SEN 1428

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Category: Archive 2010

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Table of Contents - SEN 1428

1. Travel Tips
2. Euro Boxes
3. Not a Gnarly Cover?
4. RDT Q and A
5. 45th Rocky Mountain Champs
6. CIAM and the Airlines

Roger,

It's those all-important little details that count and can make all the difference between winning an loosing.  Thus, while in conversation some years ago with a local World Champion, I learned of a cunning rouse which he confided in me:  Whenever traveling with his models concealed inside a Golf Bag, that a ripping subterfuge he routinely employs is to make sure the outside pouches are replete with a handfull of golfballs, and that a profusion of brightly colored Tees are always clearly visible on the outside of the bag.  That way the Baggage Handlers will never think to open the bag to check its contents !

—  Biggles

Another good source of boxes is Berwall in Germany (www.berwall.de). Their

boxes are for weapons including archery and come in various sizes. Price

starts around 100 EUR. Mine has by now survived a couple of airline trips

with only superficial damage.

Klaus Salzer

Surf Board Cover  not Gnarly?


Roger,

A lot of the airlines charge an extra large dollar amount for surfboards to the 
point that some surfers just rent boards at their destination. As a result, I 
would be really surprised if a surfboard case would not get hit up with extra 
charges.  Most surfboard carriers are not rigid and would definitely not protect 
any wings inside.

Terry Thorkildsen


RDT Questions - and Answers

Recently many people have been asking me if it is possible for a RDT equipped model to DT early as a result of flying on a field with many other models and RDT systems, the assumption being that another system or combination of systems with a similar frequency or code could somehow trigger an early DT.  It seems that there have been some cases of accidental early DTs in recent competitions and the first assumption is that the RDT system must be to blame and rumors start to spread.

First I can answer only for the Airtek RDT systems that I produce, since I’m not familiar with the other systems, that it is virtually impossible for any other RDT system or any other radio system or any combination thereof to produce a signal that would trigger the RDT receiver, other than the single transmitter that was designed to match that receiver.  This is because every system I have built is hard coded and programmed with not only a unique digital code but also a unique RF frequency.  So even if a transmitter were to go bad and perhaps transmit briefly on a different flyers channel there would still be no harm done since the codes would not match.  I have designed my system so that it is not possible for the user to change or alter the code or frequency in any way, thus preventing any possibility that someone could modify a transmitter to work with another model.  In fact this is one of the cost factors of my system since each unit must be individually programmed, and of course the codes and frequencies are never shared with anyone.  (many jokes have been made about my secret code list, but I’ll never give away any details, even if I’m tortured with ants and left to dry in the sun I will still be true to my word!)

So regarding early DTs all I can say is that over the last few years these have occasionally happened and the first response is often to blame the RDT, but for every case I’m familiar with the real cause has been attributed to one of the following:

1.        Mechanical problem with the DT system.  For example a monofilament line on an F1B getting stretched out and releasing the stab hammer, or a cam or line coming loose, etc…

2.       Battery voltage of system getting too low, or inadequate battery for timer system.  This has been seen to cause a timer to brown out, or reset, and upon reset there might be no power to the RDT receiver, and with no power the RDT logic is low which the timer interprets at the DT signal and the system DTs.

3.       The host model timer is not setup correctly.  For example the DT time is accidentally set to 1 minute rather than 3 minutes.

4.       The RDT transmitter was left in the ON position and put in a pocket.  The transmitter button then gets accidentally squeezed from the motion of the clothing or from stuff in the pocket and the DT signal is accidentally sent.

5.       The RDT transmitter is lost, then found by somebody who then starts pushing the button for fun.

There are certainly other modes of early DT, but these are just a few that I have seen.  So the bottom line is that early DTs have been happening occasionally for as long as DT systems have existed on models due to these types of problems and others.  Adding an RDT receiver does not fix the possibility of a mechanical model failure and the flyer has to take precautions in caring for the transmitter and its whereabouts.

   -Ken Bauer

45th Rocky Mountain Free Flight Championships Sept 4-5-6

Visit www.themmmclub.com for the flyer and more information

Don DeLoach

Co-Contest Director

Bernard Boutillier


...........................

Roger Morrell