Safety Comes First - 2011/04

Dave Gee | Safety Comes First [email protected]
Inflatable flying field?
Also included in this column:
• New RC helicopter training
manual
• Neat stuff at AMA Expo 2011
• Robin Hambley gets a write-up
These snappy fixtures from The Jigs Up will help you make neat soldered connectors for
your model’s onboard electrical system.
IRCHA has produced a great new training manual with everything
you need to know about helicopters. Craig Bradley has his copy!
Bruce Sund shows off Common Sense RC’s new eight-pocket Li-
Poly bag. It’s great for charging and storage.
THERE IS GOOD news at last for
those of us who don’t have a spacious
flying field nearby.
Phil Flayter is an RC pilot who also
owns a “jolly bounce” company. He
designs and makes those big, air-filled
structures that kids love to jump on.
Phil turned his talents to the flyingfield
crisis. After some false starts that
almost deflated his plans, he has leaked
the news of a true revolution in real
estate.
Imagine that you live in a congested
urban neighborhood. Streets and
buildings leave no space to fly models.
Now a pickup truck arrives and unloads
a large roll of rubberized fabric. Plug in
the big fan and start blowing the thing
up. As it unfolds, you can see printed
plastic turf inside.
Soon there is 600 feet of inflated
flying field, complete with taxiways and
a pit area! As long as the fan is plugged
in, you have a model airport, and I’m not
just blowing hot air.
Some detractors have tried to let the
air out of Phil’s invention by saying that
he has inflated hopes, but he’s keeping
the pressure up.
Of course there are some differences
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Radio Controlled Helicopter Association
(IRCHA) booth with a smiling Craig
Bradley proudly displaying a little
booklet. Big deal? Yeah, it is!
Craig told me that Dave Millner
(IRCHA president) and Charles Anderson
(IRCHA vice president) wrote a Pit Crew
Training Manual to fill an information
gap in the model helicopter world.
It is an RC helicopter flight manual
that answers questions you want to ask
but don’t out of fear of looking ignorant. I
saw sections covering rotary-wing theory,
terms and jargon, setting up a helicopter,
and a guide to safely pitting and flying a
rotary-winged flying machine.
This handy little volume will be
available on the IRCHA Web site. The
authors did a great service to mankind by
putting all of this information in one
handy place!
Also pictured is Bruce Sund of the
Common Sense RC booth. He showed me
the company’s clever new batterycharging
bag called the Lipo Safe Roll.
It has eight separate compartments to
hold battery packs as they charge or
cycle. It is made from a material that will
contain any disasters that occur during the
process. When flying is finished, the Lipo
Safe Roll folds into a small package or it
can be used to hold batteries during
transport and storage.
Reports of problems with Li-Poly
batteries have become much less frequent.
from a conventional “dirt” field. If a
hobby knife falls out of your toolbox, the
blow-up field will make a giant
“ttthhhppppttt” sound and deflate around
you.
Phil is working on a deluxe model
with a run-up bench and inflatable toilet.
He said to wish you all a happy April
Fools’ Day.
Something that is no joke is my lack of
photographic skill. I apologize for the
poor visual composition in the three
pictures this month, but the items in
them are exciting—even if my camera
technique is not.
The AMA Expo 2011 in Ontario,
California, was a great success, and I
found plenty of safety-related stuff to
share. First is the dynamic action shot of
two soldering fixtures. If you’ve ever
struggled simultaneously with a hot iron,
tangled wires, and a connector pin that
dives for the floor whenever you get
ready to hit it with solder, these gadgets
are for you.
The Jigs Up holds your RC bullet
connectors in place so you can make nice
solder joints. Not bad! You can use it for
almost any type of connector.
Think of all the burned fingers that
will be saved and all the solder-joint
failures that will never happen because
of this gizmo.
The next photo shows the International
90 MODEL AVIATION
That’s good news! I suspect that this is
partly because we are gaining experience
with the batteries and special chargers,
and also because fire-resistant charging
containers are more commonly in use.
Please consider getting some type of
containment for your packs. Don’t tempt
fate!
I usually spend some time at the AMA
Expo building a model from start to finish
in my club’s booth. The Black Seep
Squadron is a general-interest group in
which members fly all types of model
aircraft, but at the Expo we mainly
display and demonstrate indoor FF
airplanes.
A friend suggested that I try a foamie
build with rectangular outlines and a glue
gun for speedy construction. Ick! There
are rows of foam models in the exhibition
hall, and although I realize that this is a
big segment of our hobby right now,
speedy ARF work is not what I wanted to
show.
I’m a stodgy old-timer, and my hobby
enjoyment comes from building model
airplanes from balsa wood and then flying
them.
I chose a Herr kit of a Taylorcraft
monoplane with an 18-inch wingspan.
Yes, it has laser-cut pieces, but who wants
to cut out all those little notches anyway?
I use CA glue and accelerator (in a
needle-drip bottle), so it was no trick to
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April 2011 91
complete the airplane during a busy Expo
weekend. A glue stick attaches the tissue
as well as old-fashioned dope ever did, but
without the odor.
Herr produces a fine, complete kit with
top-notch materials and clear
documentation. Against all odds
(considering my moderate skill level), the
little cabin model flew “off the board”
Sunday afternoon, with a stable flight
across the room and a gentle landing.
A disquieting percentage of Expo
attendees have never seen balsa sticks
glued together into the form of an aircraft,
and I mean to encourage the practice.
Some people say, “I don’t have the
patience for that.” I respond that it requires
no patience and that the process itself is
relaxing and enjoyable—similar to doing a
crossword puzzle or knitting. I am often
mildly disappointed when the construction
of a model is complete.
There are always some wags who come
around hoping to see the safety columnist
get cut with his razor blade or poked with
a pin. This year I obliged them by
thoroughly gluing myself to the halffinished
fuselage while chatting with
onlookers. Anything to please the crowd ...
This foam thing may be a passing fad,
as were RC and electric power. One day
we might be back to making and flying
model airplanes as nature intended.
If you disagree with me or have better
information on any subject, please contact
me via e-mail or paper letter. Close-call
stories make great training aids for other
modelers, and I can keep the culprits’
names confidential if preferred.
I had a chat with my pal, Kurt Young. He
suggested a little write-up called “my
favorite instructor.” Kurt reminisced about
his longtime friend, Robin Hambley.
Robin owns a small family hobby
shop in Glendale, California. The two
met in 1984, when Kurt stopped by the
shop with his 13-year-old son. Robin
sold them a pair of radios and agreed to
include flight instruction in the deal. This
began a lifelong friendship between the
two men.
A full-scale pilot and aircraft owner,
Kurt is no dummy, and he knew that he
would need proper training to operate a
model airplane. Robin turned out to be a
fine choice of instructor because of his
experience and patience.
The 13-year-old soloed in six weeks,
but Kurt took closer to six months. He
noted that Robin used to threaten to cut his
throttle when he shied away from landing!
Robin eventually molded Kurt into a
competent and cautious RC pilot, who is
comfortable with right- and left-hand
patterns, tricycle gear, and tail-draggers,
with the ability to handle in-flight
emergencies as well as safely pit his
aircraft.
An instructor such as Robin is a great
asset for our hobby. Not everyone has the
patience and talent to give such thorough
flight training. There is no shortage of RC
pilots who are still developing, but as for
fully capable and well-trained fliers, the
more the better!
Robin is the kind of pilot who is asked
to perform first flights on new and
repaired models. If the machine is flawed,
he can usually get it back on the ground
safely. Kurt said that he once saw Robin
accidentally fly (and land) an airplane with
reversed ailerons, proving that even an
expert can skip a step in the preflight
inspection.
Kurt had many great RC adventure
stories that he and Robin have shared
throughout the years, including float-flying
from Lake Havasu, Arizona, and visiting
distant fields on road trips to try a different
runway.
My favorite tale was one that Kurt said
took place a few years ago. He and Robin
were standing together as Kurt flew his
trusty old Kadet Senior. The moon had
risen and was low in the eastern sky.
Robin said “Go ahead and loop it,” and
Kurt did.
With Robin’s help, he looped the moon!
NASA, eat your heart out. MA
Sources:
Dave Gee
Box 7081
Van Nuys CA 91409
Herr Engineering
(800) 247-5008
www.iflyherr.com
International Radio Controlled Helicopter
Association
www.ircha.org
Common Sense RC
(866) 405-8811
www.CommonSenseRC.com
The Jigs Up
www.thejigsup.net
Needle-cap bottles:
A2Z Corp
(877) 754-7465
www.a2zcorp.us/store
C o n t a c t
AMA’s Supply & Service Department
Call (765) 287-1256,
extension 212,
or visit the AMA Web site at
www.modelaircraft.org/
shopama to browse the catalog for
the newest merchandise and the best deals on closeout items.
for your AMA product needs 10
Why should you
remain an AMA
member?
We’ll give you
10 reasons why.
F I N D T H E M A T
www.modelaircraft.org/
ten_reasons.aspx.
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