Radical RC Workbench – Page 18 – Thoughts from the workbench of Radical RC. The online retailer of electronics and kits for radio control aircraft. Dave Thacker shares his thoughts and knowledge of electronics, batteries, kit design and overall enjoyment of the hobby.

The milk of human kindness

You have to like what NYPD Officer Larry DePrimo did for a barefoot man in Manhattan one frigid night this month. In fact, more than 260,000 Facebook users have “liked” DePrimo’s actions, a number that’s growing every day. Full Huffington Post Artical

Officer Larry DePrimo, a man, purchases a pair of boots and socks gifting them to a homeless man. This is an example of the milk of human kindness. There was a time in this country before it was undermined by the the progressive movement that charity was handled family’s, churches and civic groups. It’s a sad truth that whatever the government pays for, it gets a huge surplus of. In our world there is a slow take over of governement atempting to monopolize the the spigot of human kindness. What was once almost exclusively given freely (a hand up) is now almost exclusively monopolized by government officials through tax collection and redistribution. Sadly, because of the limitless bounty of handouts the milk has gone sour in many places. I salute Office Larry Deprimo for helping his fellow man, for his human kindness.

Stand Right Here, Don’t Flinch

Top 10 Low Pass Flybys. After you get past the cliche Top Gun scene, this video gets excellent.

Keith Shaw’s Radical RC 1905 Wright Flyer Project Part 1

This series of posts created from email correspondence between Keith and I. He’s really done a lot of neat things to this kit. Expect a new report every Thursday for at least 5 weeks. Keith is in the AMA Hall of Fame. He is one of the fathers of modern day electric flight, a superb scale builder and solid modeler in many ways. Read more on the AMA website: Autobiography of KEITH SHAW

You can meet Keith every year at the Mid-America Flies electric fly in where he and Ken Myers of the EFO club host the longest running electric power meet in the country if not the world. Both are AMA Hall Of Fame members. Lots of scale modelers attend this event. Your sure to see many very nice hand built models here. The event is usually held in June and is always announced in the Ampeer Newsletter.

On to the first installment of Keith’s 1905 Wright Flyer Project:

First up is the dummy engine and magneto. Engine is made from foamboard, card stock, bits of lite-ply, dowel, and the chain is a section from a cheap necklace. Magneto is carved from pink foam.

Pilot is from Toys R Us, a “True Heros Fire Rescue, Robert Portman”. Very close to 1/7th scale. Had to use heat gun and some carving to pose him onto the necessary prone pilot position. Figure comes with boots and a bright yellow suit with day-go emergency strips. Fortunately the strips were sewed on, so easily removed. The uniform required some tailoring to make it look more like a 1900’s suit. The collar, tie and cuffs are all thin painted card stock. Toughest thing was trying to dye the bright yellow cloth to look right. The fabric is polyester and not easy to color. Tried RIT, then some aniline dyes without luck. Finally took a black magic marker apart, diluted the liquid, ad soaked the fabric overnight. It came out a black-green, and looks acceptable. I still have to make a cap for Orville, looking for better photos of that type of “Duster” cap he always wore.

Keith

If I had it my way; The Jury of Common Sense

Oh, of course, I don’t have it my way nor will I in this lifetime. However, it does no harm to imagine how it would be in the words of a famous release from 1969 if I had it “my way.” Hear the song.

As we put criminal cases through a “Grand Jury” to allow citizens to decide if a case has enough merit to pursue criminal charges I think we should put all product liability and injury cases through a Jury of Common Sense. Our jury would be made up of citizens selected for jury duty. It’s purpose would be to decide if a case is worthwhile to trouble the courts and the accused with all the bother and expense of fighting out a case. The standard would be thus: If a the jury by “super majority (2/3) feels a citizen with a typical high school education would have naturally understood something, then you can’t sue for the injury or loss. Each party would get an equal presentation time. If it’s not compelling enough of a case to convince ordinary citizens in short period of time, it’s not worth burdening the tax payer or the defendant to pursue.

For example; Most of us would agree that we understand spilling fresh hot coffee in our lap might lead to a burn injury of some kind, then you can’t sue for it because you lack a basic understanding of temperature. It’s generally understood that it’s not safe to stand on the top rung of a step ladder, so you can’t sue for it because you were “extra stupid”. Likewise, if your too stupid to understand that you shouldn’t strike yourself with a hammer, the hammer should not require a label “just in case your a stupid ass”. Not should you be able to sue for smashing your thumb.

I’m in favor of removing the costs of these silly suits from everything we purchase and consume. It adds a big cost in insurance premiums as well as all the extra public servants living on our tax dollars that are required to deal with these nonsensical nitwits. Anything that reduces the tax burden on citizens needs to be seriously considered. Additionally, these newly available persons, besides being off the public salary might actually gain employment in the private sector where they are contributing to the production of products and services we all want.

That’s all I have to say about that,
Dave Thacker

Quick Quiz, win a free Radical RC Kit

Ok, here is the deal, I have a question. The first correct answer wins choice;; a free RadicalRC Micro Stick or Wicked Wing.

Trivia Question:

One of America’s most famous tours was shown to have originated from Alamitos Bay, California. Name it.

Post your answer, city, country and your kit choice as a reply.

If you don’t know the answer, help me get it solved. Please post a link to this question in your favorite model aircraft forum.

Rules:
Winner is the first person to successfully identify what I am thinking of in a reply to this post. Contest remains open until first correct answer is posted or I get tired of checking back to see if it’s answered. Shipping is valid to any location in the world that first class airmail serves and it’s legal to send it. Sorry, I can’t ship to the moon for which I am afraid there remains no registered post office. Dave….

Reluctance Motor In The News

Chrome users may need to refresh the screen to see embedded video.

A reluctance motor is a different breed. It is a form of a brushless motor. However, the brushless motors we use in the RC hobby, the number of stater teeth (each iron segment that is wound with copper wire) will always be 3,6,9,12…; A number always divisable by 3. Magnets will always number 2 or 3,6,9,12 some number divisable by 3. Each magnet is considered a pole. So, a 6 magnet motor is called a 6 pole motor.

The cause of investment into the development of Reluctance motors is communist China produces most of the materials described as rare earth that are used to produce modern high power magnets. China has limited the export of these materials and magnets in order to help China monopolize permanent magnet motor production. The reluctance motor does not need any of these materials and is hence much cheaper to manufacture. Also our ability to produce motors in the USA would not be hindered by the unholy alliance between government and business as is so common in socialist/communist states. Regardless of the type of government, anytime governments stick their fingers into business, supply problems and shortages ensue. Perhaps these developments will stifle the anti-capitalists this time. Sustained monopoly’s are only possible when governments collude with business (or nationalize industry). It’s an interesting side note to mention there have never been any long lived monopoly’s that were not created and maintained by government regulation.

Clean Tech Open 2012 Winner HEVT

According to HEVT the spot price for neodymium increased from $19 a pound in 2010 to $129 a pound in 2011.

HEVT Hybrid Electric Vehicle Technologies

Many times technologies are developed and press releases fly all over the internet. These products offer great promise yet often the creators are just looking for somebody to buy the technology and when they are unsuccessful (most of the time) we never see the great new products. This development strikes a different tone with me, I feel this very well could be the beginning of a new paradigm shift in motor technology. Lets just hope it makes it down to us modelers sooner rather than later.

Gigaom Story: An Electric Motor That’s Ditched The Rare Earth Materials

Reluctant Hero’s (The Economist)

Learn more about Switched and Synchronous variations here: Reluctance Motor Wiki

Many photo’s and drawings: Google Images Reluctance Motors

Can you think out of the block?

I love all things interesting mechanically or engineering wise. Check out this engine project. Great engineering and thought whet into this. You can tell by how simple it is. Any dummy can engineer a solution with great complexity. Genius is in working out simple solutions. Notice carefully how few parts he made or modified. While not a new idea, it’s well executed.

BLACK FRIDAY SPECIALS AT RADICAL RC

SPECIALS RUN ALL WEEKEND

Check out all our Black Friday specials. Radical RC Site

Airtronics SD-10 Radios! Limted stock, Reduced Price Plus we add a BONUS 5CH 92124 RX.
Radio Sets

Remember the Cox free flight models that were so fun to convert? These are pre-painted, the fuse is in 2 halves so you put your radio gear in easily. We have 3 types in stock WITH brushless motor. Add your own esc, battery, servos and RX. $22, Phone in only!
Micro Spitfire
Micro ME-109
Micro P-40

Thunderbird 54 ESC: HERE Only $36 – SPECIAL PURCHASE

Thunderbird 18 ESC: HERE Only $23 – SPECIAL PURCHASE

APC Props; ANY order containing APC Props, For every 2 props you purchase, we’re going to ship you 3 Get them now.

Buy 3 get 4 Carbon Rods Special. Minimum purchase 6 rods, Each rod, strip or tupe that you order 3 rods of, we’ll ship you 4! Order each part number in multiples of 3 to get this special. Root category link:Carbon Rod.

Radical RC Kits; Under 40$ kits $8 refunded; $41 to $75 kits $12 refunded, $76 and over, $25 refunded. Now is the time to get that Micro Stick, Mini-Stick, Wright Flyer, whatever you’ve been wanting out of the Radical RC line of laser cut kits. Radical RC E-kits

FLASH CA, Accelerator and Thread Locker HERE

This site supported fully by Radical RC. Please give us a visit and see if there is anything we can help you with today.

Balsa Kitchen? Killer RV Upgrades

Who hasn’t at one time or another considered converting a bus or some other service vehicle to an RV. You might enjoy The Travel Channels show Killer RV Upgrades. Find a Grumman Albatros converted to an RV complete with a balsa kitchen. (Chrome users may have to reload this page to view video player.)

Equality and Freedom

A wonderful lecture given at NASA Langley. An interesting and engaging talk about equality, freedom a how government measures reduce freedom, opportunity and wealth for all from the bottom to the top. 53 minutes.