Warringah Radio Control
Society Incorporated 
(Incorporated under the Association Incorporation Act 1984)

Newsletter - July 2004

The Careflight helicopter visited the field,
Kevin Einstein's story inside.
MEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGS
The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, 10th August 2004 at Tennis Cove, Eastern Valley Way, starting at 7.30 pm.  This will be our annual TRASH & TREASURE night, so bring along all your pre-loved goodies to sell.
 
FROM THE SECRETARY'S DESK
The annual key/fee process took place at the AGM and 70 members renewed their membership and enjoyed a range of hot and cold snacks.  62 signed the attendance sheets and about 53 stayed for the business of the night.
The President gave his report stating that this past year was an easy year as their was really only one issue,  - the road. He informed the meeting of the general location of about 6 aboriginal land claims adjacent to our lease including one on the access road.  Our Permissive Occupancy (PO) pre dates the Aboriginal Lands Act by about 6 years. We are responsible to maintain the access road, but due to the need to get permission from various authorities and owners this has been difficult (impossible) in the past 12 months. The National Parks have a claim to include our PO in the Garigal National Park and is also responsible to maintain fire roads and trails, so with our co-operation the National Parks commenced upgrading fire trails down to the eastern power pole (about 400 plus metres east of the field) on 17 June.  They are importing sandstone for the purpose and have been given permission to also utilise sterile sandstone fill imported by the Club 12 months back and currently still stockpiled along the track because of intervention of our neighbours!  The President stated that we are seen as good responsible tenants and we need to maintain that record.
The President thanked the retiring CFI, David Menzies and welcomed George Atkinson as the new CFI; he thanked the grounds crew of George Ward, Des Rim, Grant Furzer and Brian Porman, commenting that the field was picturesque; thanks was given to the catering crews of Peter Sharpe, Sandy and Tom Wolf, Grant Furzer, Des Rim and Warren Lewis and to Garry Welsh for his constant removal of YOUR illegally left garbage!
Special thanks was given to other Committee members and in particular the retiring Treasurer Stan Begg and his decade of service, Tom Wolf’s Newsletter production was also highlighted by Colin and he expressed the hope that Tom would continue.
In his retiring report as Treasurer, Stan Begg reported that the records were still with the auditor and that we had between 9 and 10 thousand dollars in the bank.  Copies of the 2003 Financial Report were circulated.
The great turn-out at the AGM thanked the outgoing Committee who did such a fantastic job in the past year and wished the incoming Committee a successful year.  There are some new faces on the newly appointed Committee and some "old" faces declaring that this is their last year of availability. The following office-bearers of Warringah Radio Control Society Inc. were elected/appointed:
President:  Colin Simpson 9922 6844(w) 9906 1565(h)
Vice President: Chris Hebbard 0408 699 878
Hon Secretary:  Brian Porman 9922 6844(w) 9488 9973(h)
Treasurer: Peter Barnes
Committee: Grant Furzer
Kerry Smith 0412 722 090
George Ward 9476 4898(h)
Comp Co-ord: 
CFI: George Atkinson 9907 4812 0414 972 118
Editor  Tom Wolf   9261 5798(w) 9371 0823(h)
The meeting was informed that the Website has undergone a slight face-change so that all upcoming WRCS competition events are advertised, if you are interested in the most recent update of the Competition results, these are also on the Website along with the 2004-05 fees structure. The "For Sale" advertising feature has had some remarkable successes during the year with most models displayed being sold.
Garry Welsh announced that the Perpetual Trophy was now in the possession of Garry Morris
Peter Clarke announced that the Gloucester Cup fly-in would be on in August (probably 28th, but yet to be confirmed as 14th has been taken by parachutists) and he or Mark Rickard, needed to know who was intending to go and what bed arrangements they needed in order to book the motel.
Peter Clarke also informed the meeting that Alan Place (WWII Dauntless Dive Bomber pilot) and David Rose (two long standing members) were not renewing their membership this year because they were finding that their age was making it increasingly very difficult to go through the various processes required for flying their much loved models.  The meting unanimously resolved that the Club offer Alan and David  Honorary Life Membership and that they be provided with keys to enable them to attend the field and stay in touch with members and activities.  The Secretary will write to Alan and David.
Graham Duckworth raised the issue of red safety fencing and was informed that at least at the eastern end of the field the safety fencing was necessary to warn of the deep trench recently dug by the Club to reduce the risk of injury.
Graham also raised the issue of the publication of formal Minutes of Meetings and requested that they be put on the Web, the "From the Secretary's Desk" commenced in October 2003 in the Newsletter (which is then reproduced on the Web anyway) already has the pertinent points to keep readers informed of decisions taken by the Club. 
Dennis Grech brought the meetings attention to George Ward’s efforts on the club stock model "aka  The Plagiarist"  and George said he had 28 kits ready!!!!
It was resolved that on competition days the competition organizer will have a mobile phone at the field so that members can ring and determine whether the event is still on, and that a decision whether the event is cancelled or still on will be made by 9 am. The meeting discussed how this could be achieved without breaching the "no telephone" rule.
The Members are reminded that the gate is to be left open, BUT ONLY ON COMPETITION DAYS!!
Column 8 of the Sydney Morning Herald of 22.6.04 reports: 
“Seen on Sunday in Collins Road, St Ives, by reader Rob Davids: a man blowing leaves from his driveway using a hand-held model aeroplane.”
Could it be WRCS Member, John Wenbourne?		 Another WRCS Member making the print media is Tom Sparkes whose generosity in manufacturing a clarinet for a crippled musician the victim of a crime of violence was found published in an Article in the Qantas Magazine aboard a flight by our Pres. and V-Pres. Well done Tom!!
ONE DAY YOUR GONNA GET CAUGHT WITH YOUR PANTS DOWN
Security forces were on full alert on 5th June at the WRCS airfield Belrose, when a reinactment of the D Day landings performed by the entrepid Saturday flyers went tragically wrong.
Whilst performing a bombing run emulating the famous "Dambusters", Peter Sharpe's new aircraft had to ditch in the dam . 
The rescue team headed by Peter commandeered an inflatable boat of dubious proberty together with copious amounts of duct tape and bungee cord. 
Captain Peter threw caution to the wind, stripped to jock strap and singlet, and braved the jibes, rude comments from the enemy, copious reeds, mud and yabbies rescued the downed aircraft. 
The enemy was so surprised at the awful sight of a naked flyer, that not a single shot was fired. Peter managed a complete recovery and escape by surprising the enemy and compounded it with the shocking sight of a full mooning at midday.
Later at the AGM,  Peter Sharpe asked if there was a chance of getting a new dinghy?  After the laughter had died down the President said that the new Committee would investigate.
CAREFLIGHT ALERT!
On Sunday 23 May, flying was suspended around 3pm as several ambulances parked at the top of the road to the field. An ambo ute drove down and a paramedic informed us that a girl flipped off her bike about 200m north-east of the pits and broke her ankles, ouch! 
The paramedic then said that they’re sending a Careflight BK-117 Heli to winch her out to the ambo. Those present wondered why not straight to hospital and found out she’s in terrible pain. No-one was sure, maybe they needed the heli for other emergencies or some other reason. 
All models were grounded ‘till the crisis was over as the ambos may have needed the field, and approximately 5 mins later a speck appeared over the west. The Careflight Heli proceeded over the north to where the girl was, circled for over 30 mins possibly trying to locate her in the dense bush. The heli then landed for 10 mins as they reconfigured the winch as it couldn’t be done in the air. Then it took off again and circled for the same amount of time as before. Comments were made that it must be low on fuel and that's why it couldn’t make it to the nearest hospital, but eventually it left the area and it is not known if they got the girl out and lowered her down. They might have done that last part out on the main road. By then everyone had lost interest and were itching to fly their models before dark. 
The comment was made that being experienced searchers, our Members could’ve found the girl in 2 mins! Or maybe if she had a lost model alarm strapped to her... Sure made for an interesting Sunday!
FROM THE WORKSHOP (1)

The latest addition to the Tom Sparkes hangar is to be a Ta-152H powered by a Zenoa 62 being built for the Warbirds races at Adelaide. The construction is quite advanced and was first shown off as a static display at the recent Scale Day in May.

The shape just exudes speed and Tom has great hopes and expectations with this model.

Ta 152 H-1 'Blue 4 + ' served with J.G.301, and was from the 150... block of aircraft built by Focke-Wulf at Sorau between December 1944 and April 1945. Ta 152 H-1s saw very limited service at war's end, with J.G.301. To demonstrate how limited the type's service was, on 11 April 1945, J.G.301 had just 13 Ta 152s (six serviceable).
 

The Focke-Wulf Fw-190/Ta-152
The Fw-190 series and its derivative the Ta-152 series were known as one of the best fighters during WWII. Created and developed under supervision of Prof. Kurt Tank, an unquestioned genius among aircraft engineers, it set new standards that the contenders had to rise to from its introduction to the end of the war. 
Produced in a run of more than 20 000 copies of all versions, the Fw 190 and its variants was an important factor determining the power and efficiency of the Luftwaffe.
In the second half of the thirties, the arms race had accelerated and it was obvious that since only one kind of plane for the fighter mission had been developed for series production (the Messerschmitt Bf-109), it could not be guaranteed that beyond the immediate future the Luftwaffe would still be in the lead position in world military aviation. 
The first Fw 190 flew in 1939 and production ran until the end of the war in 1945 

Under the supervision of Prof. Tank and engineer Rudolf Blaser, the Fw-190A (Anton), a relatively small fighter of compact construction powered by a BMW radial air-cooled engine was developed.  The two main, modern, liquid-cooled, in-line engines producers (i.e. Junkers and Daimler-Benz) could not, in the near future, produce a sufficient number of engines for all the airframe producers' needs.
Although the BMW radial engine was very powerful, as well as very rugged, its high-altitude performance was poor. Kurt Tank's engineering team decided to see what might be done with water cooled inline inverted vee-12 engines, including the Junkers Jumo 213 and in the spring of 1942 development began, with a prototype based on modifications of FW-190A fighters, the first of six flying in March 1942. 
 
These machines were given a rear fuselage extension to compensate for the lengthened nose, which had been stretched to fit the Jumo 213 engine. The Dora-Nine was produced in good numbers, but Nazi Germany was falling apart by this time; there were few pilots, there was little fuel. Many of the FW-190D-9s built never saw combat, and in any case they were too few to have any influence on the course of the war. Those that did see action were often used as "top cover" for airfields operating the Messerschmitt Me-262 jet fighter, whose poor acceleration made it highly vulnerable during landings. 
Tank continued to tweak the inline-powered designs, resulting in the "Ta-152" series, with work along this line begun in late 1942. The "Ta" stood for "Tank", in honor of his contributions to the Reich. 
The Ta-152H was, as its name suggests, intended for the high-altitude interceptor role. It featured a modified fuselage as well as extended wings with a span of 14.5 meters (47 feet 7 inches), and a Jumo 213E engine with a three-speed supercharger and 1,400 kW (1,880 HP). It was armed with an MK-108 cannon firing through the propeller spinner and an MG-151/20 cannon in each wing, and was fitted with a centerline stores rack.
FROM THE [STUKA] WORKSHOP
(Part 2)

Using 10mm wide strips of 4mm [5/32] balsa and 5mm wide strips for the tight bits and by constantly checking alignment with a steel straight edge and ca-ing & removing corrective alignment strips from the fuselage the spine was kept straight.  
Where reverse bending occurred, ‘Home Brand’ cloudy ammonia was brushed on to the strips so allowing bending without splitting.
Because there is a tight curved surface at some places the edges between the strips in some places required more lightweight ‘Spakfilla’ than desirable.  So next time I will attempt to shape the strip edges to better fit.  
This is a matter of just how much filler you’re happy about.  In this case it will not be a problem because Grant does the final sanding even though Dennis & BP maintain that their final presentation is  immaculate !
So quickly did this part go that I forgot to take any photographs before handing on to Grant who primed and prepared the surface to mould standard before handing on to Dennis for detailing. Meanwhile Dennis had detailed the cowl.  

The cowl and fuselage are held by Stefy indicating the size of the model. Dennis then prepared the cowl for marking by calipering off panel lines & hatches.

Dennis used his 1/24 plastic model to base his model on. Using a dremel these lines are cut into the primed balsa.  Then with a syringe and ‘Triton’ aliphatic glue each of hundreds of rivet are dotted on to the fuselage/cowl.  A closeup of the rivets pre-sanding are seen in the photograph, Boy better him than me!

Grant is an enthusiastic supporter of the  'Triton’ glue as we all are now.  This easily sands, does not soften and clog sandpaper and claims to be 30% better bond than PVA’S.  What is more it is Aussie, manufactured in Victoria, (tel: 9 584 6977) We purchased ours at Mitre 10.
Power choices have been made.  Dennis and Grant are going to use RCV four stroke 0.90’s.  Brian has gone the much cheaper route with a Magnum 0.91 two stroke.  The RCV’s will look very scale like with large 3 blade props.
One of the jobs we weren’t looking forward to was making a canopy.  
As luck had it Peter Johnson of  Model Aircraft Constructions, Nambour phone/fax (07) 5476 0650 has a comprehensive range of canopies and a JU87 within 5mm of our size resulted in three @ $24 each arriving in Sydney.  Of course whether we have an opening canopy or not, may yet result in angst!

In part 3 we will get Grant to describe the moulding method.
GLENN HAMMOND CURTISS

Glenn Hammond Curtiss was born in Hammondsport, New York, on May 21, 1878. Like the Wright brothers, he made bicycles.
The Wrights continued in the bike business in Dayton, Ohio, while experimenting with their planes, but Curtiss started manufacturing engines which he the built onto the bicycle and it became the motorcycle. Curtiss raced motorcycles and vame to be called "the fastest man on earth" when he was clocked at 136.6 mph during a motorcycle race at Ormond Beach, Florida, in 1904. Curtiss' entrance into flying began that same year when Thomas Scott Baldwin, famous lighter-than-air devotee, asked Curtiss to make him a two-cylinder, air-cooled engine to power his airship. 
The first plane Curtiss had anything to do with was "Red Wing" which was a design in 1908 for the Aerial Experiment Association, a group led by Alexander Graham Bell. Its maiden flight before a small crowd was hailed by the local press as "the first public flight by an airplane in the United States." The Wrights quite correctly contended this was untrue as they had been flying in plain view from a field beside the trolley line linking Dayton and Springfield, Ohio, since 1904. This statement helped fuel a brewing feud and eventual litigation between the Wrights and Curtiss.
 
 
 

Three quarter left front view from grounds of the Aerial Experiment Association (AEA) Aerodrome No. 3 of the "June Bug" in flight with Glenn Curtiss at the controls, summer 1908. The triangular panels at the four wingtips are Bell's original aileron concept

Curtiss made his first flight on his 30th birthday in "White Wing", which was the first plane in America to be controlled by ailerons instead of the wing-warping used by the Wrights. It was also the first plane on wheels outside Europe.The first plane Curtiss built and flew was "June Bug". In 1908, Curtiss won the first leg of the three-legged Scientific American magazine competition for being first to fly in a straight line for more than a kilometer.
 

The Curtiss "Beachey Special," a specially modified Curtiss Pusher built by Curtiss for Lincoln Beachey in 1911. The ailerons mounted between the wings are true "little wings".
On May 29, 1909, the G.H. Curtiss Manufacturing Company delivered the firm's first airplane to the New York Aeronautical Society. This airplane, called the "Golden Flyer" because of its golden-yellow silk covering and the orange shellac coating on the wood, was the first sale of an airplane to a civil owner in the United States. 
The "Golden Flyer" was a single-seat pusher aircraft with single-surface wings (rubberized silk fabric covering only the top of the wings), a biplane forward elevator on long forward booms, and a fixed horizontal stabilizer and rudder on long rear booms. The airplane sat on a three-wheel landing gear with the nose wheel fairly far forward, a feature intended to prevent nose-overs.
Directional control of the airplane was accomplished by turning a steering wheel on the control column left or right, fore and aft movement of the column controlled climb and descent, and roll was achieved by leaning left or right against a shoulder yoke that actuated the ailerons. 
The airplane was powered by a 25 horsepower, four-cylinder Curtiss engine, driving a single six-foot laminated wooden propeller. He won the next leg of the Scientific American magazine competition in 1909, for establishing a distance record. 
Shortly after the "Golden Flyer" was delivered to the New York Aeronautical Society, Curtiss was selected by the Aero Club of America to be the sole American participant in the first international aviation meet to be held in Reims, France, August 22-29, 1909. For this event, Curtiss designed and built a new airplane that would be known as the "Reims Racer". 
The "Reims Racer" was similar to the "Golden Flyer", but had a shortened wingspan and was covered with gray silk fabric. It was powered by a 50 horsepower Curtiss V8 engine. Curtiss won the coveted Gordon Bennett Aviation Cup (and the prize money) at Reims with an average speed of 47.6 mph. Curtiss returned to the United States an international hero.
When the New York World newspaper offered prize money for the first successful flight between Albany and New York City, Curtiss won the money and nationwide recognition. He also won the third leg of the competition and permanent possession of the Scientific American trophy in 1910. 
One of the major contributions to flight progress during this period was the invention of ailerons, which was the basis for the litigious rift between the Wrights and Curtiss which is the subject of another article.
Curtiss did have significant "firsts." He pioneered the design of the floatplane and the flying boat. It was a Curtiss plane flown by Eugene Ely, a company exhibition pilot, that made the first successful takeoff from a Navy ship in 1910. 
Curtiss continued the evolution of the pusher design with the development of the D-II (the "Golden Flyer" was the Model D)
 relocating the ailerons from the front interplane struts to the rear ones. The latter change improved the efficiency of the wings and the ailerons. 
The D-III quickly followed. This model incorporated covering on both the top and bottom surfaces of the wings, enclosing the ribs and spars and adding 3 to 6 mph in speed. The forward elevator was moved back slightly and elevators were added to the rear in place of the fixed horizontal stabilizer formerly used on the D and D-II models. The addition of elevators in the rear led directly to the development of the "Headless Pusher", the result of an accident incurred by noted exhibition pilot, Lincoln Beachey. While making an exhibition flight, Beachey hit a fence upon landing which destroyed the front elevator. Rather than lose the competition by default, Beachey flew without the front elevator control and found to his pleasant surprise that the aircraft performed better than before. Curtiss concurred with the results and began producing the 1912 Model D "Headless Pusher" as a new offering. 
The Curtiss D-IV variant, intended for the military market, appeared in 1911. Essentially the same as the D-III model, except for increased wingspan and the addition of a passenger seat behind the pilot, the D-IV was designed to be quickly dismantled for ease in transport. This feature, incorporated in other Curtiss designs, appealed to exhibition pilots and helped Curtiss command up to 80 percent of the exhibition market. 
Curtiss also designed OX series of engines that are associated the with success of the first flights of many new aircraft . About 12,600 of the series were built during World War I. It is the last of the series, the OX-5, that is best known. There was such a surplus of engines after World War I that they were sold at bargain prices by the government to many postwar aircraft manufacturers. 
Curtiss made his last flight as a pilot in May 1930, when he flew a Curtiss Condor over the Albany­New York route. He died two months later and is buried in the Pleasant Valley Cemetery, near the scene of his first aviation triumphs. 

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