PILOT TALK Colonial Virginia Aeromodelers Chapter 1474

Transcription

1 PILOT TALK Colonial Virginia Aeromodelers Chapter 1474 Volume No. x Issue No. 11 Editor: Ken Howard Sr. Date: 5 Nov 2010 President: John Backes (757) jb753@cox.net Secretary: Anthony Morning (757) toonafish@netzero.net Safety Officer: Cliff Casey (757) rccasey@cox.net Activities: Joe Musika (757) jajlmus@verison.net Newsletter/Badges: Ken Howard Sr. (757) kwhoward1@cox.net Vice President: Bill Van Cleave (757) b72750vc@aol.com Treasurer: Ivan Davis (757) deanie2@cox.net Field Marshal: John Hofmeyer (804) Field Maint: Tom Treese (757) tmtreese@msn.com Training: Alan Fry (757) swklute@verizon.net Visit the CVA Web Site at: John Backes President President s Column 2010 Meeting Schedule All meetings (except for the Christmas Dinner) in 2010 will be held at the Williamsburg Christian Church on the second Thursday of the month, starting at 7 PM. The next meetings will be 11 November and 9 December (Christmas Dinner) Directions to Williamsburg Christian Church The building is at 200 John Tyler Lane. At the intersection of Route 199 and Route 5, turn the OPPOSITE direction that you would turn to go to the field. Go 50 yards and turn right (left is Strawberry Plains Rd.). You can t miss the Church; it is on the right just past the Professional Park that can be seen from Route 199. Everyone needs to be warned that there is an additional fine of $200 for going over 25 MPH and the cops are there a lot. MEETING LOCATION Williamsburg Christian Church 200 John Tyler Lane 7PM Thursday 11 November

2 Christmas Dinner The Christmas Dinner will be held Dec. 9 at the Peking Mongolian & Japanese Restaurant in Williamsburg. The website is The cost will be adults - $15.00; children (4 to 9 years old) $ The address is 120 Waller Mill Road, Williamsburg. Directions From Newport News take I64 west exit at 238 (Camp Perry), make left onto VA-143E, turn right onto VA-132 (second light), turn right onto US60/Bypass Road. Stay on Bypass Road, turn right at second light onto Waller Mill Road. Peking is in the far corner of the Big Kmart Shopping Center. This year we will be collecting for the dinner in advance. Make your checks payable to CVA and mail to Ivan Davis, 127 Red Berkshire, Williamsburg, Va by December 3. Write the number of adults and children in the memo area. You may also pay at the meeting but ONLY if you have cash in an envelope with your name and the number of adults and children attending written on the outside or a check with the number of adults and children written in the memo area. If you pay your money and are not able to attend, we will make a refund. We need to answer a couple of questions during the November meeting. First, will we be having the bring a gift get a gift exchange and if so, what is the dollar amount? For new members, under this program you can participate in the gift exchange if you want but it is not required. If you bring a gift then you get a gift. In the past, the gifts were approximately $15.00 value. The gifts will be in three categories: Flying, women and children. You bring a wrapped gift and place it on the appropriate table. Later you will select a gift from the same category. Please note - the women can participate in the flying or the women s category or both. The flying category is not limited to the men. The second question is what charity should we support at the Christmas Dinner. Is it time to stretch? The overall activity of the club seems to be down this year. There have been several beautiful flying days when only a few pilots came out to fly. Are things getting stale for you? Maybe it is time for you to stretch your limits and try something new. You can do that in either the flying or building areas. For flying you might try a new type of flying pattern, 3D, combat, soaring, etc. You can also go bigger or smaller than what you have flown. Both ends of the size spectrum have increased greatly in the last few years. How about trying electric? Just try something new or something that you have not done is a long time. Even if you do not try a new area, you can make a conscious effort to improve you skills by flying with purpose and practicing. It can be as small as trying to make a perfect landing every time. In the building area, you can go to the next level. If you have only built ARFs, then try building a kit. If you have built a kit, then try building from plans. Try modifying a design, designing your own plane or making something from spare parts. You could also add scale details to an existing plane. The idea is to try something new in either the building or flying areas to bring some excitement back into your hobby. 2

3 Show and Tell We are going to have a short show and tell at the end of each meeting. You are invited to bring a new plane, a neat gadget or to show an interesting building technique. Contact Me Phone: jb753@cox.net Address: 8630 Diascund Road, Lanexa, Va Minutes Buck Morning Secretary C.V.A MINUTES Oct 14, 2010 The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm at the Williamsburg Christian Church. Twenty-three members were present. The President announced the minutes of the Sept 9, 2010 meeting as published in the last newsletter. A motion was made and seconded to accept the minutes. A vote was taken and the motion passed unanimously. The treasurer reported on the club finances Site Improvement: Tom Treese spoke on how well the grass is growing but that the next grass cutting may be affected by the weather. Activities: Joe Musika spoke on how well the BAGS event was. Joe also mentioned the club picnic set for Oct 16 th. Anthony Morning spoke about the Profile plane event set for Oct 30 th. John Backes mentioned that Bill Coada and Sean Minor will be participating in the New Kent Airport Aviation Days event by doing an RC demonstration. Bill Coada was asking if anyone from CVA was available to provide a trainer type airplane to show the public at this event. Tom Treese offered to provide a trainer for the event. Carl Rannigan gave information on the Cub Fly and the number of teddy bears donated to the state police. John Backes suggested that in the next year the club should do more publicizing of events to give the club more exposure. Safety: Nothing to report. Training: Steve Klute made parting comments on his exit as Training Coordinator. Alan Fry is the CVA new Training Coordinator. 3

4 Old Business: John Backes commented on now being the time to set a location for the club Christmas Party. There was some discussion during the meeting and Ken Howard Sr. made a motion that the club should return to the Peking Restaurant. The motion was seconded and a vote was taken. The motion passed unanimously to have the Christmas party at Peking this year. New Business: John Backes showed a preliminary budget subject to approval by the club. A motion was made and seconded to adopt the preliminary budget. A vote was taken and the motion passed unanimously. Show and Tell: Bob Kramer spoke about the Williamsburg Airport celebrating an anniversary with some static displays of aircraft. Tom Treese donated a 75 MHz (Non-Air) Hitec radio to the club. The club auctioned the radio and Jon Persons was the winner. Les Britt showed a flyer for the Greensprings National Park. New member Ryan Lewton introduced himself at the meeting. Ryan is a past RC flyer looking to get back into the hobby, Welcome Ryan. There being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 7:40pm. Activities Joe Musika Activities Coordinator Well let s welcome November in, Brrrr!. The first weekend in Oct was our BAGs Fly-In, held at the CVA field. Saturday we had nice weather, and 21 pilots came out, with over 30 planes, Sunday's weather was perfect for a fall flying day. However we had fewer pilots and planes but at 3PM, the field was opened for general flying. Thanks to Carl Rannigan for a great weekend. DATES TO REMEMBER Christmas Dinner 9 December 2010 The second event of the month was our annual picnic. Smaller turnout than was hoped for. However, the members that come out enjoyed themselves. There was a strong wind, but it was not a deterrent to our stalwart flyers. A big hand to Jimmy Cash and Mrs. for a job well done organizing the picnic. October's last Saturday brought a new event to the field, the "Mild and Wild Profile". It featured normal pattern flying for the first half hour (the Mild part) and the (Wild) featured hovering, and crazy patterns. The final fling of the day featured a mass hover consisting of 6 planes. The event went over well, so hopefully, it'll be repeated next year. This ended the flying events for this year. 4

5 The last event will be the annual Christmas Party on Thursday 9 December 10 at 7pm, at the Peking restaurant, by-pass rd. (K-Mart shopping Center). We hope to see you there. Safety Cliff Casey Safety Officer No safety items to report. Training Corner Alan Fry Training Officer Before I get into this month s training article, there are a couple miscellaneous items that I would like to discuss: I would like to thank Steve Klute for his great articles over the last few years. I will consider myself fortunate if I can do half as well as he did. Thanks again, Steve! Website of the Month There have been many occassions at the field where someone has shared with me a favorite website. Therefore, I thought it may be helpful to publish in our newsletter a Website of the Month. To be successful, I need YOUR input. So if you have a favorite RC related website, let me know and I will put it in the newsletter. Favorite online store, how to build, how to fly, etc- send me the link! My address: AlanWF -CVA@yahoo.com The source of this month s training article came from Alan Tong. He has a web page with links to about anything you can imagine. If you are looking for information, Alan Tong s webpage is a good place to start: 5

6 Vanessa CG Machine The manual to my last plane stated in regards to Center of Gravity: Caution: Do not inadvertently skip this step! A tail heavy airplane will be very unstable and very sensitive to elevator input. Conversely, a nose heavy airplane will be sluggish to elevator inputs and have a fast landing speed. There are many tools that can be used to determine an aircraft s CG. The Vanessa CG Machine described below is one tool that can be used. I would like to thank Bill Denner for teaching me about the Vanessa CG Machine. Author = Jim Archer, Norwich, UK Deceased C G Position - Calculating and Measuring Note: The 'Vanessa CG Machine' was designed by the late Jim Archer, a modeler in the truest sense of the word "amateur", one who loves the hobby. It is offered here in memoriam to Jim so that others may benefit from his contributions to aero modeling. Measuring The C.G. location on your model aircraft is one of the most important factors in determining how well it flies. It can also be one of the most difficult parameters to measure accurately. Somebody once ed me a set of instructions for the construction of an extremely inexpensive and easy to build piece of apparatus for doing this. I'm so pleased with this that I use it all the time. I call it 'Vanessa' - after my second wife (because it is rather elegant but extremely simple). In most cases, the C.G. range will be clearly marked on the plan, or given in the instructions. I have encountered several kits and ARTF models where the C.G. position has been wrong - and later amended by the manufacturers. Most models tend to be balanced at 25-30% of the Mean Aerodynamic Chord (M.A.C.) Center of Gravity Locating the exact C.G. position on your mode is one of the most difficult parameters to measure, as anyone will attest who has tried to balance a low wing monoplane on a pair of 6

7 pencils stuck in a 2 x 4. If you want to know where the C.G. is located on almost any configuration of model plane accurately, and I mean within 1/16, make this device! It works on any model, from a 1/2A two channel to a 30-lb. 1/4 scale Tiger Moth. It works every time, is simple to use, and it s accurate. It can be made of almost anything kicking around the workshop - a piece of 1 x 2 (or 2 x 2) wood about a foot long; a piece of 1/4 or 3/8 dowel also about a foot long; some flexible but strong cord about 1/8" in diameter; a pulley you can hook up to the ceiling (preferably over a bench where your plane can sit), and a little plumb bob. Construction: Drill a hole parallel to the long dimension near the end of the 1 x 2. It must be snug enough so that you can just turn the dowel by hand. If it is too loose put a saw-cut through the hole and a bit beyond it, and a bolt with a wing nut (as shown in Fig. A) so that it can be adjusted by hand. A hole in the other end for the "hanging rope," a pulley, and two nails in a stud to snub the "hanging rope," and that part is ready. Next, make two equal loops of soft rope or cord to support the model. The pair I use are 40" in circumference, and they handle most 40 to 60 size models. Cut two pieces of soft cord 40" long and tie the ends together. Pull them taut over your index fingers to make sure that the lengths are equal, and then put a drop of CA on each knot to assure they stay forever. Now make a small plumb bob. I made one out of a 2" length of 3/8" diameter aluminum rod. I chucked it in a drill press and filed a point on one end. A small axial hole at the other end and a cross-hole made a neat place to tie a piece of string or thread. I discovered later that wallpaper stores sell little lead bobs that are perfect. About a foot and a half of thread tied in a slipknot will allow you to adjust the height of the plumb bob. Use: To use this marvelous device, place the model aircraft on the bench with the center of the wing more or less below the pulley in the ceiling. Lower the dowel and support to a couple of inches above the wing. Place the 40" loops around the wing as shown in Fig. C or D, and wrap them around the dowel 4 or 5 times (same on both sides). Since the C.G. is normally well forward of the center of the chord of the wing, there will be more weight on the forward side of the, loop than the rear, and the angle of dangle will be different fore and aft. Thus the rope would like to slip forward, but the wraps around the dowel provide enough friction to prevent this. Put the plumb bob string over the dowel. Usually it is more convenient to have the plumb bob on the inside of the loop, hanging over the fuselage, or wing root. Carefully hoist the model a couple of inches off the bench. Steady it until it reaches a state of equilibrium. By hand rotating the dowel in its hole, adjust the model to a level flight attitude. An important detail in using this device is to have the dowel parallel to the wing spar. Adjust the slipknot on the plumb bob so that it hangs just above the model and - Voila! - it points to the Center of Gravity. Since all of the weight of the model is being supported by the dowel, the C.G. will be directly beneath the dowel (wherethe plumb bob is pointing). Put a piece of masking tape on the model where the plumb bob is 7

8 pointing, and mark the spot with a felt tip pen. Or better still; put the tape on before you hoist the model, mark where the C.G. should be, and then get the good/bad news when you hoist it. While it is still up there, you can add weight to the nose or tail, adjust the attitude to level flight again by rotating the dowel, and see before your very eyes where the C.G. has moved to. After a couple of tries you should know exactly how much weight to put where. Versatility: Fig. C shows a high wing trainer, but the device works equally well with a low or mid wing pattern type aircraft (Fig. D). With a biplane, just put the loop around both wings (Fig. E). You say you have a J3 Cub with wing struts that get in the way! No problem; make a pair of 40" ropes with a loop at one end and a little wire hook at the other end. Feed this under the wing, around the dowel, and put the hook in the loop. If you have flaps or strip ailerons that come close to the fuselage, and may not support the weight put on them by the ropes, a couple of things can be done. Make a single large loop of rope and sling it under the fuselage fore and aft of the wing as shown in Fig. F. Tape the rope to the bottom of the fuselage, far enough behind the wing to keep the rope off the trailing edge. Or cut a piece of balsa an inch or so wide and a bit longer than the chord of the wing at the root. Place this under the wing with the rope beneath. Make sure they stay in place as you hoist the model. A delta can be tested with the single loop fuselage sling method (Fig. F) by putting a strip of 3/32 balsa beneath the fuselage. The strip must be long enough to be held by the front sling, and protrude behind the wing for the rear sling. 8

9 9

10 10

11 Pictures from the BAGS Giant Scale Fly-in 9-10 Oct 2010 by Carl Purgold Carl Purgold tough landing Randy Rogers another nice landing Profile Fly-In 30 Oct 2010 by Carl Rannigan 11

12 Editors Note Ken Howard Sr. Editor HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO: John Persons Mike Corrigan Ivan Davis Tex Harrison Ken Howard Sr. Ken Howard Jr. Bob Kramer Bob Marsh The official CVA FREQUENCY CONTROL POLICY is to place a pin in the frequency control board prior to turning on your transmitter, and to remove the pin from the board after each use. FLY SAFELY 12