SASS
UPDRAFT
for May & June, 1998
Upcoming Meetings
7 PM at the flying field -- Mondays, June 8th; July 13th; August 10th
(Meetings are held on the 2nd Monday of the month unless otherwise noted)
Upcoming Events
NWSS 2-Day TD Contest at Mt. Vernon: June 6-7
SASS Club TD Contest: June 20th
SASS Poly 2-Function Contest: Saturday, June 27th
SASS HLG Contest: July 4th
Soar '98 2-Day TD Contest at 60 Acres: July 11-12
High Start
by Waid Reynolds <waid@aa.net>
J Field Improvements. Things are getting way too civilized with porta potties at the flying field! What will they think of next -- a cafe and beer garden? Pete Hinze in particular has worked very hard to achieve these improvements and deserves many accolades for a job well done.
J Wednesday Training Sessions. With daylight savings time in effect again it's time to brush off your instructor's credentials and donate some time to helping others get started in RC Soaring. Help is needed every flyable Wednesday after work.
J Fun One. Who will be the first to fly their Fun One? I'm ready to cover the wings and tail of mine. Hope to have it airborne in time for the Wallowa trip coming up June 26th. The F1 is an extremely easy build. The only problem I have encountered is the poor quality of the trailing edge stock provided for the ailerons. Ole warned me (from his experience with the CR Blazer) that the fuse tends to crack near the wing attach points after a few hard landings. I reinforced this area with some Kevlar and epoxy. You might want to do the same.
J Stylus Stolen!. - SASS member Paul Mckee < paulMcKee@compuserve.com> of Everett reports the theft of a radio: My new (3 month old) Airtronics Stylus w/sailplane card & hard case was stolen from my locked vehicle while parked in an employee parking lot yesterday. I know it's a long shot that anyone from this list will come across it, but just in case, here are the few distinguishing characteristics (mostly for you Pacific NW'ers) - It was in a black ABS Plastic hard shell pistol case made by SKB. I modified the standard blue Airtronics neck strap with a mini-carabiner to replace the regular hook. The sailplane card was in the transmitter when it was stolen. Planes in memory: Zagi, Heron, 2MBeater, 2MNoCrow. Channel 50 Module. The manual that was stolen I had cut about 1/4 inch off the top, bottom and right sides and clipped the right corners at a 45 degree. angle to get it to fit into the case better. There were 2 planes and my Sirius charger in the car with the transmitter - didn't take 'em. All the manuals for the radio were also in the car - just the generic Stylus manual was stolen - the sailplane and memory module manuals were left behind. Q
President's Message
By Bob Brewer, SASS
President <airbrew@quidnunc.net>
A BEAUT OF A BUTTE -- May 16, 0500 hours: Stumble around in dark to mount roof box on Cherokee. Following 14 cups of coffee I am on the way to Jeff Kasner's in sunny daylight to load up for a breakfast rendezvous in Monroe with Doug Kyllo, Ole Skotvold, John Fuller and Russ Lee. Target - to mount an assault on Chelan Butte with an array of thermal and slope planes. Armed with cell phones, the four vehicles of "Team Danger" roared over Stevens Pass, stormed through Leavenworth, Cashmere, Entiat and prepared for the final attack on the south shore of Lake Chelan. Chelan Butte "road" winds south from about 2 miles west of the town of Chelan for 3 miles with very steep switch backs to 3,834 ft. This presented no problem for the pickups of "Team Danger" however, Russ Lee's sports car overheated near the top. Upon arrival we immediately dismounted and set up a perimeter and sent reconnaissance patrols over the 10+ acre dome that returned with reports of light lift in several directions, ominous microwave relay towers, several parasail groups and most critical, a pair of port-a-potties.
While setting up my Dove for light lift Ole and Doug flew their Climax and a Whippet off the north slope and Doug promptly lost contact with his Whippet over a ridge which sent him searching down a draw out of sight. When he didn't returned Ole followed and 30 minutes later both returned with no Whippet and vague reports of a large snake sighting. How large remains uncertain.
After 2 hours of light lift flying with Doug's ASW27, Russ's ASW22, my Dove 2 and Ole's Climax we were able to switch to a southerly ridge for better lift where anything would fly. Those with Zagis were able to do battle with Jeff's Sidewinder and John's F-21. Considering their killer instincts, the E.P.P. pilots showed uncharacteristic restraint by not attacking the scale planes. Russ and Doug were able to work their scale ships quite a distance down towards the Columbia river and back up where the landing area was pretty good if you avoided the widely scattered rocks. This SE facing ridge requires a hike of l/4 mile with a steep uphill climb back that required several rest stops. At the top is a microwave lens array about 5 feet above the ground. John Fuller reports that he felt invigorated walking in front of them. Members are requested to report any unusual behavior in case he needs help.
The hoped for flight of Doug Kyllo's 5 meter was delayed because of insufficient lift in the best landing areas however, the site is well worth the trip since the slopes work well with a wide range of wind direction and the view of Lake Chelan and the Columbia river is spectacular.
"Team Danger" withdrew from Chelan Butte at approximately l800 hours. savoring our wind burns and a battle well fought. We returned via Blewett pass and I-90 to avoid possible ambush on the assault route. Finis.
Good Flying
Bob Brewer Q
According To Pete
By Pete Hinze
<phinze@juno.com>
FIELD MAINTENANCE -- Now that we have on-field storage facility (no, not the toilets) it is amazing at how much "stuff" the club has acquired. However, we noted that while we had a "Weed Eater" we did not have a regular engine powered lawn mower. The field does not always get mowed by County Parks as regularly as we would like and this machine could be invaluable to cut high grass in way of winches, retrievers, landing zones and areas for ground launches.
In the last UPDRAFT we asked for a possible donation of a useable mower from someone who perhaps had purchased a new one. BINGO ! That plea was answered by Louis Hutton. He had purchased a new one and was glad to let us have the old one. It starts and runs fine (if you remember to turn on fuel valve). Galen Davis used it recently to clear a large area for he and Russ Lee to ground launch their scale sailplanes. It will perform even better in the future as the blade has been sharpened.
Kudos to Louis for his gift of this most valued asset.
While on the topic of grass cutting: Mike Dooley has learned through conversations with County Parks that a shift and reduction of personnel might mean that the field will be cut less frequently this year. He suggests that if we could acquire a small riding mower then we could keep an area and cross field strip(s) cut for winch lines while waiting for County Parks to cut the whole field.
This is subject to Pro and Con. First, I personally think that that keeping the grass mowed on a regular basis should be wholly County Parks responsibility just as they mow other parks. I doubt that ball players, tennis players, joggers and other users of parks are expected or required to mow the grass. If we were to acquire a riding mower and set precedent by cutting just a portion of the field then County Parks may just back off and leave it for us to do all or most of the time. Secondly, a riding mower is expensive and certainly beyond this years budget. I would expect a donated one to be well past its prime and in either event I wonder how well these machines hold up, how much service and operating expense and who assumes the responsibility for maintenance and operation?
If you have any thoughts, ideas or experience on this subject then pass them along to Bob Brewer or any Board member.
NOVICE CLASS -- The first two Thermal Duration contests attracted a total of only FOUR Novice contestants. I am not a contest junkie but it is fun spending a pleasant day in good company and its inexpensive entertainment that sure beats hanging out in taverns.
Perhaps I lack that certain sensitivity or false pride but I do not shy away from standing in the launch line with my simple 2 meter stick and skin "Spirit" while on either side are expert fliers sporting $1000 full house, state-of-art models. I submit that this is not life or death; this does not career make or break and 100 years from now no one will remember how you scored or that you never made landing points. All arguments notwithstanding it appears that novices are not of their on free will going to mix it up with the "Big Boys"
It has therefore been suggested that there be contest(s) for Novices only. Bill Mitchell suggests this and that it should be held on a week day to attract the retiree late entries into R/C gliders. I think that would be unfair to the Novice that still works for a living but still has only put his toe in the water, so to speak. The contest could be very much along the lines of John Fullers Two Function contest. Inasmuch as virtually all Novices start out with a 2 meter polyhedral I am inclined toward that as a requisite. Maximum landing points could be awarded for any part of the model inside a 50' square (not a circle). Scoring could depend on the turnout. If there were a lot of fliers then Fullers Function of discarding the lowest task score would apply. If the turnout was small then permit 2 or even 3 flights per task and score only the highest one, similar to free flight scoring. There might be an open class which would include larger than 2 meter but same rules and possibly a class for any size 2 function poly but with landing assist and using the normal landing lines.
For launching the Hi-starts would probably be preferred although there will have to be some testing to see if there are at least two with about the same characteristics. Maybe use both winch and Hi-start with the task using winch one or two minutes higher than for Hi-start?????
It is preferable that the CD for this proposed contest be someone experienced in these things. Will all volunteers please stand and be recognized................Hey ! that was a great response fellas but I think I better do this myself. I'm thinking that the Saturday of July 18 might give me time to think this out some more, and, more importantly, get some input from the rank and file as to whether they want it and how they want it. Give me a couple of weeks then watch the field bulletin board for how it goes.
Over and out.......Pete Hinze Q
SASS HLG
Contest -- April 4th
By Adam
"Red" Weston < adam.weston@pss.boeing.com>
April 4th changed the Seattle Area Soaring Society's 60-Acre Park into hand launch glider central! Over 30 people turned out for the hand launch how-to. This was followed by a hotly contested battle to be proclaimed the best HL glider guider in Seattle. Throw in a raffle and a pretty nice day and you have the SASS's first HLG contest of the year.
Two classes were flown, Sports-person and Expert. The Sports-person class saw many of the budding HLG'ers in the area participate in their first contest. There was a good variety of planes being flown, from a Pitch Moth and a Chrysalis to a Tactical Err and an Obsession C! Tim Naugler took honors for first place with Jon Bryan and then Wayne Farwell not far behind. We all look forward to seeing these guys catch the bug and show up for the rest of the contests this year.
In the Expert class, the area's big guns showed up (minus one Pearson). The light breeze and partial overcast made for limited thermal activity so light planes were the ticket for the day. The few thermals that did blow through had virtually all of the planes in them. Only two flights exceeded 2 minutes, a four minute flight was turned in by both Joseph Conrad and Darrell Clark in the last round. In the end, Steve Cameron took first with his RG-15 Orbiter, Phil Pearson and Joseph Conrad were second and third with their Pearson designed Sun Spots.
I would personally like to thank everyone who participated in the event and those who helped me pull this all off. Special thanks go to Ann Wagner and Leah Erb for keeping the round times and helping me with scoring. It's great to have all this participation at the field, and I look forward to seeing everyone (even those that didn't make it out) at our next meet!
The next club contest (2m and open CD: J. Johnson) is April 24th and the next HLG contest will be May 16th.(click here for HLG contest details)
Final Standings...
Sportsperson Class
Tim Naugler Pitch Moth 4706
Jon Bryan Tactical Err 4337
Wayne Farwell Climax 4026
Mark Bryan Chrysalis 3066
Harry Sandoval Obsession C 2008
Expert Class
Steve Cameron RG-15 Orbiter 4692
Phil Pearson Sun Spot, Tactical Err 4657
Joseph Conrad Sun Spot 4576
Adam Weston Monarch D 4018
Bruce Kimball Bob 4009
Darrell Clark Wizard 3703 Q
Thermal
Duration Club Contest -- April 25th
By Adam
"Red" Weston < adam.weston@pss.boeing.com>
Novice
Pete Hinze
2M
1. Jeff Johnson 4585 Super V 2M
2. Dave Beardsley 4401 Super V 2M
3. Rene Cespedes 3889 Super V 2M
4. Darrell Clark 3817 Monarch 2M
5. Doug Buchanan 3587 Super V 2M (borrowed Dave's)
6. Dennis Otter 3352 Vulcan
7. Russ Young 3200 Wee-gilante
8. Adam Weston 2665 Monarch 2M
Sportsman Unlimited
1. Tom Brooks 4640 Alcyone
2. Adam Weston 3429 V-gilante
3. Russ Young 2874 Wee-Gilante
4. Dennis Otter 2770 Emerald
5. Bob Brewer 2348 Prism
Expert Unlimited
1. Dave Beardsley 4826 Super V 1000
2. Rene Cespedes 4815 Super V 100
3. Jeff Johnson 4690 Diamond
4. Doug Buchanan 4124 Laser 3M
5. Darrel Clark 3867 Mako
6. Ole Skotvold 3724 Spectrum
CD: Jeff Johnson
The day was a beautiful day in April for the first contest of the year; that is, it wasn't raining! Early on it was cold with a mild breeze, that cleared to a 60 degree day with scattered cumulus. The lift, when you found it, was very good. If you didn't find it, and it wasn't always easy to find, it was a short round. We ran five rounds; one 5 minute task, 3 rounds with a 7 minute task, and one round with a 10 minute task.
In an attempt to make the weather less of a factor, I decided to break the contest into two groups, 2M and unlimited, with short windows for each. I usually ran a 20 minute window for 2M, and a 35 minute window for unlimited. I still think these are a little long, but until we get either more contestants, so that we just line up and launch for each class, or the energy to fly man on man, this method seemed to work better to me than the long launch windows we used last year.
All in all I think that everyone had fun, knocked the rust off the contest ships, and vowed to practice more in the weeks to come to prepare for the next club contest, scheduled for May 23, 1998.
Thanks Jeff for a great contest!
-RED and other fellow participants Q
SASS HLG Contest -- May 16th
By Adam "Red" Weston
< adam.weston@pss.boeing.com>
Contest Directors were Phil Pearson and Joseph Conrad.
A good breeze and partly cloudy skies, made for one of the best days of HL thermalling all spring! Thermals were abundant but fast moving, the trick was to get in them and stay in them!
Final Standings...
Sports-Person:
1. Steven Cheldelin - Climax - 5701 3. Wayne Farwell - Climax - 4897
2. Mark Bryan - Tactical Err - 5312 4. Eric Dye - Maple Leaf - (injured, DNF)
Expert:
1. Steve Cameron - Orbiter RG15 - 5603 4. Darrell Clark - Wizzard - 4407
2. Phil Pearson - SS Omega, etc - 5128 5. David Beardslee - Kitty Hawk - (DNF)
3. Adam Weston - Monarch RG15 - 4954 Q
2-Function Contest -- May 30th
By Pete Hinze
<phinze@juno.com>
I am reporting on this outing for John Fuller as the rigors of CD for this contest have left him so exhausted that he would not be able to respond before press time. Just as in the past, this activity came off without a hitch and everyone had a truly great day. Thanks, John, for a splendid job well done.
We had a real cross section of fliers and talent ranging from Danielle Knight (Sherman's daughter - about 8 years) through mature and good looking guys like me and Oberto and on up to old geezers like Bob Brewer. The real sleeper in this bunch was Dick McDonald. This was only his second contest and he has garnered a trophy from each one. Keep that up and someday soon he'll be flying up there with the "Big Boys" like Sherman Knight. It just astounds me to watch Sherman repeatedly spec out that nondescript, lack-luster TG-3 foamy. I swear, he could make time and landing points flying Japanese Origami (folded paper).
The end results of all our labors were as follows:
NOVICE 2M NOVICE UNLIMITED
1st, Ron Wilson 1st, John Oberto
2nd, Charlie Waugh
3rd, Dick McDonald
SPORTSMAN/EXPERT 2M SPORTSMAN/EXPERT UNLIMITED
1st, Mark Bryan 1st, Sherman Knight
2nd, Jonathan Bryan 2nd, Ole Skotvold
3rd, Pete Hinze 3rd, John Fuller
We went through six car batteries, mauled a winch and its anyone's guess how much winch/retriever snarled line went into the garbage can. It was all worth it for a perfect day of flying and, best of all, the company of a bunch of good old boys playing with their toys. ( It was also a good time to catch up on all the latest jokes about Viagra!).
Come Wednesday evening all the damage will have been repaired and the batteries will be charged up so we hope to see some big turnouts. If you don't need help then come practice ( and bring some new Viagra jokes).
One final thought. With all the equipment now stored on the field, maintenance required to keep things in good order is going to be difficult considering the lack of power, light and time. There appears to be a consensus that the winches, retrievers, batteries, hi-starts, etc. will be maintained in best possible condition by restricting their use to regularly scheduled club events such as the Wednesday evening practice sessions and contests. The equipment will not be available for impromptu use at other times. Q
Sloping At
Magnusson Park
By Chris Erickson
<cerikson@precisionimages.com>
Hi All, Had a good time sloping my Dragonette at Magnusson Park Saturday. I was bummed because we had a North wind Saturday because I was hoping to fly the D at Gasworks, but I couldn't think of a N facing park with a hill. I happened to be near Sandpoint to look at a car, when I decided to take a look in the park, and lo and behold a big grassy hill facing N! It's not very steep, so the lift/wind ratio seem to be about 1:5, but with the D and careful flying you can milk it for some fun flying. I had a good time there, the view is nice and the D thrives on little puffs of slope lift so I was there for 4 hours. I think the Red Herring would do well there too. With these small planes, I think that urban slope sites may be more and more findable and flyable. You don't need near as much room with a small plane. The only drawback is when I was packing up, I heard a sound like a small gas engine in the air! I looked up and sure enough, there was a wet power, high wing plane cruising around. Where is the RC field at Sandpoint? I guess I need to drive there on the way in next time and put a card on the frequency board so I don't shoot down or be shot down! Q
From The Internet
(Thanks to Mark Morland
<markm@morland.aa.net> for forwarding much of this
material)
Subject: Driving directions to
Saddle Mountain
From: Chris Erickson cerikson@precisionimages.com
Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 1998 10:12 AM
Here are directions to flying sites on East Saddle Mountain, out in the Columbia Plateau. Go ahead and post them on the web site.
Take I90 east to Vantage, cross the Columbia River, exit on the E shore immediately after the bridge, head S on Hwy 26. Proceed a couple miles until the exit for Hwy 243, turn here to go S to Beverly and Schwana. You will cross Crab creek after passing the Texaco station in Schwana, ahead on your left you will see large cliffs and sand dunes, you will be flying at the W peak visible from this point. Continue S on Hwy 243 until you reach the turnoff for Mattawa, on 24 SW road. Turn L to reach Mattawa, about 20 miles S of Vantage on the E bank of the Columbia. Head E out of town on the only main road, go one or two miles until you come to "R" road. Turn N on "R" road, you should see the road ahead proceeding straight at Saddle Mountain for as far as you can see. Drive through farm fields until the road crosses a canal and splits in two, take the left fork on the left side of the fence, still heading N. In another mile or so the road forks again, take the left fork which should immediately head down into a large creek wash, back up the other side, and turn north again. Stay on this road, at junctions just stay on the obvious maintained road until you are on top of Saddle Mountain. At this point the road forks E and W. To the east you will see a couple large microwave stations. The road is closed at that point, the sign includes the words "this means you" and "believe it", they probably have motion sensors beyond that point so I wouldn't try it.
To the W is the sweet little summit area I like to fly. Turn L on the W fork and proceed about 1 mile to a wire cattle gate. A note on gates: Typically these gates are OK to go through as long as you leave them as you find them, please help assure access to our flying spots by following all posted regulations and following "leave it as you find it" range gate etiquette. Anyway, proceed through the gate , ignore the small obvious bump visible 500' SW of the gate, and keep going W about 1 more mile to where the road forks again. The right fork heads down the hill to the N to dead end at some power lines. Straight ahead you should see a little saddle, with a small rocky summit about 150' above it. Park at the saddle and walk your gear to the top. This is the western edge of East Saddle Mountain, about 1500' above the Columbia. You have good flying exposures to the S, and excellent flying exposures from SW to NE from this summit. Due to Saddle mountain's exposed position in the Columbia Plateau this site should have a very high number of windy days. Also, the entire N face of the ridge accessible once the road reaches the top is excellent in a N or NW wind due to the large relief and isolated nature of the mountain. Very big, smooth lift. Good camping can be found in some of the numerous draws and gullies reached by the many spur roads passed on the way up. Approximate driving times: Seattle to Mattawa , about 2.5 hours, Seattle to W summit, about 3 hours.
Subject: Spy report of new DAW
plane....
On Sun, 12 Apr 1998 15:56:35 -0400, John Roe
<Sensei_John_Roe@compuserve.com> wrote:
Happy Easter Everyone! We are blessed with GREAT wind and weather today in LoCal, and Dave Sanders took advantage of this to test fly a new kit soon to be released. I think this will be yet another one that sells zillions. It's a 1/5th Scale KA-6, done nearly exact scale. 117" wingspan, two-piece with aluminum rod joiner. Cool scale wheel to land on, balsa tail otherwise ALL-EPP. Wing loading about 13 ozs./ft*2 Price.....to be determined...... Under $200........ Comes with aero-tow nose release system, and provision for conventional winching as well. I HAD A BLAST tearing up the slope with it today, and can't wait to get it out to the winches for some thermal evaluation. This plane is a winner, and opens the door for a whole new class of EPP planes, planes with class and performance to rival the BIG $$ fragile glass slippers of the scale elite! (well maybe.. ;-) Sorry to "foam" at the mouth but I had FUN! Dave is a tireless designer and
kit builder and should be congratulated for -in my opinion-doing more for this hobby than almost anyone has.
John Roe
Laguna hills, Ca
DURABLE AIRCRAFT MODELS
http://www.globalpac.com/damkits/index.HTML
In this web page you will find a truly unique product in remote-control Power Slope Scale (PSS) products.-Durable Aircraft Models (DAM) manufactures glider kits that are semi-scale representations of actual powered aircraft. The kits produced by DAM fill a gap in the PSS kit market by offering kits that are more durable than composite kits and more true to scale than currently offered foam kits. Additionally, DAM kits are bigger than most PSS kits on the market. Because not everyone has the time or skill to build a scale model from scratch, DAM offers an expanding line of quick building, good looking, durable and affordable kits.
Subject: Dynamic Soaring Video
Update
On Mon, 23 Feb 1998 14:39:58 -0500, "John M. Roe"
<Sensei_John_Roe@compuserve.com> wrote:
I think you guys are going to like it- the first FULL HOUR is nothing but Joe Wurts flying his Synergy, Diamond and a few minutes of a foamy in the Dynamic style. Mostly the Diamond. I have him flying right at the camera and turning, where you can see and hear the plane hit the wind delta, as well as lots of aerobatics using DS energy. (Ever seen someone do true snap-rolls with a molded F3B plane at 50' and recover with almost no altitude loss and energy to spare?) I also have some fun "control line" shots with Joe flying around and around the camera at warp speed while commenting on how dizzy he's getting. I now have watched the whole thing several times, and don't get tired of it, but then I'm not normal... If you thought "fast" meant a 50 oz wing-loading at Point Fermin, or an F3B speed run, or an unlimited slope race, the last 15min with the Diamond will show you what is really fast...And Joe STILL claims I haven't seen "a really GOOD" day yet...
To get one, and help out Skip Miller, Ben Clerx, and Joe Wurts in their attempt to win the worlds first F3-J championship for the United States--John Roe, 25331 Pike Road, Laguna Hills, Ca 92653. Send a check to me, I will use what I need to cover copying and mailing, and send all the rest to the US team. Suggested donation is US $20.00
Thanks,
John Roe
Subject: Handlaunch Gliders
On Thu, 02 Apr 1998 09:14:10 -0500, Michael Waters
<handlaunch@cvn.net> wrote:
Some stuff, performance and construction that might be of interest -- I'll try to get some pictures on my web page soon. Something new, I call it the baby tail. It seems to have some advantages over the X tail and V tail... my opinion, but its all I want to fly now. I had a conversation with someone about fuse length, and they were saying how a shorter fuse made their gliders thermal tighter. I decided to check some extremes. I made one of my fuses verrry long. I made the tail volume verrry small, trying to make use of the extra moment arm to reduce drag. The standard logic hlg fuse is 30.5" V tail. 33.5 X tail. The baby tail is 44". Stab and fin are smaller than typical mosquito hlg tails! Stab 7.75" x 2.25", fin 3.25" x 2" average chord. Some very surprising advantages:
Lighter - even with the long tail, CG moved back. More tolerant of aft CG. Less drag (if you use a tail boom), so - higher launch, faster etc. Flies like its on rails, roll rate is fast, handling is fantastic. Thermals very tight, climbs faster!?? Much more resistant to tip stall!?? In fact I started flying with a wing that I rejected because of tip stall manners. Stronger (less mass). Substantially longer battery life. Some of these results, especially the tip stall thing, have me stumped. Hopefully some other people will try this, or at least come up with some answers. Tried it on a mosquito, preliminary same result, although you wouldn't believe the tail size, fin is 1.75" x 1.25"! Obviously the idea of long tail moment isn't new, especially in free flight, but I didn't think there would be this result with such small surfaces.
Two construction things found from playing with this: .025 Carbon pushrods, no sleeve, built in control horn - very light. I scratched my head on how to do this for a while. Sharpen one end. get some spectra braided kite line (thicker than Epsilon pull/pull line). I've got a bunch if you can't find any. Slide about 3/8" of line over the sharpened rod like a sleeve Stretch it out on the rod so that 1/4" or so of sharpened rod sticks out. CA entire sleeve in place. Now snap the rod in the middle of the spectra sleeve and bend back and forth to loosen - Instant control horn. Pierce the elevator with the carbon rod at an angle so that the "rod hinge" is over the elevator. CA. Sounds weird but its strong.
Other end: .025 music wire. Short piece, 1" or less. Bend, and drill .025" hole in servo arm. Hey my typing is getting faster. Take a 1/4" piece of nylon goldenrod 1/16 O.D tube. and slide the carbon rod and the piano wire into the tube. You can adjust length easily. You can CA if necessary, but it's adjustable if you don't. If anybody is interested, I'll put some pictures in my web page. Also, if you bend the wire into a 5/16" long "O" shape with a tail, the pushrod is trapped on the servo arm. I've found that with the baby tail, I don't need a pushrod sleeve in the tail boom. If anybody is still with me, I would be very interested in any feedback. minimum size of tail may be affected by pitching moment. - or, could make the tail even longer??
Mike W
Subject: Radio Control Models
With ATV
Sent: Thursday, May 28, 1998 12:47 PM
by Tom O'Hara W6ORG < TOMSMB@aol.com> P. C. Electronics
(http://www.hamtv.com)
R/C model flying with ATV aboard is bringing in new hams from that hobby. One can enjoy the pilots eye view by mounting a video camera looking through the canopy. The same can be done for R/C cars, boats and robots. Black and white cameras are down to $50 and color under $200 which brings the cost down to the affordable for most. For cameras, we suggest ATV Research - 1-800-392-3922. Our ATV transmitters are $99 to $169 - see page 7 of our 10 page printed ATV catalogue.
If you are not a licensed radio amateur, or your application is not legal per 97.113 or 97.111 of the FCC rules (amateur radio FCC rules prohibiting business, media, and other purposes, and for types of one way transmissions), you can still put video in R/C vehicles but must use transmitters type accepted under FCC part 15 (license free but range about 1500 ft) or FCC part 90 (business, public safety, etc but much farther distance) which are available through Plane Talk - www.planetalk.com.
You will need to determine which transmitter you want to use on the variables of size, battery weight, distance and application. Battery weight will be the most significant factor. The 80mw transmitter draws 80 ma at 12 VDC and the 1 watt ones draw 300 ma. Cameras draw anywhere from 50 to 200 ma. From the total current draw you and time on per flight you want, you can figure the amp hour rating of the 12 to 14 VDC battery you will need to use. The video transmitter boards are 2.25 x 4.0 inches or 3.25 x 4.0 inches if you want audio also for telemetry or listening to the engine loading sound.
However, putting a 1 Watt ATV transmitter right next to an unshielded 50 or 72 MHz R/C receiver with little or no front end selectivity can spell disaster. It may work fine up close, but as soon as the ship gets out a little ways, the R/C signal gets weak enough that the ATV transmitters energy captures the first mixer and down goes the aircraft.
This problem is much like those of us who, when we first got on ATV, had our 2 meter antenna too close to the ATV antenna and one interfered with the other. Likewise those who have fought desense problems with an inband ATV repeater know how important shielding and front end filtering are.
Of course the R/C receiver was not designed to operate with a 1 Watt transmitter a few feet away. The first thing to do is to put the receiver in a shielded box. Solder up some pieces of one sided PC board, thin copper or brass sheet or purchase a tin plated steel box from companies like Sescom (SB series, call 1-800-634-3457 for catalogue, SB-6 fits the TXA5 boards). Power each module from its own battery.
Right at the R/C receiver antenna input a low pass filter, to pass everything below 72 MHz but roll off 400 MHz, can save your ship from becoming a mangled mess. Drill a hole in the shielded box and epoxy in place the .22 uH inductor half in and half out. Solder the 33 pF caps - one inside, one out - from the inductor to the box with very short leads. Solder the receiver board ground to the box near the antenna input as well as a few other places directly or with short buss wire jumpers. Reconnect the R/C receiver wire antenna.
Before the next flight, place the craft far enough away to be just within it’s minimum signal strength range for full control. Then turn on the ATV transmitter and see if you still have full control. If not, as a progress reference, move slowly closer and note the spot where full control is regained. Then go back to the bench and try adding at the DC power input, a 1000 pF feedthru cap through the box. Same to the servo or other leads if necessary. That should keep the leads from conducting the ATV RF inside the receiver. In addition try changing the positions of the two antennas or signal wires and separating the R/C leads from the ATV leads to prevent cross- talk. Go back out and see if the changes and additions improved control range.
The ATV transmitter should be shielded and the power and audio lines filtered in the same way as the R/C receiver. Use small RG174 coax for the video lead with no bypassing greater than 100 pF. The camera may also need shielding.
The most efficient and practical antenna on the aircraft is a vertical dipole embedded in the tail fin if you have a total length of 13" available. There are plans for this on the R/C app note that comes with the transmitter board, and can be made with wire and RG174 coax.
R/C OR PORTABLE ATV DX The antenna is the most important factor in effective radiated power rather than the transmitter power. You want an efficient antenna that has a radiation pattern maximum in the direction and polarity of the receive antenna. That is why we suggest the vertical dipole or 6.5" whip with a ground plane on the craft or Diamond RH77CA antenna with a ground plane for portable. A vertically polarized omni is the most practical antenna for most applications. To receive you can make a four 6.5 inch long radial ground plane using a SO-239 and Diamond NR-770H, or build your own - see ARRL Handbook page 20.55. The receiver antenna must be above head height (6 to 10 ft.) to maintain line of sight.
Line of sight distance can be predicted given power, antenna gain, coax loss, receiver noise figure and bandwidth. Non line of sight cannot due to the different attenuations of the obstructions or reflections - you just have to try it to see what you get. One exception is temperature inversion skip which can duct even a 1 watt signal to be seen hundreds of miles away.
If you increase your radiated power or receiver antenna gain by 6 dB (4 times) you double the distance for the same picture. 3 dB (2 times) is 1.4 times the distance. Snow free P5 line of sight DX dipole to dipole or Isopole, aligned in their maximum radiation lobe to each other for 100 milliwatts is about 1/4 mile and goes to 1 mile if a KLM 440-6X beam is used at the receive end. With 1.5 watts it is 1 mile and 4 miles respectively. Past these distances the P unit picture snow rating roughly decreases by one at each doubling of the distance. 100 milliwatts on an R/C could still key up and be seen with a lot of snow in a repeater 10 to 15 miles away. Local frequency selection and local 2 meter ATV coordination channel use is strongly recommended to minimize interference during operation. 426.25 MHz is most used for R/C and simplex. 910.25 goes half the dx as 70cm.
ATV requires about 150 to 200 microvolts at the downconverter input for a snow free picture compared to 1 microvolt for good readable audio in a FM voice HT. This is due to the much wider bandwidth - 3 MHz vs. 15 kHz - resulting in a 23 dB higher noise floor. That is why ATV requires a little more attention to minimizing any RF losses (coax, connectors, construction, etc.), antenna gain, polarity and directivity than you would get away with on FM voice.
Some interesting RC stuff:
http://www.webcom.com/sknkwrks/welcome.htm
Subject: A rare sight at a rare
site
Dave Johnson <djohnson@sirius.com> asks:
...he executed a Lomcevak Is there anywhere on the web people can read about maneuvers like this? Or does anyone have a good book to recommend that I might find at the library? I know what an Immelman is, but I don't have the foggiest what a Lomcevak is...
On Mon, 27 Apr 1998 07:17:49, "Don Stackhouse @ DJ Aerotech" <djarotec@bright.net> (http://www.bright.net/~djwerks/) replied:
Dave, a Lomcevak is a much-misunderstood class of negative-"g", near-zero-airspeed maneuvers invented by the Czechs, where the gyroscopic precession of the engine and propeller is used as an additional flight control along with the three usual ones, aileron, elevator and rudder. Yup, that's right, you can't do a true Lomcevak in a glider unless you bring along some sort of VERY BIG gyroscope. In fact, it's very difficult to do a true Lomcevak with any type of model, because the inertia of model propeller relative to the inertia of the airframe is very low, in comparison with full-scale aircraft.
Although to many folks they look like a totally out-of-control gyration, they are actually precision maneuvers, with a specific definition of how they are supposed to look. However, they are NOT in the Aresti aerobatic dictionary, which is probably just as well; if they were, then they could be specified in compulsory sequences at aerobatic contests. There are a number of English translations of the Czech word "Lomcevak", but the most popular I've heard is "the way your head feels the morning after drinking too much plum brandy".
There are many variations of the Lomcevak, but they are generally divided into five major categories: The one most commonly seen, the "main" Lomcevak, is entered from upward inverted flight. As the airspeed decays to near zero, the pilot initiates an outside snap roll ("flick roll" for you Brits). The aircraft comes to zero airspeed while rotating about all three axes, and proceeds to perform three end-over-end negative "g" tumbles, each tumble 45 degrees to the plane of the last. The maneuver ends when the aircraft begins falling with enough speed for the airflow past the tail feathers to stop the tumbling.
There is another category similar to the "main", but entered from knife-edge flight. This one is particularly violent. The "cap" Lomcevak starts out much like a hammerhead turn, but as the fuselage rotates to horizontal at the top, a combination of precession and down elevator cause the aircraft to pivot about the wing in a perfect pirouette. The wing remains vertical during the maneuver. In the last two categories, the "positive conic" and "negative conic", the aircraft sweeps out the shape of a cone while pointed nose-upwards, with the bottom of the wing tangent to the surface of the cone during the entire maneuver. In the positive version, the nose is the apex of the cone, while in the negative version the tail is the apex.
Lomcevaks are terribly disorienting but otherwise fairly gentle for the pilot. The same CANNOT be said for the aircraft! All sorts of strange loads appear on the airframe, ones that were probably never conceived of in most aerostructures texts, such as high centrifugal forces on the wings. The worst effects seem to be reserved for the engine mounts, crankshaft and prop. There have been quite a few cases of major damage to these components during Lomcevaks. The Yak 18 for example, experienced four crankshaft and prop failures, and one where the engine was literally yanked off of the firewall by the roots. Shortly after that, the "powers that be" in the former USSR declared that anyone caught doing a Lomcevak in one of their Yak 18's would get an immediate one-way ticket to Siberia!
Probably the best explanation of the Lomcevak (and where most of the above comes from) is in the book "Aerobatics", by the great British aerobatic champion Neil Williams. This is an excellent book, one of the best available on the entire subject of aerobatics. It has an entire chapter on Lomcevaks. Look for it in your public library, and I've also frequently seen it in the bookstore at the U.S. Air Force Museum. If you're at all interested in aerobatics, I recommend you pick up a copy!
Subject: San Francisco Soaring WWW Sites
On Tue, 3 Feb 1998 10:35:12 -0800, "Bill Swingle" <removed> wrote:
The San Francisco Bay area of California has recently been honored with 4 new web sites dedicated to slope soaring (it's rough living in slope heaven). Check 'em out!
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/dlstone/ http://members.aol.com/Rpvi/flysites.html
http://www.agrmodels.com/combat.html http://www.agrmodels.com/bash.html
Bill Swingle
Subject: Tacoma Soaring Sites
From: Jeff Morris
Sent: Sunday, April 26, 1998 11:21 AM
If you're looking for some spots to fly in the Tacoma, gig harbor area, there are several people to contact who fly together quite regularly:
Tom Brooks, Gig Harbor (skeyedrftr@aol.com)
Enie Misner ,Tacoma (rpm14k@aol.com)
Jeff Morris, Tacoma (J450576@aol.com)
We usually fly north weather at Vassault Playfield (thermal) or Point Defiance Park(slope). West weather (slope and thermal ) -- gravel pit off of Grandview Dr., Tacoma. There are lots of other places we get together on the Tacoma side of the bridge as well. Contact one of us for times/etc.
Subject: Soaring in Spokane
From: Mark Morland
Sent: Tuesday, April 14, 1998 11:26 PM
There are soaring sites in Spokane, Riblets Winery I have been to. Dave Blackburn is a contact: blackbur@spk.hp.com looks like you could call him at Hewlett Packard. Other contacts:
Randy Holzapple
King Soft Water
Work: 509-487-5464
Home: 509-928-1550
Gary Brokaw
Home: 509-928-8416
2518 S. Bolivar Rd.
Veradale, WA 99037-9383
Subject: Spring Tune-up
From: Jim Porter
Sent: Sunday, April 19, 1998 8:35 AM
Dear Waid,
On behalf of CD Fred China and the Oakalla Hawks I wish to thank you for the coverage you gave our Spring Tune-up in the March-April SASS Updraft. The event is mentioned on the front page and a full contest announcement is on page 9.
It was very successful event, with some 20 participants, many of whom came from Seattle. Your promotion no doubt contributed to this. Unfortunately I was unable to attend, but I understand that Arend Borst was 1st, Fred China 2nd and Pavel Brzak 3rd. Arend and Pavel used F3J type hand tows instead of winches.
I will send the announcement for our May contest separately, as an attachment.
Thanks again,
Jim Porter, Vancouver, B.C. <jporter@vcn.bc.ca> (604) 929 1642 Q