Esher & District Model Flying Club

President: Dave Ward Esq
Vice Presidents:. J.S. Barker Esq. Terry Kitson

COMMITTEE

February 2007

Tony's Patter

Post Christmas  - The soar–in on the 27th December was postponed until the 29th due to no wind and the fact that Dobo was still hung-over, then on that Friday five of us braved Colley for about three quarters of an hour before we were rained off.  Oh’ well perhaps next time…..

However Thursday the 28th was a lovely day, and Tony Fuller finally test flew his Vector Mk3 Jet at Odiham, having 2 flights and doing the best greaser landing of the day!

The New Year– After a wet and windy start we eventually flew at Downside on 27th Jan., albeit rather muddy and chilly. It was nice to see Arnie again – Steve kindly let him have several flights with his models.

February kicked off with a good day on the 3rd with some 15 members (I even flew my jet 4 times!), Mark, Dave, Fred, Keith, Russell, Steve & Tony getting much flying.

The Pilatus PC9 seems very popular – Currently Dave and Dennis eachhave one, also Fred whohas a rocket turbo version which goes as fast as a jet !! Mark and Keith also flew Heli’s and seem to be ngetting more proficient by the week – makes me sick ‘cos I am struggling to just about hover !! On the subject of Heli’s , these dark winter days and the advent of Mini Picos have inspired a lot of members to buy electric Heli’s to have a go at indoor flying in this branch of our sport.  It was subsequently decided to have an indoor meeting at Bookham United Reformed Church hall on Monday 5th February, and What a Hoot !!!- some 20+ members attended and 16 had a go – or should I say many goes, we even had a limbo at 21 inches and many passes were made the most impressive and controlled by John B. and the most entertaining by Dobo and Terry Noplane (but I fly a Pico) Kitson.

A further booking has been made at the hall for Monday 2nd April at 7.45 pm so bring a Heli and have a go with the rest of us loonies. {Editor’s note: very small indoor planes like the Mini-IFO and free flight types would also fly OK there.}

The B.B.Q and Fun Fly Day has been booked again at Nescot for Sunday 1st July so make a note now in your diaries.

New Spectrum Radios  - If you use one of these at the field you must have a black flag on your transmitter and place your name peg on the frequency board signing in the book ‘Spectrum’ by your name in the frequency number column.

Flying Field – please keep looking for any site which you think might be suitable for us, and let me know so it can be checked out. 

Club Fuel – I have a stock of Castor fuel (5% Nm., 18% Castor, 77% ML70) at £ 7 a gall.       
Synthetic Fuel- ( 5% Nm, 2% Castor,16% ML70, 77% Methanol)
Also 10% Nm. will be available in April ( prices T.B.A.)  Please contact me when required.

See you at the Field or Nescot (2nd Wednesdays) Tony

Diary

02/04-Mon    Indoor meeting at Bookham URC Church.

06/04-Fri      Easter Slope Day. Meet at Alan’s at 8:30a.m. or ring for details of slope.

01/07-Sun    BBQ and Fun Fly day NESCOT sports field.

Editor’s Notes

One safety issue - which needs adding into our rules to ensure we don’t have a mid-air collision over the runway. Our winter field has a slope, which means that when the wind is light it is far better to take off down the hill and land up it. There is no problem with this, or taking off directly across the strip, as long as the other flyers have been told. However this can result in people circuiting in both directions.

The circuit direction is always in the landing direction at any of our fields. That is right-hand circuits if landing from the right and left-hand circuits when landing from the left. Ensure after takeoff that you do not fly over the runway still travelling in the wrong direction. You will not see an aircraft coming the other way and the resultant wreckage could easily hit someone.      Keith

A Slope Soaring Diary

Wednesday 27^th
A beautiful, calm and warm December day – WHAT! CALM!! Not a lot of use for soaring then! Went to Alan’s anyway to find he was suffering from Santa’s revenge and flying rescheduled for Friday. Oh well, got a helicopter (Perkins Twister 3D) for Christmas and I need to look at my car so plenty to do. Main dealer had charged me £75 to tell me my car would cost £950 to fix – more than it was worth so thought I’d look at it myself – took an hour to fix!. Spent the rest of the day hovering the 3D - great little helicopter.

Thursday 28^th
Sunny, warm, 15MPH southerly wind – perfect for Colley Hill shame soaring’s arranged for Friday!  Oh well lots of hovering practice, suddenly low voltage alarm on the transmitter (I’ve been flying so much I’ve flattened the TX battery!) quickly land OK and rush to remove the flight battery, catch the throttle with the neck strap & heli spins around in my hand bending the shaft and stripping servo gears.
Lesson No.1 make sure you set up an engine kill switch (Throttle hold) and use it every time you go near the heli.

Friday 29^th
20+MPH southerly winds but rain expected before lunch so must get to slope early but feeling rough. Eventually arrive at slope at 10a.m. Rain (well more a deluge) arrived 5 minutes earlier. Wave to everyone leaving the car park as I drive in.

Saturday 30^th
25MPH southerly winds so not a lot of point in power flying and field will be a bog. Quickly rang around and suggested we try Colley again. Rain does eventually arrive at around 3pm but not before that we get a good turn out and, at last manage to fly.

We have another slope soaring day planned (weather permitting!) on Good Friday.

By the way if the BBC1 CEEFAX forecast (page 402) is stating winds of more than 20MPH it is really too windy to fly power. Our gliders will fly in up to around 30MPH winds so put your glider on charge as well and consider heading for the slope.  Keith

Indoor Meet

As Tony mentioned above we had our first indoor meet at Bookham United Reformed Church (corner of Keswick Road with Eastwick Road in Bookham). For a fixed wing club it was astonishing how many heli’s appeared – from the little Picoo Z to a number of collective pitch electric machines. In fact, I was surprised that nobody actually brought a plane – particularly as we had a competition a year or so ago with little indoor rubber powered ‘planes.

Spot the Picoo Z – Tony and Ken flying at Bookham URC while the bigger heli’s wait their turn.

What is clear is that helicopters, electric motors and batteries have moved on a long way and have dropped significantly in price. A small, very flyable, collective pitch machine can be had for under £200 all in and you’d be unlucky to do more than £10 - £20 damage in a crash. What a difference to my first heli back in around 1986 shown on the right - a MicroMold Lark, fixed pitch, no giro and a .19Cu in engine. In those days the standard training U/C was floats – what a good idea, I wonder why you don’t see them anymore as I could really need a pair to fly in my garden this week. Fixed pitch can easily be flown without a giro but, as I found out the very first time I tried to fly a circuit, is a real problem if the engine stops -instant brick. I still have all the bits around somewhere but never quite got around to rebuilding it!         Keith

 photo’s by Paul Silcox & Keith

<Home>