Watchkeeper WK450 Mk (and thankfully only) 1:

The Labour government has (along with various other items of the defence inventory) finally abandoned this flying turd. Designed primarily to line the pockets of the military industrial complex in the UK and Israel, its operational use has cost taxpayers not much less than a half-million pounds per flying hour, beside being the best part of a decade late prior to doing nothing much.

Steve Webb Models

Only spoke to these guys week before last and now they've gone... and I once worked with an Emirates 777 captain from Oz who seriously considered renting in Frodsham in order to be nearest the store. Steve however is ill and we wish him a speedy recovery if indeed the condition is recoverable, and thank him for years of dedicated service.

Shopping has, by and large, moved online and what that means in real terms is that the variety of shops that littered for instance a Dickensian high street is gone for good, to be replaced by fulfilment centres that beside being off the human scale are butt-ugly inside and out.

Instead I've had to turn to Overlander, my supplier of choice, to supply a NiMH battery to power the RC receiver, along with a charger and cable to suit.

RC

Nothing associated with projects is ever straightforward, but then neither's life.

We'll use Futaba's 16SZ transmitter to control the flat-cat, as we've done for the half-dozen large-scale drones we've flown prior.

The journey of a thousand miles however begins online, as from the get-go we need to update the firmware on the transmitter.

Futaba recommend a 16GB SD carat I order along with a USB adapter to connect it to the laptop for the download and transfer.

We'll only use the side-stick on the left to control the cat, tho' with 7000 hours flying the Airbus from the left seat, I'll be used to that.

BS

That's a clip from the UK government regards the National Crime Agency's latest push toward... Border Security investment as outlined by the Prime Minister yesterday.

What we're developing is eyes to go to sea. In fact many eyes at sea: a technical hydra.

And in an effort to present as balanced a picture as possible, an extract from Russia's news agency describing further UK government funding for maritime surveillance in the Black Sea.

(It doesn't all have to go to BAE Systems, but the sun doesn't have to come up either):

It's On Tape

A not inconsiderable advantage of using air propellers instead of water is that the cat can be run along the ground for launch, or over sandbanks in operation. To facilitate I recommend a strip of adhesive steel tape be applied to the underside of the skis. They ship in 5m lengths, matching that of the skirting we've used for those skis.

When I worked in airliner simulators it was all about using 'commercial off the shelf' solutions (COTS) for building such devices, for if you didn't then you'd be leapfrogged by people like Loft Dynamics... who claim to cut the cost of training by ten or twenty:

https://www.loftdynamics.com/

Much as I love them, incidentally, by from the original suppliers to avoid B & Q's 25%.

LoL

Final round of the League of Legends world championship taking place in London, and a sponsor is Mercedes. Change creeps upon us all unnoticed, but two takeaways from this post:

(1)    Computer gaming is the world's most lucrative form of entertainment bar none.

(2)    The internal combustion engine is on it's way out.

The latter is a source of regret, and for my son vehicles with such engines are like how steam-powered traction engines were to me.

Ironic though that while auto-manufacturers are having to down-size drastically in the land of their birth, the very first in the shape of Mercedes ends up providing altogether different forms of driving seat.

Mounting Stress

In the event fitting the motors proves to be less hassle than fitting the tins, and here's the proof. I'll suspend the motors so that the props are largely protected from damage and the four of them will be pitched about the C of G, allowing the boat to be flown in free air as a quadcopter but also in ground-effect like a hovercraft. In this last case propulsion may be provided by the cruise-motors at the rear, using less energy in view of the fact that the lift-motors then need make fewer adjustments to RPM.

Am off now for a well-deserved tuna sandwich...