Free Flight: Duration
The rules for the AMA Cargo event (check 'em out, they're in the AMA rule book) are pretty simple. Basically it is a small-field event; they don't come any smaller. Using a Cox .020 engine (or a pair of .010s), the main idea is to see how much gross weight you can carry for at least 40 sec. with a maximum of a 20-sec. engine run, with a wingspan restriction of 48 in. Clearly, you aren't going to have a problem keeping the model in sight.
Free Flight: Duration
NOT all wings are flat. Lockheed-Georgia's "Ring Wing" is a prime example. About the time I ran that item on the spin-stabilized, cylindrical-wing, hand-launch glider in the August 1982 issue (which looked suspiciously similar to a third of an empty beer can), the press release on the Ring Wing hit the streets; several readers sent me clips from Machine Design magazine. Well, theirs isn't spin-stabilized (at least, we hope not) and they are the first to point out that ring-wings are nothing new. They were never the height of success, either (Lee-Richards No. 3 notwithstanding). In its post-2000-year concept study, Lockheed engineers figured the configuration might have some advantages over conventional ones. ". . . potentially lower drag and lighter structural weight," they say.
Free Flight: Duration
DEFINING Free Flight-Duration. From time to time, it is worthwhile to take stock and define, for ourselves and others, what there is about Free Flight that attracts us. In this modern age of electronics, why would anyone build a model, start it up and let it go with no further control? Perhaps FF is a "training ground" for those who want to "move up" to other more "sophisticated" model classes. Perhaps the relatively low cost is the attraction. Well now, if you were to investigate further, you would find that Free Flight has a much deeper and independent attraction. The model is released to fly freely. It must rely on its design and adjustment to cope with the natural laws of physics, mechanics, and aerodynamics. The challenge in releasing your creation to fly on its own, subject to the vagaries of the atmosphere, is the essence of this sport. To add continuous control would take away that challenge.
Free Flight: Duration
FORTY-NINER Power class, revisited. In my May column, I ran an item on this event and credited it to the Scale Staffel club, inasmuch as the rules I published were swiped from its publication. However, it appears that the event originated with the Orbiteers. In addition, the most recent rules are a wee bit different from the ones I presented. The differences are: Maximum dimensions are 49 by 49 in., not 48 as I stated; Engine is stock, reed valve, direct-drive Cox or Testors .049; Minimum official flight time is 40 sec.; and unlimited attempts to make three official flights are permitted. In the scoring formula, the engine run is to be to the nearest whole second, not the nearest 1/5 sec., which I objected to.
1983 U.S. FF Championships
MY OVERALL IMPRESSION of the contest may seem very curious to you. Sure, there was a lot of activity in Old-Timer and AMA Gas events, but I'm not involved in those events, being (in general) a Rubber and Glider freak. For the most part, the Gas events involved the gang that usually flies these events, and they did their usual thing-and had a whale of a good time at it. My feeling is that you've got to be there to really appreciate the activity-and I don't think that one of my punctilious writeups would be of any great interest to a modeler who wasn't actually involved in the meet. So, I don't really have much to report about them.
