WRCS - April 2006

Warringah Radio Control

Society Incorporated
(Incorporated under the Association Incorporation Act 1984)

Newsletter - April 2006

In happier times, Ron Clark with his CM-Pro Extra 300S with an OS 91FS up front (story inside)

photo Garry Welsh

MEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGS
The next meeting will be on Tuesday, 11 April 2006 at Tennis Cove, Eastern Valley Way, starting at 7.30pm including a presentation by HARS (Historical Aircraft Restoration Society). The next meeting after that will be on Tuesday, 9 May 2006

FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK
Your Newsletter is always published to be sent to Members at the beginning of each month, this timing is important to remind Members of the next meeting date. As it takes about 7-10 days to have the printing, collating and posting completed, we always have to close off the Mag about 3 weeks into the previous month (there is no set deadline date, it depends on how the days/dates fall).

As I have repeatedly bemoaned, we get very few contributions but it is then truly frustrating when we get contributions that cannot be published because we get them too late and they are stale or no longer topical. Again we ask for contributions, they can be technical, humorous, photographic or just about anything that may be of interest to other Members. Don't think that your thoughts and interests won't be of interest to anyone else, or that your experiences cannot be used as lessons by even the most expereienced flyer
... So now it is up to YOU!!

NEXT EVENT

HELICOPTER
AEROBICS DAY
Sunday 23 April 2006

Beginner / Intermediate / Expert.
Each pilot will pick 5 tricks and the 3dmasters k values will be used to do the scoring - anyone can do any manoeuver - but the percentage will be worked out comparing if an expert or intermediate or beginner does the flying etc.
It is similar format to 3ddu (3d downunder) and the 3dmasters which is held in the UK.

See the "INDEX" for more details of manoeuvers THIS IS A FUN EVENT WITH SAFETY PARAMOUNT
Competition Director - Andrew Moss

Tom Sparkes has agreed to be the Competition Co-ordinator for 2006. The events are conducted by the Competition Directors as advised, with Tom co-ordinating and helping. If you have any enquiries about the competitions, please ring Tom on:

0419 977 613

FORTHCOMING EVENT

SCALE DAY
Sunday,28 May 2006

Classes: Military, Civil, both Small and Large Scale.
Scale helis welcome
THIS IS A FUN EVENT WITH SAFETY PARAMOUNT

Competition Directors - Mark Rickard; Chris Hebbard and Kerry Smith

0419 977 613 If prevailing weather conditions make you uncertain as to whether the event is being held or postponed, please check this Website on the morning of the event.

WRCS INSTRUCTORS MEET January 28 saw a gathering of 14 WRCS qualified instructors meet at the field under the guidance of our CFI George Atkinson. Joe McGuffin, the President of MAS came to open the meeting, the first gathering to discuss some of the hows and whys of flight training.
George had prepared a list of items for discussions most of which produced nods of agreement but one raised a few comments …….it read: “Students should be able to comfortably land BEFORE they are taught or encouraged to take off”
Now that got people’s attention as nearly everyone teaches take off first. But there is some good logic behind this idea, if a student can take off and fly around WITHOUT having learned to land he may be tempted to do so when there is no one to help with the all important last part of the flight. The skill required to line up with the centre of the runway and make a controlled approach is vital for a safe landing and is equally useful on take off.
Another interesting element was rudder control. Everyone is used to rudder control on the ground but in the first few minutes after take off it can be essential to prevent disaster. If the plane drops a wing after take off the tendency is just to put in opposite aileron but this can cause a crash as the downward going aileron at slow speed will cause so much drag that it may well pull the wing down even further! The correct response is to put in opposite rudder which will cause a yaw in the right direction and prevent a roll into the ground. Just to confirm the point on the value of rudder use George set up a buddy box and got a few of the experienced instructors and flyers to try and land a rather interesting slow flying model. On approach its slow speed renders the ailerons ineffective and if you don’t use rudder correctly the result could be SPLATT. Very few of the instructors got to grips with this plane in the short time available!
Instruction is an important part of club activity and safe flying for all. This was a good opportunity to promote all aspects of it. Thanks to George for organising this meeting and for Joe adding his support.

SPECIAL PRESENTATION We have invited John W. Brooker, Vice President of HARS (Historical Aircraft Restoration Society) to make a special presentation of the work HARS does at our next meeting on April 11.
Members are encouraged to attend what we all expect will be a great night.
HARS was formed in 1979 by a group of aviation enthusiasts interested in the preservation of Australian Aviation History.
Members virtually traversed the Australian continent from Tasmania to Kalumburu in North Western Australia and from cape Llewellin to Cape York in search of aviation artefacts.
Members of the Society restored the Super Constellation (affectionately known to all as ‘Connie’) which is the pride of the HARS fleet and makes many appearances at events across the country every year. HARS’ Mission Statement is ;

"To recover and where possible restore to flying condition, aircraft or types of aircraft that have played a significant part in Australian Aviation History both in the Civil and Military arenas".

Since 1991, HARS has achieved significant milestones in its endeavours to preserve Australias Aviation History. The International Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators awarded the 1997 Grand Master's Australian Award to the Society in recognition of the outstanding restoration of the Super Constellation.

SEAPLANES AT LITHGOW

Article and photos by Mike Minty

When I got back to Oz it took some time to clear my workshop of all the other junk I had stored in it. Chris Hebbard told me about the "floaties" event at Lithgow, and since it’s one of the few sorts of model flying I hadn’t tried (there’s also helicopters which don’t inspire me and twin engined planes that are in my Book of Dreams for “one of these days”) I thought I’d better give it a go.

Lithgow is a country mining town about 160kms West and a bit North of Sydney with not a great deal to recommend it except it’s the other side of the Blue Mountains so you can stop in nice places like Leura or Katoomba on the way for coffee and ice cream. The other good thing is Lake Wallace which the local club get twice a year to use for flying models off water. I took out the trusty fun-fly plane and I knew I had a pair of foam floats in the garage roof so I got’em down and set to. Covering the bottoms with 1mm ply and the sides and top with 1/16 balsa was easy, letting in some 1/8 ply in the tops for mountings was OK but covering the lot with 1oz fibreglass cloth is not my forte and they finished up a bit lumpy. But what the hell, they were now going on my old Fun Fly plane which isn’t exactly elegant.
So we set off for the lake and found a good crowd on the Sunday (apparently there were even more on the Saturday) including Dave Brown who I had spoken to on the phone about float mounting and how to get there! Col Simpson turned up but without his new Otter – no time to finish it and Graeme Hutchinson was there from WRCS with a very nice Kingfisher (left). After a lot of sticky beaking and mumbling the moment came, fire up the old GMS 47 and get Col to shove it in the water (below right).

Into the wind, a lot of spray, a pitter patter on the small wave crests ……and it was flying! It looked a bit strange with all that stuff hanging off the bottom (especially when rolling!) but flew fine, now all I had to do was land it. It took a few approaches, partly due to the wind direction as it meant coming in over the reed beds, and partly cos the motor didn’t want to slow down enough.
Eventually the time was right and, pitter patter it was down and taxi-ing to the shore – phew, first one done! Proud muddy footed pilot to the left!

The next few flights included a deadstick from which a kind guy in a canoe retrieved and another when it started to drift rather rapidly and I had to jump in a handy rowing boat and get it back. We should have realised there was something funny with the motor, the next flight it just refused to throttle back and I was ready to fly out the tank when it cut. Another deadstick landing and a canoe retrieval with the comment “interesting throttle arrangement!” The whole throttle assembly was hanging by the fuel line and the linkage! The cinch pin that clamps the throttle into the crankcase had fallen out ….ummm anyone got a spare one or a wrecked GMS from which I could extract one – it’s proving hard to replace.
We scrounged some stainless wire and twisted it around the throttle body and the crankcase and managed a couple more flights but it was nearing the end of the day. There were a lot of very smart planes there and some biggies too – this was a 1/3 scale Otter doing touch and gos and very majestic it looked too.
Well, now to the building board – the next meeting at Lithgow is in November and I want something new, bigger and better! I’m hooked, if you haven’t done it I recommend it highly, if nothing else just whack a pair of floats on your favourite fun-fly model.

"G for GEORGE"
in Canberra After an absence for restoration and for a new "home" being built, "G for George" is again on display at the War Memorial in Canberra.
It is again joined by an ME-109; a. Mustang, a Mosquito, a Kittyhawk and a large variety of other aircraft from both World Wars and Kore (including a MiG-15)a.
Well worth the visit.

photo: Tom Wolf

WINNING FORMULA??
COMPETITION TIPS

from Tom "the Burglar" Sparkes

The single biggest tip I can give is “REMEMBER THE 5 P's…. Prior preparation prevents piss-poor performance!!!!!!!
Even simple things like:
a. always put a new plug in the engine,
b. make sure everything is cycled and charged,
c. does your fuel pump work properly,
d. is your flight box battery charged,
e. have you got 2 spare props,
f. pack thin and thick cyno and accelerator, simple tools,
g. test fly the week before the event.

GLIDER DAY ELECTRIC make sure your motor actually works, have you checked controls, hinges secure, servos etc. Get to the field early, do a test flight because motor batteries, nicad or nmh, always perform much better after the first charge/discharge cycle of the day, [does not apply to Lithium],
Also this gives a chance to "suss" out any lift positions. Just before your first competition, check the the sky for eagles, if there are any about they will be in areas of best lift. Look out for tall clouds, lift could be at their base. Remember that the spot landing is the most useful for extra points, so even give a short motor burst to make the spot, the 2 points lost in a 2 second burst could give you 30 points spot landing points.

THERMAL GLIDER…see the above except of course comments re motors/motor batteries/motor runs. On the bungee, rudder is the only control that keeps you straight on the bungee, ailerons are useless and will bring you undone.
Try to give lots of up elevator to go as steep as possible, remember you can not stall on the bungee!!!
To release off the bungee when you are as high as possible, do a small dive and if you can “ping” yourself off the bungee to crib an extra 20 feet or so of height.

FUNFLY CLIMB AND GLIDE….Take your idle settings right back as far as they will go to make sure your motor actually stops, most people fail this comp. because their motor does not stop!!! You can also screw in your IDLE mixture screw in one quarter turn before this flight, to make sure it will stop.
Remember to put it back again though before the next comp.flights.

FUNFLY LOOPS IN A GIVEN TIME…….You will get more loops if instead of just giving full up and slowing the plane down and falling off the top all the time, you fly the plane around the loop and try to make it smooth and not too tight.

FUNFLY ROLL, LOOP, FIGURE 8 ETC. ….The biggest tip with this one (and has always been successful for me) is to turn 180 degrees as soon as you take off, and do all the maneuvers in the opposite direction to the take off, cut the motor as soon as you have done the last maneuver, so you are already in the ideal position to land in the same direction as is required. As soon as you land and when safe to do so give full down to stop the plane.

BIPLANE DAY….Nothing really special here, but a scale type plane rather than a sport or fun fly always does better with the judges. A little bit of show-off and a touch of flair in the flying department seems to be the go.

COMBAT DAY… A really fast plane is not always the best for this, what you want is something that is very maneuverable with a reasonable speed and preferably something that you do not treasure!!!!! Get above the pack to be able to dive on your victim, and if you get a cut go low to make it hard for them to get you.

PYLON RACING… Remember smooth and low is the way to go!!! Take a leaf out of the race car drivers book and remember line is everything. Put your plane in the bank well before the pylon and when ready pull up as much as safe (don`t highspeed stall!!!) to do the turn.

SCALE DAYS……We have more crashes on scale days than we do on combat day !!!!!!!!
2 reasons , scale planes do not fly as well as sport planes, and everyone is nervous about pranging their treasure that they have just spent 1000 hours on!!!
Remember that the flying carries as many points as the static appearance, so do not fly your ¼ scale Wright-flyer around at 200 knots doing knife edge and figure eights, if you know what I mean, it just does not look right .Taxi out and take off just as you would imagine the real one would, and remember scale speed is the thing !! You can fly flat out if you are flying a jet or scale pylon racer, but remember slow is the go for old biplanes, vintage high wingers and the like.
Remember to land with some throttle on for heavy planes, high wing loadings and low landing speeds leads to transport home in the plastic bag and a nasty confrontation with the wife, not to mention huge smiles and inward joy from the hobby suppliers.

That’s about it guys and girls, my closing statement is to look at the start of this article and REMEMBER THE 5 P's!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I look forward to presenting the Perpetual Trophy to a deserving flyer [I nearly said lucky but luck really does not come into it ] at the next Xmas party !!!

Tom Sparkes
Competition co-ordinator for 2006.

Combat Day 19 March 2006

Rain the day before and heavy cloud did not look promising but it soon cleared up and we had a great day where people complained about the heat! By the appointed start time of 10 am there was a good crowd at the field with 3 people registered for the “Stock” event, 6 for “Sport” and 4 for “Open”.

Sport Class started and Mark Connor, David Pound, Al Zuger, Grant Furzer, Lynette Austin and Matthew Dean smiling for the camera and soon up in the air, their streamers proudly flowing behind them ……and then soon back on the ground again as the multi-coloured streamers fell apart where the colours joined! A lot of pieces of sticky tape got them back together and they were off again.
Round 1 saw the usual frenetic looping, twirling, weaving and lunging with one cut to Grant by the end. Round 2 saw no cuts at all despite aggressive attempts while Round 3 saw Grant take off, climb a bit, the engine cut with a resulting rather heavy landing – out for the round. The rest battled on but after a total of 48 plane-minutes of desperate flying there was only the one cut which left Grant the winner but David and Lynette in equal second place.
And so to the fly-off – “David v Lynette”, man on man so to speak! The match started well for Lynette as half her streamer fell off giving David a much smaller target but the only result of that was a mid-air with David taking off half her wing! The rest of her plane rushed to the ground and disintegrated (even bent the crankshaft) while David only dented his L/E, lost a chunk of tailplane and landed safely. So, the results for Sport Class were
1st Grant Furzer
2nd David Pound
3rd Lynette Austin

The Open Class was extended to include two Stock class planes (one dropped out and you can’t run a separate class with only 2 models) which meant John Channon, John Parker, Al Zuger, Mark Connor, Grant Furzer and Mark Ter Laak all took to the air in Round 1, joined by Matthew Dean who had so much fun in Sport he decided to fly Open too.
Round 1 saw 2 cuts to Grant (can it just be luck?). Round 2 saw Matthew getting his plane confused with Davids (both flying Scanners) and it finished up tearing itself apart through the trees! This time Al and John got a cut each and Mark Connor got two!
Round 3 and Al Zuger and John Parker were the only two with “Fun Fly” type planes and they got together in mid-air where Al’s proved the tougher and John coming down in the trees minus a wing. So, the results for Open were
1st Mark Connor
2nd Al Zuger
3rd Grant Furzer

As they say “Winners are Grinners” and here they are with their prizes. Thanks to Warren Lewis and Tom Sparkes for their CD efforts and to all the people who stuck bits of tape on streamers! And a special thank you to Simon Press who provided the recording device for these report notes!

WORKSHOP VISIT

On 16 March, 23 Members descended on the restoration workshop of Robert Greinert in Bankstown.
Rob is known internationally in the warbird restoration movement having made explorations for aircraft wrecks/parts in areas such as New Guinea.
Rob agreed to open the doors of his workshop for a show and tell thru Dino Riebolge and their mutual contacts at HARS ( Historical Aircraft Restoration Society).

Rob is currently in the process of restoring three P47 Thunderbolts (which are the rare Razorback versions and one is derstined for the HARS Museum). The planes are between 30% and 50% complete so this is a very much work in progress. The original structure is used as much as possible, but with the condition of the wrecked aircraft many things have to be remanufactured, Rob uses 2 of the models as jigs and to check construction methods, in all at least 3 of everything are made to make sure that all 3 aircraft can be restored/reconstructed.
Rob also has a very rare 2 seat Messerschmitt Me-108 under repair at the workshop.

The visit was fascinating especially when you see one of the panels removed from a salvaged P-47 has 4 Jap flags painted on it as well as a beautiful temptress for artwork …. AMAZING!! Rob told us the entire story of the recovery and kept all of us enthralled.
P47-D-4-RA numbered 42-22687 was recovered from a jungle hillside at 8,200ft with some great difficulty. It was flown in the New Guinea campaign by US Army Air Corps Colonel J.W.Harris (whose name still appears on the panels) until his squadron was retired from P-47's and was re-assigned to fly P-38's.

The names of various maintenance crew are also to be seen on the starboard side, and many of the individual parts/spars are signed by the workers who originally constructed the early model P-47 aircraft back in 1942. It was probably the way these workers wished to show that they were also fighting the war.
Subsequently all the squadron's P-47's were then utilised by young inexperienced pilots straight from the US for ongoing training after they arrived in New Guinea. On April 29, 1944, Lt. Marion C. Lutes took off on a guntesting flight (never having flown a P-47 before) and after flying off into the mountous jungle he never returned and is still listed as MIA.
Rob told us that what seems clear is however is that Lt.Lutes survived the crash and got out of the aircraft and most probably departed the scene but never made it out of the dense jungle.

For a full interview with Rob regarding this salvage operation and the history of the aircraft, visit : http://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/p-47/42-22687/recovery/index.html

Has Garry Welsh taken over as cub reporter from Brian "Jimmy Olsen" Porman? Garry has inundated the Mag with pics of many Members and their planes, and we hope to feature these W*R*A*Ms (Warringah RadioControl Aero Modellers) over the next few months. Thanks Garry!!

Mike Minty is off again to the UK for an indeterminate period. His announcement of this at the March meeting was met with spontaneous and universal acclamation.

Jeff Browne recently become a father of Baby Jackson. Mother and baby are both well, father is still recovering.

According to Garry Welsh, sometimes the difficulty of ordering food for comp day can end up being a snag with the sausages! (You had to be at the March meeting ...)

The business like mood of the March meeting was interupted by the apparent shrill cry of a young woman shouting “GET DOWN AND BOOGIE” or some such. Everyone looked around in amazement! Who could burst in on their quite deliberations in such a rude fashion? Was it a rampant tennis player? Was it some urgent young thing from a pub down the road? Nope! It was the outrageous ring tone of a certain member’s cell phone. We won’t say who to save his embarrassment but the initials CFI just might give you a clue!

THE COVER PIC STORY

Ron Clark's Extra 300S was photographed by Garry Welsh, here is another pic of the The bad news was that one week after the photos were taken Ron tip stalled the model on landing from the western end of the field. The good news is he hit the trees without stopping the engine, allowing him to find the missing model in the surrounding bush a lot easier.
The other good news is that the damage was not too bad and in fact was repaired by Ron and he then went on to fly it at the field until .... you wouldn't believe it!!! .... it was totalled in a mid-air. R.I.P.
To compound Ron's predicament, less than one week later another of his models was badly damaged in another mid-air. Excepting Combat Day mishaps, your editor does not recall any reports of a mid-air at our field for about 2 years and then 2 in one week! INCREDIBLE!.

THE GENEROUS "BURGLAR" In July 2004 issue we reported that Tom "the Burglar" Sparkes (our "musical" W*R*A*M) manufactured a saxophone for a crippled musician the victim of a crime of violence. The ABC has featured Tom in episodes of "AUSTRALIA STORY" which were recently shown, unfortunately we didn't get sufficient advance notice to let all our readers know about it in the last Mag, but we did notify the dates on the Webpage.

UNBELIEVABLE!!
- Pilotless F-106 Landing

The US Air Force Museum has on display an F-106 all-weather interceptor (S/N 58-0787) which was involved in an unusual incident. During a training mission from Malmstrom AFB on February 2, 1970, it suddenly entered an uncontrollable flat spin forcing the pilot to eject. Unpiloted, the aircraft recovered on its own, apparently due to the balance and configuration changes caused by the ejection, and miraculously made a gentle belly landing in a snow-covered field near Big Sandy, Montana. After minor repairs, the aircraft was returned to service. It last served with the 49th Fighter Interceptor Squadron before being brought to the Museum in August 1986.

The F-106 was developed from the Convair F-102 "Delta Dagger." Originally designated the F-102B, it was redesignated F-106 because it had extensive structural changes and a more powerful engine. The first F-106A flew on Dec. 26, 1956.
The F-106 uses a Hughes MA-1 electronic guidance and fire control system. After takeoff, the MA-1 can be given control of the aircraft to fly it to the proper altitude and attack position. Then it can fire the Genie and Falcon missiles, break off the attack run, and return the aircraft to the vicinity of its base. The pilot takes control again for the landing.

A FOUR STROKE W*R*A*M
(W*R*A*M = Warringah RadioControl Aero Modeller) Tony Martin has been around WRCS for about as long as anyone can remember, but actually he only came to Oz from England in 1991.
He is an acknowledged guru on four stroke engines, many Members (including your Editor) often go to him for advice which is always readily and cheerfully given.
Of recent, Tony has been seen at the field flying a Dragon Lady from Model Tech which Tony purchased in England and he shipped the kit over when he came out and got around to building it around 1996.
It is currently powered by a Chinese 91 Four Stroke (ASP brand) which Tony is very pleased with.
The model started out with a Saito 91 and flew very successfully for several years before being retired and replaced with an OS 91.
This was recently replaced by the ASP really as an experiment to find out if these Chinese engines are any good and so far the transplant has been a complete success, with absolutely no signs of rejection!
All up, the plane has made several hundred flights and probably over 200 hours in the air. It is a delight to fly and Tony would recommend it to anyone looking for an easy low wing taildragger.

A Blast from the Past!
Popular Mechanics Magazine (1954)

.... read the caption and marvel

GET WELL DES Des Rim, a stalwart of WRCS has not been well of late.
He doesn't like to make a big deal out of it, but detached retinas in both eyes were operated on.
Des is yet to recover , we wish him a speedy and totally successful recovery

HANG GLIDER HITS MAN AT LONG REEF Ten years ago a (then) 53 year old guy was walking at Long Reef when he was hit by a hang glider on landing. It broke his leg badly (he still walks with a limp) and he sued the pilot, the Northern Beaches Hang Gliding Club, Warringah Council and the Hang Gliding Federation of Australia.
The pilot had been flying for an hour when he turned too sharply and hit turbulence, losing control of the glider, according to a report tendered to court. ”He plainly flew his aircraft at an altitude and in a location which exposed pedestrians to risk if he was not able to safely effect the necessary aerial manoeuvres to keep his craft in the air,” the judge said.
The injured guy won against the pilot and the Club (but lost against the Council and the Federation) and was awarded $533,000 in damages. The judge said the Club should have created an “exclusion zone to separate gliders from the public”. The judge mentioned models fly there too, one has to wonder what would have happened if a model had been involved.
Editor's note: Have you ever wondered about the benefits of insurance? And have you questioned why we insist on the strict separation zones at our field?

A BIT OF TRIVIA?? Garry Welsh informs us that the collision pictured in the March Caption Comp was of two MiG-29's colliding mid-air at an airshow at Fairford, England in 1993 and not an international incident.. Both pilots ejected safely due to the design of the Russian K-36D ejector seats.
Apparently the Yanks were able to learn a lot from this accident and updated the design of their seats. You can see the full video clip at http://thatvideosite.com/view/882.html

April Caption - Just for Fun! Here is a picture downloaded from the Internet (credit to whoever took it) which lends itself to a caption ... so how about contributing one! (Please keep the caption short to fit legibly into the available bubble ... about 10-12 words)
Send your entry to the Editor by email to editor@wrcs.org.au and the winning entry will be published next month.