Radio Control Slope Soaring - 2006/04

Radio Control Slope Soaring

Dave Garwood [[email protected]]

Scheduled Slope Soaring events for 2006

Four slope soaring events for 2006 have been announced at the time of this writing: the Tri-Slope Six-Pack in May in Washington; the Southern California Power Scale Soaring (PSS) Festival in May in California; the Midwest Slope Challenge in June in Kansas; and Soar Utah, to be held over Labor Day weekend in Salt Lake City.

The first half of this column gives a brief description of what you can expect to see and do at each of these events. The remainder is a checklist of five methods I have used to apply markings to sailplanes. If there's one marking method on the list you haven't tried, I've done my job.

Tri-Slope Six-Pack (3rd annual)

The third Tri-Slope Six-Pack is scheduled for May 20–21, near Richland in central Washington. Events are planned for three venues: Eagle, Kiona, and Chandler Buttes. Eagle Butte will be for flying classic and modern scale sailplanes because of the easy launch, smooth lift, and large, turbulence-free landing zone at this hill. Kiona Butte will be for dynamic soaring (DS), including foam DS sailplanes. Chandler Butte will be for full-on, ballistic soaring of the heaviest sailplanes, flown in the strongest lift by the boldest RC slope soaring pilots.

Photos of the 2004 event are at www.shredair.com/3s6p/3s6p04.html and photos of the 2005 edition are at www.shredair.com/3s6p/3s6p05.html. For information about this year's event, see the ShredAir web site at www.shredair.com/events.html and especially www.shredair.com/3s6p/2006. Contact Dieter Mahlein at [email protected] or (541) 954-6842.

Southern California PSS Festival (9th annual)

The ninth Southern California PSS Festival is set for May 27–28 (Memorial Day weekend) at Cajon Summit in the San Bernardino National Forest. The PSS Festival is organized by the Inland Slope Rebels (ISR) club. Expect to see high-end PSS models constructed by skilled builders and flown by extreme fliers. In past years the ISR group has given awards in five categories, held a large raffle, run building and finishing clinics, and hosted an informal evening get-together while leaving plenty of time for fun-flying. There may be an informal flying session at Point Fermin a day or two before the official event for some coastal flying with old flying buddies.

For registration forms and more information, go to www.inlandsloperebels.com or contact Event Director Brian Laird at [email protected].

Midwest Slope Challenge (13th annual)

The 13th Midwest Slope Challenge (MWSC) is scheduled for June 8–11 at Wilson Lake in Russell County, Kansas. This is the longest continuously running slope soaring event and a successful race series. For the second time the event will be run by the local flying club, Wings Over Wilson. In past years four race categories were staged: Foamie Combat, Foamie Warbird Race, One Design Race (ODR), and Unlimited Race.

In addition to the racing and contest events, participants can usually count on plenty of sport-flying opportunities; there are several flyable sites around Wilson Lake that accommodate different wind directions.

For MWSC registration information, race rules, and other details, go to www.midwestslope.com. You may also contact Wings Over Wilson President Mike Bailey at [email protected]. Photos from past events have been posted at www.slopeflyer.com/mwsc.

Soar Utah (5th edition)

This year's Soar Utah will be the fifth running of the every-other-year event. The InterMountain Silent Flyers (IMSF) Slope Soaring event will be held for four days over Labor Day weekend—Friday, September 1–Monday, September 4—in and around Salt Lake City, Utah.

The following is from the IMSF press release:

"Friday's flying location will be over Butterfield Canyon, overlooking the world's largest man-made excavation and the entire Salt Lake Valley.

"On Saturday and Sunday, events will be held at Point of the Mountain, where warm south winds create some of the best and most consistent slope lift conditions in the country. Slope pilots come from around the world to experience the smooth lift, predictable weather, and unique ridge soaring conditions at the Point. Radio impound will be mandatory during the event on Saturday and Sunday.

"Monday's flying will be atop Francis Peak, high in the Wasatch Mountains. All flying sites offer drive-up convenience.

"Registration forms and information will be available on the web at www.soarutah.org. Registration will be limited to 200 pilots. This year's AMA-sanctioned event will feature trophies for the top finishers in PSS, Modern, and Vintage classes.

"In addition to the slope flying, there will be a Saturday night BBQ and large raffle. For more information please contact Erik Vogel at [email protected] or visit www.silentflyer.org."

Here's hoping you get a chance to attend and fly at one or more of the national slope soaring events scheduled for this flying season. In the meantime, let's make those sailplanes we're building this winter look great by considering five ways to apply markings to models.

Also included in this column

• Five methods of applying coloring and decorative markings to slope sailplanes

Five methods of applying coloring and decorative markings

The Leading Edge Gliders P-63 Kingcobra shown on a close, fast pass illustrates five ways I have used to provide coloring and decorative markings on slope sailplanes. The P-63 is a foamie, but these methods are applicable to fiberglass and wood gliders as well.

1. Iron-on covering ("cote")

• Plastic films with heat-activated adhesive come in many colors. Iron-on covering can act as a base color and can be ironed over to make stripes, accent markings, and detail markings.
• On my Cobra the base yellow Solartex is from a gunnery-target squadron high-visibility scheme. Canopy markings were cut from UltraCote with scissors and ironed on over the Solartex.

1. Paint

• Paint is widely used for large areas (for example, camouflage) and for accents and details, such as the silver engine exhaust stacks on the yellow P-63. For those markings I masked and sprayed an oval area in silver paint, then drew the black details with a fine-point marker.
• Paint is highly versatile and is available in more colors than the other methods. It can be applied with a brush, spray can, or airbrush.
• For more information and photos of painting PSS warbirds, see the P-40 Warhawk kit review in the January 2006 RC Soaring Digest and the frisket-mask painting article in the February 2006 RC Soaring Digest at www.rcsoaringdigest.com.

1. Decals

• Decals are familiar from plastic model kits and are natural for national markings on military schemes as well as lettering on sport models.
• They can be water-slide or sticker (press-on). I prefer water-slide decals for fiberglass models because they are thinner and look more like paint. I prefer press-on stickers for foam models, which flex more.
• The Kingcobra's stars-and-bars insignia and tail numbers are press-on decals.

1. Markers

• Markers are great for details and can be used for larger areas. I used a Sanford ultra-fine-point Sharpie to make the panel lines on the Kingcobra and a fine-point Sharpie for the anti-glare panel in front of the canopy.

1. Tool-handle dip

• Tool-handle dip is tough and durable; I used it to mark the red spinner on the Kingcobra. I think it will outlast any other part of the model.

If there are other methods you have used successfully for marking and decorating models, I would be happy to hear about them.

Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.