Coupla pics ahead of Switchblade results

Top: Scatterlings of Africa "Choice brand condoms" everywhere.....
Middle: Organiser's kit
Bottom: Will with Secco / Fling hybrid

Slot car racer Phil Rix passed me two stacks of 60/70's rc flying mags, full of gold dust articles, starting with the original article on the Ridge Runner, which got me in to aileron sloping, through to this interesting article on the Cape guys breaking the slope duration record in 1966. On a reed radio, nogal.....

John Lightfoot's Signal Hill team moved the local SA record to 17 hours some change in the mid seventies and the overseas folk with moooch longer daylight hours have now done a 24 hour plus cycle but the '66 log makes for interesting reading, especially regarding the lift cyles during the day, where our lad had to do a spot of serious thermaling to stay in the game.

One doubts if a serious KZN record was ever achieved (one needs a couple of SAMAA registered witnesses) but Russ Conradt's recent 8:00am flights at Derek's Dale, the current weather pattern and the slope's ability to handle SE through West winds makes it useful, as long as one does weather forecasting homework ahead of time.

I by accident achieved 4 hours 20 with my Ridge Runner at the Kloof golf course slope site in the late 70's, before the batts died (it circled down inverted and landed without a scratch ;-) but modern compact battery technology should make an 11 hour KZN record a cinch. One for Simon and the hard core.... ;-)

A BIG glider

So you think you built a big glider in your garage - think again. This friend of mine in the UK is part of a WW2 military reinactment group; and as they had a bunch of guys with the German Filshirmjager (Paratrooper) outfits he decided to build a whole full scale german glider in his garage just for a photo shoot! Nuts or what.

Brainstorms over Winston Park

Does anyone know what happened to the designer/vendor of the Brainstorm, Jacques v d Lingen from Steiltes? These models were purchased from him some while ago and there is interest on our slope for more, but I cannot get hold of the seller. Any ideas??

Jart inspiration

I see quite a few of the BERG lads have been bitten by the Jart bug, and in fact, Mike May has already started a build log on their blog documenting his build. By way of inspiration, here are a few pictures of my EPP Jart bought from Leading Edge Gliders some time ago. She has been flying the Winston Park slope for close on 6 months now without incident. Very smooth flyer with an excellent roll rate. Cant wait to see a squadron of Jarts over Tamatieberg.

Team Winston checks out Derek's Dale - Sunday 16 September 2007

Team Winston's John Coulson and Brand Conlon assembling their Graphite 2M and Toko. Third slopeateer Paul Paul Boswarva getting the low down on the area from Dave.

Team Winston almost ready but Andre Leusch playing safe and not assembling the Sharkie till he sees wot all the fuss is about.

Wind protection the order of the day - Dave had quickly decided sloping in drizzle was a preferable option to RC Cars in drizzle, fortunately the rain held off at the slope.

Brad fired up to get going......

Rob Pirie showing the latest style on landing approaches for good pics - hard on crunchies, though.....

Paul on landing approach with the slippery Banana 60 inch.

The windblown smile says it all......

Roving photographer Rob shown the old school neck strap approach.

Paul about launch Brad's screamingly fast 490gram ballasted Toko.

West slope view over Inanda dam.

The motley crew, John (Graphite), Andre (Sharkie), Brad (Toko), Dave (JW) and Paul (Banana).

Same crew with Rob the camera man instead of John.








The wind was helter and landings skelter but quite an enjoyble outing for what was looking like a grisly day. Some testing of a possible F3F course was encouraging. Greg West arrived late and treated us to latest in splat landing approaches......

Personality sneak peaks from Rob Pirie at Springfield

The man Russ'cle in full concentration.








Surfer Pete and Dion Thompson distrustful of this new old oke taking pics - Dave still programming.....









Andre Leusch with the legendary Springfield Shark, now in red.











Les Ward with the Dion Thompson Graupner Secco - speedy little beastie uses a home made EPP fuselage.

Winston Westerlies

So, while the BERG guys were celebrating their Blog's birthday at Tamatieberg just outside Volksrust, the locals were blessed with a south westerly wind all day on Saturday, and some of the regulars took advantage of the conditions and flew all afternoon. Glen and Mike were the early arrivals, followed by Greg West, Bill Williams, the terrible twins Paul and Brad, and very late in the day a pilot whose name I didnt get, but who was flying an ex Brad Conlon Toko. We also had a visit from Jason, who has relocated here from Cape Town, and was looking for a second hand tx so that he can get airborne again.

I finally got to see the famous Vannessa V tail belonging to Bill fly, and what am impressive sight she is in the air. Bill flys her without trepidation and she responds with grace and poise. The hardest part of the flight according to Bill is getting her down again, especially on the restricted landing space at Winston Park. An attempt at capturing her on video was thwarted by flat batteries in the video camera, the charged batteries having being swopped out by Bill's daughter to power her camera - Oh the joys of having children!!

Then the hooligan brigade took to the skies with Brad and Greg flying Toko's and Paul piloting a Banana, and for the next half an hour you heard "right to left" followed by the whistling sound of air molecules being shattered by a very efficient wing section at high speed. It never ceases to amaze me just how far back over the backside of the slope these planes can go, and still be brought back to the front side with ease.

Then the beginners were allowed back on the slope with Windrider Bee and Frank Cavazos Boomerang EPP wings. Late in the afternoon, I gave the Richter Weasel Pro a whirl, but the conditions were just a little too strong for it and I landed before the turbulence put her somewhere that I had not intended, and which would have entailed either climbing trees or hiking down the slope to retrieve.

Here are more pictures of the pits, prior to the "heavies" arriving....

Front, with Tx Windrider Bee,centre Brainstorm (local design)

and left rear a Sticktime Bat Hawk

Opposite picture - L - R Richter Weasel Pro, Frank Cavazos Boomerang

with Tx, a scratch built Ed Slobod Ridge Rat and another Brainstorm.

The only down side to the whole day was returning to my Corolla to find the one plastic hubcap missing, presumably stolen by the juvenile skateboarders who were playing in the cul de sac when I arrived.

Heres to more westerlies, Winston Park, good friends and happy flying. Till next time....

Simon's long lost model retrieved at last

A Cliff Watching novel, By Ileined Dover !!

I lost the plane on the 25th of February!

Took 1.5 hours to get up, very steep, the grass was long and flat and you slid on every step, it was strange, it was just like walking on ice. Half way up there is a steep rock cliff. Lots of loose rocks, every step had to be checked. Bruce and his wife, Rose, came up with me, with their 2 dogs. I found it as per the pictures with the port wing in the ground.

I could clearly see from the Microlight that the glider was hanging inverted in the trees. It had then fallen and landed on the wing tip, also causing the fus to crack behind the wing root. Infact the only damage from the actual crash was a hole in the starboard wing tip, from the tree on impact the rest of the damage was from the fall. The top of the cliff was covered in nettle's, 3 types were available for you stinging pleasure, a small twig, a waist high bush and a tree!! I managed to get touched by all flavors on the way through, and then proceeded to slid down the cliff towards the plane only to fine out I was heading for all three types, in a clump, grinning at me, I made a full and yelping contact with said obstruction.

Dismantled it, wrapped it up, and it took a 30 minute slide down the cliff.

All easily repairable.

When I got home put in a new battery and all working fine.

Well worth getting, BUT I knew were it was.

Simon

Verulam / Inanda Slope nick named "Derek's Dale" by Russ

The recent untimely passing of Derek Dillion prompted Russ to call the North Coast hidey way slope "Derek's Dale" in rememberance.

Russ has been doing some homework on this interesting spot and reports as follows:

"Had a great session on the slope this morning, wind coming dead on to the slope, light but good lift at 8.30 am, yes am. I know you were at work, that is tough, somebody has got to use the wind that is sent for us.

Finally met the owner or should I say previous owner as he has sold that magnificent old home and environ to wait for it, Etekweni Municipality who are going to re-develop it into a conference centre with Chalet type accommodation and use the existing building as the main facility, phew! Hope I live long enough. They have owned it for over two years already, City Hall works slowly.

On the South face there is a straight stretch of 120 meters ideal for racing or timed pylon flying.

Attached find some pics of the slope and farmhouse, which is +- 120 years old and originally built by the Australian Armstrong who did the cattle and cane thing, before moving down closer to the sea, the offspring of which has levelled the new Polo fields at Ottawa, home to Plane Game for a short while.

Please forward this on to anybody I have missed as this slope is truly amazing and we would love to see as many people up at the renamed "Dereks Dale", sooner than later.

Regards

Russell Conradt
0828227887"

The blog mentioned a while back the rare contest success for a flying wing against the traditional thermallers, in the form of the Wind Freak. Well, the current excellent RC Soaring Digest has an article on the not dissimilar Windlord with creditable results from the 1977/78 era. Better still was the same craft taking a magic third place in Nostalgia at the current US Nats, after leading the first four rounds!

Over to the RSCD folk for linking (and their pics)- refer pages 56 to 61 on the Windlord:

"We're pleased to announce the September 2007 issue of RC SoaringDigest is now available for downloading from the RCSD web site<http://www.rcsoaringdigest.com>. The September issue highlights arenow available at <http://www.rcsoaringdigest.com/highlights.html>.This issue has 62 pages and a large number of color images. The PDF is approximately 9.8 MB in size.If you are using a dial-up connection and desire a smaller RCSD PDF,consider downloading the highly compressed version of this issue(about 3.6 MB) from the RCSoaringDigest Yahoo! groups Files section.The image quality is reduced, but download time is significantly less.You must be a member of the RCSoaringDigest Yahoo! group to download these compressed PDFs."

Electric jet no match for the post

Disappointment at the out of stock ARF foamie Aerocats meant some net surfing, which came with this cheap and cheerful depron Baby Cat option at the Electric Jet Factory:

http://www.ejf.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=208&zenid=e12f5179da9162f59d0cab34f4497501

Unfortunately the depron parts were sandwiched tween two cardboard sheets and mailed with the terms Fragile and Do not Bend, kinda asking for punishment and below is the gentle reply to the supplier:

"Dear Robert

The Baby Cat arrived reasonably safe and sound out here in Africa - unfortunately the two slabs of cardboard may be ok in the genteel US but the flat parcel resembled the local undulating valley of a thousand hills by the time I got to see the local post office official carrying it out for me. Apart from being a bit wrinkly like my 78 year old mum (if one looks closely at the cell pic, which flatters it somewhat), it is still reasonably usable and, if it takes to the air ok I will probably order a fresh version in a bubble wrap packed box instead (even if it means a tad more in parcel cost ;-)

Having got my minor quibble out the way, I must say the cutting and finish is magic and would appreciate any RC Groups leads to folk who have experimented and had fun out of their Baby Cats. I have a 200 watt Dualsky set up just waiting to be fitted."

Despite the mini set back, enthusiasm for the project remains and the little jet just looks a twinkler, standing still.

The cutting and finish is immaculate and the Depron parts come with four carbon tubes and two mini snake pushrod set ups- not bad for US$29. The web site offers a range of different colour combinations, as well:

Other links on the same and similar subjects:

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?p=6682126&highlight=BabyCat+23+#post6682126

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=297635&highlight=Alleycat

Equipment layout certainly simple......

Some updates from too shy to post Simon Nelson

Young Ryan Nelson was given a chance to make reserve for Junior team for the forthcoming F3J worlds by attending the recent F3J league event and achieving a score of 80%, which he did by a whisker on 80.6%! Well done to the Nelsons and long time since the KZN lads have been so close to the world arena.

The event info here:

http://www.thermals.za.org/F3J_ETB_20070819/Final_Score.pdf

http://f3j.blogspot.com/2007/08/f3j-etb.html

http://berg-gliders.blogspot.com/2007/08/f3j-at-etb-on-sunday.html

Recent success by cheapie air instead of tedious road travel prompted Dave to influence Simon to give this a go, which meant lightweight box making, air travel with a visit to the cockpit and the adventure of teaming up with the Goodies for the competition and accommodation. Team Goodies tend to keep the line makers in business, thus the surplus line pic at the bottom..... ;-) The Nelson's are indebted to Craig and Michelle for their kind help and hospitality.

Over to Simon -

Stuff for the Blog.

The line we threw away, "reel, reel, give me a reel, my kingdom for a reel.....!!!!

Ryan in the Captains seat, 737 - 200, 24 years old plane. Could not fine the tow hook!

The ' Box' 5 mm correx, 1.6 mm angle, aluminum, about 350 rivets, and a aching arm, about 3 hours to do. With 4 planes inside it weighs 24 kg, max is 25kg. Size is, (big end) 400 x 400, small end is 400 x 300, big end is for the fins and a few tools etc.

Sy

Simon was stunned by the tension and significant launch flap angle (20mm at root) that Craig Goodie used on launch and also sent this interest article on the subject - I will remove if any copyright dramas:

Analysing Martin Weberschock’s Launch setup
By
Marcus Stent

This is basically my opinion on how Martin Weberschock’s sets up the launch mode of his F3B glider. This was deduced by listening to his lecture in 2000 and applying my learning from the XFoil program (Profili 2). Please feel free to make comment on my observations…

Step 1. The tow hook for Launch Mode is not dependent on where the C.G. is, but rather where the Aerodynamic Centre of the model is. This is because during launch we add an external force to the model (the winch) which adds probably 50Kg of force to the Model. This force needs to balanced with the Lift force of the Wing, so we get a smooth launch, and this Lift force is generated at the Aerodynamic Centre of the model. The fact that there is a 2Kg model stuck in between these two huge forces is just about irrelevant, and weather the 2Kg mass is 5mm forward or back is going to have even less effect.. The mass of the model is just along for the ride. As you can see the relationship between the line tension (set by the tow hook) and the lift of the model (located at the Aerodynamic Centre) are the most important factors.

Step 2. What the C.G. does do to the launch is to change the elevator trim position that you fly with. e.g. Lets assume that you are flying in Thermal Mode and you have two identical models with a fixed tow hook and flap settings. Then you set up Model 1 in Thermal Mode to have a forward CG of 30% and therefore some up trim (e.g. +2%) is required in the elevator to compensate for the forward CG. Model 2 is set up with a rearward CG of 40% and therefore you have some down trim (e.g. -2%) to compensate for the rearward CG. Both models fly around in Thermal Mode very nicely ‘balanced’.

So then what happens during Launch mode is this: Model 1 with its up trim (+2% from the Thermal Mode) during launch (because we use the same elevator settings for our Thermal Mode as we do for the Launch Mode, don’t we!) so the plane pulls hard and wants to tip stall and every one yells "move the tow hook forward!!". Model 2 is exactly the opposite and the down trim in the elevator (-2% from Thermal mode) causes the plane to launch very flat and every one shouts "move the tow hook back!"

What this shows is that two identical planes can end up with two different tow hook positions depending on where you set the CG, but what we learnt from the Step 1 is that the tow hook should be set relative to the Aerodynamic Centre of the model and not the CG. So how do we fix this? I am glad you asked...

Step 3. What we need is an independent elevator setting that gives us the best balance for Launch irrespective of where your elevator trim is during Thermal mode.
We start by looking at the theoretical polar of an airfoil with a high flap deflection (15 degrees) and you will see there is only one optimal Lift position and this corresponds to a specific angle of attack. Too much angle of attack or too little angle of attack and the Airfoil generates lots and lots of drag. So if we can find the optimal angle of attack (elevator pre set) for this flap setting, then we will have the optimal launch.

To do this, fly around on the slope with your model in Launch Mode (Launch flap set at say 15 degrees) and adjust your Launch Mode elevator preset (or angle of attack) until the model flies around without stalling or diving. By doing this you have found the best angle of attack for the airfoil with 15 degrees of Flap. This new elevator setting you have discovered is making the wing work at its optimal angle of attack.
What you are doing is matching the practical behaviour of the model to the theoretical polar. eg Because you have found the best angle of attack (elevator preset) by flying around, you must have found the best angle of attack on the theoretical polar. Too much angle of attack and the plane gets draggy and stalls, too low an angle of attack and the plane dives and loses height, just like the theoretical polar.

You can then play with different flap settings and find the optimal elevator preset for each one. Then you will have a table of Flap settings with their corresponding optimum elevator presets.

Step 4. Now you can take a model that you know has the best setup for that particular flap setting (Flap and elevator setting from Step 3) and apply the 50 Kg of Launch loads to the system. Now, it is a matter of matching the tow hook position to the Aerodynamic centre of the model (remember Step 1) by moving the tow hook back. As you move the tow hook back you will eventually find the spot that lies under the Aerodynamic Centre and the model will be balanced and you will get a smooth launch. What you also know is that at the same time the combination of the Flap and the elevator preset that you discovered in Step 3 is giving the most efficient aerodynamic Lift and this should result in the best launch.

In Conclusion: We are using the same principle here as we do when we change into camber mode when we are thermal flying. e.g. You are flying around with a nicely trimmed model and then you 'flick' into Camber mode which gives you 2mm of thermal flap. What happens? The model pitches up, stalls and comes down quicker, until we add a little down elevator pre-set and find the new 'optimum point' between the flaps and the elevator.

In a nutshell: "Finding the optimal Launch setup is like finding the optimal thermal setting, the only difference is there is 50Kg of concrete hanging off the bottom of the plane in Launch mode" In both cases you want the best combination of flap and elevator setting to keep you up the longest.

All the best with your launch setup.
Marcus

Last but not least, the recent F3F talk prompted Simon to remind us that the Griffin has been the beastie to beat, locally, in past years and is living testimony to the adage that there ain't no substitute for ballast......

Noodies Nats 2007 - Newspaper report and total co-incidence

Total co-incidence that the slightly butchered Meander Cronicle report on the Noodsberg 2007 thermal soaring Nats should have a report on R.M.T. (moldies) now branching out in to T.I.T.S.......

Also for broadband users only - and good printers

RC magazines are a bit of an expensive luxury in SA but this company has come up with a novel trick of selling pdf downloads of recent and older issues, Quiet Flight being the one of interest.

http://www.kionapublishing.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=101_102_53_60&osCsid=f84e77d93e53c5f0b0705a7f0f08c216

The full colour 100 page download pdf of 35.7 meg costs a most reasonable sum of US$1.99 (about R15) with selected individual articles also available for US pennies. The issue below took about ten minutes on our relatively busy server and the quality is excellent. Just remember that it is 100 pages if you print the whole issue out....... ;-)

A neat feature of the web site is also the mini page by page graphic preview of each page of the latest issue - all in all a pretty switched on web site.

Wish I'd thought o that.......

Another neat idea through the useful RC Groups slope thread. My attempts at decent resolution T tails on slope or other planes were iffy and many others I saw even worse.....

Obviously for non scale applications but offers decent resolution and angles for an enclosed fin mounted servo or driving through a bell crank.

More FSW designs

Paige Anderson has been playing around with Forward Swept Wing desings for a while now. I really like the look of his new Cobalt - maybe Dion can arrange to bring a few in to this country!!

Novel slope projects

This is a pic of the Toucan 60R slope flyer, lifted off the net for future inspiration. Recently flying Brian Duckitt's "Mickey Mouse Face" electric again proved just about anything flying off the slope or with sufficient propulsion so this may be some inspiration for Brian (presuming he has not conquered FSW already..... ;-) Shaun Price was very successful with a FSW project on the slope, some years ago.

These two interesting concept pics below were dreamed up by the US after capturing the WW2 German drawings - could this one be considered a fantasy PSS for uncle Pete Milne......?

Rumour also has it that Springfield team SyRus are beavering away on a secret F3F project (not FSW), don't say you never received advance warning about F3F happening in SA....... ;-)