Radio Control Soaring
Darwin Barrie [[email protected]]
The Soaring community suffers a loss
JULY 3, 2005, the model-sailplane and full-scale soaring communities lost a good friend: Mark Navarre was killed while flying his ASW-20 near California City, California. His best friend John Roe wrote the following.
“Mark was born June 12, 1961. He was married to Cordilia and resided in Lakewood, California. He loved dogs and would often bring ‘Thumper’ to the field.
“Mark was one of the closest friends of my adult life. We met at a slope race in 1997 and just hit it off somehow. He had an infectious enthusiasm for soaring, all types, but especially Slope and hand launch and was a tireless TD (Thermal Duration) competitor. He liked to design, build, and compete, and truly loved every moment. He put more into, and got more out of, soaring, both RC and full scale, than most.
“Most important to me, and many others, was his willingness to help and teach. He mentored me from when I could barely fly all the way to the 2000 F3J World Championships Gold Team. Mark shared in this as a tower and caller.
“He was a perfectionist and a keen intellect and observer, always optimizing everything from his own design, the ‘Air Rachet,’ to earning his Diamond and 1,000K certificates in his ASW-20. He was a superb pilot on the ground or in the air.
“I had some of the best times I know I will ever have with him. I looked forward nearly every weekend for years to driving to a contest somewhere with Mark. We practiced, competed, and eventually I flew formation with him after following in his footsteps and getting my pilot’s license.
“Mark was way too young and much too full of life to be taken. But, as everyone has noted, he died following his passion and in his element doing what he absolutely loved to do. Godspeed my friend.”
Thanks, John, for that well-written tribute. John has put up a Web log at www.gliderscum.com that will feature stories and pictures of Mark Navarre.
June 4-5, 2005, the Torrey Pines Gulls (www.torreypinesgulls.org) held its annual International Handlaunch Glider Festival (IHLGF) in Poway, California. It has become the premier hand-launch event in the world. This year 95 pilots from seven countries (Brazil, England, France, Japan, New Zealand, Taiwan, and the United States) and 16 states competed.
The IHLGF is not only noted for the high level of competition, but also the social atmosphere. CD Ron Scharck and the Torrey Pines Gulls staff members do a great job of organizing dinners for everyone to gather, eat, drink, and tell lies. This event is also the apex of technology in the hand-launched glider arena. If it doesn’t work there, it probably won’t work anywhere else.
The event presents a diversity of conditions, ranging from light, buoyant air in the mornings to potential significant winds in the afternoon. In the past, many competitors have used two airplanes—one for the morning and one for the afternoon. Fortunately the many talented designers have optimized the designs so that one airplane will handle the ever-changing conditions.
This year I noted four primary designs that appeared to dominate the field: the Blaster from Barry Kennedy at Kennedy Composites (www.kennedycomposites.com), the XP-4 from Denny Maize at Pole Cat Aeroplane Works (www.polecataero.com), the Taboo GT from Oleg Golovidov (www.olgol.com), and the Encore from Don Peters of Maple Leaf Design (www.mapleleafdesign.com).
The top 10 at the contest this year were Phil Barnes, Paul Anderson, Joe Wurts, Mike Smith, Bruce Davidson, Mark Drela, Adam Weston, Tim Johnson, John Erikson, and Tom Kiesling. If you are a serious competitor or even a casual competitor, give this event a try. It’s a lot of fun. The IHLGF is held the first full weekend of June each year.
I received the following information from Roger Crabtree regarding his winch system.
“For the past several years I’ve been building what appears to be a one-of-a-kind winch for launching sailplanes. This winch uses an electric clutch between the motor and drum. The clutch releases at the end of the launch, and the drum freewheels on the armature shaft. This lets the line go slack very quickly, and little altitude/momentum is lost pulling the heavy armature up to speed.
“The winch is ideal for sailplanes that aren’t made to withstand zoom launches. A side benefit is the ease with which the winch line can be retrieved. The freewheeling drum has very little resistance compared to the motor armature with the drag from the brushes.
“An integral part of the ClutchWinch design is the truly redundant footswitch. It’s got two micro switches, one for each solenoid. The micro switches close in sequence as the pedal is depressed. When the pedal is depressed a little, the first solenoid closes and the clutch is engaged. When the pedal is all the way down, the second solenoid closes and the motor runs.
“The winch can be pulsed in the normal manner by letting up on the switch partway, cutting power to the motor but keeping the clutch engaged. When the line goes slack at the end of the launch, the line tension sensor bar drops down, closing a micro switch, which engages the clutch and the brake solenoid. A latching relay and timing circuit in the control box keeps the brake on for several seconds until all the line tension has dissipated.”
Roger reports that the winch is ideal for vintage sailplanes. All components are readily available over the counter. You can contact Roger at [email protected] for details about the ClutchWinch.
As this is being written, the Nats is only a couple weeks away. Jim Bacus will be covering the contest in a future column. Unfortunately a conflict in schedule will keep me from attending this year. Next year my full-scale RV-7 will be completed, and I’ll be attending many more events across the country.
If you have not attended the Nats, you owe it to yourself to do so. Not only is this a great event for competition, but the after-hours follies are great as well. The AMA national headquarters and flying site are without equal. You will find some of the most challenging conditions that are extremely rewarding when conquered.
I have had the opportunity to use the Shadow 3 receiver from Sombra Labs, available from Kennedy Composites. The receiver is a seven-channel, full-range, dual-conversion FM/PPM (Pulse Position Modulation) unit. Weighing only 8 grams, the compact size will fit in almost everything.
The Shadow automatically detects the positive/negative shift, making it compatible with most transmitters. The receiver is crystal-less and is programmable with the aid of a plug-in programming module. Simply dial in the desired frequency and push a button to lock it in.
I have only flown the receiver in a hand-launch sailplane, but I found the range to be effective as far away as I dared to fly. I will be installing the receiver in a larger model to do some more in-depth range testing. For additional details contact Barry Kennedy at Kennedy Composites.
In the past few months I have received numerous E-mails requesting an update on my full-scale Van’s Aircraft (www.vansaircraft.com) RV-7 project. I have a little space this month to include that update.
I am working on the cowl, engine baffling, and final wiring. At this point in the project there is a ton of small tasks to finish; as always, each task takes much longer than anticipated to complete. It amazes me how many RVs are flying with the volume of work it takes to get one to that point. As of June 2005, more than 4,200 RVs have been constructed and flown.
The learning curve on the electronics end of things has been steep. The wiring process is tedious. I’ve had some great guidance and advice to proceed “one wire at a time.” The last thing you want to see when the Master Switch is hit for the first time is smoke! I hope to have the airplane ready for flight by mid-September.
As always, I welcome comments and suggestions about content for future columns. My address is 4316 W. Rickenbacker Way, Chandler AZ 85226.
If you contact me by E-mail, be sure to include your complete name and a phone number so I can contact you if necessary. I try to reply to each message within a day or two. Keep in mind that “life happens” and this is not always possible. I will reply within a reasonable time frame.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
