SEN 97-13 - 23 Sep 1997
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News and Reports - 1997 Issue 97-13
Scat Electronic News September 23
Las Vegas
I just came back from a great Las Vegas FAI contest at El Dorado dry lake.
Well it was great except for how I did. I had such a good time that I did
not bring back the full results. In F1A no one was clean but the top 4
places were :
1. Don Zink
2. Matt Gewain
3. Lee Hines
4. Tom Coussens
Stephen Coussens was going well until the end. Stephen looks like a strong
contender for the junior team. Hope he can get to fly against David Ellis
sometime as he should give David a run for his money.
Hard luck story was Ernesto Busnelli who was well placed until he had a
fly away. See Walkie Talkie item below.
In F1B there was a 3 man flyoff that went to the 7 minute round.
1. Larry Norvell
2. Vern Walters
3. John Malkin
In F1C a disappointed Doug Joyce was the sole contestant. I guess this
site/contest is not on the approved list for the F1C contingent.
In addition to 'our' contest they were getting ready for the SAM champs to
be held on that site during the week. The New Zealand group had arrived
and included Vern Gray, the 1935 Moffet winner [proxy flown by Bert
Pond]. Vern is still and active flyer and was seen flying some of his
models. Other name flyer was John Sheppard, John was one the 5 tied F1C
winners in 1960 [With Larry Connover, Sandy Pimenof, Rolf Hagel and
Guerra of Italy] . This contest caused the increasing flyoff rule to be
introduced, because if memory serves me correctly they did 12 by 3
minutes flyoff flights after the regular rounds before declaring the contest a
tie.
The New Zealand group were promoting their World Cup Contests to be
held at the Omarama site 30 march - 1 April and 3-5 April 1998. A great
site, check it with the 1996 winners - Brian Van Nest in F1A and
Alexander Andruikov in F1B. We will have more information on the
SCAT web site later. A number of people are already seriously thinking of
attending.
Local Contests coming up are the Sierra Cup October 3 thru 5. The mini
events are on Friday the 3 and the F1A,B and C on the Saturday with the
Sunday as a reserve day. Contact person is Roger Simpson [916] 682
6010.
The weekend after is Juan Livotto's California FAI Invitational at Lost
Hills. In reply to the [inevitable ?] question about the Invitational part - all
are invited. The is the greatest fall season FAI contest at Lost Hills. F1A
and F1C are on Saturday and F1B on Sunday. Juan's phone number is
[310] 391 5986. The mini events are organized by SCAT. The CD for that
is Hector Diez 805 583 1646.
Rumors are that we will have a number of European visitors for both
events.
F1C Proposal
I just got in the mail from the AMA [as I assume did all other FAI FF team
participants] a proposal from George Xenakis to change the F1C rules.
George's proposal is a differernt approach .. he proposes keeping the same
size and weight of model as now but having different engine runs
depending on the size of the engine.
These are:
2.5cc 5 seconds
2.0cc 6.3 sec
1.5cc 8.3 sec
1.0cc 12.5 sec
0.82cc 15.0 sec
Maybe this proposed rule change will get the F1C flyers excited, contest
do not seem to [see Las Vegas above]. This has the advantage that existing
models can be used and more people may be encouraged to build the
lower powered models that may not be so intimidating. George also
suggests that the smaller engines are cheaper, but I think that that advanage
will go away when Nelson or whoever makes a 1.00 cc, if that size turns
out to be good. Keeping track of the different engine run length may be a
challenge for some timekeepers and organizers.
Walkie Talkies
At the Las vegas contest we had potentaily a serious problem when
Ernesto's F1A flew away with the line still attached. A number of flyers
set off after the model. One modeller had a Walkie Talkie that was set to
the frequency of the beacon in the model. This was a frequency that the
Walkie Talkie could recieve on but not transmit. He chased the model until
his motor cycle ran out of gas. He was expecting one of the other chasers
to bring him some more gas. But the other modeller could not find him. So
he walked back. It took 2 and half hours to get back, indicating that he had
probably gone about 10 miles. Meanwhile back at the field we were
concerned and started looking for the flyer. We were not able to find him
and had to abandon the search when it got dark. Fortunately at the time we
all got back the flyer arrived. He had not had anything to drink since 3 pm
and the temperature had been over 90. Eventhough he had a Walkie Talkie
he did not know how to change the frequency and we had not set up an
emergency frequency to use in such a case.
Many of the flyers have the Kenwood units on 144 mhz, these are also the
units that the team uses in international contests. These are very good and
cost about $250 each. We used then at the World Champs and other
European contest to help with retrieving. They will either save your life or
help you get back that model so you can win the contest .. whatever is
important to you. We intend to publish more detailled information about
the equipment, model number etc. They are sophisticated devices and
many flyers who use them are not able to change the frequency .. and
generally end up by asking Bob Piserchio to help them. Believe me a
normal person can figure out how to do it - you do not have to be a
professor of physics ! We will publish a frequency to use for emergencies
and instructions how to get on that frequency..We are fortunate in the West
of the US to have large spaces to fly in [e.g. Las Vegas and Lost Hills ] but
these are deserts and can be very unforgiving .. so remember always to
take water, plenty of gas, a radio and let someone know where you are
going if you embarque on a heavy chase.
Roger Morrell
