX7 resulted in the terminal crashes of two large and expensive power models in the space of a week, then it nearly did the same to a slope-soarer, all with full-range receivers, after board replacement by the UK agent), I'd have downloaded the telemetry logs and graphed RSSI etc to get to the bottom of it. But in this case, who knows? Except that the club member in question has several unexplained crashes of various foam models over the last couple of years, and he's not a reckless or unskilled flier... so maybe the common denominator is the TX?

Today a club-mate, flying with a Spektrum TX, buried an E-Fite foam wing into the turf from a pure vertical powered dive during which he had no control. It had a diddy little Orange RX in it with a pair of antennae each about an inch long. He said he'd had it in there for years with no problem... but today there was a problem, a terminal one.

A few photos from yesterday's re-maiden (also with added black trim to wing LE for better head-on visibility). Dry weight now 5.5lbs but still comparatively very Lite, and slows down beautifully for landings exactly where I want to put it down. Extra power very noticeable with, for e.g., knife-edge (not me yet...just when my mate was flying it!)

A few recent tweaks: Completed mods to wing-saddle to permanently bring incidence up from -0.8° to +0.7°. Moved battery back to its original berth above the TE (losing 30 of the 50g I had on the tail, CG still at 111mm). Changed aileron lead plugs to single Max-Loc connector - much simpler and more secure (it clips in place). Swapped out original Futaba S3001 tail servos for more powerful Hitec HS485HB units. Re-engined with Irvine 53 on a 12x6 prop - very happy with the extra power (reduced timer from 11 to 10 minutes, using 10oz tank, timer active at over 20% throttle).

Suggestion 1: If you bore out the two mounting holes on the exhaust side by an extra 0.5mm then you might be able to insert your bolts at just enough of an angle for their heads to clear the flange, and once the heads are clear then the bolts can drop plumb down onto the mount, etc. I wouldn't worry about sloppiness, as the other two holes will be a snug fit to align the engine correctly, and once all the nuts are fully nipped-up the engine won't be going anywhere. Suggestion 2: I haven't measured the difference myself, but perhaps a hex-headed bolt will have a smaller head diameter than a conventional one? Even if this isn't the case then filing just enough of a flat on the outside to clear the flange might do the trick, without compromising the strength of the rest of the head to hold an Allen-key while you nip up the nuts on the other side.

Lateral thinking!

Given the two reports so far of tailplane failure, I'd be inclined to slip in a carbon rod. What's up front?

Sounds like a classic stress riser situation, especially as the fuselage itself is well beefed up with vertical grain 3/32" doublers in the tail area. My 1/4" stock is medium. Will have a think about recessing in a couple of lengths of carbon strip in effect to create a full-span spar about half way down the chord-ish.