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Gladys International 21C
The Almost Quarterly Journal of The Sheffield
Society of Aeromodellers Issue112: 2015
In this issue… find out what on earth all these people are waiting
for...win money… explore the world of Quad building... consider
a Comet conversion and much, much more.
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Contents
Editorial.............................................................................. 3
Mishaps and Mayhem :Roger Lombard and Ed............ 4-6
Flying Kites With Electric String: Andy Timmons........ 7-8
Stop Press ........................................................................... 8
Name That Plane .............................................................. 9-10
Sloping Off: James Ford ................................................... 11-14
Converting a Comet: James Ford .................................... 15-18
One Up for The North: Neil Stewart ............................... 19-22
Quad Pro Quo: John Broadhead and Ed ........................ 22-27
Endpiece ............................................................................. 28
Acknowledgements: Thanks to all contributors. All photos by Neil Carver
except p4, Roger Lombard and p15, Phil Barrett. If you have an article or news
item for Gladys, ring Neil Carver on 0114 2667203.
Those of us lucky to be at a busy Elvington this year (front cover) were treated to
a flypast from Vulcan ‘558’ as it transited to Blackpool before returning for a full
display. The model opposite also flew but good as it is, Elvington won’t be the
same next year without the big fellow. The end of an era. indeed.
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Editorial
When someone talks of picking up a sophisticated lady at a swapmeet,
eyebrows are likely to raise. Well, start raising yours now because you
can read the full sordid story in ‘Sloping Off’ by James Ford. I have been
told that this feature may become a regular in Gladys. All I can say is that,
I for one look forward to a piece about picking up a less than
sophisticated lady at a swapmeet.
Having lowered the tone, it is time to increase the throttle and gain some
height. Way up in the clouds we have an intriguing account of a classic
conversion from Phil Barrett and a positively poetic account of Andy
Timmons’ first experiences of gliding.
Roger Lombard brings us back down to scorched earth with a bump but
Neil Stewart has us yet again above the clouds with an account of
National competition success. Frank Sinatra gets his first ever mention in
Gladys and we have another first: Gladys tries her hand at blackmail.
Mercifully we eventually settle into a stable hover with an account ‘told
to the editor’ by John Broadhead who discusses his adventures into
making multicopters, as well as revealing some astonishing details about
his youth. And there is a competition…with a guaranteed winner. Yes,
providing someone (anyone) enters then a winner is guaranteed. So let
this issue fly you to the moon…
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Roger sent this cautionary tale from the wilds of N. Yorkshire.
I’ve always been careful to throw away any damaged or even suspect
lipos but given modern lipo technology and modern lipo chargers I’ve
become dismissive about the need for standing over them while charging.
This (was) a pretty
new, definitely low
mileage, genuine E-
flite 150 25C single
cell in one of the
standard E-flite
chargers. What could
possibly go wrong?
Well, it went off like a
golden rain firework !
Fortunately I was
nearby and was able to
unplug the charger and
get it outside chop
chop. There was no
harm done except hasta
la vista charger and
battery...
The only answer I can come up with is that I was using a 12v dc input
(which had already charged an identical battery no bother).
It does say use 6v input max and it looks like they mean it!
And now to the ‘Weird and not so Wonderful.’ First up is a mysterious
growth on the wires going into a Spektrum receiver. This revealed itself
when I lost signal to my P40 (I have a witness!) and the crash scattered
bits with abandon, all over a well known playing field. The bind had
Mishaps and Mayhem: Roger Lombard and Ed.
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gone on the
receiver,
explaining the
crash but this
strange growth
was also spotted.
It was in the same
place on the servo
leads but not on
the speed
controller. Terry
was mystified so I
called up David
Tayler.
David was round in a flash, doffed in a lab coat and with a magnifying
glass the size of a dinner plate. Test tubes were filled, samples taken and
the experiments began.
All manner of alchemy took place in an attempt to identify the ‘infection’
and nothing remotely like it could be found in the Manual of
Aeronautical Diagnostics. Science, like Terry seemed stumped.
Suddenly David, ever eagle eyed grabbed the bits of the plane and
announced that the growth only appeared on the bits of wire that came
into contact with the
foam fuselage.
This was the
breakthrough. With a cry
of: ‘I’ll have one sugar
in mine’ David made a
diagnosis. The growth
apparently resulted from
a reaction between the
paint on the foam and
the plasticiser in the
wire. Obvious really.
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Another strange growth was spotted eating it’s way through a poor pilot’s
face at Weston Park (over) This ‘Por eating virus’ has apparently crossed
over from railway modelling and now poses a major threat to RC pilots.
According to Public Health England washing your hands after each flight
should arrest the advance of this most malignant of infections. Sinks are
scheduled to be installed at all flying sites. Use them.
Finally we have an aeronautical disaster of dreadful proportions. Now I
suspect few would disagree that aero modellers are not renowned for
sartorial elegance, but as the picture below shows, there can be flagrant
disregard for even the basic rules of fashion. Yes, a certain club member
was spotted at Barkston, at the Nationals of all events, wearing (I can
hardly say it) socks with sandals.
To save the culprit embarrassment Gladys has decided not to reveal his
identity this time round. He doesn’t get away scot-free though. Unless a
payment of £10 arrives in the post soon, one letter of his name will appear
each issue until it does…
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Flying Kites With Electric String: Andy Timmons
When I was a kid first time around, I always wanted to build and fly RC
planes, but with pocket money of half a crown a week it would have taken
me years to afford even the smallest of motors, let alone the electronic
gear. So I made and crashed rubber powered balsa planes, bought and
crashed catapult launched plastic delta gliders, and built and crashed kites
made out of garden canes and polythene bags. I couldn't afford proper
kite string, so the kites were lofted into the sky on wool, garden twine and
packaging string. The kites gave me more pleasure than the planes, but
planes were where the glamour was.
So when I retired a couple of years ago and became nine years old again it
was my chance to fill that gap in my childhood and I got severely bitten
by the RC flying bug. I thought powered (now electric and not gas) was
where I would find best reward and I threw myself into building and
flying foamies. Not having someone who could point me in the right
direction, I made every mistake you can think of and invented some new
ones. Nothing flew for weeks, but I learned an important lesson - don't
get attached to a plane, it's going to crash
I also learned don't leave your fingers in the way of spinning props, and
don't climb trees in your dotage, but that's another six stories.
And then I discovered SSA and the scales fell from my eyes. Here was a
group of like minded nine year olds, but with experience and the
willingness to pass their knowledge on. I was in heaven and, although I
still crashed a lot (a lot) I began to learn where I was going wrong (far too
big throws on every control surface and no idea what expo was) and
whereas 75% of my planes still went home in a bin bag, I started to
improve (honest Terry, I did).
I'd heard about 'the slope' and one day (the day of the fly in) I went, not
expecting gliders to hold any excitement. After all, my experience of
gliders had been the sixpenny rubber catapult delta planes of my youth.
They rarely survived the first flight (nothing changes) and they didn't so
much fly as fall with style.
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Oh, but I was wrong. A minute on the slope and I was hooked. I first
built a plank called a Swifter. Everyone was very polite and enthusiastic,
but I got the impression no-one thought it would fly. They were right. I
tried for a few days, by which time I'd come up with a flying wing I'd
named Mighty Mouse, so I gave up on the Swifter.
But Mighty Mouse flew. And I very quickly got the hang of holding the
plane in the wind and letting it peel off right or left and then bringing it
back. I began to anticipate what it was about to do and adjust the controls
before it did. I felt that I was balancing the plane on a huge beach ball
which I had to gently roll left, right, forwards or backwards to keep the
plane exactly on the top. It was wonderfully quiet with the vast panorama
of that 30 square mile bowl laid out in front of me. And it was then that
the idea came to mind. I was flying kites again, but this time with electric
string.
• It is worth reporting a somewhat rare event these days; the opening
of a local model shop . According to their website;
www.dynomodels.co.uk ‘Dynomodels is a Specialist RC model
shop with a well stocked showroom based in Laughton, Nr
Sheffield in South Yorkshire.’ Their landline is 01909 561000. It’s
early days yet, but I can report a reasonably priced indoor Parkzone
Trojan was up for grabs, and yes, they sell wood.
• There is a series of funfly events at the Velodrome Manchester,
M11 4DQ coming up. There are alternating half hour slots for Free
Flight and lightweight RC (100gram scratch built and 50gram rtfs)
No shockies please. Full details from David Whitehouse
(Tel.01942897816, [email protected]. The
dates are, Saturday Oct 31, Nov 28 and Feb 27. Slots run from
11am till 4:30 with 4:30 to 6pm reserved for ultra lighweights.
Check details with the organiser before you go.
Stop Press !
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!!!!! Name That Plane !!!!!
This competition is simplicity itself. Below are four photographs. They are of
three (yes, three) pre-1918 aircraft. They all reside in a single UK aircraft
museum. All you have to do is work out the names of the planes in each photo. I
just need the manufacturer and the name, eg.: Picture 1: ‘Supermarine Spitfire.’
You don’t need to get all technical and say ‘Spitfire Mk1.’
It’s time to play Name That Plane!
The prize is a whopping £30. If there is more than one correct answer, a draw will take place. If no one
gets all three but several people get two correct; a draw will take place
etc. In case you haven’t got this it means that a winner is guaranteed.
Even if you are the only entrant and get all three wrong, you will still
win.
Entry is limited to one attempt per paid up club member.
• Simply send your guesses with your name and contact phone
number to me: Neil Carver, 33 Bingham Park Road , Sheffield, S11
7BD. Alternatively give them to me in the indoor hall.
• All entries should reach me within six weeks after Gladys is
published on the club site.
• The answers will be in the next issue.
• The editor is the judge and the judge’s word is final. Good luck !
Picture1
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Picture2
Picture 3
Picture 4
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Sloping Off : James Ford
The following news items are reprinted from the Callow Gazette:
• Following persistent and disturbing rumours that Callow Bank no
longer faces west an emergency meeting was convened. Heated
debate continued in to the wee small hours of the morning (sorry
Frank). At 2am, in a shock majority vote the purchase of a compass
was authorised from club funds. Investigations the following day
concluded that Callow Bank continues to face west. Members are
requested to report any suspicious movement of the slope direction.
• There have been numerous complaints from slope regulars that the
sun gets in their eyes mid to late afternoon. The committee has
promised to look into this.
• The prize in the ‘Find the Canopy’ competition remains unclaimed.
Would the winner please contact Lee.
• The spot the bench competition has had to be extended nationally.
• Phil and Andy continue to hold the slope record for the number of
sausage rolls consumed in one day. Following a lucrative deal with
Tupperware they are planning to represent the club in next year’s
Nationals
• In a shock move the BMFA has suspended its search for a national
The Mistral takes flight ( see over)
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centre following revelations that better halves appear to be
expecting an increase in the number of odious tasks to be
completed in order to give authorisation for the purchase of new
models and days flying. As a result the boffins at the BMFA are
undertaking a national study to establish a mathematical
formulation to assist members who are being taken advantage of.
• And finally: The SSA nettle soup stand at this years Nationals
turned a small profit.
On a marginally more serious note my Reichard Mistral (above and next
page) has finally flown, despite folk doubting it existed .To be fair it has
spent the best part of a year under a bench. It’s a 2.6 meter thermal and
slope glider with fibreglass fuzz with glassed and sheeted foam core
wings. It currently retails at £174 from T9 hobby sport.
The first flight showed a marked swing to the left; in fact more to the left
than Jeremy Corbyn. Following much collective muttering and scratching
of heads it was concluded that the left wing was heavier than the right
wing. 20gm was added to the right wing and this improved things
although full trim was still needed to keep it straight. So, something still
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wasn't quite right. Back on the bench the culprit was soon found. The
wings have 8 and 3 millimetre stainless wing joiners. The rear joiner
simply wasn't level with the larger front one. In fact it was 2mm lower on
the right side, hence more lift from the right wing. A quick drill and fill
solved the problem.
Sadly this wasn't the only problem I had with the fuzz. In two places the
fuzz halves were joined with all the skill and attention of a cheap Easter
egg. The main concern was that the vertical tail fin wasn't vertical. As it’s
a T tail the elevator needed packing to make it horizontal. Likewise I had
to fit the rudder vertically so it's slightly off set to the non-vertical tail fin.
On the plus side the wings came finished in translucent Oracover and are
exquisite. The fuzz, despite its problems has a good finish and is very
solidly made. Good value? Yes without doubt, and it's now flying
beautifully.
On the subject of beautiful, at the last swap meet I picked up a
Sophisticated Lady for a bargain £20. She had been left in a corner and
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nobody seemed to want her. To my eye she looked stunning, if a little old
fashioned. She had good servos and all I needed was a battery and
receiver.
When I started flying three years ago, I went from a Wildthing to Middle
phase and for some reason missed out rudder and elevator models. This
sophisticated lady has taught me the error of my ways. What an absolute
joy it is to fly. As a result of this chance meeting at the swap meet I am
now planning to acquire a Bird of Time. According to the BMFA, it’s
going to be expensive to pay this off. So far I reckon I will have to do
four shopping trips, paint a room and replace two new fence panels!
Next issue :
• Andy and Phil compare own brand supermarket sausage rolls with
some shocking results!
• John V explains how to avoid colliding with the wind turbines
planned for Higger Tor!
• Is there a monster hiding in the bracken? If so how did it get from
under Terry's bed?
Mr V., a glider….no wind turbines.
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As many of you will know, the DH 88 Comet was designed for the 1934
London to Melbourne air race and the version sponsored by Grosvenor
House, G-ACSS, won the competition.
This aircraft now forms part of the Shuttleworth Collection, and returned
to flying last year after issues with the undercarriage had grounded it for
some years. The photo below was taken at an Old Warden air show in
August:
A few years ago I built a PSS version of the Comet from a Cloud Models
kit. I flew it at the slope from time to time, but it really needed a good
blow which meant it never really got the air time it deserved.
I so enjoyed the flight display put on by the Shuttleworth Collection`s
Chief Test Pilot Roger (Dodge) Bailey that I felt I had to get more use of
the PSS model. The obvious solution was to convert it back to electric
flight.
I already had a couple of suitable E-Flite Park 450 motors together with
their speed controllers, salvaged from the Mosquito that had seen better
days. The only significant purchase therefore was a set of retracts. I had
Converting a Comet: Phil Barrett
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used E-Flite electric retracts on my P51 Mustang, and had been very
impressed by the quality whilst recognising that they were not the
cheapest around.
A trip to Leeds Models sourced the gear, and I was ready to go. The first
problem was to remove the existing nacelles, resolved by judicious use of
a Dremel drill and a number of cutting wheels. Once parted from the wing
I was able to measure up the space available within the nacelles. I needed
to mount the retracts as close to the leading edge as possible, recognising
the need to get the legs as far in front of the centre of gravity as possible.
The largest wheel that would be fully enclosed by the nacelle was 2"
diameter, which meant that the centreline of the leg when retracted would
need to be 1" above the bottom surface of the wing. I built a framework
from liteply and balsa to accommodate the retracts in the correct position,
and fixed it to the under surface of the foam cored wing with copious
quantities of Araldite supported by carbon fibre pegs to take the impact
loads from landing.
I now had an issue with the location of the existing aileron servos in each
nacelle, as the wheel and the servo wanted to occupy the same space.
Fortunately there was enough free space to relocate the servos, relatively
simple with the wing construction of a balsa skin over the foam core.
The matter of installing the motors now needed some thought. The E-Flite
motor was designed for a rear mount, but the problem was ensuring the
thrust angles were correct when gluing in the bulkhead to which the motor
was fixed. I decided to install the propeller and spinner on the output
shaft, with a removable 1/16th balsa shim between the front of the nacelle
for clearance. I was then able to position the motor and bulkhead within
the nacelle so everything was flush and true with the front of the cowling.
An initial glue with a hot glue gun gave me an quick fix, but I then
resorted to trusty Araldite to support the installation.
With retracts and motors in and the servos relocated I was now in the
finishing straight. The wiring to the nacelles needed to be buried in
grooves cut in the foam core. This was quite a task, as I was trying to
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accommodate power supply leads, speed controller leads, servo leads, and
retract leads. In the end I decided to use three different grooves in order to
prevent one huge groove weakening the wing too much. The grooves
were then covered with a 1/16th balsa capping strip sanded flush with the
wing surface. As you can imagine, the wing looks fairly busy on the top
surface with all the wires emerging, but of course they are hidden when
the plane is assembled.
There was inevitably the need to repaint the nacelles after filling the cut
lines and recover the underside of the centre section where the wiring
tunnels had been cut.
The fuselage needed little alteration, only the installation of a battery
hatch under the nose together with a liteply battery support and its
associated Velcro fixing.
The end result is shown below:
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My main concern with the build was the likelihood of the model being
vulnerable to tip stalling. The beautiful tapered wing shape is asking for
trouble, and of course installing the retracts didn`t help the wing loading.
Under normal circumstances I would have wanted to introduce some
significant washout to the trailing edge, but with a finished foam core
wing this just wasn`t possible.
I have had two flights to date with the model, and it looks and sounds
magnificent in the air. However, both flights have had some issues with
tip stalling in turns, fortunately recoverable. The secret appears to be to
keep up the flying speed whilst turning only with ailerons on a gentle
basis. Landings are quick, as you would expect with the wing loading and
the slippery shape. This is never going to be a relaxing model to fly, but
the sight of it in the air makes the stress worthwhile !
Up, up and
away...phew.
Guess what
happened one
second later.
Minimal damage
though.
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One Up for The North: Neil Stewart
Those of you who know me will be aware that I fly indoor rubber
powered free flight and some of you have seen me fly at Bradway or the
Manchester Velodrome. However I don’t just fly for fun. I also fly in
competitions, so off I went to Bristol to fly in the national championship.
I hoped to be accompanied by Pete Dolby, but he was out of the country
on family business, but I was assisted by Brian Castleton who acted as my
timekeeper, bag carrier and general factotum.
Arriving at our lodgings the night before the competition we found that
we were within sight of the venue, conveniently located between a pub
and the local sex shop. Flying was to take place at the Brabazon Hangar,
at Filton next to the Airbus works. This is the former Bristol Aircraft
works and contains a small private museum dedicated to the Bristol
works. Concorde was assembled there and there is a Concorde outside
one of the three the hangars.
The next morning we set off to find the way into our hangar, but
whichever way we went our way was blocked by security fencing.
Eventually we found our way to the security gate which was situated
down a cul-de-sac on a housing estate at the side of some allotments. We
were shown into the hangar by the museum curator who mounted a
bicycle and rode in front of us. He explained that because of the size of
the venue, it was easier to cycle than to walk. When we got in the place
was huge. If you have seen the hangar at Barkston, this had about six
times the floor area, and had an unobstructed height of I estimate 65 feet,
with about another 20 above that if you wanted to risk the girders.
I had entered six classes: pennyplane (3.1 gram class), gymminie cricket
(lightweight version of the BMFA kit), 35 centimetre (1 gram class), no
cal (profile scale), legal eagle (a small cabin model) and living room stick
(a 7 inch span lightweight). These were to be flown in various rounds
over the three days.
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I had never seen the venue before, unlike some of the other competitors
who lived nearer and had been able to practice there. Since it took me
over four hours to get there, this would never be an option for me. I was
therefore at a disadvantage from the start.
My strongest discipline is usually pennyplane, having placed at the
nationals at our old venue of Boulby (near Whitby) every year except one,
and having won it twice. The way it works is this. To get a good time you
need to make the most of the venue by flying right up to the ceiling,
cruising round and then descending. The technicalities of how to do this
are beyond the scope to this report, except to say you need to have made
the right propellers for the place you are flying in. As most of my flying is
done in venues with half the height of the Brabazon, my pennyplane
wouldn’t climb to the roof. The best I could manage in practice was 7
minutes, 17 seconds, not nearly enough. I put on thicker rubber but that
didn’t help. I did find a propeller designed for use at Cardington (over
In a Scout hut near you: You don’t have to go to Bristol to encounter indoor
rubber powered freeflight. Note the hand made prop
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100 foot ceiling). I thought would do, but it wouldn’t fit the motor stick.
Then the session ended and it was time for the lightweight classes.
I was only flying one lightweight class, that was the 35cm. challenge. I
only had one airframe with me, a well used and overweight one.
Misunderstanding the rules I started to fly on a half motor but I was soon
put right by the organisers. I put on a full motor and practiced a bit and
put in an official time of 8 minutes, 31 seconds. By the time I had done
that it was the end of the day’s flying.
On Sunday morning the air didn’t seem as good as it hadn’t warmed up
yet. I messed around with various stuff, assembled a pennyplane that I
had used at Boulby when I had won the class and fitted my only high
ceiling propeller. After lunch the air was good, and I improved my 35cm
times with a best of 8.52. I couldn’t get any more turns on as my motor
stick wasn’t strong enough. In pennyplane I managed 9.21 and 9.30, with
the model scraping the rafters, and running out of turns before landing.
As I had no more propellers with me so I settled for those times.
Not so much: if it looks right it’ll fly right as: If you can see it you are lucky.
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As the air was good I put in some times in no cal, with a best of 3.09, with
3.05 as backup. Being a scale event, these models don’t fly a long time,
so I was pleased with that. What I wasn’t so pleased about was that I
seemed to be the only entrant putting in times, so it wouldn’t be much of a
contest.
I felt I had done as well as I could so I packed up and left.
On Monday it was much colder so I didn’t try to improve my scores.
Some others were flying in no cal, so I felt better about that. I didn’t fly
gymminie cricket, as when I enquired no one else seemed to have a model
with them. I could have flown but I didn’t want to win by default.
Sunday seemed to be legal eagle day with several of us flying that class.
This is a new class to me and although my plane flew nicely with a good
pattern, it didn’t fly for long enough. Again I needed a different
propeller. My best time was 2.45 and really you needed in excess of three
minutes to place.
The last event was a champagne fly off in living room stick. This was to
be a mass launch at the end of the afternoon, the last down winning the
drink. There were members of the British F1D team in this so it was to be
quite competitive. We all launched together, and there were several mid
airs. I escaped but finished up in the corner, not climbing high enough,
probably due to my plane being too heavy, so I didn’t win the drink.
Anyway I don’t like champagne, if it had been scotch I’d have tried
harder.
At the end of the day I found I had won the no cal event, and was third in
pennyplane, so I felt I hadn’t let the Northern Area down, with me being
the only entrant from the north.
The last word must go to one of the Ulster contingent who said to me
when I was complaining how difficult the ceiling height made things,
said “Well the only thing you can do is wind the bejeezus out of your
motor”.
That’s all for now!
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Sometime over the summer, with nothing more than the promise of tea, I
lured John Broadhead round to my house. I know that sounds a bit weird
so let me point out that the aim of this was to get him to explain his mildly
eccentric habit of bolting wood and tiny bits of circuitry together to make
copters with varying numbers of propellers.
It was a trade off. He got tea, even a biscuit and I got an article… a real
quad pro quo... Boom boom.
Now John is the most modest of men and will hate me saying it, but I
have to say he is rather good at producing these flying bedsteads. True,
John’s flying machines will not win any beauty contests… but gosh do
they fly well.
What follows is a reconstruction of our conversation in mock interview
style.
So John, what got you into building quadcopters ?
Well I was just curious—mainly about the electronics. You really need to
be prepared to mess about with programming if you want to build a quad.
It's pretty easy though and there’s tons of guidance on the net these days.
So you don’t really need a degree in electronic engineering ?
Nope, I think my background in telephone engineering helped– it’s all
Quad Pro Quo: John Broadhead and Ed
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about problem solving and finding fixes and workarounds. I also think my
work with the CIA helped a bit.
Sorry John… you were in the CIA?
No. I will deny that if you use it.
Right ok. So you started with a quad ?
Yes, but I worked from scratch– there were no plans.
So what is a typical set up ?
Ok .I used the following for the quad in the pictures:
4 Engine bearers 12”x1/2x1/2
4 Bluewonder motors1300kv 8a props 8x4
4 Props 2cw 2ccw
4 12amp quad escs ( but plane ones can be used -although they
have smaller response times
1 Naze32 flight controller using Baseflight software which is free
from the net as an App in Google Chrome
1 Rx fr-sky 4channel receiver
1 lipo 1300mh
1 powerbreakout cable and tons of cable ties…tons and tons of
cable ties...and a partridge. It has to be in a pear tree though.
A close up of the robust engineering and liberal use of cable ties on
Johns’s quad
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I have since changed the escs to 20a.The RX is a fr-sky D4R-11 running
in CPPM mode ie one cable for RX to controller. (CPPM is a mixing type
for helicopters that allows 3 servos to drive the swash plate for two
functions (Cyclic and Collective Pitch Mixing). CPPM gives me seven
channels from a four channel receiver. The battery is a 1300 11.1 3 cell
and the weight without the battery is around 1lb.It flies fine on the stock
settings from flight controller
Steady as a rock and in complete defiance of all known laws of nature
Inverted ,it mowed the entire lawn on one battery
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Phew: Any building or flying tips ?
Think about what size you want to build. The smaller the model the
twitchier it is. There was a big difference between my 12inch and the
10inch. Read a lot and You Tube is a great source of info. Anything on
building by Bruce Simpson is good. Beware ESCs. I have found that
some even same model ones are not always set up the same from the
factory. There is a lot of discussion about whether to use Baseflight
software or Cleanflight for the flight controller. I think Cleanflight offers
a lot more potential. When it comes to test flying no two are the same. I
always hold them first to see if they pull in any direction. A common
problem is the gyro may be too sensitive. I always keep them fairly close
in – over 30ft and it starts getting easy to get disorientated.
Tell us about the tricopter in the rest of the photos.
My son bought a quadcopter and crashed it. There were three salvageable
motors. I was too tight to buy another one so a tricopter it was! I didn’t
even measure lengths or make a plan. I Copied tail from one on You tube
and it was actually dead simple. The tail governs yaw and spins it. It uses
an Openpilot controller. OpenPilot is an open-source community
dedicated to perfecting flight control algorithms. I bought mine from
banggood.com and it’s pretty easy to use, with good online instructions. I
get a flight time of around 4minutes with a 1000 mah battery
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So what’s next ?
A bicopter. With full camera gear installed.
Well good luck with that…can we talk about your time in the CIA now ?
If we do I’ll have to kill you.
Ok John… maybe another time...
Editors notes:
Bruce Simpson seems a controversial figure in the RC world, at least in
terms of his relationship with Model Flying New Zealand, who are critical
of his views on flying quads. I haven’t seen anything to cast any doubt on
his building expertise though. John will happily answer any quad related
questions you have. Just don’t mention the CIA.
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Endpiece
Photographic proof that Phil’s Comet lands fast.
Just as Malcolm launched his glider the Wormhole flashed into
existence. Seconds later it vanished and in another universe a
Wildthing glided gently to the ground.