Pikes Peak Radio Control Club Newsletter

Transcription

1 Pikes Peak Radio Control Club Newsletter Volume 39 / Number 05 AMA Club Number 179 / 2616 Glen Arbor Dr. / Colorado Springs, Colorado Phone: / Website: Club President Mark Gus Grissom / Club Vice President Kevin Kinzel / Club Safety Officer Rick Paquin /Club Treasurer Adam Heffington / Club Secretary Ryan Dillon Club Web Master Ryan Dillon / Club Newsletter Editor Keith Davis Next PPRCC Meeting: 7:00pm / May 2 nd (Mon) Pikes Peak Public Library on Union Local RC events happening this month: Pueblo s Warbird Warm-up Ft Collins Love-Air Jet Rally Last Month s Minutes... (April) Meeting Started: 7:00 pm Meeting Adjourned: 7:45 pm Members Attended: 28 New member(s): Jon and Amber Dowdy. Welcome! New Business: hand out throughout the community. Once again, Larry will be the CD for the event this year and said that volunteers are always welcome to help out the event. Airplane Funnies... Submitted by: Ryan Dillon 1) Club President Gus Grissom, stated that he received letters from Colorado Senators Udall and Bennett regarding the FAA/AMA situation. Both Senators thanked Gus for showing interest in the issue. Both Senators also stated they voted to pass Bill 223, keeping the FAA out of AMA rules and regulations. Get with Gus if you would like to read the complete letters in detail from the Senators. 2) Gus also mentioned that Dan Brunson and Kevin Kinzel built and posted a new PPRCC sign out at the airfield. You can see a picture of it on page 2. Old Business: 2) Club Treasurer Adam Heffington, talked about the club s March finances. Adam also brought in the final and official copy of the new ten year lease that the club now has for the airfield. 3) Club member Larry Laughlin, brought in a stack of PPRCC warbird flyers for club members to take and Just one more flight on this plane, Crap! Ok, just one more flight on this plane. Crap again! This line was sent in by club member Ryan Dillon. Ryan will collect his prize at the next club meeting for his participation and humor! PPRCC Newsletter 1

2 Show & Tell Rick Paquin s Ju-87 Stuka Air to Electric Retract Conversion In last month s newsletter, I did an article about how you can now purchase simple electric retracts to replace the more complicated air retracts. However, Eflite electric retracts are made for planes up to size airplanes. If you have an airplane that is larger than a 120 size and want electric retracts, what do you do? Don t despair, there s a company out there to the rescue! Rick talks about his newly completed ESM Ju- 87 Stuka. It has a DA-50 for power, a 80 ws and weighs about 17 pounds. It s called Down and Locked. They take your air retract system and convert it into an electric retract system. To briefly explain what they do, they simply remove the air cylinder from your air retracts and replace it with a servo and the necessary wiring. The results are fantastic but the process can be expensive, depending on what size and type of retracts (Main or Tricycle) that you want to convert. Check out the Down & Locked website or get with Dan at Pikes Peaks Hobby for more information. Rick s Stuka is also equipped with a pair of 37mm anti-tank guns and a bomb mounted on the centerline. New PPRCC Flying Field Sign This is the view that hundreds of Russian tanks saw seconds before their demise! New club sign built by club members Dan Brunson and Kevin Kinzel. Looks great! PPRCC Newsletter 2

3 All About Military Birds I read this article in an official Air Force magazine a few months ago. It looks like China has just entered the stealth race too, Here is part of the article... Testing of control surfaces before the flight clearly showed the exhausts moving asymmetrically in the pitch axis, indicating that the J-20 has some degree of thrust vectoring. The exhausts appear to have a sawtooth edge, suggesting that some design consideration has been given to stealth in the rear quarter. More information and pictures of the J-20 is slowly reaching the West, but it seems like China now has the ability and the technology to construct stealth aircraft. The J-20 on its maiden flight on January 11 th The first flight was successful. The Chinese J-20 stealth fighter aircraft has made its first flight, as videos and still images appearing on the Internet on Jan. 11, 2011, show the fighter taking off and landing at Chengdu's field in Sichuan province. News of the flight coincided with the second day of Defense Secretary Robert Gates' official China visit. Shown here, backside and underside views of the J-20 in flight. First Flight for Chinese Stealth: The J-20, China's first stealth aircraft - has made its first flight, as videos and still images appearing Tuesday on the Internet show the fighter taking off and landing at Chengdu's field in Sichuan province. News of the flight coincided with the second day of Defense Secretary Robert Gates' official China visit. Top view comparison Russia s T-50, the American F-22 and China s J-20. The artist s impression of the J-20 in this picture doesn t seem to be the same J-20 as the actual J-20 in the picture on the left Using a telephoto lens, this photographer got a good frontal shot of the J-20. Still photos of the J-20's underside reveal that its wing platform is similar to that of the F-22, although set back on the fuselage behind rather large canards. Those same photos are not of sufficient quality to deduce the placement or size of weapon bays. Side view comparison China s J-20, Russia s T-50 and the American F-22 Raptor. All 3 aircraft also incorporated thrust vectoring exhaust nozzles for improved maneuverability. Did you Know? The F-22 Raptor is currently the only aircraft in the world that can fly in hyper-cruise. Hyper-cruise is the ability to fly supersonic without needing to use afterburners to achieve supersonic speeds. PPRCC Newsletter 3

4 Show & Tell Keith Davis Hobbico Twin Star From the Safety Guy By Rick Paquin Ok, everybody it's starting to warm up a little now and more of you are going to venture out to the field and fly. If you haven't flown for a wail, check over your plane or planes. Keith holds up his electric powered Hobbico Twinstar. It hasn t flown yet, but with two Eflite.36 electric motors and the plane only weighing 7 pounds, it should be fast! Do some pre-flight maintenance on them. Even if you have been flying all winter, now is the time to do some maintenance. Parts do shake loose, so check those wheel colliers and something that a lot of us do not think about, servo screws. Check the screw that holds your servo arm on. Check your linkages from the servo to the particular flight control THAT they are supposed to control. It probably wouldn't hurt to tighten up those pull-pull lines on the rudder and tail wheel also. For those of you that have built that new nitro powered plane over the winter and could not resist putting one of the new motors on the market. You know, the one that is the same size as a.60 but has the power of a 120 in your 60 size plane. It might have been a good idea to thicken up that firewall at least an 1/8" or so. Those firewalls were designed for the less powerful motors. Just a thought! As we come to (hopefully a warmer time of the year!) your engines are going to have to be retuned. After starting your motor, move to the backside before you start to retune. This will keep you from putting your hand thru the prop to get to the needle valve. If you have mounted your nitro motor upside down and have the igniter hanging, it will be a lot safer and easier to pull it off your engine before flight. And the last thing for this report of words of wisdom, IF you need help, ASK someone!!! I'm sure somebody will help you out. It's better to be safe than sorry and sorry hurts like h...ll. Happy flying! Do you have an article, story or a picture that you want to share with the club? Get it to me at: Keith Davis Newsletter Editor Lkdavis02@msn.com And don t forget to submit your airplane pictures to Webmaster Ryan Dillon for Airplane of the month! PPRCC Newsletter 4

5 Borinquen R/C Model Club Despite the high winds, the Gripen did get off the ground, did several passes and landed safely. Nice looking jet. Last month my wife and I took a 7-day trip to Puerto Rico. We had a great time, but of course I had to find at least one RC flying club down there! The Swedish Saab Gripen doing a really fast flyby. It was the only airplane flying that day, but it was still worth watching. Lisa and I just stayed for about an hour, then had to get going so that we could catch the Rum factory tour. But that s another story! The Borinquen R/C Model Club. So as we were driving along the north coastline, we came across the Borinquen R/C airfield. I had to check it out. Being close to the coast, it was really windy but there was one flyer getting ready to fly his Saab Gripen. With the high amounts of rainfall here, it looks like field maintenance had to be done quite often to keep back the vegetation. The work stations were made of cement to survive the salt air and moisture. The jet pilot prepping his Saab Gripen for flight. While we waited for the jet to take-off, we noticed Iguanas darting about the airfield. Another spectator there said that they are all over the place, like our squirrels back in the states. And several Iguanas have been hit by planes taking off or landing. Lisa and myself at the Borinquen airfield, Puerto Rico. PPRCC Newsletter 5

6 So, What is this Airplane? Show & Tell Duane Zinke s Trainer 60 Duane finally completed his 25 year old kit Trainer 60. Duane installed an O.S. 60AX engine and oversized tires to resemble an A-1 Husky bush plane. He has not flown it yet. Clue #1: First built in 1930 it was designed to be used as a commercial or military transport using wheels, floats or skis. Clue #2: In 1934, the U.S. Government banned all single-engine aircraft from being used in U.S. airlines. This new law ended this airplane s career despite it being able to outperform the Fokker multiengine planes and the Ford Tri-motors at the time. Only 23 were built. Last month s airplane was a Dehavilland Sea Hornet. The British built a RAF version Hornet and a Royal Navy version Sea Hornet. Greg Moore was quick to come up with the correct answer. Daryl Lloyd was right behind him. I guess that plane was easier than I thought it would be! Support Your Local Hobby Store! Support Your Local Hobby Store! PPRCC Newsletter 6

7 Show & Tell Larry Laughlin s AT-6 Texan Love-Air Jet Rally Get your earplugs ready because the Love-Air Jet rally is just around the corner. It s one of the first RC events of the year and it takes place on May 20, 21 & 22. (Fri-Sat-Sun). Larry explains to club members how he bought the Great Planes AT-6 Texan at an auction and handed it over to Duane Zinke so that he could re-build and re-cover it. The plane now has an O.S. 95AX engine for power, working retracts and it s ready to go! Greg Moore relaxing by his F-15 Eagle. The Love-Air flying field is about a 2½ hour drive from Colorado Springs, but it s well worth the trip either as a spectator or as a participant. Most of our veteran jet flyers (Larry Laughlin, Dan Brunson and Greg Moore) attends the event just about every year. But this year we gained a few new jet pilots (Gus Grissom and Rod Hart). Hopefully they can make it to the jet rally too! Support Your Local Hobby Store! Larry Laughlin s F-18 Hornet flying overhead. Support Your Local Hobby Store! So if you have nothing going on that weekend, come on up and enjoy the jets, the people and the food! PPRCC Newsletter 7

8 Show & Tell Michael Mai s Venture 60 Show & Tell Gus Grissom s field Box Mike explains to the audience that his Venture 60 project is going on two years now. The framework is just about complete, the O.S. 75AX is already installed and he plans on covering it in three different colors. Gus proudly explains how he built this field box from scratch, using all the extra shipping wood that came in the box of his Aeroworks Extra 300. The wood was too good to throw away, so he came up with the idea of building a new field box instead of buying one. General Scratch Building Class Club member Doug Ransom volunteered to give a general RC scratch building class at the next club meeting (Monday - May 2 nd ). Doug hopes to give new ideas to beginners like me in scratch building or just refresh the memory of some of those veteran scratch builders out there. Don t miss this class, it should be very informative! PPRCC Newsletter 8

9 PPRCC Warbirds Over Pikes Peak PPRCC Scale Fly-In PPRCC Newsletter 9

10 Upcoming RC Events: May 2 nd (Mon) 2011 PPRCC meeting May 15 th (Sun) 2011 Pueblo s Sky Corral Warbird Warm-up Event May 20 th & 21 st & 22 nd (Fri & Sat & Sun) 2011 Fort Collins Love- Air Jet Rally Jun 7th (Tue) 2011 PPRCC meeting Jun 9 th & 10 th (Sat & Sun) 2011 JEFCO Warbirds over Denver June 25 th & 26 th (Sat & Sun) 2011 PPRC Warbirds over Pikes Peak Jul 5 th (Tue) 2011 PPRCC meeting Jul 23 rd (Sat) 2011 PPRCC Scale Fly-In PPRCC Newsletter 10