Andy Gates

How about the Radiomaster R88 which is a FrSky copy, can be had for less than £20 in the UK, less than £10 from Banggood?

100% agree with the above. Our club has it's own proficiency test so people can fly solo to practice for the A test. The requirement is to fly safely, within the allowed boundaries, reasonable take offs (no 60 degree climb outs) and safe landings on our rather tight strip. If calls are not made then the candidate fails the test. 3 flights required so a single erroneous flight does not make a fail unless it is dangerous, like wise a single brilliant flight will not cover two poor ones. While you may have made a couple of landings in good weather which is excellent, wait until the gods are not working with you and things do not work out. So practice, more and more. Circuits can be boring but set yourself challenges for each flight to keep the interest. Nail a particular position in the sky with reference to ground features for turns - both entry and exit points. Now do this multiple times keeping your height too - not quite so easy to get it bang on each time. As you have said, this needs to be practised in different directions. With nailed take offs, circuits and landings - this will be your fall back point when you do progress to other manoeuvrers which may not work quite how you expect them to.

From my experience, the easiest way to gauge battery usage is to test the battery after flight using a separate tester which plugs into the Lipo's balance cable. You want to have an indicated 20% left after the battery has rested for a short while. Adjust your flight times accordingly, colder weather will have shortened times, warmer weather longer times.

I though it was just me struggling to get it to work on switches. I came to the same conclusion, yet to test it in the air though.

Best decision you can make. Before you do join a club, visit others in the area to get the best fit for you as not all clubs are the same. Speak to folks on site and see what the instructors are like and their availability. Here is a link to a thread on the larger 1700mm wingspan version of model you are looking at. https://forums.modelflying.co.uk/index.php?/topic/54155-fms-pa-18-1700mm-super-cub/page/3/#comments Again, before you buy, speak to your instructor at the club and get his thoughts on the machine you are looking at. I can't vouch for the Super Cub but I can for the Ranger. New member started in July and has now gone solo and passed our club proficiency in February. No crashes or dramas although it does like to nose over on our grass patch. Best of luck.

I was going to suggest working out where the battery pack will need to be so the formers can be adjusted - a little late I think! I have done much the same with the Graupner Amigo II and the Galaxy Models Condor, both flew great until wind shear tore the wings off the Condor at 1800ft from memory. Took ages for the wing panels to come down. Good luck with your modifications.

Neddy, I agree with FF, I would wait until you have the ability to switch the stabiliser off, and not switch it on until a healthy altitude is reached. Is there any particular reason for sticking with the Spectrum offerings in terms of transmitters? What sort of budget do you have?

Click on user name and a screen will come up with the option to message the member

I have a Jumper T16S Pro which is the ancestor to Radiomaster Tx16. In the earlier ones there was an issue with all the ribbon cables with silver connections loosing connection due to oxidation. Free replacements of all the ribbon cables to gold contact ones cured this fault. Radiomaster use a different system with wired connections. I have broken 1 switch with a long lever. That is it since December 2019. My radio is really heavily used, every weekend that is flyable in almost all weather conditions. I use it as the master for Buddy boxing for training at the club I belong to. True OpenTx can be a steep learning curve but if you use the wizard and a bit of assistance from UTube videos then it becomes quite useable. It certainly breaks from propriety systems where you HAVE to follow their way of doing things, which can certainly be frustrating - and I do mean Spektrum & Futaba systems. Never had an issue with range or reception, and I use Jumper, FrSky, Spektrum and Orange receivers all running from an internal 4 in 1 module

I used to have the same issue with a small coping saw until I found some fine toothed blades which had been properly hardened. Love the plane - keep going!

Mike, Nice build. Can I be so bold as to recommend a couple of braces between the forward UC mount and your motor bearers? I can imagine the vibration of the single cylinder motor on those long (1/4" spruce?) bearers causing quite a bit of movement at the prop.

Neddy, Definitely get that tail alignment sorted out before trying to fly your machine again. As it stands your machine will keep trying to stand on its tail. Also double check the CoG as your repairs will have added weight behind the wing making it tail heavy which will add to the nose up / tail down attitude you have from the bent fuselage. Good luck

Hi Dave & welcome, Totally agree with others above, 1st step is finding a club and trainer you can work with. If you read one of Toto's threads on here, he had a poor start with unreliable training and suitable models which left him frustrated with inconsistent results, not really anyone's fault but just they way things go sometimes. Speak to your trainer after a few goes on the sticks and see what machine they recommend. To me, bigger the model the better until it gets unmanageable. Aim for 1500mm (52" ish) to 2000mm (72"ish). They are normally steadier, can handle wind easier and are easier to see. I have trained using 48" all the way up to 78" including a twin. Try and keep it simple as there is a quite steep learning curve. Most of all have fun!

KC yours is showing as being due 2025 on the membership page I use so all is well

Does anyone here use specialist software? I used to but with training people it just got too hectic to record accurately. I used to use Flight Log. I will see if I can find it and post it for people to try