Geoff Copping

Don't be late or you could be put on a charge.

Don't know if there's any BSB fans here but found out that Paul Bird who ran BeerMonster Ducati died this morning aged 56. Quite a shock and will leave a massive hole because he put so much into the sport, including a lot of his own money. Watched BSB Cadwell Park bank holiday Monday and, thanks to him, was treated to some of the best racing I've ever seen. RIP Paul

Honestly dear! It said 1/72nd on the box!!

I will start a new thread so I don't hijack this one but here's an update. This spring we moved out of our 1st floor flat into a bungalow 50 miles away. With everything being open again now, I joined the local Men's Shed where I came across a lovely piece of Sapele and so was inspired to crack on with making my own tenor Ukulele. I've made the neck and now I'm making the mould for the Tasmanian Blackwood body. As I say, I'll start a new thread and do a build log on it. Thus far, the neck is Sapele, the fingerboard is Rockwood composite Rosewood and the headstock is laminated with Ziricote. Thanks for the inspiration to get on with it. At the weekend I was at a bbq and was able to pull my uke out of the car and lead a sing-song which is what it's all about. PS. I've found a local uke club too, heaven.

D D D D D D DDD I just bought a 3D printer

No ear defenders🤨

I witnessed a Lipo fire at our field about 18 months ago. Member was launching a large scale electric powered glider from a dolly. On leaving the dolly the glider stalled and landed with a bump on the grass field. A few seconds later a thick cloud of white smoke erupted from the cockpit followed by a belch of flames. By the time we could get to the club hut and then to the glider with an extinguisher then the fire had subsided. fortunately the fuselage withstood the inferno but much of the electrics forward of the wing were frazzled. It was more a heavy landing than a crash so it wasn't clear what had caused it. I've never witnessed a spontaneous lipo fire.

I have an Art Hobby Odyssey 2.7m glider and I can confirm that poplar is a very good sheeting wood. It is foam core laminate as, I believe, are all Art Hobby gliders. Some up to 3.4m. The Odyssey takes a full on bungee launch with 'luggage rack' bungee and I've had it for a few years now. Just a few coats of sanding sealer and it's still perfect.

Another vote for Acer, I have an Aspire 3 Pentium Silver and it's very fast. I use MS 365, Lightroom and Photoshop.

When I worked for a cleaning company the boss told me to always hang the roll that way round as, on average, it resulted in 1 sheet less being used on each pull of the roll. I have explained this to my wife several times. I now believe that she hangs the roll the WRONG way round just to annoy me.

I built the kit version and flew it for years. A beautiful glider that loves to fly. I built as per plan. If you're only sloping it then the joiner and bands will be fine. I bungeed mine and it held ok. The only time it was a problem was when my mate flew it and he insisted on trying to get maximum height on launch and it would increase the dihedral somewhat. Banned him after that!! The wing is very strong for balsa. The one thing I would strongly recommend is to fit a set of airbrakes because it loves to fly and you may struggle to land it on a slope. G

I do wonder when they talk about customer demand if it's what customers are asking for or is it the suppliers saying this is what you'll have🤔 As it happens it's a housing association property so the only furnishing I'll need next is the lining of my wicker casket, but I don't think that will bother me🙄

We're in the process of moving to a new property. Most of our existing furniture is years old, falling apart and donated. Also, the new place is unfurnished so new carpets and wall paints are needed so we're lashing out on new gear. At our time of life it will probably be a one-off purchase🙄 I should say that we're outdoor people so natural colours are our thing. Blues, greens, yellow etc. So, we went to a carpet warehouse. Thousands of square metres (we're a modern couple) of carpet, rugs and mats and all of them GREY!!! Paints next. Major DIY store and it was a struggle to find coloured paints amid all the tins of GREY!!! Even then it was all muted colours. Let's sort bedroom furniture. Beds GREY!!! Wardrobes GREY!!! Dressing tables GREY!!! No colours available at all. Paraphrasing Ford, we can have any colour we want as long as it's GREY!!!! What has happened to the world that it has gone GREY?? and what has happened to customer choice??? Everything grey in the bedroom, how will I find my underpants??? We did find a small swatch of coloured carpets so we did get sorted but it wasn't easy.

I had to send that to a friend of mine, he just had a wheel smashed in a pothole🤔

I learned to fly RC with a Balsa Cabin Sonata so I can recommend it as a 1st model. I built mine as a bungee launched glider but my second glider was a larger Fantasia converted to electric (they don't appear to do this any more). After that I built a Bird of Time 3 metre bungee launch glider. All of these were great fliers but the Bird of Time was a fantastic flyer, it would thermal on a Rabbit's poomph. Unfortunately B of T does not seem to be available as a kit any more, however, Hyperflight do a micro version which I'm sure could be converted to EP https://www.hyperflight.co.uk/products.asp?code=MICRO-BOT&name=micro-bird-of-time-1-2m The Sonata is a very stable flyer and, having learned to fly with one, I can recommend it. As has been said, when the glider is flying towards you then move the control stick as if to prop up the low wing and only use small movements. Better still, as I did, would be to have someone who could fly already to launch it for you then hand the transmitter to you when at a safe height. It didn't take long before I was able to launch and land as well. Welcome to the hobby, there's nothing more satisfying than building a glider, launching it then catching a thermal and seeing it 'speck out' before returning to land at your feet.

So, I put some clothes in the washing machine tonight ready to wear for a family dinner on Sunday. I specifically put in a pair of maroon coloured socks (it's ok, I new the colour wouldn't run) that I wanted to wear. Half hour later I hang the washed clothes out on the airer. Only one maroon sock !!!! Where did it go? What happened to it? How can this be? I can't blame my wife😯 (Yes, I understand I should be able to blame my wife but she fell down the stairs the other day and injured her leg so I gave her the day off, I'm not a monster😇) I know I put two maroon socks in the washing machine!!!! This is not possible, I won't rest until I find the missing sock....I'm going maaaaad I tell you......

Ooooohhh!, where can I buy one?😉 Impressive, thanks for posting.😎

I keep a leisure battery in the car and use a field charger, Powerpal Etronix. My batteries are 3S 2200 and 1300 lipo's. A cuppa and chat in between flights makes for a full day.

I'm not saying my wife is fat but I have to sit up in the morning to see if it's light or not.

In St Ives, Cambridgeshire, they are covering the Park & Ride car park with solar panels so cars can park underneath them and charge up whilst away on the bus. Just wondering how long it will take the second hand? charging cable to blossom on auction sites🙄

As Geoff S says, this comes up on a regular basis. There was an experiment from 1968 to 1971. ROSPA claim that there was fewer accidents but from my recollection it was thoroughly miserable. The idea of extra daylight in the evening didn't hold up because it got dark by 17.00 and people were leaving work then so it was still dark by the time they got home so no light to be of any use. In the morning it didn't get light until 9am, and even 10am on really murky days, so lots of workers who needed daylight couldn't get started 'til late. School children were walking to school in the dark. If they did try it again I'd be happy to put my week's pocket money (50p so long as I do the washing up)on it only lasting 1 year.

Hi Steve, one new thing is the requirement to register with the CAA to obtain an operators number. This can easily be done through your BMFA membership, assuming you're joining. Welcome back. Geoff

Seems like he's got enough dough to buy all he kneads

Hi Ross, Welcome back. I too had a long lay off. I used to fly the Peterborough Winter Series Open class, do a fair bit of sloping, not easy as I live in the Fens, and aerotowing. Over several years I would see Buzzards and Gulls thermalling and eventually decided to get just one electric glider just for those lazy summer days. I dare not provide written evidence of the number of planes I have now, lets just say I have a choice of what type of flying I want to do. Saturday was lovely and calm with streets of cumulus so it would have been churlish not take advantage. I launched my MPX Heron electric and I found a few little patches of lift but also some sink where it would descend almost vertically. I was at about 300ft and it suddenly dropped its nose then kicked back up again. I circled there and before I knew it I was testing my new glasses to the limit and, at that point, I bailed out and did a series of aerobatics back to the field. Just perfect😀 I have a superb bungee launched glider, Art Hobby Odyssey 2.7m (I highly recommend the Art Hobby range from T9 Hobby Sports) but I'm knocking on a bit now so find electric gliders very convenient. Anyway, I hope you get at least as much enjoyment out of this fantastic hobby as I have and please let us know what you decide to build. Geoff

You've left me hanging....