Thursday, February 24, 2011

Indoor Catapult Glider Competition


Indoor Catapult Launched Glider Competition John Monk 

This event is the 2 nd indoor challenge  hosted by the Society, and this time it  was held at the Swartkops Airforce Base  in Hangar 14 on 22 nd October 2010. 

It was decided that the format for this  event would be a challenge involving  endurance only and competitors were  allowed to use bungee catapults to  launch their gliders. This meant that the  gliders all had to be able to withstand  the launch forces and the initial high  speed aerodynamics before getting to  “Top of Climb” and settling into a slow  spiral flight down to the ground.  Obviously those designs that had the  best balance in both these flight regimes ruled the day. Then of course having to avoid  the roof trusses and the side walls as well. Needle ss to say, everybody had to do plenty  of practicing to set their trims and CG position.  The Glider Competitors . Read more here,(pdf).

This is an extract from the Jan 2011 issue of the AeSSA News letter and is published with the permission of the AeSSA,

2011 Inter Varsity Flight Competition


Inter-Varsity Flight Competition 
Barbara Barbeiri 

On the 19th of November 2010, the University of Pretoria and the University  of Witwatersrand competed in the first  annual inter-varsity flight competition.  The competition took place in the  Meerkat Field opposite Aerosud.  

Aeronautical Engineering students from both Universities built their own model  aircraft and competed in four events,  each with its own challenges.  Read more here (pdf)

This is an extract from the Jan 2011 AeSSA news letter and is published with the permission of the AeSSA

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Basic performance calculator for gliders -- Michael van Jaarsveld

I am Michael van Jaarsveld, an avid model aircraft designer of gliders. I have created an XL spreadsheet that calculates the basic performance for gliders. I used the book Model Aircraft Aerodynamics Fourth edition by Martin Simons (published by Nexus special interests) as reference. It also includes some wing profile wind tunnel test results.

Download the spreadsheet here.

More on using the spreadsheets  here.

Easy answer spreadsheet here.

Thermal Glider spreadsheet here.

 If you need more info Michael's email address is ... Ed




Friday, February 11, 2011

2011 Scale Nats and Boland Open Comp 22 to 24 April 2011 at Boland Model Aircraft Club, Paarl -- Johan Ehlers


Click on picture for a larger image.

ENTRY FORMS

If you need an entry form please apply to info@pjgroup.co.za, call Peter Joffe, SAMAA News Editor on:

011 795 3493 or SMS 082 555 9179 and we will email, fax or post a form to you right away.



2011 Helicopter Nats 13 Feb 2011-- Johan Sieling

Please note that the 2011 Helicopter Nats will be held at Groengoud and not RAM.

2011 Helicopter Nats -- Johan Sieling

Please note that the 2011 Helicopter Nats will be held at Groengoud and not RAM.

Blog Archive

Total Pageviews

Followers

Web site terms and conditions

Copyright of material on all the pages of this site is vested in the SAMAA or the original authors. You may use the material in terms of the Creative Commons license for non-commercial purposes on the condition that you acknowledge its origin.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License

The views expressed on this web site, or on any directly or indirectly linked site, are not necessarily those of the SAMAA Committee, or the web editor. The information provided on this site is provided for recreational purposes only. The SAMAA and the authors of presented content assume no liability whatsoever on the use of information contained in this site. The information on this site is provided on an "as-is" basis, without warrantee of any kind. Links provided on this site will let you leave the SAMAA web site. The linked sites are not under the control of the SAMAA, and the SAMAA is not responsible for the contents of any linked site, or any link contained within a linked site, or updates to such sites.