to the seriously large.....

It was a pleasure to visit the serious business of 2011 National Aerobatics at the beautiful KZN Emoyeni site on 1 May. It may have been serious competition but the atmosphere pleasantly informal and it was magic to chat to the various competitors, including a long chin wag with Mark Wolffe of Two Oceans slope fame. It was also neat to see how well Johan de Lange and Arthur Eggar, both products of Neil Allen's monthly pattern series, fared. Quite apart from the old DMAC evergreen hands like John Dorse, Ian Morris and Neil himself.

Johan achieved an excellent second in advanced, along with another Kzn youngster, Brendan from Hobbytech, who achieved a creditable second in Sportsman, using a bog stock Hyperion Helios. This serves an encouragement for us local yokels starting to enjoy the novice side of aerobatics, thanks to Neil's ongoing hard work.

What astounded me was the sheer size and grunt power of the e-power FAI craft - a far cry from twenty-one years ago! Wolfgang Matt provided some retro but very up to date immaculate flying with his anhedral tail Peridot, at the tender age of 63.

It has been nice to read of the appreciative feedback from boffs like Pierre Marias and Andre Stockwell and Neil and his hardworking Nats team can take well deserved pat on the back!

Much chatting was done with Les Ward, Dave Hooker, Dave's buddy Alfred and longgggg time no see Dave Grosvenor.

The day ended with a professionally wow helicopter aerobatics display from Will Cranmer and his team.

From the Radically small.....

An impulse buy saw two teeny Micro Stick kits on the way from Radical RC for Mark and Dave. It was such a pleasure to clip together these well designed laser cut kits, on a small table in front of the TV. Mark took five hours for the whole exercise, Dave five evenings, so I guess Dave is the TV addict.... ;-)

http://www.radicalrc.com/category/Radical-RC-E-Kits-190

At $27 plus $9 post it is cheap and rewarding fun. There were only two areas of minor trickery. Using Solarfilm instead of the recommended light weight covering material tweaked the leading edge slightly and necessitated some super glue reinforcing of the fin, along with reducing the built in right thrust with sliver of 1/64th ply. Fin decoration was with a never tried before temporary tatoo that worked a treat and lasted, despite the morning dew.



The radio and Mini Ultra Stick (not a large model to start with) are shown to give an indication of the small size. The white top deck on the wing is a definite must for keeping orientation with this little twinkler!



Just could resist the gorgeous little Eflite 250 brushless motor, which proved an ideal combo with a Hyperion 450mah two cell pack and 5x5 prop. The beastie has yet to use more than 160mah for a satisfyingly long flight.

Umhlanga College flying on 22 April

Ryan takes a picture of Umhlanga Primary school building

and the moon.......

and Fern Road in Prestondale

And a video from his screaming electric-fox.....

Two Oceans PSS festival 2011

Go to the Toss web site for info on the second year of this classic event: http://www.toss.co.za/

Springfield in the Autumn

Saturday afternoon saw a rare visit to Springfield to trim up Russ's ASW26 for Sungazer, being pleasantly surprised to have Andre, Michel, Rheino, Russ, Morne and Dave all enjoying some pleasant light weather flying! The winter nip (in Durban terms) was in the air despite the magic sunny weather and seemed to prove our theory that the February unpleasant and turbulent North East winds were simply a result of the "overheated" hot and sweaty time of the year. Definitely a lot more enjoyable that a month or two ago.....

RC e-Heli flyer Morne Van Der Ryst had recently joined the Umhlanga Saturday morning e-plane mob and had his ear bent about the pleasure of slope flying. Yours truly dusted off the much flown and enjoyed OD flying wing that Fed Wittstock had invented and passed on. This little plane is pretty much viceless and Morne took to it and slope soaring instantly, after binding his Dx6i to the receiver. It was an easy decision to pass on this little gem to Morne to enjoy although we were a little at a loss at suggesting a nice locally available crunchy model kit for him to build at the same time. Russ's suggestion of the Sig Ninja seems the most practical so far....

Fred had christened the little wing "Klunk" after bouncing it on the first few flights, I prefer the re-christened "Little Dolly" but never did get around to putting on the appropriate sticker, below ;-) The only changes being the replacement of Fred's original parallel chord elevons with the tapered versions, along with a well deserved re-cover.

Attention to good advice

The last few years of e-power and 2.4G have been most enjoyable, with zero issues from the Dx6i or newer DX8, except where there was finger trouble by yours truly.

Some of us parkie folk had opted to dabble in some novice aerobatics, with enjoyable success from the parkie, like the Mini Showtime, only tempered by any real hint of a breeze!

A visit to Mark Savage of Radio Active to look at other low cost options had brought forward the Eflite Diamante as a recommendation. Yours truly was not enchanted with the colour scheme and thus took too long to follow up on this craft - and even more time to complete the actual simple assembly......

The only mod Mark had recommended was some form of support for the two part undercarriage, which otherwise was prone to levering the fuselage apart on a robust landing. An old slot car controller pc board was sacrificed for the simple and light support bracket, as shown in the second picture. Otherwise the model was a pleasure to assemble with even the elevator lining up perfectly with the wing and no massaging required - same story for the fin which slotted in, spot on 90 degrees.

The model only saw the light of day well more than a year after the original recommendation, powered by a Dualsky 900 watt motor on a four cell lipo. This cheapie option was a slight irritation to fit (in hindsight) as the motor mount is a perfect fit for the Eflite power 25 and 32 options. I failed yet again (my fault) to massage a spinner to fit in balanced form and gave up on that.

A quick call to the mob to witness the maiden turned in to a total damp squib as the new larney DX8 receiver was stone dead on arrival at the field, despite functioning fine during set up. Of course the assumption was that it must have been something else that fritzed the fancy 8000 receiver! It was with some trepidation that a replacement cheapie orange receiver and satellite were fitted instead and the fateful moment of first flight delayed for a few days.

The short story is the craft and receiver combo performed flawlessly in the fairly stiff breeze at sunset yesterday - what a pleasure to fly an e-craft that simply cuts through the turbulent air that would otherwise scupper normal e-flight. The plane was rock solid and vice less, with the control throws dramatically reduced from the manual specifications, thanks again to some more good advice from Radio Active's Mark and some useful reading on RC Groups.

After a false start to the novice aerobatics, I now look forward to trying out the Sportsmans pattern before revisiting those enjoyable Neil Allen pattern league events.

Friday waffle

After tracking and ordering the Lowrider 30 plan and magazine, the postal system has completely failed..... So looked at something assembly quick with the SD 8020 for the slope aerobat play, as the Kzn conditions are so mild and pleasant at the moment, plus hoping to combine a wing order with Mark as the courier cost is as much as the sheeted cores! First up was the old Ridge Runner fuselage tucked away and then scratching around for the tip chord, not quite there yet - although estimating 240/180mm at the mo. [Indebted to ole Dave Hooker for confirming this dead wrong: tip chord 160mm. Centre chord 265mm sanded flat to 255mm to suit fuselage mounting. Ailerons 40mm. LE only swept]. Then an old file pic of the Greco Hurricane caught the eye. At least I have the root and tip chords and the fuse is ultra similar to a bog stock Ghostbuster fuse so the plane a dead simple build with a pre made SD8020 instead of SD8000 wing. The blurb says the wing is straight single taper but one maybe gets the impression there is slight sweep back to the trailing edge – or is it an optical illusion? Parameters: Root chord 190mm Tip chord 100mm Each panel length 750mm

Help!

My appreciation goes to ex Durbanite Vic Schroeder, the Jart man, for doggedly tracking down this long sought little beastie for me, more power to chat groups and blogs. This really made my morning!

Back in the early eighties as a struggling audit clerk, I picked up an American magazine in the CNA, which yours truly could not afford to buy at the time. The model plan was a small 30 inch 020 powered craft that had apparently been scaled down from a larger model. Drooled over the stunning little red plane till closing time then tried remember the issue number etc as I was determined to blow up this sleek little model for other use but, alas now decades later trolling through Google and plans list has not brought forward an old listed plan or even a model or full size version that even approximates that natty little plane.

Thus I am hoping to describe the model using parts of other familiar craft. The features are a composite of:

1. The red and white Corsair colour scheme with the same bent wing (what is the opposite of gull wing?) but even more pronounced wing bend, almost Stuka like, with the shrouded wheels exiting the wing bend somewhat like the less pronounced bent wing (also red and white) of the Comet. 2. The cockpit was sleekly set way to the rear ala a very slim version of the pale blue Magician in the middle pic.

3. The very slim fuselage not unlike the little red and yellow craft in but obviously rather coupled with the afore-mentioned Corsair / Stuka bent wing and a canopy top straight lining to the rear like the Magician.

Not having a shred of artistic ability has frustrated this image stuck in the mind and I would be verrrrrrry relieved if some kind soul with a long memory could point me in the right direction to find something on this elusive little gem.

More foamy buzz for your buck

One gets some damn fine tips off RC Groups. The foamie Fastcat in the pic was a cheapie off the net that was "ok" on the Velocity 2700kv brushless motor, but did not set my world alight like the Velocity itself.

Then I read about this gem motor on RC Groups, where some speed freak had his Fastcat taking off vertically like a rocket on four cells:

Turnigy 2836 Brushless 450-Size Heli Motor 3700kv
Dimension: 28mm x 38mm, 53mm(with shaft)
Weight: 70g
Max performance;
Voltage: 3-4S
Current : 30A
Power: 700W
For 450 size Helicopter
$17.57

A quick Google will no doubt identify the motor source.

I must caution that I did build in a main spar for the Fastcat, up front, nevertheless deciding to proceed on the side of caution and try the motor first with three cells instead of four, using my trusty Hyperion 1800mah pack. A 4.5x4.5 prop was the smallest I had but would have preferred closer to 4x4.

The first test was literally at sunset in no wind. I must say the first test rev woke up the butterflies in the tummy and I decided to launch asap before I chickened out. I have never had a small model head for the heavens from the hand launch so fast, like this one did, in fact almost disappearing in to the gloom before I could react to close the throttle. The first flight was magic but the pilot probably a bit too tense and throttling in short bursts, just in case anything started to overheat. The combo was only just gently warm after landing, whew.

Another sunset launch last night offered some enjoyable jet style flight and, whilst it does not make the howl noise of the Velocity, it is obviously going fast, verrry fast, for a foamy. I suspect four cells may just be too silly fast for yours truly.....

Thus the onset of the grin which just won't go away....... ;-)

For those contemplating this R200 plane and R200 motor, a couple of minor points:

1. The roll rate with the common sub micro servos is scary. It does not look a helluva of physical movement on 100% rate but you will still get twinkle rolls without frightening yourself on 70% roll rate, be warned.

2. The elevator is huge and the quoted movement same but do not be tempted to reduce the gross elevator throws as the craft is magically pitch smooth and badly needs the control movement on landing approach, or you will run out elevator. Maybe the quoted CG is too forward but the plane flies fine inverted so I will leave be.

Otherwise this has to be the best buzz bang for buck el'cheapo combo that I have enjoyed so far.

Mid Phase Video on Inanda Hill - NE Wind Slope

This video was shot on the NE slope of Inanda Hill. After a fair walk with all the kit we sent the Mid Phase off. This video shows an approach over the houses with a stripped starboard servo (discovered after the flight). The plane also overshot the hill and landed nose first into the mud on the lee side of the slope - luckily not into the valley below to be retrieved by some lucky local....

This video was shot on the SW slope of Inanda Hill. It was quite rainy as can be seen by the droplets on the wing. Also note the the wings occasional vibration.....

RC glider tow

This video was inspired by Simon Nelson. The Turnigy mini camera was mounted, rotated by 90 degrees clockwise on the wing top of the tow plane (hence the strange orientation). The glider was towed some 20 m back. Unfortunately the tow line took flight preventing other tows being done.

Two Oceans Slope Soarers 2011 aerobatics

Whew, Toss managed to offer up scary perfect weather for the third year in succession, probably nigh impossible for sloping anyhwere else in South Africa.
The 55kmh awesome wind for the Friday practice at Smitswinkle was only topped by the perfect aerobatics blow for Saturday at Red Hill.

The new generation moldies were so impressive up front that we thought slam dunk but the good pilots came through with a variety of of craft. Mark Wolfe got back to winning form with his seventies Primeus, big Louis even surprised himself with an excellent second with the Toucan (yes, bog stock Anton Benning Models Toucan), Steve Meusel third with the OD two week quick build 8020 using a Bobby Purnell fuse and Kev Farr was top moldie in fourth with the Vector.

A useful spread on results, glorious weather and the normal TOSS warm hospitality made for another magic weekend.