SCAT Electronic News 12 September 2001 issue 619

SCAT Electronic News 12 September 2001 issue 619


Table of Contents
=================
International Friendship - Beschasny
Fwd: Re: [indoor] Rubber Reality - Andresen & Bakay
MaxMen 2001 Photos - Markos
Picture Gallery on the NFFS site updated with 335 new pictures - Mekina
Lost Hills Flying Field - Demello et al
COPPA FEA 2001 F1G,H,J - Turin, Italy - Manoni

International Friendship
========================
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Dear US FF fellows,
I'm and all my friends around are so much shocked of sad news what we just
got about New York and Washington famous buildings crushes. We are
disuppointed and mad with terrorists who did it .

People right here on the streets are talking just about this event and
showing support US people. We accept this attack like it happened to us
somewhere in Kharkov or Kiev.
We are blaming and hating the murders who killed so many innocent people
in US.

Hope, all of you Free Flighters are OK.
You take care!
Vasily Beschasny
Ukraine

[It is normally the policy of SEN only to publish material directly
concerning Free Flight. However considering the events of yesterday
we think it is appropriate to publish Vasily's letter. I know that
with our sport we have the opportunity have
friends around the world and promote greater international friendship
and understanding. Clearly we must keep doing this.]



Fwd: Re: [indoor] Rubber Reality
=================================
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Roger,

Here's some food for thought. As might be expected, the indoor group
have more problem with in flight failures with 2 strands, slow
unwinding and heat near the ceiling. Still it could be useful for
sorting flyoff motors where you want max energy release but blowing
motors can get you a zero in a 10min window.

As you can see, free flighters are an ingenuius lot whether they be
indoor or outdoor specialists.

H

--- In indoor@y..., "Carl Bakay" wrote:
>Just out of curiousity, does anyone know how good the August rubber actually
>is? I personally don't think we should be trying to fight for a few pounds of
>stuff that we don't even know how good is.

Although none of us have any yet, it may comfort you to know that there are
four different tests we plan to run on August 2001. Fred Tellier will run
torque tests for total energy at 18 degrees C, and I will run pull tests for
total energy at 70 or 75 degrees F. But these won't tell the whole story.

In addition, I have come up with two new tests to better simulate maximum
winds on hot days outside, or near a dome roof on a summer day. On
Goldstein's suggestion, I do a pull test for total energy at 95 degrees F in
my garage. Also, this past weekend I have started a new testing program
where I stretch a 6" loop to 60 inches, or 10 x elongation, with a lead
weight sitting on a balance, aka Bernie Hunt. It is left in this condition
until it breaks. This gives us mean-time-to-failure at 100% elongation. (I
know it's 100% because there is a 1/3 breakage rate so far if the rubber is
less than average)

So far the results using this new test have been exciting. Rubber samples
fall into four groups:
1. They break on the way to 10 x elongation.
2. They break after 3 to five minutes.
3. They break after 15 to 30 minutes.
4. They last for an hour or more without breaking.

April rubber falls into categories 1 and 2, June 2001 into 1 and 3,
and the few samples of 1999 vintage looked at so far all seem to be in
category 4.
We have all seen motors snap due to crystallization many minutes after
launch. This test may be a way to predict this failure ahead of time. It
also re-enforces my belief that making up and breaking in motors the night
before is a good idea for two reasons, it saves time on contest day and
eliminates bad loops before they can cause a problem.

If anyone needs further convincing of this idea, I refer them to the Mercury
space program. The capsule was full of toggle switches. The fear was that
one of them would fail at a critical time during the flight. So each switch
to be used was submitted to a 100,000 cycle flip test. The results were the
same as I found with a rubber band: either the switch failed in the first
few hundred flips, or it lasted for ten thousand or more. It was these
"broken-in" units that were used in the capsule. Statisticians call this a
bi-nodal distribution, with peaks of failure early and very late,
with a flat zone in between.

Carl Bakay
carl@s...
--- End forwarded message ---







MaxMen 2001 Photos
==================
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The photos I shot of the (mostly) non-US contestants at this year's MaxMen
14-rounder can be found on the NFFS website, freeflight.org. Look under the
Sequential lndex of the photo galleries for #'s 43 and 44. Some of the names
got typo'd but are mostly recognizable. If I can remember, I'll bring the
prints to pass out at the WCh this October.
Chuck Markos



Picture Gallery on the NFFS site updated with 335 new pictures
==============================================================
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Roger,

I just posted 335 new pictures on the NFFS website:

http://freeflight.org

There are 138 new Science Olympiad Pictures, and 197 new outdoor free flight
pictures (total of 335 new pictures). This brings the total number of
pictures in the Picture Galleries to 887.

To access them, either enter via the "Photo Gallery" icon, or the temporary
icon at the top of the left had frame containing links labeled: "New Pictures
in the Photo Gallery"

The kids have been having a ball flying Science Olympiad airplanes and many
have graduated to AMA and FAI indoor classes. At the FAI Indoor Team
Selection Finals held over Labor Day in Akron, Ohio, we had 8 Juniors
competing for the Junior team. The competition was good, and the Juniors put
up very competitive times, often near the open times. Not bad for a group of
youngsters who came out of the Science Olympiad ranks, some building there
first F1D as little as 3 months ago! More on this story later!

Enjoy the pictures,

Joe Mekina



Lost Hills Flying Field
=======================
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I got it Pontiac... it's in the Scat FAQs

> "The best place to see Big Contests in California is Lost Hills.
> The Site is 10 miles off the Hwy 5 at the Hwy 46. Take Hwt 46 west to
> Holloway Road and turn right 3 miles up at the White Pillars that
> mark the entrance".
>
> Cool
>
>
>
>
> Hi,
> Is there a map/directions of how to get to the flying field in Lost Hills
> ?
> Appreciate if you could send me any info,
> Thanks
> andy
>
>



COPPA FEA 2001 F1G,H,J - Turin, Italy
=====================================
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AGO - TORINO group scheduled the "COPPA GUIDO FEA 2001", for October 7th,
near Torino (northwest of Italy).
Contest is open to F1G, F1H, and F1J classes, is valid as Italian
championship round and it is open to foreign competitors too.

A multiple class friendly event is also scheduled on saturday 6th.

Get full details at the website : www.fiamaero.it/ago.htm

Alessandro Manoni


...............
Roger Morrell