Martin

Model Fixings is also a good source for small screws, nuts, studding, etc. Good quality stuff, too - quite a lot of screws sold through the model trade are not great. OK for small orders too as minimum postage cost is quite low - a few pounds. http://www.modelfixings.co.uk/ Incidentally, which of the mods described on that thread are you actually doing? The undercarriage reinforcement with plate inside radio compartment and two threaded rods? I have done that (albeit with 4mm plywood rather than plastic) and it works well. I don't think there is any need to use nylon nuts designed t

Make sure to get a low self-discharge battery though! Also, you might want to try several discharge/charge cycles on your existing battery - both to see if the capacity improves, and also to see how well it actually performs.

We've had this and related battery discussions several times over the years on the forum. For example: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=3442 Firstly, I would be very sceptical of any device that claims to check a nickel-chemistry battery and say how much charge it has left as a percentage. Nickel-chemistry cells (such as NiMH) don't work that way. Have a look at the discharge graphs on this page: http://main.panasonic-eneloop.eu/en/cap ... t-capacity Note how the voltage starts at about 1.3-1.4V/cell, and rapidly drops over the first 10% discharge to 1.2-1.3V/cell, but then the graph

That's a really helpful chart, thanks Dave. Not sure I'm going to take this up any time soon though (not that it doesn't sound fun, more that I struggle with the flying I'm already doing!)

I've certainly used 12x4 on several 46s (Irvine, OS LA) without problems. It's even listed as a recommended size for some 46s (OS AX, for example). IMO it's a much better prop for a trainer than the usual recommendation of 11x6, for example. It is on the heavy end though for that size of engine, so you might find that there's not much in the way of extra revs at the top end of the throttle stick (i.e. not much difference between say 80% stick and 100%). If this really bothers you, you might be able to adjust this out with a throttle curve, but I never bothered. Didn't you ask t

Well, given that the video actually shows non-rechargeable Duracells...

The convention on forums until now has been that only the forums under "CAMFC Members" are restricted to members only - the others are public. I think that "CAMFC Members" is hidden to non-members, which also has the effect of hiding the forums under it.

One thing I have noticed is that the "show unread posts" link is no longer present. There is a "New posts" link, but this appears to just search for things posted recently, whether or not they have been read, and whether or not there are older but still unread posts. This was the main way I used to keep up to date with the forum. It seems odd that it's disappeared in a newer version of the software - has anyone else managed to find it? Great job on the upgrades and migrations though! I had been putting off doing it for too long...

Returning to this after some time... I did try flying the plane with the existing CoG and it was definitely very tail-heavy. (The advantage of something like a Cougar is that it can at least be landed in one piece in this situation - I took off directly away from me and others and then chose to land straight ahead in the rough rather than risk a turn with horrible CoG.) So, I have been returning to how to get the CoG somewhere sensible. Given how far out it is and how this is a plane supposed to have a low wing loading, I didn't really want to add lots of lead. Instead, I tried

I don't have a DX8, but if it's a coaxial plug then in my experience it's usually the socket that fails. Certainly, if wiggling the plug body seems to work then I'd suspect the socket first - if wiggling the plug body doesn't help but wiggling the cable does, then it might be that the wire has broken off at the solder joint (which can happen if the wire is jerked sideways and the strain relief can't cope). What is the arrangement of a DX8 charging socket? The Futaba Txs I've seen have a simple charging arrangement where the charge socket is directly connected to the battery when the po

Did you mean to post this link? http://www.caa.co.uk/Consumers/Model-ai ... ng-drones/ This is the one that describes the "Drone Code" (which is basically a very simple summary/simplification of the key rules in the ANO that we are already aware of from CAP 658 and/or the BMFA handbook). The first link you posted is more concerned with aerial work, I think.

I wish I had that much space! The main gear looks a long way back on the Xpression - it looks like it would be very likely to tip over on its nose. If you find that this is the case, you could either make a new wire undercarriage with much more of a forward sweep, or see if you can angle the whole assembly forward a bit (not pretty, but it should do the job). I assume that it's where it is because of the battery hatch that had been cut out of the underside of the nose? Did you glue this back in? One other approach to moving the gear forward would be to replace the rear part of t

Wow - that Empire State Building story is pretty special. My biggest concern about any registration requirement (assuming that it wasn't accompanied by additional restrictions) was that it would be an annoyance to people already following the rules while having absolutely no effect on the idiots, or indeed on the patchy enforcement of existing rules. I think that story goes to show that the safe and legal flying message still has not got across in the US despite the registration requirement. It's a bit like losing an illegal firearm and asking at lost property to try to get it back! He

It seems odd that they would break the physics model so badly. I would have thought that wind speed was one of the easier things to simulate! Is it supposed to be a new "improved" model in the new version then? I'm trying to remember which version I upgraded to...

Yes, could be useful if a plane gets stuck in the trees somewhere. It can be hard to spot them from the ground. It does rely on you actually buying and installing one in every model, though, including it in the pre-flight checks, and hoping that the crash doesn't disconnect the battery... Do any of the telemetry radios support GPS? That would be an alternative approach.

Regarding the stickers going over the hinge lines - what I do is to apply the sticker to the fixed part first (i.e. wing, fin), but don't smooth it down onto the moving part, then slit very carefully along the back of the fixed part of the surface. I then apply the small off-cut of sticker to the moving surface (i.e. aileron, rudder) so that the pattern lines up. The only problem is that there is a small part of sticker curving down into the hinge area, which often comes unstuck as there's not much area of glue and it's gone round a sharp curve. On surfaces where the moving part isn't

The mind boggles - what is he even trying to do?

Catch the pigeon? Now I have the theme song in my head!

No, I hadn't noticed that! The thread popped up in my "unread posts" due to the new reply. I did think it was odd that Trevor's reply appeared above the other reply, but I hadn't realised why...

Quite a few modern aerobatic models have both at the same angle (i.e. zero decalage), but David A. Scott's book "Airplane and Radio Setup" goes into quite a lot of detail about why he thinks this is a bad idea, and recommends setting the wing at 0.5 degrees of additional incidence relative to the tailplane - i.e. the tail is in line with the anticipated direction of travel, and the wing is angled upwards an additional 0.5 degrees. (This recommendation is for neutral stability with a symmetrical airfoil.) His argument is that zero decalage with a symmetric airfoil requires the use of ad

From what I've seen, the Arising Star is basically the same as a Boomerang (also from Seagull), but is an older model with a flat-bottomed wing. Provided the model is in sound condition, it will be fine as a trainer. I've seen a few of them around the club from time to time, and I've never heard any complaints. If the model is set up with tricycle undercarriage (with a nose wheel), you might want to convert it to a tail wheel. This is pretty easy to do - see this forum post: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=3462 (which was written for the Boomerang I, but should equally apply to the Arising Sta

FWIW, I've just checked the IC props in my box, and this is what I have: APC 11x6 APC 12x4 APC 12x7 APC 13x4 APC 13x6 APC 13x7 11x6 and 12x4 are probably a bit light for a 52 (the 12x4 might be OK, but you want speed so I'd go for a higher pitch than that). They were the ones I used on 46 size engines. There is also an APC 12x6 which looks suspiciously like an electric prop, even though I'm sure I bought it as an IC one (I don't know why I would have bought 12x6 electric, and it's not in a bag with shaft adapters like their electrics normally are). I ha

I thought the same thing, but if you go to the YouTube link that Dave posted (which is a video of the site in use), and read the full description by the creator (click "SHOW MORE") then it includes the download link:

I was assuming Online, where the "Coming Shortly.............." post is. This is a useful reminder for me, though - I'll set a watch on that forum too!

Just checked - I wasn't too far behind (1.1 launcher and 5.0v). Now updated to 1.2 and 5.0w. I can update to 5.5d if that's what everyone else is using.