Newsletter for the SPring Area Radio Kontrol Society

Newsletter for the SPring Area Radio Kontrol Society
MARCH 2008
SPARKS WEBSITE
www.sparksrc.com
GREETINGS FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT - MARK HUNT
Message from the “Vice” President:
I was asked to fill in for this month’s newsletter due to Wally’s busy out of town
schedule. Please bear with my lack of literary aptitude. I would like to start by stating
that I am impressed with our membership’s
positive attitude considering our field situation. This is further evidenced by our current membership numbers, which are quite
strong. I would like to thank all of you for
your positive support of those who are
working hard to find us all a solution.
Now for the important stuff: In case you
have been living under a rock, one of the
newest battery technologies is now becoming more available to us for r/c use. I’m
speaking (writing) of the “A123” or Moli Lithium cells, which seem to have some great
potential.
Significant benefits include:
Safety. They do not present the fire hazard
associated with Lithium-Polymers, even
when abused. High current charging and
discharging (similar to a Ni-Cad) is acceptable. Like any other Lithium-Ion, the selfdischarge rate is extremely low. Favorable
energy density (but not as good as LithiumPolymer).
These cells produce 3.6v each and are
currently available in a couple of capacities
(1000mah, 2300mah). These can be used
along with a regulator for receiver packs,
power packs, even your engine starter
pack. They can survive deep discharges
(2.5v per cell). I recently had the pleasure
of flying a sport pattern plane with this type
of battery pack on board. The airplane was
originally outfitted with a 3S 2100mah
Li-Poly pack. With the 2300mah A123
pack, the weight increase was approximately 3oz. I flew the airplane through lots
of large, pattern maneuvers (in fact, the
entire AMA Advanced sequence) without
any power issues. I began to get worried
about my flight time, but the owner simply
said, “land when the motor begins to lose
some of its power”. After 9 minutes of this,
I felt the power going away, so I setup to
land. The pack was removed from the
plane and was quite warm (105°F), but he
reassured me that the pack was fine. As
soon as it was cool, the pack was placed
on charge (with a balancer) and was ready
to go again in about 20 minutes.
There are several large industry contracts
already in place to thrust this technology into
the next generation of hybrid vehicles. Production of smaller packs is already being outpaced by demand in markets such as cordless power tools. When production ramps
up, we may see even better pricing and selection on these cells. You can read more all
over the world wide web with a search of
“A123 cells” using the Google search engine.
The home website for the “A123” cells is at:
http://www.a123systems.com/
I also found an informative document
written by FMA Direct:
http://www.fmadirect.com/support docs/
item 1229.pdf
Out of the box…..Mark.
See you at the Meeting on March 5th.
mail: SPARKS
P.O. Box 1361
Tomball, TX 77377-1361
SPARKS 2007 -
2008 Officers
Wally Warren
281-794-0947
Mark Hunt
281-290-0327
Michael Meyer
281-635-5551
Diane Marson
Sect'y/Newsletter
281-374-8915
President
Vice President
Treasurer
SPARKS Flight Instructors
Chief Instructor
Lee Dillenbeck
281-288-7661
Flight Instructors
Airplanes
Bob Allen
281-443-8779
Jim Greer
281-370-5615
Mark Hunt
281-290-0327
Paul Johnson
281-353-7930
Jack Jones
281-252-3159
Richard Lewis
281-351-8540
Bill Murad
281-290-8945
Nick Marson
281-374-8915
Luis Rodriguez
281-363-9134
Ground Instructor- Airplanes
Vic Baney
281-357-1357
Chris Fredona
281-376-7068
Ron Hendrick
281-583-9421
Mike Rose
936-697-4877
Helicopters
Warren Watkins
281-855-7830
Highlights of the February Meeting Wally Warren and Jaimie Carreon were the keynote speakers
describing the modifications they made while building Wally’s
KMP Tigercat.
Photos are below……..
Photo below…….Ben Schultz won Model of the Month with his
“Quickie” aircraft.
Please see article on page 6.
Photo to right…
Detail from the
Tigercat' s fuse
2
FEBRUARY 6, 2008 SPARKS MEETING
In January, we gained one new member, Jason Smith, for a total of 72 regular members and 3 honorary
ones. Motion was passed to pay the $1,500.00 lease statement to Doyle Kay for the year 2008. Motion was
also passed to permit Jim Greer to continue his SPARKS membership without paying the usual initiation fee.
Members of the Field Acquisition Committee gave several reports. Paul Johnson reviewed results of the 30
responses he received to the member’s survey. Please the full form and replies next page.
Paul spoke with his Harris County contact who was optimistic about our chances of working with them to develop the Cutten Road site. There is also a second possible site in the West Greens and Antoine Road area.
Paul will update us as talks proceed.
Vic Baney spoke with the Jeffery Holverson, owner of the land off Boudreaux Road which we had previously
considered. There are several acres in the flood plain which we could possibly propose a lease/purchase
agreement.
Vic will report any further developments.
Mark Hunt spoke with our land lord, Doyle Kay who expects to finalize the land sale on February 17th. He
would have until the end of 2008 to vacate the land. Mark and Jim Sheffield spoke with Pct. 4 representatives concerning the use of land at Dyess Park off Telge Rd.
The Field Committee will compile a proposal for presentation to the various contacts mentioned above as well
as for future use.
Photo to left - Wally
presents Dallas Slovak with
his Solo Pilot certificate
3
This was the survey form sent to members in January...As of the February meeting,
30 responses had been received. The results are shown in red.
FIELD ACQUISITION SURVEY FORM
Option One - Purchase 4 to 5 acres of land from farmer for new club site and negotiate right to fly over adjacent farmer owned
farm land. Negotiate sell back privilege if farmer sells remaining land. Cost ~$50 to $60 K. Finance land with loan from bank or
mortgage company. (Available loan terms are loan on no for more than 65% of price of land, 8.5 – 9.0% interest; 15 year amortization schedule, balloon payment for balance after 5 years and 4 or 5 members of club would need to sign to be personally
responsible.)
Should the club consider purchase under these terms? Yes__13____ No__13____
Would you consider being one of the members who signs loan? Yes__6____ No___14___
Would you support raising dues to support such a venture? Yes___13___ No
_8_____
Option Two - Purchase 4 to 5 acres of land from farmer for new club site and negotiate right to fly over adjacent farmer owned
farm land. Negotiate sell back privilege if farmer sells remaining land. Cost ~ $50 to 60 K. Purchase land with investment
shares of individual club members. Members could buy as many investment shares as desired. If farmer sells remaining land,
share owners would be rewarded by appreciation of land value.
Should the club consider purchase under these terms? Yes__22____ No_
5_____
Would you consider personal purchase of shares of land? Yes__16____ No___6___ ?? 1
Option Three – Negotiate with farmers who are willing to listen a mutually acceptable lease on 4 to 5 acres of land and negotiate right to fly over adjacent farmer owned land. Negotiate a mutually acceptable minimum lease term. Raise dues if necessary
to pay for the additional lease expense. This option of higher lease may make the lease more palatable for landowners and give
us more of a chance of obtaining new club site.
Would you support the club in obtaining a site with significantly higher lease costs?
Yes__22____ No____4__
Would you support raising dues if necessary to support this more costly lease option?
Yes___22___ No___2___
Additional Question - Would you support development of proposal after agreement on option to pursue above to be mailed to
specific property owner’s basis tax records in areas where we would consider having a club site? (Hopefully this would spark
interest of property owners to negotiate with us.)
Yes__26____ No___0___
?? 1
4
“The Bone Yard”
submitted by Lee Dillenbeck
Pretty cool pictures. However, I am not sure how current they are.
I was thinking that most of the B-52s shown in these pics have
been already been cut up for scrap. Also, not all the text is
accurate. They refer to it as an "Airforce" bone yard. However,
as can clearly be seen in the first picture (OK, clearly to us
airplane nuts !) there are also several lines of F-14 Tomcats
(wings folded back) which were used by the U.S. NAVY,
not the Air force!
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=cc9_1202463600
Description: The Bone Yard near Davis Monthan
Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona.
For those of you that have never seen this, it is something to
see. The precision in the way they are parked is impressive.
If you are ever in the Tucson area, the weekly tours of the bone
yard are still given through the Tucson Air Museum, located just
south of Davis Monthan AFB.
It's difficult to comprehend the size of the "Bone yard" and the
number of aircraft stored there.
Of course the important thing to remember is that they are
all capable of being returned to service if the need ever
arises.
Both the museum and the bone yard are very popular
attractions in the Arizona desert. It is difficult to comprehend the number of military aircraft in dead storage until
you see these photographs!
Even if you have seen this before, look again. The 3rd largest Air Force in the world is sitting on the ground here!
5
FEBRUARY MODEL OF THE MONTH
BEN SCHULTZ AND
HIS “QUICKIE” CRAFT
SUBMITTED BY BEN SCHULTZ
I don't really know much about the plane I
brought to last months meeting. I just knew that
when I saw it I had to get it. I like planes that look
different, and this one fits the bill.
The Plane is an arf and it was an easy build
even with the terrible instructions. The only real
problem that I had was that the wheel pants would
not fit at all without moving the main gear. I have
found that planes look great with pants, but are
usually more trouble than they are worth, to me
anyway.
There was no way I was going to cut into the
wing and add blocks just to make them fit. The instructions called for a 40 size engine max. I think
everybody knows that the right size engine is the
biggest one that will fit or almost fit inside the cowl.
So I installed a G51 super tigre. On its maiden
flight one of the guys at the field said the plane
already looks broken, and the other one said
it looks like a Bipe with a loose wing ,not to mention
that its rear tail is missing. The plane took off and
flew great.
With just a couple small trim adjustments the
pucker effect was gone. After a few passes around
the field one of the guys said that the plane was
really fast. So I cut back on the power to see how
the plane responded to slower speeds. In straight
lines up high it did great, so I thought it would be
easy to land. I was very wrong! I brought it in just
like any of my other planes, and everything was
looking great.
When I got closer to the ground and flared
there was almost no response from the plane. It
just went into the ground. It was a good thing that I
was going very slow and not at a very steep angle.
The damage was not too bad, Just a broken prop
and bent gear. I know next time to fly that plane all
the way to the ground with a little more speed.
My next project is going to be a float plane,
and I am looking for floats or plans for floats. I
bought a high wing something or other, I don't
know what it is really. It looks a lot like 90 size
trainer and weighs about 12 pounds. If anybody
has had any experience with float planes I think I
could use any tips that you may have. Duane has
already given me an air raft. That way I don't have
to wait so long for my planes to float to shore.
6
THESE ARE “DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME OR SPARKS
FIELD” WEBSITES…..
Submitted by Nick Marson
Where’s the Club safety officer on these ???????
http://www.break.com/index/rc-landing-almost-takes-out-pilot.html
http://www.break.com/index/rc-jet-hilariously-bad-take-off.html
HERE’S ANOTHER “DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME AND DON’T BELIEVE YOU
EYES EITHER…….
Submitted by Lee Dillenbeck
Great flying of a big Edge with a “ passenger” no less...
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/191838/
Ride in an F/A 18 Hornet
submitted by J. R. Carpenter
Make sure and click on all 5 excerpts and turn up the volume!!!.
What a Ride!!!
Tough guy tries ride in F-18.........
This is outstanding. Be sure to watch all of the 'scenes'
especially 'Scene 2'.
You have to click on each photo at the left to watch the scene.
http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/ajc/swf/blueangels/blueangels.swf
Many thanks to the following members for their contributions
to this month’s issue of Crosswinds.
J. R. Carpenter, Lee Dillenbeck, Nick Marson,
Mike Rose and Ben Schultz
Please continue to send articles, websites, photos and just interesting stuff to me.
You will receive a free raffle ticket at the next meeting.
Thanks, Diane [email protected]
7
LOOK AT THIS NEW AIRCRAFT....
SUBMITTED BY MIKE ROSE
Boeing is preparing a 1000 passenger jet that could
reshape the Air travel industry for the next 100 years.
The radical Blended Wing design has been developed by
Boeing in cooperation with the NASA Langley Research
Center The mammoth plane will have a wing span of
265 feet compared to the 747's 211 feet, and is
designed to fit within the newly created terminals used
for the 555 seat Airbus A380, which is 262 feet wide.
The new 797 is in direct response to the Airbus A380 which has racked up 159 orders, but has not yet flown any passengers. Boeing decide to kill its 747X stretched super jumbo in 2003 after little interest was shown by airline companies, but
has continued to develop the ultimate Airbus crusher 797 for years at its Phantom Works research facility in Long Beach, &
nbsp;Calif.
The Airbus A380 has been in the works since 1999 and has accumulated $13 billion in development costs, which gives
Boeing a huge advantage now that Airbus has committed to the older style tubular aircraft for decades to come.
There are several big advantages to the blended wing design, the most important being the lift to drag ratio which is expected to increase by an amazing
50%, with overall weight reduced by 25%, making it an estimated 33% more
efficient than the A380 .
High body rigidity is another key factor in blended wing aircraft, It reduces turbulence and creates less stress on the air frame which adds to efficiency, giving the 797 a tremendous 8800 nautical mile range with its 1000 passengers
flying comfortably at mach 0.88 or 654 mph (+-1046km/h) cruising speed another advantage over the Airbus tube-and-wing designed A380's 570 mph (912 km/h).
The exact date for introduction is unclear, yet the battle lines are clearly drawn in the high-stakes war for civilian
air supremacy.
Here’s a link for a custom Airbus 380…...An individual is spending $300 million on his private version….
http://www.gadgets.luxist.com/2008/02/13/private-airbus-a380-to-get-a-gold-paint-job/
Prince Al-Walid bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, born 7 March 1955 and commonly known as Prince Al-Walid, is
a member of the Saudi Royal Family, and an entrepreneur and international investor. He has amassed his fortune
through investments in properties and stocks. As of 2007, his net worth is estimated at US $29.5 billion, according to the Arabian Business rich list 2007. this list was published December 2,2007. He is ranked by Forbes as the
13th richest person in the world. He has been nicknamed by Time magazine as the Arabian Warren Buffet.
By the way, how do you make billions????…….buy up American and European companies and real estate.
Here is his story…….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Waleed bin Talal
8
YOU JUST CAN’T TRUST EVERYTHING YOU
READ OR SEE ANYMORE
SUBMITTED BY MIKE ROSE
The photos and attached story make for interesting
reading…...“The plane in these pictures is still officially
the 'Air Vehicle Number 1', a prototype, on board the
USS George Washington CVN-73 for catapult fit checks.
Not exactly still Top Secret but certainly not yet made
public.
It will be known as the F/A-37. Although specs are BR
classified, it is believed to be Mach 3.5 (top speed in the Mach 4 range), super-cruise stealth
fighter/bomber/interceptor with approximately a 4,000nm range. Awesome!
Check out the Navy test pilot in the cockpit of the F/A-37...LT Kara Wade”
But, it’s not really a new secret weapon with an attractive
female pilot…….it advertisement for a new movie…….
http://www.snopes.com/photos/airplane/a37.asp
From the Snopes page…..Origins: Tempting as it may
be to believe pictures of just about anything — including a new, top
secret U.S. military aircraft — might turn up on the Internet, that isn't
the case here. These photographs are not images of a prototype F/
A-37 "Talon" aircraft being tested aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, but pictures taken from the
forthcoming motion picture Stealth, described thusly: An intelligent, next-generation drone fighter plane develops a
mind of its own and an American pilot must go up against it.
Stealth promises to be a high octane, glued-to-your-seat, a
ction-packed adventure. It recently ended primary filming in Australia. The movie now moves to post-production, and
will be completed and in theatres by 2005. Although
these pictures come from a fictional movie, they
were taken aboard a real U.S. aircraft carrier: the
USS Abraham Lincoln, which was used for filming
while the vessel was at San Diego's Naval Air Station North Island in June 2004. The ship's public
affairs group issued the following press release for
the occasion: The Movie Stealth films on USS
Abraham Lincoln
You can finish reading the article on the Snopes
page linked above.
9
MALFUNCTIONING PLANES MAKE BELLY LANDINGS
submitted by Lee Dillenbeck
Sometimes we must land our R/C craft without gear (or loose the gear) upon touching down.
Full size planes have that problem as well….here are a few which were caught on film.
Smooth landing with no gear at Charlie Brown Airport in Atlanta
http://cbs2.com/watercooler/Emergency.Landing.King.2.259933.html
A flight instructor and student land a plane with malfunctioning landing gear at an Atlanta, Georgia, airport.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=73b 1202450668
Military Plane lands with 1 engine, no landing gear and skids of the runway, but all 12 on board are safe.
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=fc5 1185914642
Editor’s note: Tips and tricks from the AMA Insider publication, January
issue...Please also see more articles on page 11 and 12 of Crosswinds or
you can check out the Insider at this address……There is a great article
with a detailed chart about trimming planes which is too long for me to
include in Crosswinds.
http://www.modelaircraft.org/insider/index.html
New Life to Old Wire Landing Gear
Did you ever have a problem where your wire landing gear seems to get weaker and weaker? A possible solution is to remove the gear from the airframe and remove all the hardware from the gear wire (i.e.
the wheels, collars, pants, etc).
Preheat your kitchen oven to 450°F. Place the wire on a cookie sheet in the oven for one hour. Turn off
the oven and toss the wire into cold water to cool it off quickly. What you have just done is to re-temper
the music wire and you should have put new life into that old gear. Note that soldered joints should not
be harmed as solder doesn’t melt until about 700°F.
Mixing Epoxy
When mixing epoxy use an old coffee can lid, after the epoxy hardens just flex the lid and the epoxy will
pop off.
10
HERE ARE SOME ARTICLES FROM THE AMA INSIDER FOR JANUARY 2008
TIPS FOR CLUBS……..
from the Fort Worth Thunderbirds Radio Control Association Inc., Fort Worth, Texas
How Much Land is Really Needed?
When a club needs to find a new RC flying site,
the logical question must arise as to how much
space is really needed. Negotiations with site
owners will usually require this kind of information.
Having been through this process with
our own club, here are some approximate numbers to help you determine the space required.
In every case, it can be argued that much more
land is required or that much less land can suffice, but here is a place to start.
Assume that your RC flying site will
have a runway of 400 feet in length and 50
feet wide. A club will normally mow about 400
feet or more on each end for approach and
departure clearance. To lay out a comfortable
spectators area with a shelter, parking lot, a
flight line and pilots positions, the runway and
some mowed area on the other side of the
runway, all laid out in accordance with recommended AMA safety standards, will require a
total field width of roughly 600 feet. While a
smaller field width might be possible, be careful to maintain an adequate and safe separation of spectators from flight operations and
pilots from the active runway.
Using these dimensions, a total of 16.52
acres is required for ground operations. In
addition, an over fly area of 40 to 60 acres
will be used by average fliers.
Cartoon from the
Central Arizona Modelers,
Inc., Sedona, Arizona
“Flying Ability”
Current Issue of the AMA Insider
January 2008
From the Portland Area Sailplane Society, Gresham,
Oregon
Aviation History: Charlie Brown's Story
Charlie Brown was a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot
with the 379th Bomber Group at Kimbolton, England.
His B-17 was called ‘Ye Old Pub’ and was in a terrible state, having been hit by flak and fighters. The
compass was damaged and they were flying deeper
over enemy territory instead of heading back to base.
.
After flying over an enemy airfield, a pilot
named Franz Steigler was ordered to take off and
shoot down the B-17. When he got near the B-17, he
could not believe his eyes. In his words, he had never
seen an airplane in such a bad state. The tail and
rear section were severely damaged and the tail gunner wounded. The top gunner was all over the top of
the fuselage. The nose was smashed and there were
holes everywhere. Despite having ammunition, Franz
flew to the side of the B-17 and looked at Charlie
Brown, the pilot. Brown was scared and struggling to
control his damaged and blood-stained airplane.
Aware that they had no idea where they were
going, Franz waved at Charlie to turn 180°. Franz
escorted and guided the stricken airplane to and
slightly over the North Sea towards England. He then
saluted Charlie Brown and turned away, back to
Europe. When Franz landed he told the control operator that the airplane had been shot down over the
sea, and never told the truth to anyone. Charlie
Brown and the remains of his crew told all at their
briefing, but were ordered never to talk about it.
More than 40 years later, Charlie Brown
wanted to find the Luftwaffe pilot who saved the crew.
After years of research, Franz was found. He has
never talked about the incident, not even at post war
reunions.
-
They met in the United States at a 379th
Bomber Group reunion, together with 25 people who
are alive now—all because Franz never fired his guns
that day. Research shows that Charlie Brown lived in
Seattle and Franz Steigler had moved to Vancouver,
British Columbia, after the war. When they finally met,
they discovered they had lived less than 200 miles
apart for the past 50 years.
Tips for New Pilots
Here’s a flying tip for new pilots:
Something to pay attention to when learning to fly is
control reversal. Control reversal is when the inputs on
the transmitter sticks must be reversed when your airplane is flying toward you, rather than away from you.
When flying away from you, there is no problem; just
move the stick in the direction you want to turn.
Many new pilots become disoriented when their
airplane is approaching them. To help with this, move
the stick in toward the low wingtip. This will level the
wing when your airplane is coming toward you, avoiding a sharp bank and possibly a crash.
Example: Say your airplane is coming toward
you, and the right wingtip is low, as if banked to the
right. Move the stick to your left, toward the low wingtip. This will bring the airplane’s right wingtip up, and
level the wing.
I also recommend getting Real Flight G2 if you
do not have it. Practice on that before you fly an airplane or helicopter for the first time or if you have been
away for an extended period of time. It will save you
money and heartaches in the future.
12
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