RADIO CONTROL SOARING
Mike Garton, 2733 NE 95th Ave., Ankeny IA 50021; E-mail: [email protected]
RAY HAYES sent me pictures and facts about the 2002 Wood Crafters Soar In Reunion. Contest directors in other parts of the country should seriously consider this sanctioned fun-fly activity. Even if you are more into composites than wood, I think you will find unique ideas in the text that would increase the fun for any type of event.
I also have two announcements, which I will get out of the way first.
Last month I covered new videos. A couple days after my deadline, Marty Crosley's new DS Fest video was announced. You can read more about it on his Web site: http://crosleycustoms.com/.
The second announcement is that I recommended Jim Bacus to cover the 2002 Nationals for next month's issue.
The Wood Crafters Soar In Reunion was held in Muncie, Indiana, May 25-26. I normally do not run contest coverage in this column because the four-month magazine lead time makes placings old news. The Wood Crafters event deserves some special press because it is a new, unique format that many people may like.
The basic premise of the event is that it is a fun-fly for those who build built-up wooden gliders. Fiberglass fuselages and composite wing reinforcements are allowed. Electric power airplanes are also permitted.
Registration was limited to one per frequency so that pilots could fly whenever they wanted. This limited the size of the event to just more than 50 registered pilots. Although the fun-fly size may have a natural size cap, the idea can expand to other pilots if similar contests are held in other regions.
In addition to the fun-flying, several low-key, contestlike events were run for those pilots who chose to enter them. One event was duration with no maximum and unlimited attempts; simply put: the longest flight won. The longest time was announced throughout the day.
Good lift midafternoon on Sunday determined the winners of this popular event. Don Harn’s flew his 3M Scooter for one hour, 20 minutes; Bill Friend flew his Sailair for 59 minutes; and Eric Podzielinski flew his 24-year-old Osprey 1000 for 44 minutes. This event was Eric’s first flight in 20 years.
Man-on-man group launching by Mini Hi Start was a hit. This event was limited to (built-up) models less than 60 inches in wingspan. Sky Bench Aerotech Mini Hi Starts were used, with 25 feet of 1/16-inch-inside-diameter, 1/16-inch-wall-thickness rubber with 125 feet of 73-pound-test braided nylon towline and a small parachute.
The mini hi-starts typically provide a 150-foot launch with low stress on the wooden wings. Man-on-man hi-start launching virtually eliminates the effects of launch and the effect of lift cycles from the results.
Paul Siegel ran the mini hi-start event using his three-strikes-and-you’re-out format, meaning that if your model is the first down in your group a total of three times, you become a spectator. The last pilot standing is the winner.
The most popular competition task at Wood Crafters was AMA T4—15-minute cumulative max (also known as 15-minute add-em-up). Although it is not a good choice of task for serious competitions, it is very well liked by not-so-serious competitors. With add-em-up formats, many pilots are in contention for the win on their last flights. Marc Gellert won flying a Grand Esprit.
One of the novel events flown at Wood Crafters was the League of Silent Flight (LSF) duration tasks. Pilots competed by flying three flights of each of the five duration tasks in the LSF Flight Achievement program: five-minute, 15-minute, 30-minute, one-hour, and two hours for LSF levels one through five.
The highest LSF duration task achieved was level three, which was three flights of 30 minutes each, by Jim VanderEy. He put in all three flights Sunday with his Challenger. Pilots had both days to get their competition flights in, flying whenever they chose. This LSF-related competition task adds some additional fun to the personal achievement of LSF flights.
Scale competition was also held. A tow airplane was provided. Gordon Pearson won the category with his 138-inch Slingby Tutor.
Organizing the Wood Crafters Reunion was a labor of love for Ray Hayes. He put a lot of effort into creating a laid-back, fun environment for the pilots.
An awards banquet was well attended. The guest speaker was Gordon Pearson, who talked about two topics: how to create a successful Scale documentation book and a short history of Dan Pruss’s, Lee Renaud’s, and Walt Good’s contributions to RC Soaring.
Three original designs are in one of the Wood Crafters pictures. I e-mailed each of the builders to get more details about the new designs. Tom Tock of Dwight, Illinois ([email protected]), started with a Mystery Ship kit and changed enough things that it is clearly a new design. I will let him describe it.
“My R.E.S. airplane is built up from the Mystery Ship kit (Major Hobby, Lake Havasu City AZ). The Mystery Ship is supposed to be a 118 inch span, aileron and flap T-tail airplane. Basically, I substituted a fiberglass fuselage with regular rudder and elevator setup, bent the wings, and added spoilers. My wings are fully sheeted, and the trailing edge is swept 2 degrees forward from the dihedral break to the tip. Tip panel is 2° washout. Total weight is 72 ounces.
“I used carbon fibre reinforcement on the wing spars and 3/8 inch shear webbing. Individual spoilers mounted under the spoilers directly drive the blades open via long outlet arms. Springs return the spoilers. It’s very positive and easy to adjust the throws. The Mystery Ship airfoil is a 7037, but I reduced the camber a bit, and my airfoil is probably closer to a 7035 (very scientific).
“This is the second Mystery Ship wing I have built for R.E.S. It was lucky, and last year’s airplane finished second at the Nats. It’s an easy flier.”
Bob Johnson ([email protected]) flew an original Rudder-Elevator-Spoiler design. He used a fiberglass Airtronics Legend fuselage from Dream Catcher Hobbies.
He chose the Clark Y airfoil as a starting point; it is 10% thick at the root. Bob thinned the airfoil progressively to 8.5% at the tip over three panels. The three-piece D-tube and cap-strip wing bolts on. A separate servo was used for each spoiler. At 68 ounces the airplane is slightly heavy, but Bob reports that it flies very well.
Bob Hicks ([email protected]) flew a model he calls the “Firefly 2.” It has a 126-inch triple-taper wing with the SD7037 airfoil. It has a pod-and-boom fuselage sporting a bolt-on triple-PCV tail. A computer was used to refine the flying surfaces.
Control functions are rudder, elevator, and spoilers. Two servos for spoilers are on slides in the wings and are independently adjustable for proper closure. This is a neat idea for noncomputer radios.
Construction of the Firefly 2 is all wood except for the carbon-and-fiberglass tailboom. The wings are covered with UltraCote® , and the fuselage is painted with lacquer. With 1,045 square inches of wing area, it weighs 60 ounces for an 8.3-ounce wing loading. A ballast tray on the center of gravity can be loaded with up to 40 ounces of ballast without disassembling. There is also an accessible compartment to hold a variometer for cross-country work.
Ray Hayes gave me some notes on his plans for next year. He has sent in the sanction for three days instead of two (starting Friday). All models will be restricted to woodies, with or without fiberglass fuselages—the same as for the 2002 event. Entry will be by pre-registration only. All those who signed up for 2002 will have first choice, and Ray already has more people registered on the waiting list than there are open frequencies.
Single-entry per frequency will be used again, with the option of team entry. No one will have to accept someone else on his or her frequency. The team-entry concept is designed for flying buddies who are willing to share the same frequency; it will not be used to harass someone already registered into sharing a frequency, for example.
Sources:
Additional information about the Wood Crafters event and its format: Sky Bench Aerotech 9218 Thunder Hill Pl. Fort Wayne IN 46804 (260) 434-1322 www.skybench.com
LSF (League of Silent Flight) c/o AMA Box 3028 Muncie IN 47302-1028 www.silentflight.org
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
