SEN 1582

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Category: Archive 2011
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Table of contents - SEN 1582


  1. Austin's Decision
  2. Searching for Lost Trophies
  3. new Information on the trophy
  4. In the press - FFQ
  5. On the net - F1U.org - thumbs down on the 2011  Junior EC  site and organization for the 2012 Junior WC



Austin's decision

I would hope that all of us would be as proud of Austin's decision, as I am sure that his parents are. It is my firm belief that it takes a very special person to give up a civilian life with all of its comforts and financial incentives, for a life of service to our country.  Like most of my age group, I spent two years in the Army, one of which was in Korea.  I look back of those two years as time well spent.  I have one question, can you trust your Dad with the Pitts?

Good luck......

Allen Ulm
 

Searching for Lost Trophies

Roger...Good luck with the Chuck Broadhurst trophy....
 
I thought while we were at it, we oughta look for the Marc Nagasawa Memorial trophy, which has gone missing. I won it in 1995, and returned it to the organizers, the Strat-O-Bats. Brian Van Nest won it in '96, Edmund Liem in '97, and Daniel Protheroe in '99. Not sure what happened in '98, but the club apparently folded its tent in Y2k or thereabouts.
 
A few years ago, I asked Mike Roberts if he knew what happened to the trophy, and he said it was in his storage unit, and offered to let me store it. So, it's on the wall of my livingroom. This is NOT the original trophy, but a commercially made plaque. Just where the old trophy disappeared and the new one was purchased, we don't know.  
 
The original was a beautiful standing monolith of Black Walnut with a polished brass foot and green felt pad. It was made by Bruce Kimball, and while I would love to see it returned to action, it should at least be returned to Bruce, who was a close friend of Marc Nagasawa. For you who didn't know Marc, he died at 21, from pneumonia, in the aftermath of lukemia. Marc flew F1A in the '78 Team Trials (in the rain) at Taft and placed 5th, if I remember correctly.  By February of '80, he was gone. Only 30-odd years ago, and still makes me very sad. 

Thermals, Steve Helmick  
 
 

New information on the Trophy

I just spoke to Joe Norcross's wife and she said Joe pasted away Sept 1st. 2011. She said Joe did not throw anything away so there is still hope that maybe the Trophy is in the garage.

She will look in the garage this weekend for the two boxes that Marc Sisk shipped to Joe in 1985.

Stay tuned !

Randy Secor

In the press - FFQ

Roger,
Could you please include in your next SEN this summary of the contents of the latest FFQ issue?

regards


This issue celebrates ten years of Free Flight Quarterly.  The Editorial contains a short history of these first ten years of the magazine, which have been most interesting and generally trouble-free, allowing some hope for a 20th anniversary, if it turns to be true that  Free Flight will continue in spite of the black clouds seen everywhere. Particularly, the reduction of the youth  interest in our hobby, but also there has been a  significant  loss of flying fields, travel restrictions with model boxes have been imposed, there is an almost universal difficulty in procurement of common chemicals and solvents used in the construction of the models and fuels for model engines. On the other hand, much progress in electronics and the accelerated development of electric power  show that Free Flight and aeromodelling can adapt to changed circumstances. This topic, however, is too big for now, I just wanted to remind you of the articles that FFQ is offering in this new issue.
    We were lucky to receive a number of interesting and unusual articles, among them the history of the single blade helicopters (Monocopters were called by their author), developed by Charles McCutchen in the 1950's, and which have continued to attract the attention of modellers, who have slowly mastered the complex dynamics of their flight. George Perryman, that modelling genius of American FF, is again the subject of an article by David Mills, where his Coupe designs are analyzed in detail, showing there were profound reasons for the apparent eccentricities and  extreme conservatism of their design. Another Coupe design in this issue is the ultra-modern " El Tripala" of Edgardo Figueroa. The name naturally refers to its unusual three-bladed propeller, but the design is full of very interesting ideas, leading to the outstanding performance of the model. It will please those interested in self-built models with individuality.
    Brian Eggleston talks about his new family of F1C low-drag airfoils in a long article, showing the advantages of this type of airfoils that has already conquered the F1A class and that clearly represent one of the most interesting developments in modelling of the last 10 years or so. Ralph Ray describes his new type of HLG fuselage that ensures a simple and reliable D/T action, more of which will be presented in  coming issues of FFQ.
    Gerald Zeigenfuse continues his series of models published in the late 1950's with his popular Pogo 1/2AGas model, a reminder of a period of frantic development of the Gas model in USA. The Pogo plan is another example of  the great draftsmanship of this designer.
    Andrew Longhurst brings some poignant memories of his early models, telling the story of the "Garter Night" Coupe he built some 50 years ago. This issue of FFQ brings to a close the autobiography of Laurie Barr, "It happened to me". Laurie is talking now about his very successful phase of indoor modelling, where he achieved great prominence in the UK and Europe, and also on his amazing repair of the great Cardington airship sheds to allow them to be used for indoor flight, a saga beyond compare.
    The issue is closed with the Chris Stoddart presentation of the process for scaling model airplanes to different sizes, yet retaining similar performance to the original, a topic in much demand in Scale and Nostalgia categories. Chris shows there is good agreement of this process with the scaling of designs such as Ron St Jean's Ramrod to compete in different classes.
   
    As usual, the table of contents and cover of this latest issue is to be found in our website: www.freeflightquarterly.com/wordpress


Sergio Montes


On the net - F1U.org - thumbs down on the 2011  Junior EC  site and organization for the 2012 Junior WC


Open letter from Wibke and Michael Seifert, the German team manager at the 2011 Junior Euro Champs in Slovenia bringing to the attention of  Ian Kaynes and the CIAM  the inadequacy of the field, surrounding crops and trees and oranizational issues, requesting that this be addressed before the up coming Junior World Champs in 2012. These are planned to be held at the same site with the same organization.  The letter is followed by a series of supporting comments from team managers from other countries,  parents and experienced sportsmen.

The full text of the letter and supporting photos plus the comments can be read at - http://f1u.org/en/component/content/article/35-news/306-seifert-ech2011


It does appear that organizers of the 2011 Junior EC did not take their responsibility very seriously and this needs to be addressed.  We complain about the lack of youth participation in Free Flight, we need to make sure that events at this level are successful events where people come away with very happy memories.  It sounds that some of the Junior Champs regulars are not interested in taking a part in another event at the same site or with the same low level of organization.  This would be sad, particularly when that country is very beautiful, has a number of world class sportsmen and possibly better sites.

It is more expensive to take part in a Junior World Champs than an senior, because in most cases, particularily when the sportsman is coming from some distance they must be accompanied by a parent or other family member, doubling the travel cost.  This makes it more important that the event be successful so we keep up participation.   From the US and other counties outside of Europe's point of view we get to take part in half the number of major events that our friends in Europe do, so we don't want to waste one or skip one because of avoidable circumstances.

We include here the text of the original letter but not the photos or addition comments. We urge you to go to the F1U.ORG web reference above for this additional information


Dear Ian,
Being team managers of the German Junior Team F1A,B,P since two years and probably several years to come, we would like to complain officially about the last European Championship in Slovenia. We feel this necessary because the Word Champs of next year are supposed to be held on the same field.
1.) The field itself in unacceptable for free flight. Around the starting area we counted 17 corn fields and more of 3 meters height.
  • On test flights: P-models with DT after engine (so after maximum 7 seconds) landed in corn, no matter from which side the wind came.
  • F1B training flights over 1 minute were not possible due to same reason: corn. The juniors are not yet able to retrieve the models from corn of that height without adult help. Training was very ineffective, risky and time intensive.
  • On competition days the juniors were not able to retrieve the models on their own or for their team mates. Adult supporters had to be in the corn in order to get back models to the poles. But same adults were needed at starting positions for support – a very difficult situation for the whole team.
  • German adult supporters (fathers) consider not to go again to Slovenia if the World Champs are on the same field because they can’t support and retrieve at the same time. We have a few very young and very inexperienced Juniors in our team and even more of them next year when experienced pilots like Willi Herwig or our son Philipp will be replaced by kids of 12 or 13 years of age who just start their free flight experience. In the team next year we will have:
      o   3 new kids, never flown internationally at all;
      o   1 who was new last year;
      o   2 of our sons
  • However, these six children will be supported only by 3 senior flyers/supporters plus Michael as Team managers. That won’t work under the given conditions.
  • On top of that the visibility for the time keepers was very limited because the corn was in the way in all directions. As soon as the models lost height they disappeared behind the corn.
  • The field itself was acceptable, even the trees. But the corn is not acceptable at all.
  • It is not understandable that the vote at the CIAM meeting accepted the Junior Champs in Slovenia but NOT the Senior Champs on the same field because of bad conditions. Please reconsider.
2.) The German Team won’t be buying banquette tickets for 30 Euro next year. All we got was limited rose wine, still water and apple juice but no place to sit, no music, no Coca Cola or any kind of soft drink. At 9 no more drinks were given out in hope that everybody leaves.
Maybe this is not in your hands but it is worth mentioning. The German Team will not attend anything like that next year. Similar opinions were heard from other teams but they may speak on their own.
3.) The Winners didn’t even get any trophy from the organizer. Only trophies handed out on the ceremony were from the FAI, no medal, batch or memorabilia for the winners from the organizer.
Please check timings: The Junior Championship is planned 25.07.2012 till 05.08.2012 in Slovenia (as per http://events.fai.org/calendar?id=80), the Senior European Champs in Italy start on the same day, 05.08.2012 till 11.08.2012. How does that work? We shall be part of both teams.
Attached some photos of the field. Please ignore people, just check backgrounds.
Thanks a lot for your attention.

Wibke and Michael Seifert


.........................
Roger Morrell