Some of Russ's pics from the Karkloof aerotow day

Quadcopter FPV at La Mercy lagoon

Another FPV flight with my quadcopter, this one was flown at La Mercy Lagoon north of Durban.

Russ "Russel's up" aero tow interest at Karkloof

Some pictures taken at the Karkloof Country Club on 13 November.  The main focus was on aerotowing large scale model gliders. The weather was less than ideal with 10/10 low cloud.  Fortunately there was no rain. The event was well attended and everyone had fun.

Cheers for now.

Dennis

more e practice for Toss 2012 slope aerobatics

Reminder - next pattern day is Dec 11th. Venue to be confirmed.

KZN Pattern Day 

6 Nov 2011

Howick MFC

Judges

Des Cooper, Bruce Clark, Mike Cox

RESULTS

(Percentages)

NOVICE

                                                                       Rd        Rd2     Best 

1          Angus McInnes                                   55,0     62,0     62,0

SPORTSMAN

1          Lynton Milner                                    58,6     61,7     61,7

2          Stan Hausmann                                   61,6     60,4     61,6

3          Dave Greer                                         57,7     60,5     60,5

4          Steven v Niekerk                                52,8     58,1     58,1

5          Colin Addis                                        54,8     55,4     55,4

6          Leon Coetzee                                     43,0     54,0     54,0

MASTERS

1          Mark Savage                                      63,1     66,1     66,1

2          Arthur Eggar                                       54,8     57,4     57,4

3          Clive McInnes                                    57,0     56,1     57,0

4          Alex v d Spuy                                         -      55,0     55,0

F3A

1          Jason Barker                               69,0 (P)           69,0 (F)           69,0

2          Neil Allen                                    65,2 (P)           56,8 (P)           65,2                                        

COMMENTS

Windguru was emphatic that there would be no flying all weekend because of drizzle, but fortunately for us it was wrong, and we had cold but flyable weather even with some blue skies, until 2 pm. Thirteen entrants, many from Durban, were so keen on entering that they braved the grotty day they saw from their homes! Our entries are now growing bigger, and I think we will start future rounds at 8 instead of 9 to accommodate this.

The new A12 pattern for Masters was a big hit. Everyone liked the gracefulness of this, and its level of difficulty. The F3A pilots also approved of the new P13, and Jason liked the chance to fly the choice of P or F for round 2. There were no entrants in Advanced. Time will tell if people want to move up to this from Sportsman, or perhaps they may prefer to jump up two steps to the Masters class, which is well supported.

In Novice we were pleased to have Angus McInnes do a good job, and get 62%.

Sportsman was led by Lynton Milner, who is not yet quite used to flying the glo powered "Venus" he acquired from Ian Morris, but still came top. Second place was a welcome new face to the pattern scene, Stan Hausmann from the Umhlanga club, flying his large scale "Beast", after only a few practice flights of our pattern. Dave Greer surprised us with his neat flying of his small electric "Diamante".

In Advanced Mark Savage flew a new "Wind S" 2m into an excellent 66%. The others are still getting up to speed on the new pattern. Alex borrowed my plane for the last round, and flew it without a test flight.

In F3A Jason astonished us by not only getting in a good P pattern, but had managed to learn the very difficult F pretty thoroughly as well in only four weeks! This bodes well for his serious push to try for team selection for the 2013 World Champs. Jason and Arthur have both got new 2m "Wind S" planes, which are not yet trimmed out to compete, making this design the plane of choice it seems.

Thank you very sincerely judges for your long travel to get to the event, and thank you Howick MFC for giving us a bowling green smooth grass runway, and a very welcome braai.

Neil Allen

Just out and about

Stan with the smaller end of the spectrum SBach

Stan then with his bigger end of the spectrum, the "Beast" at Umhlanga Flyers

Michel at Umhlanag Flyers inverted prop hanging the Flightpro Yak 55

Springfield slope's imposing new addition......

The BBM slopies group Grant enjoying his first Springfield after work fly

Winston slope - Arthur's natty Canterbury wing

Arthur with blast from past Tim Kinsey and his new Multiplex Exeno wing

Nothing fishy about this Sharkie......

After trying them all, nothing as good as diamond white top with flashes.

The magic contrast hinge open side well sealed and mega movement

Even in the sundown light, the diamond white finish backs Sharkie magic.

Nothing better than a sun downer flight at Zigginanda!

Sharkie text developed from "The" of the "The Sharks" - note the NvS sticker. 

After sampling the Minivec first flight, it was realised that other sloper non mouldie grand plans were out the window, including an updated Ghostbuster for the Summer evening light fly sessions. The Luke and Michel Flight Pro "Flying Fish" offered all the wing area of the Ghostbuster, along with the simple uncluttered fuselage and tail end, so it was a slam dunk decision.

The weather finally permitted a mid week afternoon rush to the Inanda slope in idylic weather, yesterday. The 4:05pm Umhlanga departure through virtually no traffic hindrance (surprisingly) meant arrival at the slope 40 minutes later.

It had been decided to stay with the Andy Ellison throw options and CG at 91mm from LE. There was instant realisation on launch that is was fine for the Ellison/Leusch/Conradt nimble fingers but yours truly would be more happy closer to Luke's recommended 85mm from LE. A dive test revealed a dead straight dive that would have finished in the dam so Andy spot on but not my preference, which is for the gentle climb out.

Andy's max aileron throw (12mm up 10mm) was perfect all round, with the slight differential kicking the stall turn over nicely. Aileron low rate was wishy-washy, mode 2 pilots only need apply there ;-). Elevator on the other hand was much nicer on the low rate (5mm each way), given the critical CG setting.

The plane was sweet to fly in the conditions, obviously the slight dihedral etc precluded Minivec rachet aerobatics (not my intention) but it was still damn good and will benefit even more with a 150 to 200 grams permanent ballast on the future CG. With the light inertia, one had to pull harder over the top of the large loops or the beastie would happily float away to the sunset, inverted.  

Those who have flown Zigginanda in light conditions will know just how uncannily quiet it is so it was quite shock to hear a wap, wap, wap and a huge whoosh as a predator bird zoomed past my left shoulder, intent on having Sharkie for dinner. Luckily the predator lost interest after trying to follow though a couple of huge loops, although he gave looping a really good try.

Landing was a doddle on the Andy recommended 11mm spoileron reflex with 2mm down elevator compensation. I had gone with short servo arms for maximum resolution but would opt for longer arms, just short of the cover tops, to keep the push rod parallel with the wing surface and minimise any "going around the corner" binding on full aileron and full spoileron combined. I had previously set up the the braking only on low aileron rates so no big deal there but worth noting for those interested.

I have not one single criticism of the model - the plane was a pleasure to assemble (what little there was) and everything fitted perfectly. Having saved by using some cheapy Turnigy metal gear sub micros from Flight Pro on ailerons, I lashed out extra on a pricey HS65 MG for pitch and that, coupled with the (thanks Russ) Craig Baker trick of super glue and micro balloons on the elevator horn hole released by the oiled push rod, meant zero slop, magic! The only change I made was to lay the servo on its side on a ply platform, which meant the piano wire snake ran down and was epoxied to the side of the fuselage and left ALL the room for the ballast area. A useful change as the supplied servo tray places the servo in the center, rather than off to one side, which other reviewers have mentioned as well.

The maiden flight quickly gobbled up a half hour and I landed at 5:25pm, conscious of getting home in day light. Again the traffic waters amazingly parted and I was back in Umhlanga at 6:05pm - a useful two hour round trip but not one I would want to repeat too often so next stop Springfield in the mid week NE ;-)

An excellent buy at the asking price from Flight Pro and I am sorted for the Summer! 

FPV Quadcopter flying

Here's my first recorded videos of the weekend's FPV quadcopter flying. For those who don't know, FPV stands for First Person View, where I fly from a live video feed sent from the quadcopter, which I then view through video goggles on the ground. It's as if I'm sitting inside the aircraft.

The first video was at Umhlanga Radio Flyers Club, and the second was north of Durban at Beachbums Backpackers. The wind was blowing strong this weekend so the video is a bit bumpy, but it was fun!

Famous

An American friend of mine sent me this page from "Quiet & Electric Flight" Magazine.... I got a bit of a shock! Finding myself in the famous RC magazine. Anyway - pretty cool, just sad that this aerie is in the big aerie graveyard in the sky...

N v S results hot off the press

North v South CONTEST RESULTS (Top 2 results gave the trophy to Kzn)

Aerobatics

1. 78.90% Michel Leusch (Minivec)

2. 71.92% Russ Conradt (Shongiloma)

3. 71.68% Christo le Roux (Aldij)

4. 71.45% Dave Greer (Minivec)

5. 69.17% Kev Farr (Vector 3)

6. 64.56% Jeff Steffen (Aldij)

7. 61.95% Simon Nelson (OD Weaver)

8. 57.11% Ryan Nelson (OD Weaver)

Second to fourth separated by less than 0.5%!

4 ZAGI BY 4 LAP RACING:

1. Michel Leusch (Jeff Steffen's Zagi)

2. Luke Johnstone

The competitor count is a reflection of the hard core folk who hung in to the bitter end on Sunday, rather than the surprisingly large number of folk who attended over the three days (14 initial contest entries). Friday was bliss SW practice time at Inanda, Saturday wind strong but lift light and Sunday at Switchblade downright Berg wind challenging! Simon's bright idea of the Zagi x 4 racing generated a dozen or so racers who had a blast, a useful idea for keeping things ticking along during "non aerobatic" air.

Reports and lotsa pics will follow on the Toss and this blog, keep a watch out. Special mention must be made of Russ's huge time, money and stress input to the event (not to forget Mandy and Kelly Conradt's magic hospitality), along with Dennis Bird for CD support for Sunday - as well as Luke and Dean for judging. Ever cheerful Adi Critten and Rudi Smook made it all that bit more special. Our appreciation to Tosser's Jeff Steffen, Christo le Roux and Kev Farr for flying up from the Cape for the three days - they have promised a bigger mob for next year, to wrest the trophy back from the Sharkies!

Pics taster:

The Saturday folk play.

Kobus & Christo admire the view.

Some of the Saturday cars.

Russ Conradt made it happen!

Kev Farr and the yellow Zagi.

Mr Ziggi at Nanda - note view!

Ziggi, Chris and Dean.

The aggressive Toss team logo!

Simon's one week OD Weaver.

Some of the mob playing on the Berg wind NW side of Switchblade.

Judges Dean and Luke.

The folk who stuck it out to the very end, late Sunday at Switchblade.

The magic trophy, which the North is not going to easily relinquish!

North v South slope challenge info

Here is the crib schedule of manoeuvres off the scoring program for the aerobatics part of the slope challenge weekend. A nice range of "non scary-complex" manoeuvres suited to Kzn slope conditions.

Start times are never cast in stone for slope events but Russ's Saturday intention is to meet at the Sasol at 9am for a 10am arrival at the slope. This may vary so please keep in touch with Russ on 0828227887.

For those not used to the route, meet with the convoy at the Sasol garage at the Kwamashu turnoff from the N2/North Coast intersection or follow these excellent Google directions, courtesy of Johan Moelich:

Map with directions

Map with intersection mini maps

Map with intersection photographs

Johan's original Google link

Sneak peek ahead of North v South slope challenge

The local lads are looking forward to Russ's next week (17/18 September) slope aerobatic challenge against the three Two Oceans Slope Soaring (TOSS) lads coming up from the Cape. A recent brief window of opportunity saw a couple Minivec slope aircraft arrive in Durban and the race now on to have these ready for the event. Mark got to experience the maiden flight in excellent slope conditions at Ziggy-nanda this afternoon. This amazing aircraft was not only a dream to assemble but also completely blew us away on its maiden flight. A vice-less pussycat for relative novice Mark but on rails for aerobatic work, with an energy retention that was stunning..... Mark was quickly trying things he had never experimented with on the slope before. He had followed the instructions implicitly and there was not a single peep of trim needed to any single control surface! Everything else we own slope wise is now instantly redundant - kudos to James the Hambone for the stunning design and the China factory for building it so right.

Yours truly has always been negative about slope aircraft with fully symmetrical sections ever working on the Kzn slopes, well that theory was well and truly proved dead wrong, the effortless way that the craft cuts through the air shows just how clean and accurate is the only way forward, remarkable.....

A visit to Umhlanga club for e flight

Activity at the college had Johan and Dave pay a visit to the Umlanga club field near Hazelmere dam, instead, where a pleasant morning's flying was had with George and Stan, which were quite taken with Johan's quad copter now being flown remotely from the onboard camera by Johan through the glasses. The picture from the teeny camera was remarkable and Johan's confidence grew with each flight. Also impressive for us was Stan's large scale Pilatus that flew immaculately and had such presence in the sky, it could be mistaken for the real thing! Complete with retractable undercarriage and flaps.