Graham Davies 3

It will be fixed! I've already doubled the chord of the ailerons and got some control back. I've increased the dihedral which has also helped a bit. I think it's CG sensitive and at the moment is at a 'safe' forward position. I think this is making the elevator insensitive so it's hard to fly 'bank and yank'. There may be some masking of the tail too due to the huge cockpit, so I may give him a scalping! Graham

B&Q deliver the underlay. It's in reasonably large packs for about £20. Once you get hooked (and you will!), you'll soon go through it! Talking of Grandsons; this is what I built for mine. Looks OK, flies like a pig! Graham

Looking great L-man, I use 3mm for cladding. I find it more than enough, is easier to form, and obviously half the weight. I use bits of 6mm if I need to support to sand down to for joins, etc. That way when It's all done you can get a nice smooth finish really easily. How are you going to join/ seat the wing? You'll need some fairly hard points if you are bolting on, and beware of the compressibility of foam. I tend to reinforce an area between the firewall and the TE with 1/32 ply so I can support a reasonable wing seat, and have something to key in a wing bolt plate and LE dowel plate. This also adds strength to the motor mount. Otherwise, glue the wing on and you won't need to worry! Graham

That should do it L-man Graham

I've built with less! If you have a rough 'formula' that works, then there's no reason not to. I scratch build using foam (B&Q laminate flooring insulation) and use 3 views. Plan and side views are enough. I tend to use Clark Y for my warbirds (or as close as I can get) and they seem to fly OK. I don't get too hung up on what they 'should' be. If you follow general 'good practice', there's no reason why it won't fly. Assuming it's not something really whack, like a twin pusher canard autogyro EDF... Graham

Great project, and delighted to see another chap raising the foam/ foamboard bar. You've probably seen my 6th scale spitfire (74", or 1880mm). This is built from B&Q insulation, some balsa, lite ply and ply. If it helps; this is 9was) my approach: 1/6 scale was chose due to the availability of a canopy from Mick Reeves; I actually made use of some other accessories from Mick, so this was a good start I found a suitable plan (or 3 view; not fussy) which turned out to be Brian Taylor's Mk1. I scaled this and got it printed at my local print shop. I then scribbled all over it with the structure I felt would work I started the wings by thinking about strength in the middle section out to the retracts. The structure I settled on was based on a conventional structure using 6x6 pine (from B&Q!) spars with 1/16" balsa sheer webs. In the centre, A solid 1/8" ply dihedral brace allowed a solid mounting point for the retracts Remaining structure was basic; foam ribs and balsa false trailing edges for the ailerons so I could use robart hinges. Leading edge is 3 laminations of 6mm foam. Whole lot is skinned with 6mm foam, flaps cut from same and reinforced with strips of 1/16 balsa to replicate the scale details Fuselage is built on a cruciform with a profile and plan taken from the outline, and the whole lot is built up onto this. Lots of formers to support an outer skin. Doublers from liteply for wing seat through to F1, and the centre foam vertical reinforced with 1/32 ply. The whole lot is then clad in 3mm foam, carefully curved and glued with UHU as a contact. You need a lot of patience here to tease it down without cracking it. Cowl is made by laminating 3 or 4 thicknesses of some polystyrene I got free with a fridge! Carved to shape and with a girt big 'ole in the middle to clear the motor. I then gluded it to F1, and finally carved/ filled to get the shape right before stiffening it with 3 or 4 layers of 25gsm glass cloth applied with B&Q water based varnish. Then 25gsm glass cloth over the lot, emulsion paint, and a load of grinning... It's come out very well, weighs a little over 8pounds, and flies beautifully. Good luck Lipoman, and feel free to contact me if you get stuck. Graham

Following with interest Sheepish. I'm the chap who has had range issues! I did try a different antenna on the FrSky module, but only a regular 2.4GHz type. I selected one with a bit more gain, but can't honestly say I could see a difference, and it made the TX difficult to fit into a case. For me, there's definite doubt in my mind about the output of the CC2500 section of the multi-protocol module built in. Anything you could do to give yourself some headroom would be a benefit. However, I'm not convinced the problem is the same on all chipsets or protocols, so it may be hard to compare apples with apples. Certainly, I seem to have a solid connection using the FrSky module. Graham

One thing to note if you do this; the axes of the servo and aileron are not parallel. This means that you ideally need ball joints at each end of the pushrod. If not, and you have no slop (there's usually a little), then the servo will stall to a degree as it tries to twist the pushrods in their respective holes. If you put the servo on it's side so the axis of the servo is parallel to the hinge line, this problem goes away and makes pushrods simpler (you can use z-bends or clevises, or both!). That would be my bet; make a frame in the wing, make a hatch cover to fit in the frame, and then wrap the servo in tape and glue it to the hatch cover. Screw the hatch cover to the frame. Simple, quick, effective. Graham

Jaydeez an genulmen, I give you... ...Dusty Crophopper. My 2 year old Grandson has taken a huge liking to the Planes movie. If you haven't seen it, it's really rather good and the aircraft are well represented. To stoke his interest, I've built a flying version that if we ever get some decent weather, he'll be able to see in the air. My usual B&Q laminate flooring insulation depron construction. Glass cloth/ B&Q water based varnish covered and painted with sprayed emulsion. The orange in Valspar matchpot, and a story in itself. I had a picture on my phone, but of course you can't match to a phone image, so I grabbed a B&Q bucket. This was too translucnt, so the match was dark, so we scanned the B&Q apron of the young lady operating the machine! Span is 47", 3536 1200 motor and will use 3S 1500 packs. Weight is just a touch over 2 pounds ready to go. I think it might qualify as a scale model... Graham

4 of us in the calm air of Suffolk today. Got another flight with the big depron Spitfire. It was a bit chilly, but I'm calling it Spring...

There's no substitute for lightness! I'm sure you'll have it back and better than ever Graham

Blimey Eric, that's a proper job. At 10.5 pounds for 63, I'm not sure I'd bother. As my depron spit is 8.5 for 74, I'd be tempted to start again Graham

It's not going to help David, or indeed anyone else considering brand swaps if we get into the 'xxx brand has more failures than yyy brand' argument. I have been very careful to avoid that when trying to resolve my own issues, as apparent radio reliability is a very complex issue. I don't believe the Radiomaster gear to be unreliable. Similarly, there are limitless ways to demolish a model aircraft, so best keep this to the point! Graham

Hi David, I have a TX16S mk2 with the multi protocol option. I've had it about 18 months, with generally positive experiences. Here's a snapshot: I like the feel of it. I went for the CNC gimbals, and they feel of decent quality. I went from a 9CAP futaba, and didn't feel like I'd taken a step backwards. The throttle ratchet is very soft on mine; it can be adjusted, but needs the case opening. I'll do it one day... I like the Edge TX operating system. Some people struggle, but that can be said of most systems. I find it quite logical, although it has so much power some thing inevitably can be harder to locate. Less good is that I have had some range issues. I bought radiomaster R88 receivers when I bought the transmitter, and by all accounts, these are not great. However, I have had spurious issues, and one directly attributed to poor range (model went into failsafe) at only 100m from the transmitter. This was on a Frsky clone (now in the bin). It would appear that the FrSky transmission is taken care of by the CC2500 chip, and this appears to have a slightly lower output than is ideal. I have since added an external module for Frsky, and the problem appears to have gone. But to be clear, on DSM (or whichever spectrum protocol I have!), there have been no issues. Support from Mike at Hobby RC has been excellent Similarly, Mike Blandford on here has been incredibly helpful Would I buy another one? That's tricky David, because all things are not equal, and we end up down a particular road due to our choices of receiver. If i was committed to all FrSky, probably not. I'd go for an X20. But as an option across many protocols, I probably would, although I would use a module for FrSky to avoid the internal CC2500 chip. Modules are very cheap though, and dead easy to use in the software. I hope that helps Graham

He might have thought it was his wife and panicked...

Steady now; he wrapped them nicely in a blanket. Knowing Eric, he probably gave them a glass of warm milk and read them a bedtime story...

Eric even tucked them in Bruce. He's good like that...

Did you look in the case? I need to know now...

Of those pictures, I can't tell which is which. I find the blue doll sexier myself...

Eric, that is about as jammy as it gets! No battery usually is matchsticks!! Glad all ended well Graham

A few of us got out today, Got the foam insulation spitfire up, and Peter Miller obliged with his photographic skills... Graham

Update: The 1/6 scale depron spitfire flew at the weekend. I went with Jon's advice (thanks Jon, usually right on the money!) and fitted a 17x8 APC. I sprayed it black and painted the tips and the shape then became rather unnoticable. The model itself was off the ground at 2/3 throttle anyway, so it has more than enough. I didn't bother with a tacho reading (what was I going to do about it, whatever it told me!), but at 6s, a 320 kv motor is spinning at around 7.5-8k. For this 'bird weighing just 8punds 6 ounces ready to fly, that is more than enough... Thanks again everyone, it's been emotional... Graham

Why would you want to do that? As has been said many times, DB's designs fly very well. Deviate from the plan, expect poor results...

Maiden flight today. The big foam spitfire flew! Off the ground in 30ft, gentle climb out and flew like a big trainer. Once my vice grip is relieved on the sticks, I'll be getting to know this big beutiful lump of underfloor insulation! Graham

One note about the Hobbywing ESCs. The genuine ones are fine, but I had a counterfeit one from Ebay and it didn't work! Fortunately, from the outset and I got a full refund. But as with hookie servos, take care. I've realised now that I have to stop trying to save money as it was costing me a fortune! Graham