Practicing during the winter
by Mike Riggs [email protected]
The way I beat cabin fever is to get out and fly. My Baby-O (47-inch Osiris) was purchased specifically for winter flying. Arriving at the field with charged batteries and a fully assembled airplane is a time saver.
When I remember, I mount an (unplugged) battery in the airplane before leaving the workshop. The idea is to get six flights in before freezing.
Winter routine
With an eye on flying Advanced, I’ve been working on some of the Advanced maneuvers. A typical winter practice begins with flying end-to-end straight and level, concentrating on turn-around maneuvers and wind correction, and progressing quickly into using half loops on the ends for inverted practice.
The next flights add centered maneuvers. The last flights are the “let’s try something” flights. Sometimes I’m cold and ready to go home; on those days “something” becomes nothing more than (wind-corrected) strafing runs back and forth down the runway.
The entire excursion takes a couple of hours. These quick trips help me become accustomed to flying in a variety of wind and light conditions with the added benefit of keeping the fingers moving. Plus, flying is fun!
Tip
A tip from former National Society of Radio Controlled Aerobatics (NSRCA) president Jim Quinn: small, freshly flown batteries make excellent glove warmers.
Computer Numerical Control Router
Pavel Safarik began building and flying models as a boy in his native Czech Republic. Now living and flying in the Northwest with his son Alexander, Pavel not only builds his own aircraft designs but also builds the tools used to fabricate their parts and pieces.
Background and early flying
Pavel’s family moved from the Czech Republic to Austria in the late 1980s, where Pavel found a group flying F3A RC Aerobatics. His new best friend quickly became a Webra 61 LS as he transitioned from flying sailplanes to flying F3A. He was frequently coached by Helmut Danksagmüller.
Pavel’s entry into RC Aerobatics coincided with the time eastern Europeans began attending western European contests. Having lived in both eastern and western Europe, Pavel became the de facto interpreter at contests, translating between Czech and German. During this time Pavel met Hanno Prettner again and found him not only a great Pattern flier but someone who freely exchanged information.
From molds to CNC
For financial reasons, the new unlimited engine displacement rule change forced Pavel away from Aerobatics for a while. He began fabricating his own molds in earnest, vacuum-forming sailplane parts using a vacuum pump he made from refrigerator parts.
Not satisfied with the accuracy of traditional plugs and molds, he created several plans for a homebuilt computer numerical control (CNC) machine, but none resulted in a machine being built. In 2010, Pavel purchased a complete CNC router kit from CNCRouterparts.com. The model he bought is capable of four-axis control.
Pavel’s next challenge was to control the tool. After many frustrating hours and finding help on CNC forums, he was successfully using Mach3 software. The CNC itself is controlled using the parallel port generally found on older PCs. He swapped the PC bought specifically for his CNC machine with an old PC Alexander used. Lucky Alexander!
Alexander
Alexander soloed in 2007 at age 11. In 2008, he flew in his first contest. Since then Alexander has moved up class after class. Skipping the Masters class, he is currently flying F3A, where he routinely beats all comers.
Looking ahead
In a future column I will look at Pavel’s newest F3A design.
Note
No primary article content from "RC Aerobatics - 2013/03" appears on this scanned page; the page contains only an advertisement.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
