SCAT Electronic News 16 March 2001 issue 557
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SCAT Electronic News 16 March 2001 issue 557
Table of Contents
=================
FAI Ramblings - Buxton
Handicaps - Skykeing
CIAM discussion item - Crowley
NFFS Editor Communication - Baughman and Rozelle
A Championship for Minis - King
F1J/F1C Thoughts - Ramrod250
Geared F1C - Hinson
Charlie Recants - Stiles
FIC Participation
FAI Ramblings
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FAI RAMBLINGS
The MaxMen 14 Rounder at Lost Hills, CA in February was, as usual, a
great event with 220 entries, about one-third of them from foreign
countries. The mini events were flown on Friday and the big ones on
Saturday and Sunday with the America's Cup Awards Banquet Saturday night.
There must have been 250 at the banquet. The weather was cooler than usual
but the winds fairly calm and the rains held off, but barely. A real
cross-section of models: from nostalgia-type to the latest word. But, by
far most were of the cutting edge sort. Differences among these were subtle
- airfoils, mechanisms, materials and methods of construction.
I was most interested in Evgeny Verbitsky's geared model. He and Kenny
Happersett along with Randy Archer were flying geared models - all of
Verbitsky origin. As I understand it, these models have a mechanism that
changes wing incidence half way up to compensate for over-the-top at the
high velocity end of the climb. So I'm told, Randy's mechanism got stuck
and the model glided down rapidly with less than normal wing incidence. EV
had engine trouble in a number of rounds. Once he shut down and smoke
poured out. I think he put that one back in the "for sale" box. But he and
Kenny made it to the flyoff along with a dozen others. However, the two of
them were the only ones to make the 7-min. max. Doug Joyce stood far back
and said the gear models got a lot higher than the rest of us - 50 to 100
feet. Kenny won by default in the 9 minute round - EV could'nt get his
engine going. Kenny's went out of sight.
I ordered one of these reductor engines, $800 with two props, but time
will tell if I actually take delivery because EV is trying to sell these
with complete airplanes, or at least, front end assemblies - pylon,
mechanism and all. Rumor has it that Henry Nelson will market one within a
year for $500.
I always come back from this contest with a determination to improve
my design by a few seconds. This time I'm changing airfoil that means I've
got to make new wing fixtures to form the undercamber. These forms are like
concrete, made from UltraCal 30. I'm one of the few still building wings
the old fashion way - with aluminum foil skin. I need it because the skin
also doubles as the flap hinge.
FAI rules are to be locked-up for four years starting the first of
next year. At least one party is urging Dave Brown to call an emergency
meeting of the CIAM to restrict the gear unit. I don't see this happening.
We're going to see the reductor, but I'm not sure that it will prevail.
Questions of reliability remain. The slower but larger prop should give a
15 to 20% advantage. But improvement in our simpler models just might
enable them to keep pace. My feeling is, it will.
Gil Morris
Handicaps
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May I offer some gratuitous thoughts concerning Joe
Wagner's proposal for handicapping the geared engines via
cutting the engine run time?
Thank you.
With a 4 second run allowance, as reportedly suggested by
Bob Sifleet, the geared ship might as well stay in the
Ukraine. Under 4.5 the gears aren't fairly handicapped they
are being actively punished for being good. At 4.6 it is
about even steven, but there is no rewarding lolly pop for
brinkmanship in "hanging ten" the hard way. That's mean
spirited.
I don't think it fair or practical to single out the geared
systems for punishment ...and that is what it amounts to.
One could make a case for requiring extended max times
based on exceeding a set aspect ratio or camber factor.
Along with that we might as well nail someone for using an
expensive electronic timer to cut supernaturally close to
the run limit; after all, an additional tenth of a second
means an additional 10 feet or so. And lest we forget a
really serious disparity let's introduce sliding handicaps
scale determined by the tested reaction time of one's
official timer. After all, super reflexes combined with
super timers can neutralize super gearing flown
conservatively. If you don't believe me, well just ask, hmm,
well someone who knows those kind of things.
At the present my vote is for letting things settle into
place sans premature micro management. But I'm open to the
idea that I might yet be convinced otherwise.
Bill Gieskieng. Gear less in Denver
CIAM discussion item
====================
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Bill,
A discussion that you should start, informally of course, is how to
rescind the not so well thought out 30 gram F1B rule. It has been over a
year since usable rubber has been available. Find out what those guys
think we can use for power. Rules have been rescinded before when
clearer heads prevailed.
Yours truly, Paul Crowley
NFFS Editor Communication
=========================
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Walter Rozelle, editor of the NFFS Digest, is in the midst of a job
change. His e-mail will be down for a short time until futher notice.
Please contact him at 404-876-1268 or snail mail:
Walter Rozelle
926 Argonne Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30309
A Championship for Minis
========================
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That would be a great idea George !! It would also be of benefit to some
of the guys like myself, who find the cost of competetive models becoming
prohibitive. I love to fly and to build F1B's but also enjoy the latest
high tech Coupes. With these you can, so far, design and build state of the
art models and still think of possible areas of development. eg size
optimization for one thing (12 dm2 or 16 dm2 ) Of course F1H and J may cost
more as they are more able to incorporate electronic timers etc. but prices
are still less than say for a 'geared' F1C , not that I am against any kind
of new developments. In fact I welcome them all as being part of the appeal
of what should be the pinacle of the sport. Unfortunately I predict that
there would not be enough cash around to run a WC every year, which is a
shame. Although I still plan to continue with state of the art F1B, money
and time permitting, I think the idea of having both FAI disciplins have
International recognition like this is well worth thinking about !! I, for
one, would welcome the chance to fly F1G at WC level and it would be
interesting to see how much interest there is in all the mini classes for
your idea.
It is great to see a new idea that attempts to give encouragement to
both levels of competition , rather than all the old arguements about the
Luddites versus the 'Techno Freaks' I want to see everyone enjoying the
hobby !!!
Peter King
[Peter, by making an event a World Champs event, chnages the the attitude of
some of the flyers, even if the rules remain unchanged.]
F1J/F1C Thoughts
================
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I doubt it will meet with much enthusiasm, but I personally like the idea of
a Mini Championships as proposed in the last SEN. I think realistically we
are past the point where these could be considered entry-level events--the
performance is too great--so if we own up to the fact that these are heavily
competitive, why not have a championships for them? (Aside from the fact that
I favor small power models to large ones, one reason I decided to fly F1J was
the thought that maybe there would be a championships for it one day, as an
adjunct to F1C or in place of it.)
I know these are often looked at as "fun" events, and maybe they were a few
years ago. But I think most folks who fly the minis now do so with a pretty
serious intent, at least as a tuneup for "the big stuff." I admit they are
not as much "fun" as they used to be, but competing against the best is fun,
too.
As for the geared/nongeared F1C, it is probably an inevitable part of the
event's evolution; innovation has always been a part of it. But aside from
banning gears, consider that in some RC Pylon events, for instance, there is
a rule that a certain minimum number of engines must be produced/commercially
available. This is an approach that could be used to level the field, though
the horse may already be out of the barn on that.
Just a thought.
Jim Haught
Geared F1C
===========
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Roger,
It might be of intrest to the F1C flyers, that Tom McLaughlan (the
freeflight road at Muncie is named for him) flew a geared model at the
1977 world champs as a member of the USA team. He was far ahead of his
time, he had timer controlled wing skew in place of the current wing
wigglers, and he had metal covered D boxes, along with folding
propeller. All were made by Tom. A picture is in Bill Hartill's "World
Free Flight Review" book, page 148.
Rex Hinson
Charlie Recants
===============
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roger do not print that email from last night please.i am not going to stop
flying XXXXXXXXXXXX. thanks charlie
[Whoops we were to fast for you ! - Glad to hear you're not stopping]
FIC Participation
==================
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Lets all get real, if you really want to see so called "wonderful growth" in
FIC, then eleminate the High-Tech spiral that we have been on. Most people
get out of it because of this. $1,000 plus freeflights are not going to
"entice" people to get involved with this aspect of the hobby. Hey, if
that's what everyone involved wants, than fine, but don't ever expect it to
grow in numbers much. Also, Joe W. made a fine point. If this new geared
motor system sneaks into AMA Gas, it will lower the number of entries even
further until you will have just a handful of guys flying at an event at
even large contests. This is exactely what is driving guys towards
Nostalgia. We really should be putting the sport/hobby of freeflight before
our personal interests and always ask ourselves, "will this be good for the
hobby and increase the interest in it, or will it shrink our numbers just to
satisfy a few guys'? Answer it with honesty. Anyway, just my opinion, and
you know about opinions. Jimmy B
.......................
Roger Morrell
