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President: Terry Kitson
Vice President: CJ Norman.
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John Bransgrove: Chairman |
Alan Dobson: Secretary |
Bert Choney: Treasurer |
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Ray EvansCompetition Secretary |
Tony Major: Field Liason Officer |
Geoff Ward: Safety Officer |
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Keith England: P.R.O. |
Tony Fuller: Social & Membership Secretary |
The show season is over and we are back at the Cobham site now. There were a couple of shows cancelled due to bad weather but otherwise has been not too bad locally this year. I'm not sure but we don't seem to have had many days cancelled, maybe just earlier in the year? The wind often not seems to be in the wrong direction but then it has been somewhat variable, meandering even. Indeed on a couple of Saturdays the wind changed through 180 degrees making placing the arrow on the fence difficult to get right. Under such conditions the main thing to get right is to check with other flyers what's happening at the time.
On a point of safety, something I have noticed, and not just in our club, is that most problems and damage is usually down to poor attention, preparation and maintenance. Twice this year I have been guilty of not checking for stripped servo gears before putting the model in the car, fortunately found before taking off! Check control surface movements are correct before every flight, and leaning over the prop to remove the glow clip - again occasionally guilty here on both counts! Taxiing towards the pits i.e. on the pits side of the orange safety fence is potentially dangerous - certainly not safe. Running the tank empty, and revving up models when people are in front of the prop are also sights seen at the local field. Flying against the circuit is un-attentive and risks a mid-air - I've even seen this type of flying at shows resulting in mid-airs, several at the Hop Farm being a classic examples. There's an old saying from the electronics field 'Before you switch on your equipment; switch on your brain' - a good maxim for model flyers.
The first Monday night back at the church hall in Bookham was well attended and great manic fun as usual. Other winter events are on the way - dates elsewhere herein along with other dates for you diary including the Xmas nosh and the AGM.
Keep it safe guys, thanks. JB
Can everyone who has trophies please let any of the committee have them back before the AGM please.
Tony Major has fuel available, If you want some just give Tony a ring and he
will bring it down to the field the following Saturday.
10% Nitro+ML70 oil = £12
5% Nitro+ML70 = £10
This will be held at 8 p.m. sharp. Please try to be there.
Club Christmas Meal 7pm for 7:30 - Surbiton Golf Club, £18.50 per person. All members and their family are welcome so please give your name and a deposit of £10 per person to Tony Fuller.
The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that this is on this year's AGM
agenda. So what exactly is it and why is it being discussed at the AGM?
First person view is the amazing new development of combining an on-plane camera
with a headset/visor that pilots wears which allows them to fly a model aircraft
just like they are actually in the aircraft. The units can be anything from
a simple fixed straight ahead camera in the cockpit to a head controlled pan
and tilt mechanism so the camera will look where the pilot looks to a full GPS
unit which will give altitude, speed, direction and even an arrow telling the
pilot which direction it is to get back to the runway. Prices rise accordingly!
BMFA rules on this have quickly become clear. The visored pilot must be on a buddy box so that a safety pilot can take normal control back immediately if the pilot gets disorientated or loses control.
This means that if the club had a first person view set up - anyone in the club could fly it as there would be the normal instructor ability to take control or do the take off and landing. Even those members too nervous to be willing to fly the plane could enjoy a passenger flight - particularly if the pan & tilt head turning was available as they could look wherever they liked while the plane was flown. The possibility of formation flying is particularly fascinating!
These set ups are still quite expensive for the individual to consider so the committee would like to canvass the members view on whether a club system is worth purchasing out of club funds?
I went to the Nationals again this year and met up with Pete Ross and Jeff Cosford - Jeff and I were competitors in the Fun Fly events and Pete was there for the experience, the bargains and beer. The NATS takes place at Barkston Heath RAF airfield in Lincolnshire and is a really excellent place to see all types of model flying. The control line disciplines consist of team, combat, scale, aerobatics, and speed including pulse jets. As all these are done and controlled on the end of a couple of bits of wire the mind boggles. (How does the mind boggle?) Anyhow, it's all fast and furious stuff particularly with the combat where two control liners chase each other with streamer attached (on the planes that is!) with the idea of cutting the streamers - mid-airs guaranteed! The R/C scale competition aircraft are stunning and with the world-class models and competition flyers certainly holds the attention. There is a normal flight line going all day with jets and big models and the usual stuff. During the display they held a couple of rounds of the Jet Masters series so it can get pleasantly serious. Then there's the IMAC, helicopter and pylon areas all making up loads of diverse flight lines to visit. In the evening there was loads of indoor flying in the main hanger which was divided in to two main areas netted off; one for small lightweight stuff, free flight and R/C, and another area for the larger 3D types. Of course there is a third area - the bar! So, there's lots of catching up with old pals and flying buddies. For those who remember them Colin Inwood, Adrian Childs, and 'Hairy' Ray were there again as always. Weather was pretty good though a bit windy on a couple of days. If anyone fancies a modelling weekend away the NATS is a great opportunity. Anyone can enter any of the competitions and I would thoroughly recommend it - Fun Fly is a good starting point as it is suitable for mixed abilities. JB
Further to the last issue on flying twins; I decided to modify an electric twin I'd been given so that a could experiment with engine failures and asymmetric flying 'safely' (not as safely as I'd hoped as it turned out!) As the aircraft had brushless motors and, therefore individual speed controllers I could programme my radio to allow either motor to be 'killed'. I set it up so that a three-position switch would kill either the left or right engine depending which way it was thrown. Just for good measure I also added a switch which gave throttle to rudder mixing such that full rudder at half throttle would give full power on one engine and zero on the other. The resulting 'new' aerobatic manoeuvres this allowed had to be seen to be believed!
So what did I learn? The main thing is that you can VERY easily get caught out. Using only enough power to maintain height, and with good rudder control, setting up a circuit and landing is quite easy. Indeed I had to really deliberately slow it down a lot at height to get it to go out of control at which point it would roll onto its back and spin. The good news is closing the throttle would allow very fast recovery as the turning prop has more drag than the stopped one, helping to un-spin the plane.
Climbing away from a missed approach is a completely different matter. Even
after lots of practice I still occasionally had to quickly switch the dead engine
back on to save the 'plane. Eventually I wasn't quick enough and flipped it
into the ground!
The twin is very well powered with both engines running but overshooting towards
the paintball woods with the starboard engine failed it was a real struggle
to gain enough height AND turn left clear of the woods. Trying just a little
too hard to either increase the climb or turn a little tighter and it would
snap over onto its back with very little warning.
Conclusions on twin flying with an engine failed
Keith