KZN heli day at Durban Model Centre's Valley Club

There is hope for Natal fever ridden Kzn after all. Youngster Will Cranmer put a lot of graft in organising the Durban Model Centre Helicopter fly in at the Valley club.

Much hard work had been put in to the manicured grass field, complete with peg frequency control and neat litter bins.

09h00 Saturday and the car park surprisingly full already, given the threatening weather. The pilots gathered together and Will gave a most competent briefing, with string emphasis on the safey element. The out of otown vehicle registrations included Howick and Newcastle.

This pair of natty electrics caught my eye and gave an excellent display, to complement the larger gas 3D versions that were mind boggling!

Some of the pit area, a gazebo is the answer for the expensive kit.

All areas neatly sign posted in the beautiful setting.

The only heli exception was Michel Leusch's awesome Sukhoi. Probably not too far from the heli concept as is spent 98% of the flight hanging on the prop!

The Sukhoi pulling away from the dam, moments after splashing the water with the rudder.

Post flight chat.

Yup, you even knew where the port a loo was.

Full credit to Will for initiating the event, which will surely lead to other local events of a similar type.

E Correx

Spotted Andrew doing some after work parkie flying on the way home and had a gander at the these interesting Correx home builds. Reminded just good low wing racer style craft look in the air and flew really sweetly. What was most interesting was that Andrew uses the Turnigy cheapie as opposed to our Suppo motors - the propeller bolting up against a really, really, beefy support and pretty much obviates bent shafts after prop smacks. The two tone colour schemes also magic for sundowner flying.

Sy 1's "I used to be confused but now not so sure..."

No sooner had yours truly whined about the rain when the summer slope winds snuck up on us. An sms from Russ had Pete, Paul, Mark and Dave up at Springfield for the first Summer session on Saturday. Honestly thought the blow would flatten out the lift but conditions were excellent. Russ tested out a new Lazer Kiss for Pete Milne, after tearing up the hill with the Hotrod Toko.

Paul and Mark had their first slope run with the team buddy cord on Mark's Middle Phase.

Russ saved the best for last. A Toko wing on a Pete Milne Kiss fuselage. Looks the real deal for aerobatics without the T tail squirrel rolls and the longer moment length seemed to stabilise the axial rolls as well. The quickie cell pic does it no justice.

So inspired was Dave that he grimed off the plastic slope planes for the first time in ages (since Toss January?) and cycled up for Sunday. The view from the office suggested a Southeaster, which is generally brief before swing toward either of the two prevailing directions. The ships started to tweak slightly toward the NE and hesitation set in. A lunch time sms failed to "Russel" up any support and being loath to visit Derek's Dale alone, more hesitation set in. The SE seemed to settle in, if anything, so it was gamble on the Bluff for the SE but Murphy's Law it had swung SW but the time of arrival at the Bluff. Some frantic calls to Brian Duckitt saw a now 4:30pm arrival at Winston Park. Bill, Mike, Jonathan and Springfield legend Lynn Bowen had all enjoyed some pleasant flying and it was magic to derust with the Le Coquillaj after a long lay off from the Winston slope. Jonathan holding Le Coq with ever cheerful Lynn seated. Must have been a fairly long derust cause the left shoulder was kinda tweaked after, from holding the tranny!

Desperate measures

Kzn'ers are going through the normal phase of indifferent flying weather at time of the year. The little electron clan has been fairly lucky at the Saturday sunrise sessions but little else, otherwise. It was thus with some surprise to be heading to work at 6:00am in the damp and dreary morn after a rainy couple of days, to spy this enterprising fella bungee shooting a Zagi off the beach! Obviously very keen cause the shortish bungee, affixed at the outlet pipe, was only tossing the model up max ten metres, if that. A quick roll or suchlike and back to launcher for the next launch trudge. Time was pressing so it was a quick snap and on to work without chatting. The cell pic blows up badly but one can just make out the outline of the Zagi in his grip, a nano second before launch.

The new buddy cord in operation

The lads invested in a team buddy cord to counter the hassles of different modes and avoid the snatch the box syndrome. Only taken Dave about 35 years to get one and an instant success for Paul and Mark!
There had been mutterings about the frustrations of scale slope flying if the wind does not play ball so Mark went one step better and converted a cheapie Chinese soarer (secured off the excellent Berg blog, by the way) to Eflite 480 power. The craft is pretty light and performance surprisingly robust from this excellent value motor. Mark took Russ's advice and tweaked the dihedral to 2 degrees each side. Looks dead right in the air and flies magic.

Local PSS legend visits Umdloti Electrons

We were privileged to have 86 years young Pete Milne join us at Umdloti Electrons Saturday morning. Definitely a die hard modeller and did not hesitate when Russ offered to collect him at 05h20!

Just how early is evident from the slightly foggy but perfect for e flying conditions.

The Cub had been rustled together from cheapie bits to illustrate that parkie flying can be enjoyed on a shoe string - the Cub tootling along fine on the EMax two hundred buck cheapie motor from Denkit, along with ex Witblitz 1300ma lipo and the surprisingly good ex Skylark Chinese radio. Before long, uncle Pete was plotting how to electrify his PSS Cub.

Thanks to Russ for snapping the pics.

Shoreline

I had been intrigued by the pre-promo of the excellent SABC TV2 "Shoreline" weekly series but only actually caught up with the series after it had already ventured down the west coast and was (fortunately) at the TOSS Red Hill venue at Simonstown - which gave that venue an added interest after our slope event back in January.

Been following it up the east coast, in awe at some of the lesser known stunning slope soaring possible spots, but equally engrossed in all aspects of this absorbing local series. There is just so much we do not know about our homeland.....

Kudus to SABC for a magic production, wow. Try catch the last episode or so, if you can, Monday evenings.

My first experiences with the Parkshark had been diluted with the iffy power of two cells and an ever present coastal breeze. Saturday and Monday yielded un-commonly eerie still conditions and the Park Shark proved an absolute delight with three cell power. Even swerved off at sundown for a quick fly then also could not resist another floodlight flight after Shoreline last night.

Really impressed with parkie plank concept but less so with foam so next step is a slightly stretched one of these little Frazzle beasties:

http://www.micronradiocontrol.co.uk/flp_plans_wing.html

Spring has arrived, yippie.....!!!!

Cheers

Dave

Dis 'n dat

Those looking for an economical one off trophy, instead of the flaky and expensive gold plastics need look no further than these natty personalised clocks dreamed up by Dieter Schauerte of the Natal Radio Drivers Association. A damn nice award for just under R50 a pop. Will have pride of place on the trophy shelf, the box just to stop it rolling around at present.

Been scouring the net for something new to give the kind of zing experienced from the Velocity 2 and up popped Russ Conradt with these stunning glassed and pre-painted wings from Craig Baker at Cloudbase Composites - Russ's Blue and white beaut at left:

http://cloudbase-composites.blogspot.com/

Complete with sharkie tips and motor pod, it would be criminal to gouge holes in the glass finish for the gear and bright spark Mark Phillips came up with the idea of fitting the Velocity deck and canopy on to a home shaped foam base and nose cone and thus hold the gear on top (not inside ;-).

Mark holding Dave's Igazi (now christened Vigazi ;-) to illustrate the amazingly perfect fit of the Velocity deck - an order has already been dispatched for three such decks and time will show the success of these super fast moldie wings, reputed to have all the zap of the Roullete with less of the terror!

Sunrise Parkies

The sun peaking over the background and Paul in full swing with his brand new Dx6i.
The morning fly over, including the maiden of Mark's dinky little Tensor, flew a treat.

Sharks in the park

It is time for a new foamie for Monday evenings and the buzz from the Velocity prompted a search for something similar but parkie depron through the current issue of RCM&E. The Parkshark jumped at me and an email to helpful June @ Weston UK revealed local supplier Aerial Concepts who winged off a kit in short time.

It was decided to go with the sans motor kit as Dennis at Denkit had been charming me on the cheapie E Max brushless motors. The 480 equivalent had been ample to drive the Mark/Terry 400 Sukhoi so some homework on the spec sheets Dennis kindly faxed to me revealed a theoretically 50% more powerful yet 3 grams lighter than spec motor, incorporating a prop saver as standard.

Building with the UHU glue supplied by Andre Killian proved of the more pleasant exercises in years, certainly a must for my future depron planes. The ultra simple plane clipped together neatly without any alignment hassles at all. A bit of undue haste in unsuccessfully gluing the motor backplate to the motor bracket meant a 24 hour delay for the maiden and I am indebted to Russ Conradt for sorting that one for me.

Whilst aware that the 160 gram model only needed 200 gram thrust against the 300 grams thrust Emax, the little green helicopter 2 cell pack from Denkit last used 3 years ago, was likely to provide much strangle at only 10c rate for the 800 mah.....

The pair of GWS Pico servos were used with "lang tande" for the elevons as one was badly out of sinch with the other and multi neutrals all over the place - years of thermal soaring had meant yours truly is pretty anal about that issue with parkies and sub micros. To be fair one servo was fine and the other dud but the only spare was already glued in for the rudder.

Darkness comes early in Sharkie land at this time of the year so the pack was actually plugged together under car head lights for the maiden. The plane launched without a hitch and whilst the inconsistent servos were noticeable at changing speed, the benign characteristics of the delta made the whole thing a cinch to deal with than the average tailplane equipped flat plate foamy. The LED light the from the little 2.4g receiver and the large white surface also made it dead easy to track in the darkness. Most of the flying was at shade over half throttle so two cells is ample to drive the Parkshark.

The Parkie Sharkie was quickly landed and zapped off to a little local night beach spot I have had my eye on for some time. There is a constant light land/sea breeze but the Sharkie handled it with aplomb. Rolls were fine but loops needed practice as they tended to tighten up throughout the loop, probably not a bad thing. Little pylon race runs at two foot, Witblitz racing style, were the most rewarding. Was not long and the friendly family of Abigail, Mark and Luke turned up to ooh and aah over the Skarkie after landing. The only complaint was they could not hear the little Sharkie at all, exactly what I had hoped to achieve after the Velocity howler! Charging the pack revealed that the two ample flights had drawn 610ma so the the 2 cell 800 pack ideal for the job. Roll on Monday evenings......

Spittie over Skye - stunning pic to click on

Dear Paul,

Yes, there are a few PSS fans in my club who'd like a Sea Fury as well :-) Great looking model and site.While we have little in Scotland to rival the superb SA soaring sites (and photos), a friend of mine took his PSS Spitfire to the west coast earlier this year in the vain hope of flyable weather in April. The God of Slope Flight granted him one day, which produced one of the best in-flight backdrop pics I've seen for a while. He's about 650' above loch level, not far from the Isle of Skye at Lochcarron. Says it wasn't an easy hike laden with everything, but the views alone were worth the pain!Apologies to dial-up fans for the image being a whisker bigger than normal, but I'm sure it was Dave Greer who mentioned that 30" monitors are entry level in SA these days.... :-)Thanks for the link.

Cheers,

John Barnes

Paul Young wrote:
Iz wantz a sea fury!!!!....... One day .....

Regards
Paul

On 07 Jul 2009, at 16:34, "Dave Greer" <Dave.Greer@monteaglegroup.com> wrote:
Always nice to revisit the blogs over coffee, have a squiz at the Sea Fury wow.....
http://blog.toss.co.za/

Dawn patrol at parkies

Kobus paid us his first dawn patrol visit with the red baron Mini Stick this past Saturday, here taking off in to the blue yonder - nice flyer!
The 6:30 am winter dawn patrol has become the favourite time of play for this scribe and we were treated to Russ's little Tensor bipe trailing crepe streamers. Given that the foamie bipe is not much heavier than the streamers, there a little initial concern but the combination worked a treat in the crisp, clear and still morning. The pics not cropped, so as to show the early morning beauty and trendy streamers.

Learning Lesson from the Legends

It is my norm to report on the positives of an event as a form of encouragement and I was brought to earth with a bump when Christo asked me why the results were so poor. Jawellnofine, I guess it is also important to explain some of the tribulations that Russ hinted at - although more from my own personal perspective.

1. Have your equipment ready.

The parcel post let me down badly and the battery packs and spare props for Russ and I are still on the water. We chased our tails on charging all day and round one was the only one with a fully charged pack for me. Makes the wussies with kits who did not rock up look clever but we are at least over the pain of the first event. John and Pete had this aspect nailed and were enjoying much success with the 1300 cheapie packs from Hi Model, by the way.

2. Check your equipment.

Launched my plane for the round zero race and it was all over the place like a bucking bronco. Blamed Russ's pap lackies but only after round one did I realise that the tailplane was floating up and down, quietly tearing away from the fuselage sides because I had used my favourite wood white glue in preference those recommended by all - and also not covered the fuselage with Solarfilm as recommended by Andre Killian. Potentially lethal and rattled me so badly that I managed to launch with no ailerons at all (plugged in backwards) for round two - instant throwaway and testament to the sweet handling of the Witblitz that it survived without a scratch. I suspect John could have added a lap or two to his result if the 35 meg plane was also not coughing and spluttering at the far pylons, thanks to the cheapie esc - he is now looking at 2.4G with more interest.

3. Trim for smoothness.

The start of round three was spent re-trimming for the secured elevator and realising the Pete was right in that I still had way, way too much movement (who wrote 8mm in the destructions.....? ;-) and the already halved throw was halved again for round four where the old killer instinct started coming back about half way through the race - what a rush.

4. Read the rules and pay attention at briefing.

Yours truly spent the whole day aligning with the left hand pylon for the start, as opposed to the correct mid point, so every race was play catch up. So doff but when you're rattled......

5. Listen to your caller.

Adrian Baker was patience and calmness personified and it all came together when I started listening to him. The final Velocity dice tween Russ and I was where I started to follow Adrian's guidance implicitly, what a difference!

6. Above all - practice in a range of winds.

We routinely do our electric flying at 6:30 in the morning and are heading for breakfast when the wind arrives. The edges of Gromor drop away and there was a reasonable breeze which provided some fun turbulence - the breeze eventually switching to our backs with the result that my caller had to keep encouraging me to drift the plane back to the field!

The upshot of all this is I popped out to our local field in perfect conditions at sunset on Monday after work, to try the now secured tail, teeny pitch movements and refreshed pack. Wow, what an improvement and the plane was just so much faster and sweeter without the little pitches and glitches on elevator. I have to concur with Russ that the props also seem to have more bite at sea level and our next event down this way will likely show a marked improvement.

POST SCRIPT

As a total aside, I thought it worth explaining my respect for the Pylon legends. More than a couple of decades ago, I was on holiday in Cape town and visited the power Nats being hosted there. The wind and weather was so seriously foul that I viewed the pylon racing from inside my car. The well supported pylon racing was carnage all over but there was one lone plane circulating the pylons like clockwork in all classes - no flashy moves and certainly not the fastest straight line speed. That day a certain Mr John Dorse aced the pylon Nats and I was awed.

Some years later, still way back as I was even still on mode 2, and Pete Sherliker offered me a flight on his Quickie 500 at Cato Ridge and I was blown away - like a knife through butter, this plane just flew on rails. Should have learnt the pylon trimming lesson then and got involved but at very long last I am enjoying competing against these guys. No prima dona personalities and attitudes - just help, advice, encouragement and buckets of enthusiasm.

I can only thank them and Russ for getting us on to this fascinating journey.....

Pete, Gail and John with the well prepped Witblitzes.

More pics from the DMAC Gromor Pylon / Witblitz day 31 May

Gail setting up race control at the magic Gromor field.

Look carefully at the packet wording - John Dorse came armed with a whole brood of his moldie Witblitzes..... ;-)

The glider guider verses pylon legend squad of John, Dave, Pete and Russ. Pete's balsa versions were immaculate but look carefully at John's with foam ribs inside molded glass sheeting, along with the natty little glass fuselage - neat!

The mob, including the pylon lads. Kevin, Clive, Wayne, John, Dave Pete and Russ.

Wayne firing up his quickie - had a leery moment at pylon 1 when one half the V tail folded but kept his head, shut the motor and binned it well away from the field.

Gail Dorse ran it all in a most pleasant and enjoyable manner.

No kidding about John being armed with brood of Witblitzes, see the simple but neat glass fuselages.

John Dorse with Tim Potter - Tim giving it all the thumbs up.

Kevin firing up his Quickie for a race.

The scenic DMAC Gromor field is the ideal setting for Witblitz pylon racing.

DMAC Chairman, Clive Gager with his Quickie - has a Witblitz in the box and has threatened to take us on at a future date. No good in the box Clive - and rev up yer mate Rob Roe, as well!

Glider guys Witblitzed by the pylon legends @ DMAC - Russ Conradt

Pete Sherliker with one of his all balsa Witblitz planes, chatting to Dave and Sheldon. The Jury out on whether these and John Dorse's Moldie version had any advantage over the stock foamy versions as the two pylon legends just flew so much better than the rest of us.......

From Russ:

Wow, what can I say. One of the most enjoyable day's flying I have had in a long time. Apart from being so stupid as not to measure a Course to practice on, not having enough proper batteries, crashing another Roulette, I had a ball. I was very lucky as apart from dislodging the wing hold down bolt fixing and a broken prop, everything else is fine, It lives to crash another day, another time! Having said that the Velocity race certainly made up for that mishap.

A big and hearty thank you to Gail and John Dorse for putting this day together, their tireless effort in driving Pylon in this province has to be admired. A big thank you to my glider mates for the enthusiasm in backing this event, the loan of batteries, and the prop from John. The flying was great fun, the fact that there were no midair's escapes me using a two pylon course, shows you how wide we were actually flying. I must admit to being a bit jealous of the power boys but the Witblitz will have to do at the moment.

As John indicated, a venue needs to be found and maybe Dave and Mark's Umdloti site is the best available at the moment, early start before the wind gets up. I will make an effort to contact the principal of the Crawford La Lucia and see if we could get access to the fields, but Google earth shows only 130 meters length on the biggest field, and neighbours!
I will keep looking,

Thanks again
Russ Conradt

WITBLITZ RESULTS (cumulative laps best three of four heats - best heat laps in brackets)

1. John Dorse 44 (15)

2. Pete Sherliker 43 (15)

3. Russ Conradt 38 (14)

4. Dave Greer 37 (13)

5. Richard Fleming 35 (13)

VELOCITY RESULTS (best heat of two heats)

1. Russ Conradt (15)

2. Dave Greer (14)

3. Richard Fleming (DNF)

From Dave:

The glider guys got their butts kicked but it was addictive as hell!

Thanks to the Highvelders for the good advice and encouragement, also our two local pylon legends John Dorse and Pete Sherliker. John had molded the Witblitz (Ja) and even the hard to get spec prop!

Funny enough though, Sheldon reckoned the race of the day was the three Velocity 2's head to head for a novelty race - such a pity these howlers have gone off the market.

Still buzzing.... ;-)

Cheers
Dave

The Toss/Sungazer orange shirted glider guider team of Dave Greer, Adrian Baker, Russ Conradt and Sheldon McGlone - helpers are so useful for this game.