SCAT Electronic News May 30, 1998
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SCAT Electronic News May 30, 1998
FAI News
========
Stop Press
Paris, Friday 29th May 1998
SPAIN TO HOST THE 2ND WORLD AIR GAMES - 2001
The 2nd World Air Games will be held in Andalucia, Spain, in June 2001.
The Council of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) took
this decision at its meeting in Paris on 29 May 1998 following an
exhaustive evaluation of competing bids from three countries. Full details
of the winning Spanish proposal will be published in the very near future.
FAI TO RELOCATE
At the same meeting, a decision was taken to relocate the FAI to
Lausanne, Switzerland, the capital of world sport and headquarters of the
International Olympic Committee.
Again, full details will be announced in due course.
Comments
--------
Does this mean that our 2001 Champs will be in Spain ? I understand that
Spain has not has not been viewed favorably for Free Flight Champs
since the F1B World Champ was beaten up by the police there in '81.
Maybe that was the old regime ?
While the move to be with the Olympic program is maybe a 'good idea'. In
a time where all countries are looking seriously at the cost of FAI
participation in all disciplines, moving from an expensive city to an
outrageously expensive city is not exactly a cost cutting measure.
Note to Waterman .. Bob you can get your Michelin Resturant guide from
Amazon.com .. and there is no McDonalds in Lausanne.
High Concept *
============
Hollywood next ? It has to be the next logical step. Rumor has that
following the AA F1B article in the WSJ, there will be a feature in People
Magazine. More glitz and photos. Will Alex join long time SCAT F1B
flyer Dick Gildersleeve on the silver screen ?
* Common term used by people in the "biz " while doing lunch at Chassons
and similar establishments. Very fitting for an F1B flyer.
NFFS Web Site
-------------
The NFFS Web Site has moved to a new address
http://freeflight.org
SCAT Web Site
-------------
The SCAT Web Site is in the process of moving to another site.
We expect this to done this weekend. The new URL will be:
http://www.aeromodel.com/scat
Justice Prevailled at the 1K$ Shootout
---------------------------------
from Tom Laird ....
Message on my machine from Herman with an apology for entering the 1K
with a hot air bag, organizers returned his entry fee and awarded the 1K to
Mike Thompson for a flight of 52 min. Glad to hear that, althought I don't
know what Mike was flying. Hope he didn't have any Electronics on
board, we'd never hear the end of it.
Tom had planned to enter with modified AMA Gas model but wimped out
when he saw the results so far from the hot air bags and at the thought of
flying for one hour at Taft with the Kitty Litter Factory, Prison, Oil Field
Stuff, etc . He said that Taft looked awful small after flying at Lost Hills
earlier in the day.
Correspondence
--------------
From Bill East [F1C] In Australia
Roger,
read todays SCAT also with great interest.
1999 World Champs
I was told recently that an emergency sitting of CIAM was to
be held to discuss the virtues of still holding the WC in
Israel, I'm not sure when this is to take place somebody may
be able to fill in this void in my memory. I agree whole
heartedly with John on having the World Champs there, The
country is in chaos, will be in chaos for quite a few more
years and unfortunately many more lives will be lost. CIAM
must I believe take there collective head out of the sand
and see the reality of this issue, The costs involved to
travel there are extremely high - not all airlines fly into
Tel-Aviv, and the security measures that will be submitted
to our models could be horrendous. I personally could not
consider taking my family there and would have to think very
hard about going there myself (even though I am part
Jewish), Interest here in Australia to travel there is very
low as I believe is the case in NZ.
Having been very involved in running the World Champs in
Australia I can look at the obvious pain the Israeli
committee must be having in deciding how to tackle the
security and safety of so many people, maybe they need to
take a long hard look at the consequences should anything
happen to there fellow modellers.
Electronic Timers
Well, this still sounds like a hot issue. Martins comments
were very valid and obviously well thought out, I must say
my comments have been born from the real world where
watching a model sink slowly into oblivion is a plausible
reality !. I may be looking at it from a selfish point of
view but I have seen many "accidents' occur at World Champs
to know that a "Panic button" or whatever you choose to call
it may someday save a life, As mentioned before it comes
down to safety and preservation of our hobby as we know it,
These models are in reality guided missles that can and do
cause damage, The question of artificial intelligence is a
long way down the track as Martin pointed out. I cannot see
how this could possibly be an issue with the present
technology available to us, maybe the plenary committee's
need to discuss the virtues of rules now to meet the
possibilities of this form of control happening.
Bill East.
and from Charlie Stiles [F1C] in Michigan
First of all I have no idea what I am doing on this computer! so to cut
it short this little note is from Charlie Stiles. It seems to me that free
flighters that interact on this page are worried about a bunch of stuff that
does not preasent any problems to any of us in the near future as far as
electronic timers are concerned. Due to the fact that by the time we could
build and manufacture a self flying model at a reasonable cost there is not
going to be anybody flying anyway. That would have to be years away I
mean a long time baby.
As far as wars going on in Isreal for the world champs so what if you dont
want to go dont go.
This page is suposed to create interest free flight modeling so just
remember some people may tune in to see what has happend to a hobby
they loved as a kid thirty years ago with the idea of starting it again. and
after reading this stuff, decide to tune into the X GAME PAGE and start
racing LAND LUGES. Let the sport grow in what ever way it can so we
can still go to contest and fly and have fun because any way you slice it
there wont be much around in twenty years anyway.
Buy the way this page is great I tune in every night to check
it out and I love this sport and the people involved BUT LETS CREATE
SOME INTERST INSTEAD OF ALL THE B***S***
ABOUT ELECTRONIC TIMERS AND WARS. IF NOT I WILL BE
RIGHT THERE WONT BE ANY FLYERS IN TWENTY YEARS.
EVERYBODY CRIES OH THE FINALS ARE IN PALM BAY, THATS
WHAT MAKES IT A SPORT, DIFERENT FLYING CONDITIONS. I
THINK LOST HILLS IS THE BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD AND I
HAVE MORE FUN COMING OUT TO FLY EVERY WINTER
FROM MICHIGAN THAN GOING TO ASPEN. BYE THE WAY I CAN
TAKE IT AS WELL AS I CAN DISH IT OUT SO IF THER IS ANY
COMENTS ON THIS LATE NIGHT TANGET I WILL REPLY.
CHARLIE STILES
[editorial insert.
Charlie is a F1C flyer, he is not one of the 'old guard'. He uses Rod
Mogel's Electronic timer. He in not in the timer business . Charlie in not a
computer person and spoke at our Electronic timer seminar at Lost Hills
about his success with using Rod's timer. For the purist, Rod's timer is a
drop in replacement for a Seelig....I believe it weighs the same and you
can even use the same lines. It does not use any closed loop systems or
similar witchcraft. Rod comes from an aerospace background and
machining on the mechanical part of the timer is of the highest quality.
A small technical aside, as a break from all this politicing .. In a dicussion
with Bob Waterman [who now thinks he owns or should own stock in
Mogel's company!] , Bob pointed out that he thinks one of the biggest
advantages in using Rod's timer is that it timer speed is not affected by the
tension on the control lines. With some kinds of lines the tension can
increase significantly on a cold day. Bob sited Kenny Happersett who
always strings up his model well in advance on a cold day to get the lines
well stretched so the timer will run at normal speed. The speed of
operation of Mogel's electronic timer is not affected by either the
temperature or the lines.
Hey, maybe back in the good old days the F1B guys were really heating
the control lines not the rubber ! :-) ]
Rules and Participation
-----------------------
We all want to increase participation in our events, we lament the number
of newcomers. A few issues back Jim Haught suggested that the
increasing complexity and technolgy was driving people away from FAI
events and participation is down. I do not believe that the technology is the
problem.
I see the lack of flying sites and competeing interests as major problems.
FAI Free Flight is physically demanding and some of our hard core SCAT
members are finding increasing years a bigger problem than technolgy.
I see participation in some classes of Free Flight events increasing. The
two categories that look good are at opposite ends of the spectrum. There
is increasing activity for small outdoor and indoor sport, scale and 'mild'
competition flying. A reason for this people do not want to travel too far
or spend too much money but they like free flight. People doing this are
not only older people returning but younger people with a lot of energy, an
example in this latter category is Thayer Syme in the San Franisco. Thayer
sponsors the Free Flight Mailing List that has participation from people all
over the world. While this list talks about all aspects of FF, there is
heavy emphasis on small field stuff.
At the other end in the US we have increased participation in FAI events,
in some areas. I believe there are 3 reasons. Firstly the America's Cup has
increased interest, secondly people like the high tech-high performance
stuff and finally if you want to participate in World Class contests you
have to do the FAI thing. It's only in major league baseball that one can
become a World Champion by going no futher a field than Canada. The
objective of the Team Selctions program is to get 30 quality contestants in
each class in the Finals and we are getting that.
I think that the major obstacle is the lack of flying sites. In California we
are fortunate to have a good site at Lost Hills. The downside is a long way
from civilization and it's impossible for juniors to get there without adult
help. What it does is help maintain a critical mass of good flyers. We
have more active FAI participants here than anywhere else in the USA. At
the recent Big Al's Shoot out at Lost Hills we had beginners in both the
F1A and F1B events. Charlie Siles is an example of a newcomer to F1C.
The F1 classes have a lot of innovators, the main effect of making more
restrictive rules is it will discourage those innovators. Taking the
electronic 'timer' as an example and looking just at the F1A category. We
have M&K, Stamov, Gewam, all Champion flyers plus Van Wallene,
Nyghen, Bauer, Sinisalo, etc who have been expending significant effort
in this area for a number of years. Arbitary restrictive rules* will not
discourage the beginners, it will discourage the most active particpants
who we need to keep this thing going.
* I say the rules are arbitary because no clear superiority, other than
reliability, has been demonstrated for any 'avioncs' in Free Flight.
Only two people have actually made a concrete rules proposals, George
Xenakis and Bob White. I suspect that Bob's was a little tongue in the
cheek. George's indicated that there were a number areas that need still
need attention when working on a rules change. An example is closed
loop systems that already exist in F1A and are not fundementally bad, by
anyone's definition. Other contrary comments have not suggested any
actual changes but have been more in the Chicken Little category.
It's too late to say lets stop work in this area before anyone spends time on
it. People have been working there since '87 when Thomas Koster and
Torlief Jensen made the first micro controller timer. They have not killed
the spirit of Free Flight, they have not demonstrated any magical*
superiority so why change the rules ? Chicken Little ?
In SCAT Electronic News we do not want to talk about the rules, we want
to talk about new and exciting ideas, like Charlie requested above. How
ever it's not very encouraging to do that if when we talk about new ideas
all people want to do is ban them.
* the only magic I've seen recently is Alexander Andriukov getting 3
flights out of a July '97 rubber motor, now that's witchcraft for sure and
has to be banned !
Editorial Policy
-----------------
We like flying Free Flight, FAI Free Flight in particular and the objective
of SCAT Electronic News is to promote it.
We want material from people with similar interests. We go to great
lengths to try and fairly present all material even if it does not agree with
our own personal point of view.
In general we will not edit material supplied by others. What this amounts
to is that we will change the line wrapping but we will not correct spelling
grammer etc. [We have enough difficulty with our own!]. We believe that
we are all 'friends' with the same end objective and that the prime object
is to communicate and that the spelling, grammer, etc are secondary to this
objective. As this is a 'family' program we will **** out some 4 letter
words.
We do request that you do not submit material that is written all in upper
case [CAPITAL] letters. In e-mail etiquette all upper case is considered to
be ' shouting' and it is time consuming to convert it to mixed case.
Inspite of belonging to SCAT, we do try and lighten up from time to time
and include comments of a light hearted nature. This does not mean that
we trivialize what we do but rather that we try and have some fun.
..........................................................................
Roger Morrell
