SEN-462 August 30 2000
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News and Reports 2000 - second half
SCAT Electronic News 30 August 2000 issue 462
Table of Contents
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Wind your own motor ? - Ackery
Pre Jr WC story - Parker
Turning Flight - Toto
Rudder Area: - Andressen
Rules - Winding the motor - Sager
Wind your own motor ?
======================
Author : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
I have always had the idea that it was compulsory to wind your own
Wakefield motor , but I decided to check just to make sure.
Available for download from the FAI website www.fai.org is what I
presume to be the latest, and current version of the Sporting Code,
I have pasted here the relevant section from the F1B rules, Section 4c
Aeromodels, 1st January 1997.
"
3.2.11. Launching
a) Launching is by hand, the competitor being on the ground (jumping
allowed).
b) Each competitor must wind his motor and launch the model him-self.
c) The model must be launched within approximately 5 m from the starting
pole position .
d) Additional heat may not be applied to the motor during winding and
while waiting prior to launch.
"
So the requirement seems quite clear,
(except for female competitors of course :-) )
cheers
David Ackery
New Zealand
Pre Jr WC story
===============
Author : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Roger,
Heres a bit on the start of Dallas' and mine trip. Also, I have up dated
the AmCup results but would like the NATs results. Did I miss it here on SEN
while away? I checked the AMA web site but did not find results. Can anyone
help? Thermals, Jim
Jim Parker, Aug 29, 2000
Poitou 2000 and Brown Mountain Cheeze
The 2000 Jr WC was scheduled for the latter part of August near the start of
many of the team member's school year. Dallas and I decided to "Holiday"
before the Jr WC and so joined Bob and Connie Piserchios and Brian and Janna
VanNest who had decided to attended the Poitou contest and then drive to
Sesimovo Usti to support the Jr team. Jon Davis jumped on the wagon were as
he sons Evan Davis and Steven Mattes decided to do Switzerland via the
backpack, train travel style.
Dallas and I linked up with Jon at Charles de Gaulle airport and were soon
driving through the French countryside in our Citron 9-person diesel van.
After I made a navigational mistake, Dallas was anointed the navigator. He
led us to Moncontour where I thought the hotel was that the Piserchios had
made reservations for us. With some help from some locals, we were on are way
to the hotel inThours, passing the flying field as the sun set. We checked in
and had a great meal in the hotel restaurant.
We slept in a bit and headed out to the field the next morning. Brian was
doing some F1A testing and Bob was well into the F1B contest. Several small
rain showers came throughout the day. In between we test flew the models were
flying well. The red mud however permanently stained shoes and clothing. The
thermals seemed big, soft but predictable. Bob flew well and made the flyoff
and placed 4th in a great flyoff.
Evan and Stephan successfully found the hotel and were there when we
returned. They had brought hacky sacks which was a big hit with Dallas. We
called Cathy for an emergency delivery of hacky sacks in the Czech republic
via George Batiuk. We had made dinner plans with Steffen and Yuita Jensen, a
Danish. Jon, Steffen, Yuita, myself along with 8 other people were on the
famous Tomas Koester VW microvan trip from Denmark to France that 23 year
ago. Jon nor I had seen them during these past years. We had a great evening
of recounting old stories and learning about each other's families. Next
morning was F1A.
I did not sleep well that night. It may have been jet lag but I think it was
because I violated one of the first model rules taught me by Jim Taylor.
"Don't ever separate yourself from your model". I had left our model boxes
in the van that night. The main hotel entry door was locked early in the
morning and the emergency staircase was too small to get the model box down.
Everything was fine the next morning except my head.
The field was cool with a breeze. Our test flights looked good. A French
flyer, Brian, Dallas, Jon and myself were on a pole. I was retrieving a test
flight when the round started. Brian flew first and dropped. He told me he
had slipped and missed the bunt and thought he would have made it with a good
launch. I flew next. The breeze picked up but the air felt firm so I bunted
my "four and half minute" nordic to good altitude and proceeded to drop the
flight--- bummer! Dallas flew his M&K long model next. He too got a good
bunt but did not do the three and half minute max. Jon took an attempt. I
made an adjustment to his model. On his reflight, he got a good bunt and
seemed to have some air but the model stalled to the ground dropping 13
seconds. So much in trusting the "Factory Support Personnel". The French
flyer waited towards the end of the one hour, 10 minute round and maxed. The
temperature warmed and the breeze dropped. Almost all the max scores were
made in the last 20 minutes. I then learned from the locals that this was
common.
I thought to make the best of dropping the first round would be to help
Dallas. How's that for an excuse for dropping the first 4 rounds? I can't
even remember the last time I did that. Dallas came up a bit short in the 2nd
round with a 154-second flight. In the 3rd round, Dallas picked some really
bad air for a 93-second flight. The breeze picked up and he switched to his
Wishbone II model. We had just finished it the week before leaving and had
only one test flying session on it. He launched in marginal air for the 4th
round but looked good for the max but DT'd early for a flight
of 172 seconds.
We thought he had mis-set the timer by not fully winding it. We checked it
and all seemed OK. He found good air which he needed to max because he DT
early again. Examining the timer, we learned that it had two different fully
wound positions. It seemed to be dependent on the gear train position near
the full wound position. We marked the correct position. Dallas finished the
contest with two more maxes.
At the start of the 5th round, Brian flew but then the other flyers at our
pole were not ready to fly. I bounced up and quickly hooked up my whiz-bang
electronic bunter in the time it took walk the 15 feet (3 meters for you
Euros). I found a strong piece of lift and proceeded to make a great Zoom
launch! I ran and turned on my tracker receiver and verified my fear, I
forgot to turn on the electronic timer, which also powers the transmitter.
My initial response was the model was a goner as it was quickly climbing in
the thermal. Hope was renewed when the down wind spotter, Connie had it on
binoculars and tracked it down near the horizon. I told Dallas to keep flying
and I headed off in the van to search for the model. Fortune was not on my
side during my 3-hour search. I returned to field without the model and
helped chase for the others.
With no Americans in the flyoff, several of us went to look for my model
after the 7th round. I was hoping that Connie's uncanny sense of lost model
finding would be strong. Alias, no model was found. Back to the hotel for
shower and refreshments.
Bob coordinated our dinner that evening in a nearby small town. Pierre
Chaussebourg joined us coming directly from the field after the F1A flyoff
that went to the 9 minute round. After a wonderful main course, the waiter ,
(who spoke no English) brought the cheese plate. I played it safe and chose
brie type cheeses. Evan boldly pointed to an unsampled cheese. It was
conical in shape, 5 inch (120 mm for you Euros) base diameter and about the
same in height, rough in texture and brown in color. Evan says, "Piece of
the Brown Mountain" which got a laugh from those of us who heard. A minute
latter, Evan lets out a loud "WHEEEEEEE" as his eye browse lifted and his
face grimaced. He pointed his fork at the brown mount cheese. As I explained
to Evan this out burst was not a debonair, savvy thing to do, I took a small
piece of brown mountain cheese to show him how an experienced, world traveled
FAI FF sportsman would behave. It took 3 seconds when the "WEEEEEEE" came out
of my mouth. Soon the cheese was being passed around the table. At every
smell (none of the other dinner guest would venture a taste) the facial looks
brought forth roars of laughter from our table. As the brown mountain cheese
reached Pierre, Connie asked him what type it was. He took a big whiff and
exclaimed "SH-T". The table erupted in laughter that took several minutes to
settle. The marvelous deserts arrived and we regained our composure.
The next day was the mini events and awards ceremonies. Dallas and I slept
in. After breakfast, Jon and the boys did some local sight seeing. I repacked
the model box for the next part of the trip. At noon we all then went to the
awards ceremony held at the Moncontour campgrounds. As I was walking in,
John Williams was reunited with his lost F1A. Five models were lost in the
5-minute flyoff round the day before. John had rented a pilot and airplane at
the near by airfield. He spotted the model from the air but could not find it
on the ground . One of the other search crews had found it. This renewed my
hope. I spoke with John and made plans to make an air search.
The awards ceremony was a grand affair. My high light was seeing Dallas
receive his 3rd place Jr trophy with the cheek kisses from the young French
lady. Dallas gave his bouquet of flowers to Connie as thanks for feeding him
while I was off searching for my model.
We departed to the local airfield but found the airplane was gone. From the
sailplane people at the airfield, we believed the airplane would be back in
an hour or so. Jon and the boys went to town and got some sandwiches for
lunch. After about an hour wait, Michel Caillaud, a French F1A flyer,
arrived. He was one of the 5 flyers that lost a model. He too came to do an
air search. We compared maps and believed locations of our lost models. We
planned to take a joint ride. We then learned, thanks to Michel's French,
that the airplane was rented and would not be back until sundown. Michel
made plans to come back the next day and said he would also look for my
model. Later in the Czech Republic, Pierre Chaussebourg told me that Michel
found his model but did not spot mine.
Jon, Evan, Steven, Dallas and I headed to Atlantic coast. We spent a day in
La Rochelle and a day at St. Gilles. We then headed to Paris where Steven
taught Dallas and me how to ride the metro. We did the usual tourist things
in Paris. We headed to Charles de Gaulle airport for the flight to Prague to
start the Jr WC portion of the trip. With Dallas' 3rd place trophy packed and
Brown Mountain memories, we looked forward to the next segment of the
journey. More to come.
Turning Flight
==============
Author : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Bill Bogart did the definitive paper on sizing the vertical for the 1970 NFFS
Symposium Report. The paper was entitled, "Turning Flight." It sized the
fin in relation to the total dihedral effect and gave the answer as a range
of areas, one extreme of which put the model at the spiral dive limit and the
other extreme which put it near the Dutch roll boundry. It went through this
exercize for the three types of FAI models.
Jim O'Reilly (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Rudder Area:
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Author : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Bill Bogart had an excellent article on rudder area in a SYMPO some years
back. It took into account the increased effectiveness of the tips with
polyhedral, etc.
Many modellers start out with an oversize sheet balsa rudder & trim down
past optimum.
After guessing wrong, I have made 1/4 size models out of 1/32 sheet.
If the scaled down one does a Dutch roll, the big one will etc.
Took a lot of flak for this, but am amazed how close the characteristics
are, and how much building and flying time I could have saved.
Good luck,
H
Rules - Winding the motor
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Author : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Rules typo?
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Author : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Winding of motors in the F1B class is described in the sporting code,
Art. 3.2.11.(b)
Regards
Kurt Sager
..............
Roger Morrell
