Esher
& District Model Flying Club
President: D.A.E. Smith B.Sc. (Eng.), C Eng.,
F.I. MECH. E.
Vice Presidents: M. Charles Esq. J.S. Barker Esq.
COMMITTEE
January 2002
From the Chair
Firstly I would like to wish you and yours a very happy and healthy
New Year.
Secondly 2002 will provide us with enhanced model flying activities and
opportunities.
So please remember to ensure that you have paid your subs to Dave Hodges by
the end of January.
Competitions - As Mark has taken up the very responsible role of Safety
Officer. Luke and Colin Shaw have agreed to run the competitions - please give
them your support by 'having a go' on comp days which start on 2nd
March.
Flying Fields - The Winter Farm continues to be popular as a Winter/Spring
site. We will stay there on Saturdays until sometime in April or early May when
we will move to our new Summer Field as soon as the grass strip is flyable and
the Cabin and Mower, etc. in place. This site looks very promising! {Editor's
Note: I will ensure that a newsletter comes out with a map to the new site,
which is not far from our existing Summer site, well before we move.}
Brooklands - Saturday 22nd June has been booked for our Fun Fly and
B.B.Q. - don't miss this one as we have ordered a dry fine day.
Also 18th May has been booked for our 'Jet Day' in conjunction with the G.T.B.A.
on similar lines to last year - see Kit Wallis for details.
Tony F has also booked a further Saturday 27th April - so Gus get
those engines sorted on the B25 - we all look forward to seeing that warbird
in the sky!! Please make special note of this date and the 22nd June because
Brooklands will be used instead of our normal field so you don't want
to go to the wrong field those days.
Invitation by Addlestone Club - We have been invited to a Fly-in/B.B.Q.
at Kempton late June or sometime in July. Full details not yet known but numbers
will be limited to around 10-12 members + partners. See Tony Fuller - first
come first served!
Meetings - There is a Club Notice Board which is kept by Jeff and
will be displayed and updated at each club meeting - if you have any sales or
wants then put them on it!
Achievement Certificates - Either Jeff or myself would be happy to demonstrate
to you at the flying field what you need to do for an A or B certificate. The
rest is up to you to keep practising until you are ready. Don't be shy - have
a go, you know it makes sense!!
Keep 'em flying, Tony Major.
Diary
02/03 Saturday, First club competition of the year.
27/04 Saturday, Club day at Brooklands. Normal club
field will not be open. All members – including beginners - are invited
to fly at Brooklands all day from 10am to 6pm.
18/05 Saturday, GTBA Jet day at Brooklands. Club field will
be open as normal. Members who wish to help with the GTBA meeting please
see Kit Wallis or Tony Fuller.
22/06 Saturday, booked for our Fun Fly, Scale Competition
and B.B.Q. at Brooklands. Normal club field will not be open. All members
– including beginners - are invited to fly at Brooklands all day from 10am
to 6pm.
13/07 Saturday, BMFA Test Day. Examiners will be on hand
for you to take you’re A or B certificate, and those practising for it will
have flying priority.
Club Evenings
23/01 Subs paying evening and Warbirds – two PC’s connected
together allows two pilots in a Spitfire an ME109 (or any other two 2nd
World War Aircraft to engage in a dogfight to the death {from previous experience,
more likely to be due to crashing than being shot down!}
13/02 The A and B certificate explained.
27/02 We are trying to get Ian Kirby (ex Concorde engineer) to
come and give us a talk either 27th Feb or 13th March.
On the other date we will have a Video evening.
13/03 See above.
27/03 Bring and Buy – bring along anything you want to sell and
plenty of cash!
The AGM
Just 24 attended this year. We started with the Chairman’s report
and Tony said that although it had been a good year the summer field at Reigate
had been poor, both for safety and the wind.
Keith then showed slides of the new summer field we have agreed
with the same farmer. This has more space to fly, and even a slope to soar from!
The Fire Brigade premises are still available for meetings in
the short term, but we are looking for somewhere permanent.
Tony proposed that we use Brooklands for some Saturdays, so that
we can fly our scale models and jets. This was agreed and 27th April
has been booked. The cost is no more than Apps Farm is.
Tony announced a new committee post of safety officer. Also that
the committee has prepared a risk assessment to protect the club in case of
an accident.
Dave presented the accounts, which had been audited by Tony Major
for the first time. The proposal was for subs to remain the same as last year.
They are due now, and are:
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Seniors
|
£50
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Plus BMFA
|
£22
|
|
Senior Social
|
£40
|
Plus BMFA
|
£22
|
|
Old Age Flyers
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£30
|
Plus BMFA
|
£22
|
|
Old Age Social
|
£28
|
Plus BMFA
|
£22
|
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Junior age 15
|
£19
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Plus BMFA
|
£12
|
|
Junior age 16
|
£21
|
Plus BMFA
|
£12
|
|
Junior age 17
|
£23
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Plus BMFA
|
£12
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Please note that if more than one member of a family join,
the BMFA have reduced rates - check the BMFA
web site for Details
Election of the committee followed. It is unchanged except
for Tony Major is to be chairman, Tony Fuller vice chairman, Mark is safety
officer, Colin and Luke competition secretaries.
Tony said the show is planned for 22nd June at
Brooklands, and will follow the same format as last year. Scale guest flyers
may be invited. The GTBA show will also take place again, and we are invited.
We will organise some visits to shows, probably Woodsprings
and Kenley.
Kit is a member of Brooklands and offered original plans
of aircraft for modelling. See him for information. Slope soaring will be on
27th December, phone Jeff before 8.30 for venue or meet at his house
before 9.00.
Club Meetings: "Warbirds", a PC flight sim game,
on 23rd January, which is a subs paying nights. Bring and Buy – 27th
March
E-mail Addresses
It would be nice to collect as many of the club member's
e-mail addresses as possible. It will allow you early sight of the newsletter
and early warning of any sudden change of plans. If you have an e-mail address
send me an e-mail (to keith.england AT connectfree.co.uk) and cc the club secretary, Jeff
Cosford at: jeff@jcosford.freeserve.co.uk. Just title it "Club e-mail list"
you don't need to write anything else.
Servo thoughts – by Jeff
Flying my 10lb Excitation I have learnt something about
the limits of standard servos, and how to extract maximum performance from them.
You may find this useful if moving to heavier models.
Why use standard servos? Cost. They produce 3kg of pull,
and cost under a tenner, but to increase to 5.5kg means a servo that costs nearly
3 times as much. What is the risk of using a servo with too little thrust? Sloppy
controls, at high speed – the ailerons and rudder in particular will not give
the deflection you call for when you move the stick. So I maximised the performance
of my standard servos. Firstly, I fitted a 6v battery. This increase speed and
torque. The boxes on the Hitec servos tell you by how much. 3kg rises to 3.5kg.
Remembering that current drain increases, I fitted a 1300mah NiMH battery.
Secondly, I noticed that I had ATV set below 100% on some
of the primary controls, and was using dual rates. That is inefficient. So I
set ATV on the tranny to 140% to get the maximum servo travel, then was able
to use the inner hole on the servo arm and the outer hole on the (large) control
surface horn, and get the same movement that I had, but with greater torque.
I also cancelled the dual rate settings.
You can only do this with computer radios. The FF7 will
go up to 120%, and the FF8 and FF9 up to 140%.
Digital servos? These are the way to go. I have watched
even small models fitted with digital servos, and they make a big difference
in model response, but at the expense of high battery drain. So I plan to try
these when they are cheaper.
Finally – I have bought some Hitec HS 81MG’s for my mini
ellipse slope soarer. These are micro size and have metal gears yet produce
2.5 kg! That is nearly as much as a standard servo. They are a little dearer
but good value as usual with Hitec. Jeff
|
Slope Soaring Day
Thursday 27th December dawned wet and dull, (which
at least meant it wasn't cold!) However it did seem to put quite a lot
of you off from braving the elements. This was a shame as it actually
turned out to be quite a nice day with a good Westerly wind. Still by
9:00 am, 15 of us were on the way to Butser Hill near Petersfield on the
A3. I'll let Jeff Cosford continue the story with words and pictures……
Rosso believes this is the 23rd time we have had our
annual post Christmas slope outing, and I don't think I have missed one.
It was a westerly wind, which is one direction there are few slopes for.
But we decided on Butser Hill, which goes from West to Northeast.
16 of us turned out and I think all of us flew. At
one time there must have been 12 in the air.
The Zagis have made it easier for beginners to learn
the art of slope flying without breaking anything!
Terry and Ray had new Zagis, Tony, Tony, Mark, Dave,
Paul, Alan, Geoff, Keith, JB and I all had old Zagis.
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Posing for the Michelin Man look-alike
contest
Zagis chase each other across the
slope as Terry tries to work out just how much lead his needs before it
stops flying backwards,
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John T had several unusual models – see
picture on right.
Keith flew his twinjet in glider form-
it looked good, and flew surprisingly well, also a Diablo, a nice low
winger. Rosso had a powered X-Fire. I had the new Mini- Ellipse. Apart
from Gus who had the misfortune of being shot down by Dave, the rest of
returned with models more or less in one piece.
The local fliers were surprised to see their hill
hijacked by EDMFC, but were very good spirited about it, so many thanks
to them. Most were members of the Meon Valley club.
Jeff, Rosso and John deep in
concentration
The Happy Flyers Enjoy Lunch at a Conveniently
Close by Pub.
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John forgot to bring the tail for
his ‘plane – but flew it anyway!
After lunch at the pub we returned for more until
it was too dark to see.
Anyone want another outing, say on a Sunday? What
I shall do is to put the glider in the car on Saturday in the summer and
go to Collie Hill on the way back from Merstham, if the wind is SW. Jeff
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Finally
Kit Wallis tells us that Brooklands are keen to obtain three
flying models of Barnes Wallis’ designs such as the Wellington or Wellesley.
They are looking for them to be electric powered or jets and can provide some
financial encouragement. Brooklands have drawings for most of Barnes’ (and Vickers’)
designs and copies of these can be made available. Barnes Wallis made flying
models of many of his designs including his hypersonic airliner that might have
been 10x as fast as Concorde – there’s a thought! Contact Kit Wallis (any of
the committee will point you in his direction) for more information.
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