Updraft for January - February, 1999

SASS Updraft
Newsletter of the Seattle Area Soaring Society
Volume 11, No. 1
January - February, 1999

REMINDER: TIME TO PAY YOUR CLUB DUES.
The Treasurer reports that less than half of last year's members have paid their dues for 1999. You can mail your check or give it to Charlie Baumgartner at the next meeting.
Charlie's address is 4638 133rd Ave. SE, Bellevue WA 98006-2140

Upcoming Club Meetings
Lake Washington School District Board Room, Redmond
7-9 P.M., Monday, December 14^th and Monday, January 11^th at Rose Hill Junior High
(Meetings are held on the 2nd Monday of the month unless otherwise noted)

Slopin' Safari to Eagle Butte, March 20-21
Gentlemen, tape your foamies. Aerial combat begins the morning of March 20th at Eagle Butte.
God speed and may the best thumb win!
You never know what the Richland winter weather will offer -- anything from howling gales with subzero wind chills to balmy sunshine with gentle zephyrs and big, bombastic thermals -- all in the same day!. Bring all of your gliders from HLG to combat to speed to thermal. And, be prepared for any kind of weather. We'll meet for breakfast Saturday morning, 7 AM, at the Summit Inn on Snoqualmie Pass. From there it is about a 2 hour drive to Eagle Butte. Don't miss this trip to the premier NW slope. Remember, when it's raining in Seattle the weather is very likely to be dry and windy at Eagle Butte and the surrounding environs.
One important administrative detail -- our yearly Eagle Butte permit fee: each of us who plans to fly at Eagle Butte this year needs to make out a check for $10 to the Mid Columbia Soarers and mail it to Mid-Columbia Soarers Treasurer, John Reck, 1913 Forest Ave, Richland, WA 99352, phone 1-509-946-3264. Do this right away so that you are cleared to fly at Eagle.

In case you are not already tired of hearing about our field status, here's some more. On March 2nd the second "Share with Soccer" meeting was held at Parks & Recreation Dept. headquarters on Mercer Island. Attending were myself and Sherman Knight (SASS), Len Sherman (Free Flight), Mike Pearson (Rockets), Larry Quinnett (Dogs) and a variety of King County Parks officials. Dave Shipway and Gene Davernoy from Northshore soccer outlined their proposal for physical and scheduling changes that would be necessary. We and the other current users made it clear that we do not object in principle to sharing since we have been doing that for 20 years or more. The problem with soccer is in adding activities that are fundamentally incompatible i.e.: soccer goals, irrigation equipment and storage buildings in the way, scheduling conflicts, parking problems and flocks of soccer players chasing a ball - not watching for launching or landing planes and on and on.

Sherman Knight is providing invaluable help in this cause - give him a hug - no kisses please.

Winter parking: I have a commitment from Dave Haldeman (soccer field manager) to open a portion of their parking lot for our use this winter and spring. If this happens we will be required to open and close a gate when we leave. This use will cease when soccer activity resumes.

Behind the scenes; Pete Hinze has had two winches re-brushed for the coming season. If you haven't read Pete's masterful presentation to the State Parks, you should. It outlines in great detail how we can officially fly at Whidbey and elsewhere on park land with their blessing. Pete's hard work and attention to detail has provided the first agreement of its' kind that I know of. It will make it much easier to convince a park ranger that we are a responsible bunch. HAIL PETE! [Go Bob, Go!]

Invasion of the Twin Stars: In case you are one of the fanatics buying a Twin Star ARF there are a few advanced building and flying techniques you need to be aware of:

We look forward to more Twin Star technical innovations and flying triumphs over the course of the coming season.

Eagle Butte Reminder
by Waid Reynolds (Adapted from a note received from Wil Byers)

Rumor has it that springtime is just around the corner and that many of you are probably planning soaring trips to Eagle and Kiona Buttes. Please note that both Eagle Butte and Kiona Butte should be treated with the utmost respect and care if we are to be allowed to continue our use of these fine flying sites. In order to fly at Eagle Butte you must be an AMA member for insurance purposes, and you must follow all AMA safety codes. The same is advised for flying at Kiona Butte, which is overseen by the Bureau of Land Management.

Eagle Butte is privately owned and is leased by the Mid-Columbia Soarers. As a result, all pilots using Eagle Butte must have with them a current AMA card and must have in their possession a Mid-Columbia Soarers trespass card. No substitutions for the AMA membership requirement, such as SFA membership, are permitted. If you don't have a trespass card and need one please send your $10 trespass fee with your AMA number and address to:

AMA membership may be purchased through the Academy of Model Aeronautics at http://www.modelaircraft.org.

Pilots who are found in violation of these simple requirements will be asked to terminate flying at these sites. Please understand that you will benefit the soaring community at large by following the rules. Lastly, ALCOHOL CONSUMPTION WHILE FLYING IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN AT EAGLE BUTTE. Don't open a beer until your flying is over for the day. Q

While waiting for a prescription to be filled at the local pharmacy the other day, I noticed a rack of various inkjet printer media offered by Hammermill Papers. The particular product that caught my eye was their "Clear Decals" for inkjet printers. This looked like it might be an opportunity to make some attractive decorations for my planes without the need for much, if any, artistic expertise. The decal material is pricey at $16 for 10 sheets. But, a little money never stood between a kid and beautifying his toy gliders! To make a long story short... I printed some small SASS logos that I had long ago created in Corel Draw onto the decal material using my Epson Color 600 printer at its highest resolution of 1440 X 720 dots (drops?) per inch. The resulting copy looked very good. After allowing a day for the ink to dry thoroughly I cut out a couple of the logos, peeled off the backing (you need a razor blade to initially split the backing from the decal) and stuck them on the tail of my Spectrum. They looked good! No telling how long they will last in sun, wind and rain, of course. I'll find out the hard way over the course of the flying season. Even if their lives are fairly short, they are easy to replace. This decal material gives those of us with inkjet printers and some graphics software an easy way to gussy up our aircraft, toolboxes, winches, cars, etc.

I haven't looked, but I imagine that Office Depot and other stores of that ilk also carry the clear decal material by Hammermill. It may be produced by other vendors, too. And, you can probably get it cheaper on the Internet. It might be worth an electronic search. Add some color to your hobby -- give the stuff a try! Q

Thanks to Jeaneebee Skotvold's organizational efforts the evening of food and conversation at Coco's was most enjoyable. It's just too bad that she was out of town and could not join in the revelry. Jeanee we missed you! A good sized crowd turned out including many wives. I'm sure that many of the in-depth technical discussions ("It just tastes better." "No, it's less filling.") would have continued into the wee hours had the partners of the female persuasion not been there to drag their "boys" home at a reasonable time. This gathering was a great opportunity to get reacquainted with a bunch of guys that have been separated from each other by awful weather for the past several months. Hopefully, this kind of social event will be oft repeated. Thank you, Jeaneebee! Q

Lets see now, I've been "learning" to fly now for over 6 years , since spring of '92. It certainly hasn't been dull. They say we learn from our mistakes and on that basis I should have by now progressed to a place on the US team to world soaring championships. My biggest problem has always been gentle non-stressful landings but instead I have cartwheeled over all parts of 60 Acres. There have been other mistakes, too. I've been in the Poplar trees at the field; two trees off the field; landed on 116th St. and in the ditch; on the soccer fields and tall grass south of the field. I've launched with reversed controls and with the Tx set to the wrong airplane. On Whidbey Island I've crashed at all three sites and been in the tree at Sky Meadows and I've destroyed planes by flying across the sun. But, I presume that most everyone has done at least a few of those things at sometime. I consider them simple mistakes of learning or lapse of attention. However, to quote that famous philosopher, Forrest Gump, "Stupid is as stupid does" there are a couple of instances for me that were just plain stupid.

Not long after I had my first Zagi I was alone on Whidbey Island flying at Ft. Ebey. In the beginning there wasn't much wind but I didn't really know how much was enough. The Zagi couldn't hold altitude and by the time I put it into the bank it was about a third the way down. I went after it - very slowly and carefully. I got back up by tossing the plane up ahead of me and then climbing by pulling up on the tuffs of grass and weeds. Later the wind seemed to pick up a bit so I tried again with the same result but this time not so far down. And a third time - same thing. Later in the afternoon the wind really came up to 30+ mph and it was a wild time for a while. On the way home I stopped to eat and got to reflecting on how stupid it was for a crippled old man to be alone and climbing up and down that cliff face. One slip and I would probably have kept rolling right on out into Admiralty Inlet.

The other stupid act was this past Dec. 18th. The incident started on Wed., Dec 16 when we set up the winch equipment to demonstrate for the King County Council and Parks people visit to the field. Everything was ready to go and I had gliders at the ready but no one was there to retrieve so I flew the 2M Spectra (electric). It had been up a while and I turned the motor on for another climb out. It was over soccer field (vacant) parking lot and climbing West when the motor abruptly stopped. It was gliding straight and level parallel to the road but I had no control whatsoever. I watched it until it was low and its image was lost against the horizon. Charlie Baumgartner showed up just then and we went looking for it and later joined by John Oberto. We scoured the area thoroughly but it was nowhere to be found. Later in the afternoon I went over the area again. The only possible conclusion is that it landed in the Sammamish River. We "glassed" the river from both the 116th and 124th St bridges.

Friday, Dec 18 was my first chance to go look again. Only this time I was going to tour the river via my 14 foot aluminum fishing boat. I set out early but first I had to retrieve the boat from my sons house; dig the motor out of a storage shed; mix gas and oil; find the life jacket, etc. I had enough oil for 3 gallons of gas......yeah, that should be plenty for that short run. It was a windless day and it felt warm in the bright sunshine even though it is low on the southern horizon this time of year. By the time I launched at the Juanita Drive crossing of the Sammamish River just south of Kenmore it was 1:15 PM. It has been many years since I motored up the river with my then "little" kids but I recall there were many open bank areas where the 5 mph speed limit could be ignored so I should make it up above Woodinville in no time.....no problem.

Where in hell did all these houses, boats and docks come from?? I don't remember all this shoreline development. I couldn't get the engine much above idle until I was well south of Woodinville and the sun was already low in the west. From near 60 Acres I drifted a mile or so north searching the banks, drifts and bridge pilings to no avail. It was about 3:15 and the sun was nearly gone so I cranked up the engine and started back. I didn't even make it back to the Ste. Michelle winery when the engine stopped.....out of gas. Egad! I was 13 miles from the launch point ....up the creek without any gas but I did have a couple of paddles.

I had no option but to start rowing. Soon, the sun was gone and the temperature was dropping fast. As I rowed steadily I tried to estimate my speed based on that of joggers on the adjacent trail. I was not encouraged as my estimations and calculations all put me back at the launch point after dark. As I plugged along I revisited the start of this folly and all of the stupid decisions I'd made: not enough gas; not enough clothing; light weight gloves; rubber boots without heavy socks or "toe warmers"; no flashlight and no cell phone (service that we had been debating for some time).

As I passed Woodinville I could see the tall signs of two filling stations but they appeared to be on the opposite side of a freeway and being the heavy traffic time of day I was sure I couldn't cross (safely) so kept rowing and rowing and................... Somewhere around Bothell it became dark but I could keep oriented from lights in houses along the bank but my feet were throbbing and fingers ached with cold. Just west of Bothell is a golf course and the Sammamish makes a half circle around it. That was somewhat a navigating problem as the water swirls as it goes around a bend and it would rotate the boat and being thus disoriented I tended to row into the bank and hit one bridge pier. I kept thinking, and hoping, that around each bend I would at last see the Juanita Dr. bridge and my salvation.

For about the last half mile it was total blackness with nothing on the banks for guidance. I tended to bounce from bank to bank and once wandered up a dead end as evidenced by shallow weed beds and branches in my face. Finally, around a bend and there was the bridge but one serious problem remained. The current was such that I could just hold position rowing upstream against it but crossing it I would drift quickly down stream. After passing under the bridge toward the north bank to avoid pilings I would have to quickly cross over to the south bank to reach the launching ramp. If I didn't make it then I would have no recourse but to drift on out into the north end of Lake Washington and try to find a place to tie up and walk to a phone. I made it but just barely at 5:20 PM after 2 hours of nonstop rowing. The final insult was trying to get the boat up on the trailer by flash light and wading into water deeper than the tops of my boots. Forrest Gump sure knew what he was talking about.

I didn't mind losing the airplane so much for it was old and hammered but I did mind losing the $400 cost of replacing its propulsion system and I didn't enjoy my brush with hypothermia looking for it. That was Friday, on Sunday I was speculating on what model for replacement when I received a call from a Mr. Mark Mickelson of Kirkland. He was on his cell phone calling from near the joggers parking lot at 60 Acres where he had been running his dog. He had found my model lying in the foot path about 200/300' north of 116th St on the west side of the Sammamish River and in taking the wing off found my name and number. That is most strange as Charlie, John and I had covered that area once and I again later in the day it was lost??? It obviously landed well beyond where it appeared to go down and who ever found it simply laid it out in full sight assuming somebody would come looking for it.

And what caused the loss of control ??? Back at home the system appeared to work OK except while wiggling wires for one split second there was no control. The problem was that one of the wires from speed control BEC (battery eliminator circuit) to receiver went through a small arming toggle switch. The wires were soldered on then the entire switch terminal area was encased in RTV silicone intended to prevent any bending failure at the joint. One wire was broken off but the RTV had held it in contact with the switch terminal up until noon on Dec. 16th. End of stupid story. Q

Much of our past good luck failed us this year. Our "crew" that had been reduced by the passing of Charlie Nelson and Al Blalock last year and was further hampered by the "bug" that flattened Bob Brewer so badly he even had to cancel his long planned winter vacation down south. Three of us, John Oberto, Dick McDonald and I were further hampered by the cold, wind driven rains throughout the weekend. It's a good thing these models are mostly water resistant.

We gave it our best shot and grossed $121 for the DREMEL raffle, which is the first time that effort has shown a profit. The tool was won by Chris Broderson of 928 N 102nd St, Seattle although as of this writing I haven't been able to reach him with the news.

The future of our beloved 60 Acres field is still in doubt and in continued effort to affect that outcome we were supplied with petition forms and form letters for distribution at the show. These materials were at our booth and those of the Free Flighters (SAM 8) and the Puget Sound Silent Fliers (PSSF). That effort netted 204 petition signatures which Sherman Knight will forward to KC Parks. The form letters didn't work as well and I doubt if many will end up in the mail as intended. We changed the strategy and asked those willing to sign the letters and we would mail them. I mailed 35 of them on Monday and lets hope that others make it too.

The obvious importance of this effort has been voiced over and over and does not need repeating here. Everyone needs to send a simple single paragraph letter stating that you are a model glider flyer, 60 Acres is the only location available and if the field is lost to soccer your hobby and investment in time and money dies with it. If you have written once, write again...........to: CRAIG LARSEN, Director of Parks and Recreation, 2040 84th Ave. SE, Mercer Island, WA 98040. You'll be glad you did!

[Eric's ill-fated cross country trek to compete in the February SW Classic TD contest near Phoenix was a journey that began to assume epic proportions when his car's transmission blew near Bakersfield on the way to Arizona. To compound the problems, Eric was towing a U-haul trailer full to the gills with many thousands of dollars worth of gliders and equipment which he had kindly consented to transport for the rest of the SASS group who intended to rendezvous at the contest site. Eric had to rent a U-haul van to tow the U-haul trailer the rest of the way. Unfortunately, he didn't write up that part of the story, which had its own trials and tribulations, not the least of which was a considerable shortage of sleep. Fortunately, he did provide a brief description of the horrors of the return to Seattle...]

I made it back to the Seattle area around 11:00 am on Wed. Feb. 10th. After picking up the Bronco in Bakersfield at 6:00 pm on Mon., we drove up to Sacramento and spent the night at J.T.'s [Jim Thomas' home]. We left at 9:00 am on Tuesday amid winter storm warnings for most of the way back. The Bronco immediately started leaking tranny fluid, and we made it as far as Redding before we had to buy chains for the trailer. We waited for about 3 and a half hours leaking fluid in a required chains check point going up to Siskiyou pass. We started driving after the checkpoint into snow falling so hard, I couldn't see with the headlights on (in spite of the fact that it was dark). One jack-knifed semi, and a 2 and a half hour wait to clear it later, the Bronco started missing and losing power just before Medford. I diagnosed intermittent spark plug cap shorting, and got lucky enough to find an Al's Auto open late. We made it as far as Roseburg before I couldn't stay awake. We slept for about 2 hours in a rest area, and pressed on. As it got light, the snowfall got lighter and the road got bare and wet. End result was 26 hours to make a 12 and a half hour trip.

Lesson learned: Don't ask an SUV with 150K miles on it to do the work of a real truck. So, for SVSS Spring Fling, the Nats, Visalia and any other contests we go to, I'll be taking the big truck.

Note that March and April were not available for second Monday as the custodians will not be on duty in the evening unless we wanted to pay $150 extra for those days. Charlie was all for paying the extra $300 but I talked him out of it (JUST KIDDING, FELLAS, JUST KIDDING). Q

Akabee On Dynamic Soaring
By Akabee Hidemi (AkabaH1@pow3.ae.subaru-fhi.co.jp)

It has been more than a year since I left the U.S. I was planning to visit the Seattle area sometime last summer to let you know how I am doing in Japan but failed. So, I decided to write something to you.

As an RC soaring addict, I drive two hours to our flying field every weekend. It's actually not too bad because it had been taking me longer than that to go to Whidbey Island -- I was used to go almost every weekend. Our flying site is called "Tanbo" because that’s what it is. Tanbo means "rice fields". We set up our winches along a dike and land our planes on the dike. Well, things happen sometimes. Take your shoes off then....... When the paddy is filled with water, there is no thermal activity. My friend told me that it takes a whole summer to find a thermal so no HLG’s are flown during the summer. After the harvest, the real fun begins. Then, we are allowed, sort of, to launch, fly over bare grounds and land in the field.

R/C Sailplanes in Japan are quite different from in the U.S. Most of them are scratch built of balsa, especially for HLG’s, or modified from broken planes. Quite a few people fly F3B ships. They launch much higher and fly much faster than TD ships. It was a kind of culture shock to see the F3B ships doing the task "C", or speed run. Got to have one and try that someday. People keep on flying old planes as well. Several Sagitta’s, which I had never seen in the U.S., are still in service.

It’s always fun to talk about sloping. Our local slope is located at the top of a small mountain. We have to hike for about ten minutes from the parking area to the ridge. The slope is pretty steep but covered with five foot high trees so every landing is risky. I don’t know why, but when we get up there, not enough winds are found, as usual. However, since the slope is facing south, there are very strong thermal activities so we are OK. If the wind blows from behind, we change the slope to the backside. We are lucky to have double sided slopes!

One day on the dike when the winds blew straight to it, I was flying my trusty Super Sorceress, and noticed that some birds were whipping behind me. They were swallows. They zoomed up to the top of the dike then dove into behind of it and zoomed up. The path they followed was just like waves. They kept going without flapping their wings. I realized that that’s what is called "dynamic soaring." I wanted to try. First, I made sure that nobody, like cyclist or jogger, was coming along the dike, then dove my Sorceress behind the ridge and tried to climb back up but couldn’t. She just got blown off by the wind and I had to land at the bottom. Hmm... I explored different paths and somehow found the way to do it. She started screaming. But the twenty foot high dike is a very dangerous place to DS. It’s hard to see the altitude she is flying when I see it from top of the dike. Also, since the plane is flying at very high speed, you have less than a second to judge and correct the trajectory. I accidentally flew her into the ground several times. I needed a big dike and came up with a wild idea.

My Super Sorceress already had a thinned wing but , encouraged by a friend, I built a new wing for her, using the SD8000 airfoil section,. I took her to our local slope and checked how she flies. First, on the front side, she flew very smoothly and somewhat faster than the old wing. I added some more ballast and decided to dive into the backside. As same as I did at the dike, I had to explore where the orbit should be for a while. But once I nailed it, she started howling. It’s a fun to DS, watching the plane doing wing over turn over the top of ridge, accelerating to warp speed without losing altitude. Every time you make turn to down wind using a pulse of up elevator, you feel like you have an after burner or rocket booster or some sort. I think the most fun of it is the fact that you are not flying using up lift but flying much faster by extracting energy from the wind's velocity gradient.

The dynamic soaring can be done at 60 Acres, or a sort of dynamic effect. Imagine you arrive at the field in the late afternoon. It’s somewhat windy but you decide to launch anyway. Right off the high start, your Gentle Lady does not penetrate nor get blown away. It is staying over the same point. When the wind suddenly gets stronger, your GL is climbing higher with a little bit of up elevator. Now you are dynamic soaring. Because your GL has a twenty some oz. mass, it wants to stay there while wind speed is increasing. Here, wind speed can be interpreted as air speed. Another example can be observed during landing. Your GL makes its final approach to up wind. You intend to land it right on your toes but as your GL comes down lower, wind speed gets slower, because of boundary layer, air speed is also slower and the GL can not stay in the air any longer then falls to ground short from you. This is an opposite effect of DS. Or, if you have to land down wind for some reason, your GL keeps on going helped by reduced tail wind, or increased relative head wind, as it gets lower, getting faster air speed.

I am supposed to report my soaring activities in Japan but somehow the weight has shifted to slope stuff, the dynamic soaring. When I did it for the first time, I felt some kind of a flashback of when I got my plane going up in a thermal for the first time. One SASS club member reported that DS can be done at Harbor View Park. I think Fort Casey is another candidate as it has a sharp rim. I hope you will enjoy dynamic soaring.

Here are a couple of pictures Katherine took today, the thermals weren't as good today as yesterday. Friday I had one flight over one hour, it would have been longer but I started getting a stiff neck so I brought it down. There was more wind today so it was harder to stay with the thermals. So only had a few flights over 10 minuets. I hope the weather will still be as good tomorrow so I can get out again. I found that there is such a difference between the poly (132 inchs span) and the Graphite (same span) that it took two or three flights to get used to the Graphite again after flying the poly half a dozen times. I think I'd better just plan on flying the Graphite only at contest and forget flying the RES class. I think it will be to hard to keep switching back and forth, and do well with both on the same day. Talk to ya later, Dennis.

RCCAD -- interesting 3D software for model design. Free download of demo version: http://www.rccad.com/

Electricalc Version 2, A Review by Steven Horney: http://www.ezonemag.com/articles/1999/feb/ecalc2/ecalc2.htm

I got my Wilga up and flying today, we finally had sunshine, 45 to 50 degrees but sunshine. I got 8 successful aerotows under my belt with 1:4 scale gliders and no casualties. IT WAS GREAT!!!!. Next time we'll take out the big stuff, the 6.75M Duo and 7M Nimbus, should be exciting. That 6.4 Brison has incredible power towing and should do a great job on any 40 -55lb gliders. By the way Robin, those new towlines you carry are great, the visibility on those orange and yellow lines are great. I will probably order a couple more from you soon.

We had sunshine again today so we took out the Wilga and 7M (43lb) Nimbus built by John Copeland and now owned by Philip Hui and tried it again. The first tow was a little shaky but we survived with no casualties, I didn't realize how much down elevator was required when towing heavy stuff. The second tow was picture perfect, the Nimbus released at about 1500' and immediately caught a boomer thermal and went to 2500' easy. The Nimbus was absolutely beautiful in flight and landing, solid as a rock. The Wilga, again had plenty of power with the 6.4 Brison.

Tony, I'm getting ready for your 10M SB-10, I think I've got the power for ya. By the way John Derstine is telling me that Alex Frisch and his 1:3 Wilga may be attending this years Elmira, it definitely should be able to get that SB-10 up for you!!!. Next on the aerotowing parade will be my 1:3 Duo Discus I can't wait.

"I just Sloped my 48" herring at the Richmond Beach Park on Sunday and again on Wednesday. It's a lot of fun."

Just read some of your herring experience at Richmond Beach Park, Paul, and I wanted to let you know about my flights there as well, especially since I was kicked out of the park by a police officer for flying my micro foamie!!?!?

Sounds like you must have been on the ridge to the right of the entrance if you were sloping in a southerly. I've always wanted to check it out in wind from the south, though I'd have to agree about the landing restrictions, but what I really value about the overall site is it's potential for lift in wind from the NORTH!! I can't find ANY north oriented sites in Seattle, and I thought I had finally stumbled onto something grand when I discovered Richmond Beach. Have you checked out the left hand (north oriented) side of the ridge? It's pretty awesome. If you take the trail to the left of the park entrance, it follows the rim out to a north

oriented, wide open ridge top, and the restricted trail opens out onto a flat PERFECT landing zone (yes there are a couple of trees, but there is plenty of room to land almost anything if you've got half a thumb, and most of it is mowed, flat grass, a RARE slope commodity!!)

So I was out at Richmond Beach during a summer northerly, sloping off the north facing rim of the bowl ridge on the left side of the park entrance. What was I flying? a Dragonette: about the least intimidating little aircraft there could ever be. Maybe five ounces? After about an hour of really fun flights and nicely controlled landings (some even catch landings!) a Seattle or Shoreline Police officer came walking out the trail. He was shaking his head in frustration and as he approached me he asked if I was enjoying the day. I replied that indeed I was. He said that he had been enjoying his day too, until he got the stupidest call he had ever received. He was genuinely disgusted at having to come out and tell me to stop flying what was so obviously a pretty darn harmless little plane. The call had been made by a nearby homeowner who apparently had seen me flying (What exactly would be the complaint, I wondered? Was I just having way too much fun?) The officer explained that the row of luxury homes that flank the park and have the incredible view off those Richmond Beach ledges are really paranoid about having anything other than completely "normal" park activities (actually, it seems they would prefer NO park activities, but will settle for totally "normal" if that's all they can get). He went on to give the impression that they have done anything that they can to protect what they would rather think of as their front lawn from anything that seems weird. Basically anything legal they can do to restrict park use seems worth doing, on general principle. The officer said that there IS a county statute that restricts RC flying to RC designated sites only, and that at least some homeowners know this and are specific and aggressive about complaining. They make the call, cite the law, and specifically ask that the officer ticket the "offender" for the full allowable amount. The ticket for my heinous crime would have been $70.00, but the officer after talking to me for a while just couldn't bring himself to write me up, though the complainant had insisted that I be ticketed. In fact the officer showed genuine frustration at the attitude of the homeowners. He called them "really anal" at one point, and even suggested to me that if I got a certain type of petition from the county offices, I could approve the site as a RC site, and wouldn't THAT be justice. It really was kind of funny talking to this officer. But I still had to quit and go home, and I haven't been back since.

I want Seattle fliers to be aware of this whole thing. Who knows, it could be just one grumpy homeowner, but I think all of us would rather spend seventy bucks on two servos than on an involuntary donation to our government!!

Paul, now that you know my unhappy story, are you going to keep flying there and see what happens? Just stick to the south facing side? Help me find the guy who complained, duct tape him to a 20 foot Red Herring and slope him right off his own "front lawn"? What's next? I'll appreciate any thoughts.

Another Hi-Tech gizmo from Japan!!! I am waiting shipment of a real hi-tech toy. A 45g video camera transmitter the size of your pointing finger. 45 g is about 1.7 oz and will transmit signals to 100 m (333 feet). A terrestrial Rx the size of two 12V closed cell battery connects directly to your home Camcorder. Such a small and lightweight video camera will be ideal to make you feel like THE ace pilot of an HLG you built, THREW and controlled. Imagine that! Install it inside the cockpit of your scale ship! Or, attach it to your combat foamie and go!

So, for starters, I am in the market for a light weight, sturdy HLG with light wing loading to test this gizmo's potential. Any recommendations, suggestions and input are welcomed. This camera is made to order, so I must wait about a month to get mine. But man, what a neat toy I have found!!!!!

Funny that you should mention small video cameras. For the past 6 months or so, I've been involved with Dr. Paul MacCready and a few other team members on a project using very small (32 mm x 32 mm) lightweight (11 grams) color video cameras and telemetry boards on RC sailplanes. These are derived from some of the same technology AeroVironment uses on their micro-UAVs. We've got some fantastic video that I will be debuting at the annual Soaring Society of America convention in Knoxville, TN in late February, We plan to make something of a "how to" video available in the near future. We have made many flights where I have flown the plane (my trusty Paragon) on many occasions looking only through the camcorder viewscreen and not at the plane directly (however, I have the other team members watching the plane at all times in case of intermittent video connection which does sometimes happen). We are currently in the process of writing a "how-to" article on this subject for Sailplane and Electric Modeler which should be of to the editor soon. It takes lots of fiddling with the camera, etc. to get everything to work properly. I hope the article will clear up some potential problems that others will undoubtedly uncover as this technology makes its way into the world of RC soaring.

I noticed this advertisement. It sounds well suited (no pun intended) for avid all-weather slopers. Funny that they don't mention that in the ad.

MOUNTAIN HARDWEAR WINDSTOPPER VEST -- Gore WindStopper fleece can be worn as outerwear in cold, dry and windy conditions or as an insulation layer under shells during wetter times. Perfectly suited for high-output, fast-forward activities like track skiing, mountain biking, trail running and all-season backcountry use. NOW $125.00 -- http://www.mountainzone.com/cgi-bin/mmail/margear.pl?id=13

I've just created a mailing list for people who wish to scratch build, mold, and cast their models. This list covers the following topics: Scratch-building of model masters in a variety of materials, such as styrene, brass, wood, whatever. Making molds out of various materials, including RTV rubber, plaster, epoxy, etc. (anything goes) Casting of the resulting molds in plaster, polyurethane plastics, low-temperature metals, etc. The list is specifically aimed at modelers in any area (model trains, ships, aircraft, etc.) who wish to create their own models or parts from scratch, and duplicate them. It will cover techniques, materials, and other auxiliary topics. For more information, http://mc.cyklone.com/castlist.htm

I just got back from the field with a peculiar incident with my 8UAF. It appears that my transmitter is sending some sort of signal to a single servo (usually only one).

Have you checked the serial number on the back of the transmitter? If the first two digits are 95-, you'll have to send the set back to Futaba to have the transmitter module board resoldered. Some friends here have learned this only after completwely losing their radio signal.

Actually, the radios with the cold solder joint problem had serial numbers starting with "5", not "95". The cold solder joints were on the pins that the RF module plugs into on the radio proper, not the module. The resoldering is a very easy job and if he asks around locally he would probably find someone locally who could check and if necessary, make the repair. This would save a whole bunch of time without the radio. Futaba will also check and repair as necessary for FREE. They also put in the stronger stick springs (like super 7) and they did that for FREE also. The problem is possible with serial number radios that begin with 6 or under. I sent 2 in to Futaba in mid Jan and had them back in 2 weeks at NO charge for parts, labor or shipping. All it cost me was the postage to ship them to California. Q

by Charlie Baumgartner < baum.cjb@worldnet.att.net >
Item	Income	Expenses
Membership Dues	3,870.00
Contests	2,221.00	1,740.97
Printing, Newsletter, Postage		436.63
Raffle	671.00	501.04
Field Maintenance & Improvements		2,540.26
Equipment (New/Maintenance)		611.95
Miscellaneous		1,171.51

TOTAL	$ 6,762.00	$ 7,002.36
Asset Increase/Decrease	$ (240.36)
Balance Forward (End 1997)	$ 730.38
Balance (End 1998)	$ 490.02

Total Members in 1998	130
Total Members in 1997	117
New members or members who had not paid in 1997	33
New Members (1^sttime)	27
Members in 1997 who dropped out	20
Members both in 1997 and 1998	95

Membership Dues:
The Income from dues increased considerably due to the greater number of members and as a result of the increase in membership fees.

Contests:
Income from registration was about the same as last year, but the expenses were somewhat greater. Trophies were distributed at each contest, this was not the case last year.

Printing, Newsletter, Postage:
The expenses for this category decreased substantially in spite of the increase in membership. Reasons for the decrease are that more members choose to view/download the NL from our web site, and the efforts of the person doing the mailing.

Raffle:
The raffle income and expenses are about half of last year’s. No clear cut explanations for this fact.

Field Maintenance & Improvements:
The outflow is much larger then any previous year. This was due to the installation of the container to store the club equipment. We could not have made this improvement without the dues increase.

Equipment (New/Maintenance):
This category saw a reduction in expenses. The club did not purchase new winches and retrievers like last year.

Miscellaneous:
This cost center went up a fair amount. Some of the additional expenses were due to the campaign our president pursued to make our club more visible to the King County Council and the County Park Department. Professional looking hand out were prepared and distributed. We also printed more flyers in 1998. Maybe this accounts for the membership increase. Also banking fees increased. Q

The Torrey Pines Gulls and the International Scale Soaring Association are proud to announce the Third Annual Torrey Pines Scale Soaring Classic, May 15-16, 1999.

AMA membership will be required at both sites and frequencies will be monitored. An entry fee of $10.00 will cover activities and the standard daily flight fee of $5.00 at the Torrey Pines Gliderport. No entry fee is required for thermal flying at Poway. All pilots are required to register with the Contest Director prior to flying at Torrey Pines and attend the pilots meeting. We hope to have some unique flight rules for this year’s event to give us more open space in the sky. Awards for best overall and best owner built and flown scratch built glider will be offered by pilots’ choice on May 16. We are looking forward to a visit by the famous Flying Circus this year. So, come out to see the latest in scale soaring direct from Germany!! For more information contact:

Unclassified Ads ( See these and more at http://www.reddata.com/sass/market.htm)
(To advertise glider related stuff, contact Waid Reynolds, 206-772-0291, or send email to waid@aa.net)

FOR SALE: Original (i.e. Inventec) Pelikan. This particular model came from the factory with lovely carbon-over-gray-foam wings and stabs, painted white on top and "natural" on the bottom. I've already installed and wired 4 Multiplex "flat" servos in the wings and will sell these with the plane. Think of it like an ARF with the (excellent!!!!) wing servos already installed! Why am I selling? Too many planes in the queue and not enough time to build them! How much? $450.00 takes it! E-mail me at raturne@ibm.net for further details or to make an offer!

FOR SALE: Built and flown Robbe quarter scale (approximately) ASW-24. 136 inch span. Wings are balsa sheeting over foam, covered with white Monokote. The wings have flaps, no spoilers. Includes 5 full size Futaba S148 servos, switch harness, no receiver. Fuse (molded plastic, not glass) is in very good condition and looks quite true to scale. The wings and horizontal tail show some use, but no significant damage. A couple of hinges on the flaps need regluing. One of the aileron servos in the wings appears to be loose, or it may be stripped. Glider has been flown only on the slope. A tow hook would need to be fitted for winch launching. With just a little work and the addition of a battery pack the glider would be ready to fly. Asking $400. If interested in inspecting the glider, contact me, Waid Reynolds, 206-772-0291. The glider is owned by Mark Morland, 206-409-0735 (mobile with voice mail). Q

Real LIfe Humor Submitted by Wayne Farwell: Here are some actual maintenance complaints submitted by US Air Force pilots and the replies from the maintenance crews. "Squawks" are problem listings that pilots generally leave for maintenance crews to fix before the next flight.

SQUAWK	MECHANIC'S SOLUTION
Left inside main tire almost needs replacement	Almost replaced left inside main tire
Test flight OK, except autoland very rough	Autoland not installed on this aircraft
#2 Propeller seeping prop fluid	#2 Propeller seepage normal - #1 #3 and #4 propellers lack normal seepage
Something loose in cockpit	Something tightened in cockpit
Evidence of leak on right main landing gear	Evidence removed
DME volume unbelievably loud	Volume set to more believable level
Dead bugs on windshield	Live bugs on order
Autopilot in altitude hold mode produces a 200 fpm descent	Cannot reproduce problem on ground
IFF inoperative	IFF always inoperative in OFF mode
Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick	That's what they're there for
Number three engine missing	Engine found on right wing after brief search
Aircraft handles funny	Aircraft warned to straighten up, "fly right" and be serious
Target Radar hums	Reprogrammed Target Radar with the lyrics

March 15	THIRD Monday
April 19	THIRD Monday
May 10	SECOND Monday