Featured products
This is where I tell you about all those cool new products that
I think are worth a mention or something that's just a bit out of
the ordinary.
After a long wait it is finally here. What I believe to be the
best simulator ever made at an incredible price of £79.99
Order yours now at www.skylinemodels.co.uk
Sunwise Sunglasses
Being able to see the model is probably the most important part
of our sport. Especially when flying at great distance or on small
models. Weird light can make a perfectly good days flying into one
that is a complete waste of time.
So. why do we over look such a an important piece of equipment?
The main problem is that no one pair of sun glasses will suit all
light conditions. the next problem is lack of information on what
tints are for what conditions. If you wear glasses it gets even
worse!
This is where sunwise glasses from www.modelglasses.com
come in. interchangeable lenses for different light conditions some
frames even take prescription inserts that fit inside the tints
making life much easier for glasses wearers. Add to that a tough
plastic carry case you can leave them rattling around your transmitter
case knowing they will always be there when you need them most.
For me the most useful lenses are the low light yellow lenses.
These work great on those days when it is overcast but still fairly
bright. the model silhouettes instantly. the yellow lenses greatly
improve things. I really enjoy peoples reactions to these lenses
"its like i have had an eye operation" the difference
is really that much!
Ok... now here's the real surprise. its scary what top name glasses
sell for i really don't know how anybody can justify 80ukp for a
set of plastic framed sun glasses and thankfully neither do model
glasses.
Normal frames start at £25.99 including international P&P
if you want a plastic case you add 3ukp. Prescription versions are
30.99 or 33.99 for the plastic box although you will have to get
your local optician to do the inserts to suit your eyes.
Raydiowarm Transmitter mitten
How many times have you been at the field or at the hill side and its cold, bit windy or even very windy and you cant fly for more than 5mins without your fingers trying to fall off.
You can wear gloves but it removes a lot of feel from the sticks. I have seen people cut the tips off the gloves but the gloves still restrict movement.
tranny mitts have been around a while but when I picked mine up a few years back this one from raydiowarm stuck out from the rest. Fleece lined with stiff rings that stop the hand holes from closing up which are also equipped with elasticated cuffs. A few years back I was standing on top of a mountain in wales between christmas and new year for their wooly backs competition. The air temperature was around zero with a wind chill of around -10c! Without a mitt flying for more than a few mins was impossible as my thumbs would freeze up. With the mitt it was almost as warm as a pair of thick gloves.
There is plenty of space in the mitt, the strap keeps the top off the sticks and the waist strap keeps the mitt still. all the closings are done with velcro.
The mitt is £39.99 available from either myself or www.raydiowarm.com
Knight 50
The 50 size helicopter is a great size. generally based on 30size mechanics means they are cheap on spares. Fuel economy is good and they are generally very durable so are easy to fix when you do put them in the ground.
The downside is that because they are based on 30size mechanics they are generally not as accurate and don't have much metal in them so parts wear out fairly quickly when you abuse the heli with some aerobatics or 3d.
The raptor is probably the most common 50 size heli around today. but they suffer from slop in the linkages. the plastic head block and grips wear relatively fast too. The fix for this is to buy some bling such as the QUK setup. Sure they fly great but the cost goes through the roof.
The Sceadu EVO 50 is a great machine in stock form featuring push/pull on all controls improves the accuracy of the heli especially if you upgrade the damping with a set of carbonxtreme dampers. However the frames are a little weak around the front skids and spares availability and pricing of some of the plastic parts hurts.
The Sceadu an raptor are the most popular, there are a few others like the JR airskipper but I am yet to have a fly of them.
This leads me on to a new model on the scene in 05. The Knight 50. It features full metal head, metal frames. Large fuel tank and CCPM with metal bell cranks and a glass fibre canopy. The kit price is fantastic for the spec of the components beating the raptor 50 SE by a large margin. ARTF making the build quick and pain free.
I have been flying the plastic tail version for a while now. including one crash. It seems to be a very durable strong model. The accuracy of controls is good. In stock form with 600mm blades 95mm tail blades, V paddles and digital servos all round its an excellent machine lots of tail power tic-tocs are crisp and fast rolling manures are accurate requiring little or no correction and FFF is stable showing no real tenancy to get pitchy. You would think that with all that metal it would come out heavy. Mine came out at 3.7kg
Not content with this. I have done a mod to the mixer arms on mine which reduces flybar input and increases input from the swash. This speeds up the roll/flip rate and makes the controls a bit sharper. As soon as I get my digital camera working I will post some pictures.
The gear I am using in mine is:
OS50 Hyper
Futaba 9252 on CCPM
DS811 on throttle with CSM rev-lock
gy601/9251 on the tail.
600mm Vblades
95mm Vblades on the tail
V paddles
There are 2 versions available. one with plastic tail the other with metal.
Plastic tail version: £309.99
Metal tail version: £349.99
Available from myself or Skyline models.
Telink Mini Tornado
Now for something a little different. This is what is traditionally known as a combat foamy. Just under 1 meter span. in stock form is a very cheap way to get into flying model aircraft. Light and durable with very little building required. The standard supplied speed 300 motor, prop and gearbox gives adequate power making it hard to get yourself into trouble whilst keeping the weight and cost down.
Building is simply a matter of gluing the wing halves together adding some tape, attaching the tip fins and installing the servos in the precut slots.
The standard recommended equipment is:
15amp Electronic speed controller
2x
hitec HS55 servos
7-800mah 8cell nimh battery
With that setup you will get 10-15mins flight time.
this model requires elevon mixing. most transmitters are capable of this these days if yours doesn't then there are modules that fit in the model between the receiver and the servos to do this for you.
If you want some (well a lot) extra performance then you could go with the setup I am currently using in mine. This consists of an Axi 2208/20 brushless motor and speed controller from my Hornet 2 with a flight power 1500mah 3s1p evo20 lithium polymer battery. This gives unlimited vertical performance. Top speed of around 70mph without compromising slow speed performance. excellent fun.
The kit including speed 300 motor, motor mount, gearbox and prop. costs £40.00 to get it in the air your looking at under 150ukp + transmitter.
The brushless setup with battery costs £120.00.
The Telink mini tornado is available from myself or south coast sailplanes. |
