Thursday, May 26, 2005
Monday, May 23, 2005
The ballad of the Bubble Dancer by Ryan Woebkenberg
"The king is gone but he's not forgotten
This is the story of Johnny Rotten
It's better to burn out than it is to rust
The king is gone but he's not forgotten."
On the final round of the day in Cincinnati on Saturday, I had a battery failure on the Bubble Dancer. Final round was a 15 minute task. I had noticed before launching on the final round that my spoiler servo was buzzing. It normally does not buzz. When I moved the spoiler stick a bit, it stopped buzzing, so I thought I should be fine.
Launch was a bit low in the down wind conditions at the time of that launch. One pilot managed to find lift in that round and got pretty high. Not sure how the other guys did, as I pretty much fought my own fight that round. After about a minute and loosing most of my launch altitude, I found some decent lift but got pretty far down wind. After about 6 or so minutes into the task, I started back up wind. I worked my way up wind for about 2 minutes, until I found a small patch of lift over a lone tree. At this point I was probably at about 100 feet of altitude.
I worked this bubble for the next several minutes. Re-cored a number of times. About 12 or 13 minutes into the task, I noticed that the plane did not want to change diameter of the circles. I gave hard right stick, nothing. I tried to see if I could stall it, nothing. Gave full spoiler nothing. At this point, I realized I did not have the plane.
So I of course go running after the plane. That seems to be the first instinct when something like this happens. I ran after the plane as it started to thermal higher (and move down wind). On my run, John Dinitz from JR pulled up behind me in his vehicle and offered to drive and chase the BD. I hop in his SUV, and we drive down the roads at Voice of America Park. We get to a closed road and ask the security guy if we can go through as we were chasing a plane. He said we could not, so I thanked John for the lift and took off on foot. I chased the plane about another half mile, and finally stopped to at least get a line on it as it seemed to be descending. Then, of course right as soon as it descended it would climb again. I stopped and watched it for what seemed like forever. It eventually disappeared from sight in the sky. Probably at 500 to 1000 feet of altitude. It seemed odd to just turn back when I could still see it, but I knew that it was so far away and thermalling so nicely that it
was unlikely I would be able to run it down on foot.
On the walk back to the field, John came around in his car again. He drove me back to the flight line. He said he took another route around that closed road after he dropped me off. He had driven about 2 or 3 miles after the plane. He eventually got to a point where it was low (and over a park). But then of course it re-cored the lift and went up and out of sight.
Even though I was not able to recover the plane, I really appreciated John's help. He could have missed his flight assignment but he chose to help me chase after the plane anyway. John is a heck of a good guy, and JR has been supporting the OVSS series very well. I have been a JR customer since 1996 when I purchased my 783. I have bought gear from other manufacturers since (as well as a ton of JR servos and receivers. I'm particularly fond of the 610 for use in small HLGs and other small planes). JR has found another lifetime customer in that small act of camaraderie on Saturday.
My last image of that Bubble Dancer was it working the lift masterfully. As much as it hurts too loose a plane that took me 7 months to build (not to mention the gear including the good JR servos), I like to think it is still up there somewhere, still working thermals. My name, AMA number, and phone number are inside the canopy, so if anybody finds a red, white, and blue Bubble Dancer in Ohio, Indiana, or Kentucky, please give me a call.
Ryan
This is the story of Johnny Rotten
It's better to burn out than it is to rust
The king is gone but he's not forgotten."
On the final round of the day in Cincinnati on Saturday, I had a battery failure on the Bubble Dancer. Final round was a 15 minute task. I had noticed before launching on the final round that my spoiler servo was buzzing. It normally does not buzz. When I moved the spoiler stick a bit, it stopped buzzing, so I thought I should be fine.
Launch was a bit low in the down wind conditions at the time of that launch. One pilot managed to find lift in that round and got pretty high. Not sure how the other guys did, as I pretty much fought my own fight that round. After about a minute and loosing most of my launch altitude, I found some decent lift but got pretty far down wind. After about 6 or so minutes into the task, I started back up wind. I worked my way up wind for about 2 minutes, until I found a small patch of lift over a lone tree. At this point I was probably at about 100 feet of altitude.
I worked this bubble for the next several minutes. Re-cored a number of times. About 12 or 13 minutes into the task, I noticed that the plane did not want to change diameter of the circles. I gave hard right stick, nothing. I tried to see if I could stall it, nothing. Gave full spoiler nothing. At this point, I realized I did not have the plane.
So I of course go running after the plane. That seems to be the first instinct when something like this happens. I ran after the plane as it started to thermal higher (and move down wind). On my run, John Dinitz from JR pulled up behind me in his vehicle and offered to drive and chase the BD. I hop in his SUV, and we drive down the roads at Voice of America Park. We get to a closed road and ask the security guy if we can go through as we were chasing a plane. He said we could not, so I thanked John for the lift and took off on foot. I chased the plane about another half mile, and finally stopped to at least get a line on it as it seemed to be descending. Then, of course right as soon as it descended it would climb again. I stopped and watched it for what seemed like forever. It eventually disappeared from sight in the sky. Probably at 500 to 1000 feet of altitude. It seemed odd to just turn back when I could still see it, but I knew that it was so far away and thermalling so nicely that it
was unlikely I would be able to run it down on foot.
On the walk back to the field, John came around in his car again. He drove me back to the flight line. He said he took another route around that closed road after he dropped me off. He had driven about 2 or 3 miles after the plane. He eventually got to a point where it was low (and over a park). But then of course it re-cored the lift and went up and out of sight.
Even though I was not able to recover the plane, I really appreciated John's help. He could have missed his flight assignment but he chose to help me chase after the plane anyway. John is a heck of a good guy, and JR has been supporting the OVSS series very well. I have been a JR customer since 1996 when I purchased my 783. I have bought gear from other manufacturers since (as well as a ton of JR servos and receivers. I'm particularly fond of the 610 for use in small HLGs and other small planes). JR has found another lifetime customer in that small act of camaraderie on Saturday.
My last image of that Bubble Dancer was it working the lift masterfully. As much as it hurts too loose a plane that took me 7 months to build (not to mention the gear including the good JR servos), I like to think it is still up there somewhere, still working thermals. My name, AMA number, and phone number are inside the canopy, so if anybody finds a red, white, and blue Bubble Dancer in Ohio, Indiana, or Kentucky, please give me a call.
Ryan
Friday, May 20, 2005
Andre on Slow Fly prop balancing
I have seen many guys struggling to balance a prop by scraping or sanding down the heavy blade. This is especially a problem with the electric or slow fly props, because you do not have that much material to scrape away (blades are lighter & thinner on electric props as you do not have the same vibration/eccentric forces than on IC motors).
What I have found to work best is having a small can of clear aerosol spray lacquer paint handy - simply spray the back of the lighter blade until it balances! I have been using the same can of paint since 2002, so it is worth investing in a can of paint.
Andre
What I have found to work best is having a small can of clear aerosol spray lacquer paint handy - simply spray the back of the lighter blade until it balances! I have been using the same can of paint since 2002, so it is worth investing in a can of paint.
Andre
John Cunningham on the 2005 Aerobatic Nats
Link to John's report. Not only is John an Old Master of aerobatics he is also a Master when it comes to a report.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Paula Denysschen on the Graaff Reinet Jet Fly In
The fly in that was organized by Ross in Cape Town from the 27th April to 2nd May was an absolute blast! Graaff Reinet is a very pretty Karoo Town situated on the route from Bloemfontein to Port Elizabeth in the eastern Cape. The town, with its prominent white painted houses, lies at the foot of a mountain range. There is a road that takes you to the top of the mountain overlooking the town and the valley of desolation. From there you cannot only see into the future but also into the past.
The actual activity took place on the municipal airstrip just out side the town.
On arrival at the airfield on Wednesday afternoon after the trek from Gauteng all the Capetonians had already parked their trailers, their planes were already assembled and had done a flight or two. By Thursday morning everybody had arrived barring Chris and Terry who only arrived on Friday morning. After a short pilots briefing it was time to fly. The weather for the whole of the weekend was absolutely awesome. In the early part of the day it was breathless but in the afternoon we had a breeze straight down the runway. There was a good spread of planes to be seen ranging from scale planes to jets.
Some of the Cape Town boys used the weekend to sort out their new jet models as well as themselves, but by the end of the weekend they were pro's. Bernard Langa from Cape Town flew a large Ultimate Bipe, which at times performed some very precise aerobatics. The times when it did not perform so well was when he tried to pretend it was a large Helicopter.
Zane Mannell flew his Eurosport now fitted with an AMT Pegasus, which has vertical performance like a home-sick angel. Brian Martin who has also now joined the jet scene flew an identical colour Eurofighter as Zane's. He also used the weekend to come to grips with jets and by Sunday was flying formation aerobatics with Zane. It was good to see a few ducted fans tearing up the skies as well.
Oloff Schoemann was at his normal self -- arriving at the field with an incomplete aircraft. At last years outing to Graaff Reinet he worked on a plane and was ready for test flight on the last day but due to a strong cross wind he did not manage to test fly the model. This time round he completed the model and managed a test flight. The aeroplane is a Boet - Cat that actually belongs to Norman Kempsley who was to make the trip down with us from Gauteng but at the last minute cancelled due to work commitments. Better luck next time Norman.
Not everyone had a good long weekend in the sun as some were plagued with some sort of bad luck or misfortune. About four jets were totalled but the worst and saddest was the B.A Hawk belonging to Christo Groenewald from Cape Town, which on maiden flight after not even one minute in the sky went into a severe spiral straight into the ground and burst into flames. It took the team of salvage hunters a long time to locate the wreck, which landed in the adjacent nature reserve. They had to make use of a full size plane to spot it from the sky, after which they managed to find what was left of the plane.
Another group of pilots who made the trek to Graaff Reinet were the men from Upington. Alex flew his F15 with ease but was plagued with a sick controller on his Raffael. Terry clocked more flights on his good old trusted Dominator but Chris had his fair share of gremlins that crept into his F16.
On Friday evening an organized braai was held in the nature reserve, which was attended by just about all the pilots, and on Sunday evening everyone went to a local restaurant for a social evening. All in all it was a great weekend spent with a wonderful bunch of modellers from all around the country. So watch out for the dates for 2006.
A special thanks goes to Brian Jones who helped with the organizing with the local club, municipality and he organized the accommodation for those he needed help.
A few prizes were arranged just as a good gesture to some pilots -
Best Prop - Bernard Langa - Ultimate
Best Jet - Zane Mannell - Eurosport
Best Test Flight - Ross Holing - F20
Best Aircraft - Bernard Langa - Ultimate
Best Jet - Ray Anderson - Pantha
Hard Luck - Christo Groenewald - BA Hawk
Then their were a few joker prizes handed out just for fun which was best geriatric and was deservedly won by Ross Leighton . The worst fireman went to Bernard for pointing the fire extinguisher at his foot instead of at the fire in Ross's aircraft. I can think of a few other titles that come to light for prizes and that is for the pilot who brings an unfinished aircraft and actually completes it at the event. This year there were at least three pilots in the running to compete for first place. I must say Oloff won the race, it must be due to his experience as this was his third attempt. Other prizes could go to the most miserable pilot or the hardest working helper. The list could go on and on. Lastly a special thanks to all the pilots who attended the weekend, as well as those who made the weekend possible.
WEBSITE
For those of you that have noticed and those who have shown concern about the website not being updated for a long time, the problem is with the web site host. In the past Phil ran the whole process but since he has not got the facility to host the site he has made use of another service provider. Apparently there is a problem getting access to their site for changes and updating of information. At present the service is free of charge. It has now become quite embarrassing and something has to be done about it. We are going to do some investigating and come up with an alternative provider. If we have to pay for the service then so be it. If anyone can assist with information regarding this problem please contact either Boet or Phil, it will be greatly appreciated by all.
NEWSLETTERS
For those that receive the newsletters via email from the Jet Association and are unhappy about receiving them please feel free to send me a email to have your name removed from the mailing list, as you are under no obligation to receive it.
NEW JET PILOTS
Due to dealers passing on email addresses and information of new pilots that have joined the ranks the list of Jet pilots in the whole country has grown by 0 percent. It is in your interest as well as ours to keep the list updated so please send us the info. For the pilots who forwarded their info to the committee we welcome you and hope to see you sometime, somewhere at a fly in.
The actual activity took place on the municipal airstrip just out side the town.
On arrival at the airfield on Wednesday afternoon after the trek from Gauteng all the Capetonians had already parked their trailers, their planes were already assembled and had done a flight or two. By Thursday morning everybody had arrived barring Chris and Terry who only arrived on Friday morning. After a short pilots briefing it was time to fly. The weather for the whole of the weekend was absolutely awesome. In the early part of the day it was breathless but in the afternoon we had a breeze straight down the runway. There was a good spread of planes to be seen ranging from scale planes to jets.
Some of the Cape Town boys used the weekend to sort out their new jet models as well as themselves, but by the end of the weekend they were pro's. Bernard Langa from Cape Town flew a large Ultimate Bipe, which at times performed some very precise aerobatics. The times when it did not perform so well was when he tried to pretend it was a large Helicopter.
Zane Mannell flew his Eurosport now fitted with an AMT Pegasus, which has vertical performance like a home-sick angel. Brian Martin who has also now joined the jet scene flew an identical colour Eurofighter as Zane's. He also used the weekend to come to grips with jets and by Sunday was flying formation aerobatics with Zane. It was good to see a few ducted fans tearing up the skies as well.
Oloff Schoemann was at his normal self -- arriving at the field with an incomplete aircraft. At last years outing to Graaff Reinet he worked on a plane and was ready for test flight on the last day but due to a strong cross wind he did not manage to test fly the model. This time round he completed the model and managed a test flight. The aeroplane is a Boet - Cat that actually belongs to Norman Kempsley who was to make the trip down with us from Gauteng but at the last minute cancelled due to work commitments. Better luck next time Norman.
Not everyone had a good long weekend in the sun as some were plagued with some sort of bad luck or misfortune. About four jets were totalled but the worst and saddest was the B.A Hawk belonging to Christo Groenewald from Cape Town, which on maiden flight after not even one minute in the sky went into a severe spiral straight into the ground and burst into flames. It took the team of salvage hunters a long time to locate the wreck, which landed in the adjacent nature reserve. They had to make use of a full size plane to spot it from the sky, after which they managed to find what was left of the plane.
Another group of pilots who made the trek to Graaff Reinet were the men from Upington. Alex flew his F15 with ease but was plagued with a sick controller on his Raffael. Terry clocked more flights on his good old trusted Dominator but Chris had his fair share of gremlins that crept into his F16.
On Friday evening an organized braai was held in the nature reserve, which was attended by just about all the pilots, and on Sunday evening everyone went to a local restaurant for a social evening. All in all it was a great weekend spent with a wonderful bunch of modellers from all around the country. So watch out for the dates for 2006.
A special thanks goes to Brian Jones who helped with the organizing with the local club, municipality and he organized the accommodation for those he needed help.
A few prizes were arranged just as a good gesture to some pilots -
Best Prop - Bernard Langa - Ultimate
Best Jet - Zane Mannell - Eurosport
Best Test Flight - Ross Holing - F20
Best Aircraft - Bernard Langa - Ultimate
Best Jet - Ray Anderson - Pantha
Hard Luck - Christo Groenewald - BA Hawk
Then their were a few joker prizes handed out just for fun which was best geriatric and was deservedly won by Ross Leighton . The worst fireman went to Bernard for pointing the fire extinguisher at his foot instead of at the fire in Ross's aircraft. I can think of a few other titles that come to light for prizes and that is for the pilot who brings an unfinished aircraft and actually completes it at the event. This year there were at least three pilots in the running to compete for first place. I must say Oloff won the race, it must be due to his experience as this was his third attempt. Other prizes could go to the most miserable pilot or the hardest working helper. The list could go on and on. Lastly a special thanks to all the pilots who attended the weekend, as well as those who made the weekend possible.
WEBSITE
For those of you that have noticed and those who have shown concern about the website not being updated for a long time, the problem is with the web site host. In the past Phil ran the whole process but since he has not got the facility to host the site he has made use of another service provider. Apparently there is a problem getting access to their site for changes and updating of information. At present the service is free of charge. It has now become quite embarrassing and something has to be done about it. We are going to do some investigating and come up with an alternative provider. If we have to pay for the service then so be it. If anyone can assist with information regarding this problem please contact either Boet or Phil, it will be greatly appreciated by all.
NEWSLETTERS
For those that receive the newsletters via email from the Jet Association and are unhappy about receiving them please feel free to send me a email to have your name removed from the mailing list, as you are under no obligation to receive it.
NEW JET PILOTS
Due to dealers passing on email addresses and information of new pilots that have joined the ranks the list of Jet pilots in the whole country has grown by 0 percent. It is in your interest as well as ours to keep the list updated so please send us the info. For the pilots who forwarded their info to the committee we welcome you and hope to see you sometime, somewhere at a fly in.
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Tom Copp on the length of servo horns
Tom Copp posted this on the F3F Yahoo group.
I have his permission to reproduce it here...
I have his permission to reproduce it here...
Are your servo control horns too long?
Your servo control horns are too long if:
You re got the rates cranked down for that servo.
Your end points or travel volumes are well below 100%
You have lots of Expo on that servo.
You are always breaking gears.
If you re only moving the servo 10 or 15 degrees for full throw you are not using all available travel and your resolution for that control surface is null. It would be better replaced with a button.
Sometime a unique install is needed because of bad servo placement or ?? and a long arm is needed to short cut the fix or its simply was no other solution.
On a normal installation using 75 degrees or more servo movement for full deflection will get you a very smooth and controlled input and result in better feel You can make small changes in flight input and get small changes out of your model. Yes it will slow down your rate of deflection but if you re the guy with long arms and 5 cell packs that keeps us ducking for cover on race day learn the ZEN secret of slowing down to go fast
Tom Copp
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