SEN 848 - 30 Jan 2004
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SCAT Electronic News 30 Jan 2004 issue 848
Table of Contents
=================
vertical stabilizer (fin/rudder) sizing/location - Mollendorf
Fly F1E in Lost Hills! - Mac the magnet
2004 AmCup Has Started! - Parker
2nd F1E Contest in America - Brocks
F1C Parts
America's Cup Final Report - 2003 - Coussens
Looking for Software Expert - Barker
Nostalgia Wakefield with the Master
vertical stabilizer (fin/rudder) sizing/location
================================================
fellow free-flighters i am preparing an article for a nffs symposium paper
on "vertical stabilizer (fin/rudder) sizing/location" the proposed paper
will be in the same spirit as the article by bogart and rhodes that
considered horizontal stabilizer sizing/location ("watch that cg!", january
1959, model airplane news) as such, the proposed article will present a
compilation of data (areas and lengths) and the computed tail volumes if you
would like a particular model design included in the article, please provide
me with the following information for each model: model name and designer;
projected areas, spans and root chords of the wing, stab and rudder; length
from the le of the wing to the le of the stab and the le of the rudder;
distance from the le of the wing to the c/g (three areas and nine
lengths) please do not hesitate to contact me if questions arise thank
you joe mollendorf, wnyffs (buffalo), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Fly F1E in Lost Hills!
======================
I will have a spare F1E model for sale or to loan to someone in the
upcoming F1E contest at Lost Hills on February 9th. If anyone has an
interest in trying out the event please let me know and I'll arrange
for the model to be available. This is your chance to explore a
completely different type of free flight, great fun and challenging.
Wine, cheese and crackers on the hill between rounds! Unofficially of
course! Highly recommended!
Mac the Magnetic Bigot
2004 AmCup Has Started!
=======================
The 2004 AmCup season started before Tom Coussens and I could get the 2003 AmCup
Final Report complete! Following is reminder of previously published information
and some new items on the already started 2004 AmCup season.
The 2004 Am Cup Rules have been finalized and are posted on the NFFs web
site  < http://freeflight.org/> . There are two key changes for 2004:
1) the clarification of the residence definition utilizing FAI rule
wording and
2) a re-definition of an official entrant that now requires 4 office flights in
F1A,B,C and 3 official flights in F1G,H,J. Â This could have impact to the bonus
points which is becoming all the  more important in the top standings. Please
pass the word. Also, F1P was been added as a provisional AmCup event allowing
contest format flexibility.
The 2004 AmCup contests will be the same as 2003 EXCEPT Harts Lake contest was
deleted and the Sie rra Champs was added. This meets the current SCAT policy of
a maxiumum of 30 AmCup contests per year. We decided not to publish a separate
AmCup schedule for 2004 but to direct everyone to the NFFs contest calendar,
also posted on the NFFs web site. Â Thanks, to Alan Peterson. I verified the
current NFFs 2004 Master Contest Calender contains all 30 AmCup contest. It is
the responsibility of th e CD's to get their contest on the NFFs calendar and to
correct any date or information changes directly with Alan Peterson. Â Also
note, any AmCup date changes requires "reasonable" notice usually
30 days. Â Notice via SEN meets this requirement
For the contest directors, the old AmCup result forms have fallen into non-use.
I now request full entrant list with all round scores, preferably electronically
but paper copies will be taken. Â This seems to be the growing trend and also
enables quick SEN publish of the results.
AmCup sanction fee remains at 25$ per contest. We request the checks by April
1st 2004 and will be late if not paid by the end of 2004 with the potential lose
of 2005 sanction. Please make checks o ut to: SCAT Club and hand to me or Pierre
Brun or mail to: Â Pierre Brun, 7740 Balboa Blvd #121, VanNuys, CA. 91406
The Award Banquet for the 2003 winners is quickly approaching Feb 14. 2005 at
the Wasco Rose Count ry Club. This year we're going with good old chicken
dinner! Email me with any other special dietar y needs. Sign-up and payment is
done via MaxMen registration, published SEN #845 on Jan 5,2004. Sam e cost $20
per person, $10 for FAI Jr's (17 years and younger. Try this link for entry
form or Contact George Batiuk,
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Thermals,
Jim Parker
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2nd F1E Contest in America
==========================
On Monday, February 9 as part of the Isaacson Winter Classic there will
be an F1E contest in Lost Hills, CA. This is a chance to observe these
magnet steered slope soaring gliders which will be flown off the
artificial hill South of the Lost Hills entrance.
There is still a year to prepare a model to participate in the F1E Team
Trials that are scheduled for February 8, 2005
in the Lost Hills area to qualify for the 2005 F1E World Championships.
The 2005 World Champs are scheduled to be held in September of 2005 in
Slovakia. There are two age classifications for these Championships,
which are Junior (under the age of 19) and Senior.
The 2002 NFFS Symposium has an excellent paper by Ivan Horejsi on the
basics of F1E flying and building. I also can answer questions and
e-mail a list of sources for F1E components.
Peter Brocks This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
F1C Parts
=========
Mark Roman (F1C - Team Poland) wants to let everyone know that he is producing
quality F1C components for sale. As his close friend, and due to language
difficulties, he asked me to submit this post. If anyone wants more
information, please contact me:
Chris Lenartowicz (F1A Canada)
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America's Cup Final Report - 2003
=================================
The bar was cranked up another notch this year in several of the events.
Legends and epics were born this year as competitors criss-crossed North
America to ensure their positions or go for the gold!
F1A The two Californians, Jim parker and Mike McKeever started out with a bang,
trading first and second in the first two months with big wins. Parker then
embarked on a Nordic version of the Bent Box Award, placing in 11 contests and
building an impressive full-house score of wins by the USOC. Mike took the
minimalist approach, scoring well in a few contests until late in the year, when
a strong win at the Patterson put him even with Jim in points, but still in
second place due to tie-breaker rules. The Arizona Champs would be flown for
all the marbles. Mike needed a first place with bonus points to clinch the
cup. But hey, this is free flight! He came in fourth which made Jim Parker
the new Champion!
The Arizona Champs notwithstanding, the King Orange was once again the deciding
factor for 2003 F1E World Champion Bob Sifleet, who even though he scored in ten
contests, was only assured third place over Steve Spence, whose second place at
the King Orange vaulted him from 11th to 4th place!
Scoring fifth place was Tzvetan Tzvetkov, who scored all of his points east of
the Mississippi.
F1B
Walt Ghio has been on a tear of late both at home and abroad, having scored 5th
in the World Cup and winning the Max Men and California FAI, two big
international contests in the US, along with another first and a second to win.
Second-place finisher Bob Biedron had a spectacular year, posting three
victories and a strong second place to earn his first time on the podium. Rich
Rohrke's big wins early in the year and solid podium finishes later put him in
a third place.
Once again, 2002 Champion Dick Wood is on the podium in fourth with scores in
twelve contests, ahead of a very surprised and grateful 'rookie' F1B flyer,
former F1A team member Jim Bradley.
F1C
Yes, friends, the world is indeed still spinning about its axis, its orbit about
the Sun secure: Randy Archer is once again the F1C Champion, having won while
scoring all first places with major bonus points, all west of the Superstition
Mountains. His was an unassailable score, a full ten point s over 2002 Champion
and Interstate King of the Road Bob Gutai, who put in strong showings all over
the country, three first places and one high bonus second place.
Andrei Kirilenko, scored wins in four eastern contests to clinch third place,
only two points behind Bob. Fellow Texans Don Chessons and Faust Parker pretty
much duked it out all year, trading positions at contests they had both
entered. A win at the Arizona Champs brought Faust up from a distant fifth to
finish in a tie for fourth place with Don.
F1G The fall of 2003, actually one week in October, saw John Clapp burst out of
nowhere to win the F1G Cup. Amazingly, John won the California FAI, then a few
days later won Sierra Petit, and then two days later won the Sierra Cup. John
gave new meaning to the term 'in the groove'. There wasn't enough time to
drift out of it!
Ralph Cooney improved his run at the Cup, placing a solid second after two
consecutive years in third place.
Dick Wood has once again earned the Bent Box Award, scoring in no less than
seventeen contests, assuring at least a podium finish for the umpteenth year.
Dick is kinda like the guy who buys a million lottery tickets: he's gotta win
something! Ever the strong competitor and just plain good guy, Jack Emery took
fourth. Last year's Cup winner Tom Iorger and 2003 KOI winner Rich Ivers tied
for 5th.
F1H The scenery is different, one would say diminished without perennial podium
finisher Martyn Cowley, who seems to have dropped off the face of the earth. On
the other hand he's left a little room for some up-and-comers.
Mike McKeever scored Cup points in every contest he entered, an impressive
testimony to consistency , well-trimmed ships and superb air-picking. Even so,
second-place finisher Bob Sifleet was only one point behind, with no less than
seven wins. Bonus points made the difference. Third-place Brian Van Nest had
a similar year to Mike, scoring in eleven contests, and only four points back of
Bob .
Coupe podium finisher Rich Ivers managed fourth place, scoring highly in just
four contests! And a new face to the podium, but hardly new to the sport, two-
time WC Jr Team member Dallas Parker took fifth. Dallas had quite a year; his
score is based on only three contests!
F1J
This year was made particularly special, as the Championship went to Austin
Gunder. Austin, a junior flyer walked away from the 1998 Jr WC in Romania,
bound and determined to be World Champion the next time. And he fulfilled that
dream in 2000 in the Czech Republic, and then repeated it in 2002 in Slovakia.
This being an 'off' year, he concentrated on the Cup, and appeared to put it
away at the Outdoor Champs. But a late-year charge by Ed Carroll turned a rout
into a horse race! Austin even flew at the Arizona Champs, beating Ed in a mano
a mano duel. Ed took one last shot at the King Orange, but was denied by a
strong performance by none other than 2004 Jr Team member Jon Schelp! That's
team work! Faust Parker had a knack for ties this year; a win at the Autumn Cup,
on his home turf, brought him even with Bucky Servaites. Last year's champion
Bob Gutai took fifth, an accomplice to Ed's undoing with a second place at KOI.
As this is being written, the 2004 season is off and running. May it be better
than the last. The 2003 awards will be presented at the America's Cup Banquet
in Wasco, California during the Max Men Contest.
Looking for Software Expert
===========================
I have been involved in the running of the British Nationals on several
occasions and I should like to contribute a few comments for John
Lorbiecki's consideration.
Computer recording for the Nats started a long while ago in this country, I
think the late 1980s, and was due to the hard work of Martin Gregorie and
Chris Edge. They wrote the software, provided the hardware and operated it.
More than this, all the pre-entries were passed directly to them from Head
Office and they input all the stuff into the computers ready for the event.
After the event they printed out results for all the competitors and for
magazines. The main complaint about the system was because it was ahead of
the affordable printer technology at that time. It was not possible to get
an instant print out of the state of any particular competition throughout
the day and, when the print did appear, it was with a dot matrix printer on
a sheet of A4. When this was stuck up outside Control only the ones at the
front of the scrum could see the state of play. Despite that Martin and
Chris did a valuable service for many years.
After about ten years, Martin and Chris, quite rightly, wanted to do some
flying themselves and needed others to do some of the work. They were still
prepared to bring along the hardware. We tried for a couple of years but
the problems were great. The program was a DOS program and most helpers had
only worked in 'Windows' but, even if it had been a 'Windows' program, how
many people can sit down with a new program and do meaningful work within a
few minutes. Then come the nightmares such as the wrong score put in three
entries ago. How do we put it right? Does it affect the point scores
totals? All this with a line of flyers waiting to get their times recorded
before the next round starts. The updating of results through the day got
worse because helpers either forgot to do it or were unsure of the procedure.
At this time I wrote a collection of 'Windows' spreadsheets; individual ones
for each competition and others to combine the separate competitions to give
overall Champions and the like. It proved to be surprisingly simple, only
taking a few days: but how many more weeks would it take to make sure it was
foolproof in the hands of other people?
In the end we decided to revert to a manual system - if system it can be
called! A number of A3 sized results sheets were produced and laminated
with plastics film at the local print shop. These were all similar except
that some were for three flight competitions, some for five flights and so
on. At the start of each day the necessary sheets were fixed, to the side
of a van, adjacent to control. As results came in they were written on
paper results sheets and then, every few minutes, the times were written up
to the display boards with marker pens. At the moment all the boards with
the scores are stored until the end of the Nationals. We have a lot of
boards! However it is expected that in the future the boards will be
photographed for record purposes.
What a difference! Before, everyone felt tense and pressurised by the
computers now it was a pleasant day's work. The competitors could see the
up-to-date position in all the events at a glance. This also meant that the
results were continually checked for errors because if a time was entered
incorrectly the competitor would soon notice. There was no generator
running all the time to feed a computer with electricity and to run out of
petrol at the wrong moment.
After our Nationals we always send out full results to all competitors and
the magazines and this is where the computer comes into its own. A friend
and myself can word process all the results in about a day of hard typing.
John, I am sure that this is not what you wanted to hear but it is an honest
account of our experiences. They may not apply to the US Nationals but I
think they will in part. I am not anti-computer, I use mine all the time
but I do realize that they are not always the answer. Anyway, whatever you
do, best wishes in your stint as Contest Director. It is a demanding job
but you have the satisfaction of knowing that you make a lot of people
happy.
John Barker - England
Nostalgia Wakefield with the Master
===================================
Both the Isaccson Winter Classic and the SCAT Annual will feature Nostalgia F1B
- whoops Wakefield event for the 1943 to 1956 models. CD'd by none other than
Bob White. The maxes are 2, 3 and 4 minutes with 4 there after. Should be easy
for those models !!
......................
Roger Morrell
