Banbridge Aeromodelling Club

The Friday eveing 2010 Table Sale at Dromore.

..lunch time...

It was a great start of the season, that is for sure. Mostly wall to wall sunshine, albeit with temperatures hovering just above zero. I’m sure we all enjoyed the day. Due to circumstances I see everything through a slight haze at present, so before I forget: Thanks to all who helped to make the event run smooth, from timekeepers to engine starters to veteran CD’s who reminded me of what to do. And of course, a big thank you  to all the pilots for showing up at 11:00 sharp-ish. We definitely set a new standard for Banbridge Time! 

Dennis was out very early to test his new Bruha (Dennis, correct me if I’m wrong). It looks like the other funfly planes but different. It’s a kit produced for a magazine, mostly laser cut parts etc. The UC is designed for a perfect lawn and was not up to our less then perfect field, especially when it is frozen. 

spot the week point for the LG

So, sadly, a minor redesign of the undercarriage mounting is required, before further flights can take place. After a bit of googling I found it, with a nice pic of the parts. As you can see, there is not a lot of wood where the LG goes. The ply sides snapped clean out at the bottom of the first square hole. (I’m writing this for those who would like to build the kit, it looks pretty otherwise, and showed great potential. 

pilots preparing for the contest

Climb and glide (20 secs climb, glide as long as you can, 10% bonus for landing on the strip) 

This is considered an easy event, gives you time to get into the swing of things and clean out your engine. Sadly Iain only managed a rather unfortunate 10 sec hop. For the rest of the pilots the event was mostly a relaxed gliding session. Thanks to the blue skies, both Matthew and myself decided to simply go up straight till the 20 secs were over, in the hope that afterwards at some stage the plane would be low enough to be visible again. Iain had invented (borrowed?) an ingenious method for stopping his engine after 20 secs: wrap a bit of wire around your fueltube to the carb and connect to left rudder. Apply left rudder at the right moment and engine stops. Guaranteed to work. If the engine goes long enough. 

Paul: 115 secs + 10% bonus =126.5          638.89 points
Kees 180 secs + 10% bonus =198.0         1000.00 points
Matthew 180 secs + 10% bonus =198.0   1000.00 points
Alistair 160 secs + 10% bonus =176.0       888.89 points
Sean 157 secs + 0 = 157.0                     792.93 points
Iain 10 secs + 0 =10.0                             50.51 points 

This was followed by 1 minute loops and tripple trash. (3 touch and goes, 3 rolls, 3 loops, 1 touch and go) 

Loopings:
Paul: 32, gives 800 points
Kees: 24, gives 600 points
Matthew: 40, gives 1000 points
Alistair: 36, gives 900 points
Sean: 37, gives 925 points
Iain: 17, gives 425 points 

Loops are fun, too much power or too tight and you are likely to break out, (depending on pilot ability) Iain was still suffering from the unwilling engine, but at least got some loops. Sean did well, but noticed the engine playing up a bit and decided to come back for a landing. After landing, Matthew noticed some smoke emerging from Sean’s plane, which created some excitement. Once the smoke disappeared, it was found that the speedcontroller had given up. What exactly caused that is still under discussion. So far the electrification has not been a success for Sean. 

Tripple trash:
Paul: 57 secs. gives 559 points
Kees: 74 secs. gives 291 points
Matthew: 29 secs. gives 1000 points
Alistair: 40 secs. gives 827 points
Sean: 0 ..(smoked out)
Iain: 0 ( 2 hits..) 

experts trying to figure out why the smoke escapes from Sean's speedcontroller..

The tripple trash is the first event that requires a bit more driving skills. Again the results are a lot better than they were last year. You would almost think we’d been practising!   

Touch and goes (2 mins)
Paul: 9, equals 290 points
Kees: 12, equals 387 points
Matthew: 31, equals 1000 points
Alistair: 16, equals 516 points
Sean: 0, still not going
Iain: 7, equals 226 points 

Touch and goes, the wind had picked up slightly, so we flew across the strip. I think I was the only one with a short undercarriage, so I decided to use a bounce and go method, wich I hoped gave me more chances of keeping the engine going. It worked out quite well for me. For those readers that have never seen Matthew fly: think 20 foot loopings, and you get the idea. Iain, to his own surprise, managed 7 T&G’s. He claims never to have had a better contest. Imagine what will happen when he gets his engine sorted!  And let me not forget Alistair. He never makes any big mistakes, (except That one we don’t talk about) but just goes about his business of getting very near the top in every competition. 

Limbo (2 mins)
Paul: 8, equals 242 points
Kees: 9, equals 273 points
Matthew: 33, equals 1000 points
Alistair: 13, equals 394 points
Sean: 0
Iain: 9, equals 273 points 

Alistair doing his stuff,while David seems to wonder how that stopwatch works.

The limbo, dreaded by some, fun for others. I don’t know whether it was the nice pink thread or the calm weather, but the thread was not broken once. After a few passes it seems to get easier for everybody to set up a rythm and fly consistantly through the gate. Have a look at the results and try to imagine what it means to do 33 loops through the limbo poles in 2 minutes. 

Final results: (all scaled back to 1000 points max.) 

Matthew: 1st with 1000 points
Alistair: 2nd with 705 points
Kees/Paul 3rd with 510 points
Sean 4th with 344 points
Iain 5th with 195 points 

Matthew doing 31 touch and goes in 2 minutes.

The results from Paul and myself were so close, that I thought we deserved a joint 3rd place. That makes both of us feel we won something. 

I’m sure we will see Dennis in the next comp, Iain will have his engine sorted, and no doubt Sean will de-electrify his plane too. Then it will be much harder for Paul and me, to get a third place. 

Overal I thought the skills dispayed were a lot better than last years. Maybe it is  possible to teach old dogs new tricks?? 

Anyway, thanks guys, it was a great day! 

Kees. 

ps.. somehow I think there’s a wee bit of a re-ignited competition spark amongst us. Lets keep it burning! 

..and below is a slideshow of all the pics: does it work?? 

The skies were blue and many a clubmember decided that it was a good day to emerge from hibernation.

To get you in the mood, here’s Iain’s effort to defy gravity.

Iain showing off his anti-gravitron powered X-Wing-Thing.

How do we know it’s powered with an anti-gravity device? Try lifting it, and you will know!

..more later..

A long time ago!!

In Colour mustn't be as old!!

Who else like to share his memories??

(Kees: I notice you are still flying planes twice your height… )

Saturday 9th January is glorious, blue sky, no wind & crisp still air!! Ideal for flying!!

Amazingly only my dad and I out (David Has also just turned up!)

I wish I’d have brought more batteries or a charger!

Matthew

Whilst waiting for the Turkey to cook I thought the still cold air was ideal for a wee flight in the garden, it was only one as it was too cold for anymore!

Model was an RC Factory YAK55 from Expressfly, great little model!

Last pic: Adam trying the Extra for size..

..my excuse for a xmas tree

From all of us to all of you: We wish you a merry Christmas and a Happy Newyear.

(webmaster) Kees

(My xmas tree??  made from genuine balsa shavings, prime quality 1/2″ wide.  You won’t find those in a store!)

Rumours have it that young Robert passed his A-cert last weekend. Details are still sketchy, but after hearing about his flying-skills during the last AGM, it seems he should have gotten a ‘DD’ for Dare-Devil..

No doubt more details will be uncovered!

Attached are some piccys of the (grass mower) cutter deck in its previous state. When I chopped the rust off I found that the deck was lying open like a busted sofa. It nearly had more holes in it than it had metal left.  That was some heap of rust lying on the shed floor, but then, it has served us well and is a queere ol’ age. So its no shame it now needs rebuilding.

..before..

So after a bit of head scratching a plan was hatched.

It was made from 2mm steel but as I have a reputation of beefing things up, 3 mm was decided on simply because I spied a sheet of 3mm steel just the right size to cut the deck out of with practialy no waste left. It will probably do the job all right for another lock of years. The bearings were shot too, apart from one, but I put in four brand new ones. The colour might not be the same but Nuffield tractor orange was handier got hold off than Westwood mower orange, so can you guess which one I picked? I got self etch primer and sprayed it on and then a couple of days later some Nuffield orange. Everything in the shed was a tinge of orange from the over
spray includeing the tip of the dogs tail, I do wonder how that may
have happened, hmmmm!

..and after..

Alistair

Yes I know it is sad news, but this is the last news letter of 2009. If you haven’t already received it via e-mail or by postie then click on the tab at the top of the screen & you can download it.

Thanks,

Iain