Radio Control: Sport & Aerobatics
NEW THINGS aren't always the best. You read about all kinds of new products and sometimes fall for the spiel-if it's new, it must be better. It's not true, but read on. Novice model builders in my club often ask me for advice about building and finishing techniques. There's a lot of us who have made most of the mistakes which can be made in building and finishing, but we often have some good tips. So, since there's no sense in forcing a novice to make the same mistakes we did, I always share my good ideas and keep the bad ones hidden away until everyone is standing around telling modeling horror stories.
Radio Control: Sport and Aerobatics
SANDBAGGING. It's tough enough to advance through the Pattern classes without having to compete against those individuals who refuse to advance to the next class-even though they have earned enough advancement points. The AMA rule book (par. 39.8.2.1), states, "A flier accumulating or exceeding 100 points will automatically be advanced to the next higher competition class at the end of that calendar year." It goes on to say, "Time required to acquire 100 points has no limit. A contestant's point accumulation does not start over again at the beginning of each new year, but continues until, if ever, 100 points is reached."
Radio Control: Sport and Aerobatics
THE BRUSHFIRE is a very capable Pattern design from the hand of Ken Bonnema. Steve Rojecki has campaigned this design for the past few years with great success, and the model has become very popular. Since publishing the photo of the Brushfire II model in the July column, it has been brought to my attention that neither Ken Bonnema nor Steve Rojecki has any association with its manufacturer, Aeroglas Model Developments. On the lighter side of the Brushfire story is the fact that Steve Rojecki plans to fly a new Brushfire in the Turnaround event at the 1985 Nats. As this is written, he's in the final stages of finishing it. Like all his Brushfires, it will probably weigh much less than eight pounds. Someday, I hope he writes an article on how to keep weight out of an airplane.
I985 NATS: RC Aerobatics
IVAN KRISTENSEN made it two in a row at Chicopee. Ivan followed his 1983 Masters-class win by taking the FAI (F3A) class at the 1985 Nats. He did it in a convincing fashion by leading from the start. He was never really challenged. Way to go, Ivan! There were 145 contestants competing in the five Pattern classes: Sportsman-40, Advanced-28, Expert-22, Master-15, and FAI-40. The site was Westover AFB, an active Air Force base located adjacent to Chicopee, MA and about 90 miles west of Boston. It's a beautiful place for a Nats, and the local people, especially the Westover personnel, made us feel welcome. The comfortable temperatures were appreciated by everyone. Daytime highs barely nudged 80 degrees, and overnight lows were in the 50s.
Radio Control: Sport and Aerobatics
WHILE I was competing in the Nats, another contestants asked how I was able to perform such square corners on the Square Loop and the Top Hat without having jerky straight portions, so I told him my "secret:" I use exponential on elevator. The adjustment isn't difficult, but takes a little time, usually about three to four flights. Obviously, getting the square corner isn't tough since all it takes is a lot of elevator throw. The trick is achieving a soft neutral so that the vertical and horizontal pieces of the maneuver are straight and smooth. After adjusting the total throw and the exponential to get nice sharp corners with straight, smooth sides, I decided to try it out on a complete flight and was surprised that it made a lot of maneuvers better, didn't seem to affect most of the rest, and caused a problem with only one-Three Outside Loops.
