SEN 97-39 - 24 Dec 1997
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News and Reports - 1997 Issue 97-39
SCAT Electronic News 24 December 1997
Firstly Best Wishes to all readers for the Holiday Season.
December Rubber
---------------
Reports are coming from the testers on the December Rubber. This
appears to be similar in quality and characteristics
to the October, perhaps slightly more energy return.
John Clapp had stated that they were going to change the
formula slightly to put 'halfway' between the October
and July in term of both energy return and robustness.
This rubber seems quite robust but is probably not quite
'halfway' in terms of energy return. That is not really
a problem. Bear in mind that this rubber is likely to be
better than anything except the July 97 in terms
of energy return. The manufacturing process seems to have been better
with fewer defects as were encountered with the July 97.
I think that most flyer would prefer reliable rubber even if the energy
was slight down on the absolute optimum. After all it is consistant
flying that wins contests and this is hard to do if you are worrying
if the motor is about to break.
I'm guessing, but eventhough the the formula was changed to put this
rubber halfway between July and October, it did not come out
quite there. Maybe the reason was other factors such as the quality of the
latex or manufacturing variances make difference and
it's not possible to tune the formula so finely.
Parker's Back - an Editorial
----------------------------
Jim Parker won this year's Sierra Cup. Because of family commitments
Jim was not able to stay for the prizegiving banquet. He asked
Janna van Nest to pick of the trophy him
and deliver the message/challenge to his fellow F1A sportsmen
that "Parker's Back". Now Jim had been away
from serious flying for about a year recuperating from a knee injury.
A few weeks later Jim came dowm to Lake Elsinore to do some
test flying. After that session Jim recounted that he
really enjoyed being out testing his airplanes and watching
then fly. He said that it was the first time in some years that
he had had a test session like that. Even before his injury he
had not been able to get out and test so had squeezed test sessions
in just before the start of contests. Because of this he had
always felt rushed or a little behind things at contests.
There are some flyers, Thomas Koster seems to be an example
who are not able to do much testing at home. They arrive at the contest,
bring out the new models and have a concentrated [ and sometines
spectacular] test session and do very well in the contest. Fortunately
for most of us normal folks there are not too many flyers as good as that.
In the summer of 1996 I started test flying more than before.
This was part of my electronic timer developemt. Seeing it
was some distance to my flying site [70 miles] I always took at least
one other airplane to fly. Every time I was there F1A flyer, Don Zink
was also there practising. Come the team selection final that October
both Don and I did well and managed to make the US team for Sazena.
There were some comments about how lucky we were etc. But there
is saying attributed to Arnold Palmer " The more I practise - the luckier
I get".
Both Don and I have a very competative nature but, I do
not regard myself as a Thomas Koster or Alexander Andruikov and
I'm sure Don does not either. We both were appreciative of the opportunity
to take part in the World Champs and determined to do well. I'm
not sure what Don's record was but I flew every weekend except two
between the selection contest and the World Champs and often twice
in the weekend . Don seemed to be down at Lake Elsinore every
time I was there too. Being out flying is not enough.
I realized how fortunate I was when comparing notes
with fellow team member Fred Pearce. Fred being retired was able to
go flying when ever the weather was good, but he went flying
by himself as there are not many other top F1B flyers in the Houstom
area. When I went testing there was Bob Piserchio, Al Ulm, Al Brush,
Mike Mulligan, Earl Boetler, Bob White, Toshi Hatazawa, all of them
top flyers flying too. For Don, the team alternate Lee Hines
was often there. Flying with other
modellers keeps you honest as you can compare the performance of
your models against their's and you can discuss problems with them too.
At the World Champs neither Don nor I did quite as well as we
would have liked, we did not beat Stamov or Andruikov. We both made the
fly off, I know what to do better next time and I'm sure Don does too.
Both of us have started on it already.
So what's all this got to do with Parker being back ? Simply that
the most important thing for Jim's plan to get on the team for Beer Sheva
is not that he won the Sierra Cup, it is that he rediscovered practising.
Roger Morrell
