Member postings for Braddock, VC

I bought a dremel corded drill about 18 years ago, one of the locking lugs on the case has broken off, I also bought a dremel chuck about a month later. IIRC at the time the chuck was about a 1/3 of the money I gave for the complete drill, even at £16 (?) it remains a bargain.

I had thought about replacing the drill with a cordless one but don't use it often enough now to justify.

Back in 2004 I bought a stack of saito 82s at the Nats, I sold off three old diesels and got enough to pay for the three 82s and went on to buy 2 62s and 2 125s. I used to run them on southern modelcraft hi-lube 10% nitro and 20% synthetic oil.

One day one of the 82s stopped and couldn't be turned then a few months later another one did it. The conrod had seized onto the crankpin in both instances. I bought one new con rod and used some crocus paper on the pins and sold off the engines except for one 82 and one 62 which I still have.

I never used to run them lean and all my OS and OS clones continued to run perfectly as did my 3 lasers, all bar one of my OS + clones have had new bearings as they were just starting to brinel, same with the lasers. I found a source of stainless bearings that were well priced and most have those fitted. I did toy with the idea of using boca bearings ceramic bearings but I understand the races on them are steel.

One thing I don't understand is why Jon says the front bearing takes all the load in lasers, I've changed bearings in my 70 and 80 at least twice and the 100 once (the 70 and 80 are from about 2003/4 and the 100 is much earlier) and in those instances the rear bearing was showing signs of distress whilst the front one seemed to be as good as the day it was installed, I changed them anyway but it seems to me all of the firing loads and prop thrust are focused on the rear bearing and the only time any undue thrust is placed on the front one (unless it's a pusher) is when a starter is used or when you inadvertently stuff the plane in nose first at high speed.

On some of my OS types I've not been able to get the front bearing for one reason or another and the original has been recycled though I didn't remove the front bearing from the casting. One of those, a 52 surpass, has since been pulling a southerner major around since it replaced a 2 stroke in the 90s.

I always try to ensure that I run the engines at full throttle for a short while after flying and store them nose up so gravity drains any residue from the bearings onto the backplate. It seems to work.

I bought a couple of those cheap servo testers and link up 3 servos at a time to each, that's 6 all told.

Leave them running when I go in for a cup of tea etc for at least 1/2 an hour.

Any that get hot I complained to HK about and send them back for a credit.

I've sent back about 3 corona early ones and no turnigy ones so I always buy turnigy ones now if I need new servos.

I also have a stock of hitec 422, 322 and 311 s which I use, none of them overheated. I only do i.c. models btw.

FWIW the plastics on both corona and turnigy cases are inferior to the hitec and futaba servos I've had. How do I know?

I recovered 4 lost planes two fitted with either corona or turnigy or a mix, one with futaba and one with hitec and most of the lugs on the first two were broken, water had gotten in and shafted a couple, hitec and futaba worked straight away with no broken lugs or leakage. I still have one plane out in the Lydden triangle, I'll find it one day, if I live that long.

The consensus for losing some of the planes was that they dipped below the horizon and the failsafes cut in stopping the engine. One was structural and one was pilot error, well 2 if you count in I missed the structural damage.

Never respond in the affirmative to your wife/partner/girlfriend or sister's question "does my bum look big in this" I learned from that.

On the brighter side, a prolonged search for a dropped minute part is extremely satisfying when successfully concluded.

For future reference, westonuk.co.uk are/were the uk distributor for magnum engines (aka asp & SC) and used to keep spares.

One would probably do better to phone an enquiry through as nothing is listed on the website.

Is the model likely to need noseweight, if you can assess what the amount is likely to be sheet lead can be laminated into the cowl.

I've had good results with the lost foam method of laying up, make the cowl from white foam so that its final shape includes the thrustline, spinner position etc and paint with emulsion, dark green or whatever colour you fancy.

Lay up your glass cloth or chopped strand mat and paint your resin on around the foam, polyester is the better of the choices for this. Try to get the outside as near to the outline as possible. Don't get the resin on bare foam btw.

Once the resin goes off, about 15 minutes iirc, start filing the outside to your final shape. Use cellulose filler to make up any low areas and keep reducing the coarseness of your abrasive until the finish is acceptable to you.

Whilst doing this please wear a face mask as not only will it keep the dust out but also the bits of sputum that pass coronavirus on.

You can then paint on a thin layer of gelcoat and sand that back until it suits you. when you're finished sprinkle cellulose thinners on the foam inside the cowl and watch it shrivel up cut and scrape the last knockings out, the paint will remain stuck to the resin and will show you when all the foam is gone.

It's probably going to take about as long as making a plug and mold to lay up a conventional cowl. It's smelly and dusty but the results can be stunning.

HTH, remember Brian Taylor used to use polyester for the cowls he supplied and I have two, one's been around since the mid 80s in the last century, the other is 10 years younger and still in use. They are solid and easy and quick to repair btw.

Edited By Braddock, VC on 11/02/2020 21:10:55

Edited By Braddock, VC on 11/02/2020 21:14:26

There is built in washout in the SS wings IIRC the trailing edge has to be carved to include it.TBH I built mine in 2007 so it was some time ago.

If I were you I would be more concerned about the glued joints after 20 years in the loft, if you used ca then it should be ok whereas some of the pva glues may be suspect.

I don''t know if ever anything good can come out of illness but my youngest brother who turned into a complete recluse after his wife dumped him phoned me tonight to see how I was.

First time we'd spoken for a long time even though I've been leaving messages on his phone, sent letters , birthday cards and xmas presents - proper tonic it was but there's no getting away from it it's the downhill stretch for now.

I bought a second hand wot 4 the other day, wife went barmy as I drove fro Dover to the other side of london to pick it up. Looking forward to getting back into flying, spent today fettling it, new servos, tank and plumbing had to glue some doublers in for the rudder and elevator servos but it's ready to rock and roll now, if the engine works.

Got to keep positive.

I had my op in Jan 2003 followed by RT, bye-passed the NHS as the first consultant was a first class wally. So now, 17 years later just had my first heart attack at 75 and have a problem with an irregular heartbeat; this followed complications having stents put in the arteries around the heart, ended up with 3 eventually and the cocktail of drugs I now have to take is growing by the day.

Hope springs eternal but I'm waiting til the next surgery's done before coughing up my smae and caa membership.

If you sell through e-bay there is a perpetual trace on the transaction, as you are obviously concerned about tax.

My advice is avoid general forums such as this.

Google SAM 35 , it's the UK chapter of the society of antique modellers and they offer a classified section that varies from free to members to v. cheap if not. Ensure that you insert "COLLECTION ONLY" and cash only then there won't be a paper trail and you won't have to worry if the kit is not complete.

One further bit of advice, if the box is sealed don't open it even for a tax inspector.

The guys that buy these little treasures get their kicks from all the activity associated with the acquisition so you'll have absolutely no problem with collection only; I know I'm one of them. I recently drove from Dover to South shields to pick up an item oh and don't let some doddery old geezer try to get you to reduce the price because he had to drive so far, you're selling he's buying he didn't have to come, just allow him the use of toilet facilities as he will no doubt need to go.

You've not lost your mojo, you've lost the part of your life that can never return. Somewhere down the line you'll get back into modelling but don't dwell on it. When you're ready it'll pop up out of nowhere.

If you listened to the Primate of the CofE he recommends volunteering for an organisation, I guess you're ex FAA; there must be an association for it and I'd either join it or, if already a member, devote more time to it. It won't replace your loved one but it will surely take your mind off of things and the companionship will re-motivate you.

Kid K'nex 85619 at Amazon; don't underestimate the power of 2 year old imagination. It won't fly but there again it won't crash either.

Kelly's Heroes, Das Boot and a toss up between the original All Quiet on the Western Front and Mary Ure in Where Eagles Dare....

The next time out wasn't so successful, came down in the long grass and swiped the u/c off, replaced the alloy plate one with a pair of torsion bar 6SWG bent wire ones, long grass broke the wheel this time so I did an on field repair, there was a nose leg in the club shed so I fettled the wheel off that to fit, looked a bit odd, a 2.5" wheel one side with a 3.75" wheel on tother, didn't fly it again though wind was up to gale force but I taxi-ed it and did a spruce goose hop, didn't really mean to it's just the wind was that strong it just took off , pulled the throttle back and she sank down onto the turf.

I've got to mention the os 61 fx, what an engine it's so reliable, prime it and one back flip and it's running. I can't believe I've let it languish for the best part of 10 years whilst I fiddled with Irvines and petrol engines.

With the duest of respect I think the problem is/was you're stuck in the last century; change over to 2 cell LiFe batteries and a balance charger all faults will show when you charge.

I think I dumped all my nimh and nicads over 10 years ago and never looked back.

Rx and ignition batteries are all LiFe 2 cells direct into the rx, never any problems with them except with old JR servos which let the smoke out immediately when over 5 volts is applied.

All bar 1 of my Tx have LiFe also. The odd one, a futaba 6 ex 2.4, has a 3 cell lipo in it as it's built to handle 8 dry cells.

I've never had any battery problems since my change over, SHMG.

Good LiFe batteries are both lighter and cheaper than the best of canned cells (like for like), which,for a 5 cell Ni** battery, have 4 welded terminals and two soldered ones that may fail plus they can leak and that causes all sorts of problems.

You don't use castor as well do you?

CF tubes arrived today, so out into the fresh air and cut out the old stubs of balsa from the front half of the wreck and cut the tailplane/rudder lump off the remains of the back.

Fortunately the front end has plenty of support for the longerons as you will be able to see from the attached pix.

Finish for today, will glue the cf longerons in tomorrow after cutting them to length.

Due, in part, to a deadstick from the hitherto trusty ngh 25 plane landed out in the very rough grass and thistles that border our strip.

During the landing the u/c dug in and was torn out but this sudden stop caused the model to cartwheel and the resultant whiplash caused all the longerons to fracture.

I've agonised for ages on the best form of repair and have bought 5 x 1 metre lengths of carbon fibre 6mm square tube to replace the broken longerons, I'm also going to fit torsion bar wire u/c in the wing centre section, but lack the facilities to bend the wire needed so I've drawn up a pattern and am taking it to a local engineering company to do the bizzo.

The pix around here show the fuse end of the damage, I'll completely replace the wooden structure aka oil rig with a carbon fibre one, cutting out the stubs from the front end to bond the carbon tubes in.

What is the system that the CAA have devised? The latest from the bmfa (in this month's smae news) is do not "rush into registering or taking the the test etc etc"

I have my own views on what I intend to do or not do and just don't want to be dropped into the smelly brown stuff by the bmfa.

Incidentally I'm amazed at how easily contributors can manage to turn a fairly straightforward topic into bovine exhaust.

I suppose I'll have to find out from the horses mouth how easy it is to redact one's details.

In the event of the current CAA proposals becoming adopted as a Statute, how secure is our personal information with the bmfa?

I mean if the police ask for a list of bmfa members in an area what is the likelihood of the bmfa rolling over and giving them the info?