SEN 97-35 - 8 Dec 1997
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News and Reports - 1997 Issue 97-35
Scat Electronic News 8 December 1997
Office Depot Compaq C140 'deal'
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Office Depot [here in the LA area anyway] are offering the
Compaq c140 Windows CE hand held computers for $99. These can
be used to program some electronic timers instead of a bigger laptop.
The upside is that the price is good and the machines are small and
robust. They have a built in terminal program that works with the
Black Magic timers [and we will check with the CST Smart System
at the SCAT Xmas Function next weekend] and probably any
other timer that uses a terminal interface. Because they are small
they can be easily manoevered to get them close to the model.
The mono chrome LCD screen can be easily viewed in sunlight.
The downside is that this model runs Windows CE 1.0 and the Windows
CE 2.0 has just been released. It is not clear if it can be upgraded
or not [or if you would want to upgrade]. The screen is somewhat
smaller than a laptop and the characters smaller, it depends on how the
timer uses the screens. Also this model was made for
Compaq by Casio and it is rumored that Compaq will be making their own
so this is why these are being unloaded. As far as the Black Magic timers
they will be providing a smarter program that runs under 'regular'
Windows and on the Palmpilot to interface with the timers. A proto type
of this program was seen at the November SCAT Meeting [if you were not
too busy going after the coffee, pie and ice cream]. This program
will not be available on Windows CE. You will still be able to
access the Black Magic timers with Windows CE machines in 'terminal'
mode.
World Champs Report in Aeromodeller
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I just got my Aeromodeller with Andy Crisp's World Champs report. An
excellent article with good photos and observations. He remarked
that based on Alexander Andriukov's performance in the World Champs,
World Cup and European Champs he must be the best outdoor
FF competition flyer ever. I just hope that those people at
Aerovironment keep Alex busy so us normal guys
get to win some contests here.
Andy made a comment about the difficulty some UK flyers have in
trimming for the calm continental conditions. I noticed that my F1B
[ a Vivchar i.e. 'continental' model] flew better in Sazena than
it ever did here in the US, in particlular better than it did during the
more turbulent time of the year. In California from November thru
February our thermals are milder and more like I found in Sazena. At other
times the thermals are more violent and the air more turbulent, possibly
requiring a different trim on the model.
Lost Hills Flying Site and NFFS
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The National Free Flight Society is in the process of changing its
corporate status to that of a 501(c)(3). This status makes the Society a
charitable, not for profit entity. One result of having that designation is that
property of any kind can be donated to such an organization and the donor
can receive a tax deduction for value. Once the corporate status goes into
effect (estimated 4 months from now) it will become practical for the
NFFS to own flying sites like Lost Hills, including the land at Lost Hills
not currently managed by the Lost Hills Free Flight Association. This is a
project that Bob Waterman is working on for the Free Flight community.
In addition to the Lost Hills property, people who have benefitted
financially from the Stock Market and other endeavors will be able to use
estate planning tools to distribute a portion of their assets to NFFS if they
wish and realize a tax benefit in doing so.
Rocket Ron's F1A page
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Local Southern California flyers will remember Ron from Santa Cruz,
budding F1A flyer. Well Ron has moved to Alaska to follow his career
and I guess there's not to much to do up there this time for the year so he
has his own web site at
http://www.bristolbay.com/~rocket/RONF1A.HTM
(the Uppercase is required). Ron has different ideas on F1A construction
that he talks about and want to share with F1A fliers. I noticed in his bio
he gave credit to SCAT members Pierre Brun and Matt Gewain.. but
Rocket you missed crediting Tom Coussens with the Fly Max Win slogan
! Hope you can get down for the Max Men.
Isaccson Winter Classic and Max Men 14 Rounder
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I've has a few queries on the dates of these contests ..The '98 flyer will be
online real soon now.. But the Winter Classic is on 7 and 8 of Feb and the
Max Men Fri 13 thru Mon 16. For the Max Men, the Mini - events will be
on the Friday, the regular events on Saturday and Sunday [7 rounds each
day] and Monday reserved for flyoff. Also with this contest is the
Electronic Timer seminar on Fri night and the America's Cup Banquet on
the Saturday night. Heavy program, two of the best contest of the calendar
year, european visitors expected, top sportsmen will be there. The Max
Men is your chance to get an early lead in your World Cup and/or
America's Cup program.
The e-mail addrsses for these events are:
Isaccson Winter Classic - Norm Furutani - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The Max Men 14 Rounder George Batiuk - This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Roger Morrell
