FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

You guys see this?

Telemaster Sales UK

Last week it was Laser Engines, now it's Robart retracts.

donnyman

Thank you! I am not in as bad a situation as I may make it seem. though the fun has diminished, old age is not for the weak. I'll be 83 in mid June if I am still alive.

It appears time and the economy is catching up to just about everything and everyone Good old Robart is taking some hits as is most of the modeling industry, I often try to imagine just how far this life will take us.
my uncertainty has me in a mode of procrastination Can't seem to get my head wrapped around what my next steps should be. and i feel I am not alone, the confusion and miss stepping of our supreme court and government politicians is atrocious.

My beliefs tell me not to be afraid and overly concerned but it isn't easy when one see's the weather, and natural disasters increasing at a alarming rate to say nothing of the stupidity of some with guns.

I also notice as I type this it appears my "buttons" have returned only after I agreed with the cookie policy of this site. "If you can't beat them cheat them" pityful.

donnyman

testing Hmmmm I am still in the no pic post mode. this is less than acceptable but I am at the mercy of the owners.

I am very disappointed (or deceived?) no matter.

J330

My Feedback: (3)

Several manufacturers stopped making kits already that require retracts to be installed, and electric retracts are more popular.
Those foam things people keep showing up with at the flying field, don't take retracts at all, in fact,
most foamie models hardly need a runway either, since they land with all the grace of a McDonald's cheeseburger wrapper caught in a breeze.

Who was about to order a set of Robart retracts, or order a new Laser engine? If hardly no one is buying,
how does a manufacturer stay in business, but to make only what sells and discontinue products that don't sell?

donnyman

J330

I hear what you say and wonder just where all this is leading us, I cannot imagine a clear picture of the future of this hobby though the future points to outer space. the magic of flight has diminished taking the desire to imitate the machines of flight with it.

The speed at which we live our lives is such that one will not take the time needed to do things as was done in the past so we marvel at the works of those that do thus we see ARF's short kits and stuff that can be used and replaced fast. It seems to be for the better but is it really?

Skills, imagination, patients, seem to take a back seat to things that used to be the basis of a solid life style. when was the last time a good book was read? something that provoked the thought process? few will take the time to understand "what is real" and try to move on without the foundation of basic good common sense and just follow what is told to them by our media of today, fake news is not a joke it is prevalent in all we see and hear today and is getting worse.

It seems to me many do not have a clue as to where they want to be in the future, far or near, much less prepare their lives to face it. Some even blame others for their lack of good fortune when they them selves do not have the basic knowledge to function in this fast moving society.

This hobby is fast changing and we will have to change with it or be left behind to wonder what the h--- happened?

AMEN!

Telemaster Sales UK

I was left behind a long time ago!

easystar123

Flight of the B17 Flying Fortress. This iconic bomber from the second world war flew many missions over Europe helping to shorten the war.

Telemaster Sales UK

I haven't had the buttons all day but now I have them back again.

Yesterday we had our club's Annual Dinner in the village of La Buxerette where the owner is the grand daughter of our oldest member. After an aperitif from club funds we had an entrée of shellfish in a cheese sauce or sliced garlic sausage, a main course of filet mignon or cod in a white wine sauce and a dessert of apple tart or banofi pudding. All washed a very acceptable Cotes du Rhone and coffee.

The younger man in the black, grey, red and white hooped top is the new chairman who has injected some much needed energy into the club.

flyboy2610

My Feedback: (1)

Looks like a good time was had by all!

easystar123

Flying the Beaver yesterday at the club. Nice flying aeroplane. 24th of March 2024

Telemaster Sales UK

Nothing to do with aeromodelling but I found this picture of my dog on the camera memory by chance this morning and I thought that it was a good picture.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Very nice!

Clean

Donnyman, switch to Opera. I don't know what platform this platform was supposed to work with but it stopped working with Edge and Firefox but Opera brings the picture bar up every time. Plus, Opera has spam filters and a vpn option onboard so, I GUESS you could dial yourself a different place and watch Japanese movies subtitled in French or whatever. Anyways, it didn't take long to get used to and it migrated all my links like the other ones do.
See, here is a non plane photo montage of my dog, just had her adoption day on the 25th. Sent it to the agency with thanks.

Clean

Wind was finally down today. Of course, so was the temperature. I'm sure I'll get more blooms on my Crabapple tree dangit. Got cold but I don't know HOW cold. Got to about 50 this evening so I got my little Volantex P-47 out in the yard. Have I gone on and on about this thing here? Well, the last thing I've been going on about has been AUTOlaunch.
About a week ago I wondered if my model had the ability, cuzz I remember seeing it somewhere but I couldn't remember. Nothing about it in the manual but I SAW a video, in the middle of the night. I looked through my viewing, looked through the list of Volantex planes on several posters, couldn't find anything. Now, I've had crazy dreams before, sometimes they were helpful. NOT when the county exec came in and found me crosslegged on an airconditiong vent, with the diagnostics map in my lap, eyes closed. "Well, do you know what the problem is?" Opened them, looked at him and said I THINK so, can you hand me my scope? which he did. "I've followed the line of indicators and it all leads to power BUT all the indicators say Powers good. BUT they're like the idiot lights on a car dash, they don't show the power just that there is enough to trip the indicator." I connected the scope, found the right point and put my lead on it. It jumped up to 12 volts solid. See, that's the other packs power supply, solid 12 volt line. Now let me see this pack, Change probe, 12 volts spiking down to almost zero at 60 hertz. "AHHHH see, it has the 12 volts but the capacitor has broken down SO the board won't let the disk spin up and keep spinning. I'll call in the cap and the power regulator just in case, swap em both out, put your original pack in because I didn't want to experiement with your data and you should be up about 20 minutes after I get the parts. " AND it was. Its the old sometimes you need to stop thinking so hard and use your common sense. IBM had to hire a bunch of quota's once upon a time and the very detailed maps disappeared into a reader's digest version that always had a note on the page "If you end up here, call tech help." Well, I was tech help for this third party company. A senior IBM tech would come out and say "It's probably a bad filter" but they had to have idiot lights instead of scopes, which I never saw anyone from IBM using anymore. Different lifetime but doesn't change the fact that I was working as a gass monkey/ramp mechanic at Downtown Standard when someone said "My Cars cutting out" and YA, it'd start up then cough and die because the stupid fuel filter was plugged when the exec woke me up.
So, I opened a ticket with EXHobby asking, "Have I gone off my nut or does this model have Auto launch and if so, how do you do it? I thought I saw a video of someone doing it but I can't find it and there's nothing in the manal." Now they didn't get back to me because weekend but Sunday when I was looking at which airplane I might like to have next I saw scrolling through the pages, I saw this panel in their ad One Key Aerobatics Roll, Flip Launch. I'll attach the pic. I added to my ticket, "Here it is in on your page, but the manual doesn't say how. Now I HAVE to find the video." and late Sunday evening I found it. Hold the airplane, hit the stunt button, while its beeping throttle up and launch. Plane climbs out for about 4 seconds and starts orbiting till you take over, acording to the video.


Well today, thanks to the weather, I went out, got as far away from the trees upwind as possible with a big one at my back and I did just that. And the wind changed, and my launch was iffy. Plane corkscrewed up like it was an old FF gasser. I thought sure it was going into my dang Hedge apple tree because, you know, thorns. But it climbed over the tree and a second later, started orbiting. At which point the wind went back to pushing it towards the tree but I had it from there. Pretty cool, not on video of course. I told the company I had found the video, saw how it was done and was going to give it a shot (which now I've done) NOT because I'll use it much in this crowded environment of my home but just gotta see it work. Also told them they could at least update the online manual with the instructions, because it isn't there. I also told them that all the planes I've seen have had a cg too far back from the factory but I believe that it's just construction tolerances and the dang gyros make it fly great till you go to expert mode and then you have a plane with the CG so far back it doesn't have directional stability let alone pitch sensitivity. I found the correct CG for my Jug by finding a 1200 mm version of it with a CG and scaling it down to 400. The box they send it with is really touchy but when I fly it normally I use expos on my taranis. Still I did a minute of orbits, rolls and loops on expert mode before just going back to the sport level where you can loop it but it won't exceed a bank angle. Makes zooming around the obstacles in my yard easy and thought free. No over rotating into the ground ya know.
Basically, lack of documentation, a panel in a long list of them with the clues and ONE video where somebody mentioned it out of I can't think of how many videos I was looking at to stumble into the right one AND NO, I'm not crazy, I didn't dream up this Autolaunch feature AND it's kinda cool, if you do it right and worry about getting your hands on the sticks in time to take over.
Of course, I left out the first toss where I was going to test it out today. It turned over and crashed right into the ground. But they only weigh just over 2 ounces, so ALL the crashes I've had only broke one prop and no other damage on both of my planes. BECAUSE I had the switch in expert mode. My taranis I have it the other way on the three position switch. Oops.
Well thats a bunch for a little but I tell ya, for about half a week I thought I was nuts. And I didn't even tell you about the night I spent 7 years in Egypt building the pyramids. THAT WAS a crazy dream and man, it took a couple days to get back into the present AND it's a story for another time.

Telemaster Sales UK

Dogs and aeroplanes this morning!

Both of my Barons are ready for La Coupe. I may build new engine cowlings for them to make them look a bit smarter. Strong winds and rain are forecast for today and tomorrow so I won't get a chance to fly them before Saturday morning. Weather conditions like this are a recipe for downed trees and a waterlogged flying field here. If this turns out to be the case I won't be able to go flying on Saturday because the van, being RWD is likely to get stuck in the mud.



She just had to get in on the act!

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Nice dogs and airplanes!

David, what did you make cowling out of?

Clean

Happy pup. Have my daughter's dogs over while they have a weekend in warm, sunny Florida. So my cat, who doesn't know these mean her no harm, spent most of last night on her basement chair. I'm guessing those cowls are formed from PET (2 liters) bottles shrunk over a form.
25° F last night and no wind, there goes any other blooms on my trees, and clear here in the greater KCMO metropolis. As usual, things to do not flying.

Telemaster Sales UK

Lithium plate around a front former. They are retained by screws going into the firewall.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Do you mean Litho plate used in the offset printing process?

mgnostic

Lithium plate would have some entertainment value, especially during a landing in wet grass. I'm betting autocorrect strikes again.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

That was my thinking too. Autocorrect doesn't like litho for some reason.

Telemaster Sales UK

One of my colleagues at the model aeroplane club is a printer so I can get plates from him from time to time. Curiously all of the machines he works with are English.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

There have been a lot of mergers with press manufacturers so I'm not surprised. Also Offset presses get a lot of competition from digital printing these days.

Clean

I ran a digital press for the last 10 years before retirement. All my finishing equipment was in from Hunkler and the home country was in whatever language is used around Pilatus Switzerland. Also, all the measurements were in millimeters, sixths, eights and 240 of an inch. Luckily you could pick french, english, japanese and german for the default language but the translations, were kinda fun to figure out initially. Luckily, I can watch mechanical things run for hours at a time. 10-12 hours at a time in the fall and winter as it turns out. I kinda miss that but I'd rather go get a job mowing fairways at the local golfcourse instead. Maybe, if they'd have me. But I'll have to have a reliable schedual for that and man, thats 5 or 10 years in the future with the youngest in Kindergarten this year.
Litho plate would be pretty good material to work with. Lithium? that stuff should be left in the dark recesses of the earth that you have to leach it from.