critterhunter

OK, here's some response to the older messages...

Windmill aerators are very cool. Most people don't realize how this improves a pond. The water below 6 or 7 feet is very low in oxygen. You sink the aeration stone at the deepest spot you can find in the pond. The bubbles do add air to the water but the act of the water and bubbles rising is what really does it. It forces the water at the bottom to rise with the airflow and puts it on the surface where wind and surface exposure add more oxygen to the water. Many ponds suffer from what is called "turn over" in the spring. What happens is the temperture change in the water will cause the pond to turn over, bringing water with no air in it to the surface. This often kills a bunch of fish as they are starved for air. With aeration the bottom water is constantly being forced to the surface to add air to it, and as a result we don't see the kind of spring fish kills we once did on his pond. Also, aeration does a few more good things. It puts air at the bottom which allows micro organisms to live down there and feed on the sludge (dead organic matter like weeds and animals) at the bottom. They break down this matter and as a result it will prevent the pond from silting in...and even will deepen a pond as it breaks down the gunk. This also removes the "fertilizer" that the plants have been thriving off of, and thus you'll get less weed growth. The water quality also improves and clears a bit. The final benefit to all this is it increases the fish carrying capacity of the pond. Now fish, big and small, can live at the very bottom at all times of the year...not just when conditions permit...as they now have the air and food down there to feed on.

As for what I'd like to see in an RC outlet...Cheap! Lipos and brushless motors are WAY overpriced and you have to dig deep to find the deals. Most lipos are made in China and then the company just slaps a name on them and maybe does some quality testing. In other words, you are paying for the name. Dymond sells good 3 cell 2000ma 10C packs at $30 and World Hobbies is selling even cheaper lipos on Ebay now which I might try next. Even $30 is a bit too high. I'd like to pay around $20 to $25 for a 2000ma 3 cell pack at 10C or higher. A brushless motor in my opinion should not cost more than $30 unless it's some big monster for a larger plane. The BP21 is only $20 from Balsa. You can expect to pay about $50 or more for a similar motor from other companies, and lipos like the above are $60 or $70 from the "brand names". Speed controls....I'd like to see 25 to 30 amp brushless speed controls in the $20 to $25 range. RXs...A good full range RX will cost you $40 to $55. Like to see those in the $25 to $30 range. I did pick up a GWS 4 channel RX with crystal for only $21, but this "Pico" is only rated at somewhere between 500 and 1000 feet. Servos...$17 for a HS81 isn't bad. Now, if I could buy those for about $10 a pop that'd be more to my liking.

Fisher, by the way...after some more input on prop sizes for the BP21 and a plane weighing around 15 ounces there appears to be two choices to try. A 7x4 or an 8x4. I just picked up a 7x4 for my BP21 Challenger build (almost done by the way). I don't know if an 8" will clear the boom on the Challenger but you may want to try it on you're foamie. From what I've been told a 7x4 (less pitch than a 7x6) will lower the speed a bit but give you good torque. An 8x4 will give an even bigger increase in torque (from what I understand). I'm now using a Deans 4 pin plug to attach the BP21 to the 3 ESC motor wires. This will allow easy electronics/motor removals and engine swapping between planes. On my Stryker build I have the motor wires soldered directly to the ESC wires. On the Challenger the ESC wires have to reach the motor on the outside of the body. I didn't want to route them out the body, solder them, and then stuff them back into the plane. Now I just have a plug in a hole on the body near the motor that the motor simply plugs into. Next time I have to rebuild the Stryker I'm going to put these plugs on the motor and ESC. That way, if I blow a motor or want to throw it on another plane real quick I only need to unplug it from the ESC.