SCAT Electronic news - May 25 1998
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SCAT Electronic news - May 25 1998
Big Al's Shoot Out - Lost Hills Sat 23 May 1998
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An excellent contest run by Ken Oliver, assisted by Kenny Happersett
with additional contestant discipline provided by a 'tame' snake. An
apparantly harmless snake took shelter under the CD's table. Ken Oliver
used this new found friend to encourage wayward contestants to return
their time cards on time. At the end of it's duties the snake was returned to
the wild well away from the flight line.
The weather was bright and sunny with it being a little breezy during
the morning rounds, but nothing serious. Thermal conditions were
challenging.
F1A 14 contestants
2 in flyoff - decided in 5 minute round.
1. Pierre Brun
2. Don Zink
3. Dimiti Kozlynk
4. Kate Joyce
5. Hector Diez
Even though they did not place in the top 5 there were 3 juniors in the
event, Ann Halsey [her first F1A event ?], Steven Coussens and Dallas
Parker. Contest directors had become discouraged in providing awards
for juniors, but as Ken Oliver noted the increasing junior participation in
F1A is encouraging so there will be a Junior award next year.
F1B 22 Contestants
4 in Flyoff - decided on 9 minute round.
1. Rich Rohrke
2. John Pratt
3. Roger Morrell
4. Dick Myers
5. Tom Laird
F1C 14 Contestants
5 in Fly off decided in 7 minute round
1. Randy Archer
2. Ron McBurnett
3. Roger Simpson
4. Ed Carroll
5. Michael Acterberg
SCAT Social Director, Pierre Brun was seen struggling with a reluctant
F1H. Pierre, the muttering and cursing in French are OK, but it's
not the done thing to attempt to decapitate SCAT Life member Al Hotard
with your towline.
SCAT founding member Bob Wiehle was flying in the San Diego
Orbiteers old time rubber event run con-currently with Big Al's. Bob
thought this would be easier than the FAI events, last time I saw he had
maxed out , and done the 3, 4 and 5 minute fly off flights. Bob's ground
crew of Norm Furutani, Len Kendy and John Morrill were claimimg
credit, but it sounds to me that Bob's greatest achievemnt was in ignoring
all the 'helpful' advice.
More on El Nino
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The El Nino rain seems to have gone but we will be noticing the effects
for some time. At Lost Hills there is much more vegetation that I have
ever seen before. There is a dark geen plant that grows up to 2 feet high
that seems to be a member of the danelion family. This and other
vegetation has made finding models more difficult. In some places the
vegetation appears to have made the surface more slippery to bike riders
and has hidden ruts and holes. I do not expect the plants to
survive the heat of the summer but there will be increased fire danger in
the fall. Also the increased vehicle traffic across the field during the
winter contests has left a number of serious ruts in places. Care must be
taken when chasing. There are still pools of standing water in the San
Joaquin Valley so this as increased the mosquito population. Bug spray is
recommended for early morning and evening flying. The snake mentioned
above is also possibly an indication of increased animal activity.
Correspondence
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From Ian Kaynes
Thanks for your work - very interesting opinions and news.
I note the comments re the status of George Xenakis' proposal re closed
loop controls. You are correct in reporting George's position as a member
of the CIAM FF subcommittee, but you are not correct when you say "In
fact George's proposal was on behalf of the FF Sub Commitee itself".
The proposal was from George TO the subcommittee. It is just one of the
views to be discussed and considered in the subcommittee discussions, it
was not in any way on behalf of the SC.
I note that you included copies of my latest World Cup postions from the
FAI site. You might like to advise readers that I now also include a page
giving the results and scores for each 1998 competition.
Ian Kaynes
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[Bio note]
Ian is a former UK Team Member. He is the Chairman of the CIAM Free
Flight Subcommitee, one of the publishers and editors of Free Flight News
[a must if you are seriously into FAI FF] and the keeper of the scores for
the Free Flight World Cup. He also produces the KPS plotting software
that is used in the production of the plans in FFn. He has a home page at
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/kaynes/ that gives
information about all the above activities. In addition as he
mentions above, the latest FF World Cup results appear on the FAI Web
site with the placing of the events that go into the results. The
Aeromodelling part of the FAI web site is at
http://www.fai.org/aeromodelling/. I noticed that Ian has received the
results of two more contests that are also posted on the site.
Electronic Timers .. encore
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"One man's fish is another man's poisson"
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Subject : Electronic Timers
Roger,
I have been reading the comments in the SCAT newsletter with
great interest, My personal view is that the timer by itself
is only a replacement article for the mechanical seelig or
camera type timer, I cannot see the relevance of the
argument concerning an inbuilt intelligence in the model as
seems to be the major worry of some of your readers.
Personally I believe the timer either in electronic or
mechanical form is still an inert device once it leaves the
pilots hand, The panic button switch is another matter
entirely. This unit does add intelligence to the model, This
unit provides a safety feature that could save a life and
obviously many hours of work if a model does go haywire.
The other factor is insurance, Due to the spiralling costs
of insurance companies would be more likely to reduce
premiums if they could see a genuine effort being made to
reduce the risk of accidents.
Bill East
[Bill's biggest issue is how can he get to the point where he
pushes that magic button and
causes his prized F1C ship get out of that fatal dive !
and that is an issue we had not really discussed]
Agrees with Shailor !!
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From Jim Haught
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Much as I hate to agree with my buddy Bill Shailor on anything, I think he's
right about the ramifications of electronic controls. This "progress" is
rapidly heading down the road toward preprogrammed models that may as
well have radios in them, for all that matters; the only question would be
whether some sort of equipment failure caused a bad flight. The only other
"error" would be down air--or would an onboard sensor warn of this too,
and divert the model?
I think the chest-beating, "This is technology! this is PROGRESS! Don't
restrict it!" is very short-sighted. Maybe it has appeal for a few, but if
this trend continues, "the few" will be the only ones left in the FAI events,
at least in the US.
Participation in the FAI program has declined, and will continue to do so,
as long as this sort of thinking prevails.
Disgruntled old farts who can't hack it any more? I don't think so. I'm 42,
and Bill is a year younger than me. We are well ahead of the age curve,
and have plenty more flying left in us. Where and how we will choose to
do that flying is another question.
[Bio note]
Jim Haught is the editor of Model Aviation and a regular contestant mainly
in AMA gas and F1J.
From the Sages, Bob White and Bill Bogart
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Sent by Bill Bogart
Bob White has asked me to pass along his idea for rules changes. He
thinks that torque-operated rudders are no different from electronic
response. He would rather deny any change in settings from launch to end
of flight (except for dethermalizing, of course). This puts the skill in
trimming and air picking.
And from Bill Bogart...
I believe that electronics do not allow the model to fly better. It is just
another way for trimming, which is everything and it should be allowed.
The biggest objection to purchased models and the inclusion of electronics
is the sudden jump in cost.
For the European and Asian countries, making models for sale has been a
boon to their personal economy and should be continued.
In the final analysis, it is in the trimming of the model rather than in the
current design that is one of the most important factors in flight time.
Other factors of equal stature are rubber quality, air picking, and towline
stiffness.
If we wish to reduce the number of flyoff flights, limit the energy release
of the rubber, increase stretchiness of the towline and increase the model
weight. For power models, increasing the diameter of the firewall to 2/3
of the prop diameter would dampen the thrust output.
None of these suggestions will ever be readily accepted. In time and with
the current rules, we will be having many days of having to flyoff the
second day and perhaps well into the third day. Why not a 21 round
contest at Lost Hills?
....................................................................
Roger Morrell
