WRCS - March 2006

Warringah Radio Control

Society Incorporated
(Incorporated under the Association Incorporation Act 1984)

Newsletter - March 2006

"Uncle" George Ward amuses Lauren Grech

photo Garry Welsh, caption Tom Wolf

MEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGS
The next meeting will be on Tuesday, 14 March 2006 at Tennis Cove, Eastern Valley Way, starting at 7.30 pm. The next meeting after that will be on 11 April 2006 with special presentation by HARS (Historical Aircraft Restoration Society)

IMPORTANT NOTICE FROM OUR C.F.I.
DSM transmitters operating in the 2.4GHz band are NOT certified by MAAA at this time and are NOT permitted to be used at WRCS.
There is an article in March 2006 ModelAirplane News advocating use of these and not requiring a frequency key.
I have discussed this with Mike Close and while it may be the case for RC cars, it is definitely not acceptable in Australia at this time for airborne models at flying sites under the auspices of the MAAA.
This is actually already covered by our Safety Regulations, Transmitter Operation, point (iv).
Also, Frequency Synthesized transmitters (such as Futaba 14MZ, and transmitters with Frequency Synthesized Modules) are permitted for use at WRCS when the following guidelines are followed:

*
*

Frequency Synthesized Modules must be of a make and model approved by the transmitter manufacturer for use in that transmitter.
The frequency changes must take place in the transmitter pound with the aerial down.
The intended frequency must be scrupulously checked and the correct frequency key inserted in the frequency board before transmitting.

NEXT EVENT

COMBAT DAY
Sunday,
19 March 2006

Classes: Sport, Open, Stock.

THIS IS A FUN EVENT WITH SAFETY PARAMOUNT

Competition Director - Warren Lewis

Shepparton Air Races
will now be held on
May 20-21, 2006
We have just been informed of the changed date, if you need any more info on the event, please contact Garry Welsh at:
<Garry.Welsh@LonsData.com>

PLEASE NOTE -WRCS Scale Day has been postponed to May 28.

Emergency Safety Alert:
Lithium Battery Fires (16 Dec 05)

Issued by The Academy of Model Aeronautics

Lithium batteries have become extremely popular for powering control and power systems in models because of their high energy density (capacity/weight ratio) compared to Ni-Cds or other batteries. With high energy comes increased risk in their use. The principal risk is fire, which can result from improper charging, crash damage, or shorting the batteries.
All Lithium-battery vendors warn customers of this danger and recommend extreme caution in their use. However, many fires have resulted from the misuse of Li-Poly batteries, leading to the loss of models and automobiles. Other property, such as homes, garages, and workshops, have also burned.
A Lithium-battery fire burns explosively at several thousand degrees and is an excellent initiator for ancillary fires. Fire is caused by contact between Lithium and oxygen in the air. It needs no other source of ignition, or fuel, to start.
The following is recommended for Lithium batteries to preclude ancillary fires.
1) Store and charge in a fireproof container—never in your model.
2) Charge in a protected area that is devoid of combustibles.
3) In the event of damage from crashes, etc., carefully move the battery pack to a safe place for at least a half hour to observe. Physically damaged cells can erupt into flames. After sufficient time to ensure safety, the cells should be discarded in accordance with the instructions that come with the batteries. Never attempt to charge a cell with physical damage, regardless of how slight.
4) Always use chargers designed for the specific purpose; it’s preferable to have a fixed setting for your particular pack. Many fires occur while using selectable/adjustable chargers that are set improperly. Never attempt to charge Lithium cells with a charger that is not specifically designed for Lithium cells! Never use chargers that are specifically designed for Ni-Cd batteries.
5) Use charging systems that monitor, control, and balance the charge state of each cell in the pack. Unbalanced cells can lead to disaster if the system permits a single cell in the pack to be overcharged. This means that the charging system must provide charge cessation as each cell reaches the proper voltage. If the batteries show any sign of swelling, discontinue charging and move them to a safe place—outside. They could erupt into flames.
6) Never plug in a battery and leave it to charge unattended; serious fires have resulted from this practice.
7) Do not attempt to make your own battery packs from individual cells. Use only professionally packaged and labeled units which contain safer charging features. Lithium batteries cannot be handled and charged casually, as has been the practice for years with other types of batteries. The consequences can be serious, resulting in major property damage and/or personal harm.

SOME PEOPLE ARE JUST LUCKY!! Tony Vella lost his Harrier 3D over the ridge in February 2005, he couldn't find the wreck.
A good bloke by the name of Bruce Marple, a bush walker who is also into modelling, found it late January (2 weeks short of the anniversary of the loss), walked down to the flying field, found Alois Zuger and gave it to him. Al then rang Tony who went to pick it up from him.
Tony has since restarted the Saito 91 S, no worries , and all the Radio gear is as good as new.
Now how’s that for a bit of New Year’s luck ???

Fossett sets non-stop flight record Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett flew an experimental plane on an 80-hour flight that set a non-stop distance record of 42,450 km.
The GlobalFlyer aircraft, which has a wingspan as wide as an 11-storey building is tall, lifted off from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida on Wednesday 8th February 2006 and landed at Bournemouth (England) after circling the Earth once and then continuing on across the Atlantic again. An earlier record of 42,431km non-stop distance record was set in 1986 by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager in a nine-day flight.
After taking off from Florida, he flew over the Atlantic, across Africa, Saudi Arabia, India, China, Japan, the Pacific Ocean, Mexico, and the United States and then back over the Atlantic before landing.
Fossett had to get GlobalFlyer up to an altitude of about 45,000 feet (13,720 metres) to take advantage of the naturally occurring high-speed jet stream flowing from the west to the east over the Northern Hemisphere.

The Scaled Composite's 'Model 311' aircraft is a single engine turbofan aircraft specifically designed for non-stop global circumnavigation by a solo pilot with no passengers. The 'Voyager' aircraft designed by Burt Rutan which took his brother Dick Rutan and Jeanna Yeager around the world non-stop could well be considered 311's 'big sister', but evolution and invention on the part of Burt Rutan and Jon Karkow played its part in making the GlobalFlyer unique.
Aerodynamics are key to this aircraft, and its configuration is optimised for range and fuel efficiency. The aircraft's aerodynamics have been designed using extremely sophisticated computing technology that uses computational fluid dynamics to predict how the aircraft's surfaces will behave in flight. The aircraft is so aerodynamically perfect, that the only practical way to descend is using drag parachutes,.
The aircraft is a trimaran-like construction with two huge external 'booms' which hold the landing gear, and 5,454 pounds of fuel on either side of the pilot's cockpit in the centre on top of which is the single Williams turbofan jet engine. The construction materials used for the structure of this aircraft are all graphite/epoxy. The stiffest carbon fibers are used in the construction of the wings, and the skin is a sandwich of graphite/epoxy and Aramid honeycomb.
The pilot, Steve Fossett, sat in the main fuselage, the centre pod, just behind the nose landing gear and below the engine., in front of the main fuel header tank which feeds the engine. The cockpit itself is a mere 7 feet long. It is equipped with a reclining carbon fiber seat. However, to get a good enough view for take off and landing, the pilot had to sit on cushions as the seat isn't high enough.
Some facts and figures:
- Wing Span: 114ft
- Wing Area: 400ft squared
- Length: 44.1ft
- Height: 13.3ft
- Gross Weight: 22,000 lbs
- Empty Weight: 3,350 lbs

A LITTLE GEM!?!?

This article was found by Carolyne Sparkes in an ancient newspaper. Isn't it interesting that the planes "flew out of sight"?

We are reliably informed that "O.O.S." was a very common result/experience.

THE GRECH STUKA

Dennis Grech's Stuka is coming along nicely, it is up to its pre-flight testing stage. The camouflage is so good that the model blends in totally to the surroundings. Just as well Dennis used a yellow cowling and tail!
Dennis was seen recently practising taxiing with the model, but full flight testing is delayed because Dennis is not happy with the power plant

photos Garry Welsh

GLIDER & ELECTRIC DAY - Sunday, 19 February 2006

Mark Ter Laak was at the field practicing hard before the comp.

Well things didn’t look promising first thing in the morning. Tom Sparkes phoned Mike Minty (the two Contest Directors) to tell him he couldn’t tell what the weather was like because he was surrounded by fog! Mike said he was in sunshine but with big black clouds on the horizon …….but “what the hell” they said “let’s do it!”
As it turned out it was pretty good by 10 am when at least three people had turned up (please note guys, the usual START time for comps is 10 am so they don’t take all day to complete) and it got hotter and sunnier as the day went on.
Pilots were briefed, rules clarified and everyone was determined to get those 5 minute flights to the second! It was decided to do round one of electric first and there were seven entrants but George Atkinson, had to withdraw his plane after the ailerons withdrew their services and a splatt followed during a test flight. First up was Mark Ter Laak with his Albatross who turned in a very respectable 4’58” with a 20 point spot landing which made 232 points after deducting the motor run time. Spot landings were to prove difficult for the electric planes, only 2 scored out of 16 flights (the glider fliers managed 7 out of 12 flights) probably due to their faster landing speeds.
Mike Minty’s first flight was looking good at 4’36” when he attempted one last turn to line up for the spot ….straight into the trees! No damage but Mark TL had to climb the tree to retrieve it!

The only other person to get near Mark’s score was Al Zuger with his Spirit 100 when he got 199 points from a 4’29” flight. He has a pod mounted motor above the wing that sounds scary powerful but proved troublesome. John Channon also had motor problems, he managed only a 2’58” flight and then his motor brushes collapsed.
It was decided to fly a round of glider after the first electric round so batteries could be recharged. This was delayed a bit as we had to change the bungee round as the wind had shifted 180 degrees. Grant Furzer was first up in Glider using one he borrowed from David Foster that looked like a classic old Chris Foss design. His flight was delayed a bit when Mark let go the nicely stretched bungee ….the chute didn’t get too high but it showed a good turn of speed!
Grant found little lift with only a 2’14” flight but he did pick up 30 points maximum spot landing points. Mark Rickard brought a slope soarer with ailerons but the speed of the launch proved too much for the controls and a very rapid splatt took him out of the comp.

Monte Udrzal launches for Al Zuger

Bary Campbell with ME foamie

Round 2 of the electrics saw Barry Campbell spiral into the bush after a 1’52” flight but no damage (hard to hurt a ME1163 foamie!) and it was soon retrieved. Mark TL and Al put up the best round 2 scores only 1 point difference with 199 & 198.
Mark Connor’s Zagi is a great flier but not much of a glider so he suffered from having to run the motor so long to keep it flying.
Back to the gliders and a lot more lift in Round 2 with John C and Mike M both getting good launches. John managed 4’10” and 20 spot landing points while Mike stuffed his landing as his frantic waggling of the spoiler switch produced no response ……because he was waggling the elevator rate switch by mistake! Al and his Sig Riser produced another good flight and landing.
Back to the electrics and Barry was the only one to get any spot landing points while Mike managed the only perfect 5’00” flight of the day (though Tom insisted on recording it as 4’60” for some strange reason) but with no spot landing. Al tried to solve his motor problems with a back up model but to no avail while Mark TL managed to finish up with out a wing tip in the trees at the carpark end (but after 4’28” which always helps).
The final glider round had the two best times of the day from Al and Grant with 5’08” and 5’07” respectively but only Al got the spot. John Channon had a bad one that messed his chances of a trophy while Mike M had a respectable 4’30” and 20 spot points.

Mark Rickard launches for John Channon

Grant Furzer launches for Grant Rickard

When all the scores were tallied and checked the results showed

ELECTRIC
1st Mark Ter Laak
2nd Mike Minty
3rd Barry Campbell

GLIDER
1st Al Zuger
2nd Mike Minty
3rd Grant Furzer

Thanks to Tom & Mike for their organisation, to Mark Connor for a lot of bungee fetching, to Monte Udrzal for helping out when he wasn’t even a contestant and specially to Grant for going and getting lunch!

Let’s hope we get more entrants next year it’s a great day of quiet fun.

Left: Winners are grinners

photos Mike Minty and Garry Welsh

Following the changes to the Club Rules after the special meeting of the Committee, the latest version of the Rules are now on the Webpage. Members should be aware that this new rule only applies when someone other than the pilot of the model is hurt or it is a really close call! The necessity to impound is to make sure that if there is a claim of mechanical/radio defect that it can be investigated to satisfy the MAAA.

After David Cotton's experience that needed a computer upgrade to be able to use the new Great Planes G3 simulator (which is reported as great), others report that they've had no problems running it on a 3 year old Hewlett Packard pentium 4 running 256kb of memory. You be the judge.

A member got a call at the field from his wife who was shopping for cloth materials. She asked "Do you know where can I get felt?" and he replied listing various erogenous zones. She slammed te phone down on him, obviously his phone was turned on but his wife wasn't.

A strange piece of rubble is posted on the Notice Board at the field. It is a piece of Giles model with the words "A TAKI END" written on it. Maybe Mr Enomoto can tell us what this is all about?

CFI becomes unhinged? On Glider Day a flutter was heard during a test flight of George Atkinson's glider. A couple of minutes later the ailerons fell off and the glider crashed into the middle of the field. On inspection of the remains it was obserevd that the control surfaces were not adhered. (Defective CA?)

FEBRUARY PRESENTATIONS In a new procedure, which will now be a standard feature of future monthly meetings. Instructor wings and Gold and/or Bronze wings were presented at the February meeting.

Top Left: Dean Shuback was presented with his Instructor wings by Col Simpson

Top Right: Grant Furzer was presented with his Instructor wings by Col Simpson

Left: Matthew Dean was presented with his Bronze wings by his instructor, Dean Shuback. Matthew was Dean's first ever student.

photos: Brian Porman

**** IMPORTANT NOTICE ****
FIELD CLOSURE
We will be dropping 3 metres of concrete at the top of the hill on Monday morning 20 March, so there will be no access until Wednesday, 22 March.

UNBELIEVABLE!!
- F15 Wingless Landing On May 1st. 1983, a dogfight training took place between two F-15D's and four A-4N Skyhawks over the skies of the Negev desert in Israel. The F-15D (#957, nicknamed 'Markia Shchakim', 5 killmarks) was used for the training of a new pilot in the squadron. Here is the description of the event as described in "Pressure Suit":

" At some point I collided with one of the Skyhawks, at first I didn't realize it. I felt a big strike, and I thought we passed through the jet stream of one of the other aircraft. Before I could react, I saw the big fire ball created by the explosion of the Skyhawk.
The radio started to deliver calls saying that the Skyhawk pilot has ejected, and I understood that the fire ball was the Skyhawk, that exploded, and the pilot was ejected automatically. There was a tremendous fuel stream going out of the wing, and I understood it was badly damaged.
The aircraft flew without control in a strange spiral. I re-connected the electric control to the control surfaces, and slowly gained control of the aircraft until I was straight and level again. It was clear to me that I should eject. When I gained control I said :
"Hey, wait, don't eject yet!". No warning light was on and the navigation computer worked as usual; I just needed a warning light in my panel to indicate that I missed a wing..." The instructor ordered me to eject.
The wing is a fuel tank, and the fuel indicator showed 0.000 so I assumed that the jet stream sucked all the fuel out of the other tanks. However, I remembered that the valves operate only in one direction, so that I might have enough fuel to get to the nearest airfield and land. I worked like a machine, wasn't scared and didn't worry. All I knew was: as long as the sucker flies, I'm gonna stay inside. I started to decrease the airspeed, but at that point one wing was not enough.
So I went into a spin down and to the right. A second before I decided to eject, I pushed the throttle and lit the afterburner. I gained speed and thus got control of the aircraft again. Next thing I did was lowering the arresting hook.
A few seconds later I touched the runway at 260 knots, about twice the recommended speed, and called the tower to erect the emergency recovery net. The hook was torn away from the fuselage because of the high speed, but I managed to stop 10 meters before the net. I turned back to shake the hand of my instructor, who urged me to eject, and then I saw it for the first time - no wing "

The IAF (Israeli Air Force) contacted McDonnell Douglas and asked about the possibility to land an F-15 with one wing .

MD replied that this is aero-dynamically impossible, as confirmed by computer simulations... Then they received the photo.... After two months the same F-15 got a new wing and returned to action.
"Flight international, 8 June 1985" wrote about the incident and said that the student who outranked his instructor was later demoted for disobeying his instructor, then promoted for saving the aircraft. McDonnell Douglas attributes the saving of this aircraft to the amount of lift generated by the engine intake/body and "a hell of a good pilot"
This is definItely a testament to modern combat aircraft design. Could it be that the fuselage acting as an airfoil, a high thrust to weight ratio and two engines (differential thrust) helped in this impressive feat? What about the fact that the F-15 has elevons and not elevators and so it had some aileron control without the right wing?

Caption Competition Rules Changes I thank those who have gone to the trouble of letting me have so many compliments about the Caption Comp, but the general attitude is "I like your caption so much, I didn't think I could do any better".
What whimps!! Surely the incentive of a nice bottle of red should tickle your grey cells and your funny bone!
Anyway, at the suggestion of some, the following Rules changes will now apply:

1.
2.

All entries will be published (not just the winner)
Because it seems to discourage people from entering, I will not put my caption in until the judging, but then I reserve the right to also be an entrant and I can also win the prize, and I as Editor remain the sole judge.

So, this month's picture is published without my Caption. Maybe this will stir a little more interest?
And here are all entries:

January

Editor:

Lynette Austen

Simon Press

"flare ... flare ... flare ... BUGGER!!!"

"Up ... Up ... and A W R Y!" (WINNER!!)

“Hey who wants their lawns trimmed? This is much more fun than the whipper-snipper!!”

February

Editor:

Brian Porman

Stefi Grech

Simon Press

"OK Mum you can let go of my hand now ... I'm just about there!"

"I usually have a Labrador do this"

"Thanks for being here Lufty, I still haven’t quite overcome my fear of heights!!!"

"OK, first one to the hotel bar gets the hostie!" (WINNER!!)

March Caption - Just for Fun!

Here is a picture downloaded from the Internet (credit to whoever took it) which lends itself to a funny caption ... so how about contributing one!
Send your entry to the Editor by email to editor@wrcs.org.au and the winning entry will be published next month.

February Caption Winner

Prize won by: Simon Press

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