Focus on Competition - 2006/01

A few things are happening, and one of
the most common seems to be users
obtaining crystals that are not on channels
authorized for radio-control use. In some
cases they are obtaining crystals that are
not even authorized for CB use. This
practice must stop!
I’ll be asking the AMA Frequency
Committee for recommendations on this
issue. If you know of someone who abuses
this band, please do your best to make him
or her see the light! This practice is not
only a violation of the AMA Safety Code,
but it violates the Code of Federal
Regulations.
A few months ago I brought up the subject
of fail-safe settings in transmitters. If you
fly with a PCM transmitter, it has the
ability to set fail-safe settings. For that
matter, your transmitter has fail-safe ability
if you are flying spread spectrum.
Fail-safe is a wonderful tool; however,
it must be set up properly to work properly.
Most transmitters come preprogrammed
from the manufacturer with settings
wherein if the receiver loses the signal
from its transmitter, the receiver will hold
the servos in the last position the
transmitter put them in. Sometimes this
works; sometimes it does not.
It is important to put some thought into
what fail-safe settings work best for your
aircraft. In all cases I feel that idle throttle
Focus on Competition
Technical Director Steve Kaluf
THIS HAS BEEN a fun month (October);
I’ve been fortunate to get to play with some
new technology for the past few weeks. If
you are a reader of the AMA Web site, you
probably know what I’m referring to. The
first mass-market system using spread
spectrum technology has hit the streets, and
I’m happy to say I was one of the first to get
to play with it!
This new technology sure makes life
easy. Okay, the technology is not new; it
actually dates back to World War II, but it
is new to our hobby/sport.
In early November I attended the JR
Indoor Electric Festival in Columbus, Ohio.
There were many aircraft in the air all the
time. When I finally got up the nerve to fly,
I found it an odd feeling to simply turn on
the transmitter without having made a trip
to the frequency control table to pick up a
frequency control pin.
That’s right; I simply flipped the
transmitter switch to the on position with no
regard for frequency control!
The system worked perfectly, and I did
not shoot anyone down. In fact, at one point
most of the spread spectrum systems in the
building did a sort of mass launch. Roughly
14 of the systems took to the air at the same
time without so much as a thought of
worrying about what channel they were on.
This first system is designed for park
flyer-type aircraft. The range on this system
on its worst day is roughly 1,500 feet. This
is the reason for limiting the type/size of
aircraft you would fly with it.
Look for much more information in
Model Aviation and on the AMA Web site
on this topic in the coming months.
Different Topic: 27 MHz. While this band
is primarily used for surface operations,
there are many park flyer-type RTF aircraft
in this band as well. We are seeing a fair
amount of abuse of this band right now.
Probably 99.9% of this abuse is taking place
by surface users; however, it could affect us
all if the FCC decides to make an issue of it.
or cut throttle is appropriate. In my
thinking, you want your fail-safe settings to
put the aircraft in the safest possible
attitude, minimizing potential damage to
people and property. So give this setting
some thought!
Most important, set the fail-safe settings
up! (Read the manual that came with your
transmitter); almost all of them are very
well written, yet it seems that most of us do
not read it. I think our transmitters have
become so easy to operate that many of us
don’t read the manual because it’s almost a
challenge to see if we can do the
programming without it.
However, you are missing important
information that could save your life or the
life of someone else. Please read the
manual, understand, and set your fail-safe
settings every time. Be sure you know how
performing certain operations with your
transmitter affects fail-safe settings.
We are now into year two of the ruleschange
cycle. By the time you read this, the
results of the initial vote will be posted to
the AMA Web site. This will tell us which
proposals will go forward to the final vote
and possibly become new rules. To stay
informed about this process, please
monitor www.modelaircraft.org/Comp/
proposals.htm.
Til next time … MA
2006 Key Dates
January 13 - 15
AMA Convention 2006
2000 Convention Center Way
Ontario CA
February 24 - 26
WRAM Show 2006
White Plains NY
March 1 - 5
Florida Jets
Lakeland FL
April 7 - 9
Toledo Show 2006
Weak Signals R/C Exposition
Toledo OH
April 4 - 10
Sun n’ Fun
Lakeland FL
April 26 - 30
Top Gun
Lakeland FL
May 6 - 7
RCX Radio Control Expo
Anaheim CA
May 30 - June 4
Indoor Free Flight National
Championships
Johnson City TN
July 24 - 30
EAA AirVenture
Oshkosh WI
July 4 - August 6
Outdoor National Aeromodeling
Championships
AMA International Aeromodeling
Center
Muncie IN
(Events attended by AMA HQ staff and/or officers)
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