Warringah
Radio Control
Society Incorporated (Incorporated under the Association Incorporation Act 1984) Newsletter - September 2005 |
| Warringah
Radio Control
Society Incorporated (Incorporated under the Association Incorporation Act 1984) Newsletter - September 2005 |
Garry Welsh's Corsair takes off at the Adelaide Races prior to its unfortunate "arrival" (see earlier issues). Rebuilding is going ahead. |
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The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, 13th September 2005 at Tennis Cove, Eastern Valley Way, starting at 7.30 pm. The next meeting after that will be on Tuesday, 11th October 2005 |
 FROM
THE SECRETARY’S DESKThe perceived crowding on some Saturday mornings, since the recent implementation of the pits ready area , ie the engine starting area between the first and second fences was discussed. Also the matter of parking was looked at. Arising from the discussion it was agreed that there was an over whelming opinion that the pilot’s flight line remain where it is and not be moved closer to the 30 metre boundary. Also it was agreed that the general spectator area ought not be reduced in size by moving the first fence further north. Both of these decisions means that only the east & west ends can be fiddled with in order to create some additional usable space. That is being looked at. That leaves better housekeeping as our management tool. Accordingly members are requested to co-operate as follows in order to better manage our facility. [I] The section of the pits, which I refer to as the ready area , ie where pilot’s start their motors before carrying their aircraft to the exit gate, is not intended as a ‘social’ area. The social area is north of the first fence. [ii] At busy times, such as scale day, if space becomes an issue, members are to restrict their models in the ready area to one model. [iii] Markings at 2.5 m could be placed on the fence. [iv] The existing taxiway area in front of the field access opening is now for EXIT ONLY to the field. There are now 4 entry taxiways from the field. Two east and two west of the exit taxiway. The reason is to avoid any unintended movement of a taxiing aircraft into the pits. As the grass growing season begins, the present width of the OUT ONLY taxiway will be reduced. The first use of the new traffic rules went without hitch on Saturday 13th. [v] Members are reminded to catch all overflow fuel as the grass is being killed & we will end up with a dustbowl. [vi] ALL Transmitters are to be returned to the pound when not being correctly operated. They are NOT to be left in the ‘ready area’ as recently observed. [vii] Parking is to be nose in, referred to by one committee member as herringbone parking. Also there are some members who park too close to the upper track so hindering free flow. The upper parking section must allow cars to travel in and out. There is to be no parallel parking on the east side just west of the Container sheds. This can be for the trailer vehicles where they currently park, ie on the west edge. The in out adjacent to the wire fence also needs to be left trafficable. All this means that additional area is needed at Event times. The area referred to as Mt Versuvious has been mowed and can be opened for parking as necessary. This is on the south west end of the field above the creek. |
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It has been pointed out that there has been in excess of 10 full size helicopter landings at the field including the Police returning a Model they retrieved a few years ago from the top of a tree, whilst engaged in lowering officers by rope in a field exercise.. All members are also reminded to ensure that should any aircraft approach they should get down and make sure they have their model well below any full size aircraft. Any transgression will be serious for us because no matter what height that plane is they would never admit to being low. |
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– The sport of Pylon Racing John Little
 You
go to the field every week with your special model to enjoy a relaxed flight
with no stress and no purpose other than to simply enjoy the beauty of
flight and to nail that perfect landing.
OR Your plane stands on a rubber mat held by your caller, engine screaming, spinning a 10x6 prop at 15,000rpm. You have a little bit of right rudder and a touch of up elevator, watching intently until suddenly the plane to the left takes off, 1 second later your caller releases your plane. You try to steady the climb with not too many corrections. Then a roll to the left to put you in a knife edge waiting for your caller to yell “turn”. A tug of up elevator and your model snaps round pylon 1 and is now heading back at you on a knife edge. A touch of aileron to straighten for 1 second then another roll as you ready to take pylon 2 and 3 in succession before again heading for Pylon 1. Your altitude is just over 10 meters, your speed up to 180km/h and you have 10 more laps to do. With the race complete, you wait for your score to be read over the radio. Pilot 3, 112.5 seconds. Not your best time but still good. Your brain racks as you wonder if I cut pylon 2 & 3 a little closer, tidy my flying and reduce the movements I can scrape another 2-3 seconds off. This is Pylon racing. I fly Q500 or Sports Pylon as it is called. The plane is a 500 Square inch winged Viper with a V tail and no dihedral. Up front is a standard Thunder Tiger Pro 46 with no cowling. This out-of-the-box plane and engine will travel at around 180 km/h in a straight line. Other classes include Q400 Nelson powered screamers and the F3D class with beauty only matched by their up to 300km/h speed. Over the past few years, the Pylon racing scene has been growing under the NSW Pylon Association www.nswpylon.org. On a typical meeting we get around 20+ competitors for a great social and competitive days flying. As a racer you get 5 to 8 flights per day and usually you are a caller for another competitor. It is a full-on day, but very exciting. This year the organization has held 5 events at Queanbeyan, Cowra, Woolongong, Nowra, and Pitt Town. Each of the country events is preceded the night before at the local RSL for some food and chat about the day to come. Whilst flying around pylons at high speed sounds reckless, finesse in your flying ability is vital in getting consistent fast laps. The thought of flying at this pace and low altitude may be daunting. This is the case flying a Viper at WRCS where it is more like flying a bullet between two buildings. On the more open fields used to hold races, the task is not as difficult as it sounds. In fact the hardest part I found was the landing as I had no ridge or trees for reference.  All
too often I found I was landing very short. This taught me to land using
the throttle more, coming over the threshold of the field at a steady descent
before pulling the throttle back for a nice controllable touch down. I
would have to say this seemingly reckless flying has in fact improved my
overall skills.
The only problem with pylon racing is you fly only left hand circuits. Turning left is easy, turning right seems unnatural. I suppose one question is “do we crash?”. It is not too often, perhaps 1-2 in a days racing but when they do it is spectacular. With the Viper being an ARF, the build time is around 6 hours. Most pilots carry a spare for the day just in case but really, it is a rare occurrence. Mid-air collisions also can occur but given that each race is 4 planes around a tight course, they are surprisingly few and far between. So what about the plane? The first thing you notice is the V tail and the incredibly simple lines. More like a sleek “ugly-stick”. The fuselage is a box shape stopping at the firewall. The engine is uniquely mounted by a plate bolted directly to the back of the crank case. The 4oz fuel tank will allow you to fly full throttle (is there any other way) for around 4 minutes.  The
wing is mounted on the top of the fuselage and is dead straight with no
dihedral or taper. The ailerons are only about half the wings length and
up against the fuselage. The roll rate of a viper is fairly slow. The wing
section is a little strange with the thickest part at around 50% of the
wing cord. This makes it fast in top speed but does cause it to slow down
more in a corner compared to a conventional wing. All the more reason to
fly smoothly.
The undercarriage is a tail dragger and has two disc-style wheels to reduce drag. It is very rare that you can taxi a Viper. The prop usually clips the ground in a landing as it is about 2cm off the ground when the plane is level. Even if the engine does remain running, any attempt to taxi results in doing doughnuts. Take-offs are always full throttle with a little up elevator and right rudder to compensate for the prop wash. Whilst a Viper is fast, they are surprisingly easy to fly, glide very well and are easy to land well as long as you don’t stall. They have a greater than 1:1 power to weight ratio, hence can climb indefinitely. With all that power, they can do aerobatics but these are always a very fast affair probably capable of doing the full Gold Wings scenario in under a minute if you could keep up. Flying a Viper as a “Sunday” plane at WRCS is not all that fun. 4 minutes of rush-rush, overtaking every plane in the sky many times followed by a landing that you will have to walk to retrieve. Vipers are made for one purpose, racing, and for that they are superb. If you think you would like to give this variation of our sport a go, why not go to the web site www.nswpylon.org and check it out or come to an event. Feel free to drop me an email on jlittle102@optusnet.com.au or simply find me at the WRCS field where I fly occasionally, early on a Saturday morning. As with any modeler, I will bore you to tears about my passion. If you have even the slightest desire, bite the bullet, give it a go. The only danger is you may get hooked. The next race is on Sunday 25th September next to the Richmond RAAF Base in Percival Road.  |
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"Wheels down, flaps down, close the bomb-bay doors.....the paper work is never done!" - Garry Welsh ”This really cracks me up”- Mark Connor “The end” - Margaret Kennard "Boy oh boy! The boys at WRCS will really give me hell when they see this mess!" - Tom Wolf "And I wasn't even trying to do 13 spins from 11 spins high ... this time!" - Tom Wolf |
The heli day was one of the best Sydney days you could ask for with only a light wind. Over 50 people turned up throughout the day with the free flying demos bringing the most “oohs” and “aahhs”. The hovering comp was a battle fought out between our own Jonathan Wongso and SSME's Ben J., Jonathan got the better of the hovering competition with Ben J. taking out the drag racing by a mile with his supped up Evo.
Photos by Jason Huang and Lawrence Chiu |
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 That’s
the new opening line, hardly poetic but it will do. Well this month has
been an interesting aero one both full size and model.
On the full size front I went to the Windermere Steam Boat Museum, yep, it’s full up with lovely old lake launches in all shapes and sizes and all steam powered. There was one model that had to be the finest I have ever seen, it was 1/12 scale and as near perfect as you could get. Not only did it have a fully operational coal powered steam engine (just like the full size one) but even had a fully detailed passenger cabin that had a working door and ….wait for it ……a working brass lock with key! But among all the boats was a real surprise – a plane. Now I knew that Sunderlands had been built at a factory on the edges of the lake during the WWII (I am currently reading, and highly recommend, “Corsairville – the lost domain of the flying boat” by Graham Coster) but this was a flying boat glider! It’s a 42ft span Slingsby Falcon modified by Capt T.C. Pattinson in 1943. It was designed to be used by people like Special Operations in places where conventional gliders couldn’t be used. A local firm built it under his supervision but it was sent to Short Bros for test flights. They had a lot of problems with flying it so Pattinson insisted on conducting flights himself – he flew it successfully having been towed behind a speed boat but it never went into production ……make an interesting model though!
On the model front there is a new one.
I bought this ARTF Thunder Tiger Eagle last year but didn’t get time to
fly it. It sat in the van all winter and I assembled it in June. It has
been difficult to fly anything for the past few weeks as a) the Lake District
is not famous for flat fields; b) it is famous for the rainfall (one place
I visited, Seathwaite, has the unenviable reputation of the wettest place
in Great Britain with about 150” per annum); and c) I was too busy walking
and climbing hills. Anyway, today I decided to leave the area for a while
and go and visit the West coast and look at the sea. On the way I found
it was getting flat so I turned off and found a nice grassy cow and sheep-free
field.
Happy flying or dreaming,
Mike |
This aircraft is one of the most-competitive,
yet least-heralded German fighter aircraft of World War I. Overshadowed
by the Fokker D.VII, it was nevertheless a fierce combatant in the hands
of a competent pilot
The Pfalz D.XII climbed satisfactorily
and its performance in level flight was comparable to that of the Fokker
D.VII. Because of its sturdy construction, it could dive faster and steeper
than the D.VII, but it could not turn as well and was sluggish in combat.
Furthermore, it tended to “float” when landing, and many accidents occurred
because of the weakness of the landing gear.
The Pfalz D.XII performed well enough to
relieve the German Air Service of its shortage of competitive fighters
late in WWI.
By the time of the Armistice, nearly 800
aircraft had been delivered to front-line service.
The two other examples are former Hollywood movie performers. One of these resides at the Champlin Fighter Museum in Mesa, Arizona, and the other at National Air & Space Museum STATISTICS OF THE PFALZ D-XII
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The
Eagle flew, as they say, straight off the board! Two clicks of left aileron
and one click of up and it flew hands off. I had two pleasant 8 minute
flights including some simple aerobatics (loop – very smooth and easy;
roll – full down needed when inverted and still not very axial or fast)
and easy landings. I must try it on a slope, I think it would make a good
soarer. I then got out the trusty Zaggi and chucked that around the
sky for a while, well, two batteries worth, and then went on to the sea.
I tried to take an in-flight picture or two – ever tried it? I don’t recommend
it, trying to hold the tranny in one hand, a camera in the other, one eye
on the view finder and one on the plane is not an experience I recommend!
