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Thursday, October 16, 2014
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Friday, October 10, 2014
Thursday, September 25, 2014
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.
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Monday, September 08, 2014
Saturday, August 09, 2014
Control Line World Champs -- Update from Keith and Bokkie
Hi All,
Just a quick update on what's happening here. We arrived safely in Vienna last Wednesday and Igor Burger picked us up at the airport. We are using his son's flat in Bratislava, Slovakia which is about 50 km. from the airport in Vienna. It's a nice comfortable place to stay and we are close to a tram system so we can go anywhere quite easily. I fly with Igor and his team mates who are right now the very best CL stunt pilots in the world so it is quite an experience. I have to be ready to go each morning at 06:30 to go out and fly until around 11:30 or so if the weather behaves. It's hot here and extremely humid.
My Newtron is basically a bit on the heavy side now after the re-build. I added 40 grams and Igor said that he can hear form the sound it makes in a hard corner that it is bordering on a stall.........he has good ears! I can feel the extra weight. I was disappointed in fact, but I am totally bombed out by the vast knowledge and experience of Igor. He helped me to get the trim to the point where it could still fly quite well, but I was not overly happy with it. I felt that it was still nose heavy and knew that I could add tail weight but then the overall weight goes up again. I then tried replacing the big E-Max motor with the Cobra/Pulso 2826-10 which is 20 grams lighter. This meant that it was now tail heavy but I do have space to move the battery right forward and this worked quite well. The Newtron is now flying a lot better. The trimming help from Igor is incredible and although he is a total slave driver, I am am having a ball. Yesterday, I was really in trouble and felt like I was poisoned but he still made me fly. I actually hit the deck when I was too dizzy, but fortunately only broke the prop. I have bust two already so I've asked around to get some more just in case. I never break props so I only took three with me. When I got home at noon, I could not keep my head up so I reckoned that I had a severe case of HHS (Heavy Head Syndrome). Eventually I felt an itchy bump and the back of my left arm and it looked like a spider bite. I took some anti-histamine tablets and rubbed some muti on the bump. I was out by 9:00 pm and slept well. This morning I started to feel half human.......for me that is an unusual experience, but I managed another 6 intense flights today. The Pulso motor threw a couple of magnets this morning so that was disappointing, but Igor and I fixed it up again and it's running nicely. I'm not happy with this so I asked Igor if he doesn't have a spare AXI 28226-10 for me. I know that he does not use motors that only run on 4 cells any more so I thought that he may just have one lying around. He did and I now have it. We plan to fit it in Poland. Igor is working his butt off night and day to finish his own timer orders and also to finish his new Max Bee stunter.
It would be great if Igor could fly my Newtron but of course he can't do this without upsetting his own practicing. If you could see the incredible flying from Igor and Alex Shrek, it would knock your socks off. I've seen these guys before and they have raised the bar once more. We are flying on tarmac and these two guys are hitting hard corners at 4 to 5 foot off the deck every time. We all said that you can't really do more than a 4.5 metre radius corner, but Igor's model can do 3.5 metre radius......measured and checked. I feel extremely honoured to witness this and also to be helped but such people. Many things I thought that I had a good understanding of in trimming have all gone out the window. I get coached now with extreme criticism and if I goof up Igor makes me keep going until I get it a lot better. Whether or not I make the top 15 fly-offs, I will do a lot better than before. My plane is by no means up to the standard of these Slovak models, but it is flying so much better than before, and I am getting to the point where I only fluff about 3 maneuvers and they are not too bad either. The rest are very good. Igor has told me to fly softer because of the stalling. This keeps the model flying more accurately. He even helped me to fix the shape of my handle which he said was not doing a good job for me. Jislaak!! I have some pics of these mods and it is rather funny because the handle was not wide enough at the bottom so Igor added a lot of tissue paper and bound it with sticky take until it was hard. It worked like a damn charm!
Anyway, even though it has been hard work, it is paying off. I have one more session in the morning and then we leave for Poland on a bus tomorrow night. We then carry on in Poland and I will stay with Igor and his team for further training and help. Just one thing....Igor did not want me to flatten his charging battery (40 A/h LiFe battery) so he ordered one for me before he mentiond the price......250 euros! Bliksem!! Anyway, I can fly the whole day off this and he told me that we can sell it in Poland afterwards quite easily.....I sure hope so! The photos I sent are of me carving up my handle and the other pic is of the Slovak team of Jan Stano, Alex Shrek and Igor. What a great bunch of guys!
Poor old Bokkie is stuck here in the flat while we fly because Igor's car can't take the planes and her. I owe her big time for allowing me to play with my toys, but I will make it up to her when we come back here for a week holiday after the contest. We are right next to a tram line so Bokkie has figured out how it works and is able to go into town easily. We both went to the old historic town on Friday afternoon and it is a wonderful old place with plenty of history. I'll post more later.
Regards,
Keith & Bokkie
Just a quick update on what's happening here. We arrived safely in Vienna last Wednesday and Igor Burger picked us up at the airport. We are using his son's flat in Bratislava, Slovakia which is about 50 km. from the airport in Vienna. It's a nice comfortable place to stay and we are close to a tram system so we can go anywhere quite easily. I fly with Igor and his team mates who are right now the very best CL stunt pilots in the world so it is quite an experience. I have to be ready to go each morning at 06:30 to go out and fly until around 11:30 or so if the weather behaves. It's hot here and extremely humid.
My Newtron is basically a bit on the heavy side now after the re-build. I added 40 grams and Igor said that he can hear form the sound it makes in a hard corner that it is bordering on a stall.........he has good ears! I can feel the extra weight. I was disappointed in fact, but I am totally bombed out by the vast knowledge and experience of Igor. He helped me to get the trim to the point where it could still fly quite well, but I was not overly happy with it. I felt that it was still nose heavy and knew that I could add tail weight but then the overall weight goes up again. I then tried replacing the big E-Max motor with the Cobra/Pulso 2826-10 which is 20 grams lighter. This meant that it was now tail heavy but I do have space to move the battery right forward and this worked quite well. The Newtron is now flying a lot better. The trimming help from Igor is incredible and although he is a total slave driver, I am am having a ball. Yesterday, I was really in trouble and felt like I was poisoned but he still made me fly. I actually hit the deck when I was too dizzy, but fortunately only broke the prop. I have bust two already so I've asked around to get some more just in case. I never break props so I only took three with me. When I got home at noon, I could not keep my head up so I reckoned that I had a severe case of HHS (Heavy Head Syndrome). Eventually I felt an itchy bump and the back of my left arm and it looked like a spider bite. I took some anti-histamine tablets and rubbed some muti on the bump. I was out by 9:00 pm and slept well. This morning I started to feel half human.......for me that is an unusual experience, but I managed another 6 intense flights today. The Pulso motor threw a couple of magnets this morning so that was disappointing, but Igor and I fixed it up again and it's running nicely. I'm not happy with this so I asked Igor if he doesn't have a spare AXI 28226-10 for me. I know that he does not use motors that only run on 4 cells any more so I thought that he may just have one lying around. He did and I now have it. We plan to fit it in Poland. Igor is working his butt off night and day to finish his own timer orders and also to finish his new Max Bee stunter.
It would be great if Igor could fly my Newtron but of course he can't do this without upsetting his own practicing. If you could see the incredible flying from Igor and Alex Shrek, it would knock your socks off. I've seen these guys before and they have raised the bar once more. We are flying on tarmac and these two guys are hitting hard corners at 4 to 5 foot off the deck every time. We all said that you can't really do more than a 4.5 metre radius corner, but Igor's model can do 3.5 metre radius......measured and checked. I feel extremely honoured to witness this and also to be helped but such people. Many things I thought that I had a good understanding of in trimming have all gone out the window. I get coached now with extreme criticism and if I goof up Igor makes me keep going until I get it a lot better. Whether or not I make the top 15 fly-offs, I will do a lot better than before. My plane is by no means up to the standard of these Slovak models, but it is flying so much better than before, and I am getting to the point where I only fluff about 3 maneuvers and they are not too bad either. The rest are very good. Igor has told me to fly softer because of the stalling. This keeps the model flying more accurately. He even helped me to fix the shape of my handle which he said was not doing a good job for me. Jislaak!! I have some pics of these mods and it is rather funny because the handle was not wide enough at the bottom so Igor added a lot of tissue paper and bound it with sticky take until it was hard. It worked like a damn charm!
Anyway, even though it has been hard work, it is paying off. I have one more session in the morning and then we leave for Poland on a bus tomorrow night. We then carry on in Poland and I will stay with Igor and his team for further training and help. Just one thing....Igor did not want me to flatten his charging battery (40 A/h LiFe battery) so he ordered one for me before he mentiond the price......250 euros! Bliksem!! Anyway, I can fly the whole day off this and he told me that we can sell it in Poland afterwards quite easily.....I sure hope so! The photos I sent are of me carving up my handle and the other pic is of the Slovak team of Jan Stano, Alex Shrek and Igor. What a great bunch of guys!
Poor old Bokkie is stuck here in the flat while we fly because Igor's car can't take the planes and her. I owe her big time for allowing me to play with my toys, but I will make it up to her when we come back here for a week holiday after the contest. We are right next to a tram line so Bokkie has figured out how it works and is able to go into town easily. We both went to the old historic town on Friday afternoon and it is a wonderful old place with plenty of history. I'll post more later.
Regards,
Keith & Bokkie
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