SAMAA News --- Issue four of 2015

The News is here.

High Speed Flight Competition -- Zwartkop 31 October 2015

Model Flying in 2002

In 2002 I put together a video of some flying meetings I went to around South Africa.
You will see some familiar old faces, some sadly no longer with us.
2002 was before the times of electric motors and 2,4Gh radios.
The technology has changed, but the enjoyment of flying is the same.
The link to Youtube is here.

Staying power – UK superdrone targets three months aloft

More here.

2015 Control Line Nats --- Keith Renecle

The 2015 control-line Nats was held from the 13th to the 16th of June at the PC Pelser airfield in Klerksdorp together with the R/C power model classes. I must admit that some of us in CLASA were rather dubious of joining in on this idea. We have been rather spoilt by having our Nats at the Barnstormers Model Flying club for many years now, and we knew that this was going to cost the vast majority of us a lot more money with the added travel and accomodation costs.
The idea of being with a much larger group of model plane enthusiasts was however, very attractive.
The other concern was of course that it was to be held in winter, and Klerksdorp is really cold in the early mornings. In fact it was around -3°C every morning, but fortunately the weather was kind to us for the entire event, with really light wind each day, so by around 10h00 it usually warmed up quite nicely.
As things turned out, this was a highly successful and very enjoyable Nats for us and C/L was well represented and promoted. I have already received requests for plans and C/L stuff from many who attended the events and were impressed with the round and round stuff.
After the events we all agreed that this really worked well for us and we would be interested in doing it again next year..........with some reservation about the time of year!

Full report here.

2015 Nats Bulletin number one

The bulletin is here.

2015 Art Adamisin Cup -- Keith Renecle

The 2015 AA Cup took place once again at Barnstormers on the 18 th and 19th of April, and all I have to say up front is that control-line is alive and well! What a successful week-end we had with eight entries in Expert stunt and two in Novice stunt, The weather threatened to be really bad with cold and strong wind but on Saturday the wind was flyable for three rounds. It was however, hard work for the pilots because the wind blew over the clubhouse creating lots of turbulence on the tar circle to make life for the pilots rather challenging. The novice event was flown on our grass circle and it is slightly out of the turbulence so it is a better deal for the novice guys. The grass field is also a little softer in the case of any prangs!

.... full report here.

Rosendal

Looking through photos the other day I found this one of the Rosendal Slope Site --- if it can be called a slope -- precipice might be more like it. The men of the Free State Gliding Commando are a fearless bunch.
I took it in 2006 on the twentieth meeting there.

2015 R/C Scale Warbird Meet at Swartkop

A good day at Barnstormers -- Keith Renecle

I enjoy reading what Keith writes. For me he captures the true spirit of aeromodelling.
Here he is at his best, sharing his enjoyment of a good flying day. And almost as an afterthought, passing on helpful ideas. A tip of the hat to you Keith...

Finally....... some really good weather for the morning to early afternoon. Theo and I did some really good flying, and I am especially proud of Theo Kleynhans who said that he really wanted to get his pattern a lot better today, so we put in a lot of good work. His old Eze-1 trainer with the MVVS .15 on it really flies well enough to fly a very good novice stunt pattern. When I say “old” it has sure done the rounds. I built it initially for my step-son Conrad to learn to fly stunt on. This plane is around 16 years old and it has done the rounds with so many people flying it through the years. Theo has re-built it a few times as well and has made a very good job of this work.

We had a few targets for the day, I brought out my .15 size electric stunt trainer called “Elec-Trick” that is very similar to the Eze-1 as you can see from the attached photo. I wanted to do some more tests in good weather to see how the power package compares to a .15 glow like the MVVS on Theo’s model. I also wanted to try a set of those fishing braid lines called Spiderwire. I read that the 30 lb braid is fine for the smaller models so Theo and I made up a set of lines for it. Once you can figure out the special knot to tie it onto the line clips, this works so well. We made the lines exactly the same as Theo’s set which are the standard 52 foot 3 inch lines. It flies just as well as the steel cable lines and is readily available at the good fishing shops.

So my targets for the day were met and the model flew really well and compared favourably to the Eze-1 with the glow .15 on it. We had a few  targets for Theo and firstly we wanted to get Theo to have a go at flying 2-up in the circle, so I launched Theo’s Eze-1 and then pressed the start button on my Elec-Trick and walked into the circle. Theo was apprehensive but I told him that flying 2-up is no big deal. Once we were both in the air, Theo walked around the centre circle perfectly. Both models flew at very close to the same speed, so we took turns in flying higher to pass each other. It was very successful and Theo enjoyed it.

Next target was for him to fly the vertical 8 which he had not attempted before. We went through it thoroughly on the ground and he managed to fly it easily. In fact he did a whole bunch of them first time up! Theo was satisfied at doing some nice patterns plus the vertical 8 and started cleaning up his model to go home. I told him that he should do one more flight seeing that he was on a roll, that he should have a go at a reverse wingover, so he agreed and filled up tank again. He did the reverse wing over a few times easily so I went into the circle centre and said “O.K. that was easy, so now have a go at the last manoeuvre, the overhead eight.” Theo then did exactly as we discussed earlier on and flew a couple of overhead eights. Wow.......I was so proud of him, and he did so well! What a good day we had! We really made the best of the nice weather!

It sounds like all of this was just so easy, but I must mention that Theo has put in a lot of good basic flying practice for many months. Even when the wind is howling he still flies with a definite purpose and that is to learn to steer the model in any attitude. He does that good practice method that really works, and that is to fly level for a few laps at a consistent height, and then fly 3 good inside loops, one over the other. They have to be steered well and the loops must not tighten up. You then do another half loop and into inverted flight for 2 laps at a constant height, and then you fly 3 outside loops. Once again all the same size and shape. Back into level flight and do it over again.......and again until you perform these loops either way really well and with confidence. This is like learning to play scales on a musical instrument. All of the pattern manoeuvres are just turns and flying straight, so this exercise is really good for beginner stunt pilots.

This is why I was totally confident that Theo could fly the manoeuvres he had not yet attempted, because he had done the homework and the actual shapes don’t make any real difference.  Like I said......it was a good day today at Barnstormers! Well done to Theo! We are really looking forward to the stunt competition in April.

Regards,
Keith

Proficiency Testing at the Stellenbosch Model Aircraft Academy

Ficksburg RC Models Fly In -- 28 Feb / 1 Mar 2015

The entry form is here

Albertinia Free Flight Event -- 3 / 6 April 2015

SAMAA News -- Final issue for 2014

The News is here.

3D heli Comp and Fun Fly at RMAC -- 29 / 30 November 2014

Entry form here.

AeSSA High Speed Flight Challenge -- Zwarykop AFB 18 October 2014

SAMAA News issue three for 2014

The link is here

There is a pdf version here

My adventure at the 2014 World Champs at Wloclawek, Poland -- Keith Renecle

After the 2012 world champs in Bulgaria, I thought that I would not go to Poland for the 2014 competition. We had moved to a new house the year before, so money was tight. My Newtron model did quite well in Bulgaria and I placed a creditable 38 th , but then I got to fly world champion Igor Burger's winning model just after his finals flights. I was absolutely blown away with just how easy it flew through the pattern and at the same time I realized just how far off my model's performance was, and in fact, have been for many years. Since that time, Igor explained how to fine tune and trim a control-line stunt model to perfection. This was done via e-mail so it was not the easiest thing to get right, but I started to feel such a good improvement in my model. Igor then invited my wife Bokkie and I to Slovakia and told me that I would then be able to warm up and practice with him for about 4 days or so before going on to Poland for the world champs. He had a spare flat for us to stay in while his son works in the USA, so this was an offer that we would never get again. I have done seven previous world champs since 1996 and I would be turning 64 in Poland. It gets tougher to fly well as you get older, so I reckoned that this one would be worth breaking my neck over. My governor timer system for C/L was doing really well so this would help with getting enough money to go. Nobody else for SA wanted to go to compete but Conrad Cloete from Cape Town decided to go as a supporter.

The full text is here.

Central Radio Flyers Fly In -- 15 to 16 November 2014

Entry form here.

AGM 2014