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Updates from meeting 14/9/10

Published: Wednesday, 15 September 2010 15:55 |

Folks

A few items to report following the club meeting and committee meeting on Tuesday 14th September 2010:

Garigal Cup cancelled this year due to only one person indicating they'd participate.
Concrete runway - there has been a lot of discussion (some way off topic), in the forums, on the potential to lay a concrete runway. It has now been confirmed that the terms of our permissive occupancy specifically prohibit any "permanent" development on the field, and a solid material runway is therefore not possible.
Maximum flying height - a reminder that our height limit is 400 feet above average height in the location and, as the field is in a valley, this means about 550 feet above the pilot area of the field. This has been reviewed again, in detail, so please do not fly above this height. If you feel that the various regulations may have been misinterpreted, please attend a club night and raise the issue there, but don't fly above that height in the interim, because an individual's opinion is insufficient grounds to risk the flying rights of the whole membership.
Road condition - the road has been holding-up well to the recent bad weather, but all members are encouraged to stop when visiting the field to lift a few loose stones from the side of the road and put them in their favourite pothole!
Charging station - there has been some discussion about a major upgrade to use solar power to charge a battery bank that can be used to charge LIPO batteries at the field. The view at the meeting was that lipos are now so cheap, and increasingly reliable, that it is practical for members to own and charge enough lipos before each session (or from their own flight box in some cases). We will therefore stay with the current arrangement for some time, which is that the field system is capable of coping with reciever and transmitter packs, but please don't use it for LIPO charging.
Glider funfly - this November event is confirmed, but with rules that allow entry with any electric model meeting the battery and motor maximum limits. More on this very shortly

Test your eyesight - get a glider!

Published: Monday, 13 September 2010 02:24 |

These days technology allows us to look at our hobby from completely new perspectives.

Below the GPS and vario data from my glider flight on Saturday overlayed on Google Earth. Impressive what you can do with just a few mouse clicks!

From the height graph you can see how the glider got cought in a thermal just after launch and quickly reached a maximum height of 472m (1548ft) over ground!!

An impressive height for the old 2m Spectra glider and a real test for the eyesight

The complete flight lastet only 10 30 minutes and the glider covered a distance of 12km during this time.

SpectraGoogleEarth

Grant's Neptune Maidens

Published: Thursday, 02 September 2010 15:31 |

Update: Video and pictures added!

Col Buckley has gifted us the words covering the beautfiul Neptune's maiden. Click [read more] on the right for the full story!

IMGP0563_Large

Unhappy Endings updated

Published: Thursday, 02 September 2010 00:53 |

A couple of entries, recently, to the Unhappy Endings page [HERE]. I'll be happy to publish more, if you'd like to give me a little information and a JPG file. Fame is only an email away!

Historic control line

Published: Friday, 27 August 2010 09:53 |

Doug has been in the loft again, and has dug out something truly ancient!

Here's the story as he tells it:

During the 1956 MAAA Nationals held in Taralgon Victoria, I was at the Free Flight field when one of the Hearn Brothers from Melbourne launched his model and the de-thermaliser didn't work.

(The de-thermaliser was a piece of wool like impregnated cord that was lit with a match and burned for about 5 minutes before it burnt through a piece of cotton holding down the tailplane (that is if the DT didn't blow out). A rubber band then pulled the tailplane up to approx 45deg, stalling the aircraft which then came down gently (usually). Some avant garde modellers used a clock-like timer instead.)

Anyway, I said I would go fetch the model, so I set off on a cross country run of about 2 miles (3.5kms), found the model in paddock of long grass and returned it to the Hearns.

The Hearns had a model shop in Melbourne and were one of the first kit manufacturers in Australia. They were very thankful for my effort and said to drop into their shop for a gift.

Well as Dad was driving us I had to convince him to go home via Melbourne rather than back through Orbost and the Bonang H'way, all dirt and twisty as hell.

So off to Melbourne and to the Hearn's shop. What a cave of modellers bits! If you bought an engine they would take it out of the box, into the test bench, on with a prop and fuel and start it right in the shop so you knew it was OK and you knew how to start and tune, many were diesels in those days.

They offered me a kit and I chose the pictured aircraft, The Australian Stunter, a control liner, 53in wingspan and powered by a Frog 500, all 5cc of raw power (very powerful for those days).

So, after a month or so of construction, covered with tissue paper tightened by water spray & nitrocellulous dope, and hand painted, we had our test flight early in 1957. It has been recovered once since, again with tissue, and as you can see it is ready for another covering.

This is not an RC aircraft but we do have a few control line flyers in our ranks as we often see at the christmas party.

Pic 1 - Straight out of the loft, lots of accumulated dirt

doug1

and Pic 2 - cleaned up an me trying to hide some of the holes:

doug2

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