N E W S L E T T E R - Burlington RC Flyers

The Burlington Radio Control Flyers
NEWSLETTER
www.burlington-rc.com
AMA Charter 1752
Volume 22 No.2
Secretary’s Report
Next Club Meeting
for February 8, 2005 membership meeting
M
Al Prudhomme, Jr.–wanted to
thank us for buying refreshments. ???
New Members introduced
themselves:
Show ‘N Tell
eeting Minutes were read by
Mel Suarez and accepted.
Jill Drury–does research at
MITRE regarding human-UAV
interaction. They recently acquired
4 Zagis and are looking for people to
help. Come talk to her if interested.
MITRE is a federally funded research
and development center. Laurel Riek
collaborates with Jill and is from
Washington. Justin Richer – is the 3rd
member of the research team.
Wayne Soltzman – said his wife
bought him a Hobbico Nextar. He
also has a Challenger and is looking
forward to flying with us.
Mitch Buckley – decided to join us
after doing a 3D demo last year with
(shall we say) a sizable plane. He used
the field a few times last year with
MIT so he figured he should join.
Nagle Stone – a guest of Mel’s,
happened upon a yard sale where
he picked up a trainer, flight box,
simulator and lots of accessories.
Treasurer’s Report: The balance is
$680.65. The Auction took in $470.
Field Marshall’s Report – Jack
Stanley informed us that “The field is
still there!” Bring a sled to drag your
stuff out of to the field.
Membership Report–John Hatfield
reported that we are at about 40-45
members.
April 2005
Jon Gaines reviewed Aerial
Photography techniques with us.
He set up his heli with a transmitter
feeding video to his Windows98
laptop. “Flying a heli isn’t easy.” John
exclaimed. His 30-sized Kyosho
Caliber heli transmits at 2.4 Ghz
to the ground. This is from a Black
Widow AV, a 600 kwatt unit. There
are others that are a lower power and
don’t require a license but the range
is limited. Resolution wasn’t good
enough and so he decided to get an
underbody mount. The Pentax 4
Mpixel camera is hooked into the
radio. A servo flips the switch to take
picture.
You can also get video glasses and
watch what the heli sees. However
it’s difficult because 1-eye is watching
the heli while the other is seeing an
out-the-window display. He also uses
a “co-pilot” sensor that senses the
infrared horizon. You can use it if
you get into trouble or you can use it
when the heli is very high and there’s
little visual feedback. John showed
some impressive 35mm pictures, and
noted that helicopter blade balancing
is hugely important. It’s good that he’s
not using film or he’d be throwing out
quite a bit of it!
He then showed video films taken
over the Burlington field. It looked
great. His next steps include learning
to fly lower and getting more
Continued on page 5
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
7:30 pm at the Lexington VFW Hall,
2 Hayes Lane (off Woburn Street)
Lexington, MA
Coffee and donuts will be served!
Show and tell—bring a plane for a free
raffle ticket.
Raffle Prizes: Hangar 9 J3 Cub 80”
ARF with cockpit kit and tail wheel.
Other prizes include a field starter and
fuel.
Club Activities
Field Day - April 24, 2005.
9 AM . Bring some yard tools (shovels,
rakes) and some gloves and help fix up
the runways, etc. Flying will be after the
clean up, usually 11am or so.
Fly In and Demo Day May 15, 2005.
Come join us for a non competitive day
of flying and some great demos of 3D,
pattern and heli flying. Last year’s was
spectacular - so don’t miss it!
Please Renew your membership!
If you haven’t already done so,
please renew your membership.
Download the membership form from
the membership page of the web site
(www.burlington-rc.com/memberhip
.html) fill it out and send in with your
check. Or you can sign up at the
next club meeting. If you have any
questions, contact John Hatfield at
[email protected].
2
BURLINGTON RC FLYERS NEWSLETTER
The Presidents Letter
Treasurer’s Report
Spring is finally
returning, after
a long winter.
It’s slow arrival
hasn’t stopped
us from flying.
Our annual
winter fly-in was
attended by the
usual all-season
flyer mafia: Jack S., Dave P., Victor S.,
Rob C., Paul C., Jon G., Steve S., myself
and another new flyer to our club, May.
Rob flew his profile hard; what a show
of how to land unexpectedly. He has
learned well from Jack. Jack brought his
yellow high-wing PT-40-ish plane with
skis. As always, Jack is an excellent sport
and supplies great humor to events.
Dave supplied the usual hover-batics;
a brief one-way snowball fight erupted
– between the pit pilots and Dave’s
plane. Jack was the only one to get a hit.
Both plane and pilot recovered without
a scratch. Thanks to all who attended.
Relaxed fly-ins are most often a huge
source of fun. See page 7 of this issue for
some pictures.
With nice weather comes the itch
to fly. Fully inspect your airplanes before
flying. AMA suggests creating a quick and
dirty checklist, much like the one below:
• Bolts, nuts, and screws—make sure
they are tight
• Covering—make sure it is tight, not
torn, and does not have any small holes
• Servos—make sure they are not
binding or loose
• Batteries—make sure they are cycled
and charged with no damages or leaks
• Flight box—make sure you have all
necessary tools and spare items (this
year, how about putting some BandAids in your flight box)
• Attitude—make sure to help other
flyers, follow safety rules and be
courteous when flying
Income
For the e-flyers:
• General overall condition
• Hinges—make sure they are tight and
not binding
Balance 1/18/05
Toshiba has developed a Lithium-Ion
battery capable of being charged to
80 percent of its full capacity in under
60 seconds. Yes, I wrote that correctly.
Filling it up takes just a “few more
minutes” according to the company.
Today’s Li-ion batteries can take 1-4
hours to reach 80 percent capacity,
and longer to fill completely. This is
a fabulous advance for e-flying. No
waiting for charges on Li-ion batteries;
no scores of extra batteries waiting in my
field box. By the time I would’ve had
my 46 FX fueled and started, I’ll now
have my battery charged at least 80% to
capacity and ready to fly. Wow. Toshiba’s
battery will come to market in 2006.
$
680.65
Dues
Raffle
Deposits on fuel order
Interest
Auction
$ 1,440.00
$
74.00
$ 870.00
$
.12
$ 472.62
TOTAL Income
$ 2,856.74
Disbursements
Coffee/Donuts
Raffle
Newsletter printing
Postage
Auction
$
$
$
$
$
15.00
267.76
27.30
23.68
59.99
TOTAL Disbursements
$
393.73
Bank Balance 3/21/05
$ 3,143.66
Flight Instruction
Any new member desiring to fly
MUST demonstrate the ability to fly,
or else take flight instruction until
such proficiency is demonstrated.
Beginner Flight Instructors:
Victor Samsanov
(781) 279-0231
Sandy Holmes
(781) 646-2354
Bob Johnson
(781) 272-5442
Juhan Sonin
(617) 504-3390
Dave Palermo
(781) 279-0186
Mel Suarez
(781) 944-2737
Club Fuel Order
Advanced Flight Instructors:
Victor Samsanov
(781) 279-0231
Dave Palermo
(781) 279-0186
Juhan Sonin
(617) 504-3390
If you haven’t picked up the fuel you have ordered, contact Gil Levey (contact
info below). Thanks again to Gil and Jack and all who organized the fuel
purchase - and for hand delivering it to the field! Service with a smile.
Helicopter Instructors:
Alex Lob
(617) 325-7870
Richard Szostak
(781) 281-1604
See you on the field,
Juhan
Newsletter Editor:
Juhan Sonin
(781) 316-8366
Al Prudhomme, Jr.
Gil Levey
Mel Suarez
John Hatfield
(781) 862-6349
Rob Catalano
(617) 924-3168
Board of Directors:
Dave Palermo, Jack Stanley, Rob Catalano
President:
Vice-President:
Treasurer:
Secretary:
Membership Secretary:
[email protected]
[email protected]
This newsletter is published by the Burlington
RC Flyers, a non-profit club organized for the
promotion of radio controlled model aircraft
[email protected]
building and flying. The club operates a
[email protected]
flying field in Burlington, MA and offers free
[email protected]
[email protected]
instruction in safe model flying to any member.
“Academy of Model Aeronautics” (AMA)
membership is required. Contact any club
officer for more information.
© 2005 Burlington RC Flyers
APRIL 2005
3
Product Review by Jon Gaines
FMA FS8 Co-pilot as aircraft stabilizer & fail safe.
Heli was stabilized with the FS8 for this aerial photo of our field. Dan
Harmon (furthest from us) can be seen with Jon in the pit area.
L
ast fall FMA direct announced the newest version of their
aircraft stabilization system compatible with eCCPM
helicopters. (eCCPM is electronically mixed collective &
pitch. Rather than having 1 servo for pitch, 1 for roll, and
1 for collective pitch 3 servos work together and mixing is
done in the transmitter to apportion the work) The new FS8
is also compatible with some of the more unusual control
arrangements on airplanes such as elevons & V-tails.
Since I’m interested in heli aerial photography, it sounded
like a good idea, and others have reported success using it
to stably hover helicopters for photography at high altitude
(where you can’t see them well enough to hover well). I also
liked the idea of replacing the plain old PPM receiver with a
failsafe PPM receiver, rather than switching to an expensive
PCM system. In addition to the “hold last servo position”
option the co-pilot receiver can set servo’s to pre-programmed
positions upon signal loss, and even more importantly for a
heli can be set to stabilize pitch and roll using the IR sensor
and to set the throttle/collective to a pre-set position to
descend slowly. Landing a heli upside-down or sideways is just
plain expensive, and this gadget can help avoid it, even with
total signal loss.
One Sunday last fall some of you may have seen my heli
land really fast from ~40 ft with the camera rig underneath—
That was a actually a lock out, and the system brought the
heli down level and with no damage. Impressive! The throttle
fail-safe was set for the heli without the camera rig, so the
descent was a bit too fast for comfort, but it ended up OK.
On the other hand, if you set your fail-safe throttle too high
on a heli you’ll have a fly-away.
The stabilization system works by using 4 infrared sensors
in a module. The sensors detect the heat difference (InfraRed)
between the sky and the earth. Even in winter the ground is
appreciably warmer than the sky. It is even advertised to work
correctly even at night, although I haven’t tried it. In practice
it generally works well but can be defeated by low clouds
or fog, especially in spring or fall if the ground isn’t much
warmer than the clouds.
If you read the FMA ads, it sounds like it will almost
hover a heli by itself in 1 place. This is not the case, the heli
will wander a lot unless you make corrections. Your aircraft
will however stay upright, and is unlikely to chase you around
the field, which is not necessarily the case with an unaided &
inexperienced heli pilot.
Installation is straight forward. Replace your receiver with
the new receiver, install the IR sensor, teach the electronics
your controls & mixes (by moving the transmitter sticks) and
program the fail-safes if you want them. The programming
part only needs to be done once, but it pays to read the
instructions twice before starting.
Every day you fly you do a quick calibration of the system
so it can measure the IR difference between the earth and sky.
It only takes 5 minutes.
If you have enough channels the stabilization system
can be turned on and off remotely, and the gain can also be
remotely adjusted. If you are using the CPD8 as a training aid
the gain can be turned down to give the pilot more control
and the IR unit less. If you don’t have extra channels there
is an adjustment on the receiver that will change the control
ratio to favor the pilot or the IR stabilizer.
Other features: LED blinks if there is interference on your
channel. Press button to indicate battery voltage by blinking
LED. Compatible with FMA data logger.
Pluses: Works well except w/low clouds. Can save big
crash $. Lets inexperienced pilots fly in higher winds. Can
save you from a fly away (pre-program a slowly descending
circle) Can be used as an orientation fail-safe… just turn on
if you lose orientation and it uprights your aircraft. Could
help save you from a divorce for spending too much money
repairing your aircraft.
Minuses: If you don’t turn it down or off your flying
skills may not improve as rapidly. Alters control sensitivity
needs more stick movement to maneuver when turned on.
Costs about $200. Antenna wire seems a little anemic to
me-you could replace it though. Cost to replace IR unit if
crash damaged is about $80 (don’t ask how I know). Could
contribute to your divorce for spending yet another $200 on
your R/C hobby.
4
BURLINGTON RC FLYERS NEWSLETTER
Meeting photos from February 8, 2005
Bob Brown (r) presents Juhan with a
“best crash video” award.
Bob presents Ricardo with the S.A.D.
award (Society of Aircraft Demolishers)
Mitch hefting the 30lb Jug. The plane was
trimmed as a captured plane by the Germans.
The group cooing over the wonderful weathering and detail of the P-47.
Dom Furia won the kit in the Raffle
Mitch Buckley’s Yellow Aircraft P-47 thunderbolt which
placed 13th at the 2004 Scale Masters competition.
Jon Gaines explaining his photo rig on his
Kyosho Caliber 30 helicopter.
Rob Catalano showing his 3DFoamy Sukhoi
electric.
Bob Pawlack won some fuel.
Close up of the camera rig.
Pete Sussman with another blue foam
creation.
Mitch in the parking lot after the meeting. Who needs daylight!
Photos by Juhan Sonin & Rob Catalano
APRIL 2005
Burlington RC Calendar:
Briefly
Noted:
Club
meetings
are at the Lexington
VFW hall, 2 Hayes Lane (off Woburn
The Club
would MA.
like to organize
Street)
Lexington,
a demo-day and clinic in the
Fun
FlysWe
andwill
Fly be
Ins searching
are at the
spring.
field,
usuallyto
beginning
around
for people
participate,
help
9organize,
am. Fly in’s
areAnyone
causual -with
non some
etc.
competitive
Flystowill
have
good ideas,flying.
and Fun
willing
help
competitions
and
prizes.
out, contact Rob C or Juhan.
April 12 - club meeting 7:30 pm
April 24 - Field day 9:30 am
May 15 - Fly In and Demo Day
May 30 - Board meeting
June 5 - Fun Fly
June 14 - Club meeting 7:30 pm
July 10 - Fly In
August 7 - Fun Fly and BBQ
August 29 - Board meeting
Sept 4 - Labor Day Fly In
Sept 13 - Club meeting 7:30 pm
Oct 31 - Board meeting
Nov 8 - Club meeting 7:30 pm
Other club events:
May 14 - MCRCF/495th Spring
Float Fly at Nutting Lake,
Billerica (rain date May 15)
June 3 - Lazy Loopers fun fly,
Wrentham MA.
June 25-26 - Ernie Huber
Memorial Fun Fly, Stow MA
June 25-26 - New England Scale
Championship at Gardener
municipal airport, Gardener MA
Sept 17 - 495th Club’s Helicopter
Fly In. $10 entry with food and
prizes.
Sept 23-25 - East Coast Extreme
Heli FunFly, Plymouth CT
Check our web site
www.burlington-rc.com for links to
these clubs for more info.
5
Secretary’s Report (continued from front page)
aggressive/exciting footage.
Juhan pointed out that to fly with
goggles you need at least 130 degrees of
view or you’ll get quite sick.
Break
Juhan provided a nice video
presentation of his raw footage was
collected from ’84-’86. Juhan has been
20 years with the Club. These are
videos of local fields taken with Jeff
Connolly. They built about ’30’ of a
particular plane kit and did all kinds of
crazy things. He pointed out that the
joint Auction was very successful.
Rob Catalano suggested that we
have an IMAC pilot or Mitch do a
flying demonstration and maybe host a
clinic by possibly learning from Mitch
and is looking for ideas.
Frozen Finger Fun Fly – Sunday Feb.
13th. Dave will bring out his fire pit.
No competition just flying for fun.
Jack Stanley spoke of the S&W
for fuel buy. Get the money to Gil. If
people don’t want S&W, they should
ask Gil. The fuel from S&W is similar
to Wildcat with 2% castor oil. Heli fuel
is all synthetic.
Bob Brown presented to recognize
fellow Club member. It went to Ricardo
Pereira for the crashing the same kit 10
times. The funniest crash video award
was given to Juhan Sonin.
Show ‘N Tell - Rob Catalano showed
off his electric foamie, a $39 from
www.3Dfoamy.com. Rob masked it
and spray-painted it with Krylon. Blue
masking tape works better due to a
fine film on the material. The design
includes Pull-pull rudder and pull-pull
elevator. The wingspan runs 37” and he
slapped an Axis 2212/34 motor with a
2-cell and a 3-cell. The plans are free so
you could simply go to Home Depot,
buy what you need and build his
planes. Rob used small Dubro hinges
with odorless CA that is triple-distilled.
Regular CA will not work – it will
attack the foam.
Mitch Buckley uncovered
and displayed his Yellow Aircraft
International P-47. It is a gorgeous
13 yr old airplane that he bought from
a friend of his. He was invited to Top
Gun but had no plane, so his friend
offered his. The plane weighs about
30 lbs and is powered by a G45 gas
engine. He uses a JR10 radio. It has
Yellow Aircraft retracts with tail retracts
and 3 bomb drops, flaps. He built it in
4.5 months with marathon builds and
test flying it one day before in 30 mph
winds! Nothing went wrong except the
original tail wheel was not good. The
tire blew! He came in 14th place in the
Pro-Am class. He noted that he and
his partner would place decals on the
plane at each of the hotels they stayed
at on the way. The competition was at
Lakeland, FL. He used Krylon paint…
the yellow is automotive. He also used
his own vinyl cutter for the letters.
Because of its considerable weight it
flies fast. He came in 1st. Mitch added
more and more rivets and then went to
Scale Masters and came in 13th.
Pete Sussman showed us his
designed plane based on the BTL to
torque roll and as much roll rates as
possible. He used a Park 370 brushless.
He has a 3-cell lipo. It has unlimited
climb, kind of like flying a rocket. He
named it the Rudder Daemon because
it has ‘plenty’ of ruder. He used a speed
controller from Balsa Products that
delivers 18 amps. It is made of blue
core and didn’t take the film off because
it makes it weaker.
Raffle Dom Furia won the Micro 9lk.
Bob Pawlak won a gallon of S&W gas.
Al Prudhomme won a gallon of fuel
Jack Stanley picked up a glow start.
Pete Sussman snatched a Ex
Mel mentioned that Jeff Ward was
very pleased with our involvement in
the Auction and sent along his thanks.
Mel Suarez
6
BURLINGTON RC FLYERS NEWSLETTER
Breaking the Chickin’ Barrier
By Mel Suarez
N
o matter how good you are you can always improve in
the sport of flying RC. That’s one of the things that I
love about it. What keeps us from doing a new maneuver?
What holds us back?
I needed desperately to get out of ‘Normal’ mode in heli
flying and hang out in ‘Idle-Up1’ maneuver space. Couldn’t
do it. Couldn’t hit that 3 way switch just inches away. Why?
What was the big deal? Thought about it and thought about
it and realized, hey, I’m afraid that when I hit the switch I’ll
mess up on the roll/pitch stick. So I came up with a solution.
While on the ground with Rx/Tx turned off, just hit the
switch until I was totally comfortable with it, that it wouldn’t
go too far to Idle-up2 or affect my roll/pitch lever motion. It
worked. Next time up I hit it and that was that.
If we think about what the little is saying, and we face
him and take him on, we can go to the next step.
Another time, I wanted to do a stall turn with a pirouette.
Couldn’t get myself to do it. So what was my problem? I
decided while driving the car one day that I would simply go
to the end of a stretch of horizontal flight, do the pirouette
and then come back. Then do it again with a slight climb and
then slowly increase the climb. Sure enough, once I saw that it
wasn’t going to drop out of the sky, it was doable.
Then it was the roll! I’ve done thousands of rolls with
aircraft. What was the big deal with rolling a heli? I though
about it and realized that I wasn’t sure I had enough roll
authority. So I decided to try some rolls. Just bank the heck
out of the heli and then bank it the other way. Finally I did
the silly roll. It was ugly as sin but it was indeed a roll.
So figure out where the Chicken Barrier is on your next
maneuver. Face it head on. Walk around it, spit at it, kick
dust up at it. And then back up and crash through it. It sure
feels good.
Club Auction Photos, January 30 2005
Jack and Al at their posts (of course the
concession booth) . Dom (r) is ordering
some pizza.
Gil raids the door money to buy some
coffee and donuts. Caught ya!
Or fearless auctioneer Jeff Ward (left) never
tired. Many thanks Jeff for a great event.
Fellow club member holds a nice P-51.
Mel displaying Juhan’s Giles. Mel, I hear
The Price is Right is hiring new models.
Teddy and his son enjoying some health food. Thanks
Teddy for supplying half the planes auctioned!
APRIL 2005
7
Frozen Fingers Fly In, March 13, 2005
We had lots of fun at this years Frozen Finger Fly In. The snowstorm the day before
provided nice soft powder to crash in. May tried her hand at skis with the help of
Victor and Dave. Jack and Rob were demonstrating power nose-in landings. Victor
was performing some graceful harriers with his edge. Paul showed up with his Tensor and Steve just cheered on. Dave was once again trying to “mate” his plane so we
capped the morning by bombarding his plane with snowballs (Jack scoring the direct
hit). Where’s that safety officer! A great time.
Photos by Juhan Sonin
Burlington RC Flyers Newsletter
C/O Rob Catalano
33 Merrill Road
Watertown, MA 02472
FIRST CLASS MAIL
The Burlington Radio Controlled Flyers
NEWSLETTER
www.burlington-rc.com
Next club meeting:
Tuesday, April 12
Meeting time is 7:30 PM
Meeting Location
Lexington VFW Hall
2 Hayes Lane (off Woburn Street)
Lexington, MA