Flight Log. August, Next Meeting: Wednesday, August 16th, :30PM ->>> Davis Field, Sudbury <<< Flying Optional Beforehand

Transcription

1 Charles River Radio Controllers Flight Log August, 2017 Next Meeting: Wednesday, August 16th, :30PM ->>> Davis Field, Sudbury <<< Flying Optional Beforehand

2 President s Message August Meeting at Davis Field We will be having our last summer meeting at Davis Field on August 16th. Official business meeting will be at 7:30. You are welcome to come earlier and fly. Event Calendar RES contest will be on Sunday, August 27 at Davis field. The contest will start at 9 AM. Please contact David Spielman for details. Solar Eclipse Well, due to various factors, I haven t been flying since July 4th. As a matter of fact, I ve been neglecting my club duties, so I don t have a whole lot of RC to talk about, but we do have a partial solar eclipse coming up on the afternoon of the 21st. At the meeting on the 16th, I ll have some special glasses for safely viewing the eclipse (my son s high school band is selling them for $5 per pair of glasses as a fundraiser). Quantities are limited, so if you want one, send me an . - John Eppling, President 2 AMA Charter #339

3 Review - the new E-Flite Radian Submitted by Lincoln Ross I'm sure everyone's heard of the Radian, and for good reason. It handles well, weighs only around 29 ounces with battery, and thermals well. It doesn't take very long to put it together. You could take the box to the field and put it together there, and fly. This holds for the original and the new 2 meter versions without ailerons. I don t know a lot about the old aileron version, but its reputation wasn t that great. There are bigger and Image from smaller Radians too, but this review doesn t cover them. I think both the old and new 2 meter size would make good trainers, for those people who won't build an Olympic II. Mine is about ¾ of an inch short of 2 meters. The original Radian was a Parkzone product. The new one is E-Flite. It comes with a Spektrum AR ghz receiver, but I'm unreasonably prejudiced against Spektrum and put in my own receiver. 3 AMA Charter #339

4 Good changes: -It gets to 200 meters in under 30 seconds. As I recall, the original Radian had some trouble doing this. At one point, stiffer prop blades were offered, which I think helped. With the new Radian, there's really no need to soup it up for ALES. -The new wing mount looks like it's tougher and definitely holds the wing in place better. It uses two screws, which would be easy to lose. Only one spare is provided. If you want more spares, the screws seem to be M3 X 21 flat heads. I m pretty sure 20mm will do. Make sure you have a small phillips head screwdriver with you when you fly. -It seems to me the model is less nose heavy than the old version. I'm using 1 quarter taped to the tail instead of 2. - The tailboom seems stiffer. The old Radian's tailboom was floppy enough to affect the handling, though it's easy to stiffen it up. 4 AMA Charter #339

5 Old problems retained: -The control cable housings still come loose. It's probably best to fix this before the first flight. The last staples were already loose when I opened the box I used thread to stitch the ends of the housings through the fuselage, but something else is probably better. -The housings are poorly glued and come loose elsewhere as well. Some people retain these with tape. I may use, as I did on my previous Radian, Kraft paper saturated with Titebond 3 mixed with water. The Kraft paper dries to a nice surface and, besides retaining the housings, adds a lot of stiffness. However, when you're using it on the rear fuselage, you should probably jig everything in place so that it dries without warps. The instructions say you can glue the foam with almost anything, so feel free to experiment here. -The horizontal stab slides around easily. This isn't a big problem if you keep track of it. I think heftier tape or maybe some kind of glue would help here, but I haven't tried either. The manual says that you should only use foam safe glue for the horizontal stab, unlike the rest of the model. -Maybe there are hidden changes in the nose area to make it tougher, but if so I didn't see them. I've seen a lot of accordion-nosed old Radians. Various reinforcements have been used. I may try the kraft paper trick I mentioned above. -The servos are arranged unfortunately. As you can see in the picture, if you don t put the elevator pushrod in the outermost servo hole, it s likely to bump up against the other servo if you use the full travel. It s best to use the full travel of the servo, but that means too much throw. Reduced elevator throw and full servo travel would require rearranging the servos to prevent the problem. I went to a fancier radio with travel volume adjustment, but I may go back and fix it right at some point. 5 AMA Charter #339

6 -The magnets come loose from the canopy very easily. If this happens at high altitude, you may just need to get a new canopy. If you recover the canopy it can be retained with a rubber band or tape. It was obvious that very little glue was used for the magnets on the canopy I have. People tell me that Goop is a good adhesive for this. Reinforcements: As I mentioned, I don t think the new Radian needs as much reinforcement as the old one. Other people have used carbon fiber or fiberglass, usually with epoxy. I ve used thinned Titebond with kraft paper. Repairs: The manual says you can use many different kinds of glue, except on the horizontal stabilizer. Don t throw away all of the foam cradle that the Radian comes packed with. It appears to be the same kind of foam that the model itself is made of. The stuff isn t thard to sand, so you can actually fill in reasonably large dings neatly. For small dings, an iron applied sparingly over a wet paper towel can make the foam swell back up. Summary: Don t be discouraged by the nit picking. The model really does fly well, for minimal effort to put it together. Consider using a marker or paint to darken the underside of the wing so you can see it when it gets really high. 6 AMA Charter #339

7 Past Meeting Notes July 19th, Davis Field, Sudbury, MA Five pilots were present at the meeting. David Spielman chaired. The previous meeting s minutes and the treasurer s report were approved. Meeting Info This Month s Meeting Our next general meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, August 16th, 7:30PM, at Davis Field in Sudbury. Club meetings are open to the public, we welcome visitors and guests to learn about model aviation and CRRC. Summer meetings are held at the field, with a brief business meeting usually preceded by flying time, and followed by mosquitos. Directions to Davis Field, Route 117, Sudbury: AMA Charter #339

8 CRRC Summer 2017 Events RES and 2-Meter Glider Contest Please note that the RES/2M contest will be held on SUNDAY, August 27th! Fall Float-Fly Details TBD - likely a September date 8 AMA Charter #339

9 Other Events Saturday, September 16 th :00AM till Dusk Burlington RC Flying Field Blanchard Rd, Burlington MA Registration starts at 8am Spectators are welcome! Landing Fee - $10 dollars Spectators are free To register as a pilot you must be a current AMA member Pilots of all skill levels welcome Food and Drink available between 12 and 2 PM Demos from Top Pilots at 12 PM Tech Help from top talent, Bring your questions Helicopter 101 Beginners table at 11 AM Autorotation contest Bring Music you would like to fly to, PA system provided Raffle Thinking about learning to fly Helicopters? Try our flight simulator! Rain Date: Sunday September 17th AMA Charter #339

10 Club Information Officers President John Eppling Vice President (unfilled) Treasurer Dave Marshall Membership Secretary David Spielman Recording Secretary Dan Sullivan Webmaster Adam Smith Newsletter Editor Adam Smith Chief Instructor Dick Williamson Raffle Chairman David Spielman Instruction To start your your instruction please call the Chief Instructor, Dick Williamson. You will be matched with one of the Instructors. Types of instruction B = Building G = Glider E = Electric F = Fuel H = Helicopter Dick Willamson - B,G,E Sudbury Fritz Bien - B,G,E Concord Derick Veliz - B,E Acton John Weigel - B Natick Richard Gammon - BGEF West Boylston Ken Antonellis - G,E,F Natick Bruce Schneider - G,E Hudson Lincoln Ross - G,E Waltham Dave Walter - G Hudson Jon Leehey - F Wayland Tony Davids - H Stow General Info Flying Sites Go to the CRRC Website and select the Flying Sites tab to see the various sites. The site page will give current weather and site information. Keys to the Bill Martin Field To get a key for Bill Martin Field in Medfield please Ken Antonellis at kxa@verizon.net. Ken is the key-master. The key for the 2016 season is key #15. Ken may have keys at the meeting. A $5 deposit is required the first time you receive a key. Tree Climbers Lloyd Keyes(Wayland) or Scott (Sudbury) Stephen Canessa The Tree Guy Hartney Greymont (Medfield) Sean Comer thescomer@gmail.com 10 AMA Charter #339

11 Membership Application Name Street Town State Zip Telephone AMA No. Birth Date DO NOT include my personal contact informa?on in the club phone book IMPORTANT: You must be an AMA member to receive a CRRC membership AMA Junior membership is free! By submitting this membership application you agree to comply with the AMA safety code, including documents 550 and 560 found at: To receive membership card and field pass, bring this application to a club meeting or mail to the membership secretary: David Spielman Membership Secretary CRRC 66 Oak St Wellesley, MA membership@charlesriverrc.org You may pay by check or use PayPal. Make checks to Charles River RC, or use PayPal to: membership@charlesriverrc.org SAVE $5 EARLY BIRD DUES RATES ARE LISTED Member category Before March 1, 2017 After March 1, 2017 OPEN Member $45 $50 JUNIOR Member Under 19 before July 1, 2017 Free if AMA member Free if AMA member Full time STUDENT $25 $30 SENIOR member If age 60 before July 1, 2017 $35 $40 SENIOR member If age 75 before July 1, 2017 Free if AMA member Free if AMA member Family member additional to OPEN membership $25 $30 Totally optional Club donation (Supports field rental) Optional $ AMA Charter #339