post-box

Alan Tong wrote from New Zealand:

I have been reading your newsletters with interest. Good to see what is happening when we are asleep.

Please have a look at the following web page. I am sure that the no-advertising page, added to your site, would be beneficial to many people.

Title: Alan's Hobby Web Links
URL: http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~atong/
Category: General_RC_Web_Sites
Description: Library categorised listing of RC Plane, Car, Boat, Yacht, Engines, Helicopter, Plastic, Resin and related kit and FAQ web sites. Manufacturers and Retailers in country order.
Contact Name: Alan Tong
Contact Email: atong@ihug.co.nz

Thanks for making contact, Alan, welcome to ModelFlight and congratulations on producing such a terrific resource.

This is one heck of a useful site which carries a host of very interesting links to model-making sites. It must have taken Alan a long time to compile, and it's a great contribution to our hobby. I have added a permanent link to this site on the links page.

Roland Stiborek must like gardening . . .

I have seen the flying lawnmower on your site! It's very funny and I want to build one too!

I have a question: can you please send me a copy of the plan of this flying lawnmower by e-mail or can you send me some information where I can obtain a plan of this?

Thank you in advance,

Roland

First of all, I'm pleased to welcome you to ModelFlight, Roland.

Roland is from Vienna - our first correspondent from Austria, so there's a new flag flying on the post box banner!

Meet Roland and his family on personal profiles.

Scott Thompson and his flying lawnmower appeared on photo gallery #37. Click this link if you want to have a look.

Scott tells me the lawnmower is actually a KIT! It comes from Tennessee Model Products. He also tells me he has recently learned to do inverted flat spins with his mower - must be hilarious to see!

My thanks to Scott, for providing the information.

Here's John Anderson from Georgia, USA

Thanks for a wonderful web site. It is very informative and I find very it interesting.

    I hope your new computer works as well as you would want. They can be quite a problem I know . . .


    I saw where Grapher had an idea for attaching the wing struts to his Cub. I too have been doing that for quite some time now. On the Monocoupe I cut a slot in the strut at the fuselage end and slid in a brass sheet cut to fit and then drilled 1/8" holes in it and pinned it with 1/8" dowels to make sure they don't pull out. All glued in with epoxy.

On the wing attachment end I add a small bent strap bolted to the wing in the same manner as he does. Mounted with blind nuts and then insert a threaded rod in the end of the strut and an adjustable clevis to attach the strut to the wing. That way if I need to adjust the wash out I can do it with the clevis fittings. It adds a little weight but on larger airplanes it is not a problem.

    Had a bad experience with my electric model the other day and will write about it so others can avoid the same mistake (Maybe?)
    One big advantage in the electric power for models is you never have to worry about getting the engine started even in cold weather. Just flip a switch and open the throttle.
    I started to fly the Blue Monocoupe for the first time with the help of a good friend and also a great model airplane pilot. We ran the motor on the bench and it was running perfect. Lots of power and a good size prop turning at a high RPM. Then we charged the batteries to top them off and loaded the airplane in my pickup truck and headed to the field. When we arrived at the field we were the only ones there so no problems with using the runway.
    My friend decided to do a range check to be sure everything was working right. He walked out about 50 feet and opened the throttle. Lots of power for take off and flight. Then after a couple seconds the motor quit. Even a couple feet away the motor would quit as soon as the throttle was open. We took the wing off the airplane to see if we could find out the problem. I have the batteries wired so they can be charged in the airplane. We connected the charger to the terminals and charged the batteries. When they peaked I checked the voltage across the charge terminals and it showed normal. However one battery pack was cold while the other was warm. This indicated that one pack was not charged. We then disconnected the batteries from the circuit and charged each separately. The motor would not run at full throttle.
   We then took it back home and using another charger we charged the pack again and bench checked it. It ran perfect on the bench. I suspected the charger we had used had gone bad. We loaded up again and back to the field. With the wing back on and ready to go we range-checked it and it would not run at all. By this time I was so disgusted that we loaded everything on the truck and I took it back home.
    I decided to rewire the whole thing and while removing the switch that connects the batteries to the circuit, the battery lead came off. It had a cold solder joint.
    When I finished the rewiring I checked it again and it had enough power to fly an airplane twice the size so I am now waiting for another good day to test it and I am sure I have the problem solved.
    Lesson learned - be sure to double check all solder joints before installing the wiring in the airplane.
  John

Derek Morgan asked for help on his Twinstar

and Derick Veliz kindly supplied the answers

Derek writes:

I cannot thank you enough for the help you have given me.

I've decided to take the advice and I am now trying to locate a battery pack 8x1600. Here in South Wales it is more often windy than perfect flying days . . . !

. . . and then a further little note from Derek:

Hi again . . . I knew it would not be long before I had another question.

My new battery pack arrived this a.m. - a 7x1900 8.4v. You can hear the difference with the Twinstar.

Do you know of anyone flying a Protech Alpha 180 (my other plane). Up to now I have been using the 6x2000 7.2v to power it and now I'm wondering if it can handle the 7x1900 8.4v pack.

The extra weight of the new set of cells is 2oz compared to the old. I wouldn't have thought that increase would upset the Alpha too much - unless I'm told different!

If you can help Derek, please e-mail him on D&E@morganmusic.fsbusiness.co.uk

Go to the new hotchpotch page to catch up on news of the new CD that Derek and his wife are producing shortly