Scat Electronic News January 14 1999

Scat Electronic News January 14 1999


Table Of Contents
=================


Comments on F1B Rules - Bill Shailor and Rex Henson
In the news
Who's legs - Connie Piserchio
NFFS Web Site
America's Cup Results
World Champs 2001 ? - Bill East
Props from Bogart
Sirius Electronics
The Canard Dilema: - Hermann Andressen


Comments on F1B Rules
=====================

From: "Bill Shailor"

I guess I really don't understand the F1B flyoff "dilemna". It seems when we
have a finals without a flyoff, there are those who say that we need to
reduce the number of rounds, or let competitors drop one bad round, etc..The
rationale for this was that the world champs doesn't start until the flyoff,
and we needed to pick a team including flyoff experience. Then, when we have
a flyoff, others say that flyoff performance/numbers need to be reduced.
>From my perspective, and with one flyoff I would prefer to forget, flyoffs
need to be encouraged. Flyoffs are the singularly most exciting aspect of
contest flying, and to water down the performance of the model, or trying to
eliminate them would result in boring contests. We have let the genie out
of the bottle with "store-bought" high performance models. To eliminate DPR,
or any other high tech features in hopes of reducing the capabilities of the
model would drive away those who have expended large amounts of time, effort
and money to get to a certain level of performance. Leave everything as is.


From: "Rex Hinson"
Subject: Flyoffs


Hi Roger,
Since I started the discussion on flyoff changes, I would like to expand
on what I said. Personally, I would hate to see anything changed. I
think the rules as we have them now have been one of the reason that
wakefield has grown so much,
along with the availibility of good equipment.

The only reason I started the discussion about 25gm for flyoffs, was to
start a discussion about what I deemed a simple change, before some very
drastic
changes were brought forward.

There may be other approaches that are better suited if anything has to
be done.

I AM DEFINITELY FOR LEAVING EVERYTHING ALONE !!!!!!

Thermals,

Rex Hinson.



In the news
===========

The July 12 new York Times had a big article on the Aerovironment
Centurion, including color photes. Nor quite Free Flight but close !


Whose Legs ?
============

Glad to see that Connie Piserchio knows her husband Bob's legs better than
the editor od the NFFS FF Digest. The photo in the latest digest
of an F1B fflyer launching that was incorrectly labelled with Bob's name
is in fact yours truely,.. as Connie pointed out.


NFFS Web Site
=============

The NFFS web is hosted at Aeromodel.com like the SCAT Site. Now that it up
and running you can get to the NFFS site at http://freeflight.org.



Americas's Cupo Results
=====================

There are now available in Full Color on the SCAT Web site


World Champs 2001
=================
From: "Bill East"
Subject: World Champs

Sir,

Can you give me any details of Americas bid for the 2001
World Champs.

Bill East

[reply - opinion ]

Bill

I do not believe that USA
will put a bid for the 2001 World Champs.

The impression here is that the bulk of the FAI
community would prefer to hold the Champs in a cheaper
European country. USA for some European
nations is not very expensive but for other it is.
If the Champs is held in Europe many people [other than you and me!]
can travel there by car and bring plenty of supporters.
The feeling is that with the expense of going to Israel
in 1999 it is unlikely that USA would be acceptable.

Roger Morrell



Props from Bogart
==================


David Akery's mentioning the speed props having large inboard chords brought
me to thinking how it could be done on F1C props that fold. Obviously speed
ships do not coast power off for any reason than to land. Already the speed
is determined before shutdown. Perhaps the F1C could handle wide inboard
blades, much like the Aerovironment sun powered wing propellers, if only they
could change their pitch after shutdown to minimize drag.

What reallyl would improve the F1C climb would be variable pitch props,
increasing pitch with speed. Many F1B props have two settings for climb,
perhaps with more to come. Desire is the fire of advancement.

Bill Bogart

Sirius Electronics
=================

Sirius Electronics make a family of intelligent chargers for R/C. I use one
and Matt Gewain and Don Zink use them for their electronic timers and R/C
activites. We all use the Pro Charger that sells for $119.95.


They have a new model the Sirius Charge 100 this is degined for small NICAD
batteries from 50 to 200 ma. It is ideal for NICAD used for electronic
timers. This one goes for $49.95.

In general Sirius devices are rugged and goof proof. They will not do bad
things if connected up the wrong way around.

Their web site is at www.siriuselectronics.com
Information and Technical Support: (503) 671-9455


Sirius Electronics
12470 SW 1st Street, Suite 203
Beaverton, OR 97005




The Canard Dilema:
==================

From Hermann Andresen

What was the crank mod that got 500rpm with 1/2inch more pitch?
Maybe I'm reading wrong & it's 1/2inch more stroke!

For stability in any plane, even a feet firster, it's important to have
higher lift slope in rear surface than front. This means rear surface
should have no dihedral, high aspect ratio, tip fins, blunt LE, low
camber and slight sweep like 5 deg. To maintain high AR the rear surface
should not be blanketed by fuse etc. Front surface to have dihedral,
more camber lower AR etc. While these don't change stiffness much,
they can help those who ignore the speed limit, after all 125 fps is
over 80 mph!

When Kate wins an early AM flyoff with the backwards glider, will I be
expected to eat a Desert Rat?

Keep that electronic news coming,
H

Comment]

Herm, I'm not sure if Kate is with this canard program. She did call me
to warn all fellow sportsmen that Doug's F1C has picked up a lot
of speed so they should stand well back. { ... or was that
just part of the Joyce family psychological needling of other F1C flyers ?}



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

Roger Morrell