Aero Mail - 2008/06

Aero Mail
Aero Mail continued on page 205
June 2008 7
Bend the Frogfoot
I enjoyed reading Dave Garwood’s article on
airbrushing techniques in the April 2008 issue. It
was especially intriguing to me since I recently
scratch-built a Su-25 Frogfoot at the request of my
grandsons for RC Slope soaring.
One of the things that surprised me was despite
the effort to recreate scale paint patterns, panel lines,
etc. one unique feature of the Su-25 was not
incorporated. The full size Su-25 had anhedral
wings. When incorporated into the sloper it makes
for a plane that looks menacing in the air with its drooping wings and results in very stable
inverted flight.
Was there a reason for not building this distinctive feature into the model?
Jim Randall
Palos Verdes, California
The straight wings on the Frogfoot allow the model to fly more neutrally through positive
and negative maneuvers. As I’m sure you know, we can’t fly upside-down all the time.
Sport-scale designs incorporate compromises in features and outlines to make a
better/easier-flying model. Slope Soaring pilots have specific requirements, and the design of
the Su-25 that Dave Garwood built suits those needs very well.
I think that Dave helps make up for the menacing outline with a serious paint scheme,
don’t you?
Michael Ramsey
MA Editor
Corrections
I noticed that my email address in Dave Johnson’s short article [in the March “In the Air”
section] on the 2008 FAI Scale Championships is incorrect. It should be [email protected]
instead of [email protected]. All other address info is correct.
As Dave mentioned in the article, the World Championships are the Olympics of Scale
Model Aviation. We have a great team for the upcoming World Championships and the best
chance we’ve had in years to do well in the competition. All of our pilots are experienced
competitors and will do well against the other entrants.
Bruce Bretschneider
2008 Scale Team Manager
Bill Oberdieck took the photos featured in the piece “Former President Dave Brown
Honored,” on page 9 of the April issue.
Jack Moses was given credit for many of the pictures in the FAC = Fun2 article [in the
March issue]. He did not take the pictures; they are from his collection of photos taken by
others whose identities are forgotten or unknown.
Masters Points
I was pleased to see yet another photo of my 1/3 Scale Ercoupe in the Scale Masters
Championships report in the March Issue of MA. (Yes the one on floats in last April’s issue!)
The caption didn’t mention that we won 4th place in Team Scale, and there is a slightly
dramatic back-story to this.
At the start of the last round, we were in second place, but the second, third and fourth
place scores were all very close, so everything would depend on the outcome of the last
round. Carl flew a beautiful flight, and got 94.75, his best score yet. However, the nice
weather also enabled the other two close competitors to get good flight scores, so we dropped
to fourth place, as shown below. Team Scale Results:
2. Bill Adams/Wayne Frederick (Mesa AZ), Fokker D.VIII: static, 98.500; average of best
three flights, 89.250; total, 187.750
3. Dan Egelhoff/Larry Klingberg (Hesperia CA), Farman Moustique: static, 93.000; average
of best three flights, 94.583; total, 187.583
4. Carl Lindou/Oscar Weingart (Hemet CA), Ercoupe: static, 94.250; average of best three
flights, 92.917; total, 187.167
Note that we had a higher static score than the 3rd place winner, and a higher flight score
than the 2nd place winner. The three total scores differed by less than 0.6 points!
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June 2008 205
The Inside Loop
Continued from page 6
Aero Mail
Continued from page 7
(SMS) in Perry, Georgia, and I assigned
him to cover the event. Folks here around
the AMA Headquarters building have
traveled down to this one-of-a-kind event
for years to meet with others who traveled
even farther to just spectate as they
planned. Dave’s article and photographs do
great justice to the GAMA club and its
efforts to serve model-airplane fanatics like
me.
Imagine for a moment a football field,
wide and spacious, too big to try to make a
hand-launch glider fly from one end to the
other (one I built anyway) on. Now
imagine three fields like that, and fill them
from corner to corner with model airplanes
and thirsty fanatic aeromodelers feverishly
making deals to fulfill the need for a new
airplane project. Sounds like the SMS is an
event that I could totally relate with, don’t
you think?
But now it’s time for me to finish up
some projects and head to the flying field
with my sons. MA
Even fourth place was more than we ever
expected to achieve (with me being a total
newbie) so we were well satisfied with the
results. Prizes were awarded down to eighth
place, with trophies for the first three places,
and plaques for the remainder.
Oscar Weingart
Riverside, California
Hooray for FF!
I just received the March 2008 issue of
Model Aviation and was pleased to see a
number of free flight themed articles: Jean
Pailet presents his SoarCerer, an F1H size
towliner; Dennis Norman contributed an
article of the FAC and his Free Flight Scale
column; Gene Smith wrote up his Free Flight
Sport column; and there are several more free
flight pictures and paragraphs spread through
out the magazine. Lots of good press for Free
Flight!
Chris Stoddart
via E-mail
Kudo’s or should I say “Kanones” to our
editor for the publication of Dennis Norman’s
article, FAC = Fun2 in the March 2008 issue
of Model Aviation.
Dennis’s description, plus the
accompanying photographs provided a great
overview of the Flying Aces Club’s history,
competitions, and all its other fun type
activities and fun they are as anyone dropping
by the Geneseo Airport in July will watch a
somewhat laidback competition wherein the
sound of rubber powered aircraft taking
flight in almost silence is followed by some
great soaring flights.
The variety of rubber powered aircraft
entered in the competition, biplanes, triplanes,
multi-engine, flying wings and
others is unbelievable.
All are scale and in many cases well
detailed in order to garner those all
important extra points from the scale judges
prior to being flown.
So again a “Kanone” to our editor and if
you have not been to Geneseo to compete
or just look, take the time and make the
trip, it is worth it. I know as I have been
there.
Fran Ptaszkiewicz
Tonawanda, New York
April’s Guest Editorial
Excellent article about the internet and
gossip [on page 6]. I am also an amateur
radio operator and see the same issues in
radio related groups and review sites.
Would be great to see the same article
published in QST from the American Radio
Relay League.
Larry Gaalaas
via E-mail
I have built free flight and display balsa
models and only recently got into RC. My
exposure to models and modelers was
through the internet and the various forums,
so it was to them that I turned for
information.
Before too long I knew the airplane kit
that I wanted to build, the motor, battery,
and ESC. I also knew I wanted to take
advantage of the 2.4 GHz radios and before
too long found the issue with the Futaba
FASST radios as posted on RCGroups.com.
I read over the posts (both of customers
and Futaba employees), and read the
information on Futaba’s Web site. Then I
purchased a Futaba 6EX FASST radio and
had my LHS test it. Were it not for the
forums and the people there I would never
have known there was a problem or that I
could have my LHS test it.
Mr. [Greg] Hahn doesn’t seem to value
the internet. He seems to place internet
forums on a lower level than printed matter
and face to face communication. While
these traditional mediums do have great
value, for many people the internet is their
closest and best source of information.
Through the internet forums I have asked
questions of, and received answers from;
the man that designed my model airplane,
and the owner of Castle Creations in regard
to an ESC.
The whole idea of a forum is that people
are free to share their 2¢ and can post freely
without being moderated and filtered by an
editor. The key is peer review, just like
Wikipedia and open source software. A
single person may post a lie, but the
community as a whole will find and fix the
error.
That said, Mr. Hahn does make some
good points and I think with a different
approach to making his point he would
have received a better response from MA
subscribers and everyone that has read the
online version.
Stephen Meliza
Corvallis, Oregon
It’s an Apache
I am loath to believe that the builder of
the model, Charlie Smith, incorrectly
captioned his beautiful model shown on
page 70 of the April ’08 issue.
The model is not a North American
Invader, it is an N.A. Apache of which,
Charlie correctly informs us, 500 were
built. The full size aircraft was essentially
a P-51A, modified and strengthened for
dive bombing.
For those who care to emulate the full
size machine, the dive angle was limited to
70 degrees to avoid overspeeding, since
the dive brakes were not particularly
effective ... and exceeding the “red line”
had, on one occasion, inconveniently tore
the wings off.
Charlie is to be congratulated on
duplicating and making operational the
dive brakes. To do so in such a tidy
manner speaks highly of his craftsmanship.
I must opine that his model is far better
finished than the actual aircraft!
Jim Newman
Kent City, Michigan
Retractable Jet Accessory
The caption for the photo on pg. 24 of
the April 2008 MA Edition of the 1/5 scale
BAe Hawk notes that the photo is of a
“retractable electric generator.” I was a
Crew Chief of an F-102 with the Hawaii
Air National Guard in the early 60s. It is
actually an emergency hydraulic air driven
pump for flight controls.
Most Military aircraft have two
hydraulic systems given consideration of
fly-by-wire today. When a pilot lost both
of the systems he would then deploy the
emergency air driven hydraulic pump. It is
pneumatically deployed.
We used to call it the “Rat Trap” as part
of our preflight was to inspect the air
turbine and pump with the door open. To
close the door we had to make sure there
was no pressure on the actuator as we had
to reach into the compartment and release
a latch on the actuator shaft.
If we did not check it, the door could
slam shut and we would be seriously
injured. Both the hydraulic and pneumatic
systems operated at 3000 psig.
Keep up the good work with MA. MA
Tom McLellan
Mount Airy, Maryland
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