Radio Control Aerobatics-2011/09

100 MODEL AVIATION
[[email protected]]
Radio Control Aerobatics Mike Riggs
Are you “good enough?”
Brenner Sharp displays his Integral that
uses the Contra Drive Version 2 after
its first flight. Look for more
information in the next column.
Andrew Jesky’s Evo Spark is powered by
a Hacker C50-14XL and employs a
Castle Creations Phoenix Ice 80HV
controller, Futaba transmitter, Thunder
Power batteries, a Falcon 21 x 14 carbon
propeller, and Dave Snow-built balsa
wings. Zuercher photo.
The Treasure Valley Pattern Contest was 18-year-old Tyler Kyle’s first. Our
Sportsman of the Month pictured with his Aresti 40. Robert Sox photo.
Left: Contestants at the May 2011
Treasure Valley Pattern Contest in Boise
ID. Ken Zuercher photo.
BEFORE MY CLUB hosted this year’s Treasure Valley Pattern
Contest, I asked some fellow club members if they planned to enter.
My sales pitch went something like, “Sportsman is free and you’ll
get to fly on a day when the field will be closed to general flying.”
Surprisingly, some responded that they are “just not good
enough” pilots to enter a Pattern contest. Maybe they didn’t want to
enter or were just being polite. I don’t know. However, I do know
that if you can take off, loop, roll, and land your airplane, you have
the skills and equipment necessary to fly in a Pattern contest. I’d
even bet many CDs, including me, would let people fly Sportsman
on a buddy box.
Perhaps some of the “I’m not good enough” stems from Pattern
maneuvers having unfamiliar names. I’ve often been asked the
difference between a Half Reverse Cuban Eight and a Half Cuban
Eight. Within the Cuban family of maneuvers, the word “reverse”
means pull up 45° first. A Half Reverse Cuban Eight means pull up
45°, perform a half roll, and then loop through with elevator to
(upright) level flight. In contrast, a Half Cuban Eight means pull
Also included in this column:
• Treasure Valley Pattern Contest
• Andrew Jesky, the person
• Contra Drive
• Sportsman of the month
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September 2011 101
Mid-Atlantic Airframes has assumed
rights to Black Magic kits and parts. A
Black Magic 110 will be available soon.
through a loop until pointed 45° downward,
roll upright, and pull to level flight.
The same type of relationship exists
between the Immelmann Turn and the Split
S maneuver. Instead of the first or last
segment being a 45° up or down line, these
maneuvers start and end with level flight.
An Immelmann Turn is a half loop and roll
upright; Split S is the opposite. Half roll to
inverted and half loop to upright and level.
In each maneuver, the half roll and half
loop is a continuous motion without
hesitation between them.
Adding to the confusion, the Sportsman
sequence has a couple of oddly named
center maneuvers.
What the heck is a Double Immelmann
without rolls? That’s not hard. It’s a loop
with a flat segment on top and bottom.
Pull a half loop, fly straight and level
inverted, then finish the back half of the
loop to upright level flight. An excellent
exercise is to stretch this maneuver to the
box ends.
A Cobra without Rolls sounds daunting.
In reality it’s just the top of a triangle.
Staying upright the entire maneuver, pull up
to 45°, push down to 45° and level out at the
beginning altitude. Think of it as “straight
and level flight” with a centered bump in the
middle.
Many pilots routinely do Pattern
maneuvers in their everyday flying. For
pattern purposes they are given formal
names or labels. Nothing in the Sportsman
schedule requires a Pattern airplane or
super flying skills. The maneuvers
themselves are not hard. Stringing them
together “precisely” is the challenge.
If the opportunity arises, consider
giving Pattern a try with whatever airplane
and skills you have. If you don’t like it
after a round or two, drop out of the
contest. Nobody will think any less of you.
Who knows, you may have fun, feel a
sense of accomplishment, or become
Sportsman of the Month.
Pattern is flown outside; it’s an
outdoor sport, hobby, activity—
whatever label you choose to put on
it.
As evidenced at the second
Treasure Valley Pattern Contest,
participants travel and come to
fly, even in challenging
weather conditions. With the
exception of three local entrants, the
minimum distance driven by any contestant
was slightly more than 300 miles.
We had 11 contestants last May. It was a
small contest, but it represents a 20%
growth in the contest’s second year.
You do not have to be a Pattern club to
hold a Pattern contest. The Pattern
community will bring its show to
you—in most cases, CD included. All
you have to do is a little leg work to
get approval from the club for use of
the field. Here in the National Society
of Radio Controlled Aerobatics’
(NSRCA) District 8, the hosting club
keeps the proceeds after subtracting
I have remarked in a previous column
about not having time to practice enough to
become a world champion even if I had
talent. I knew being a champion took a lot
of time and effort, but I was shocked when
Andrew told me he practices six flights per
day at least six days a week.
In nearly all conditions, Andrew
practices on an abandoned road to represent
the US at the 2011 F3A World
Championship. He began his current
practice regimen as soon as winter began
releasing its icy grip on Utah.
In further discussion, Andrew explained
his practice routine is what he feels is
required to ensure he is as prepared as he
can be for the 2011 World Championship.
Did I mention he is a very dedicated
person?
Andrew takes great pride in his firstplace
finish at the 2010 team selection. It
gives him the additional title of United
States F3A Team Captain and is the next
step toward his ultimate goal of being F3A
World Champion.
After winning Masters at the
2002 US Nationals it took Andrew
five long years of hard work to get
back on the podium with a thirdplace
finish in F3A at the 2007
Nationals, followed by second place
in 2008, and first place in 2009.
Andrew’s 14-year modeling career
began innocently enough with his brother
asking their dad for a model airplane. Soon
after learning to fly, he entered a Pattern
contest and liked it. With his family’s full
support, Andrew climbed through the
ranks of Pattern.
While preparing to fly in Advanced
at the Nationals he met Verne Koester.
Since that time, Verne has been
Andrew’s coach and caller.
A couple weeks before the World
Championship begins, Andrew will be
traveling back to the Midwest where
Verne will help put the final polish on
minimal expenses for
things such as plaques and
printer ink.
Boise is 300 miles from
nowhere; if our club can
draw contestants, yours can
too. The US national F3A
champion, Andrew Jesky,
and his friend, Darin
Peirce, showed how well
Pattern people travel. They
drove to Boise from the
Salt Lake City area. Think
that was far? In early April,
Andrew drove 600-plus
miles to attend the NSRCA
District 7 contest in
Victorville, California.
Boise was Darin’s first
Pattern contest since 1997.
Darin is no slouch at the
sticks. He finished second
in F3A behind Andrew. He tells me that
he and Andrew both enjoyed themselves
and will be back next year.
Are you interested in hosting a Pattern
contest? Go to the NSRCA website, figure
out what district you’re in, and contact your
district’s vice president. If you need help
contacting him, get in touch with me. I’ll be
happy to help. This is what I did to get the
Treasure Valley Pattern Contest started.
See my full 2011 Treasure Valley
Pattern Contest report and pictures on the
NSRCA District 8 website.
During the contest, I had the chance to talk
to Andrew about his goals and expectations
for (what was then) the upcoming 2011
World Championship in Muncie, Indiana.
The first impression is a lasting
impression. The US could not hope for a
better Pattern ambassador than Andrew. He
is truly a remarkable person, with
outstanding talent, and unsurpassed
dedication.
Arch Stafford says his Extreme Flight two-meter
Vanquish is a “very nice solid-flying airplane.” At $650,
the Vanquish represents another “Pattern-on-a-budget”
option.
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Andrew’s flying. Then Verne and
Andrew will join the rest of our US team
to practice and compare notes before the
contest begins. Go USA!
F3P is now an official world
championship class. We can expect to
have the first world championship in
2015. For those who are unfamiliar with
F3P, it is Indoor Aerobatics.
Inspired by Silvestri Sabatini’s
European Contra Drive, Brenner Sharp,
an engineer for Whirlpool Corporation,
and Mike Gaishin, owner of Gaishin
Manufacturing, set out to design their
own Contra Drive in the fall of 2009.
Brenner and Mike successfully debuted
their creation at the 2010 Nats.
In the next column we will take an indepth
look at the Contra Drive and how it
fared at this year’s Nats and F3A World
Championship. Is Contra Drive a game
changer for Pattern?
After reading my May column about
Pattern economics, Eric Runfeldt from
Killeen, Texas, suggested looking at
ARF parts for a source of cheaper parts.
He went so far to recommend carrying a
tape measure to measure ARFs at the
flying field. Thank you, Eric!
Flight complete. MA
Sources:
NSRCA
http://nsrca.us
Extreme Flight
(770) 887-1794
www.extremeflightrc.com
Mid-Atlantic Airframes
[email protected]
www.midatlanticairframes.com
Contra Drive
[email protected]
Gaishin Manufacturing
(269) 934-9340
www.gaishinmfg.com
Zuercher Photography
(208) 336-6066
www.zuercherphoto.com
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