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It's spring at the SWMAC
October 7th Update
Another great Saturday was had this weekend, with Rod, Richard and myself taking to the air despite a blustery westerly that came out of the blue at about 10am.
Although it was turbulent, a good time was had by all, despite a few "less than perfect" landings.
The strong wind gave el Presidenté a chance to really unwind his severely over-powered AT40 (Thunder Tiger 61 up front) and do some sizzling low-runs down the strip at full throttle. Why did everyone look so worried?
The club now has its *new* trainer ready to fly, all that's left to do is to give it a maiden flight to check the trim and then we're back in business, offering all who want it plenty of dual-control stick-time.
If you're a South Waikato local and think you might like to try out this model-flying hobby, let us know and we'll let you know when to come down and have a test-flight using our shiny new plane.
I've started repairs to my Mojo 60 and hope to have it back in the air within a few weeks -- look out! Back on 29 September 2006...
At last we've been getting some warm, fine weather -- and even the equinoxial gales have been relatively gentle.
Many of the SWMAC members are straining at the bit to get back into the air after a long winter where there wasn't a lot going on around the field.
Since the weather warmed, Richard has been out several times and appears to
have mastered his AT40 trainer, while also getting to grips with his GeeBee
profile.
Lance had an unfortunate "arrival" with his GeeBee when the engine cut while hovering at about 20 feet over the tarmac. Since he was on low-rates, the plane did not have enough elevator to pull out of the ensuing dive. The result was a total loss of the airframe and the engine took a beating too, losing several fins from the head.
Tarmac is fun to fly off but unforgiving if things go wrong. Fortunately we also have plenty of grass alongside the sealed strip.
We're looking forward to getting some of our more novice fliers well and truly solo in the coming weeks. Brett, our youngest, should be okay after a couple more buddy-box flights, thanks to plenty of time on the simulator over the winter.
Poor old Ron had a wee accident with the club trainer (RIP) while flying without the buddy-box so he'll need to get himself a new plane before all the good weather disappears again.
A new club trainer has been ordered (the last AT40 that TopRC Model had in stock) and should be flying by mid October.
Ben tells us that he's also got an AT40 ready to go which is great. He'll
be able to join the rest of us doing endless touch-and goes, spot-landings
and crazy aerobatics on the upcoming long summer evenings and weekends.
Speaking of which, daylight savings starts on October 1st so it'll be light right up to 7pm in the evening. Anyone wanting to fly in the evenings will probably have no problems finding some company out at the field.
Lance tells me he's also got his AT40 "almost" ready to go but he's chickened out from putting a new SuperTigre 90 up-front. I guess he saw mine fly with the Thunder Tiger 61 and realised that he's just too old to keep up with such a fast and smart plane :-) That engine turns a 12x6 prop at 12,000 RPMs and it gives the AT40 *unlimited* vertical -- cool!
On the building board
Richard: A TopRC Extra (with ST90)
El Presidenté: Long EZ (TT46), Katana 70 (ST90) which will make the third in a set from very small to very big, and an Extra 330L (45cc petrol).
Lance: Extra 330 (ZDZ80), Funworld 120 (SuperTigre 2300), and electric glider.
Darren: A hulking great steam train! Yes, Darren seems to have defected
to the smokey-side and has rarely been seen flying of late. instead, he spends his days
tucked away in his workshop building a huge model train.
Ben: His Corsair is getting closer to completion we're told... oooh! Can't wait!
Case: We don't know. What ya doin Case?
Steve: What you doin Steve?
Brett: an old control-line plane he ought to re-cover and fly, I think he'd like that.
Pete: He's working on a top-secret jet project -- but in the meantime, get back out here and fly that Mustang buddy!
Just for the record, here's our AT40 trainer count as of this month:
- El Presidenté: now on his second, this time with a ridiculous amount of power (the first was the ill-fated club trainer) with the new club trainer making number 3.
- Lance: on his second, he sold his first despite its beat-up condition
- Richard: on his first (and, believe it or not, most of the trim is still on it!)
- Ben: just got his first (we'll run a sweepstake to see how long before the first bit of trim peels)
- Ron: busted up his first one and just did an encore performance with the club trainer (never mind Ron, these things happen :-)
Getting The "Good Oil"
I recently received some new oil from Cooper Fuels in the USA to try out in
my homebrew fuel.
To date I've been using a blend of CoolPower synth and castor. Sometimes this is done by blending in a little Benol with CoolPower blue and other times I just use CoolPower pink.
With 5% nitro and 20% oil, my trusty old Thunder Tiger 46Pro will spin a 12x4 prop at around 12,500 RPMs on the ground.
When I switched to the multi-viscosity synth/castor blend from Cooper Fuels, my RPMs immediately went up to 13,100 and the engine ran noticeably cooler. Idle and transition was also improved.
Brian from Cooper Fuels tells me that this oil is safe to use at ratios as low as 14%. Apparently it provides as much protection at these levels as CoolPower does at 20%. I've tried it and I believe him.
I'm sold on this stuff and will be ordering in several cases, for myself, club members and anyone else who'd like to enjoy the benefits. Drop me a line if you'd like some.
The President goes electric
After swearing I'd never touch any of this new-fangled electric stuff, I finally
broke down and bought a Katana EP RTF (that's "ready to fly").
For about US$115 I got the plane (a nice built-up profile of almost 1m wingspan), a 4-channel transmitter, 5-channel receiver (parkflyer type), four 9g servos, brushless motor, 1250mAH LiPo, charger and speed controller.
How could I say no to that?
It arrived direct from China in a box that looked very much worse for wear. Sure enough, the airframe had sustained some minor damage (nothing a little CA couldn't put right) and the transmitter had taken a good bang, rendering one of its sticks a little reluctant to centre.
More worrying was the fact that it arrived on an illegal frequency (72.810MHz).
When I contacted the NZ supplier they apologised and have promised to send me a new transmitter and crystal for the receiver.
Being the impatient sod that I am, I've already flown it by taking out the offending receiver and fitting a dinky little FMA M5 on a legal frequency, then using my Eclipse 7 transmitter.
The plane flies okay but has a very thin airfoil which means it also flies *fast* and can be a bear to slow down for 3D maneuvers. However, I'm pretty happy because it's something I can throw under my arm, walk down to the park and fly on those "almost here" long summer evenings. "Hey mista, did you build that? Can it do flips and a death-spiral?"
Big planes coming soon
Both Lance and el Presidenté now have big Extra 330Ls from TopRC Model.
These planes have a 90 inch wingspan, which makes them about 33% scale and are petrol-powered.
There are still some small details (like big servos and engines) to be sorted yet but we're hoping that they'll be seen at the field early in 2007 which, by the way, is not very far away now!
Upcoming events
Just a reminder that there's a fly-in of full-sized autogyros planned for
Labour Weekend. This means we probably won't be able to use the Tokoroa
airfield much (if at all) that weekend so we'll either have to visit other
clubs or just do "family stuff" to earn enough brownie points that we can
escape to do some flying later on.
There's also a model jet meeting scheduled for November 7/8. That'll also put the strip out of commission for general model flying.
We'd best make the most of the weekends and evenings inbetween I reckon!
For more information on the SWMAC and the fun we have, contact us