Radio Control: Electrics
MANY modelers use the trunk of their car or the back of their station wagon as a hangar and maintenance depot when they're at the flying field. Electric fliers have a rather special need, when it comes to such usage, and I want to talk about it this month: charging connections and accessories at the car. There's been quite a bit of interest shown by readers in my March column. Among other things, that column pictured and discussed a wiring installation I made to my auto battery. You may recall that I wrote of running heavy cabling directly from the battery to the rear of my station wagon 'cause that's where I fly out of! One column photo showed the connection scheme at the battery end.
Radio Control: Electrics
MORE Electric writing: I want to open this column with a hearty "atta boy" and best wishes to Flying Models magazine and author Mike Charles, who introduced a new column on Electric commencing with the June 1985 issue. This addition brings the total Electric column count to five-or 100% of the popular monthly magazines our hobby is blessed with. It has been personally very interesting to witness the steady growth of Electric interest over the decade wherein three magazines, including MA, have installed dedicated columns in less than two years.
Radio Control: Electrics
ANOTHER Electric event: The Model Airplane Club of Huntsville, AL is including an Electric event in its Heart of Dixie Free Flight Championships scheduled for September 28-29, 1985. This meet looks like a biggie-there are 17 other events! For more information, contact Ray Baker, 701 Esslinger Rd., Huntsville, AL 35802; telephone (205) 881-9043. My thanks to George Batiuk for this info. Tell Ray ya read it in MA! Continuing popularity. The easily-constructed charge systems presented in the May and June issues (1985) continue to bring in mail. It seems that many readers were just waiting for this sort of article to appear! Anyway, a question of continuing interest concerns the use of a standard charger as part of the system: it is used only as a convenient way to provide the time-switch and metering functions. YES: if you want to use a separate timer and/or meter (and know what you're doing), please feel free to!
Radio Control: Electrics
CHARGE! Even the "lowly" charger can benefit from some tender loving care (TLC). Here are some tips. Almost all chargers on the market come equipped with a 15-minute time switch. This timer is a clockwork mechanism and is generally very reliable. In operation, the user rotates the timer knob back to the start position. When the knob is first moved by hand, a set of internal electrical contacts is closed. These are connected in series with the charge circuit, and thus the charge current begins to flow with the first turn of the knob. Then, when the 15 minutes has elapsed and the knob returns to zero: the contacts open, and the charge current is terminated. It's all very simple and straightforward, and foolproof-almost.
Radio Control: Electrics
ELECTRIC ACTIVITIES. This summer is distinctly different from all summers past. Folks in and around this part of the East have the opportunity to visit and participate in several organized Electric events this year, and that's different! The KRC Electric Fly is no longer "the only game in town!" Let's take a brief look at two such meets just past. SAM 76 Electric event. It is two weeks since the annual SAM 76 Old-Timer meet in Hatfield, PA where this year that group ran a first-ever Electric event along with their regular O-T gas categories. July 14 was very hot, and very windy, and the latter did tend, I think, to reduce the total amount of flying-there were several Electric and gas planes that were not brought out of the cars that day.
