I live at the opposite end of the UK to John but have known him for around 30 years and have only met up on LMA meetings and events. With the both of us being very involved in the running of the Association over the years you become good mates and it is very sad to lose a 'mate', we will miss you. O...

Hello Arthur, I have ignition on/off buttons on my transmitters and so that I don't accidently operate them in flight I have superglued a small plastic shield in front of them. I suspect that you could do the same for what you need. I have not actually used one of the switches suggested but in my ex...

Over the years when asked what the LMA is short for I have to clarify it by saying the LARGE MODEL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION. They ask if I have any pics of large models.....know what I mean....nudge nudge!! I think that this is the best title for us. LMAA it even rhymes with CAA (maybe ???)

Hello Arthur,I get what you want to do with your retracts. What I would suggest, and you would need to be brave and use a soldering iron, is to replace the original switch with a latching push button. I suggest an RS item 734-6794 which is a single pole latching switch. What it will do is on the fir...

I have only encountered a hitec servo failure once. This servo was drawing over 1 amp off load and getting warm. On comparing this servo with another which was perfectly ok I found several differences, the Hitec label on the top had no clear film covering it, there was no oval sticky label on one en...

I signed on a sticky white label, cut it to fit the position on the card and ran a bit of sellotape over it. (there are other sticky tapes available )

I suppose this just shows my age! Here's one that does 'need strings' from my ancient collection......aaah, those were the days!!!!

Good idea, so many of us use them nowadays and there must be many spare parts hanging around in workshops that are needed by others for damage repairs etc.

Totally agree with you John, keep both Rx systems completely separate, in fact keep it simple. If you have two engines make sure that the loss of power on a Rx still means you have control over both engines. Fitting one of my loss of battery volts failsafes means the afflicted Rx will cause the rele...

Hi Paul, are you sure that is not someones curtains?

Are the new membership cards being issued yet, last years cards are very out of date now if anyone wants to check on insurance cover etc?

Following on from my 'Failsafe' module to stop your petrol engine if Rx volts fail, of which many have been sold, I kept getting asked if I could supply a unit which would switch ignition off from the Tx. Well I have just put the very item on the market. You will need a channel on the Rx operated by...

On the lighter side...we had a chopped finger incident on our flying site which was quite serious and the victim had to be taken to hospital for stitches etc. He actually returned to our field within a couple of hours with a bandaged hand and one of our flyers said to him " hey, good to see you...

Sheila and I have known Ken from when he was a very young man and first started flying at shows. We were operating TX control in those days at nearly all of the LMA events and Ken used to come to us for a chat as he didn't know many flyers at the time. Ken was one of the nicest blokes you would ever...

Greg's totally c-checked Pitts Python after 4 years flying and now presented in its new livery modelled on the full size Thor residing in Scandinavia.

Hi John, I'm not sure which David you are replying to. My profession for almost 50 years has been as an electronics engineer and believe me I have had to replace hundreds, if not thousands of failed silicon diodes in equipment ranging from high power stage amplifiers to transmitting equipment, telev...

For additional safety, without compromising electronic fallibility, fit one of my Engine Failsafe units. This will, at least, stop your petrol engine in the event of complete battery failure and prevent the model hitting the ground at full throttle or watching it disappear into the blue yonder. The ...

Just as an aside to our modelling experiences.If you remember a while back Boeing 787's were grounded for 6 months because of the fires occurring in the lipo packs used to start the APU at the back of the aircraft. I don't know how they were charged but it was interesting to hear that the factory ma...

I've known Dave for more years than I care to remember. I was involved in a show with him at Ripley Castle a long time ago and he suggested we meet in Betty's Cafe in Harrogate. I was looking for something like a transport cafe but was amazed that Betty's was like something out of a 1930's movie, ve...

Hi Gordon, in reply as to whether I was using balanced charging I have a couple of chargers but one is without balance leads. This time the balanced charger was in use on another battery so I was charging the 'firework' battery directly. I must point out hat this charger has been used countless time...