Warringah
Radio Control
Society Incorporated (Incorporated under the Association Incorporation Act 1984) Newsletter - May 2005 |
| Warringah
Radio Control
Society Incorporated (Incorporated under the Association Incorporation Act 1984) Newsletter - May 2005 |
Garry Welsh's latest project ... more about the F4U-4 project inside |
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The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, 10th May 2005 at Tennis Cove, Eastern Valley Way, starting at 7.30 pm. and the one after that is THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING on Tuesday, 28th June 2005 |
FROM
THE SECRETARY'S DESK
Life member, Alan Place forwarded a brochure to me which he thought might interest members.: “Discovery Air Tours” , the DC3 specialists, are offering a special of $149 per person for a “Scenic Spectacular - Sydney Harbour & Beaches Tour”. They also do the DC3 flights to the Temora Air Show for $295 pp inc entry to Museum & in-flight refreshments. Tel: 9791 9900. WRCS have been issued an order, under the Noxious Weed Act, 1993, to ‘suppress & destroy’ “CORTADERIA spp” (aka, Pampas Grass). It is pleasing to note that Ron Clark & David Menzies, have been waging war for 18 months and have volunteered to continue. They may ask for YOUR assistance so please give of your time as we HAVE to keep up this long running battle. |
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Vice President Secretary Registrar & Treasurer 3 to 5 Committee Members |
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JUST
FOR FUN
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Another F4 is on the Flight Deck in the landing position There is about 3 times the take off length for landing. We met and were entertained by an LSO, the landing signals officer who waves off/or clears aircraft for landing and rates the performance with the assistance of others. Every landing is critiqued and a pilot can be taken off flying duties if he botches a landing, such as picking up the first or third wires. Jim confirmed that night landings were the most stressful operation that any pilot faces. He said that the pilot does not watch the deck when landing he just listens to the LSO and watches the meatball of the Fresnell Lens array . In all there are 14 aircraft on display of the types that have operated from the Carrier. [two F4 Phantoms; T2 Buckeye; A-4C Skyhawk; SNJ (Naval version of Texan; F14 Tomcat; H3 Sea King; SH2 Sea sprite; CH 24 Sea Knight; Huey Gunship; A7 Corsair S3 Viking; A6 Intruder and a twin prop stores/mail/special personnel etc delivery plane but blowed if I can recall the type. All fuel is taken aboard at sea, never in port. Apparently this is the most stressful time for the Captain, as he has to maintain station for 6 or 7 hours only 200 ft or so from the tanker and this happens every 4 or 5 days.
Nearby is a T2 Buckeye. An A-4C Skyhawk is also on the Hanger deck. Jim has flown these and most other fixed wing aircraft operational in his time as a flyer and pre his Captain career following the cessation of flight duties.
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The Sensational Adelaide Air Races commenced in 1997, due to the efforts of the late Leo O’Reilly. There are three classes; Golden Era with a maximum 100cc engine capacity; AT6 (Texans) with a standard 1.20cu engine; and as from 2003, the Reno/Warbird class with Zenoah 62 petrol engines. Whilst the number of entries at 70 for the three different classes, was a record for this, the 5th biennial Air Races, there was no single major sponsor as in the past. Nevertheless, every entrant who flew, received a prize, from a number of equally generous, sponsors. WRCS was at the inaugural event in 1997, represented by Colin Simpson with Mike Reynell as crew, racing in the AT6 class. Chris Hebbard and Colin raced in 1999 with their AT6’s and Colin’s Hall Bulldog. The three Musketeers and friends have attended 4 times with their AT6, flown by Grant Furzer, first entered in 2001 and entered and flown in 2003 and 2005. Tom Sparkes flew his Sparrowhawk in 2003 after attending as a spectator in 2001. This year Tom Sparkes entered his Mustang in the Warbirds/Reno, Zenoah 62cc class, and his 80cc Laird Turner in the Golden Era class. Colin Simpson also had a Mustang in the Warbirds and his new CM pro in the AT6’s. Gary Welsh flew his F4U Corsair in the Warbirds and Chris Hebbard was again in the AT6’s. Grant was there with the Musketeers No1 entry and Brian Porman, at his first event as a pilot, flew the second Musketeers AT6. This second aircraft has been campaigned at all five of the Adelaide Races, having been previously owned by Mike O’Reilly and in ‘99 raced by special American visitor, Sean McMurtrie, who put on a flying display at lunch time. This year, unlike previous years, there were no mid air collisions. However there were an unholy number of prangs for various reasons, of magnificent models. In general terms a there was a lot of trouble with under carriages. Some of the prangs unfortunately, were terminal. I must say that I did not see Peter Leaney’s Laird Turner wing failure, but the next morning we were taking off across the debris on the field where the aircraft apparently hit the deck very near to the pilot’s line/starting line. Gary had bad luck when with its tail still up and running at some speed after touch down, the Corsair attempted to move the No. 1 pylon further west. Pylon 1 Corsair nil! Two other crashes which appeared to be some sort of receiver failure, fortuitously occurred after rounding the number 1 pylon and the crash’s were away from the spectators and pilots. One of these was Colin’s Mustang. In another crash, Lithgow based Dave Brown was on finals with his magnificent Mew Gull when a sudden elevator glitch caused the aircraft to pitch up, stall and spin in. But the good news is that Tom Sparkes won the radial class Golden Era with his Laird Turner, despite the fact as verified by Brian Porman that in at least one race which was checked he had to fly 11 laps before getting the chequered flag! That’s a 10% penalty, but thankfully he was well ahead on points. Lap counting in other classes was definitely a problem which the Committee needs to address for 2007 otherwise its Rafferty who rules!. We still do not have the final results as contestants do not know the last day's figures. But at last count Colin was best placed of our AT6 entries at around 6th. Brian Porman was quite chuffed to have finished next, albeit towards the tail although he will tell you that after 2 races he was 13 of 23. The morning of the last day was very windy and a number of aircraft were damaged. Brian was the only one to get down in his heat in one piece or without hitting the pylon. There was a bounce and a wind flip which bent the retracts. That meant no last race but Colin had loaned his backup plane (Thunder Tiger) to Grant and so when he landed in the third last heat the craft was refuelled and raced by Brian in the last heat. The race caller called it "Texan for Hire" but Brian said it was trimmed exactly like his and the landing with fixed gear, was PERFECT no bounce! They say that any AT6 without a cracked canopy has not flown as they are notorious ‘bouncers’. WRCS with the able organising of our ex pat Peter Leaney had a great night on the Sunday night at the Bombay Bicycle Club and on the Monday a sightseeing and wine tour in McLaren Vale. With a total of 30 supporters and pilots WRCS were the largest group although there were more pilots from Victoria and Queensland. Ian Phipps, (he built our sheds) now in Queensland, flew down to have a gander and join in the social events. A great time by all. Peter Leaney has already suggested that in 2007 we have a tour on the river!. Garry Welsh's report:
Congratulations Tom Sparkes for showing how it was done in the Radial class...he won! |
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OR Beware that extra foot (300mm to the new age people) (from rookie AT6 pilot
b porman)
As a sad postscript to the Adelaide races,
Colin Simpson shredded his beautifully presented white and yellow CM Pro
AT6 the following Saturday at Belrose!
Colin was cavorting around the sky, late in the afternoon, having a wow of a time with his Webra powered racer when he decided to do a low level flat out run up the field (a favourite Simpson display, - what about those Sabre ducted fan runs). As he describes it, he was doing about 180kph when WHAM BAM , SHREAK, RIP CRUNCH straight through the trees at the windsock. WRITTEN OFF. Jeez, Colin, George only just purchased that windsock, and Ron Clark erected that morning . But it survived. Colin was so taken with this fibreglass ARP [a term coined by Grant Furzer as almost ready to paint) that he intends to replace it but a little lighter than the 8.2 kg wreckage. Now this crash brought home to me a recent incident at Pittown when calling for Stan Begg when landing his P40. I had been warned by a club member to make sure Stan passed over the threshold. We both swore the plane was on centreline and perfectly placed on landing approach, when suddenly some tall grass some 15 to 20 metres sideways from the centreline reached up, grabbed the plane and brought it to a halt . Luckily the damage was minimal. The most damage was to the mindsets of Stan and myself and we would have sworn on the bible that the plane was on line. Stan called it. Because we are usually flying a smaller plane we do not locate the plane correctly in space. It just ain’t where you think! Colin said the same. Grant, suffered from the same phenomenon, when flying the 3 Musketeers AT6 a few years ago, actually landed the plane in the same bush as Colin’s. (Oh mygord I was also caller then! Nah couldn’t be, could it??). The Texan in this incident was only flying slowly and in fact was undamaged until poking it out of the top of the bush it fell backwards and cracked the stabiliser. So just what is this phenomenon? Our brain has been used to placing a smaller model, say a 6ft (1.8m) span plane on the final leg of a landing and that is programmed in to the grey matter. The brain says yep that’s OK and you land. But with your bigger plane you forgot to tell the brain. Hey this is a bigger model, reprogramme, adjust the parameters! . When it sees a bigger span model it automatically sets it further away so that the span looks the same as your 1.8 m model. Result? For example, take an approach to land from the Dam, with the 300 mm larger span aircraft with a span of 2.1 metres and assuming that the runway threshold is 100 metres away. Your brain via your eye will see a 2.1m plane as a 1.8m plane. But in order to look the same, the plane has to be another 17 metres further away, that is at a distance of 117 metres, well, to be accurate 116.66 repeater! And the further away you are the further away you are! A brain that is used to a 1.5 m span aircraft will set your 2.1 m aircraft, at the 100 metre threshold, some 40 metres further away. [The maths is simply the ratios of span to distance.] Surprising isn’t it and at our field, as described, almost invariably results in a bush arrival unless the pilot has pre prepared. I certainly didn’t at Adelaide on the very windy day, when getting down from that heat was an ordeal anyway and ended up some 20 or more metres further away than I thought. I had not programmed my mind and this was possibly because at Adelaide, aside from colliding with a pylon, the field is very large and forgiving. So there is no consequence of the error. In normal conditions a fly around would have been the way to go but the realisation did not occur until the plane was doing a bunny hop! And the starter wants you down when called to land, not messing around, so to speak. So how do you re-programme the brain? Dammed if I know, but Stan was given good advice at Maitland following a distance transfer problem. Piloting at Maitland is from the edge of the 30 metre line. He was told "aim at yourself when on finals" Stan was initially hesitant but when the P40 stopped rolling the first time, it was a cricket pitch away. He continued that method the rest of the day with excellent results. Stan suggested that at our field aiming at the corner of the long grass fringe when approaching from the east could be a starter. I suppose from the west aiming at the other fringe corner would at least keep you out of that wattle tree grove along the southern edge. Perhaps a good caller would help to assure a go-around if all looked dodgy. But how do you know HIS brain is adjusted?? |
| In their excitement the average model
aeromodeller will burn 365 calories per flying day, while celebrating afterwards
with their partner will only burn 276, proving once and for all that radio
control flying is 24.4% better than sex.
Ed ... RUBBISH!!! I don't know where some of this misinformation comes from. |
| Recently while going through an airport
during one of his many trips, President Bush encountered a man with
long hair, wearing a white robe, and sandals, holding a staff.
President Bush went up to the man and said, “Aren’t you Moses?”
The man never answered but just kept staring straight ahead. Again the President said, “Moses!” in a loud voice, the man just kept staring ahead, never answering the President. Bush pulled a Secret Service agent aside and pointing to the robed man asked him, “Doesn’t that man look like Moses to you? Watch this!” Again the President yelled, “Moses!” and again the man stared ahead and didn’t answer. The Secret Service agent went up to the man in the white robe and whispered, “You look just like Moses. Are you Moses?” The man leaned over and whispered back, “Yes, I am Moses. However, the last time I talked to a bush I spent 40 years wandering in the desert, and ended up leading my people to the only spot in the entire Middle East where there is no oil.” |
Pilot, canopy, cockpit, yankee stickers on wing and sides......maybe wheel doors someday. Garry reckons it's the best project he had ever done! |
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