Piers Bowlan

My only advice is don't buy a budget charger, buy the best you can afford. David Ashby reviewed one of these in a recent RCM&E. I have no experience of this product but if it was rubbish it would not have graces the pages of RCM&E. If you want to fly electric then get a decent charger, it will be a good investment and less frustrating than an 'economy' charger - (that is likely to burn your house down!). Just my 2p worth!

I have been watching this thread with interest, a Vulcan has always been on my 'build list' but I don't have time for such a complex build just now. So sad to see so much thought, time and skill invested in these builds without a sweet flying model at the end of it. Perhaps I should build a PSS version, but it would seem the nose would need strengthening somewhat. It looks like 4 X 50mm fans simply are not up to it - too much weight (or too much light-ply) for too little thrust. I wondered if two 70mm fans on 4s might be more efficient overall but that would mean an ugly bulge under each wing to accommodate the fans. That is, unless the model was scaled up, which would be heavier and produce more drag. A bit of a vicious circle! What does your Vulcan weigh Martin, including batteries? Lots of wing area there, so perhaps the wing loading is not too bad, just the lack of thrust is the problem with the design. Long tail pipes too; not good for efficiency. I wonder if Tony has his 78in span Vulcan flying yet or is he keeping his head down at the moment?      Edited By Piers Bowlan on 13/04/2015 11:32:18 Edited By Piers Bowlan on 13/04/2015 12:05:01

Scott, I have taken a Zagi glider on trips abroad with me on several occasions. I fitted mine with a carbon fibre tube joiner and it had the correx wing tip fins retained with strips of velcro plus another strip to stop the two wing halves from sliding apart in flight! Secreted into my suitcase without damage and easy to transport too in a back pack with the tranny. I have flown it from the hills overlooking Clear Water Bay Hong Kong, Marin Hills San Francisco, Redondo Beach LA as well as Camps Bay Cape Town. It is looking a bit battered now but it has earned its keep! Here are some of the regs. regarding the carriage of LiPos in public transport aircraft, here.

Tony, the batteries can be left in the Tx and loaded as checked in baggage no problem. Lose batteries in hand baggage can get the attention of the security screening staff as they need to be happy that they they can't short out in flight. So best to leave the batteries in the equipment in the checked-in baggage. The problem with IC planes is of course the residual fuel in the tank. Here are some of the regulations on the CAA website. The big problem is petrol but the airlines have there own rules which may be more restrictive than The Air Navigation Order. When in doubt best to check with the airline concerned. The only problem is when you start talking about a powered model aircraft, the airline may be thinking, 'big petrol/chainsaw' type engine not a 15 sized glow job.       Edited By Piers Bowlan on 18/02/2015 15:45:17

Just a thought Ben... Did you have any of the satellite receivers mounted in the wing or on top of the tail fin perhaps? If not, then perhaps with a big sparky petrol up front (plus ignition unit and batteries) they may have obscured the antennas in the fuz from the RF signal when the model was flying straight towards you to land? Still does not explain the pitch down when the signal was lost however (if it was).

I suggest it would if it shorted out! I just remembered another servo failure I had. I was flying a three channel Ace Puddle Master from the lake at Kempton Park many years ago. Suddenly the model went into a very flat spin, the Elevator and throttle were fine but the rudder was hard over. After I had retrieved the rudder servo from the subsequent wreckage I discovered that the signal wire was broken where the wire entered the servo case. They were cheap servos that had seen a lot of use. The model was rebuilt and some decent Hitecs fitted. Why is it that the simplest models can be the most fun?     Edited By Piers Bowlan on 18/01/2015 08:40:48

Ben while you are waiting for your shiny new Dx 18 V2 from HH I would be tempted to take another look at the throttle servo on your deceased model (RIP). I have had two servo failures over the years. The first was a (Fleet) throttle servo in a MFA Sport 500 Heli - signal wire broke inside the servo case causing the engine to go to max throttle. Fixed pitch heli - Interesting! (MFA sport 500 - shows how old I am!) The second instance was a high-end Hitec Heli servo, new out of the box, which suddenly shorted inside the case, getting very hot and again having some interesting effects on the rest of the Trex 500 radio installation. The fleet servo worked normally on the ground after the crash but the problem was self evident once I had the servo case open. The Hitec servo was exchanged without question, fortunately I was still setting it up so that the motor wasn't connected. After a crash a servo can work normally but that does not mean that an intermittent fault does not exist and can reappear as a consequence of vibration in flight. Remember, one duff servo can affect the whole radio installation and the failsafe may not work as expected. Just my 2p worth! Edited By Piers Bowlan on 18/01/2015 07:47:42

I too have had very good service from HH on more than one occasion. I am sorry for your loss Ben but if HH can't find a fault with your gear then they can't find a fault. In the world of full sized aviation if an in-flight fault is reported, engineers carry out tests but then if the fault cannot be reproduced on the ground the tech log is written up as 'Ground tested, no fault found. Report further!' You can't blame the engineers for not finding the fault as the fault may not exist at present. That is, until the Rx is subjected to vibration in flight, for example, or RF interference from your engine ignition system perhaps. A replacement Rx may be a good move to restore confidence - or a different brand of radio altogether, but no RC system is infallible. Even military drones go AWOL sometimes and they cost a LOT! Edited By Piers Bowlan on 15/01/2015 17:16:06

Scott, If it were me I would be inclined to get some evidence by installing one of these yourself in the caravan. You don't know your neighbour and many people simply deny, deny, deny, when confronted about their 'precious' son 'It couldn't possibly be my son,' kind of reaction - which is why the son is behaving as he is - he knows he can get away with it as far as his parents are concerned. Secondly if the dad said it could not possibly be his son then if you did go to the police they would only have your word against the sons, - it was dark and you may have been mistaken, kind of argument. It is difficult to argue with video evidence however. Once you have the evidence gently talk to the parents. If they are in denial (despite the evidence ) then go to the police.           Edited By Piers Bowlan on 13/01/2015 18:14:47

One or two of the comments seemed to suggest to me a lack in confidence and negativity regarding the usefulness of failsafe in helping in a fly away situation. Indeed the OP asked, 'Are they a thing of the past in the 2.4 era?' A fair question perhaps with the availability of the little fixed wing autopilot/RTH gizmo I highlighted. I am sure you didn't BEB, no offence was intended by me. A case of me posting in haste and repenting at leisure. I will now quietly creep away and fall on my sword to regain family honour!

This thread is about Fly Aways. If a model is out of sight due to pilot error - allowing the model to get too far downwind perhaps, with a subsequent loss of orientation and control, then a correctly set up failsafe can be of benefit. If the model does get out of range, particularly if a park flyer Rx is installed then the FS cutting the throttle to initiate a decent and an arrival in open countryside is clearly better than an extended uncontrolled flight and power dive into a neighbouring high street. I think that most people are aware that modern radio is very reliable and most crashes are either caused by pilot error, battery failure (for whatever reason) or poor installation. But this is not a reason to discourage people from setting the failsafe (which your post sounds like) indeed the BMFA insist on it! The setting of the failsafe prior to flight may also mean that the model and it's equipment may be recovered, rather than landing in the next county, even if the airframe is totaled in the subsequent 'arrival'. Edited By Piers Bowlan on 03/01/2015 14:22:52

For when your model gets caught in a 'boomer' thermal or simply it is lost OOS downwind, perhaps one of these could help you? Modern technology to the rescue if your wallet can manage it. At least it will bring the model back to the overhead, even if it is above cloud!

Welcome Junior Ibanez. Not into FPV myself but I will give it a try some day. Looks like an impressive set up but we are limited to a legal limit of 25mW and line of sight nowadays, I believe. What sort of range are you achieving?

Hi Spikey, Did you come across Derek Woodward's Very Short Plane, Here? If you Google it you should find some uTube videos of it in flight. I haven't built one yet but it is on my list - it shouldn't take long as it is mostly air! It's electric of course and you may be looking for something IC although not too difficult to fit a cox or small diesel I would think. There is a build article in EFI magazine March 2010. It's is still available as a back number - with the plan. The wood pack is available too but it is so simple it's not really necessary.   Edited By Piers Bowlan on 16/12/2014 11:16:16

Very impressive project and a graceful flyer Simon, well done. It inspires me to try a depron build myself but nothing too ambitious mind. Will you program the ESC to have the brake on, with the motor off, to improve the glide?

Actually Mike, my reference to reducing the dihedral a tad with an aileron wing was not to enhance the aerobatic 'performance' as clearly it isn't that kind of beast. Rather, the Super 60 has a lot of dihedral by virtue of the fact that it was designed as a three channel model, therefore fitting ailerons to a model that is very directionally stable will tend to produce some adverse handling. Any adverse yaw will be exacerbated by the excessive dihedral and whilst using differential aileron will tend to mitigate this, reducing the dihedral in the first place is a better solution, I suggest. Not too sure about 'little use in an 'A' test without ailerons', correct me if I am wrong but the BMFA handbook doesn't specify that ailerons are required, just that reasonable height keeping is maintained - and SAFE. So as long as the flying conditions are OK for this kind of model I can't see why a Super 60 can't be used.

I believe on another thread it was recommended to reduce the dihedral a tad with the Super 60 aileron wing . I forget what units the 'tad' was measured in! Edited By Piers Bowlan on 27/11/2014 17:30:38

I have a HK rotor head and a spare motor/esc so me thinks, why not give the Atom a go?- should be a learning experience (good, I hope!). I still have the free RCM&E pull out plan for the TN Mosquito, plus all the bits to make it go, so I am looking forward to cutting balsa...

What about a Maricardo here. Expect someone has leccy converted it too.

Fairy Rotodyne - obvious dead end! Couldn't let that stand! Although horrendously noisy a bigger issue was probably the political one. The government of the day (bless em!) wanted to rationalise British manufacturing. Westlands were favoured by the 'top neddies' in Westminster and so swallowed up Sanders Roe. By denying Fairy funding and sales by cancelling orders it was able to subsequently absorb Fairy too. Westlands funded by the UK government bought heavily into Sikorsky helicopter technology in the form of the American Sikorsky S.51 Dragonfly. The piston engined S51 carried a pilot and three passengers sedately along at 80kts. The Rotordyne in comparison carried two pilots and 40 passengers at 166kts. BEA ordered 12 provisionally and the RAF 20. An American company in New York had options for a number as well as the American military were interested in building 200 Kavan licence built models. It was not to be. BEA cancelled as the Rotodyne was 'not big enough' (a larger one was on the drawing board) and so did the RAF. The American interest dissolved when the project lost government funding. In those days people were satisfied if an aircraft could safely take off and then land in another part of the Empire. Noise pollution is a modern concept! Edited By Piers Bowlan on 17/11/2014 14:01:54

Well yes, Andrew, I did think of that and I could have gone on and on ad nausiam but I thought I better keep my rant short for fear of getting in trouble with the Mods!

F-16, F-18, = cropped delta plan form - not swept. I am glad Eric has put the record straight with his 'M.52 Gateway to supersonic flight' a very interesting read and a sad indictment of British politicians past. Recommended. Also essential reading if you are into Aviation history is Empires of the Clouds. Pity politicians don't seem to learn from their mistakes. TSR2, Fairy Delta, Fairy Rotordyne - all cancelled, to name but three. Great decisions like giving Whittle's Powerjets engine technology to the Americans under the 'Tizard Mission' and later Lord Attlee/Lord Stokes supplied a number of Nene engines to Stalin's Russia. I bet the Americans loved us in the Korean War when there Sabres were up against Nene (derivative) powered Mig.15s! Rant over, I promise!

I nominated three Martyn, but as the rule was only for first and second choice, then no surprise that (Peter Miller's) Alley Cat didn't get a vote from me (or any one else come to that). I am building an Alley Cat in any event.

My 'workshop' was a spare upstairs bedroom a few years ago. I was busy soldering bullet connectors onto some new NiCd battery packs, putting two of the finished packs safely on the other bench behind me, out of harms way. My six year old daughter appeared and happily enquired 'What are you doing Daddy?' I showed her the batteries and the plugs and how they were soldered on. She seemed happy enough with the explanation but soon wandered off, as let's face it, soldering isn't very exciting! I had been aware that she had been quietly engrossed with something behind me before she skipped away down the hall but I was too engrossed in my soldering to bother. Shortly, I was aware of a pungent burning smell - electrical! I scanned my work bench thinking I had inadvertently melted something plastic with the hot iron. I switched the iron off but the smell was definitely getting stronger. There was smoke now. I whipped around on my swivel chair to see the two battery packs were erupting, billowing poisonous smoke from the split casings into the room. I grabbed the pair of pliers on my bench and hurled the red hot packs out of the window onto the gravel drive below. Evidently my little daughter was impressed with how neatly the pretty gold connectors fitted together, before innocently leaving the room, unaware of the mayhem that ensued! The moral of the story is that workshops are full of potentially dangerous things, so make sure that young children are properly supervised and that they don't have access if you are not there. My fault of course, but I learnt from this experience!   Edited By Piers Bowlan on 28/10/2014 07:40:52

You should vote here Gerry, if you haven't done so already and if you have a preference for any of the suggested models nominated. The Funfighter/T Nijhuis Mosquito 46in and the Atom Special Autogiro are way out in front in the voting. I don't know when the voting closes, - end of the month perhaps?