SCAT Electronic News May 31, 1999
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SCAT Electronic News May 31, 1999
Table of Contents
=================
Big Al's Shootout - Galbreath
Jeff Livotto
Noise - what's the real isse - Shailor
Simplicity ? - Woodhouse
Lost Hills Lore -the Killer Grasshopper
Big Al Part Two
Great Gummi or do you have noodles on your ears ?
Power Breakfast at Denny's - Galbreath and Cowley
Big Al's Shootout
=================
Roger
Memorial Day weekend, while revered in the minds of most of our friends,
does sometimes have a very mean streak. I arrived Thursday about noon,
and the first people there were the Protheroes, from Santa Barbara
and Oregon. Nice guys too.
Anyway it was really warm and not too windy. When the heat was up and the
black bugs with the big teeth came out I thought that this was going to be
the problem for the weekend. Friday, windy and hot, people showing up, bugs,
the whole thing then the weather started to change and by morning on
Saturday, the temperature way down, the bugs was gone and the wind was blowing
about 10-12. So we started flying G, H, and J, and it blew , the thermals
were huge and chases were challenging sometimes. But everyone was having fun
anyway, this is one of the things that FF can be. (You really never know what
personality it will have in the next round, let alone the next day.)
G-H-J results
G
1 Larry Norvall 526
2 Dick Wood 481
3 Tom Protheroe 256
4 Dan Protheroe 120 (Broke)
5 Hank Cole 64 (Broke)
H
1 Walt Ghio 600*
1 Bob Sifleet 600*
3 Norm Smith 568
4 Brian Van Nest 540
5 Martin Cowley 496
6 Anne Halsey (Jr.) 474
7 Pierre Brun 409
8 C.J. Halsey (Jr.) 357
*Tie to be flown off later
J
1 Ken Happersett 600*
1 Dave Parsons 600*
1 Steve Spence 600*
4 Faust Parker 581
5 Terry Kerger 527
6 Norm Peterson 273 (dnf)
7 Tom Laird 218 (dnf)
*Tie to be flown off later
F1A flyers proved to be the least wimpy of all flyers in the wind. Only one
pulled out and I think he was out of models.
1 Martin Cowley 1260+300+257
2 Andrew Barron 1260+300+165
3 Pierre Brun 1269+300+129
4 Tom Coussens 1260+300+127
5 Jim Parker 1116
6 Steven Coussens (Jr.) 1057
7 Steve Spence 1050
8 Fred Terzian 1035
9 Dan Protheroe 1020
10 Dallas Parker (Jr) 1006
11 Mike McKeever 1004
12 Ernesto Bushnelli 969
13 Brian Van Nest 924
14 C.J. Halsey (Jr.) 825
15 Anne Halsey (Jr.) 789
F1B
1 Alexander Andriukov 1260+201
2 Roger Morrell 1260+171
3 Larry Norvall 1260+150
4 Dick Wood 1115
5 Herb Sessums 1080
6 Blake Jensen 1079
7 John Sessums 893
8 John Pratt 821
9 Tom Ioerger 703
10 George Batiuk 519 (dnf)
F1C
1 John Warren 1260+362
2 Doug Joyce 1260+341
3 Bob Sifleet 843 (4 rounds)
F1A flew their first flyoff flight right at the appointed time in the biggest
thermal anyone has ever seen. It was absolutely huge!. During the time the
models were airborne almost straight up about 5000 feet, the wind blew back
in just in time for F1B flyoff which was flown in about a 13 mph wind. By
the time F1B was over the wind had gotten to the magic number and further
flyoff were put off until Monday A.M. (The weather pope assured us that there
would be agreeable conditions in the morning.) Morning dawned with the same
thing about 13 mph and the gliders were launched about 6:10. (We moved to the
far end of the field beside the grape vineyard skeleton.) No circle tow this
round. All over pretty quick as you can see from the scores. As it worked
out, Andrew had to get to S.F. airport by 11 am for a flight home. Needless
to say, the trophy presentation was brief and he was gone. All that and the
weather was about chill factor 35 deg.
Power was flown off at about 7 am. with a 10 min max. Both models were at
about the limit of visibility at 6 minutes, with binoculars. I can imagine
what it would be like with a 9 m/sec wind and a ten minute flight. It would
be creative timing that decides the result. Seems ridiculous doesn't it?
Several flyers decided not to fly for various reasons and had already
entered. They left the money in the Kitty and it is being donated to the Free
Flight Team.
They are:, Bob Johannes, Ed Keck, Ken Happersett, Faust Parker, Randy Archer,
Paul Crowley, Tom Laird, Bill Gibbons, Joe Friebus, Walt Ghio, Don Zink.
Thanks, guys!
Well, Down-air still sucks
Doug
My thanks to all for coming to Big Al's
Jeff Livotto
============
Juan and Zella Livotto's son Jeff, who has been in a coma for about
4 years, passed away Friday afternoon, May 29. Fellow SCAT members and
friends in the FAI Free Flight community would like to pass our most sincere
condolences to Juan, Zella and their family.
Noise - what's the real issue
=============================
Author : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Real Issue
Machismo is not the issue with this whole muffler debate. The real point is
that those who may be offended by another's activity should not be allowed
to dicate rules for events they do not fly. If a majority of current Power
flyers felt that their models made too much noise, caused the loss of Free
Flight fields, or were the sole cause of irritation to others, then it
would be well within their prerogative to accept mufflers.
But the noise is a consequence we, as a modeling community, have wrought
upon ourselves. Every time you decrease the engine run or increase the wing
loading, you place a higher premium on more powerful engines. The decibles
go up. The irritation level goes up.
When you decrease the rubber weight for an F1B, you place a premium on
having stationary thermal detecting equipment or poles that others, who are
towing or chasing, have to contend with. The irritation level goes up.
When you have long first rounds in F1A where non-bunting, self-made models
are expected to compete, most flyers throw the line to get every foot of
altitude they can. Others need to be omniscient when chasing to avoid
entangling themselves or their chase bikes with lines in the grass. The
irritation level goes up.
Or not.
We have to accept the fact that our numbers are not such that we can
afford legislating events we do not fly into extinction. We need to exercise
a sense of accomodation for our fellow modelers. In-fighting is counter
productive.
Until the technology exists to provide acceptable levels of noise reduction
with little or no sacrifice to performance, and is acceptable to Power
flyers, who knows which event will be next on the "hit list" for annoying
somebody?
Bill Shailor
Simplicty ?
===========
Author : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Jim Bradley's idea of dumping the minimum weight is fine by me. I tried
proposing it a number of years ago but got sat on! It has the advantage of
not putting the existing fleet out of contention and it could lead to
possible new approaches. Actually I would suggest that we could also dump
the area rule as well! F1A towline length only. F1B rubber weight only.
F1C engine capacity and motor run.
Mike Woodhouse
Lost Hills Lore
===============
Well if I said the attack of the Killer Tomatoes at Lost Hills no one
would belive me. But how about Killer Grasshoppers. Star Spence, wife
of US F1A team memeber reported that on her first visit to Lost Hills
she was attacked and bitten by one of the '99 grasshoppers.
Big Al Part One
===============
'99 has to go down so far as the year of the big blow. It seems that
most events in the US since the Max Men 14 Rounder have been 'blessed'
with an excess of wind. Part of Big Al this Memorial Day weekend at Lost
Hills was not an exception. However as the event was an America's Cup contest
and people came from far and wide the CDs ran the contest. It turned out
that after a slightly late start and 2 min max first two rounds that the
rest of the day was perfect until the F1B flyoff. The line was moved
east about a mile to cope with the early morning wind. Once this dropped
we flew come more rounds there until the slight drift started to take
the models to the grape vines. These are very dangerous as they have
been abandoned and have many obstacles for both man and airplane, including
rattlesnakes. So the line was moved back. Even with moves of the line the great
weather enabled us to get our full 7 rounds in. As you will see from the
results elsewhere in this issue it was very tricky conditions
and certainly no gimme. Alexander Andriukov was preparing some new models
for Israel and was pleased that we had some very tricky conditions
as he wanted to see what happended to the trim under this kind
of thermal conditions. Maybe Alex thinks that it will be like
this in Israel ? At flyoff time when the F1A flyers launched
in near perfect conditions there models went up in what seemed like a
mega thermal. They were going up at 1000' a minute.
Upon reflection I think it was some kind of shear at the edge
of a little front. So as I was winding my long winged flyoff F1B for the
flyoff the wind speed jumped from a high of 3 or 4 mph to a high
of about 18, with lows down 8 mph. I guess I switched to the wrong
airplane !.
Then the next day there was a repeat of the previous day. The
next round of the F1A fluoff was at 6 am to cater to Andrew Barron's return
flight. It was windy and Martyn Cowley grabbed to only good piece of air to
wind [I guess once you've flow at Chobham Common anything looks good]. By
the time we got to the F1C flyoff at 7 it was already looking better. When
I left the field at about 10:30, conditions were nice and US Team members
Brian Van Nest and Ron McBurnett were the only people left and they had
their models in the air. I noticed Mc Burnett stayed in his van until
the thermometer hit 75 to get near predicted conditions for Israel.
At Lost Hills we are spoilt and often do not want to move from our fixed
spot. Doug and Ken are to be commended for moving us to what was a good
launching point. And for running the contest eventhough it some people
decided to leave.
Great Gummi or do you have noodles on your ears ?
=================================================
When I got some of the February '99 rubber I thought that this was
the greatest thing since July '97 and may be better because it
was not so fragile. This all sold quickly and John Clapp told me
that "Well the March is a little harder and it might be real good
in Israel" .. I attributed this salesmanship on John's part
and what Alex explained to me literally translates from the Russian
as have "noodles on one's ears" [see below]... however in our pseudo
Negev conditions at Lost Hills [temp 75-95 F] the Feb '99
did not seem as good as it did at the Holiday On Ice ! In fact
the lower energy March '99 definitely held together better. Now all of
this is a moot point because the rumor mill has it that FAI Model Supply
is about to get another batch .. how will this one be ????
Back to the Noodles.. I must hasten to add that Alex
did not use this expression with respect to Fai Model Supply,
but I thought it went well with rubber. In case you haven't figured it
yet the non literal translation of the expression is BS.
Power Breakfast at Denny's
==========================
Roger
It seems that I owe John Buskell an apology. He sounds like a real power
flyer to me and we are on the same page almost all the way.
Let me tell you of an idea that our compadre Martyn Cowley came up with for
starters. Eliminate the no extensions rule, but rather than make restrictions
against pipes that create power, we should let them do as they will, if their
particular country has a noise law or a problem with noise, as long as the
level complies. This level, like John mentions, should not be too restrictive
so as to be impossible in the short run to comply with it. In return for the
increased power level achieved, the wingspan would be reduced to 2 meters and
all other parameters could be the same (wing loading, power loading, etc) as
it is presently. This would probably be slightly more power than we had in
1969 and as I remember, most of those models were good for about 6 minutes
with the 10 second run. Parity could be achieved for international meets by
testing to see what engine run would be allowed if this configuration is
used.
I think this could be the answer for the noise fix=obsolescence problem, and
who knows, it might just become the standard in time, which would probably be
OK.
Doug Galbreath
...........................
Roger Morrell
