SEN-399 April 3 2000
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News and Reports 2000 - First half
SCAT Electronic News 3 April 2000 Issue 399
Table of Contents
=================
Puff Daddy Baggy Rapper Pants - Davis
Anti Sticker gaiters
RE: F1J v 1/2A - Gregorie
Rubber Testing for the Flyoffs: - Andresen
Re: Rozelle, - the only one who doesn't know the identity - Brokenspar
SCAT Electronic News
Puff Daddy Baggy Rapper Pants
=============================
Author : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Puff Daddy Baggy Rapper Pants
In the spirit of a new (and lighter) topic for the SCAT e-zine here is a
recent contest experience of mine. It's pretty much a true story.
After successfully recovering from the latest Max Men 14 rounder I was
reflecting on my FAI contest performance to see what I could learn. I
intended to go to the contest and have my competitors trembling in their
running shoes rather than the more likely situation of my presence earning a
healthy yawn and the occasional "oh great, now that your here I don't have
to worry about being last" comments. Being the manly man that I am I don't
let those kind of comments bother me, I just let them fade away like
fluffies in the wind and I moved forward knowing that I was walking onto the
flying field in high style and current fashion. Yes, for those of you not
hip to current fashion and too old to be part of the ³Generation X² goings
on let me tell you that I was pioneering new ground in the fashion area of
FAI sports wear.
My son Evan is convinced I am an incurable dork so to to prove him wrong I
went to the Max Men contest with my brand new, very hip, very cool, and very
comfortable "Puff Daddy Baggy Rapper Pants". For those of you that are not
as cool as I am and simply out of the scene let me tell you that Puff Daddy
is the king of Rap music which is very much the rage these days. You know,
the rappers are those "artists" who gyrate all around and sing songs in a
simple ump-pah, ump-pah, ump-pah beat with simple words and a stupid rhyme
kind of thing with bass notes so loud that you can't hear anything else! I
see and hear them when I drive through any hip and cool city like L.A., New
York, San Francisco and Wasco. It may be everywhere in the U.S. but I'm the
first on the flying field with these hip new clothes. In case you aren¹t
clear about what Puff Daddy Baggy Rapper Pants they are those pants that are
5 sizes too large in all directions and they have to hang on your hips and
look like they are about to fall off (which is true) and they drag the
ground so much that the bottoms are all tattered and easily tripped over
(which is also true and oh so cool) and when the wind blows they flap like
sails around your legs and scratch off what few leg hairs you have left. My
supportive wife calls me the butt-less wonder so I had to resort to using my
slowly developing love handles to hold the pants up as my hips were not up
to the task. Bad move, very dorkish, as Evan succinctly said" Dad, nobody
wears baggy pants half way up there chest, it's sooooo not cool" . Well, for
me it was either that or have them falling down around my ankles for the
entire contest. Clearly I was not off to a good start in my quest to be the
coolest of the cool in FAI.
I actually had what I thought was a very practical reason for wearing Rapper
Baggy pants while flying my F1A Gliders. Besides the obvious need to keep
warm in those early morning February California rounds I was looking for
some kind of alternative to my normal Levi Blue Jeans which have a tendency
to be too tight in strategic places and give me a bad case of "Ohhh Pinche
Huevos² whenever I execute my not so graceful trip, fall and bunt maneuvers.
In addition to being a loose and comfortable fit rapper baggy pants also
have lots of pockets all over them. Who needs those goofy plastic organizer
boxes to keep all your modeling parts sorted out when you can have a whole
bunch of pockets for them? I had my cat tails fluffies in one pocket, extra
towline in another, stopwatch in a little pocket, tools in a big one, I was
a walking hobby shop, I felt so cool. The one problem is that none of the
pockets were big enough to hold my tow reel while I was sprinting around the
tissue ripping stalks of Lost Hills. Just as with my trusty levi jeans I
had to resort to tucking the tow reel into my waist band behind my back so I
could tow with the utmost agility and freedom. I felt like I was in hog
heaven at the contest knowing that all my gear was up to speed and I was
ready, willing and able to kick some serious FAI butt while being so hip and
fashionable. What a free flight stud!
I won¹t go into all the unusual things that happened to me in the contest
and the ³clearly not my fault² reasons for my less than stellar performance
of my contest scores but there was one particular round that really caught
my attention. I think it was a mid morning round when I was really feeling
in the groove and I was towing like Victor Stamov with long legs when I felt
this great big cold metal thing in my pants competing for space with my
little bitty warm thing that I realized that "oh captain, I think we have a
problem". I don't know why I insist on using my Bob Wilder made all metal
aluminum tow reel when I could use a nice light plastic one but I have a
thing for metal gadgets and it overcomes my better judgment once in awhile.
Well, sure enough as I was circle towing like a pro and feeling real cocky
(no pun intended) when I noticed that my tow reel had managed to slip
between my love handle and the elastic band of my rapper baggy pants and was
slowing making it's way down my pants. As any F1A aficionado will attest
there are all kind of nasty things sticking out of a tow reel; wire line
guide, crank handle, tow ring, reel edges, you know, all the kinds of
things that would give any man pause when putting them into your pants along
with the sacred cargo (aka Mr. Happy). In addition to all that my "all metal
tow reel" was really cold and that's what really made me perk up and take
notice. Never being very good at rubbing my tummy, slapping my head and
chewing gum at the same time I found myself in a once in a lifetime
predicament and to make matters worse I had my model in the air and on the
line.
No way was I going to let this slow me down. Using my ultra-fast and highly
caffeinated early morning intellect I quickly surmised that the best
solution was to work with nature and just let that tow reel slip down my
pant leg and slide out the bottom. Pretty good idea huh?................
Wrong! Wrong! triple Wrong! Rapper pants are baggy but when the pockets
are crammed full of stuff they create this constriction in the pant leg that
is just big enough to let your tow reel get half way down your left thigh
but not as far as your knee. The good news was that my manhood was intact,
the bad news was that the tow reel was in my pant leg on the inside so I
kind of had to do the old ³squat & waddle² routine while towing. Being the
fierce competitor that I am I made lemonade out of lemons and I psyched out
the guy flying next to me by telling him that I got extra push from my legs
when configured this way for the final launch & bunt. With such quick
thinking I felt so smug, so cool, and so stupid. Clearly the living
definition and example of a dork in action. How was I to salvage my pride
after this embarrassing spectacle?
As someone famous once said "all's well that ends well" and in my case I was
finally able to "shake a leg" and get that tow reel down my pant leg and out
the bottom with only a few scratches to my leg and a few bruises to my ego.
I was in the clear now, lift was all around me, full steam ahead, feeling
like a caged Gazelle broken out of the zoo I began to hear the music from
³chariots of fire² playing ..........and my brain went into slow motion
.........and I was running as hard as I could............sprinting towards
the most graceful launch I've ever done, and as I looked to sky feeling that
burst of freedom only known to free flight FAI flyers
....................................................I was able to see my
inboard wing tip fold up like the leaf on a dining room table and watch my
new model do a slow but graceful corkscrew into the dust of Lost Hill, the
longest 40 second flight of my life, one I'll never forget!
Damn I love this sport!
Mac the Bigot.
[Jon, a truely memorable tale. I guees I'm fortunate that my fashion
advisor lives far away in Washington DC. My plan was to publish the
following item, clear REI is no match for Puff Daddy.]
Anti Sticker gaiters
====================
When browing my local REI store I found that they have a new style of gaiter
desgined for the hiker to keep the 'trail mix' out of the boots.
These are made by OR [Outdoor Research] out of a spandex like material.
They cover the boot or shoe top and ankles keeping stickers, seeds and the
like out of footware. They are less cumbersome that some the we have been
wearing that were made for cross country skiing. I guess Puff daddy would
use Duct Tape to make a true fashion statement.
RE: F1J v 1/2A
==============
Author : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
> This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (Ian Kaynes) wrote:
>
> I completely agree with Jon Fletcher about why the mini-F1C ships have
> come
> to dominate F1J when our original intent had been specifically to include
> the traditional 1/2A models - which had a good performance against the 2
> min max. The only thing that changed in the internationalisation of the
> class from 1/2A was rounding up the engine capacity to the round metric
> 1cc. Was it this 0.06 which disadvantaged the old 049 models?
>
I was under the impression that the engine capacity was set at 1cc because
some National 1/2A classes (Australia? and NZ) allowed 1cc engines and the
aim was to allow all currently existing 1/2A models to be used in F1J.
I don't think setting the capacity at 1cc was responsible for disadvantaging
1/2A models. I think it's more that there was no engine development at all
in these sizes between the launch of the TD 049 in 1960 and the appearance
of the Shurikens in 1991/92. As a consequence we had over 30 years of flying
a one engine class - and one where the available power decreased over the
years as the Cox manufacturing plant deteriorated. The real curiosity is why
it took over 30 years to develop a TD 049 replacement.
Note that I'm deliberately discounting the CS. That was not competitive
unless you had a machine shop and the skills to do engine reworks or got one
that Dukie had breathed on. The significant engines (Cox, Shuriken, AD,
Cyclon) all work out of the box and are/were readily available.
The capacity increase is less significant than the technology change - a
Cyclon 049 is said to be only 1000 rpm down on the 06 using the same prop
and there wasn't much greater difference between the Shuriken 049 and 061. I
think you'll find the jump in power from TD to Cyclon is not out of line
with what happened in F1C (ST G20 to Nelson side exhaust).
Martin
Rubber Testing for the Flyoffs:
===============================
Author : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Alex Andruikov tests a short (like 6") piece of rubber cut from between each
motor out of a box and uses the result to sort into test flying, rounds and
flyoff motors. Testing is done on a loop which is clamped in a vise. A
spring scale and ruler are used for stretch test (6 point) then specimen is
weighed on a small digital scale and result recorded for sorting.
Figured was OK to spill beans as he demonstrated it at SCAT meeting last
summer and probably is in much more detail somewhere on the web.
Seems the tougher job is to pack in as many turns, launch as hard, trim as
close to the edge and pick the air as AA does.
Good luck,
H
Re: Rozelle, - the only one who doesn't know the identity -
===========================================================
Author : This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
I smoke, and have a slender figure, I resent "bony". Bastard ? My
mother and father were well aquainted. By Law.
It has come to me that I have been identified as the victim of Tracy's
vituperation !
The person in reference is not slender in that aspect. In fact......
And, I was not there !
My only contributation to this 2000WC effort was to tell Dave Brown how
to pronounce BATIUK
Brokenspar ( where's the ashtray ? )
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