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Pete Collins

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  1. Pete Collins
    Hi Jon What a beautiful model! I noticed in the video that it seems to be dragging its tail a little in the turns. A little rudder mixed in with the ailerons may help. It could also be an indication of a slightly rearward CG - might be worth investigating. With the high thrust line it will be pitch up when the power comes off making it prone to tip stalls - as you discovered! A more forward CG may help.
  2. Pete Collins
    Thanks for the heads up. I was also trying to decide between the SZ and the IZ. I also have lots of FASST Rx's. It seems that the EU is still screwing us up even though we've supposedly left!
  3. Pete Collins
    Hi, I had this problem myself. Not on an ebey bargain but on a model of my own, a loft queen that I resurrected after the odd 40 years or so. I had been flying it for a couple of weekends when I found that the aileron response went very vague and weird. I landed immediately and checked. Sure enough one of the aileron horns had broken off completely. I gave the other one a gentle tweak and it sheared off like a carrot. I checked the rest of the linages and a couple of others were in the same state. Moral - don't trust old plastic linkages! The solution however, is simple - just give them a bend in your fingers and you'll soon see if they are in decent condition. And, of course, if in doubt replace them.
  4. Pete Collins
    Another site worth checking is T9HobbySport. Again, not especially cheap, but some nice models to drool over.
  5. Pete Collins
    I recently built a Tango from Hyperflight. Very impressive kit - goes together like a good jigsaw puzzle and flies beautifully. Very efficient flat, floaty glide.
  6. Pete Collins
    As I recall, the old Tufcote product was a Urea Formaldehide resin - Nasty stuff - I'm not surprised that they discontinued it!
  7. Pete Collins
    The leading edges of the flying flea were intended to be left sharp. It also used a somewhat weird aerofoil with lots of reflex. Of course Henri Mignet freely admitted that he was no aerodynamicist so, maybe the flea flew despite its wing section rather than because of it!
  8. Pete Collins
    You'll have fun with that colour scheme Pete!
  9. Pete Collins
    Here are a few pix taken at the Nuneaton Radio Modellers evening barbi and flying session a year or so ago (pre-covid) Just a flavour of the evening!¬
  10. Pete Collins

    Pete Collins posted a gallery image in Member Albums

  11. Pete Collins

    Pete Collins posted a gallery image in Member Albums

  12. Pete Collins

    Pete Collins posted a gallery image in Member Albums

  13. Pete Collins

    Pete Collins posted a gallery image in Member Albums

  14. Pete Collins

    Pete Collins posted a gallery image in Member Albums

  15. Pete Collins
    Hi Al, I had this problem on a Fokker Eindekker I built some years ago. It was covered in Solartex and my solution was as follows. I cut a strip of Solartex about two inches wide and then folded the two sides in to the middle with the glue side of the covering on the inside. This gave two 1/2" flaps of material meeting in the middle. I then persuaded my wife to machine stitch down the middle of each flap. When opened up this gave a 1" strip of covering with two 1/4" flaps standing proud. I then ironed this onto the model where I wanted the stitching and, using a largish needle and black button thread, I stitched the two flaps together using a zig-zag stitch. It looked pretty good, but unfortunately I don't have the model any more so I can't give you any photographs! I may have to resurrect the technique eventually as I have a Flair Brisfit in the to-do list waiting to be built.
  16. Pete Collins
    Hi Tosh An interesting aside: A while ago I had a model rather similar to yours. Also a semi-symmetrical section but , in my case, with the wing set at a slight positive incidence. From memory, about 1.5 degrees. To maintain inverted flight this model needed a little UP trim. I know all the experts will say that this is impossible but, like the bumble bee, nobody told the model that! In practice it needed a dab of down to establish inverted flight and then a little up to maintain level after that.
  17. Pete Collins
    Re: the earlier question "What happened to the CB fad?" The answer was that they legalised it, so all the idiots immediately lost interest! This definitely says something about human mass psychology which might say something attitudes to such things as face mask wearing, pot smoking etc! A forgotten side issue to that debacle was that, prior to then, we used to pay a nominal sum for a transmitting license in order to use 27 Meg until someone pointed out that, since we pay a license fee, we could reasonably expect the government to police the band and do something about the CB problem. Their response was to scrap the license fee!
  18. Pete Collins
    Anyone remember, back in the year dot, that Frank and Graham Stanley made model aircraft kits from cardboard? Despite all the jokes and leg pulling they actually flew very well! I agree that there's nothing quite like balsa but even if it disappeared completely, we would find alternatives. I've recently been playing with 3D printed models. Still not as good as balsa but they're improving. We modellers ate a resourceful lot!
  19. Pete Collins
    I built a Spectre back in the day - also with a paw 19 and what did i cover it with? Metallic green Monokote! Plastic covering has been around for a lot longer than some people think.
  20. Pete Collins
    Hi Paul, The conventional wisdom is that a smaller model involves less investment of time and cash, so it's less of a disaster if you demolish it. There's also the question of running costs, transport etc - generally the practicalities! Also, a larger model carries more mass and therefore if you do have an 'incident' it's likely to do itself more damage than a lighter model. However, set against this is the fact that a larger model is unquestionably easier to fly, assuming that it is lightly loaded. It flies at a lower speed relative to its size and things happen less suddenly giving the pilot more time to react. Also as it gets away from the pilot, it doesn't get difficult to see as quickly, particularly in terms of maintaining orientation. So basically, if you are prepared for the practicalities, then its a case of personal preference. Certainly, if you intend to get into flying larger models, then there is a good argument for using a larger trainer, certainly once you are past the ab-inito stage.
  21. Pete Collins
    I built an Invader about a century ago when I was young and I remember it flying well, but this was free flight so is not very applicable. However I have recently built a Topper which has an undercambered wing section but is otherwise a similar setup to the Invader. I have checked the Invader plan on Outerzone and it would appear to have about 2 degrees of decalage as measured from the flat underside of the wing. The recommended cg position is on the spar which is about where I would put it. (some of these old designs used lifting tails and rearward cg's but not this one) That should give you a trim just above the stall, which would be OK for free flight but a bit slow for RC. In FF trim the rudder would be pretty ineffective and, if you did get it into a decent turn it would almost certainly stall as you straightened up. I had all these symptoms with the Topper. Trimmed to fly a bit faster however, it should be fine, but only on calm evenings. It's basically a slow flying airframe. Hope this is helpful, and good luck
  22. Pete Collins
    Lots of discussion about the relative merits of HK but you have to admit that if they HAVE been selling non-compliant gear then it's right that someone does something about it. Compare that with the attitude of the British Government during the 27Mhz CB scandal (if you're old enough to remember that far back!) Their stance was that it's not illegal to sell or buy the equipment - only to use it.
  23. Pete Collins

    WD40

    Pete Collins replied to Former Member's topic in Chit-chat

    Oddly enough, according to an old lady i know, it DOES cure arthritis! Or, at least, she sprays it on her knee and insists that it helps her mobility. Perhaps someone should conduct some proper scientific tests?
  24. Pete Collins
    The other thing that would give this sort of behaviour is a heavy wing. Admittedly this is unlikely with a foamy, but it's easy to check the lateral balance so it would be worth a try.
  25. Pete Collins
    I've also done the Rx battery one. I was doing a tight outside loop at the time - the model came down in an inverted spin - no damage - it was very solidly built - the battery landed about ten feet away from the model! I've also had the motor detach from an electric model. This was a well known artf, we'll draw a line over which manufacturer, the motor mount had been assembled with insufficient glue. I was hand launching at the time with only one hand on the Tx, Suddenly the motor is hanging out of the nose, still on full throttle thrashing about on its wires and machining away various bits of the airframe. I was extremely lucky that this didn't include my fingers. The lesson was obvious - never take anything for granted on an artf. The last example I'll mention was on a pusher model. The hatch consisted of most of the top of the fuselage and was held on with magnets (not strong enough ones), as it detached it exited the model by way of the propeller, emerging in the form of confetti. My clubmates thought it most amusing - I was less impressed.
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