Topic: Guess what arrived this morning?

Anyway, I'm happy with it. It's a great little plane, dirt cheap, and as I've found out, surprisingly strong.

For our hill it's perfect, it loves the cold sinky air, with a bit of a blow helps the penetration. When all the foamies and light woodies (gentle lady etc) were grounded speedo was specced out in very weak thermals and doing aeros!

So if you haven't got one already, get ONE!

Here's a lawn dart landing. Need to flare with speedo or it's sticks right in.

Here's a lawn dart landing. Need to flare with speedo or it's sticks right in.

Poor thing.....

16-10-2011   19:45   International Hub   Received from Customs - charges to be paid
11-10-2011   11:01   International Hub   Awaiting Customs clearance
11-10-2011   10:53   International Hub   Received in destination country
07-10-2011   17:01   Heathrow Airport   Received in destination country
06-10-2011   17:43   Delivery Agent - HONG KONG - PTT   Forwarded for export
04-10-2011   16:18   Delivery Agent - HONG KONG   Collected from customer

Sadface.

What's the damage?

I haven't received the bill yet, I'm still trying to get through to the depot where its at to pay them - I might be able to get it tomorrow/Wednesday instead of waiting for the letter to come and getting back to them from that.

Definitely using EMS next time...

Definitely using EMS next time...

EMS?

Express Mail Service

What is the hong kong price for speedo?

Mine cost 55 plus 8 postage.

Duty us going to be 13 plus 20% of the value I think.

I think the total delivered price is likely to be the same whether you import or buy in uk.

I got caught once,

            Its gonna niggle you , the duty on your model is about 3 pound , But Royal mail want 8 IIRC .

                           Bob

There's 4 servos as well, so I assume they'll charge VAT for the whole order.

S'not too much bother though - I've got other things to do with my time for the next week or so other than building, and I've been stung by customs much harder before (ordering PC parts from the US...)

e: are they available from any UK shop/website without the import malarkey? I ordered from r2hobbies.com mainly for the colour - I was waiting for the red/black option to come into stock, still waiting for the yellow/black one too, which is the one I'll carbon sock/modify.

are they available from any UK shop/website without the import malarkey?

Try http://slopeside.co.uk - they are showing the red ones in stock but the yellow on pre-order as well, all at £55+£8ish postage.

Slopeside is run by Rob.Thompson who posts on RCMF.

I bought mine from slopeside. No problems, but beware it seems the kits can be different and vary in quality, especially with fittings/coverings.

Ah, I didn't realise there was a UK distributor. D'oh. Anyways, the notification came through - not half as bad as I thought... £14.85. £8 of which was the bloody "clearance fee".

It'll be arriving tomorrow

Try http://slopeside.co.uk - they are showing the red ones in stock but the yellow on pre-order as well, all at £55+£8ish postage.

Slopeside is run by Rob.Thompson who posts on RCMF.

And purely by chance (I'd never met him before!) Rob was present for the maiden flight of mine - supplied by slopeside. 

......I've been stung by customs much harder before (ordering PC parts from the US...)

.

Everyone I know who has ordered from the US has always been hit for duty. I get the feeling it's a tit for tat thing as NOTHING seems to get through. I've got distant relatives in the US, anytime I think of importing an expensive glider I think about getting in touch and getting them to send it to me with a happy birthday card      

Try http://slopeside.co.uk - they are showing the red ones in stock but the yellow on pre-order as well, all at £55+£8ish postage.

Slopeside is run by Rob.Thompson who posts on RCMF.

Was it previously Aerohut (or similar?)

Was it previously Aerohut (or similar?)

Rob was/is involved with aeromodelhut. But all of the glider stuff has been moved to slopeside now.

Don't know why. Shame they don't do Wacky Wednesdays on slope side though...

Everyone I know who has ordered from the US has always been hit for duty. I get the feeling it's a tit for tat thing as NOTHING seems to get through.

Looking at it from a slightly different perspective,  perhaps that's how it's meant to be, and the oddity is that so much stuff from the Far East escapes taxation?  We don't have this situation with other taxes.

Looking at it from a slightly different perspective,  perhaps that's how it's meant to be, and the oddity is that so much stuff from the Far East escapes taxation?  We don't have this situation with other taxes.

Different dept?

The only way to escape is to get the sender to Mark as gift.

So what was the chinese price plus postage plus duty?

Cheaper than 63?

Well, my entire order came to $130 - 4 x skinny servos and the kit. I had to pay $13 or so extra because I didn't choose the right postage apparently, and then the £14 customs...

I think for the kit on it's own, delivered from Hong Kong, comes to almost £63 exactly. Adding the customs just pushes it over the cost from slopeside.

If/when the yellow/black one comes into stock, I'll probably get it from slopeside - if only to avoid the hassle of extra charges and postage.

As an aside, I have ordered a few things from the US that have come through ok in the past, but the worst was £300 worth of DDR3 memory back when DDR3 was new and expensive, and customs slapped an extra £50 or so onto it, which didn't make me too happy. The thing that annoys me most is the time it takes for customs to do their thing, and that £8 charge from parcelforce on top of it all. 'Specially as I'm an impatient little bugger - I want it now, damnit!

Apologies for double posting - am I being a pleb not being able to find a "modify post" button?

Anyhow - it has arrived, nothing broken so that's good. Pretty well packaged in all honesty. Everything was taped down, bubble wrapped and plastic bagged in the cardboard box, which was then nestled in a snug fitting ~6mm thick tough polystyrene box.

You can tell it's a cheapo plane - the hinges have a bit of a step and there's some small bubbles/lumps in the fuselage moulding, but for ~£60 I don't think you can go very wrong. Those eurgle servos are tiny though - and I thought D47s were diminutive when I first saw them!

It'll be a week or two before I get building, but I can see it's going to be a relatively quick build... though how the FrSky Rx is going to fit is anyone's guess. I think getting an 8ch might have been a mistake for this one. fuse looks tough as well - much much more sturdy than the Mini Topsky I have. S'gonna be fun!

Apologies for double posting - am I being a pleb not being able to find a "modify post" button?

IIRC the modify button disappears after a couple of hours to stop people revising history weeks later.

As for the 8ch rx, they are pretty chunky by modern standards. TBH the 6ch isn't that much smaller. The D4FR is out now too which is a fair bit smaller.

I think the best arrangement is with the rx under the wing and 4 AAs squeezed into the nose (you need to cut a touch of the cockpit away to squeeze them in.)

It's also possible to de-case rx's and put a bit of heatshrink around the electronics, that saves quite a bit of space

Aye, I've already de-cased the rx... Having a look now I'm home, the Frsky is a bit big, I might swap over the 617FS from the Topsky as it's a couple of mm smaller - but then there's fitting the FrSky into the Topsky (the 617 is already a very snug fit). I'll see about a 4ch - though 6ch was my ideal choice, as I was playing with the idea of adding flaps for a laugh at some point, and didn't really want to get yet another rx. But, erm, it may well go that way

Just for interest ,
       I think its value as a gift can be £40 , but that includes the postage of said gift ,
                     I think you just pay import duty on whats over , its still a pain when it happens , and for anyone whos looking to buy 1 , dont buy a white fuse , its not as sturdy as the grey , dont ask me why they are different , but they are .
 
       So buy a grey fuse and spray it white , it will out last any standard white 1 which on the 3 ive seen are egg shell and need beefing up .

                          Bob

Forget the flaps it doesn't need it. Lands like a puppy without spoilerons. Then with spoilerons even slower. One of the few planes I have that are simple to land in 20 mph slopeside.

The 617 was a tight fit but will fit with an alua batt. See my previous pics.

I'd only add flaps if it was foam wing/socked fuse version. As said the standard one doesn't need them, or spoilerons really, I set them up but rarely used them.

Seems a lot of bother. Foam wings socked fuz. At 55 quid. Maybe one would be better off with a foamy....?

Is the appeal that it will fly in anything? You'd lose the light wind performance adding weight/strength.

Re spoilerons, I played with them today, they are certainly worthwhile as they do slow the speed. No comp required on my set up.

... though how the FrSky Rx is going to fit is anyone's guess. I think getting an 8ch might have been a mistake for this one.

As I may have mentioned earlier (or possibly in a different thread) I have the 7-channel FrSky TFR6 receiver in mine.  Fits "reasonably" comfortably under the canopy, being a little smaller than the TFR8 or Futaba 617.

Seems a lot of bother. Foam wings socked fuz. At 55 quid. Maybe one would be better off with a foamy....?

Is the appeal that it will fly in anything? You'd lose the light wind performance adding weight/strength.

Re spoilerons, I played with them today, they are certainly worthwhile as they do slow the speed. No comp required on my set up.

More of a project thing as everything is normally stick servo's in or cover with tape or laminating film. Socking because they don't last too long,seams start to split esp around the wing saddle bolts even on the grey fuse'd model, weight gain is marginal and although I only did a bit of a bodge on a ballast tube, it's made me overcome my fear of having a go as it's easier than I thought. Foam wing would be because I haven't done one before and I fancy a go. Results should be....interesting   

I try not to do light days TBH, I only get the chance to go on a Sunday due to wife working sats and having a young son, soon to be 2 ( or a daughter  ) and normally only 2 a month so I have to choose which sundays I go. Trouble is it's normally Saturday which is good. 

Spoilerons do work, just found I didn't really need them at Leek, used them a few times at first but didn't bother once I'd got used to the plane.

Hell yeah. Having only had one for 20 flights or so I can't vouch for the longevity, but on our local model wrecker slope it's doing well. 2 dart landings (one due to dodgy air and one poor landing) she's surviving better than the bigger stuff. I'm impressed so far. Great little plane.

Where's this model wrecker slope? Sorry mate Dassett is a relatively soft slope, not a wrecker by any means. The lift isn't great but in other respects it is fairly easy - especially landing, which is the main plane wrecker.

The NE corner is a difficult proposition though. Launching and landing hard. Landouts best avoided....

Edge has become difficult due to the landing restrictions. More's the pity.....

More of a project thing

That's pretty much exactly my thinking too - this speedo will be pretty much standard, my second one will get the socked fuse/flaps/rudder and I might even try to make a bagged wing for it - it's something I've never done before, and I might as well try it with something cheap and tough.

The TFR8 fits, but only just - its at a 45 degree angle just in front of the wing. I'll probably end up getting a 4/6ch rx for it.

Compared to building the topsky, the basic speedo looks like a much less involved build - and I'm quite looking forward to my first foray into carbon socking/bagging wings etc

Where's this model wrecker slope? Sorry mate Dassett is a relatively soft slope, not a wrecker by any means. The lift isn't great but in other respects it is fairly easy - especially landing, which is the main plane wrecker.

The NE corner is a difficult proposition though. Launching and landing hard. Landouts best avoided....

Edge has become difficult due to the landing restrictions. More's the pity.....

Tom, yes on the 2 days a year you turn up to fly it's easy. On the other 363 days not so much.

Tom, yes on the 2 days a year you turn up to fly it's easy. On the other 363 days not so much.

I've been flying there for years Jim. I know what it is like to fly there - from <5mph to 35mph+. When you have flown many different slopes you will know that what I say is true - BD tower slope has poor lift but a comfortable landing zone and a fairly easy environment otherwise.  yeah there a few rocks about,  but you would only hit them if you are landing out. I don't think there is a single obstruction in the grassy LZ other than a small trench/rut, which doesn't hold too much fear anyway.  It's not an easy place to fly in the sense of making a model do exciting things, but it doesn't eat models for breakfast in terms of smashing them up.  Yeah it's a poor slope but at least you will learn to fly well if you fly there a lot. 

having had a look in decent light, the rudder on mine is slightly kinked - there's "dent" visible in one side where its buckled slightly - not damaged in transit, rather it looks like it was like that coming out of the mold.

Will boiling water and a bit of pressure be enough to set the rudder straight? I'm not even sure it will affect it much aerodynamically, but there's a noticeable kink when looking straight down the fuse...

No problems with mine. I suspect slopeside vet them and send them back if sub standard. Then the Chinese send them out to the mail orders..

Had mine out today in about 16mph cold sinky stuff. Flew a treat.

having had a look in decent light, the rudder on mine is slightly kinked - there's "dent" visible in one side where its buckled slightly - not damaged in transit, rather it looks like it was like that coming out of the mold.

Will boiling water and a bit of pressure be enough to set the rudder straight? I'm not even sure it will affect it much aerodynamically, but there's a noticeable kink when looking straight down the fuse...

I must be having a senior moment....rudder? Do you mean the vert stab? Boiling water usually softens glass fibre up enough to be able to give it a twist, have some cold on standby to pour over as it might creep back slightly as it cools. Easy to over do it and bend too far.