Member postings for Bob Cotsford

now that would make for an interesting model to watch someone else trying to fly

There have been pull-out plans for a few conversions, the Marquis, Skystreak and Firebird come to mind. For the Spectre I think you could stretch the fuselage slightly, if I remember rightly you would be looking to make the tail moment at least 1 1/2 times the wing chord. Or build as is and use very small elevator movements.

I thought about the Mercury stunter, was it the Crusader? That probably wouldn't need scaling. Google tells me it was the Crusader and it had a 56" wingspan. That would make a nice sized model. Or what about a Spacehound? That was a stylish looking model.

The instructions can be downloaded as 'Supplements' on the bottom of this Outerzone page

No football on telly , no MotoGP, WSBK, F1 or even Aussie sportscar racing . Building yet another Panic , electric like my Mini Panic, let's see if I can rip the nose off this one too .

The only PR design I've had was a 362 delta which I equipped with a 46LA. I couldn't help noticing what a lightweight airframe it was for it's day, yet still sturdy with little ply used. Went like the proverbial being designed for .19-35 engines but it went on sale with my other IC powered models. I was tempted to buy it back and convert to electric but life is too short and it hasn't happened - yet!

It's possible they were subject to the usual attrition models are prone to. There might be some corner of an English field wherein lie the ashes. Or they may have been binned as the years took their toll.

I suspect it's 30 or more years since many of these were built, how many models survive that long? BTW you missed STOLs off the list!

Unfortunately there are a small number of people who do need continual social pressure to encourage them to toe the line. A lot of us go through a rebellious anti-establishment stage as we grow up but this is not the time to exhibit this trait.

Doc, if you don't like the threads discussing any particular subject, simply do not click on them. There's no rule obliging you to read them, ignore them and move on.

That's very neat Ron, and yes, you were lucky with the wings. I'm reluctant to do extensive repairs these days, if I damage a model badly I see it as an excuse for a new airframe . Oddly I do take on airframes abandoned by others and make them airworthy again. I then take them up the field and attempt to make them un-airworthy again!

Buy a decent set of tinsnips. Material can be scavenged from old electrical equipment. Old stereos, radios, computers and disc drives, washing machines and the like can provide a lifetime stock of sheet steel, ready made brackets, gears, pulleys, small screws, nuts and bolts. If it's going for recycling who cares if you've cut a strip out of the back?

Remember the old vinyl covered steel office furniture?  In the '80s my RCM&E transmitter case was made from the grey vinyl crinkle finish side off a desk unit.

Edited By Bob Cotsford on 03/04/2020 16:34:17

I'll take your Rizla+ and raise you a #34 Pepsi! Or how about a #3 Camel, or #35 Monster Energy?

Some years ago I resurrected a CAP Gladiator which I covered in silver Solartex. I positioned the receiver and aerials as usual where it couldn't be blanked by the engine and well clear of any metal but I couldn't get a decent range test until I put one aerial in the canopy and the other out of the bottom, both clear of the covering. That was with supposedly safe silver tex, I think Callsign Tarnish has been doing well to get good rangetests and no issues.

I'd take a guess that it would be to reduce drag on the initial stage of the take off allowing for more rapid acceleration, or maybe they wanted to get the tail up before increasing wing lift to avoid premature lift-off - we all know what that leads to!

Mike, will it import OpenTX model .OTX files? I'm tempted to have a play on my old Taranis while we're all locked down.

Might well be more relevant for the duration Matty!

I think that a lot of the debate over the RSSI v link quality is getting a bit esoteric for fixed wing flyers and really relates to fpv and multirotors with flight controllers. As a fixed wing only flyer it's way above my paygrade!

Time to start submitting photos and texts for those balsa kit and plan builds, there have been enough requests for a return to the old days when every issue included at least one build article. Perhaps Phil G and Pete Christy could be persuaded to compile some electronics articles? You could even drag a few building/covering/painting type articles from the archives, many are as relevant today as they were 30 years ago. For new technologies there's the use of CAD to transfer a model from paper plan or original thought through to cutting or printing files.  How about some autogyro articles covering design and setup principles?

I've just been looking through some 1980's Radio Modellers. Electronics, boats, cars - the whole spectrum was covered back then, why not now? Surely there must be a few among us with a bit of writing talent and a half decent camera?

Edited By Bob Cotsford on 31/03/2020 15:58:16

Delivery drones were never a realistic proposition for most areas and usages. If you lived on the outskirts of town near a distribution centre and ordered a single DVD then you would be a viable customer, otherwise nope.

Police/traffic/emergency services observation, surveying, aerial photography - that's just the tip of the commercial iceberg.

That's encouraging Kevin. I also have a version 1 Taranis that I keep as my backup, that's on 2.3.5 at the moment. With no flying I'm waiting a little longer to see what comes out of the woodwork. 'Bionicbone' on RCGroups has been doing a lot of testing and so far 2.1.0 looks to be giving good results though the XM+ backup receiver and the S series stabilised ones were still undergoing further development as they had proved problematic. Unfortunately I have both XM+ and S series receivers...

You can certainly buy Tufnol which I believe is tougher than Paxolin. I shied away from using self tappers for mounting IC engines to wood as fuel will migrate along the screw and soften the wood even with CA hardening, given enough time. What I have done is to put a slice of bicycle inner tube rubber between the engine plate and the wooden beam and tap washers under penny washers under the bolt heads. I even went as far as drilling the engine plate holes oversize and lining them with fuel tube to completely isolate the engine from the airframe and it did make a slight difference to the noise level. Enough to warrant the effort involved? Not so much.  The engines were held tight enough to not flop about but there was enough give to stop the nasty high frequency vibration being passed to the airframe.

Edited By Bob Cotsford on 31/03/2020 10:30:50

you think that's bad Pete? I reckon I've flown less since I've been retired than ever before!

What happened there then?