I expect most of you know that the usual writer of the monthly blog (Duncan Dunfermline) has been forced to work in Scotland for a few weeks so he has asked me to fill in for him. Apparently he is earning loads of money and should be able to complete his total transition to electric flight on his return. 

In January the weather limited flying a bit, but the mid-weekers have managed to make the most of the decent days. Bob ended his run of crashes by working out that they all involved the same rx. A large hammer has now ended that particular problem, and Bob has regained his confidence to the extent that he took and passed his ‘A’ cert.  This obviously got right up Jim & Ron’s noses spurred on Jim & Ron and they also took and passed their tests. Well done to all three.  Several others are ready to take their ‘A’, you know who you are…

Our much beloved El Presidento managed to bury his long suffering fun fly a few weeks ago, that’s the first crash he’s had since he flew into Steve’s plane a few months back. This time it was rather more final and requires a minimum of a new fuselage. A post mortem revealed the cause, a duff rx battery. In my usual sympathetic way (once we had all stopped laughing) I commented that the battery had been fine for the last twenty years or so, but it turns out that it was actually fairly new. A timely reminder for everyone to check the condition of their batteries regularly. The good thing about the crash was that Don uttered a loud “Wooaa” to attract our attention as he lost control and then managed to bury the plane near enough to the patch for us all to enjoy. None of the usual novice error of crashing three fields away so nobody sees it!

Keith was obviously impressed by our Chairman’s vacuum forming demo at a recent club night, and he duly    moulded a cowl for his new Eflight Advance, saying he thought the ARTF’s exposed electric motor needed finishing off. It worked a treat, the lack of cooling air finished the motor off first time out! Nice try Keith, it’s just something else we can blame Mick for! 

We haven’t seen Nick sneaking off work to fly midweek so much recently. Rumour has it that his wife has finally realised that each time he volunteers to get the shopping at Tesco he arrives home 3 hours later smelling of glow fuel. Another reason for going electric! 

Finally:
A military pilot called for a priority landing because his single engined jet fighter was running ‘a bit peaked’.  Air Traffic Control told the fighter pilot he was number two, behind a B-52 that had one engine shut down. ‘Ah’ the fighter pilot remarked ‘The dreaded seven engine approach…’

Colin Cowplain

Happy New Year !!
Just to remind you all, Woody has kindly organised for Squadron leader Rod Jarvis to visit the club to talk on air to air refueling and his time flying Victor tankers in the RAF

Another year has passed, overall it’s been a good year for the club, many of the new members are now flying solo. It is great to see these guys confidence growing allowing them to push the limits of thier abilitys, it’s the only way to learn and the beauty of this sport is you never stop learning.

I hope you have found the club nights interesting , we have had guest speakers as well as club members giving demo’s , talks  and quizes ETC. The problem we have is, the more we do the harder it is to come up with new ideas, so if you know anyone who can give a talk on any subject or if you have any ideas of your own please let me know.

Throughout the year a few of my fellow contributors have been a little harsh on some of you, especially the chairman, who on the whole has taken it  in good heart, so I would like to thank him for being a good sport, but also take the opportunity to warn him, and the rest of you, Dan Dover and his buddies will be watching, very closely.

Last year we had the launch of the new web site. It is far easier to upload articals so it would be great to see other members thoughts in writing.

Traditionally at this time of year we make resolutions, so I have had a few ideas, Mick ‘s is to still be  flying the Yak in March, Andy’s is to get a proper aeroplane and stop messing with the extreme hair drier, Ron’s is to get back to IC where he belongs, Ian and George have the same, it’s to use the throttle throughout the flight not just to take off and land !! and finally, mine is to stop booking Nick Clement to give talks and demo’s, because if I don’t I will be breaking the restraining order he has on me.

Happy new year to you and your families.

Steve Hastings.

I promised Mick I would not use his recent Yak experience as material in this months blog, the problem is I am not very good at keeping  promises. I will however not be trying for a cheap laugh, this time, although feel the experience is worth sharing as another of those, Luck was on mick’s side, for a change.

Following a few weekends of test flights, the new Yak  was not living up to expectations, this was mainly due to a very twitchy elevator. Initial thoughts were a rearward C/G, so this was moved forward by a large margin, this appeared to help but the elevator was still very sensitive. Further checks found that the expo on low rates was set the wrong way, so increasing the movement around the centre’s further compounding the effect of a  rearward C/G. This was corrected, and the Yak was now a much improved model but still seemed to be suffering from an elevator not centring properly.  The servo’s fitted are metal geared digital’s. Once on the ground we inspected the model in more detail,  we soon  realised how LUCKY Mick had been. The elevator was found to be not centring, the screw holding the drive arm onto the servo was too short to tighten the arm on the spline, allowing the arm to be pulled off the servo without removing the screw, the servo’s had been fitted with the hardware supplied but tended to rock from side to side, as they had been fitted into holes designed for bigger units.
 
We have all seen how much effort Mick goes to when building a model and how pedantic he is regarding the small details, and there is no doubting his craftsmanship. But I do think we can all learn from this story.

As I have said in previous reports, it doesn’t matter how much experience you have, mistake’s still get made. One way to avoid these problem’s being missed is to ask  a couple of your colleague’s to check over a new plane prior to test flying, it may even be worth coming up with a tick list for new planes, as it is all too easy to overlook the little fault which brings the model down. The model did return again but the elevator problem persisted, so Mick has now fitted better quality servo’s, “watch this space”. 

Ron Vears also had a “luck was on our side” incident this month. His was due to the type of linkage supplied in a lot of ARTF kits these day’s, coming loose causing the elevator trim to keep changing, and making the model very difficult to fly. Only luck stopped the pushrod pulling out completely. Moral of these two story’s, ARTF models  are great value and very quick to get flying, but you have to consider how the manufacturers keep the cost down and the speed of assembly up!

This month also saw the launch of the up dated, more interactive web site, Steve Montague gave a presentation on the new facilities. I hope some of you will use the ability to comment on my blogs to fight back, But don’t forget the whole world can see what you write, so keep it clean!!

I walked over to two members who were deep in conversation, what I heard went a bit like this, ” I don’t know about you g****e, but when I am watching videos on the internet, after the first 30 seconds I tend to fast forward to the money shot”. Was this appropriate small talk for a sunday morning, I had to enquire further. Apparently, according A**y  S***h after you have seen the take off and a little bit of the flight ,the best bit of the video is the landing, and he is a great believer in the old saying , it’s not how you start, it’s the way you finish. what were you all thinking!!!! 

Finally, I will wish all my avid readers a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year which dose not rely on so much luck. 

Paul Piddinghoe

Not much to report on this month, Mick’s new Yak has fallen foul of the, ARTF undercarriage syndrome, “Always Ready To falloff “, hardly worth a mention really.
I have a question, what have london busses and a John Evans quiz  got in common?  You don’t get a winner in years then two come at once!!!. For the benefit of  those  who sit on  Andy Palmer’s side of the room, I can confirm it feels great to be a winner, again!!!

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It’s been a quiet month, so not much to report, Mick’s run of bad luck has continued and another model has been destroyed in unexplained circumstances. No witty remarks on this occasion, I don’t want to be accused of abusing the elderly!!! Following the success of my little known quiz last month you will be sad to hear I won’t be doing another this month.

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The first Sunday of this months report was actually the last sunday of July, maybe Mick thought, as the June July report was already posted, his latest attempt at pyromania would be overlooked in my blog, sorry to disappoint. There is a bit of a theme running with Micks models, build it well, get someone to test fly, then watch it burn, I think the Yak was the fourth model to undergo the baptism of fire, So for a bit of fun, I conducted a Hello magazine type interview.

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June has started very windy, and wet, so no one is flying, and as a result I get very little to write about. We had hoped to have a visit to the patch from Nick Clement but the weather has put a stop to this as well.
OK lets have a go at “moan of the month” mmmmmm nothing doing here, no one has had anything to moan about, apart from the weather.

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Following his visit to the club meeting earlier this year, Nick agreed to come and fly the Extra at the patch. After a few postponements due to the weather Nick and his father arrived on Sunday morning to be met with thick fog. However within the hour the fog cleared and it turned out to be a glorious morning.

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In last months blog I mentioned starting a new feature, “Moan of the month” so here is the first instalment. A few weeks ago a new member made the point that when starting and running engines other members would often stand directly in front of his model, the concern, was, that if the model should throw a prop or spinner, it could result in injury to anyone who happened to be in the way. during our discussion we noticed that, the current practice of having two lines of aircraft could also lead to an accident, because, some of the models had the props facing the other line. I think both points are very valid, and as it is in all our interests to avoid any sort of incident I would like to make a couple of recommendations.

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