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President: Dave Ward Esq
Vice Presidents:. J.S. Barker Esq. Terry Kitson
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Tony Major: Chairman |
Fred Clarke: Secretary |
Dave Hodges: Treasurer |
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Tony Fuller: Vice Chairman |
Geoff Ward: Safety Officer |
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Keith England: P.R.O. |
Alan Dobson: Social & Membership Secretary |
Here we are 9 months into the year and only3 months to Christmas!
Flying at the Summer field has been frequently bugged by crosswinds and turbulence, but despite this a good bit of flying has been done by the indefatigables.
A great deal of thanks must go to Gus 'The Mower' and to Andrea 'The Barbeque' and it has to be said that they hardly ever miss a week.
Club Meetings - These have been poorly attended, and perhaps consideration should be given to just meeting in a Pub somewhere saving a lot of money and less disappointing to those few who do make the effort to attend.
Winter Flying Field - The flying strip is in good shape and is being regularly cut, and we will return there on 1st October, once the horses have had their holiday!
We have also cut across runway at the motorway end of the strip to accommodate other wind directions.
See you at the club field and keep 'em flying TM
01/10-Sat Return to Winter Field.
09/11-Wed AGM
03/12-Sat Club Christmas Meal –Surbiton Golf Club approx £18/head please give your name to a committee member ASAP if coming.
This will be held at 7.45 sharp. Please try to be there.
Please let the Secretary know of any nominations for the committee.
The BMFA have announced that from 1st October a new fixed wing certificate, the 'C' certificate, is to be launched. This certificate extends beyond he 'B' and you must have a 'B' to apply for it.
This new certificate is only slightly more difficult than the 'B' and I'm sure dozens of you will be eagerly practicing for it in the coming months!
Full details can be found on the BMFA website at: http://www.bmfa.org/achievement/index.html but, in summary, the following is required:
Oh, I nearly forgot, at least once during the test, the examiners will declare an emergency (any emergency) to which the candidate must respond appropriately; continuing the test after the emergency is declared over.
See - dead easy! Keith.
After a few incidents this year we have decided that a basic First Aid course would be a good idea. This will be organised in the New Year so do try and keep your fingers out of propellers until then! Any suggestions for other evenings will be welcomed
One of our members, Paul Silcox, asked me whether it was possible to sideslip a model, as no one seemed to do it? I realised he was right, even though I've sideslipped a full size Cub loads of times I rarely do it on a model.
Sideslipping is the deliberate flying of an aircraft with crossed controls - right rudder with left aileron or vice versa. Not surprisingly, it causes a lot of drag.
Steeper glidepath to clear obstacles on the approach.
Sideslipping allows an aircraft to descend on a much steeper glidepath without gaining speed. Of course, flaps and/or spoilers do this better; negating the need to sideslip on modern aircraft, so its use is limited to (usually older) aircraft types without these devices. However that describes 90% or more of our models!
Land in a crosswind without crabbing.
By sideslipping into the wind the aircraft can remain pointing down the runway and with the into wind wing low is less likely to be caught and rolled by gusts - particularly high wingers. The trick is sideslip just enough that the sideways movement into wind equals the crosswind. Not easy, but sure looks good if you get it right and it is much safer if the wind is blowing from the pits.
Is a damn good way to improve your rudder co-ordination!
Helps to teach the control skills needed for knife-edge flight even on aircraft not capable of this.
For your first attempts it is good idea to have a reduced rudder throw on dual rates and switch this on. This will then allow you to comfortably hold on full rudder giving you one less thing to think about. Increase the available rudder throw as your technique improves.
Set up a normal approach to land, heading for the runway, but about 3 times higher than usual for safety.
Once you have mastered the simple sideslip, you can try it with the rudder on full rates. Experiment with applying more and less rudder, balancing it with opposite aileron. You will soon find that the rate of descent is proportional to the amount of rudder used. Do remember this! The only danger in sideslipping is to try to reduce the rate of descent - not by reducing the rudder, as you should - but by adding up elevator. Aircraft naturally fly faster in a sideslip so, despite the crossed controls, there is little danger of a spin. However, if you haul in too much up elevator you may spin.
Once you have mastered the sideslip use it to steepen your landing approach so you don't have to start on finals from so far back, you won't then risk flying into the trees at the summer field!
If you can master it (and like most things it just takes practice!) sideslipping in to land in a crosswind is preferable to crabbing with a high wing aircraft as gusts are less likely to get under the wing and the landing approach is shorter. It is slightly different method to that described previously:
It sounds daunting but early attempts can be kept high and changed to an overshoot when your nerve goes. Slowly reducing height as you gain confidence.
This is the way to do it:
The best demonstration of sideslipping I've ever had was flying with John Pothecary in a Tiger Moth. He flew the downwind circuit only about 400 yards from the runway and turned base way too early - I wondered what he was up to. He then sideslipped steeply to the right with the nose at 45° to the runway and the Moth fell like a brick. On meeting the runway extended centreline he changed to a left sideslip, nose still pointing in the same direction until we reached the runway threshold, finally swinging it straight to land. The whole circuit - from 1000ft - had been done within about 400 yards of the runway!
For anyone that didn’t meet him, Arne is an enthusiastic German working in the UK for a time, whom we taught to fly last year. Having, with Steve Pringle’s help got his ‘A’ certificate just before his return to Germany, he has just sent us an email detailing his exploits back home. By the way, rumours that there has been a large increase in hardhat sales to Germany are, I’m sure, greatly exaggerated!
Here is Arne’s email:
“Hi folks, I wanted to give you a quick update on the development of my flying skills. After having had passed the A-certificate thanks to Steve and back in Germany lots of other things were to do, so no time for flying. As we wanted to spend our holidays in Brittany, France, I got myself a Zagi, as I thought there might be good opportunities to fly down there. I did not manage to build it before, so I took the kit with me and actually one day I found a reasonably good place from which I could give it a go, directly at some cliffs. I threw it about 100 times, without that much success, as neither the wind direction, force, nor my flying excellence was at its best. I walked along the cliffs about. 150 meters and was now having the wind blowing into my face. Still I threw and threw without great flights, except for one time, where the Zagi really climbed up, where she was sailing for about. 3 – 4 minutes. Unfortunately I almost had to look into the sun. Also, she was REALLY high and I became worried not to lose her. So I decided to let her come down a little bit, but for whatever reason she suddenly started turning down in small circles, and I was not able to get her out of that turning anymore. Luckily she landed ashore, without any damage, and also my pants remained clean and dry, so I was able – without too much embarrassment – to take her to the car, where my family was waiting, having a picnic.
Second time I flew was last Sunday. On my last day in England, the OS 70 Ultimate engine did not start, and I first had assumed the fuel lines would be blocked. I took it out of the plane and tried to run it on the bench, but no luck. So I had to send it to Japan for warranty repair. After six weeks I had it back, put it back into the plane and was waiting for the weekend. Well, I took my stuff to the field, started the engine without problems and took off the first time for six month. I really struggled to get the plane down again, and luckily the model is strong as a tank, as it was quite a rough landing. The second landing was even worse, with the plane flipping over – but the plane has quite a strong fin (Keith will remember I broke it before). Next flight I had a dead stick – perfect world! – and landed the plane in a bush. Believe it or not, only the exhaust pipe had gone lose – and I had my tools with me! Then I hooked in the elevator snake two wholes lower at the rudder horn, which I hoped would ease the response to the elevator, and took off the fourth time. Slowly the feeling for the sticks got back into my fingers and the fourth landing was pretty smooth. So no damage to be reported, next Sunday I will be out there again (weather and safe flying permitting). Anyway, the bottom line is: There is still a lot to learn.
Hope you guys are all well and your planes all in one piece.”
Arne Wack
Congratulations are in order for two successes at this year’s Nationals.
Ex member Luke Shaw (who learnt to fly with us) won Freestyle.
Honorary Member, Jeff Cosford won Class 2 Funfly. He tells his story below.
Just to set the scene for our newer members, Jeff was Club Secretary for many years before moving to Somerset, where Peter Ross (Rosso) another well-known ex-member lives. John Bransgrove (JB) is a good friend and often visits the two of them.
“This year we bought a new caravan and we use it as much as possible, combining this shared hobby with my flying and Maggie’s dog showing. But it was not until the end of July that Maggie suggested we go to the Nationals. We last went in 1999 and 2000, when I entered the Funfly.
So I got the Limbo Dancer out of the loft – but the front had come off last year in a mid-air collision, and the engine was lost in the field… So I ordered a J’en 37 and set about building a new Limbo Dancer from an original Balsacraft kit I had in the garage. I thought 4 weeks was plenty! I ran out of time, but luckily JB was staying at Pete’s, so two days before the event while I was at work I asked him to complete the model for me. I had one practice flight, and then it was off to Grantham. Thanks, John!
The first event on Saturday morning was climb and glide. With a 10x5 prop and lots of nitro it went vertical! There were some surprised faces at the performance of this Chinese motor, the only one there. I did 4 minutes gliding, good enough for 1st place.
After lunch it was limbo - the wind was blowing hard, and I scored 14. Only 2nd place, but still overall 1st by a small margin.
Then it was Time and Spot landing, the target being concentric squares painted on the tarmac. The time is a minute and it is counted down for you, so you just judge the final approach. Only third place.
Final day, Monday, and as usual the first thing we all do is look at the computer-generated score sheets. I was surprised to be still in the lead, by a half point! Then it was touch and goes, and this is everyone’s favourite. It is quite different on tarmac, and you must hit the 8-foot square box with each touch. Again the strong wind helped. I did 14, equal 1st. We did a fly off, and both scored 17! It was enough to win overall by the half point I began the day with.
I also entered Class 1, which is the same but you can use mixers and tuned pipes, and finished 5th.
Next year I cannot enter Class 2, having won it, so will prepare the model for Class 1, with tuned pipe.
So it’s off to the annual dinner next month to collect the cup! I hope to see you with it at the Christmas dinner.
It was a great experience to compete with and beat the youngsters – I was the oldest there by, well, a lot of years.” Jeff
It is always horrifying to suffer a mid-air collision or structural failure, however, for those of us who have actually managed to land the plane without further damage, this is tempered by a real feeling of achievement. You are badly shaken by the incident; a damaged plane is never less than a handful yet you got it down. Wow, that showed some real skill!
Or does it? Spare a thought for the American pilot who, in August, took off from a County Limerick airfield bound for Portugal to repair an airliner. He had three aircraft engineers on board with him.
It was only when the pilot noticed his fuel gauge telling him his tanks were low that he suspected a problem. He then diverted to Jersey.
After landing the Cessna 210 aircraft safely it was found that it wasn’t just fuel missing it was the whole tank!
Eight feet of the port wing – including the fuel tank – were found back at the take of strip; where the plane had struck a tree on take off.
Neither the pilot, nor his professional passengers had noticed a thing apparently!
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The Friends of the Children’s Trust
at Tadworth Court Present:
A Supersonic Night of
28th October 7:00 for 7:30pm
at Tadworth Court
With a Talk by
Concorde Pilot
Captain David Leney
Also a show of DVD, video and models with signed prints and pictures of Concorde.
Tickets £10, ring 01737 212331 or 812655.
With refreshments and a glass of wine.
Charity No 293862
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