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I saw in the Aeromodeller that a cheap RC controller is being used for electric CL combat. This intrigued me as I have d...
31/05/2026

I saw in the Aeromodeller that a cheap RC controller is being used for electric CL combat. This intrigued me as I have dabbled in this myself over the years building my own hand-held controllers. With these I could have throttle control and in one instance retracting undercarriage, it was no problem flying in the normal way and having the controller in the other hand. So of course I had to get one of these Chinese controllers and find out what it could do.

The controller is the Hot RC DS 650, it can be found on eBay from UK suppliers for about £28.00 or cheaper if you get it from China. It consists of a 2.4 Gig Rx & Tx package giving two channels controlled by the joystick and four more channels controlled by the buttons. The system is designed for boats, cars and tanks which generally use a reversible ESC, so the joystick is in the neutral position, up is the forward and back reverse, left and right steering. The software has many mixes to cater for the setups used for boats, tanks and cars which are very different to aircraft, one of them would be suitable electric CL throttle control.

The four buttons can be set to operate their servos in three different ways. Full travel as long as the button is held, end to end on each button push, end-neutral-end on each button push, the buttons can also be linked together by software. The Tx has a colour display which is both a status readout and provides access to setting functions. If using LiPos a lead is provided to make a connection to the Rx via the battery balance socket, this displays Rx voltage on the Tx display as well as Tx voltage, the Tx is charged via a USB socket.

Presentation and quality are very good but the instructions are in Chinglish and difficult to decipher, this resulted in me locking the unit in Chinese language at my first attempt! Luckily there are vids on You Tube that explain all. All the usual features such as servo reverse, end point adjustment and trim are included. In summary this controller is ideal for its intended purpose but could be used with electric CL or RTP controlling throttle via the joystick and auxiliaries via the buttons such as flaps, retracts or bomb dropping 😊

Not having a boat available to try it in resulted in Percy the paddler, that’s another story for next time.

I’m not a light builder (yet) so the Cloud Hopper turned a bit on the heavy side and was a horror to fly…it was also obv...
23/03/2026

I’m not a light builder (yet) so the Cloud Hopper turned a bit on the heavy side and was a horror to fly…it was also obvious that the control surfaces were too big. The Minimum RC Andromeda system does not have exponential etc (what do you expect for £28!). So, we are back to basics where movement has to be adjusted by mechanical means and control surfaces need to be appropriate.

The result was the revamp you can see in the pics …. a bigger wing to carry the weight and bigger tailplane to suit, control surfaces reduced significantly, control throws reduced. I’ve built two wings of the same size…. both can be built without using a plan. The all-sheet wing (a la Ken Willard) was a delight to build as the rib positions were laser engraved on the bottom sheet. The traditional wing is built round a full depth spar with interlocking ribs, LE & TE have locating slots for the ribs and the wing can be dry assembled (one wing at time). After truing on the building board, super aliphatic can be used on all the joints …again a pleasant and quick build. Ready to fly weights are 85 grams with the all-sheet wing and 77 grams with the traditional wing.

The traditional wing was less than 10 grams bare and the covering added 6 grams which surprised me. That was using standard Oracover because I was too mean to pay out for Oracover light which would be about half the weight. And there is always Doculam which would be even lighter but does really need tissue covering as well…that’s a bit much for me!

The Cloud Hopper has been flown in less-than-ideal positions but it was immediately apparent that the modifications were successful. The geared motor is impressive requiring only about half throttle to climb and less in cruise…I also tried on the on-board gyro settings and could see them working for the first time, there are three settings. 1 is automatic recovery to level flight after letting go of the sticks, 2 is control corrections for turbulence 3 is gyro off. I will have to wait for perfect conditions to really test the gyro out so I’ll let you know the outcome in due course

The recent weight reduction from 250 to 100 grams of non-registered ‘drones’ by the CAA set me thinking, there are loads...
10/02/2026

The recent weight reduction from 250 to 100 grams of non-registered ‘drones’ by the CAA set me thinking, there are loads of RTF foamies that will qualify, but what if you prefer balsa?

I already have a couple of sub 100 gram balsa models, the Scrap Box Special and a Frog TomTit, both using various bits and pieces from crashed RTF models for motors and RC. They both use Spectrum DSMX protocol and work well with an old Orange Tx.

For some time, I have been watching developments at Minimum RC who specialise in lightweight RC and offer a range of supporting products to suit. Their ‘Andromeda’ RC System Tx has a 200-meter range, 5 Channels, supports Delta and V tail configuration as well as normal The Rx has an on-board gyro, 5A brushed ESC and a telemetry link to indicate low battery on the Tx, the combo costs less than £30. Specifications and cost seemed ideal for Sub 100-gram balsa models, so I decided to try it out and ordered a set plus some 1.9-gram servos (£5) and a motor and gearbox (£8.50)

I wanted a suitable all sheet model that I could cut on my home laser and would be simple to build. As inspiration I took the shape of a 1930’s Wakefield called Clod Hopper and used that for my new design which naturally is called the Cloud Hopper 😊, the result weighs 62 grams. No chance of flying it yet because of the weather, but the SBS at 72 grams and TT at 58 grams are good flyers so I’m hopeful

The undercarriage is just for display and is removed for flight, on these small models I find the U/C causes more trouble than it is worth…the Motor/Gearbox comes with a prop saver and GWS 5 x 3 prop…. very neat
Minimum RC www.minimumrc.com

Chris Caruana sent me this picture of his CL models...liked it a lot...hope you do too. Chris had a bit of trouble with ...
29/10/2025

Chris Caruana sent me this picture of his CL models...liked it a lot...hope you do too. Chris had a bit of trouble with his Cox engine, but it seems OK now...he had this to say :-

Following the items you sent earlier, I can confirm that the 049 in the stagger wing flew very well and for quite a bit longer than I expected with the small tank.

Thank you for your help and advice on this one.

Regards

Chris

L - R Thats a KK Firefly-Brodak 049. Goldberg Stagger Wing - Cox 049...KK Champ - DC Wasp

I’ve been playing about with some semi scale jet type catapult gliders. The star of the show is the Super Sabre…. its Co...
25/10/2025

I’ve been playing about with some semi scale jet type catapult gliders. The star of the show is the Super Sabre…. its CoG is so far back it hardly needs any nose weight, it is very light…stable with an excellent glide. The Phantom is similar but needs more trimming as I haven’t found the ideal CoG location yet…I think being a delta I need to find a nose up trim for good gliding…. the Thunderjet is tricky to trim and heavy as its CoG is much further forward so more nose weight…. but after adding some gurney strips, I have got it doing a big S from a right-hand catapult launch transitioning in to a left-hand glide, for a catapult I am using a 2” rubber band which gives a reasonable flight without going too far. I particularly like the Thunderjet as the plan was published in 1949…the year I was born !!

Doug Johnson has become interested in American half A CL designs….here are three he has just builtAmbush…. A sport/comba...
27/07/2025

Doug Johnson has become interested in American half A CL designs….here are three he has just built

Ambush…. A sport/combat all sheet model designed by Bill Netzeband…powered by a Cox Black widow

Super Cinch….A all sheet combat model ….was originally a kit for 020/049…Doug has increased the span a bit and beefed up the construction as he is powering it with a Cox TD 049

Samurai….This is a scaled down version of the original Samurai that was designed to FAI specs (2.5cc) back in the seventies when America started to compete internationally in combat. ….This Half A version won the 1977 Champs…power will be a Norvel 049 with pressurised bladder fuel feed

Hilmar Lange is a prolific German designer whose work has been published in various continental magazines. I really like...
15/01/2025

Hilmar Lange is a prolific German designer whose work has been published in various continental magazines. I really like his style and the way he embraces modern technology and materials.

Particularly interesting is the way his designs are made available through his site, no plans just software downloads. An interactive 3D view of the construction, loads of pictures plus the magazine article in some cases make a plan unnecessary. All cutting files both router and laser plus graphics and 3D printing files are available as well. Payment is not mandatory but a donation may be made to Hilmar or the relevant magazine if the plan has been published.

What is striking is the difference between Continental and UK aeromodelling, it would seem that modern technology is more readily accepted on the Continent. I know from experience that this approach would be unlikely to work in the UK where we are more nostalgia based.

The strange thing is that if you took any of the great designers from the golden age of aeromodelling, I suspect that each and every one would have been quick to use modern technology and materials if it had been available to them 😊
Here is a link to Hilmar’s site https://www.lange-flugzeit.de/

Here’s some pictures of an AeroNaut Matador and a Hobbins Stablemate both built by Andrew Robertson…. I’ll let him tell ...
13/01/2025

Here’s some pictures of an AeroNaut Matador and a Hobbins Stablemate both built by Andrew Robertson…. I’ll let him tell you about them:-

Hi Den,

I don’t think I sent you pictures of this which I built just before the Matador, a Tim Hobbins Stablemate kit. 40” wingspan, chord is 9.5”, ribs 1.5” deep. Fitted a brand-new Enya SS25 – just bench run it in with 10 x 6-minute runs, running rich on 30% castor oil.

The intention is the fly the Matador in the vintage stunt competition but use the Stablemate to practice the schedule. It’s had 5 flights so far and fly’s superb doing 3 or 4 consecutive figure eights easily.

Only problem being it’s a bit fast, 4.5 second laps on 60ft lines. I could richen the mixture to slow it but it’s only lasting 4 mins on the tank leaned out. I’m using one of your combat tanks so I’ll ask you to make me up a bigger version soon but I may need a bigger version of the tank you made me up for that hornet engine so I’ll wait until I’ve tested that.

All the best,
Andrew

Here’s an update on my 12” wingspan, scrap box catapult glider project…. but first a re-cap: -There have been four proty...
11/01/2025

Here’s an update on my 12” wingspan, scrap box catapult glider project…. but first a re-cap: -

There have been four protypes so far

1 Original design…weight 20gm
2 Wing area increased…centre section wing TE flaps introduced…weight 22gm
3 Fuselage thickness reduced from 3/16” to 1/8” …. wing thickness reduced from 1/8” to 3/32” …. TE flaps fitted…. weight 14gm
4 Under cambered composite aerofoil wing section introduced…. tailplane made 10% bigger…. weight 17gm

In still air 1 and 2 were good for 20 seconds and 3 made 30 seconds easily…. doesn’t sound like much but it is for a 12” glider. The improvement in flight times shows progress is being made to establish the max flight time I can get out of such a small simple design.

Number fours wing section is interesting, it’s a bit like a bird’s wing section and is made using TE section glued to the rear of a thick LE and then a thin sheet extension at the rear. This aerofoil design is used on many of Rudolph Hiesbök models and I already knew it was pretty efficient.

Well, I wasn’t disappointed as on its second flight number four outflew my field. Conditions were not perfect with a 5mph intermittent breeze. I’m hoping that it will do over 30 seconds in still air to break my present record.

And why am I doing this? Because it’s cheap, simple and a challenge…. but most of all its FUN 😊

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