RC Flying Today: Preflight Evaluation of a Fascinating New Toy
I went to the KRC Electric Fun Fly, near Quakertown, PA, back on September 15-16 of '90. It was an exceptionally pleasant affair, as usual. While there I saw Dave Hyatt demonstrate the Kalt Baron Whisper, a new addition to the respected Baron Helicopter series, which ranges from the Baron 28 through the Baron 60. Two days later, Dick DeFrancis of Action Hobbies, Selden, NY, sent a Whisper kit to the meeting of the SEFLI (Silent Electric Flyers of Long Island). The idea was to make the kit available for inspection. I inspected it and bought it. Three days later, Whisper was ready for flight. Whisper is powered by a Mabuchi RX540VS motor and a Sanyo eight-cell, 1,100-mAh Ni-Cd pack (8N-1100CR). One thousand of these machines were sold in the first six months that they were available. It seems to be finding acceptance as a "beginner's Helicopter," due to its small size, light weight and relatively low price.
Radio Technique
NOSTALGIA. On August 26, I attended the Sussex, NJ Airshow. While there, I met Steve Maciag, 530 Allentown Rd, Parsippany, NJ 07054, who resells aviation memorabilia. I perused his old books, and bought the March, 1936 issue of Flying Aces magazine. Many happy hours of my youth were spent with Flying Aces (15 cents per copy). A watercolor painting provided the cover art. There was an article on the Flying Aces wind tunnel, which was located in the Casey Jones School of Aeronautics. That article was written by Avrum Zier, a fellow employee at Grumman Aeronautical Engineering Corporation (best known, now, for the F-14 Tomcat, of Top Gun fame, but we also built the lunar module that took Buzz Aldrin to the moon). The Casey Jones School of Aeronautics still exists, across the Parkway from La Guardia Airport in the borough of Queens.
Radio Technique
MONITORS and monitoring: Mr. Floyd Reed, of the SPARKS (South Pinellas Aeronautical Radio Kontrol Society) St. Petersburg, FL, writes: "Our club president borrowed a scanner and was tinkering with it at our field. He discovered a local radio station broadcasting on channel RC48, a known bad channel in our area for months. He also discovered `a lot of chatter' on RC22, which has been troublesome. What gives?" My response to Floyd is that when performing a test, we must always ask ourselves, "How can this instrument mislead me?" Practically any low-priced scanner available in the U.S.A. would have to be modified to scan the 72 MHz RC channels. Has someone modified the scanner you borrowed?
Ready for 1991?
Acknowledgements: This article was compiled to organize the thousands of facts about changes in the hobby for 1991. It turned out to be a much larger job than I had expected. Products, services and prices change continually. Some equipment lines have proliferated; others have been terminated. I could have bought an engine with what it cost in phone calls and postage, and built an airplane in the time I spent collecting data for this article. The job might have taken much longer than it did, but for the help provided by Dave Abbe (RCD), Bob Aberle, Jack Albrecht (Airtronics), Steve Helms (Futaba), Tom Runge (Ace RC), George Steiner, and Pete Waters (KMI), all of whom read and commented on the many drafts and filled in missing information.
Radio Technique
Abstract: Reader letters; intimate Ni-Cd details; capacity formulas; Caring for Ni-Cd batteries: Part 6 - Ni-Cd peculiarities. FIRST, the letters: 1) Walter H. Rady (Newport, NH) writes: "Dear George - I am just getting started in electric flight...Charging the batteries properly was the single most important thing I was confused about, but your articles have spelled out the requirements in a very understandable way. "My charger only had a timer cutoff, so the batteries were overcharged many times. The resultant decrease in capacity was evident over the months that I flew the model. I already know what happens when the charger fails and sends AC through the batteries all night. You are left with seven stainless steel tubes and a fuselage full of white stuff. "The class I want to compete in doesn't allow battery charging during the contest, so I will only be charging overnight at the C/10 rate. My question is, 'Can I put a pot in the leads of the Polk's Multi-Charge-A-Matic, so that the charging current can be cut to 90 mA, and will the voltage drop detector still function if I do?'"
