SCAT Electronic News June 23 1999
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- Category: Archive 1999
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SCAT Electronic News June 23 1999
Table of Contents
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Nose not noise - Brokenspar
Sigh, sigh, sigh! - Woodhouse
Don Leath's Ideas-Jun 18 - Markos
In the Press - FFn and Vol Libre
Nose not noise
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Some years ago, I was in my early sixties probably, I was pompted to
have my hearing checked. From OS max to Cox to
Oliver Tiger to SuperTiger to Rossi ( first 20K RPM, thanks to Geo
Aldrich ) to Nelson, there was a lot of RPM,s, - a lot of dbA's.
Further prompting from my first wife, ( '..all that noise' ). So, off to
the Eye Ear Nose and Throat Clinic at our best hospital.
The appointment was with Dr. Olchevski ( some such polish name). I
throught, Polish eh ? This is good. Almost all the Balsa Bugs are
Polish. The setting for the exam, aside from the sound proof booth, was
me seated in a kind of barbers chair.
Elevated. After the the testing, the doctor, seated in a chair going
over the data, looked up at me : 'Nothing wrong
with your hearing, normal for a man your age', head cocked sideways,
'However, your nose is in troble, you have a deviated septum'.
We made an appointment some weeks ahead. 'Simple operation', he said.
In the meantime, however, he went on sabatical. Dr. Levi will do it.
Levi, eh? This is good, my lawyer is Ellmann.
Expecting Levi, I'm sitting in the waiting room for a meeting with the
doctor. Next thing, door opened and the doctor appeared.
A black man.
The meeting went well. They don't just go in the nose, they go under the
inner lining of the nose. 'What's with Levi ?', I asked.
A quiet smile, ' I'm from North Africa. My father was Hasidic Jew, my
mother was black'.....
So the noise problem, imagined, turned into a nose problem, now more
nearly straight. I can smell the methanol and Klotz
( caster oil ) fumes.
Brokenspar
[So I conclude from this that the real problem those have who complain
is that they cannot appreciate the true beauty of a Nelson at 30K
because they cannot smell it !]
Sigh, sigh, sigh!
=================
Author : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Its no good watching the weather forecast on the tele in this b***** country.
It would be just my luck to miss the only warm sunny day of the year just to
witness Michael Fish without his kit on!
Mike Woodhouse
Don Leath's Ideas-Jun 18
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Since Don asked for "constructive criticism" regarding some of the ideas
he proposed, here goes: Except for F1C noise, the "problem" has a
simple solution. In fact, we have unwittingly already set the precedent
for this solution. The precedent is reducing the max for"bad"
conditions. Is it not then logical to increase the max for "good"
conditions? Before I go farther, the hyperbole used by Don to describe
most FF sites being unsuitable "at best" requires comment: To most FAI
FF folks, "at best" means the model won't drift more than 1/4 mile in 3
minutes. This is good enough for just about any field-at best! I think
that a contest format of 7 rounds starting at mid-day with three
3-minute maxes proceeding to 4,5,6 and 7-minute maxes for the last four
rounds will solve quite a few "problems." There is one catch, as soon
as the competitor drops a max, he (or she) is out - join the timer pool!
Such a contest format has many benefits:
- Reduce the numbers in the current flyoffs format when timers are hard
to find.
- Determine the winner on the same day the contest is flown.
- Start the contest at mid-day giving contestants time to acclimatize
and trim their models.
- Finish the contest under conditions where a max will be difficult.
- Most of us have timers that run for 7 minutes.
Even the perceived disatvantage of long chases or lost models has a
benefit: The competitor may be required to use back-up models to finish
the contest, thereby improving the overall quality of models in use.
If the conditions do not warrant the extended max, the CD has the power
to reduce the max to something more reasonable. Under "bad"
conditions, it has been my experience that most contests can be
resolved in 7 rounds using even 2-minute maxes. However, under "good"
conditions, it is reasonable to increase the max to a point where the
"performance expectations" [Dml] of the models make the max difficult.
I'm not sure how much support this idea will have, but it should be
attractive to most FAI FF people. We spend 7 or 14 flights just to get
into a flyoff situation under the current contest format. The idea here
is to get everyone into a flyoff from the getgo...something for nothing!
Chuck Markos
In the press
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FFn
---
From FFn there is the further saga of Pete Tribe's lost model
and the 'water?' devining technique. I guess if all else fails
I can take the Yagi apart on my Walston Retriever and try that way!
Also I noted that Bryan Spooner is the UK 'rep' on the commitee to
discuss the 'Italian' simplification proposal - who else is on that commitee ?
is there any one from the USA ?
Vol Libre
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I notice the Vintage Wakefield proposal, maybe not a bad idea.
It is building models to an old Wakefield spec, with some restriction
on functions etc. It many ways it is more honest than the vintage events
where part of the game seems to be how much one can deviate
from the original plan without getting caught. Its
similar in concept to the Moffet event flown the the US with some significant
particpation, mainly in the East.
..................
Roger Morrell
