AMA Expo West was a step above

Transcription

1 AMA Expo West was a step above This year s show at the Pomona Fairplex was special Well, the highly advertised AMA show at the Pomona Fairplex has come and gone, and from your editor s point of view it was a super event. The exposition area was loaded with more than 100 exhibitors hawking their wares and included a very large swap-shop area. There were several places that had very reasonable specials on Ready to Fly models that were very tempting and, of course, the large array of every type of small tool imaginable. They did have a good deal on perriferating roffet bars. But the big deal was the outdoor flying area that included the R/C aircraft and helicopter area, a control line circle, rocket launch station, R/C car area with drag strip and the drone racing competition complex. It was incredible to watch some of these very young pilots navigate the course with their drones at extremely high speeds. Some of those guys were so young, I m surprised there was not a diaper changing station for them. Our group attended the AMA Membership Meeting on Saturday morning. The AMA President, Rich Hanson, chaired the meeting and discussed the FAA Authorization Bill. He said the FAA is working with the AMA and the relations are generally good. One thing they have been discussing is the FAA s desire to have remote ID on everything that flies. There is no mandate for models, at this time. You can imagine how difficult it would be for us. We need to support the AMA in every way we can, so they can be our voice in Washington. A couple of other things from the meeting: First, there is a small design change to the Model Aviation magazine you might (or might not) notice starting with the January issue. Second, there will be a Day of Giving on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving (Nov 27 th ) where AMA clubs around the country will have pilots fly for pledges that will go to charity. I don t have all the details yet, but will put them out when we find out more. RRCC CLUB OFFICERS President: Jeff Szueber Vice-President: Bob Baker Secretary: Rob Evans Treasurer: Larry Roberts Safety Coordinator: Jim Bronowski Field Director: Dale Yaney Newsletter Editor: Jim Bronowski Turbine Flying Director: Berry Hou ALL OFFICERS MAY BE CONTACTED AT: NEXT MEETING SATURDAY Nov 17th 10:00 am crowley field

2 Call to Order: Vice-President Bob Baker called to order the regular meeting of the Riverside RC Club at 10:08 AM on Saturday, October 20th, 2018 at Crowley Field. Minutes of the Previous Meeting: The meeting minutes of the September 2018 meeting were approved as written and published in the October 2018 Prop Talk newsletter by the members present. Old Business: Bob Estrella, a member of our club and newsletter editor of the Gilman Springs club, passed away due to a heart attack last Wednesday. He was very involved in promoting our hobby. The road at the main entrance to our field has repaired by the county by filling in some of the deep holes. However, continued use by the large trucks dumping the organic waste has resulted in a washboard surface near the entry and other spots down the road. There is still some dust, but not as much as before. There is still a back way in about a half mile down from our entrance. New Business: A couple of weeks ago, a vehicle came and placed some markers around the area. One was right on our final approach about 100 feet out. It looked like it might be markers for aerial mapping as they had white powder in a circle around the base of the marker. Larry Roberts contacted the land owners and they had no idea of what was going on. Jim Bronowski was asking if anyone had good directions to the AMA Expo so that he could create an with maps and info for any members of the club that will be attending the event this year. Show and Tell/Presentations: Raffle: Bob Jones showed his Bush Mule Electric Plane. It has landing lights, navigation lights, and bomb bay. It originally came with Styrofoam wheels, which he swapped out for some rubber ones to soften the landings when compared to the foam ones. The kit was bought from Hobby King. Paul Rinde showed a plane that he received from one of his buddies that is no longer flying. This was a Great Planes Easy Sport trainer. Paul restored it to flight ready status. He s going to be restoring and selling these planes to raise money for his friend. 2 Epoxy glues (take the glue), Blade Mini RC Helicopter, One Gallon 15% Glow Fuel, 3-cell LiPo Battery, and a New Spectrum Receiver. Meeting Adjourned at 10:43 by Bob Baker Minutes Submitted by Robert Evans

3 By Malcolm Oliver Radio Stuff Part Two The Conversion Malcolm s Musings Radio Stuff Part Two The Conversion Last month I described my introduction to the Graupner MZ-24 radio system, some 3 years ago. After an extensive evaluation, 18 months ago I took the plunge, sold my two SD- 10GS radios on EBay and my MZ-24 in order to buy the new Graupner MZ- 24 PRO. This introduced aluminum quad bearing 4096 resolution gimbals, 5000 Mah battery, text to voice messaging, triple rates with exponential, 30 model memories and other additional features. As an example of Graupner s fast response to issues, the USER created voice messages had an annoying fault. You could create 10 messages, but if you initially created 5-6 and allocated them to the appropriate flight function. Then later on you needed a couple more messages, the system added them at the beginning of the list. So message #1 became #2 and #2 became #3 etc. Hence the programming of the original messages was now wrong. Within a couple of weeks the firmware was updated to then add the new messages at the end of the list. Problem solved. 3 months after the introduction of the MZ-24 PRO the PRO firmware was made available as an on-line download for $50. This enabled updating an MZ- 24 to the PRO functionality except for not having a 5000 Mah battery and the aluminum gimbals. Graupner now sell the MZ-24 V2 which is the MZ-24 with the PRO update, for $400. As part of my research on line about R/C equipment in general I discovered Aircraft- World.com and Hyperion-World.com. They are effectively the same company; except for different theme colors the web sites are identical. They sell some Graupner equipment at substantially reduced prices. You can buy an MZ-24 for $210, so if you buy the PRO firmware download you then have a V2 for $260 but only with one receiver, the GR-24L (12 channel). That s incredible value. So I did just that and now had a back-up radio. They also sell Graupner receivers and servos at up to 60% off. Another interesting observation is that on Amazon.com, I regularly check out Graupner R/C products and sometimes they will be offered at a reduced price. Over a period of weeks the price may then continue to fall. I ve now bought several receivers, servos and ESCs that way. I ve not checked if the same situation occurs with other brands of R/C equipment but check it out. Last May Graupner then introduced their ultimate radio system, the MZ-32. It is a full 32 channel radio system with umpteen new features. I had to have one! So I sold my MZ-24 PRO/MZ-24 V2 systems and bought one. Due to some interesting circumstances, which I won t explain, I have two! In the November issue of Model Airplane News is a full description of it, so I won t bore you with a repeat but just cover a few of what I consider outstanding features. 1. All of the digital trims can be assigned to any function. Hence now my beloved Cross Trim function is available. Combined with the Aircraft Auto Trim mode the first flight of a new model should be free of any anxiety. Set up a momentary switch for this mode. After take off control the plane to fly straight and level on the sticks then flip the switch. The trim of the flight surfaces is then set to the position of the control sticks. Fine adjustment of aileron/elevator can then be achieved via the LH trim controls. You only need to set-up the Auto Trim mode for the first flight. 2. The use of the control and logic switches requires a very clear understanding of the functionality required. As an example I use 2 timers (there are 6 available). One for total flight time from the moment I start the motor and one for the total power on time as sensed by the throttle stick position, at 97% closed for OFF and 95% closed for ON. Both timers are controlled by the throttle cut switch and both can be reset to zero with a digital button (there are 8 of them). So here s the functionality. I use the throttle cut switch as a master, OFF stops both timers and ON starts the flight timer. Opening the throttle then starts the power on timer and it stops when the throttle is closed. At the end of the flight, cutting the throttle stops both timers enabling them to be compared. All of these actions can have a voice notice combined with them. 3. For snap rolls many radios have them as a pre-programmed function. The MZ-32 has all 4 combinations of left/right roll and positive/negative direction. I set up a 3 position switch to OFF/right roll/left roll then the snap is triggered by the elevator stick at 99% up travel for a positive snap and 99% down elevator for a negative snap. I also have a voice warning at +/- 75% elevator travel to notify me the snap roll function is active. The MZ-32 has Haptic feedback (a stick vibrator) which I would much prefer to have as a warning but at present Haptic warnings are only pre-assigned and not user configurable, hopefully Graupner will change that. 4. The MP3 player can now be controlled by up to 3 switch functions. Play/Pause Fast Forward Fast Rewind. Previously it could only be

4 controlled by the touch screen. So, using the text to voice editor I first created the statements that describe the aerobatic sequence I want to do. Just the way a caller would do for me. Then using some voice to MP3 software available as a free download (Moo0.com); the voice commands were then converted to an MP3 format and added to the play list on the MZ- 32. Now at the flip of a momentary switch I have my own caller in the same voice as all of the other announcements. The only drawback is that I need to flip the switch to both start and stop the player. It would be much better if the player automatically stopped after each maneuver announcement. I will be following up with Graupner to see if this is possible. 5. Lastly, the ability to gang receivers together, needed to achieve the full 32 channel functionality, gives the opportunity to create an S-bus system. This would be very useful for say a complex scale plane set-up. For example, to control, aileron, flap, retract, bomb drop, guns and landing lights you could install a 6-channel receiver in each wing and the only external connection required would be the +/- power leads. You could have the same arrangement in the tail and nose with one central receiver in the fuselage. If you also wanted to have a Gyro, then this has to be in the central receiver with normal power/signal leads going to each surface servo. The telemetry data is also only available from the central receiver. Well as you can see this is a long way and a long read from the capabilities of a single channel galloping ghost system. I guess you can also sense I m pretty excited about Graupner radio systems. Put your toes in the water with an MZ- 24 V2 or jump in with both feet and get an MZ-32. Here are a few pictures of a 9 channel PRO receiver with an integral Gyro installed in my 89 wing span AJ Slick 540 and the 120 Amp ESC with BEC. The system also incorporates all the telemetry listed earlier with no additional sensors. The 9 Ch. Rx Front view The 9 Ch. Rx Rear view The 120 Amp ESC w/bec The two MZ-32, turned OFF The two MZ-32, turned ON So that s it for this month. Don t forget that pre-flight system check every flight. Malcolm Oliver As you can see, Prop Talk newsletter is taking in some advertising dollars to help with our costs ($20 a month). To order this fantastic hair-growing hat go to www. Urachump.com. Please include your hat size and a hair sample. Special discounts for bald veterans.

5 Bob Jones with his Bush Mule on the left and Tundra on the right. The Mule has flaps, landing lights, operating bomb bay and reverse thrust for landing. Paul Rinde with a Great Planes Easy Sport trainer. This is one of the planes he is selling for a friend that is getting out of the hobby. It flies great and the motor has been tuned by Paul for a great idle and plenty of thrust. Inside part of the Pomona Fairplex Exhibition Hall at the AMA Expo West. Unlike past Expos, it allowed plenty of room to wander around an see everything. This area of the huge outdoor flying demonstration area was set aside as a control line circle. The pilot on the handle is none other than AMA President Rich Hanson. As always, there are so many great models on display. This beautiful scale PBY almost takes your breath away and it represents one of finest aircraft of WWII. On the other hand, there seems to be no end to the damage done at our field by brainless lowlifes who have no respect for the property of others. Our chairs and tables were beaten to a pulp and scattered about.

6 RIVERSIDE RADIO CONTROL CLUB P.O. Box 295 Homeland, CA 92548