SEN 2283

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Category: Archive 2017
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Table of Contents – SEN 2283

  1. OOPS
  2. 2017 SCAT Annual Report
  3. The German EL proposal
  4. FFQ - 63

OOPS!

From: Mike Roberts

My apologies to Jean Luc.  I was outside with a glass of fine Cabernet for a while and did not see any ripples but perhaps the “big splash “ was past my geezer bed time.  i now have seen the video evidence so am embarrassed that I cast doubt about the French commitment to flying fun.  I look forward to next years pool competition if I can stay awake long enough.  Sorry Jean Luc.

Mike

2017 SCAT Annual Report
 
Lost Hills, CA March 18-19, 2017
 
Weather forecast was for great free flight weather and it was! The road to the field was hard packed and so little dust was kicked up. The field was green with a combination of grass and wild flowers. On the negative side, the grass hide some deep ruts, the worse is a long SE to NW diagonal double deep rut what was created before Fab Feb by what looks to be heavy truck or farm equipment. This caused one motorcycle spill, the rider very scraped up and several other close calls. The warmer weather also resulted in two snake sighting, one for sure a rattle snake. As always we need to stay vigilant while enjoying our sport.
 
 Entry numbers were slightly up from last year although not as much as I anticipated with the excellent weather forecast. Of the 18 scheduled events, only 4 did not have an entrant (F1J, ½ A Nostalgia, ABC nostalgia and Vintage FAI.
 
Great conditions but the thermals were trickier than a month earlier. In F1A and F1C there were only one flyer that maxed out. I was the F1A flyer and my seventh round was 181 seconds to the ground. Don Zink dropped 4 second on two flights and placed second. Marty Schroedter was the winner in F1B. Bill Cannon place second dropping only 6 seconds. Ed Carroll was the only one to fly F1C, he was looking good with is new knee and ankle parts.  Terry Kerger was the solo F1P flyer scoring all maxes.Tom Ieoger and Mike Pykelny flew F1Q with Tom placing first. Larry Norval flew Nostalgia Wake--- I need to track done the Bob White donated perpetual trophy. Drop me a line if you know who has it.
 
In the AMA classes on Saturday, Tim Batiuk bested Stan Buddenbohm in HLG. Tim, like Terry was solo in classic towline and posted a perfect score. Ditto Clint Brooks in E36.
 
SCAT hosted a burger cook. Thanks to cook Mike McKeever and all that brought supplements. These are wonderful times of fellowship that compliant the pleasures of our flying.
 
On Sunday, Clint Brooks bested Stan Buddenbohm in P-30. The trio of Batiuk, Hines and Buddenbohm flew Catapult glide and placed in the order listed.
 
The mini FAI events, F1G,H and S used a morning  “Champagne” fly off to be used if needed to break a tie after two flyoff flights. Only F1S used the tie breaker. Stan and Clint maxed out and both made the two flyoff maxes so Stan won with the highest Champagne flight. In F1H, three maxed out, Brian Van Nest, Mike McKeever and Blake Jensen. Blake launched in the first minute of the first flyoff and looked good and Mike followed---- into bad air. Brian waited and found a nice thermal for a up and away winning flight. In F1G, Tom Ioeger, Geralyn Jones and Tif O’Dell maxed out. Tom dropped the first fly off. The second flyoff started in still, dead air. It did not get better and Tiff and Geralyn launched with less than a minute left in the round. Geralyn got higher and stayed more up wind were the air was slightly better, good for the win.
 
Thermals, Jim Parker


The German EL proposal

From: aram schlosberg 
 
Currently, Q’s electronic architecture is straight forwards. The EL (energy limiter) starts counting the energy used as soon as the model is launched, provided the Amperage exceeds a certain threshold. It then poles the accumulated energy and once it reaches the allotted amount it sends the e-timer a signal and the e-timer turns off the motor.
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Cheating might happen in two cases.
CASE 1: The EL can be miss-programmed.
CASE 2: The e-timer could cheat by first drinking a beer before turning off the motor.
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But cheating is obvious (extra altitude) and it can be verified after the flight by inserting anther EL between the battery and the model’s EL that measure the actual amount of energy used. This is called a SET (static energy test) and is included in the current rules.
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If the e-timer is not trusted (CASE 2) and the responsibility to shut the motor is assigned to EL as the Germans are proposing, the following would be required:

(1) The motor run control signal train (50 Hz PWM servo input signal whose pulse width varies from 1 ms (off) to 2 ms (full power)) from the e-timer will be ROUTED through the EL to the controller.

(2)  When the energy budget is depleted, the EL would:
(a)  Send a signal to the e-timer
(b)  A FET switch in the EL would block the signal train from the e-timer. Instead, the EL will now sends a stop signal train to the controller.
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The e-timer can still cutoff the motor if it receives a RDT signal or a motor cutoff time is reached. Consequently, none of the e-timers will be obsoleted but ALL the ELs will. Note also that this only “fixes” CASE 2.
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When the same German proposal was adopted a few years ago (supported by 3, opposed by 2 with 7 abstentions among those attending the Free Flight Technical Committee meeting) it cause a general outcry as Q fliers realized what a mess it created. The Q rules were redrafted a year later.
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CIAM has a hands off policy in terms of a model’s electronic architecture and this policy should remain. Cheats (if they are any) can easily be caught.  There is no need to use a sledge hammer to solve half a so-called problem.
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Aram
(Thanks for feedback from Dick Ivers.)
 


FFQ - 63


Free Flight Quarterly  #63 for April, 2017, has appeared, with a new 52-page issue, containing a wide variety of articles.

You can go  to the *Current Issue* page in our website to see the cover and table of contents and read a summary of the articles for issue 63.

http://freeflightquarterly.com/wordpress/?page_id=4

Sergio Montes