December 2008.pub
Transcription
December 2008.pub
Volume 9, Issue 6 December 2008 The Bi-Monthly Newsletter of the Victorian Flying Scale Aircraft Association. Visit our website at http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/vfsaa The Temora Invitational Scale Classic This contest which was run from the 7th to the 9th of November at the Temora airport, home of the well known flying aircraft museum, was the brainchild of Greg Tracey, currently from Sydney but who’s real address is The World. Greg is the son of one of my very oldest flying friends, Brian Tracey from Canberra, and is a well known Yankophile (more of this later). He has been going to Top Gun for several years (I would have said competing but he never seems to get off the ground) and with this contest he has tried to bring Top Gun to Australia. through a fair amount of flying and a simpler flight schedule which also makes for short flights. A pretty good entry of 35 models turned up for four classes. The classes are Masters, for those who design and build their own models, Expert for those who build from a kit or published plans, Team Scale and Flying Only. The entrants came from far and wide, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, New Zealand and a very strong contingent from Queensland. Inside this issue: Minutes of February Meeting. 2 President’s Report.. 3 Vicscale Rally at P&DARCS. 4-5 A Scale Undercarriage. 6-7 Ballarat Annual ARF Scale 8-9 Keeping your Cool. 10 Special Dates and Points of InterestVFSAA General Meeting Thursday December 4th. Vicscale Rally at Werribee Sunday January 18th. VFSAA General Meeting Thursday February 5th. This very large B-17 by Steve Thomas of Queensland has a 6m wingspan. The essential elements of Top Gun are a very fast static judging regime – three judges, one each for outline, colour (or should that be color) and markings, and craftsmanship multiple flight lines (in this case two) to get Most arrived on the Thursday and static judging was easily completed on the Friday. (continued on page 11) Vicscale Rally at SEMAC Sunday February 8th. Minutes of October General Meeting. Date: 2-10-08 Start: 7.40pm Location: FNCV Attendance: 24 Apologies: Barrie Reaby, Trevor Pugh, Steve Malcman, Bill Eunson, Frank Singh, Joe Finocchiaro. Previous minutes: read. Matters arising: nil. Correspondence in: • VMAA newsletter. • E-mail from Darryl Gunst re Lew Rodman’s comments on Darryl Gunst using the VFSAA mailing list. John Lamont replied that this was an inadvertent error by Darryl and he did not have a concern in this instance. • OK from Werribee for the scale rally next year. Correspondence out: • Application to Werribee & SEMAC for next year. • E-mail to VMAA re application forms for the use of the State Field. • VMAA notification re the State Champs, F4c and ARF at P&DARCS on 22-2-09. Treasurer’s report: read, 3 new members. General business: • Brian Whellan reported that Max Nichol has passed away. • Noel Whitehead advised NSW that the team trials may be held at the Vic. State Champs in February. We may have to unilaterally declare us as the Australian Scale SIG. • Paul Winter reported that the MAAA can’t get information from NSW re the 2009 Scale Nats. • John Lamont reported on the Bacchus Marsh event. Nobody turned up due to the weather. • Barrie Reaby in hospital. He proposed a one round competition at the December demonstration. • Haydn Hampson reported that the Mammoth was not bad, Saturday was windy with 12 crashes. • Ken Thomas advised that not all the crashes were due to 2.4 GH faults. • Ivan Chislett made a life member of the MAAA. • The raffle held over from the last meeting was drawn with prizes donated by Anthony Mott. • Many thanks to Frank Singh for the supper. Meeting closed: 9.25pm Show & Tell: Haydn Hampson showed the progress on his Spitfire, and gave an informative talk on fiberglass techniques in constructing fuselages etc. page 2 Ken Thomas showed further progress on his Caudron Racer. Excellent and innovative workmanship. Scale News President’s Report Hi All, At last Christmas is in sight and few weeks of urgently required holidays are on the way. We have had a very successful year in scale with higher attendances and some very enjoyable events. As per normal this year seems to have gone faster than the last and here we are again winding down for the festive season and some time with our families and friends. The highlight for me since our last newsletter has been the Temora event in NSW. This comp was based on the American Scale Masters event, and although that type of competition originally didn’t really appeal to me I must say now I would be very keen to return and would encourage others to do the same. As the days have passed since the event I have realized that as good as the competition was, it was the people I was with that has stuck in my mind. I was in a self-contained unit with about twelve other modellers. I worked out very quickly that I was the junior amongst the group not only in age but especially in experience. For the three nights we were there, this group would get together at the end of the day’s flying, sit in the foyer area, drink, and do a lot of talking. I wasn’t in much of a drinking mood so I just sat there and listened. If you filtered out all the bad jokes and medical problems it was one hell of a learning experience. To give you some idea of the calibre of modellers that were there we had Brian Borland, Gwyn Avenell, (two of New Zealand’s best scale modellers), Ross Woodcock, Ray Botten, Gus Greening, and Ron Cavanagh. If these names are not familiar to you they are part of our scale royalty, and men whose talents I admired as a boy learning scale. I am 41 years old now but I still felt the boy while sitting amongst this group. The discussion of building techniques by these guys is etched in my mind, and I feel very lucky to have been in that spot at that time. Ross Woodcock’s career was in full size aviation so the techniques he uses on modeling are much the same as full size and when you think about early aviation there isn’t much difference between models and full size construction, timber, fabric, dope, metal, and ply. I am not sure if they even knew it, but they managed to discuss in some detail the methods of applying fabric covering , doping, rib tapes, metal covering, plug building, muffler/exhaust building, flying, and probably a few other topics that escape me at this moment. It was very interesting and reinforces the fact that there is always more you can learn. Thanks so much to all that were there to provide the entertainment. If I am one of the youngest scale modelers at my age let’s hope we can draw in some young blood soon so that the skills of these gentlemen don’t die with them as they are truly talented craftsmen and we cannot have that type of knowledge lost in time. Maybe we should consider running some workshops at our meetings in the future to keep the knowledge alive. Have a great Christmas, See you next year, David. From the Editors. Vale! On reading Anthony Mott’s comments (see page 10) on the installation of 2.4ghz receivers it would seem that you should be “Ice Cool” when setting up that particular piece of equipment if you want to retain “Rock Solid” contact with your airborne pride and joy. I have seen a smallish model with the stumpy aerial black box mounted in the cockpit canopy for all the world to see, and for the sun to have it’s way with it. Presumably it worked satisfactorily but leaving that model sitting in direct sunlight for a day at the field might have some deleterious effect! We lost two more long time modellers in late November with the sudden passing of Derry Brown and Ford Lloyd’s departure after a long period of illness. Derry was a very good control line stunt flyer in the fifties and sixties and also served as president of the P&DARCS club. Many will remember him as the very competent and knowledgeable commentator at the Shepparton Mammoth Scale event. I guess everyone will by now have noticed the change of title for our newsletter and the renaming of our events to Vicscale. The committee has decided that our full title of the “Victorian Flying Scale Aircraft Association” is too much of a mouthful and we would be better served by simply calling ourselves “Vicscale”. The full VFSAA title will continue to be used for the incorporated body. Ford Lloyd was initially a free flight enthusiast, winning many power events over the years before taking up radio control flying with a strong interest in scale modelling. He was a member of the VFSAA for many years and contributed to our Association as a contest director, judge and competitor. Both will be missed by their many friends in Australian modelling circles. President: David Law Tel: 9844-4424, e-mail: [email protected] Secretary: Keith Schneider Tel: 9842-5381, e-mail: [email protected] Treasurer: Tony Grieger Tel: 9720-9126, e-mail: [email protected] Newsletter: Ian Lamont John Lamont Tel: 9439-4469, e-mail: [email protected] Tel: 9848-2339, e-mail: [email protected] Scale News page 3 VICSCALE RALLY at P&DARCS. Our second rally at P&DARCS was again a very well attended and successful event blessed once more with fine weather and a with a very nice assortment of around forty scale model aircraft, both owner built and ARF. In the calm and sunny conditions we flew constantly from early morning to lunch and after enjoying the usual BBQ lunch we flew a single round competition for the ten or so people who wished to try their hand at competitive flying. Among the many owner built models to stand out were the Corsair of Mike Lynch which roared around the sky with a commanding presence, Gary Sunderland’s new Albatros CIII, the Hawker Fury racer of Haydn Hampson and David Balfour’s Curtis Robin and Piper L4. Ray Chapman and Paul Trezise, after bringing their 1/3 scale Sopwith Pup all the way from Albury, did not get into the air while P&DARCS secretary Don White flew a very nice Piper Super Cub constructed from a Dynaflite kit. As is now the norm we had a lot of ARF’s and it must be admitted that these models are becoming more acceptable as scale models with a number of new and more rarely seen types now available. Bill Reynolds’ Boeing P-26 Peashooter, Mark Radburn’s Miles Hawk and Angelo Favaloro’s Cessna 182 were a change from the usual Mustangs and Spitfires. Ian and I really went overboard and fronted up with a fleet of ARF’s including our new Marathons (Extra 300’s?) which show promise of a good flight performance. The short competition was quite popular and everyone, including a few newcomers, competed well with a marked improvement in performance since last year. Tony Grieger was the winner in a tight finish from David Balfour and Mike Lynch. Bill Reynolds and Jerry Visick were the recipients of the Dura-grit rotary tools kindly donated by SC Models for presentation at our rallies. My thanks to Tony Grieger, Graham Godden and Anthony Mott for their assistance with the judging and to the members of P&DARCS for the use of their field. Gary Sunderland used the good field and fine weather to demonstrate his large Albatros CIII, a most impressive model powered by the same Super Tigre 4500 that was used in his big Bristol Fighter. Competition. Rally Awards. Military Flying: Michael Lynch Vought F4U Corsair 1. Tony Grieger Fokker Eindekker 796pts. Military Non Flying: Ray Chapman Sopwith Pup 2. David Balfour Curtis Robin 794 pts. Civil Flying: David Balfour Curtis Robin 3. Mike Lynch Vought Corsair 746 pts. Civil Non Flying: No entry page 4 Scale News Another view of Gary Sunderland;s Albatros CIII. Mark Radburn’s ARF Miles Hawk powered with a Super Tigre 2500. Angelo Favaloro brought his Yak and Cessna. Scratch built Corsair and Sea Fury by Mike Lynch and Haydn Hampson. Don White’s Piper Super Cub in the pits. The family ARF collection, two for me and three for Ian. Don White and Bill Reynolds with Bill’s P-39 and P-26. The 1/3 scale Sopwith Pup by Ray Chapman and Paul Trezise of Albury. Scale News page 5 A SCALE UNDERCARRIAGE. After destroying my old J3 Cub I wanted to build another and to allow possible entry into Warbird competition I decided to build two, a civil J3 and a military L4. They both needed better undercarriages than the rather rough bent wire and plywood affair of my previous Cubs and since the sprung unit fitted to my Spacewalker during its rebuild worked well I used the same springing arrangement on the Cubs. Using compression springs instead of bungee cords is not quite right but when the bags are fitted over the springs no-one will see the difference and I won’t have to worry about replacing the cords as they stretch or break. I have accumulated a number of sketches of Cub undercarts from various sources and while they all purport to be 1/4 scale they are all different, having been set up for various kit models which seem to vary considerably in fuselage width. I designed my Cubs using a J3 3-view by Paul Matt and a L4 3-view which was published in Flying Scale Models so, together with photos of the full size aircraft, I have made my own version of a 1/4 scale Cub undercarriage. Fortunately I found a very good L4 at Riddells Creek airfield and the owner kindly allowed me to take photos to confirm a lot of the aircraft’s detail, particularly the cabin structure detail. ◄ Jig for main leg assembly. This one was made for my Spacewalker which has a diagonal support strut. Assembled undercarriage. Legs will be fabric covered as on the full size aircraft. ► ◄ Du Bros 1/4 scale Cub wheels will be used on both models. Mounting brackets are fixed to plywood plates on fuselage bottom with 4-40 screws and blind nuts. Brackets will be filled and the screw heads concealed when the bottom of the fuselage is covered with fabric. page 6 ► Scale News A number of simple jigs are required to ensure accuracy and repeatability when silver soldering the frames and I make these from MDF sheet or cheap plywood. They got a bit burnt during the silver soldering bit but managed to hang together while making two sets of gear. These drawings are quite accurate but rather small when reduced to fit the newsletter pages so if anyone wants to try their hand I can produce a set of full size drawings which can be handy when mak- Scale News ing the jigs. I cut out the sections of drawings and paste them onto the base timber using small pieces of square timber to locate the parts. Holes or cut outs at the joints allow for soldering all round (you just have to get used to the occasional flash fire!). The worst part of the job is cleaning the parts after soldering as the flux is hard to shift after it’s heated. page 7 BALLARAT ANNUAL ARF SCALE COMPETITION. It was a rather disappointing turn out for this event but with the poor weather forecast it was not altogether surprising. It rained intermittently as we headed west and the wind gathered strength as we moved away from Melbourne. It looked as though the trip might be wasted but on arrival at the Ballarat field it seemed that those who did come were prepared to try their luck. The field looked a bit different as the landlord had sown a crop of some description which was now about half a metre high and did not provide much space for a runoff from the short strip. The wind was strong from the north which meant that the turbulence from the tree plantation on the north boundary was severe and with only the east-west strip available we were taking off and landing with a strong cross wind. All in all not a very good situation and the flying demonstrated the difficulty. Models were quickly blown off course and some had problems getting correct alignment with the narrow strip on landing. Noel Whitehead receives his prize for first place from the Ballarat club president. Anthony Mott drew the short straw and flew first with his largely untried AT-6 powered by a five cylinder Seidel radial. The model was blown in all directions and Anthony missed the strip on landing, damaging the model sufficiently to preclude further flying. I followed with my Extra? and also had problems with the wind but persisted until I botched the landing, the small wheels didn’t like the rough strip and the model overturned, fortunately without sustaining any serious damage. Noel Whitehead seemed to get a bit less wind on his flight and the model scored well with a good landing. Ian Lamont lost a wheel nut from his new Extra on an early test flight and borrowed my Yak to put in a good performance with the unfamiliar model. Roger Carrigg and the Ballarat members adapted better to the conditions (a bit of local experience probably helped) and all were able to complete their schedule and get down safely. Brian Munns and Jeric Strong from Geelong both flew their patterns and landed without mishap. After a BBQ lunch I lead off for the second round and really had problems in the even stronger wind. After several attempted landings I finally put the model down in the rough area beside the strip, tearing off both wheel spats in the process. After a quick meeting and show of hands it was decided to call off further flying (I was the only dissenter as I wanted to see the others try their luck, but they chickened out) and we gathered in the clubhouse for the presentation of awards and the draw for the contestants prize. With no sign of the wind abating we packed up, said our goodbyes, and headed for home with a short stop at the nearby roadhouse for further sustenance. It was a pity that the weather spoiled the day but I’m sure that we will be there next year, hoping that the conditions will be more conducive for a successful event. Anthony Mott won the pilots draw. The ARF kit was donated by Roj’s Hobbies who supported the event. COMPETITOR MODEL SCORE N. WHITEHEAD RV4 226.8 1 SHOESTRING 222.2 2 B. MUNNS SUKHOI 192.O 3 I. LAMONT YAK 54 180.2 4 J. LAMONT EXTRA 300 177.8 5 N. KATSIKAROS PITTS S1 176.5 6 P. EVANS TUCANO 173.7 7 J. STRONG EDGE 540 172.2 8 NA AT-6 169.7 9 PIPER PAWNEE 126.2 10 R. CARRIGG A. MOTT A. BENTLY page 8 Scale News The west end of the pits where the better class of models gathered. This Pitts S1 was flown by Ballarat member Nick Katsikaros. A Sukhoi and Edge by Brian Munns and Jeric Strong from the Geelong We presented Glen White with his VFSAA Hargrave Trophy, for the highest points score over the year’s competition, shared with David Law. Scale News The east end where the others hung around. The judging panel at work and looking very relaxed. Not so for the poor pilot battling the wind. Roger Carrigg watching closely as the Pitts starts to roll. This nice Piper Pawnee by Andrew Bently of the Ballarat club is another slightly different ARF. page 9 KEEPING YOUR COOL ! BY ANTHONY MOTT. In a previous item in the VFSAA newsletter, I drew attention to the high current consumption of the 2.4ghz receivers, as compared to the good old 36mhz (and 29mhz), units. Now the interesting question is "why do they consume so much current, and where does the energy go ?" Well, I don't rightly know but, if the receiver is processing signals in the 2.4ghz range, then there must be a computer chip in there running at, or faster than, that speed. So the extra current input is consumed by a "fast" computer chip and ancillaries. And we all know that the faster you drive a computer chip, the hotter it gets. So, do these 2.4ghz receivers get hot ? Well, in the instructions for my Futaba 7C outfit there is no reference to special treatment of the receiver mounting other than concerning the orientation of the antennas. The Xtreme receiver mounting instructions suggest that you "show it off" (rather than wrapping it in foam rubber), which may be an underhanded way of saying "don't wrap it up in foam rubber as it will get too hot" ! More Pics from Temora. But where does all that energy go? The latest issue (December 2008, pages 96-98) of that slowly dying magazine, Model Airplane News, advocates that not only should you NOT wrap the receiver up in foam rubber, but that you should be careful to ensure that it is not mounted in a location that causes it to get too hot due to ambient conditions. Indeed, the author goes on to recommend that the receiver be mounted in an "open" manner, and suggests providing cooling air for the receiver compartment ! For all 2.4ghz users, I suggest that you go back and carefully check the instructions concerning the mounting and installation of the receiver, and in the absence of specific directions, that you mount it in a manner and location where it can "keep its cool" whilst working hard for you ! Don Murray from NSW flew this Douglas Dauntless. VICSCALE RALLY at NEPEAN The weather got us again at this event and the few people who turned up ,despite the poor forecast, didn’t even bother to assemble their models. We had a short mid morning BBQ and gave up. The Nepean members are keen to hold the event so we may try to re-schedule it in December or early next year. page 10 Event organiser Greg Tracey brought this F- 84 Thunderjet but I think he might have been too busy trying to start the Hurricane that he bought from Ross Woodcock to get it into the air. Scale News The Temora Invitational Scale Classic. The facilities were generally very good. The models were stored in the museum hangar so there was no need to pull them apart each night, and there was also lots of accommodation on or very close to the airport. This meant that there was a strong social element to the weekend. There were a few problems arise for the Saturday commencement of flying. It had rained heavily overnight and the grass area we were supposed to walk over to get to the runway was a total bog. This meant that the flightline had to be moved a couple of hundred metres up wind and well away from the spectator area. Everyone did a lot of walking that day and most were in bed by 9 o’clock. More serious was a problem that we don’t often see at contests, the fairly strong wind was at 90 degrees to the strip and there was no possibility of taking off or landing into wind. With a very course bitumen surface, most of the low wing tail draggers ended up with rather less material on their left hand wing tips than when they arrived. The only models really happy were the jets with their trainer wheel undercarriages. Sunday’s flying was better with the sun drying up the bog so the flightline was in the right place, and the wind a little more up and down the strip. Unfortunately for me, I could not get my motor started on the Sunday and so missed the best of the conditions. There were a few bad losses. Alf Williams’ beautiful Lancaster went in apparently with some sort of control malfunction, the large P-38 from Queensland was destroyed when the pilot opened up the throttles when the model was too high and too slow on landing and the model promptly flipped over and spun in, and Bill Mansell somehow lost his Spacewalker not far from some parked full sized aircraft. I am sure everyone has seen photos of the very large B17 of Steve Thomas from Queensland. This takes two pilots to fly, one for the normal flight functions and another for everything else. This was preparing to fly on Sunday, all motors running, when the auxiliary pilot accidentally retracted the undercarriage. There was no real damage to the model but four very expensive three bladed props were reduced to little pieces of shrapnel. I had watched the aircraft (it’s hardly a model) fly on Saturday and it looked majestic in the air. Chris Henry from the twin Cities club had his usual Spitfire flying at Temora. Scale News ((continued from page 1) During the lunch break each day, David McFarlane from Model Sports in NSW put on an aerobatic demonstration with a large Extra or something. Normally I object to pattern fliers “entertaining” at scale comps but David is something special. I actually watched his demos and had a few in-depth chats with him back at the house we were both staying at. I think I learned a lot. Apart from the few ouches I mentioned above, flying went pretty much without a hitch and was generally of a high standard. It was after all an invitational contest so Greg knew what he was getting. I have forgotten many of the prize winners (the results have still not been posted on the website) but the only one we need be concerned with is that David Law cleaned up big time. He was equal top static, won Masters and was ‘Grand Champion’, and he walked away with a swag of cups, vouchers, and a JR 7 channel radio. Well done David. The prize list and other sponsorship shows how good Greg is at this sort of thing. He seems to know everyone in the world and is friendly with Robart, Zap, Frank Tiano, PST and others I can’t remember. I guess it was a good contest overall. Some of the rules are very American and a bit whacky, but the theme of the weekend was “just because it’s different doesn’t mean it’s wrong” and everyone seemed happy enough to go along with this. It seems to be the fashion that events that are run for the first time call themselves “Classic”. It might come to this but it has one or two major hurdles to jump first. I mentioned Greg’s love for things American and this now extends to a woman he met on one of his recent trips. If, as he was speculating, he moves over there to be with her, I don’t see anyone else with the ability or enthusiasm to carry on with this event. On balance that would be a pity. Noel Whitehead. Peter Agnew is a seasoned flier at Jet events but was a new competitor in scale flying this Grumman Panther. page 11 VICSCALE RALLY at P&DARCS. Our second rally at P&DARCS was again a very well attended and successful event blessed once more with fine weather and a with a very nice assortment of around forty scale model aircraft, both owner built and ARF. In the calm and sunny conditions we flew constantly from early morning to lunch and after enjoying the usual BBQ lunch we flew a single round competition for the ten or so people who wished to try their hand at competitive flying. Among the many owner built models to stand out were the Corsair of Mike Lynch which roared around the sky with a commanding presence, Gary Sunderland’s new Albatros CIII, the Hawker Fury racer of Haydn Hampson and David Balfour’s Curtis Robin and Piper L4. Ray Chapman and Paul Trezise, after bringing their 1/3 scale Sopwith Pup all the way from Albury, did not get into the air while P&DARCS secretary Don White flew a very nice Piper Super Cub constructed from a Dynaflite kit. As is now the norm we had a lot of ARF’s and it must be admitted that these models are becoming more acceptable as scale models with a number of new and more rarely seen types now available. Bill Reynolds’ Boeing P-26 Peashooter, Mark Radburn’s Miles Hawk and Angelo Favaloro’s Cessna 182 were a change from the usual Mustangs and Spitfires. Ian and I really went overboard and fronted up with a fleet of ARF’s including our new Marathons (Extra 300’s?) which show promise of a good flight performance. The short competition was quite popular and everyone, including a few newcomers, competed well with a marked improvement in performance since last year. Tony Grieger was the winner in a tight finish from David Balfour and Mike Lynch. Bill Reynolds and Jerry Visick were the recipients of the Dura-grit rotary tools kindly donated by SC Models for presentation at our rallies. My thanks to Tony Grieger, Graham Godden and Anthony Mott for their assistance with the judging and to the members of P&DARCS for the use of their field. Gary Sunderland used the good field and fine weather to demonstrate his large Albatros CIII, a most impressive model powered by the same Super Tigre 4500 that was used in his big Bristol Fighter. Competition. Rally Awards. Military Flying: Michael Lynch Vought F4U Corsair 1. Tony Grieger Fokker Eindekker 796pts. Military Non Flying: Ray Chapman Sopwith Pup 2. David Balfour Curtis Robin 794 pts. Civil Flying: David Balfour Curtis Robin 3. Mike Lynch Vought Corsair 746 pts. Civil Non Flying: No entry page 4 Scale News
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