Radio Control: Soaring
GOOD AND BAD. During 1982, the U.S.A./F3B team selection program indicated two possible trends, one positive, one negative. On the positive side, participation was up. As a matter of fact, more fliers qualified for the semifinals in 1982 than entered the quarter-finals in 1980. On the negative side, fewer contests were held in 1982, and only one bid was made to run the Finals. While individual interest is expected to grow, if soaring were to follow past trends, then club activity in the form of contest should grow also. It hasn't worked that way with F3B. What is offered this month isn't a guarantee for more F3B contests, but is a gadget suggested to ease one of the greatest burdens to an organizer. That burden has been in the form of sighting devices needed to mark the course baselines used in FAI Speed and Distance tasks.
Radio Control: Soaring
U.S.A. RC Soaring forum? In the April column, mention was made of Soar Tech, a set of papers available through Herk Stokley. Mentioned also was Switzerland's annual International RC Soaring Flight Forum (ISF). Both of these contributions to soaring have stirred the imagination of quite a few folks here in the U.S. As suggested at the end of that column, there surely is room for a similar forum here.
Radio Control: Soaring
BACK in the February column, a hot new item was featured which was called AL-I-SPAR. That was an all-aluminum spar with a very high strength factor for its weight. The gent who designed it was Gary Hutchison of Charlotte, MI. Well, he has done it, again! But, this time, it's with a linkage package that is as clever as Rubik's Cube-Gary's has a series of practical applications. Also, there's no puzzle to Gary's invention. Labeled the "90-Degree Motion Transfer Module," the unit consists of four parts that are made from Nylon and which can be snapped apart and back together again in seconds.
Radio Control: Soaring
I RAN across an item that just had to head up a theme for this month's column. It's called simply a Battery Disconnect Switch. While most winch designs include a shut-off switch between the foot pedal and solenoid, I have yet to see a device which kills the power directly from the battery except, of course, if you're one who relies on yanking a cable from the battery. While the on/off switch that affects the foot pedal provides some element of safety by not allowing the winch to be energized during retrievals, for example, there usually is no way to stop a runaway winch-which occurs when a solenoid decides to weld its insides together. If you have ever been between the upwind pulley and a winch drum when that has happened and have no battle scars to show for it, consider yourself lucky!
Radio Control: Soaring
CROSS-COUNTRY. The Michigan RC Society of Ann Arbor, MI won Great Race VIII, and they won it without ever having to look back during the last half of the race. Yet, they provided drama for a finish like no other ending in the previous seven years of this Sailplane classic. This year's event was held in the memory of Lee Renaud, who helped to establish-and continued to support-the event. For the first time, the race was scheduled for four days. Coupling that with the new RC frequencies, the organizers looked for this contest to be the biggest ever. It was. Twenty-three teams from 13 states, Canada, and Switzerland preregistered, and 22 teams participated.
