Kai-anis

F3J World Championships 2012

2011-07-23T16:02:00.000+02:00

In September 1999 South Africa was host to the F3B World Championships. Next year we shall again hold a World Champs, this time for F3J,

Here's a note we wrote on the 1999 event...

The day the Russians came to Rustenburg

Saturday 4th September 1999 was a date that Frans Spamer had awaited with amixture of apprehension and excitement. It was the day that the Russians cameto Rustenburg.

Frans had lived all his life in Rustenburg. He was now the manager of thelocal branch of Willard Batteries -- a major sponsor of the F3B Gliding WorldChampionships.

In the Old South Africa in which he had grown up, Russians were The BadGuys. What would they be like he wondered.

Now they had arrived to pick up their batteries. As hewalked out to meet them, he felt a frisson of anxiety.

More here...

The Beauty of Free Flight -- Tom Nagel

2007-06-12T09:49:00.000+02:00

Tom Nagel posted this in the RCSE group list.

We have a guy who comes out to our field once in a while to practice his free-flight HLG. They do discus launch now, and this fellow even has a "How High" on his plane to tell him how high he is launching. About 120 feet today.

And during the afternoon I inadvertantly joined the free flight fraternity. A new guy in the club launched for me and he must have brushed the power switch with his hand. The recently completed Highlander flew up the high start launch beautifully. I didn't even need to touch the controls. When I did touch the controls, I didn't have any.

The Highlander began a graceful turn, and I was too busy praying for "no thermals, please Otis" and I forgot to start the timer. The Highlander did a series of nice wide thermal turns across the field, and crossed westbound over the Franklin County Fairgrounds buildings. Then it eased its way eastbound and crossed the field again, and circled over a warehouse/factory southeast of our launch area.
It was getting lower. Finally circled back west again, flew under the power lines and after a low pass to check for groundhogs, landed near one of the goals of the soccer fields. No damage, not even a cartwheel.

OK, so thank you Otis, and guys I can tell you that the Highlander is all trimmed out and ready to go. With or without me.

Tom H. Nagel

The ears have it

2007-02-24T10:19:00.000+02:00

Paul Sherman originally posted this in the RCSE digest.
I hope he won't object to me using it here. You must admit it's quite good...

One day while working landings to a count-down I was enjoying calm weather with light winds when as I worked the landing pattern I eventually noticed that the process had become more consistent over the course of about an hour. Then I realized that I had unconsciously used the sound of the servos as an indicator for proximity. Just goofing around I had included a small dive while exercising the flaps until I could (hear) the servos. This provided an absolute assurance of proximity at the 20 second marker (overhead).
The sound of the ship thought the landing sequence had never occurred to me until then, but this may be a useful observation.

uShaka -- Dave Greer

2006-11-20T13:33:00.000+02:00

The beastly easterly pomps so steadily strong, uncluttered and smooooth from the sea just before sunset down the far end of Addington beach, Surf City. A very long artificial dune has been freshly graded the far side of U Shaka Marine world and there is no one there come 6:30 pm just before Sundown, not a single solitary sausage, apart from some sand crabs and suchlike.

The continual brain buzz from a little foamy wing tearing up and down along the face at warp factor four speed can't be compared to a Switchblade or whatever, it is just so grin inducingly different, with a very teeny tiny margin for error exacerbated by a pure wind turbo kick. Young William had a home brew 24 inch version of Fred's Klunk which twinkled turned and rolled inside the 36inch Wing Warrior and its bright colours were eventually the winning combination in the pitch darkness against the Sharkie black, without the Springfield landing lights to guide one after dark.

I know - totally nuts and far out, not to be repeated, but wheeeeee...... ;-)

Roll on, Hermanus!

Kind regards
Dave Greer

Rosendal Windlied -- Grobbie

2006-09-12T15:19:00.000+02:00

Ek het hierdie geskryf van al my " Pelle" op die slope. Dit is geskryf op die wysie van Groete aan Mannetjies Roux waar Lorika sing van "My oom se motor is n ou masjien"---

My pel se airie is n ou masjien,
Dit is baie oud en al uitgedi-en,
Maar my pel wil niks weet van n ander een
Want hy sê hierdie een vlieg selfs in die reen.

Harold-My ander pel die vlieg die Happy box.
Binne is net n klomp bottles rocks,
En die ander pel wie is altyd saam,
Abie Shoeman is dan nou sy naam.

Wally---My ander pel die drink die Scots Whiskey,
Hy kla dit laat hom so baie pie,
En dan drink hy ook so baie bier,
Wel, hy sê daar is altyd iets om te vier.

Koor---ag gee ons tog so n bietjie wind,
Ons vra dit opreg net soos n kind.
En seën ons hier, en seën ons daar,
En dan vlieg ons al ons batterye klaar.

Rickie---My ander pel kom met sy v6 Ford,
Hy is effens bles en tog o so kort,
Met sy hande kan hy egter enigiets doen,
Met sy Winches verdien hy net die hoogste roem.

Ugie----My ander pel die gooi die rooitaal rond,
Hy laat my voel soos n regte kont,
Want ek weet net nooit wat hy wil hê,
Of wat hy ook al van my dan sê.

Don----My ander pel die het n moerse baard,
Hy vlieg sy airies met n helse vaart.
En dan land hy ook sommer net waar hy wil,
Al is dit ook op n piesang skil.

Koor---

Arther---My ander pel die is al redelik oud.
Maar sy vrou die reken hy,s nog glad nie koud,
In die aande gaan hul dan so vroeg vroeg lê,
Want sy lyf, dit is dan wat sy wil hê

Malcolm ---My ander pel die loop so effens mank,
Die problem het hy al baie lank,
Maar o my hel, kan die man poep,
maar hy sê dit is die natuur wat roep.

Evan----my ander pel die is tog o so slim.
Sy airies is altyd reg getrim,
Maar vra jy hom waar die wind van waai,
Dan moet hy sommer net raai.

Koor

My ander pelle kom van die Transvaal,
Hulle praat heeltemal n ander taal,
En hul vlieg hul airies dat dit so fluit,
Dit weergalm teen die wolke o so luid.

My ander pelle kom van Piesangland,
Hulle vlieg hul airies sommer in die kamp.
En dit vlieg en dit zoem net soos n by,
Hoor jy die gezoem is Johan daarby.

Izak ---my ander pel die gooi sy selfoon weg,
Hulle het gesoek maar dit was baie sleg,
Want die gras was lank en die area groot,
Hulle het dit toe gekry in hul grootste nood.

Koor

En myself, dit wil ek nou vir julle sê
Met n airie in die wind is al wat ek wil hê
En met pelle soos julle hier bymekaar,
Ons is n spesie ons is so raar.

Koor

Eliminator is a good name for it -- Dave Larsen

2006-06-20T18:35:00.000+02:00

Yes it was good to meet up with Jim during his visit to New Zealand. As Jim pointed out the weather at the time was not good for DS or any flying and I was so keen to take him up to our local DS volcano (Mangere Mtn.) for some DS action. Maybe next time Jim is down this way the weather gods will be kinder.

I still fly my English made Eliminator 60SR. Somehow it has survived years of DS and is in pretty good shape. Here is a little story about it.

On one DS occasion last summer while ripping some circuits I noticed that the nose cone had worked its way loose and it eventually slipped so far forward that it took on a Concord look. Me thinks I need to land before the nose cone completely detaches from the airframe... oops too late, the nose cone departs but lands safely down the slope not too far from the edge. Now as we all know, a very neutrally balanced aircraft is great for DS however with the loss of some vital weight in the form of a nose cone my Eliminator became a little touchy in pitch. No worries, I can adjust to this new and unexpected set up, just switch to low rates, get over to the LZ and bring her in and all will be fine.

I steadily positioned the aircraft in time and space to allow for a nice controlled landing approach into the very small LZ that is only a few meters square. It is here that I must point out the LZ is off to the side of the slope and the approach can be quite turbulent and on this occasion the turbulence was very present, enough to bump and bounce the Eliminator to the point of ejecting my unsecured battery pack out, thankfully the battery lead remained connected to the RX. My immediate response is to fly very smooth and look after that very important lifeline of the battery lead.

Ok so now I have a very interesting and highly unstable aircraft to deal with. I felt I had the situation in control as my Eliminator was nicely lined up and had just the right amount of energy to glide in to the LZ...until...a few members of the public suddenly appeared over the edge of the slope and right in front of the LZ.... crikey I had no option other than to abort the approach and go around again. So here I am heading away and back into turbulence with my battery pack dangling from the airframe not to mention a very rearward CG! I took a deep breath, said to myself "I can do it, I can get this Eliminator safely on the ground, just keep it smooooooth". So here I am all full of confidence until...bump, bounce, jolt, that turbulence strikes yet again....this time the unfastened yet vital RX gets expelled from the aircraft. What a picture this makes, dangling from the inner nose was a bunch of servo leads, a receiver, and then the battery lead leading to the essential battery. The now incredibly rearward CG made my Eliminator almost impossible to control but thankfully this string of vital organs and veins remained connected and delivered all of my commands to the flappy bits of the aircraft. With some skill, luck and timing all working together I successfully landed the stricken aircraft further down the slope and ended this most exciting flight at my local DS volcano.

I will now make sure the battery pack and receiver are securely fastened inside the aircraft and adjust the fit of the nose cone. I feel I was very lucky to have saved my Eliminator from what appeared to be certain smashed bits.

Cheers
Dave

Faster than the average Zagi -- Dave Greer explains

2006-03-28T15:36:00.000+02:00

Local man Warren has had a lot of fun out of a polystyrene version glassed - but EPP would be a wasted.

There are a couple of US sites like speed freaks and some leads from the interesting slope section of the RC Groups chat site that offer different tricks. Do some homework on the optimum scary CG postion for your Zagi, from you old one and reading online - often about 8 mm behind stock. Also get feel from the old one as to how much lead nose weight will be needed.

The challenge is to put the stiffening techniques mentioned on those chat sites, in to your Zagi. Double spars, smoothed off, plus trailing edge stiffener for a start. Mine is just about all cross weave fibre tape strapped length ways, glued with spray glue (wait a whole hour before taping, vital) and ironed down. For some reason the Servicestar cross weave sticks just so much better and stiffer than all the expensive straight weave fibre tapes. The receiver, batt and nose weight buried up front with (most important) max 200 grams of ballast dead on the optimum CG, are glued in through the two wing ROOTS before joining the wing, so that nothing except the charge lead and servo arms disturbs the surface, no hatches anywhere (so start with wing blanks without top cut outs). Chuck the Correx for some decent shaped top hinged elevons with reinforcing and film covering (must be tapered for the washout effect) and one is now looking stiffer speedy machine,. The permanent ballast makes the plane fly in light weather better than the stock ever did in decent weather, so don't contemplate leaving out.

Put all the radio gear, including servos (just push the arms down) in and tested before taping and covering (contrary to instructions), including a tube to the tip for the aerial so that it does not dangle out, vital. Abrade the cross weave tape slightly, spray some more glue (only wait 15 minutes or actually even do without glue if you are not used to the technique) and then cover with plain ole sticky shelf vinyl paper, (yup). Start at the trailing edge top and go right around to the trailing bottom so there are no leading edge seams whatsoever. The shelf vinyl covering goes on magic and stays way firmer - then finished off with a low heat film iron, working quickly and patiently and you have a drum tight plane just as stiff as glass but still EPP resilient. Two little slits made in the covering for the servo arms and all is speedy clean.

Run rates so that elevator is right down, only a third of aileron throw, the optimum rearward Cg will keep it responsive but super smooth. I must admit I prefer the stock servos with the more gufty arms to to any mini metal gear type for resolution on the lower rates - well stuck as far out as the leads will permit, the only surface cutouts on the wing, which will be fibre taped over.

Mine kicks down so well with turn acceleration that it is paralising my JW in the Springfield crappy air.....

Cheers
Dave

Choose your weapons

2006-02-18T09:55:00.000+02:00

Stew got me really thinking about having a case for my Allegro. OK, a bit of self admission, I normally just leave my planes laying on a shelf (at my old place I had a bunch of peg board hangers wrapped in foam to hang them on) and sometimes just laying on the work bench. I transport them via auto laying in the back seat of the car or the trunk of the Z. Shame on me.

So when my wife announced last week she was going with her sister and mother on a gal's shopping day last Saturday, I informed her she needed to pick up a rifle case for me at Dicks as my Valentines day present. 8-)

The case she picked up for me is pretty nice. It is a single rifle case and was about $23. Inside dimensions are about 10 x 52 x 3.5. The case is fairly solid. It can be deformed a little by pressing on it. I don't know if I would trust storing my Allegro in it and then standing on the case, but certainly the case protects the plane enough just handling the case and moving it around.

The height of the Allegro's tail is a bit of an issue. Mine is 10.5 inches tall. In another post Stew said the Allegro's horizontal fin is supposed to be 12 inches tall but I am not sure how that can be as in the plans it fits on a single piece of standard paper. Anyhow, as you astute readers might notice, that is still too wide for the width of the gun case. But, it fits great if you sort of lay the Allegro fuselage on its side a little. Basically, you angle the tail so that it fits just fine within the diagonal dimension of the 10x3.5 triangle. Even with this limitation, it is still easy to open and close the case without worrying the tail will get crunched.

My case came with a bunch of egg shell type foam. Of course you have to remove this for your Allegro to fit in the case. I cut some of this up and used "liquid nails" type glue to glue small blocks of it in strategic places (places that would help me align the wing panels in their proper places, align the fuselage/tail in its proper place, keep the wing from getting dented by parts of the fuselage, etc. This seems to help make the case more usable and should help assure that the plane is always packed the same way (at least by me).

I plan on doing 2 more things and possibly 3. First, I plan to make wing bags out of felt for the wing panels and tail. I figure this will help prevent nicks/punctures from the panels laying on top each other and prevent "rug burn" from them sliding around each other and inside the case. Second, I plan to make straps out of Velcro to hold the boom and more importantly pod in place so that if the case were held upside down or were turned over that the fuselage would not slam into the wings. Bits of the eggshell can prevent the wings from moving around too much but the fuselage is heavy enough I think it needs some straps. Finally, I might try to strengthen the case itself somehow to try to prevent the "taking plane on family trip and plane box gets inadvertently packed on bottom of luggage pile" and the plane box compressed enough to damage something scenario. Probably still won't be able to stand on the case, but something like a distributed load from another piece of luggage might be able to be handled.
I posted the pictures I just took in the "Ryan Bubble Dancer" picture folder of this Yahoo group. Shameless thread plug, I am also going to add them to my Aegea wing build thread on rcgroups.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=478853

Ryan

Ballad of the Bubble Dancer by Ryan Woebkenberg

2005-05-25T10:40:00.000+02:00

"The king is gone but he's not forgotten
This is the story of Johnny Rotten
It's better to burn out than it is to rust
The king is gone but he's not forgotten."

On the final round of the day in Cincinnati on Saturday, I had a battery failure on the Bubble Dancer. Final round was a 15 minute task. I had noticed before launching on the final round that my spoiler servo was buzzing. It normally does not buzz. When I moved the spoiler stick a bit, it stopped buzzing, so I thought I should be fine.

Launch was a bit low in the down wind conditions at the time of that launch. One pilot managed to find lift in that round and got pretty high. Not sure how the other guys did, as I pretty much fought my own fight that round. After about a minute and loosing most of my launch altitude, I found some decent lift but got pretty far down wind. After about 6 or so minutes into the task, I started back up wind. I worked my way up wind for about 2 minutes, until I found a small patch of lift over a lone tree. At this point I was probably at about 100 feet of altitude.

I worked this bubble for the next several minutes. Re-cored a number of times. About 12 or 13 minutes into the task, I noticed that the plane did not want to change diameter of the circles. I gave hard right stick, nothing. I tried to see if I could stall it, nothing. Gave full spoiler nothing. At this point, I realized I did not have the plane.

So I of course go running after the plane. That seems to be the first instinct when something like this happens. I ran after the plane as it started to thermal higher (and move down wind). On my run, John Dinitz from JR pulled up behind me in his vehicle and offered to drive and chase the BD. I hop in his SUV, and we drive down the roads at Voice of America Park. We get to a closed road and ask the security guy if we can go through as we were chasing a plane. He said we could not, so I thanked John for the lift and took off on foot. I chased the plane about another half mile, and finally stopped to at least get a line on it as it seemed to be descending. Then, of course right as soon as it descended it would climb again. I stopped and watched it for what seemed like forever. It eventually disappeared from sight in the sky. Probably at 500 to 1000 feet of altitude. It seemed odd to just turn back when I could still see it, but I knew that it was so far away and thermalling so nicely that it
was unlikely I would be able to run it down on foot.

On the walk back to the field, John came around in his car again. He drove me back to the flight line. He said he took another route around that closed road after he dropped me off. He had driven about 2 or 3 miles after the plane. He eventually got to a point where it was low (and over a park). But then of course it re-cored the lift and went up and out of sight.

Even though I was not able to recover the plane, I really appreciated John's help. He could have missed his flight assignment but he chose to help me chase after the plane anyway. John is a heck of a good guy, and JR has been supporting the OVSS series very well. I have been a JR customer since 1996 when I purchased my 783. I have bought gear from other manufacturers since (as well as a ton of JR servos and receivers. I'm particularly fond of the 610 for use in small HLGs and other small planes). JR has found another lifetime customer in that small act of camaraderie on Saturday.

My last image of that Bubble Dancer was it working the lift masterfully. As much as it hurts too loose a plane that took me 7 months to build (not to mention the gear including the good JR servos), I like to think it is still up there somewhere, still working thermals. My name, AMA number, and phone number are inside the canopy, so if anybody finds a red, white, and blue Bubble Dancer in Ohio, Indiana, or Kentucky, please give me a call.

Ryan

DS'ing behind a hedge

2005-05-25T10:38:00.000+02:00

Do other folks DS their foamies behind hedgerows, or am I the only one? Forget speed guns, we could have a fine discussion on the relative merits of brambles over hawthorn, and where the best hedges are. The nearest DS site to my house is about 200 metres away.

Someone with a big bit of land could grow their own DS site. Now that would be a challenge. It really could offer a new form of competition. It's very challenging, kind of a cross between javelin throwing, model flying and horticulture...

My current model is a Telink Tornado weighing in at 425g = 15 Oz. (~48" light combat wing, ~3.75 Oz/ft). It's built light which is why it goes round the corners so well, but it's still fast. (EPP, 12mm strapping tape used only for main bracing and on the nose etc, light RX, 18g metal gear servos and 225maH niMh, no additional nose weight).

The important thing is to have a lightweight clean swept wing with a central TE where you can grab it. They are less efficient than planks, but you can hurl them really hard precisely where you want to go. DS planks have a fus so you can't throw them anything like as well. They are also too heavy for this game. There is no way I could hurl my JW from nil wind behind a hedge and expect to normally get away with it.
The Tornado is tons better than the old Zagis which I started DS'ing with (using hills!). The Tornado turns much tighter, holds speed and doesn't spin out easily which Zagis can do. I have no real experience of other swept foamies. Many modern ones are quick and might be good if really light. I think 15 Oz is tops for a 48" wing doing this stuff.

The hedge in the park near me is a scruffy old thing. It's in a flat field, in places down to 1.5M high brambles, with a central bushy hawthorn probably up to 4 metres, and all sorts of scabby stuff with heights in between. The best hedges are the more even ones. Bung it hard from behind at the top of the hedge, and turn immediately it clears the top. Just aim to miss the top by 0.5 - 1M and keep the rear turn low. Sometimes it's little more than maintenance circuits, but I have had the Tornado really whistling behing my scabby local hedge. Problem is the ground (and the hedge) is THAT close, keeping it on track past 10-15 circuits (even on a quality hedge) usually eludes me. (Hence my recent squashed nose post - thanks guys).
I don't think you could do this from a hand launch with a 48" wing over ~ 15oz. Getting established without a hill to help would be very hard, and it they would need too much space.

The bad part is getting the model down when it spears the top. A good reason to avoid really big hedges. What is satisfying is getting in 100% concentration technical fast soaring where there is not a hill in site. I have done the bushes on the dyke, but there is something less satisfying when there is a dirty great hill right there to help out.

I have to emphasise that I rarely come across any model when I am out slope flying which would easily manage "hedge DSing". I did put my last one together with "micro-DS "expessely in mind. Most combat wings I come across out on the slopes are built far too heavy (and are frequently too bashed up) to really stand a chance. I wouldn't want to encourage disappointed modellers to hurl their overweight combat wings at hedges.

I would say that in order to achieve this, a basic benchmark is to be able to hand launch in a flat field and comfortably achieve two loops, or two rolls followed by a return and a hand catch. If a model is too heavy to do that much from a hand throw, then hedges are unlikely to work! (I have a small HLG wing which does four or five but that one is at the opposite end of the spectrum, and is too light for DS work.)

Justin Needham.

Once upon a time

2005-05-25T10:37:00.000+02:00

Originally posted on the FAI Soaring mailing list in response to a comment from an Australian glider flyer on the length of time it took to run a competition.

Why did it take so long to run the recent F3J World Championships?
Why wasn't it all over in three days?
Good question. Maybe it could have been. Maybe it can be. But should
it?

Once upon a time....
The boy looks at the aircraft and the men around it, curious. The field at the back of the Keilkraft factory in Essex is bathed in afternoon sunshine, the grass agitated in the gently blustery wind. The boy is glad of the chance to stand and work the stiffness out of his body. A long drive down, his father delivering another batch of model boat kits to the factory, the boy old enough to be taken along for company this time. The van has not been unloaded. The cramped pair have been taken straight to the field by a man who chatters excitedly to the father. A group of men are standing around a small aircraft, something the boy has never seen before. To one side is a long aerial coming out of a large black box, with cables to a bank of batteries and a smaller black box which has switches on it. After a while the aircraft's engine is started, fiddled with. A man picks up the box with the switches. The aircraft is released into the blustery sky. It doesn't go forward much, rises to a modest height. The men around the boy seem excited about something. The boy watches the aircraft. The aircraft keeps trying to turn away from the wind, left, right, left, right, but is constrained to its seesawing heading by some unseen force. The man with the box watches the aircraft, clicking rapidly. He and the other men shout to each other constantly. The boy and father stand silent, necks craned. The engine eventually stops and the aircraft seesaws safely back to the ground. The men erupt into a cacophony of wild laughs, backslapping, handshaking, shouts of unbridled joy at something the boy doesn't comprehend yet. The boy, not knowing why, is caught up by this wild avalanche of contagious, overwhelmingly unrestrained adult enthusiasm. Like the model aircraft, something else new. The untainted, genuine expression of joy, of achievement, of success. He hasn't seen that before, in the grey light of recovering post-war Britain. He doesn't know it yet, but he will spend the rest of his life unaccountably drawn towards activities and people, career and personal, which carry the potential for a sense of such sublime achievement values.

... and I still remember that day as if it was yesterday. It was the catalyst for my embryonic interest in aeromodelling activities. Not the flying, but the people's response to the flying.

(1980 now. A friend with a keen interest in r/c soaring persuades me, a r/c power flyer, to try it out. At a thermal duration competition, whatever that is. Out of curiosity I turn up with a glider. No watches, no towline, no clue about anything. My friend explains this to everyone. From then on I'm amazed at the good-natured help and assistance the new boy gets from the other competitors throughout the day. I'm bowled over by the relaxed laughter, the shouts of joy at occasional success, which in those days appeared to be landing in the same field you launched from. Ancient memories renewed. I'm won over again by such an intoxicating atmosphere. Further soaring comps, local and national, show that this positive ambience of soaring activity isn't a one-off. The future brings exposure to two World Championship soaring events, F3B in '83 (observer) and F3J in '98 (participant). Even at this exalted level I discover the same sort of enthusiasm, a willingness to share, to explain, to help, to promote, to laugh, to enjoy, mists of cultural disparity burned away by the sunshine of a shared passion for something special. Magic, all of it.

Organisation creates events, PR, sponsorship, and all the other paraphernalia required to make something happen. The magic isn't organised, just something which awakens if there's sufficient prompting for it to take an interest. Which requires time, time for the collective spirit to generate the power to trigger the alarm clock. It might be possible to run a Soaring Champs event as a model of flightline turnaround efficiency and have everyone home before supper. Maybe great for some participants, but from my own experience I would be greatly disappointed if that was all there was to it, all that was considered important. All there was time for.

But maybe it's different where you are. Maybe your events are as magical in a shorter timeframe. Wasn't there a Wizard in Oz.....
Regards, John Barnes
Scotland