Papa Smurf takes in TOSS PSS 2011

The Two Oceans PSS 2011 event was blessed with light to medium conditions on the Saturday for the half dozen combat folk and three Sportsman's Light craft - who each got through two rounds of enjoyable scale type aerobatics. Kev's P38 stole the show as always and it was great fun to call the beastie through his flights as well have Kev's more erudite calling for my own flights with the hastily entered ME109 - thanks muchly to Jeff for sorting the required picture off his Ipad! Anton also benefited from some useful calling and placed his Impala in a more standard part of the sky instead of his normal brush the grass affair, to take second behind Kev.

Sunday started wet but was soon pomping and the Sportman's heavy lads got in to action. Marc's Mosquito kinked a wing and Christo's amazing sharkie P51 slipped out of the flat eight turn, something more tricky than one would imagine. Carlo maidened his brand new Spit and promptly took the win, along with the combat award, for overall honours!

Saturday night was normal pleasant Dixies dinner and Sunday finished at the Pizza Parlour in Hout Bay. Pretty much everyone involved got armloads of prizes, with yours truly also getting a DVD from Clowns and Papa Smurf pressie (thanks Steve ;-) for the traveller award. More detailed info will no doubt emerge from the formal sources but mention must be made of enthusiastic judge Kurt, Sergeant Major Bill and Chairman Christo, ably supported by all the ex chairmen Kev, Steve and Jeff. Clubs in general could pay attention to how this team operates.

Yup, I promised Kev there was no way in hell I would travel down for a Winter PSS event but I am now hooked after my second TOSS PSS event, even promising to drag Russ Conradt down in chains for next year's event, which the team are considering tweaking more toward a festival, than formal compo.

On a more personal note, while many continue to miss these magic events and the very special setting, I can only think about how ecstatic PSS fans Michelle Moratanus and Pete Milne would have been to witness same, so it was special to fly the Michelle built ME109 (thanks Dennis) in action and have also promised Pete (in spirit) that wing man Russ WILL be there next year with one of Pete's specials.

More on the micro laser track, Z22 Cape style

It has been traditional in past Hermanus visits to put together a foamy kit or suchlike during the couple of days pre the event, which oft meant an all night'er given the limited time. It was decided to return to similar ahead of the Two Oceans PSS festival this year but also rather go the option of the micro laser cut kits, which have recently proved great fun and reduced in assembly time. So to the Z22 pitcheron in slope form (also in e-power). 22 means just that, 22 inches only!

God daughter Aquina and I commenced assembly at mid day Thursday on 16 June, youth day, which is topical given her involvement in pinning, assembling and sanding the pre "gear and covering" carcass in the second pic (the ribs are all handily pre numbered). All built on a 30 centimetre bread board purchased for the task and donated to Mommy thereafter. Quite apart from the enjoyment of building something through the efforts of a youngster, the sense of achievement on her part was magic. That took care of the Thursday afternoon.

Her friend Brent joined us for the Friday session and his nimble fingers were a blessing for adding the servo arm holes (using his and her cigarette lighters to heat the wire and poke through the arm ;-) and putting the final bend to the pre bent pushrods - did I mentioned that the kit is complete in every detail, like the previous other two laser kits? Accuracy was scary good, especially in the way the completed wing slid on perfectly to the joiner / incidence control rods.

It was then up to Papa Smurf to gently complete the Solarfilm covering, anything heavier would likely have twisted the wings. The tailplane surfaces had been super glue reinforced after Aquina had sanded them to section, something quite superfluous given the clever ply supports.

Yes, the artistic fuselage shape is vaguely porno in being open to the elements but the manufacturer had originally opted not to carry the sexy shaping through to the closed fuselage bigger Z33 and Z55 inch versions, although this has now been addressed in the V2 kits. Folk were even suggesting an FL or suchlike over this one's nose area ;-)

The manufacturer has put a serious amount of thought in to this little gem. Only one example is the tiny magnet trapped on either side of the pivot rod - one then sands the root rib until there is a pleasant "slunk" as the magnet grabs the steel joiner end both ends and those wings are simply not coming off unless intended! The incidence pins float from the fuse rather than from the wings, as is traditional for wingerons/pitcherons - all floppy till the wings are slid on and then the tiny tolerances do their function and everything works to perfection.

I must at this point make mention of my bi-annual (no longer annual) trip visits to Andy and Alan at Hobby Warehouse. Andy patiently dug out all the bits needed for the RC gear, including robbing an indoor kit for two teeny servos and ferreting around for the Hyperion 250ma lipo ("I am a Hyperion man", to coin a Percy phrase) with JST plug I was seeking. Was a bit scary cutting down from two to one cell but I managed.

Whilst aware that pitcherons generally have their joiner/twister rod at 20% to 25% MAC (mean average chord), it was almost by hypnoses that one tend to aim for CG balance there rather than believe the presumably 33% MAC CG depicted by the handy little jig included in the kit (yes). This translated in to yours truly adding an completely unnecessary 5 grams nose weight, which resulted in the first two tests resembling lawn dart as the plane headed down the slope! To make matters worse, I had complete forgotten to check the pitch travels with ATV, so the craft pitched right every time I pulled hard up..... I am indebted to Kev and Mark for retrieving whilst we sorted things. One must remember that the tolerances are so tight that one spline on the servo arm translates to a helluva big difference.

Adjusting the down going left wing travel to 85% of the right wing's 100% sorted that and the second proper flight with 4.5 of the 5 grams removed was a real treat, thanks also to judge Kurt for the launch and encouragement. The little aerie was blitz and patently clear too much for teaching the two youngster on at the busy Chappies venue, much to the disappointment of the youngsters - I have to make it up with a Hermanus visit this year to teach them, I am told.... ;-)

For the intermediate flyer the aerie is a real sweetie and certainly a crowd puller, everyone came to have squiz at it, lying on the table. Anton Benning was quite captivated.

I am a very slow assembler so if you are looking for a one day build treat:
http://www.zaerotech.com/

It is so low on tedium, even for the kids, that I am tempted to suggest to Barry Mirtle that he should consider including in his school science kits ;-)

Staying with micro laser cut

Such was enjoyment in building of RadicalRC.com laser cut Micro Stick, it was decided to have the next "mini table in front of the TV" project lined up, so shot off an order to Speedwing for their Dart, only three inches bigger in wingspan than the Micro Stick, at twenty inch wingspan.

http://www.speedwing.net/product_info.php?products_id=28

As with the Radical kit, the laser kit cutting is amazingly accurate and a treat to assemble. I would suggest the back to basics ticking off the numbers on the excellent instructions, as I managed to omit the ply floor for the battery bay and resorted to super glue reinforcement there. It was a pleasure to plug in the fin and then find it exactly 90 degrees, such is the accuracy of laser cutting in comparison to the old "die crunch" style. Notice the flatted carbon tows added at the intersection of the carbon rods - once the soaked in super glue had dried, the frame felt so rigid it could be used for burglar guards!

The laser cut compartment lids fitted immaculately and this kit is so complete that it even comes with tiny hold down magnets for the battery compartment and all the pushrod hardware. The elevons are even pre-bevelled, for goodness sake!

The biggest surprise was in completing the model, to find the CG magically spot on half way between the two recommended extremes, without a single gram to adjust. I decided to go exactly with the recommended throws, with ailerons surprisingly at 3/4 of elevator throw but perfect in action, the plane completely solid and on rails, with twinkle rolls still available at the extremes of my own 30% expo on both elevator and aileron.

The only instruction I erroneously did not completely follow was that the craft does not need reflex of any kind. I set up with the elevons dead in line with the top surface, leaving a teeny reflex effect. Simon Nelson did the launch throw honours and the plane tried to do huge loops every time the throttle was pushed wide open, boot fulls of down trim soon sorted that and the plane was enjoyed for one of the best buzzes I have enjoyed in electric flying. Having found the transparent blue and solid white so vision effective on the Micro Stick, I did err in tweaking the combination here to checkers, which simply camouflaged the tips and there may be a retro fit to solid white.

Whilst ARF kits are a boon in the modern age, it is fun to revert to the builder of the model pride in assembling these excellent value, inexpensive gems. Foamies are becoming "so last year" ;-). Next up may be the Speedwing Dart XL or those RadicalRC.com built up space invader style wing options, after the laser cut mini Z22 wing twist sloper.

Sunrise with Mark's new camera

Saturday past saw the usual magic early morning weather and Mark was able to wield his new larney camera. We were chuffed to have a first visit from Mike Summers who revved his yellow Piper Cub around like a pylon racer - memories of slope days gone by!

Simon performed a successful first fly with the Internet plan e-powered Mustang, which looks to be a winner on the cheapie motor combo.

Mike Smith's maiden with flat plate wing balsa magazine pullout plan Whizzer was damn impressive - who needs balsa ribs......?

The rest is a rogues' gallery of the Saturday morning regulars, who seem to be on the full circle back to crunchy models. Morne has progressed quickly to even practicing the novice pattern with the trainer, which is spurring Paul on with the Fun 400. Russ has upped the PT19 to 480 power and the 19 does the Sportsmans pattern with verve!

and back to Springfield........

Michel Leusch and Rob Pirie holding the first stage prototype fuselage of a Kzn slope aerobat being developed from the fertile minds and handiwork of Michel and Russ, with more than a bit of enthusiasm from Ziggy. What this blog is about after all (watch out Tossers...... ;-)

The was a recent flutter of worlds excitement after some FAI feedback, which turned out instead to be formalising of F3F slope speed, something not common on SA coastal slopes but may be sparked with advent of world champs status.

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.