2014 09 september 2014 ffdukhaan jims camp hotel. it took about 2 hours to do the 50 odd km, 15 out...

FRONT COVER: What free flight is allabout. A big noisy model on a big field.Here’s Howard Gostelow at the 2014Springhurst Nationals hurling his battleweary model skywards, with boththumbs intact!

Free Flight Down Under Spring 2014 Volume 46, Number 3

This edition of Free Flight Down Under is edited by Malcolm Campbell, 1 Rex Street, Aspley 4034 [email protected]

Free Flight Down Under is the newsletter of the Australian Free Flight Society Inc, a Special Interest Group of the Model AircraftAssociation of Australia. FFDU welcomes contributions in the form of articles, letters, pictures, etc on any aspect of Free Flightor related topics. Contributions can be sent to the above address or emailed to the editor. Electronically prepared material ispreferred.

© 1999 Australian Free Flight Society. Material may be reprinted without permission provided acknowledgement is made ofFree Flight Down Under as the source and no other specific copyrights are indicated in the material.

President’s Report........................3Words from the Editor..................4We went to Mongolia...................5West Wyalong Grand Opening....12F4A Trans Tasman.......................20West Australia Team Trials..........25Construction Corner ALTIMETER. 26New Oz electronic timer.............28A Visit to Joe Supercool..............31Malmstrom Madness WA style...34New Zealand Snippets................36Calendars...................................37

Contents

We went to Mongolia

5

West Wyalong Grand Opening

12

F4A Trans Tasman andRichmond Scale Rally

20

Build your ownAltimeter

26

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

There have been a couple of majorevents since my last report. A verysignificant one has been finalising thepurchase of the field at WestWyalong by the NSWFFS, and tryingout conditions there with a couple ofevents, as reported in the last issueof FFDU. In addition to ensuring thatNSW has a field available for clubevents, this also provides a backupfor Narrandera (and vice-versa)should conditions at either field beunsuitable.

The other major event since my lastreport has been the Asian-PacificChampionships held recently inMongolia. While there will probablybe a more complete report on thisevent elsewhere, I would like tocongratulate the team on acreditable performance, in particularPhil Mitchell who took out the Mixmen competition (F1A, B & C

combined) and was second in F1A inthe championship, Vin Morgan whowas third in F1B in the championshipand Roy Summersby who got a fourthin F1C. The Australian team wassecond in F1B though not quite sowell placed in F1A and F1C. Now thatwe are more aware of the likelynumbers taking part it would seemto be quite feasible to hold the nextin the series in Australia and I am surethat this will be given seriousconsideration.

I was interested to read a reportfrom Leigh Morgan on theseChampionships in SEN News. Iunderstand that this was specificallyrequested of her to provide someinfo for the other females who mightbe contemplating going to the WorldChampionships there in 2015. Onething that really caught my eye washer comment that “At the prize givingdinner, they gave a specialpresentation to all the competitorsover 60. We were a team of six peopleand five of our team stood up and twoChinese”. This really brought hometo me the parlous state of free flightin Australia, with very few youngerpeople taking part who might carry itinto the future. I am afraid that I ambereft of ideas to change thissituation. Over here in WA Roy Farrenran a schools program for many yearsin which students built and learnedto fly a basic glider. This caused a lotof interest and wonderment at thetime but produced little (i.e. no) flowthrough into aero modelling as far asI am aware. Richard Blackam has

argued that this is the wrong approachand that modern tech-savvy kidsshould be introduced to high techmodels with all the electronic wizardryto compete with their iPhones etc.However, I haven’t heard of this beingtried and having any more success.Maybe there are just too many issueswith free flight (lack of parental and/orpeer interest, too far to flying fields,high cost of entry for top models, nopublic profile) and the age of free flightis just doomed. It would be sad if therewere indeed the case. Does anybodyhave any practical suggestions of howwe could reverse the situation? Whatabout overseas practice?

Finally, on a bureaucratic note, theMAAA has now abolished all the TechSub-committees, with their roles beingtaken over by the National SpecialInterest Groups, which in the case offree flight is the AFFS. We are greatlyindebted to Graham Maynard forchairing the free flight TSC for manyyears and also the various memberswho have served on it. Fortunately, allof the tidying up we have been doingin recent time with regard to the teamselection process, role of teammanager, etc. means that we arecompletely prepared for this role. Abenefit of the change is removal ofmuch of the duplication incommunication with MAAA, bolsteredby a more rigorous approach toconsidering matters at the AFFS AGMbefore they are passed on.

Happy Flying,Paul Rossiter

Page3

FREE FLIGHT DOWN UNDER September 2014

OLD TIMERS CONTESTFor every problem I had he had one to match, so the scores were even. When old modellers meet,health is the topic discussed. Recoveries are now of a different kind.

Further down the flight line was another old bloke. We wandered over,"How are you doing oldfellow?"

"Do you really want to know?" he replied. " I think my knee replacement came from a kangaroo,an old one. My hip replacement, from Lord knows where, I’ve had a carbuncle removed from myneck. I've yet to see the results of my cataract operation. When I thought the worst was over Ihad an ingrown toe nail removed. But I can't stop and talk, I have to get this flight in."

As he limped off to the flight line, we saw the registration on his wing ----- VH 34.

as reported by AdrianUNSTOPPABLE

Cheers, Malcolm Campbell

FROM THE EDITORI was told it would be hard to beat the last FFDU for size, and that is true. Our Winter

edition was a bumper one and so the Spring one looked like it would be much smaller.Thankfully two “big ticket” items have just finished. I received an excellent article writtenby our chief wordsmith Vin Morgan who brought the Australian team’s experiences inMongolia to life with a colourful day to day story extracted from the Morgan diary. PhilMitchell did particularly well in F1A returning with a wallet full of Euros, and Vin flew theflag high for F1B. It was also good preparatory work for the World Champs in twelvemonths time.

The Grand Opening of West Wyalong went like clockwork. The weather was perfect,models were continually in the sky, people were happy and the Saturday evening BBQ wasgreat. I’ve seen the field three times and flown on it twice - and it keeps getting better.We now have a field that will get regular use and develop in time to a world class venue.We all have Adrian Bryant and the NSWFFS management team to thank for their forwardthinking and “never say never” attitude.

Finally, the altimeter and timer articles should interest many; thank you Paul Rossiterand Harry Sokol for your excellent contributions.

Page4


WORDS FROM JON FLETCHER

“I flew against George a few times backin the UK. I certainly remember him fromthe early 1960's. George used to turn upto fly wearing a chequered sports coat,white shirt and tie, light coloured trousersand gum boots. Then he’d get them allblasted with a fine coating of castor oil.

John O'Donnell used to go to mass onthe way to a contest and on the fieldalways appeared in a charcoal suit, whiteshirt and black tie - and a grey PVC plastic

mac, torn and held around his tubby waistwith a bit of string.

When the late Dennis Pepperell, one ofmy 1/2A power flying friends met up withJohn again, after a 30 year break he said," I see you haven't changed a bit, includingthe ripped plastic mac!"

Whilst trying to find something to wearthat will go over my plastered up (broken)left hand, I found my UK flying Anorak from

1976. Being dark blue, it suits working inthe paddocks clearing up after Rosemary.At least I got some exercise in today anddidn’t fall over. Made in Finland it is about40 years old, I even managed to get theladies in the local sewing repairs shop toput a new zip in for $10.00! I told them ithad sentimental value…..

There just isn't that class of dress on theflying field nowadays........!”


We went to Mongolia. A small Teamof six Australians – Phil Mitchell andAlbert Fathers in F1A, Vin Morgan,Terry Bond and Leigh Morgan in F1Band Roy Summersby and Terry Bondin F1C. Terry trying to repeat hisdouble maxout in F1B and F1C at lastyear’s World Championships.

We all met in Sydney and flew toUlaan Bataar via Beijing on Air China.Not too bad, the long leg, Sydney toBeijing is only 12 hours and overnight.At UB we were met by the MongolianF1A flyer Chimed Ganzorig (Ganzo)and introduced to our Driver whosename is close enough to Tiger not tomatter. We piled all our boxes andourselves into Tiger’s bus and set offfor our booked accommodation -Khaan Jims Camp Hotel. It took about2 hours to do the 50 odd km, 15 out ofUB, the 40 km on the highway and 5km on the (very) unmade road intoKhaan Jims. Khaan Jims had ourbooking but with no-one, includingTiger speaking any English a certainamount of arm waving was necessary.

Khaan Jims however was in a beautifullocation next to the river, hadcomfortable rooms – some were gerswith attached facilities and servedtasty and interesting Mongolian meals.

Next day (Saturday) we went out fora quick look at the field. It took a bit oftime to find but is as per the pictures– short grass that goes forever. Windy!!

Sunday

We took the models out but it wasvery windy and only the North Koreanswere flying gliders under the firmdirection of their coach. They crasheda couple, not entirely surprising ascircling an in 8m/s is a bit tough. Theforecast was for much less wind thefollowing days.

The opening ceremony held at theChinggis Khaan monument (Google it)which is not far from the field.Pleasantly short speeches and someMongolian throat singing. Thequadcopter was first noticed at theopening, buzzing round filming.

Monday. Mongolia Cup F1H

There had been a bit of rain duringthe last couple of days and since wecouldn’t talk to any of Khaan Jims’ staffwe didn’t get the message about theriver. On Monday morning it was 70cmover the footbridge and running fast.Khan Jims is actually on an islandbetween two branches of the river andnow there were several separateislands. One for the Hotel and anotherfor the gers. Phil, Albert, Roy and Terrywaded from their gers to the hotel forbreakfast (eggs, meat, bread, milk rice,coffee). We got out, Tiger carryingmodel boxes and Leigh and me (weMelbournians know how to useporters - although it did remind meuncomfortably of the Ascent ofRumdoodle). All our clothes etc.stayed in the hotel.

We got to the field at 0830 in timefor Phil to fly Mongolia Cup F1H.Conditions were excellent, calm andsunny. A bit of wind came up at 11:00.Phil dropped the last round to come

a report by Vin Morganphotos by Vin, Terry and Albert

MAAA Secretary, Kevin Dodd,speaking at the Opening Ceremony

Khaan Jims was in a beautifullocation next to the river


3��. A pity but everyone was somewhatgrateful as it meant we could leave thefield at 2pm and go and see what washappening with our accommodationinstead of having to wait around forthe flyoffs at 6pm. The message wasthat Khaan Jims was now completelyinaccessible with a metre of waterover the bridge but alternativeaccommodation had been organized.Where it was was a bit of a mysterybut after a couple of false starts Tigergot on the phone and took us to“Mandal”. Mandal is a resort not veryfar in km from Khaan Jims but anexciting drive on unmade roads overthe hills (ask Albert about the ravine).

At Mandal we have three gers withattached bathrooms. There is arestaurant which serves western typemeals, perhaps not as interesting asKhaan Jims but quite satisfactory. LikeKhaan Jims they have beer, and mostusefully, the manager spoke English.

Tuesday. Mongolia Cup F1A

Like most hotels Mandal doesn’twork flyers’ hours so we negotiated tohave some pre-made breakfastsdelivered to our gers the previousevening. The salad and meatsandwiches were ok if a bit heavy firstthing. All our luggage was still trappedat Khaan Jims but we had the modelboxes and most of the flying

Gengis Khan monument at the Opening Ceremony. It’s big.There are people on the viewing platform on the horses head!

It’s a nice field, goes on forever

Vin Morgan placed third in the Asian Champs F1B


equipment. We set off via the shortroute over the hills at 0530. Phil had amigraine and didn’t come out. Firstthing (07:00) it was very calm with thebreeze coming in at around 10:00 andgetting up to 6m/s for rounds 5 and 6just before the two hour lunch break.Albert flew F1A but not toosuccessfully and some of the flyerscould not cope very well with the windresulting in a fair amount of carnage.Ganzo however has an M&K long LDAmodel and did some nice launches. Wemade a few F1B check flights. Thepatterns looked OK and the modelsbehaved. The field is 1,500m abovesea level which could cost up to 10%in performance (of the models that is,not sure about the flyers). Our buswon’t start. The starter motor is notworking so the bus has to be roll-started or towed. But we got back intime for a scotch before dinner.

Wednesday. Mongolia Cup F1B / C

Beautiful day. Fine calm and cool onthe field at 0700. Wound and threwfor the first two rounds but it gotharder during round 2 when thethermals started. The field issurrounded by distant mountains – abit like that other tricky field Omarama– and the actual flying area issomewhat undulating. In the limitedamount of test flying we managed toget in on Monday and Tuesdaythermals seemed to be indicated bythe usual lull in the breeze but in theMongolia Cup it appeared necessaryto launch well into the fill-in after a lulleven if the temperature had dropped.Although I only lost 10 seconds inround three, subsequent flightsincluded the one that got to goodheight in the first minute, dropped toabout 20m in the second minute andheld on at that altitude for anotherminute. The Chinese flyer Wu

Yungsheng whom we knew from theflyoff at Narrandera in 2012 said theMongolia field was one of the mostdifficult he had flown on. He had beenthere seven times and had maxed outonly twice.

Terry seemed to understand the airbut was undone in round 5 by a loosetimer that caused the VIT to stay in for16s. Leigh was caught by the start ofthermal (and sink) activity in round 2and also missed the air in round 5. Roywas going well in F1C until he missedthe last round with a moderate climbinto poor air. No-maxouts did meanwe could leave the field after round 7and had time for a scotch beforedinner.

Thursday. Asian-OceanicChampionships F1A

Usual morning procedure; up at0430, box breakfast at 0500, depart at0530, on the field at 0620. Calm andcloudy. The cloud cleared around 1100and the wind came up to 3-4m/s forrounds 4 and 5. Phil easily maxed allthe rounds using the long M&K LDA inthe first 3, changing to the short LDAfor the two rounds before lunch whenthe wind got up to 3-4m/s and thechanging back to the long for the tworounds after lunch. Albert had latchtrouble, got a zero, and then pulled aleg muscle and stopped flying.

The flyoffs started at 6pm. Phil,Ganzo and the North Korean all easilymade the 5 minute in lift. At 7pm inthe 7 minute Phil looked to have the

The little red bus took us to the field each dayTeam meeting/Whiskey time in Roy andTerry’s ger. Hydration looked adequate.

Storm clouds on the horizon, Roy prepares as Phil and Albert watch


best launch but came second to Ganzowho got 300s to Phil’s 287. Phil was abit unlucky; the models drifted over towhere the field slopes upwards and hismodel landed on the far side of thecircle on the higher ground. If it hadjust cleared it could have glided foranother 40s following the slopedownwards. We got back to Mandalaround 8:30pm for a late dinner. Notime for whiskey.

The quadcopter incident occurredin the afternoon while we werewaiting for the flyoffs. It had beenbuzzing around the flight line filmingand in the long break it flew up anddown the line taking pictures of thewaiting flyers including Roy whoflapped Phil’s jacket to wave it away.It did move away, climbing high in theair but then came back and tauntedRoy by bouncing up and down in frontof him. Roy balled up the jacket andtossed it at the quadcopter scoring adirect hit. The quadcopter fell to theground and since it all happened veryquickly the propellers were stillrunning when it hit the ground so itrolled and touched the boom of oneof Phil’s models before it was shutdown. Phil picked up his model tocheck for damage and I picked up thequadcopter. Phil’s model was alrightso I threw the quadcopter away.Talking about it later we both wouldhave jumped on the it if the glider hadbeen damaged. At the time we gaveRoy a win on points but when thequadcopter failed to reappear for therest of the competitions we raised itto a TKO. Roy was a bit subdued afterthe incident but cheered up whenKevin Dodd, MAAA Secretary andChairman of the FAI Jury came alongand said the crowd in the control tentcheered when the quadcopter wasdowned.

The operator had already beenwarned several times not to fly nearthe flight line to avoid distracting theflyers and timekeepers.

Friday. Asian-OceanicChampionships F1B

Good breakfast – pancakes! Samegood weather. I seemed to have theconditions sorted and got all sevenmaxes fairly easily. Leigh was unluckyto drop 2 seconds and then some morein another flight that was somewhatmozzed by some rather intrusive close-up filming. She hit her head with thetail knocking it off (the tail that is) andon the re-fly (the first was less than 20sec) she launched too early - wellbefore the infill. It looked OK for awhile but dropped out of lift. Terry,whom I thought was in control for theMongolian Cup dropped a bit in theextended 1�� round and then somemore in round 5.

By flyoff time the wind had droppedso I wound the tail screw up to 3.45mm, just 0.2 below the best setting forcalm air. I launched first aftereveryone had been standing aroundfor about 5 minutes and thethermistor showed a small warming.The motor was good but the flight wasonly 4:09. It turned out that I was tooearly, the climb and first 50 seconds ofglide were in poor air with a glide sinkrate 0.7 m/s. The last 3 minutes weremuch better with the sink rate ~0.32m/s. The others followed my launchbut the 20 or so seconds delay meantthey probably spent less time in thesink.Only Gongor from Mongolia got 5minutes. I was originally fourth but WuYungsheng‘s model was underweightwhich raised me to third and theAustralian Team to second.

Back at 7:30 pm, too late for scotch.The bottle of Ukrainian sparkling winewith dinner was not good (beer wasbetter). The ice cream was OK.

Saturday. Asian-OceanicChampionships F1C

An interesting day of highlyvariable weather. Cloudy and cool inthe morning, warmer later, with athunderstorm and some rain atlunchtime. Fairly calm all day. BothRoy and Terry had some erraticclimbs. Roy was caught in rounds 2and 7 and Terry in rounds 2, 5 and 7.Two of the Mongolians maxed out.We left the field early. On the wayback we checked the accommodationthat was provided for the FAI Jurymembers to see if it had possibilitiesfor next year. It has the advantage ofbeing close to the highway, no 20minute drive through the hills, butthere were only five 2-bed cottageswith bathrooms and some damp (andtherefore a bit smelly) gers withoutbathrooms.

Sunday. Mixmen - a combined F1A,F1B, F1C competition

Nice day, calm early, windy later andcalmish at the end. Leigh and Albertdid not fly. The four competingAustralians except Phil droppedrounds variously. As in the MongoliaCup I couldn’t pick the air (need to getthe weather station working).

There was a Mongolian Barbequelunch during the two hour lunch break.Goat!

In the contest, just three maxed out,one each in F1A, F1B and F1C. In the 5minute round Phil and the Chinese F1Bflyer Chen Shao Wen found a nicepatch while the Mongolian F1C flyerdropped. In the seven minute it wasstill a bit breezy, Phil was limited inmanoeuvrability and ended uplaunching upwind of Chen. Both gotaway in lift. For the nine minute thewind was quite a lot less. Phil movedcross-wind away from the flight line.He launched first – a perfect highlaunch, and Chen followed soon after.

The quadcopter incidentoccurred in the afternoon


Although Chen obviously got a bit ofhelpful air he only made 6:40. Phil gotthe nine minutes for a clear win. Weused the bus to retrieve the flyoffflights. Phil flew brilliantly, towingcomfortably in the wind and gettingperfect, high launches in all conditions.Maybe helped by the Mongolian F1A

cheer squad in the flyoffs, F1A! F1A!F1A!

We got back to Mandal just before9pm and ordered spaghetti bolognaiseall round (the restaurant closes at9pm).

Monday

The closing ceremony was to be heldon the field and a stage had been setup but the possibility of rain saw itmoved into Ulaan Baatar. We didn’tthink it made much sense to drive intoUB for the Ceremony, drive back toMandal for one sleep and then driveback to UB the next morning so we allarranged to stay in the Bayangol Hotel(where Leigh and I had a booking forafter the competition) after theClosing Ceremony.

The closing Ceremony and Banquetwas held at a sort of amusement parkwhich featured a lake and a castle.There was an outdoor area on a small

island with a stage and a bar that wasjust the right size for the 70 or sopeople. Speeches were short whichwas good since they all took twice aslong with translations. Our own KevinDodd as Chairman of the FAI Jury gavea nice speech in which he thankedeveryone right down to the guy whomaintained the on-field toilets. Therewere a number of presentations forjuniors – obviously a lot of juniorsflying. After the trophies had beendistributed and we had drunk Phil’sbottle of champagne, there was a callfor competitors over the age of 60 tocome onto the stage. So all theAustralian Team, except Phil, climbedup on the stage to be joined by justtwo other flyers from the Chineseteam.

Tuesday

Leigh, Vin, Phil and Terry wentshopping in Ulaan Baatar. Ganzo andhis wife Bolormaa took us to thecashmere factory outlet. Phil boughtlunch.

Wednesday

Roy, Phil, Terry and Albert left forthe airport. Leigh and I had a couple ofdays left in UB. We walked around thecity, visited a museum which had asort of history of Mongolia (actuallyquite interesting) and bought a(relatively) expensive but good dinnerat Azzurra.

Thursday

In UB. Found a supermarket andbought supplies for the train trip toBeijing.

Friday

The train takes 28 hours for the trip,leaving at 07:30 and arriving in Beijingat 11:40. We have a 1�� class cabin toourselves and share a washroom(basin and shower) with the nextcabin. There is a toilet (clean!) at theend of the carriage and a samovar thatsupplies hot water for making tea,soup etc. at the other. The cabin hasplenty of storage space for two model

boxes and a case. The first few hourstravel are through the rolling greenhills around Ulaanbaatar. Flying fieldseverywhere! We are heading southeast towards the flatter part ofMongolia. Not really the Gobi Desertwhich is more to the west but stillpretty dry with little vegetation. Wecontinued the pre-dinner scotchtradition and then investigated thedining carriage. There is an extensivemenu but only two choices available.We went for the chicken and had abeer. The train stopped for Mongolianpassport control at 7:30, moved a fewkm and stopped again for Chinese PPcontrol and the wheel exchange.Railway gauges are different inMongolia and China so they swap thebogies. Quite a slick operation taking3 hours.

Saturday

Comfortable sleep on the train. Webreakfasted appropriately on noodlesoup in our cabin. I gave the remainsof the Johnnie Walker Black Label(thanks Albert) to the Mongolians inthe next cabin. They seemed pleased;we had a small tot and chat before wearrived at Beijing station and theycarried our model boxes up and downthe stairs to where we could get a taxi.Unfortunately we ended up in a taxiwith a taxi tout who when we arrivedat the hotel asked for a fare that wasabout four times what the trip wouldhave cost in Australia. I gave him abouthalf and told him to piss off. He did.

Sunday

Sunday started badly as we thoughtthat since we were not far from theForbidden City we should go and havea look. Unfortunately, perhapsbecause it was Sunday, almosteveryone in China seemed to alsowant a look. The first 200m long queuewas the security check. The nextqueue, to buy a ticket was only 100mlong and when you had a ticket therewas only a minor queue to actually getin. Of course it was pretty crowdedinside and there are repairs going on

Phil got the nine minutesfor a clear MixMen win

More photos from Mongolia

so a lot of the buildings are closed. Theday was stiflingly hot so we retiredearly and took our sweat-soaked t-shirts back to the Novotel airconditioning. It was a bit differentfrom France last year. When I visiteda technical museum (they did have

some aeroplanes) sometimes I was theonly person in the room.

Things got a lot better in theevening. Huaqiang Wang had texted(via his wife whose English is good andwho said her English name wasMaggie) to invite us to dinner. I wasexpecting a pleasant snack at the

street stalls but instead Huaqiang andYuan Gao picked us up in theMercedes and drove us round Beijingfor a while before stopping at arestaurant. We had Peking Duck, yum.

Monday

We flew home.


The boys wasted no time In finding the bar

Follow the yellow dirt road to the field

Entertainment during the Closing Ceremony

Leigh had the falcon trimmedin no time at all

Real French champagne for Phil’s MixMenwin. Kevin Dodd was not reluctant to join us

Australia was 2nd in the Asian Champs teams


W A N T E DTan2 or Super Sport rubber you are not using and wish to moveit on. I’m happy to pay a fair price including postage.Howard Gostelow [email protected] 0421 620 743

And Malcolm Campbell is looking for black FAI rubber,1/4” strip preferred, with 1/8” my second [email protected] or phone 07 3263 9339

Gary Odgers places third in BMFA


Four Queenslanders joined tenVictorians and a dozen New SouthWales free flighters, plus a number ofR/C flyers from various NSW clubs tocelebrate a momentous occasion forAustralian free flight - the opening ofAustralia's first and only free flightfield owned by the flyers. Thanks tothe foresight of the NSWFFS and theextreme generosity of Jo and AdrianBryant, we no longer have to worrywhether free flight will continue inAustralia, as fields become unavailableor cut up for development.

The West Wyalong field is located incentral west NSW, 15 hours fromBrisbane, 5 hours from Sydney and 6hours from Melbourne. It is a flat 700

acre field 1.9 klm x 1.4 klm, with shortgrass, is easy to walk or ride on and hasminimal trees - in other words, anexcellent free flight field. Situated insheep country, it is not suited tocropping, and that made it affordable.Crops and free flight aren't a good mix!

FRIDAY: A dozen early arrivals madegood use of perfect weather (blueskies, light winds) on Friday to trim fora weekend of low key competition.Puddles on the main road indicatedrecent rain but, as we were now in themiddle of a big high, things looked verygood for the weekend. Dave Baileymade a welcome return to free flightand showed very good form. Des,Albert, Howard, Wally, Dave and Roy

all put in some flights that showedthere was plenty of lift around. JimChristie arrived late and was the lastto leave the field. Ten flyers found yetanother great pub with good food onFriday night. In fact it was excellentfood with $10 meals that were bothwholesome and good tasting. WallyBolliger scored the award for thebiggest meal. We will go there again!

It's the third time I've visited theWest Wyalong and the field keepsgetting better, and bigger! Roy, Di,Matt, Donna and Terry were down atthe farm house getting ready for theopening ceremony on Saturday andseveral slept over, including Col Collyerfrom Victoria. No ghosts were sighted

Report and photographs by Malcolm Campbell

13 - 14 September 2014

A good roll up for the Grand Opening, and great weather!


and they all looked relatively brighteyed on Saturday morning.

SATURDAY: A good role up of flyersand spectators arrived early, includingMAAA secretary Kevin Dodd. Once theflight line was established, it stayedthat way for the day. Two quad bikesjoined the few electric bikes of thosewho preferred not to walk. The quadssuited Matt and Terry - they can carrytheir chains saws with them! Terry waspleased by the end of the day that hehad his bike.

Saturday was a magnificent day withclear skies, good lift and minimalbreeze from varying directions. Soonthere were all sorts of models in thesky - vintage, scale, sporties, powerand rubber and a few gliders. Flyersfrom 7 to 94 soaked up the sunshine.There were three competitions but themix of models made it great for thespectators. A few limited function R/Cmodels flew discretely among the F/Fmodels including Col Collyer'smagnificent 4 m R/C electric glider.

Albert scored a big 12 min 45 secflight from his Open Rubber Waif,when the tail failed to pop on DT.Luckily it landed and he retrieved itwith an easy 300 m walk! John Corbytopped that with something over 20minutes when his silly putty timerwent on a "go slow" strike. His modelstill only landed 400 m away. TerryBond wasn't to be outdone, putting hisfreshly made Stomper into big lift - andthe DT failed. Terry sat back in a comfychair, cheerfully chatting with friendsas he waited for some lateral

Dave Bailey - Dixielander Albert Fathers - Korda

Kevin Dodd - Hat Dave Bailey again - Ray Malmstrom bipe

Roy and Di - timing Howard Gostelow - Jekyll and Hyde


movement. After 30 mins, he felt it was time to give chaseon his quad bike. The Stomper finally did clear the paddockand he was forced to run to catch up with it. After theenforced exercise, he returned with a big grin and anundamaged model. Others weren't so lucky with a fewspectacular crashes to keep the spectators amused. DesSlattery's Kerswap crash was the most comprehensive butCol Collyer's was the best, when a premmie DT caused thewing on his fast climbing 40 power model to fail.

From Peter Jackson's 0.24cc sport to Roy Summersby's.46 powered Playboy, the air seemed full of models and attimes it was more like a gala event with lay backcompetitions included. Col invited me to tow up his 10 footMantis vintage glider. Wind direction was fickle buteventually we got away in a decent thermal. Those bigmodels pull hard but the resulting 7 minute flight was agood reward.

The Dixielander contest was spear-headed by the fastclimbing Rothwell-powered Dixies, with a Zoot Suit or two.Vin Morgan's "electronic throttle" Dixie was outfoxed bythe speedy climb from Des Slattery's lightweight earlyOS-powered model. The Open Rubber event had someupsets - notably that of Jim Christie failing to score threemaxes. Des, Leigh Morgan and Albert didn't, so they madeup Sunday's fly-off trio. And Howard Gostelow was theonly one to find a tree. His Senator was recoveredundamaged.

Flying comps ended by 3.30 pm and we adjourned to thenewly placed runway to watch some R/C and C/L flying.The runway is behind the house and, when we got there,it was just like discovering another flying field, in the "backpaddock". This place is really big and most F/F flyers wouldbe happy to fly 2 minute events from this part of the field.West Wyalong has REAL potential for development.

Come 6 pm the sun was setting, the fire was stoked andthe BBQ heating up outside the farmhouse/clubhouse.Food was being readied and the drinks had started. TerryBond officiated at the Grand Opening and the speeches

Terry was glad he had a quadbike - Stomper Col Collyer - on his way to a rare accident

Peter Jackson - at full stretch

Malcolm Campbell - Col’s 10’ Mantis

Mike Glaister - Waif

were well received. Understandably,the biggest cheer was for AdrianBryant who will go down in AustralianFree Flight history for his extremegenerosity for backing the fieldfinancially. Adrian also responded toTerry's speech and later cut the cakewith his and Jo's name on it beforereciting one of his many lengthypoems, this one about the back log onthe fire. Kevin Dodd also awarded RoySummersby his Hall of Fame award forhis first place in the F1C world champsin France last year.

As the night cooled, we all headed toour cosy quarters, although HowardGostelow nearly didn't get off theproperty getting bogged as he droveoff the road to avoid a muddy puddleon the farmhouse road. Luckily"Chainsaw" Matt towed him out. Thesame fate befell Jim Christie on Fridaybut I understand that the WW councilrep who attended our Saturday nightfunction has promised to put a pipe infor us!

SUNDAY: Saturday was perfect andSunday was "more perfect", as theflight line remained in the middle of

the paddock all day, and there wasvirtually no breeze all morning. TheOpen Rubber fly-off commenced at7.30 am with Des Slattery putting inhis best launch ever. Albert Fatherswas away next getting higher than Desbut the prop fold was bad, thanks to anew tight motor. This turned a 7minute flight into something half that,as the model glided left instead ofright. So Albert's model synched intoa left turn close to Des's, and you couldeasily see the attitude and descentrate didn't look good for Albert. LeighMorgan launched last and her glidewas almost good enough, losing 13

Kevin Dodd and Roy Summersby - Hall of FameAdrian Bryant - Saviour of free flight

The Big Cake - Enjoyed by all Adrian Bryant - cutting the cake

The Grand Opening - and some good tucker


secs to Des and clearing Albert by amere 2 secs. All models landed lessthan 300 m away.

Vintage Rubber was a surprise, withmost models dropping one or morerounds. Howard Gostelow flew aVagawock but soon moved to his morereliable Senator. Don Broughton, withhis model on trim, looked goodalthough Jim Christie rearranged thenose of his Gollywock after a spiralclimb turned into a steep dive. AlbertFathers' Boxall model suffered from an"indigestion stall", as it failed tounwind a knot well behind its CG, pockmarking the covering as it tried to doso. Dave Bailey's rocket climb was soimpressive and threatening but the

stand-out was Adrian. With his "pitcrew" of eager helpers and his chromeplated "old person's" chair, Adrianwound and launched precisely, threetimes. He normally only puts in onecelebratory flight per competitionthese days but he was encouraged toendure three flights. And that he didvery well, maxing all three, with twoof these not even needing bonuspoints. It was so good to see him win,and your could see in his eyes hethought the same way!

Des Slattery and Wally Bolligerslugged it out in Open Power withmodels that don't often place in thisevent. Evenly matched, they circled inthe same air with Des picking up the

prize. P30 was an anti-climax with a"no show" for both Team Hannafordand Team Morgan. Sean O'Connorand Graham Maynard chased JimChristie but never caught him, withJim's last flight a boomer. MattHannaford gave chase on his 425ccquad bike, and we all hoped he got toJim's model before the sheep did!

By midday the contests were over andthe awards were presented, so endinga superb weekend of flying andcomradery.

The West Wyalong field will evolveinto a premier site for southernhemisphere free flight, I’m sure of that.

Des Slattery - winning OR flight Jim Christie - putting up another flight

Adrian Bryant - Lim Joon, convincing win in VR Adrian Bryant - what a way to finish a great weekend

Brian Allcock - 94 yo, and flew all day Howard Gostelow - Senator


Fred Roberts- Dixielander Roy Summersby- Dixielander

Vin Morgan- Dixielander

Percy Wright- Stomper Don Broughton- Open Rubber

Leigh Morgan- Sole F1B in OR

Wally Boliger- it was soon to get worse Dave Bailey- Vintage Rubber


And YES, there are more photos. They can be seen at:https://www.flickr.com/photos/motor-racing-photography/sets/72157647235955597/

Congratulations to the New SouthWales Free Flight Society for having theforesight to look for a large field for allaeromodellers to use for Free Flight,Control Line and Radio Control at WestWyalong.

A special thanks in no particular orderto Tahn Stowe, Terry Bond and RoySummersby for taking time out to findthe field and all others involved. Welldone for what you found. It’sSENSATIONAL.

A very very special thanks to thefabulous Adrian Bryant and his late wifeJo for offering the funds to pay for thefield rather than having to rely on othersources of funds. A personal THANK YOUAdrian.

It’s now up us to help keep this field aviable proposition by joining in to makeit happen.

Howard Gostelow AUS 956

Col Collyer- 4m electric R/C glider John Corby - Open Rubber

Andy Luckett- FF helicopter and Oily Rag! Howard Gostelow- Senator retrieved unharmed

Signed photo- for Adrian

The Grand Opening - Naming the field



West WyalongAustralian Free Flight nowhas a field it can call its own

Thanks to thosewho believed in the cause

JO and ADRIAN BRYANT,

and the NSWFFS

The weather predictions for the weekend were not allthat encouraging and the previous week had seen galeforce winds lashing most of the Australian eastern sea-board. This situation did not prevent our New Zealandcompetitors from crossing the Tasman, for they are keenwatchers of antipodean weather and had seen the ‘High”which was predicted to be parked over NSW.

Our collective hopes were realized with fantastic trim-ming weather (almost dead calm) on the Friday with MarisDislers and Peter Jackson not leaving the field until after2.00pm. Saturday dawned cold with only a slight breezeand scale models were soon testing the air from handlaunches or under their own power rising from the turf.

I failed to keep count of the Free Flight scale models thatmade the field over the weekend however the consider-able crowd of spectators and flyers alike were treated toa feast of free flight scale action. A couple of “notables”amongst those who attended but did not fly, were SteveRothwell, John Goodwin, Glenn Crouch, Eric Holland andDavid Bailey (who couldn’t get the Bird Dog finished butcame anyway.)

Phil Mitchell, taking a break from his F1A schedule (he ispart of our Asia Oceanic team heading to Mongolia laterthis month) and training for an Iron-Man event in WA later

this year, campaigned his venerable Mills 1.3 poweredTiger Moth. The slow speed and steady flying characteris-tics including a smooth takeoff scoring highly. MarisDislers made the long trek from South Australia alone thisyear. Unfortunately the Richmond cold managed to stifleMaris’s CO2 powered Eastbourne monoplane and he hadto resort to his “flatty” Mignet “Antoinette” which he alsoflew in the Scramble.

While all this was taking place Peter Jackson flew anoth-er sortie with his red SE 5a, a replica of Duncan Grinnell-Milne’s “Schweinhund III” complete with replica DGMpilot crafted by British scale aficionado David Banks .George Fay, under the watchful eye of Ricky Bould, as-saulted the air and ground repeatedly with his new Doug-las Dauntless in what appeared to be a vain attempt torecord an official flight. Eventually he made the mandato-ry 30 seconds even though the model was clearly experi-encing wing failure at the dihedral break. Congratulationsto George for persevering with a difficult subject, prevail-ing and winning the “Most Spectacular Arrival” award.

The action kept on coming, with Stan Mauger’s AusterC4 making repeated flights out across the green turf, upinto the cloud streaked blue. An ROG eluded him this


Photos by Glenn Crouch and report by Tahn Stowe

F4A TRANS TASMANCHALLENGEAND RICHMONDSCALE RALLY5 - 6 July 2014

Gary Sunderland RAC BE12

time, even with the near perfect pitch and restricted hisflight score.

Tahn Stowe’s much anticipated “JXE” night fighter liver-ied Hawker Hurricane had fuel tank issues and recorded adisappointing Did Not Fly despite being re-engined with aGeoff Potter rebuilt ED 3.46. His pretty bright red PM3/1,although practice-flown, had strut attachment issues andwas also a DNF on the day. Both these “failures to fly”earning him the “Next Time” award.

Our thanks to the Flight judges Walter Bolliger and JohnCorby who were kept busy with an orderly stream ofattempts coming from all points of the compass in therelatively calm conditions.

Phil Warren’s much sorted Comper Swift in red, whiteand blue finally bettered his yellow J3 Piper Cub and Roy’sFocke-Wulf, taking out the Reg Jude Rubber Scale trophyonce again.

Roy Summersby flew 3 aircraft, his electric FE 8 scoringhighest with its realistically long take-off runs and stableslow flights. His new 1/8th scale Sopwith Swallow, whichlooked very impressive with its shiny aluminium cowl(spun by Matt Hannaford) should do well once fully sorted.

The two Victorian Garys, Odgers and Sunderland cam-paigned several models including Gary O’s Dragon embla-zoned Albatross C3 which he is taking to the British Natslater this year. Gary S’s Sopwith Triplane was flying excep-tionally well with a remarkably shallow glide for this type.

Robert Craine travelled down by train this year and flewhis new “Nancy Bird-Walton” DH 606 much to the delightof all with the word “WOMAN” as per the original paintedunder the bottom wing. Robert received the “People’sChoice” award for his efforts.

Di Hanna and Liz Stowe were serving hot soup, as JohnPennells and Geoff Potter got down to the task of staticjudging. Several hours later they had completed theirwork, our thanks to them both and good to see John at aFree Flight event after many years absence.

Phil Mitchell’s Tiger Moth topped the results in F4A withRicky Bould’s Auster AOP9 in second and Gary Sunder-land’s Taube in third spot.

The David Hope-Cross Trophy was retained by the Aus-tralian team of Gary Odgers, Gary Sunderland and currentF1C World Champion Roy Summersby, defeating the NewZealand team of Stan Mauger, Ricky Bould and GeorgeFay.


Gary Sunderland- Etrich Taube Gary Odgers- Gloster Gannet

Gary Odgers- Gloster Gannet Phil Mitchell- Tiger Moth


The winners were awarded prizes at a dinner at theHawkesbury Race Club with field owners Pauline andCharlie Saliba as guests of honour. The food was excellentand our thanks go to Nicole and Ken for making it apleasant evening, even though our projected numberswere down.

Sunday saw more flying including a 1/2 Hour PowerScramble, taken out by Andrew Heath with his carbonfibre Abdhul equipped, sign board Flying Carpet, followedby Matthew Hannaford (conventional model) and TahnStowe with another open structure Flying Carpet. There

was also some CL trainer action with Walter Bolliger, TerryBond, Reg Towell and Robert Cranfield helping get a cou-ple of tyro juniors flying.

As the predicted wind came up the flying slowed and thetalking and exchange of ideas increased. If you were there

you were lucky to have been a part of another wonderfulFree Flight Scale Rally. If you missed it there is always nextyear, so start planning now and get that long awaited FreeFlight Scale project finished. The next F4A Trans-TasmanChallenge will be in 2016 and the Richmond FF Scale Rallywill be on the first weekend in July 2015.

Failure to Launch!

Roy Summersby- Sopwith SwallowJudge Walter Bolliger- Phil Warren’s Comper Swift

Robert Crane - DH 606 Roy Summersby- Sopwith Swallow

BE 12 Sopwith Swallow Luton Minor


Peter Jackson- SE 5

Peter Jackson- another SE 5

Stan Mauger- Auster C4

Phil Warren- Piper Cub

Roy Summersby- Focke-Wulf 152H George Fay - Douglas Dauntless

Luton Minor Tahn Stowe- Piero Magni 3/1


F4A TRANS TASMAN CHALLENGE ANDRICHMOND SCALE RALLY RESULTS

Phil Mitchell Tiger Moth DH 82A 1453.6Ricky Bould (NZ) Auster AOP9 1385.7Gary Sunderland (AUS) Taube 1349.5Gary Odgers (AUS) Gloster Gannet 1319.4Roy Summersby (AUS) FE 8 1302.6Stan Mauger (NZ) Auster C4 1277.0Robert Craine DH 606 1017.5George Fay (NZ) Douglas Dauntless 919.5

Australia 3971.5New Zealand 3582.2

Phil Warren Comper Swift 1339.6Roy Summersby Focke - Wulf 1149.0

Robert Craine DH 606

George Fay Dauntless

Tahn Stowe Piero Magni 3/1


With Colin Crowley (F1B&C) onwalkabout up north, Chris Behr (F1A,B&C) working in Darwin and NeilMurray (F1A&B) now back in SouthAfrica, there were only two starters forthe WA Team Trials: myself in F1B andNeil Pollock in F1C. These were initiallyscheduled over two days to allowflying in more than one category, butwith the absences this was notneeded. So we decided to fly the trialson the Saturday and hold Open Powerand P30 (that had been blown outearlier in the year) on the Sunday. NoelMcMillan also showed up to trim someold timers.

As Neil has a 4 hour drive fromBusselton to the field at Meckering, hestayed in the homesteadaccommodation, just adjacent to thefield, on Friday night. However, whenhe got up on Saturday the field wascompletely shrouded in fog and in facthe only found it by following thevarious fence-lines! Kathy and I droveup from Perth on Sat morning, andagain much of this was through fairlythick fog. However, the fog cleared byabout 8.30 and the breeze started tocome up from the east at 1-2 m/secand we set up all the gear in a corner(A) of the paddock that had a lovelycover of low clover. At this stage weboth put up some test flights and thengot the rounds underway at about9.00, flying alternately as we only had

Kathy as timerand for somereason sherefused to timetwo at once.

As I needed amax-out toremain incontention for ateam place, Iused my trustyweather stationwith both thelocal andremote sensors

to help in picking some good air and itwas a huge benefit. I was also usingsome quite good Jan 2014 rubber thathas a high energy storage. However, itis also a bit sensitive towards the endof the wind and I had 4 motors burstduring the day.

The first round was fairly easy, withthermals indicated by an obvious dropin wind, rise in temperature then thereverse with the infill. We both maxed.However, by the time we were readyfor the next flights, the wind hadstarted to shift towards the north andso we had to relocate the flight linefurther up the paddock (B) to avoidsome trees. We both got a max fromthis location but the wind had comeup further and the models landed inthe wheat crop in the adjacent field.

The wind then dropped completely.I wound and was ready to fly but theweather station indicated just flat air.After about 10 mins of waiting andputting on the occasional hand turns,I finally did what I should have doneon many previous occasions but didn’t(usually to my chagrin!): let the proprun down, sit down and wait for betterconditions. After 30 mins and asandwich a slight breeze returned andI got another max after the modelsniffed out some good lift. Neil alsomaxed but again we went into thecrops.

By the time we got back the wind hadgone right around to the west so werelocated again, right up to theboundary with the crops (C).So far itseemed as though we had spent moretime relocating the flight line with allthe paraphernalia than actually flying!For the rest of the day the breeze wenteast, west, and south, with the modelslanding variously in the stubble (thatwas too weathered to cause anydamage), clover and crops, and finallybecame so slight that we were landingwithin a few 10’s of meters of the flightline. I continued to max but Neilstarted having trouble with his modelnot getting through the bunt andstalling badly at the top of the climb,and he dropped rounds 4, 5 and 7,with a total score of 993 sec.Nevertheless, this should be sufficientto guarantee him being offered a placeon the Australian team, while I am stillin the hunt.

Just for interest, this was the winddata from the official met station justup the road at Cunderdin:

Unfortunately, the weather cracked upat about 11.00 am on the Sunday andafter just a couple of flights and twolost models, the open power and P30events had to be abandoned oncemore.

Paul Rossiter

by Paul Rossiter

Time Direction Speed (kph)8.30 CALM 09.00 E 79.30 E 610.00 E 910.30 E 1111.00 E 911.30 ESE 212.00 SSW 212.30 WSW 41.00 N 21.30 W 62.00 WSW 92.30 WSW 43.00 S 23.30 CALM 04.00 CALM 0


An Inexpensive Altimeterby Paul Rossiter

Altimeters are becoming increasingly popular as an aidto trimming model aircraft and in this regard they allowdirect assessment of how various factors such as functiontiming (bunt , VIT, DPR etc.), trim changes, rubber batchesand so on affect flight performance. Other than that, it isalso fun just to see a record of a flight to see how high itclimbed or look at the glide sink rate. Accordingly, they arenow included in most modern electronic timer systemsfitted to many F1A and F1B models. There have also beena number of stand-alone altimeters that could be fitted toany models, such as the Altimax, nanoAlt, Lo-Lo, Ram3,Alti2, etc. but these were usually rather expensive andsome are no longer available. More recently a cheaperalternative has become available from Fly-Dream (theFD-A), also sold through Hobby King (PRODUCT ID:9333000001) for around $30. I recently purchased one ofthese and did a direct comparison with a calibrated Altimaxand thought that readers might be interested in my findings.

Fig 1. The Altimeter package as available from Hobby King.The Altimeter itself is the small unit shown bottom left.

The FD-A altimeter weighs only 1.3 g and will operatefrom 3.7 – 8.4v (<7mA). The claimed height range is -500to 9000m with an accuracy of 0.3m! It also records thetemperature from -25 to 65C with an accuracy of 1C. Itnormally plugs into a vacant servo socket of an RC receiverto get power and becomes active 18 seconds after thepower is switched on, but for free flight use can bepowered from a single 50mAh LiPo. It can be set to asampling frequency of 1, 2, 4 or 8 samples per second andcontinues to record data until it is switched off. This isstored as the first record. If it is switched on again, it stores

the next set of data as record 2, 3 and so on. A total of upto 63 hours of data can be stored at the lowest samplingrate.

The data can be downloaded into a computer via a USBinterface supplied with the altimeter (Fig 1) and plottedusing software available from the Fly-Dream or Hobby Kingweb sites at no cost. The data can also be downloadedinto an Android device (tablet or phone) using a Bluetoothadaptor available from Hobby King for around $10 (Fig 2)and software available free from the Google Play store.Also, as many fliers still use a Palm PDA to program theirelectronic timers, the altimeter can also be connected tothe Palm via a simple electronic interface that I built for afew dollars (Fig 3) and using plotting software availablefrom Tapio Linkosalo ([email protected]).

Note that the sampling frequency can only be set or thedata memory cleared when the altimeter is connected toone of these devices.

Fig 2. Bluetooth adaptor for FD-A

Fig 3. Palm interface. The Serial interface board isavailable on E-Bay for a few dollars.

As mentioned before, for free flight use the altimetercan be powered from a single 50mAh LiPo and the ratherbulky servo power lead can either be shortened or replacedwith a lighter version. The only catch is that the miniature4 pin connector on the altimeter requires a 1.25mm MolexPico-Blade plug that is only available in small quantitiesfrom suppliers such as Digikey and they sometimes have

CONSTRUCTION CORNER


minimum order quantities and often very high postagerates to overseas address, though some of our Americanfriends may be able to help in this regard. The total weightof my altimeter and LiPo with shortened power lead, plugsand sockets is around 4g and I mount it either on top ofthe wing or in the pylon of my F1B’s near the CG.However, as the altimeter works by measuring the verysmall changes in pressure with altitude, it should bemounted out of the airflow in fast power models or buntingF1A’s.

In order to check its accuracy I fixed both the FD-A andAltimax to an F1B and recorded a flight (only a couple ofhundred turns, so no great height reached, and short DT).The two plots are shown in Figures 4 and 5. There are acouple of things to note with these plots. The Altimax plotautomatically determines the zero of altitude and adjuststhe plot accordingly. However, the FD-A plots the absolutealtitude and so can start from any height determined bythe atmospheric pressure on the day and altitude of theflying field. However, there is a function in the plottingsoftware that allows it to be reset to zero. When this isdone the two plots agree to better than a meter in altitude.

Fig 4. Altitude plot from Altimax

Fig 5. Altitude and temperature plots from FD-A

Finally a note on flight testing using altitude analysis. Inorder to properly assess the effects of trim changes etc.you need genuinely still air and this is hard to find, even insupposedly non-thermal conditions. Ken Bauer describedthe difficulty in an article in the 2009 NFFS Symposium,attributing the lack of consistency to something changingin the air to do with temperature, humidity or possibly alarge mass of air moving so slowly that the model stillappeared to be flying in calm, non-thermal air. I also notedthe problem when I was comparing the performance offixed and variable pitch propellers. The usual indicator ofstill air is a glide slope that is a straight line, any bumps ordips being a sure indicator of thermal activity. However,even then I found that while results on any particular daymight be consistent, the results from different days (alldawn, supposedly pre-thermal flights) could show differentclimb heights and rates of sink during the glide, eventhough the glide slopes were completely flat.Nevertheless, this form of testing is extremely helpful intrimming for the best burst-cruise transition in F1B or bunttimings in F1A.

An example of perfection for F1B is the plot of AlexAndruikov’s from the 2014 “Fab Feb” Lost Hills competitionshown below (photo by Malcolm Campbell). Note theperfect transition at the end of the burst, climb to around128m, and completely flat glide with a sink rate around0.28 m/s, not to mention the “still air” flight time thatwould have been around 8 minutes to the ground! Howdo your plots compare?

Fig 6. Plot of flight by Alex Andruikov at the

2014 “Fab Feb” Lost Hills competition.


THE ULTIMATE AUSSIE TIMERand the path to its final form

by ace techie Harry Sokol

Development of the Dtox timer

What's in a timer? Not much, just a bit of electronics totell the time, a servo to make things move and a batteryto make everything happen. Sounds easy.

I first started to contemplate an electronic timer after Iwitnessed someone attempting to modify the timing on aSelig unit. Clamping the discs, moving ever so slightly theone of interest and then tightening the stack withoutmoving their relative positions. Must admit he did it well,but I though that it was so prone to error and the actualtime adjustment was estimated by the rotation of the armrelease disk with respect to the other discs. Trial and errorseemed a bit of an understatement.

A servo rotating one disk to release all arms! Brilliant Ithought.... and soon discovered a few others had hadsimilar brilliant ideas (the Internet is a wonderful place todiscover that someone has done it before).

Not daunted, my mind plodded on with the conceptualdesign. Small servo rotating a disc which releases arms,controlled not by an analogue timing circuit but by amicro-controller. A method of programming the actualtimes required that did not involve pressing a button inpeculiar patterns and a method of quickly determining thecurrent timing values. I also considered that 'it' should bea simple replacement for the popular Selig and selfcontained.

Should be straightforward I thought... how hard can itbe... I can program computers, I can build 'stuff' and I'veeven played a lot with a soldering iron and circuit boards.

The first attempt was a proof of concept on perf boardusing a PIC16F84a processor and a small servo I had lyingaround. It worked! Good start I thought, but how will Ichange the times? Reprogramming the chip every changeisn't really an option. Another voyage on the Internet andI discovered the Palm Pilot, as used by other electronictimers. This seemed a much better idea than buttonpushing and counting blinking lights. I then spent a load ofmy spare time sourcing the software development toolsfor Palm Pilots, now a legacy device. It's actually quiteinteresting how quickly stuff disappears off the Internet,almost as fast as it appears at times. A developmentenvironment was created on my trusty PC and a programwas soon forthcoming for the Palm device. Suddenly, I hada 'programmable' timer. Wonders never cease.

Several iterations of both the timer hardware andfirmware (the program inside the timer) and the Palmapplication and I thought things were really going well.Servo rotates correctly, timer behaves correctly. All I haveto do now is actually make the arms and disc. Oh, did Imention I have a lathe? :) Yup, I can make discs! That wasrelatively easy, the arms were another matter. Just a bit ofwire ... but how do I hold them on to the front (so theywon't come off) and not have them look like bits of wobblyspaghetti. Eventually, all design and production problemswere solved, sort of, and the first timer emerged, albeitwith only two function arms, only to be sent back to thelaboratory. Batteries need charging plus the small NiCadswere really heavy. Enter the LiPo battery era! But LiPosneed special charging... better add some charging circuitryso simple chargers can be used.

By this stage the PIC chip seemed a bit large physically(and small in capacity) so a change was required... andcontrary to all norms, I elected to go with Atmel stuffinstead of just moving up the PIC range. So now we havean Atmel ATMEGA88 in charge of proceedings, plus somecircuitry to manage battery charging, throw in some bitsto protect the battery from abuse (over-discharge) and thecircuit board is starting to look messy. So redesignrequired, and while I'm at it I'll throw in an altimeter (justbecause I found one on the web that looked cheap anduseable) and some stuff to cut power to the servo to makethe battery last longer. Some memory to hold altimeterdata might be a good idea as well.

More redesign, and make it a 4 arm timer! All is lookinggood, I even learnt how to make silicon moulds and castthe front plate in epoxy! I had abandoned the carbon fibrelaminate that was being used because it was really stuffingthe cutting tools and was a pain to work with. Pity really,it looked so 'techie'. Building a prototype to make themould from styrene was just like building a 1/72 plasticmodel, except I had to make the pieces as well. There I wasfeeling exceptionally pleased, having learnt new skills andreviving old ones.

So, as I was about to enter 'production', and make mymark in the world of electronic timers.... the altimetermodules disappear, with no substitutes available. Thebattery protection IC suddenly becomes 'unavailable' inAustralia (manufacturers embargo, nothing to do with anyGovernment). More rethinking and some devious purchase

channels investigated. The circuit board was redesignedand all major components placed on the 'inside', makingthe rear of the timer cleaner.

Almost as suddenly, 3D printing is here ... I can do 3D stuffon a computer (another of my past occupations)... sofurther redesign and I'll use a 3D printed master to makethe moulds! By now I still wasn't rich from sales so a furthertrip to the design studio to revamp the 'product'.

A new, readily available, altimeter was selected and afternot much thought it was decided to use 3D printing tomake the actual faceplate with integral arm supports. Suredid beat casting epoxy. Make some jigs and bending toolsand the arms begin to look regular, instead of a mixed bag.

I should mention also, that somewhere in the stream ofevents listed above, an onboard optical tachometer cameand went, and a buzzer. Funny thing with that buzzer,sounded (sic) like a good idea for model recovery in longgrass etc., but during development I couldn't get it loudenough. The rest of the family found it infuriating (anothersecret revealed, it appears I've lost some of my hearingability, right about the frequency of the transducers I wasusing :) ). If I can't hear it, it's no use! And we had to moveup the Atmel range to an ATMEGA328, sometimes you justneed more program and storage space.

The ultimate timer finally arrived! The P type. 4 arms,onboard battery charging and protection circuitry, onboardrecording altimeter. Only it had to be expanded... what'sthe use of an altimeter if you're only going to recordaltitude? So throw in a couple of gimmicks... ceilingaltitude d/t to keep CASA happy, launch error detection(when you forget to push the start (trigger) button) andbecause there was still some program space available, dueto the 328 upgrade, some funky altimeter calculations tobring the model down if it's in a boomer!

That's it I thought, done ... can't be improved, so I turnedmy attention back to the Palm application and streamlinedthe messy interface. So we now stand at version 4 of thePalm application, version 10.1 of the firmware on the timerand we're set to go.... Hang on, I can now get thefaceplates in colour!!! Red , blue, white as well as black,with more colours to follow.

STOP! I said .... enough for now, let the world absorb it'swonders as is, before we advance to the next model.

So, now formally announced, is the DTox P type timer....and have I mentioned, it's a direct drop in replacement fora good old Selig.

I can't stop ... next in line is a functional replacement forthe PST timer and possibly a servo sequencer forautomating functions/actions on a FF model. I've alsonoted that the BlueBird servos have a PIC microprocessor

inside, just add couple of buttons and a servo/timerappears. The possibilities are endless, but I really shouldbuild another model :)

Dtox timers - P series

Continuous field trials and input from existing users hasbeen incorporated into the latest offering from DTox. Thetype P timer is smaller, lighter and has advancedfunctionality unseen in previous models.

Details

The P timer provides 4 arm functions and features arecording altimeter enabling additional flight functions.The additional functions include launch error detection,ceiling altitude D/T plus the ability to record flight altitudeprofiles. As with previous versions, provision is made forRCDT input. Up to 64 flights, with a maximum total of 8192altimeter readings, can be stored on the timer forextraction by the configuration utility. As in previous timerversions, all timing, servo and altimeter parameters can beeasily modified by the user.

Sample screens from the PalmPilot configuration utilityare shown on the following page.

Faceplate: 70mm x 29mm

cutout required: 55mm x 22mm

depth required: 11mm

weight: 17gm

battery: Single cell LiPo 130mAh, 3.8gm

Ready to fly weight: 21gm


Rob Wallace is looking for plansor drawings of a towline tester.

Can you help him?

Contact Rob [email protected]

Can you help?

Dtox timer - P series

The cost of the timer is $135 (AUD). Postage andpacking are additional costs.

Visit www.4dfx.com.au/DTox for full details.

Jon Fletcher has been doing some anodising, red, black &green so far and he has dyes to do blue, gold etc. He madethe Allbon Dart head (right) from scratch.

Jon can make any part for any engine. He has also found agifted al. alloy TIG welder who lives in Q’ld. and will be knownto many flyers… Welsh surname back ground….. Any guesses?

On the Taipan 2.5 D Mk 5, I had the over drilled and brokenout lugs TIG welded then machined them back to standardincluding adding in the “as cast” draft angles. Finally glassbead blasted to finish. Along with rebore, new con rod,prop. driver and back plate and re anodised head, the engineis ready for further service.

Contact Jon at [email protected] phone 02 6653 4548


Being in Perth with a few days to spare, I thought a shortvisit to my old flying mate Stuart Sherlock was in order.Stuart moved to the west many years ago, so naturally wedon’t see much of each other. As most of you would know,Stuart (Jo Supercool) is the man behind Supercool RacingPropellers www.supercoolprops.com. Stuart has spent thelast 31 years researching, developing, and designing propsfor all types of internal combustion engines. Naturally hismain interest is in the very top end of the high performanceevents such as F2A, F2C, F3D etc. No doubt producing theperfect prop (if there is one) can be very frustrating andtime consuming, as there are so many factors involved.

My visit, I must admit was two-fold. I had a prop problemand I also wanted to see my old flying competitor mate. Iflew against Stuart in control line, my combat days, as wellas against him in F1C. Yes, Stuart flew F1C and in fact herepresented Australia in the world champs in 1983.

I told Stuart of my propeller problems, hoping that hecould come up with an easy answer. This was not to be; all

I did was to give him something to think about, and nodoubt he will have some sleepless nights trying to find theanswer. If an answer can be found, I am sure Stuart willfind it.

In the meantime I was keen to see how he produces hisrange of props. As I said Stuart produces props formodellers at the very top end of performance in allmodelling classes, so they have to be very, very, good. Theprops are carbon and are made in machined aluminiummoulds. The prop shape is designed in the computer thenthe mould is made in a Bridgeport C&C mill. When themachining is done, the mould is then polished by hand. Onthe shelf there are dozens and dozens of mouldsrepresenting 1,000s of hours work. I won’t try to describeStuart’s procedure and method of making a propeller, as Iwould no doubt get it wrong, but what I can tell you is thata lot of care goes into each prop, and the finished productis extremely good. Just ask some of the world champs thatuse them.

A Short Visit to Supercool

by Roy Summersby


Now THAT’S a Mass Launch!

I grew up in Germany during and after the war when all thoseminicars came out. Before engineering school I was an apprenticeat Daimler-Benz in Stuttgart when they were producing the 300SLGullwing. After 3 motorcycles my first car was a T400 Goggomobil(see the picture). Not the standard with a 250cc engine but thethe one with 400cc, it drove like a gokart. Then I had 2 Citroen2CV.Before that time I was already into model airplanes, mostly with

Diesel engines. At the 1961 World Champs in Leutkirch I was atime keeper for the GBR and USA team. Since 1972 when I wassent by my employer to America I've had 3 Mustang convertibleswith 6l or 5l engines - a 1967, a 1971 and a 1987. My dream carswere always the Lotus Super 7 or a Morgan +4 but I never wantedto invest that much money. Answer on the final page

DO YOU KNOW THIS PERSON?


An oxymoron is usually defined as aphrase in which two words ofcontradictory meaning are broughttogether:

1. Clearly misunderstood 2. Exact estimate 3. Small crowd 4. Act naturally 5. Found missing 6. Fully empty

7. Pretty Ugly 8. Seriously funny 9. Only choice10. Original copies11. Happily married


The George Car Page - a few words from George

The words on these pages came from the Peterborough MFC newsletters - this may be worth pointing out, as someFFDU readers may like to browse their newsletters, as they have lots of content on FF topics, Bowden Trophy,electric small models, P20 etc. The club has some well-known members.

For Peterborough MFC newsletters, go to http://www.peterboroughmfc.org/

Law of Mechanical Repairs:- “As soon as your hands becomecoated with grease, your nose willbegin to itch and you’ll have to pee”.

Law of Gravity:- “Any tool, nut, bolt or screw, whendropped will roll to the leastaccessible corner”.

Law of Probability:- “The probability of being watched isdirectly proportional to the stupidityof your act”.

Law of Random Numbers:- “If you ring a wrong number, younever get a busy signal. Someonealways answers”.

Law of the Alibi - “If you tell your boss that you werelate for work because you had apuncture, the very next morning youwill have a puncture”.

Law of the Bath:- “When the body is fully immersed inwater, the telephone will ring”.

First Law: To finish first, you must first turnup

Breaking in rubber for P30 and CoupeStretch the motor to three times its rest length and holdfor five minutes. While stretched, work some lube intothe rubber with the fingers. (I use Silicon lubricantbought from Wickes. It is used for lubricating gutteringjoints.) Leave the rubber to rest for 30 minutes thenstretch it to four or five times its rest length and hold forten minutes.

Tests I have carried out on a 10gramme P.30 motor:

One eighth rubber brand new will take 800 turns beforedestruction. After breaking in I can take it up to 1000turns. Expect the rubber to break between 1000 and1030 turns. Ed: What length motor? A 4 strand 1/8”P30 motor will take 2,000 turns.

Tests on a 10 gramme Coupe d’Hiver motor:

Three sixteenth rubber brand new will take 350 turnsuntreated. After breaking in as described above it willtake 500 turns. It will break between 500 and 550.

Ed: Some of you may remember an interesting article onrubber stretching from Adrian Bryant?

A husband went to the police station to file a "missingperson" report for his missing wife. The interviewfollows:

Husband: I've lost my wife; she went shopping & hasn'tcome home.

Inspector: What is her height?

Husband: Not sure exactly. Maybe like between 5 and 6feet tall.

Inspector: Slim? Healthy?

Husband: Not slim, she can be healthy.

Inspector: Colour of eyes?

Husband: Not really sure - blue, maybe brown, ormaybe kind of green-ish.

Inspector: Colour of hair?

Husband: Changes according to season.

Inspector: What was she wearing?

Husband: Phew - huhh. It may have been a dress orcould be a suit - or pants maybe.

Inspector: Was she driving?

Husband: Yes.

Inspector: Tell me the type & colour of the car? . . . . .

Husband: A black Audi A8 with supercharged 3.0 litreV6 engine generating333 horse power teamed with an eight-speedTiptronic automatic transmission with manualmode.

It has full LED headlights, and uses lightemitting diodes for all light functions.

It has a very thin scratch on the front leftdoor.….and then the husband started crying...

Inspector: Don't worry sir. We will find your car.

With the long, hot and baking-dry summer seemingnever to end, the last Sunday of March threatened todisallow the traditional pancakes and orange juicebrekkie for the Madness this year (due to fire risk) –fortunately saved by the first shower of the season theprevious evening. Indeed, Sunday itself was the firstreally Free-Flight flyable day this year, with cooltemperatures very light breeze, a few thermals – andeven a couple of rain squalls just to remind ex-pat pomsexactly why they emigrated here in the first place!

A few fliers down from last year, at least the modelswere trimmed at last and all (save one) put up manyflights in the practice session prior to the mass launch at10:30.

All flew, except for Chris Edwards’ 1.5 times Step-Uppowered by a lovely ED Cadet – still pristine, as Chrishadn’t got the CG even remotely close…..

Choosing the winner was hard for judge Ang, as thelongest flight (Jaime’s Skyrida) was clearly cheatinghaving fitted RC electric, highest flyer this year (Dicko’sMimi) was a possibility but Dicko wins everythinganyway, while last year’s highest flyer (George’sBrigadyr) was skilfully batted out of the sky upon launchby last year’s winner, Gary ‘the Great’ Dickens. (Gary alsodiscovered his Sky Gypsy flies much better FF, havingtaken out the single channel gear). But having to retrievehis model from the neighbouring paddock was probablywhat gave Mike Butcher the cup this year (it’s allspeculation, as Ang won’t reveal decision making….).


Malmstrom lineup - also Ted Prince with a rubber job

Masterful Mike Butcher, winner of the MalmstrӧmMadness Cup, 2014, being congratulated by theincorruptible Judge Ang (no matter how many pancakeswere offered……)

Watch your step! Line up of sports modelson the cow paddock.

I have misplaced the author of this - please advise and I will offer my apology!

Special mention must be made of Ted Prince, whobrought along his open rubber model, having heard ofthe event during the week. Bear in mind, Ted thoughtfree flight had ceased in these parts in the 1980s, so waspleasantly surprised to be able to dust off his models –even though the black FAI rubber he has can’t take morethan ¼ turns without shedding strands……… Thusencouraged however, he vowed he will be back!

Great fun (and some pancakes) had by all, with a vowto do it all again next year – but in the meantime, allagreed to get ready for the Ebenezer mass launch onApril 20��, and scramble on May 5�� ……..

Chris Edwards with an ED “bicycle spoke” 100 in aMadcap, and Adrian Dyson with his Mills 0.75 poweredmini Simplex getting a bit of practice for the Scramble inMay.

Remembering Ray Malmstrom, of course, for hisdelightful designs –and especially remember, it’s for

“Flying Friendship and Fun”


The event also brings outa lot of FF sports models,which otherwise don’tget much air time

Ed: Some may have noticed this was aMarch event in WA. I forgot to include it.It still makes good reading!

Bob Hatschek originally published thisin “Aircraft Modeller” - March 1972. Thisis his opinion, but I thought you would liketo read it if you have not seen it before.

RC is Dullsville! That’s right. Flying radiocontrolled models just plain lacksexcitement. And RC competition flying isa bore-almost as big a bore as control-linespeed or stunt.

Now that everybody’s awake, alert andprobably mad as blazes, let me step out ofthe conventional constraint of theeditorial “we” and stress that the abovestatements are highly personal. This isyour free flight power correspondenttalking, and no one else.

There’s a point to be made: Free flightespecially free-flight competition-is themost exciting, the most intellectuallystimulating, the most challenging, and themost satisfying phase of the modelaviation sport. It is also the mostdiversified and educational and requiresthe highest degree of skill andcraftsmanship. It is the fountainhead from

which all other phases have sprung; it hasproduced the highest type of sportsmenin the world.

Before you non-free flighters dismiss thisas the rantings of a completely closedmind, let me state that in my 35 years ofmodelling I have built and flown bothcontrol line and RC. But after a few yearsof each, the boredom set in and I wentback to the thrills of free flight.

What got me angry was the followingstatement in the Official Program for theRC World Championship: “Radio control isthe most exotic of all categories ofaeromodeling and possibly the mostfascinating of any hobby-sport. ”

As a free flighter, I object to thearrogance of this statement. About adozen years ago, when RC enthusiastswere just beginning to get interested inthe idea of international competition andI had just returned from the free flightworld championships with a Russianmodel I had swapped mine for, I wasinvited to speak on the subject of

international aeromodeling before a localRC group. They were a good audience andasked many intelligent questions.Afterwards, one of them flatteringly askedme why, since I already knew all about freeflight, I didn’t step up to RC. I explainedto him that I didn’t understand as much asI wanted to about hand-launched gliders(the simplest type of free flight I couldthink of). I didn’t tell him I had already quitRC because it was too dull. Despite theinnocence, good will, and flattering natureof the question, it was anothermanifestation of the same arrogance.

As a free flighter, I’m tired of beinglooked down upon from an over elevatedRC nose. I do my thing because that’swhat I like, not because I’m incapable orcan’t afford to do something else. I’mtired of people who couldn’t fly a modelwithout continuous control, derogating asinferior what is to me the most perfectform of model aviation.

Backing off to a point of more rationalperspective, each phase of this hobby isgreat-if it’s your thing. Stamp collecting,

Everyone’s entitled to their opinion

Friday 13th March 8.00am to 4.00pm

Open Rubber, Open Power, Simple Open Glider (straight tow) 3 x 180 secVintage Duration Combined 3 x 180 sec

Saturday 14th March 8.00am to 4.00pm

Kiwi Power 3 x 120 secNostalgia Duration Combined 3 x 180 secKennedy Precision 3 x 120 secP30 3 x 120 sec

Sunday 15th March 8.00am to 2.00pm

Combined Catapult / HLG / TLG 6 x 60 secMini Combined (Coupe, 1/2A Power, A/1) 3 x 120 secClassic Duration Combined 3 x 180 secVintage Precision Combined 3 x 90 sec

Entry Fee $10 per day

Awards. An on-field prize giving will be held each day 15 minutes after contest finish.Hand written certificates and awards for first place (3 or more entries) will be distributed.Laser printed certificate duplicates may be obtained by handing or sending the organisera stamped, self-addressed, A5 envelope. (for return of the certificate)

Note re d/t fuses. Fuses will be banned if a general fire ban is in existence or the farmerstipulates. Check each day with control to ascertain the status of fuses.

NZMAA membership will be required for all competitors and casual fliers. Present yourmembership card if requested to do so. (does not apply to any overseas visitors)

This is a CPMAA sanctioned meeting. For more information contact Antony KoerbinPhone +64 4 527 9386 or [email protected]


The North Island Free Flight Champsis a low key fun event. Its well attendedby New Zealanders and we hold it inMarch to get the best weatheropportunity.If any of your Australian FFers happensto be touring NZ or indeed wants tocome for the event they would bemost welcome to come and watch orfly.We don’t generally combine it withFAI as it gives the FAI fliers a chanceto fly other events but if severalpeople indicated interest I could holda low key F1A F1B event the coupleof days before.

model railroading, and even painting bynumbers all have their attractions as well.Just don’t knock it if you don’t understandit. Remember, in the outside world where

they know nothing of the beauties of RC,control line or free flight, they all too oftenconsider a model airplane to be a child’s

toy. We know better, so let’s have a littlemore consideration for the other fellow.

Bob Hatschek – “Aircraft Modeller” -March 1972

Vintage aviator have displays that are not widely publicised so it’s really intimate - a couple of hundred people.Amazing.

I went to the ANZAC day display a couple of years ago. see photos above - Gene de Marco (chief pilot for Sir PeterJackson) kindly let me take some photos of my model with the original restored aircraft (an amazing pilot, not theslightest bit interested in aeromodelling).

The collection is based a few miles from where we fly so we often have them practicing above us.

Antony Koerbin


Aus Nats

Kiwi

Pan Am

Max Men

Vic St Ch

KotukuCup

SCC

AFFS

QLD St Ch

WA St Ch

NSW St Ch

MongoliaCup

WA Trial

Qld Trial

Sum ofbest 3

Sum ofbest 4

Sum ofbest 5

Dec 28-Jan 3

Feb 8

Feb 11

Feb14, 15

Apr20-22

Apr24, 25

Apr25, 26

Apr28-30

Jun21

May 31-Jun 2

Jun7-8

July22, 23

July

Aug17, 18

Oct23, 24

F1A

Phil

Mitc

hell

x108

0 x1

260

1260

11

98

1260

11

39

1260

37

80

4978

Mal

colm

Cam

pbel

l12

31

x899

x1

260

1260

10

89

1134

10

50

1236

12

60

3756

Vin

Mor

gan

1234

12

16

716

1217

36

67Al

bert

Fat

hers

1157

x7

98

962

748

1177

27

6 12

05

897

503

3539

Tahn

Sto

we

1169

11

75

641

1142

11

17

3486

F1B

Vin

Mor

gan

1260

x1

069

x126

0 12

60

1260

1256

1260

12

60

1260

12

50

3780

50

40

6300

Rich

ard

Blac

kam

1260

84

812

6012

60

1260

37

80

5040

58

88Pa

ul R

ossit

er12

60

x111

0 x1

242

1185

1125

11

99

1260

12

60

3780

49

79Cr

aig

Hem

swor

th10

7012

4512

60

1260

37

65Te

d Bu

rfei

n 12

5812

18

1147

33

6 12

44

3720

Terr

y Bo

nd11

83

1123

1143

1155

12

60

1259

11

76

3702

Leig

h M

orga

n12

00

540

1078

1199

96

9 11

77

1155

35

76Do

nna

Gra

y12

09

1057

12

06

1133

35

48M

att H

anna

ford

1079

1092

1260

11

37

1125

35

22F1

C0

Roy

Sum

mer

sby

683

x108

0 x1

260

1260

75

0 12

54

754

540

1237

37

51Te

rry

Bond

1161

72

5 87

1 12

42

900

3303

Nei

l Pol

lock

1078

11

77

993

3248

Gary

Pop

e47

3 10

81

6 69

9 19

88x

Und

er th

e tr

ials

rule

s one

ove

rsea

s eve

nt c

an b

e co

unte

d. A

n x

befo

re th

e sc

ore

indi

cate

s an

over

seas

scor

e no

t use

d.O

S O

S O

SFo

r bre

vity

, onl

y th

e to

p sc

ores

hav

e be

en in

clud

ed

Australian Team Trials - The Scores So Far

W A N T E D T o B U YThermistor type thermal detector. Please contact Neil Pollock.

[email protected]

BRISBANE FREE FLIGHT SOCIETY

2014 CALENDAR

MONTH DATE START EVENT LOCATION

February Saturday 15th

Sunday 23rd12pm – 4pm8am-1pm

Club meeting plus “show and tell”Dale’s Fun and Friend’s day(P-20,CLG and special ladies event, sport and limited RC)

John’s PlaceCoominya

March Sunday 9th

Saturday 29th

Sunday 30th

8am-1pm7am-12pm7am-12pm

2 Minute Class models – “All in” Club Contest (3 flights)F1A State Champs (5 rounds + 2 for team selection)F1H State Champs (5 flights)

CoominyaDalbyDalby

April Saturday 5th

Saturday 12th

Sunday 13th

Friday 25th –

3pm-6pm7am-12pm1pm-4pm7am-12pm

Indoor (IHLG/ICLG State Champs)F1C State Champs (5 rounds + 2 for team selection)Open Power (3 flights)F1J State Champs (5 flights)Southern Cross and AFFS

BSHSDalbyDalbyDalbyNarrandera

May Friday 2nd

Saturday 3rd

Saturday 17th

Sunday 18thSunday 25th

3pm-6pm7am-12pm7am-12pm8am-1pm

Southern Cross and AFFSIndoor (F1L/MiniStick/Delta Dart Club Events)F1B State Champs (5 rounds + 2 for team selection)F1G State Champs (5 flights)Scale, HLG & CLG

NarranderaBSHSDalbyDalbyCoominya

June Saturday 7th

Sunday 8th

Sunday 22nd

Saturday28th

3pm-6pm8am–12pm8am–12pm12pm – 4pm

Indoor (Frog Event)P-30 (3 flights 120sec max)A1 Sailplane (3 flights)AGM

BSHSCoominyaCoominyaJohn’s Place

July Saturday 5th

Sunday13thSunday 27th

3pm-6pm8am–12pm8am - 1pm

Indoor (P-18 State Champs)100gm coupe (3 flights)Dale’s Fun and Friend’s day(P-20,CLG and special ladies event, sport and limited RC)

BSHSCoominyaCoominya

August Saturday 2nd

Sunday 10th

Sunday 24th

3pm-6pm8am–12pm8am–12pm

Indoor (Peanut Scale State Champs)1/2A Power (3 flights)QDP (3 flights)


September Saturday 6thSunday 7th

Sunday 21st

3pm-6pm8am–1pm8am–1pm

Indoor (General Indoor Flying)Col’s Vintage RallyCombined % (3 flights)


October Sunday 5th

Thursday23rdFriday 24th

Saturday25th

Sunday 26th

8am-1pm7am-2pm7am-2pm7am-9am9am-12pm8am – 12pm

Vic Smeed and KKKF1A & F1CTeam Selection Trial (7 rounds)F1B Team Selection Trial (7 rounds)LSq/100 (3 rounds)Open Rubber State Champs (3 flights – flyoff 7am Sun)No Frills Wakefield (3 flights)

CoominyaDalbyDalbyDalbyDalbyDalby

November Sunday 2nd

Sunday 9thSaturday22nd

8am – 12pm8am-12pm12 noon

Frog rally and P-20 (3 flights 60sec)Club reserve day (general flying)Xmas party and presentation

CoominyaCoominyaTBA

CONTACTS:u John Lewis 3848 4280 u Malcolm Campbell 3263 9339 u Albert Fathers 0755 343490


Contest & Fixture Calendar 2014Date Event Venue Time C/DDec28-3/1 Nationals Springhurst See Nat’s ProgramJan 17 General Meeting Harris Park 7:30pmJan 19 Scramble, Scale Rally, HLG/CG Richmond 7.00am – 1.00pm Terry BondFeb 9 State Champ, P30.+ Comb Vintage Richmond 7:00am – 1:00pm Gary PopeFeb 23 Combined % Richmond 7.00am --1.00pm Tahn StoweMar 1-2 Hunter Valley Champs MuswellbrookMar 8-10 Victorian State Champs SpringhurstMar 16 Combined % Richmond 7:00am – 1:00pm Jim ChristieMar 17-18 MAAA ConferenceMar 21 General Meeting Harris Park 7.30pmApril 6 State Champs HLG/CG. Rocket

Glider , Plus Combined VintageRichmond 7.00-1.00 Roy Summersby

April 23 toMay 1

Kiwi Cup, Southern Cross Cup,AFFS Champs

Narrandera See AFFSProgram

SCC. T.B.A.

May 3-4 Veterans Gathering MuswellbrookMay 11 State Champs Scramble, Combined

% , Control Line flying BBQ LunchRichmond 7:00am – 1:00pm Roy Summersby

May 16 General Meeting Harris Park 7.30 pmMay 25 P30, Diesel Duration, + Comb Open Richmond 7:00am – 1:00pm Terry BondJune 7-8 NSW State Champs F1A,B,C Narrandera 8.00am--3.00pm Jim ChristieJune 15 Combined Vintage, HLG/CG, P30 Richmond 7:00am – 1:00pm Gary PopeJune 22 Russell Forth Scramble IllawarraJuly 5-6 Scale Rally Weekend. Sun 6th

½ Hour scramble, Fun Fly C/L flying& BBQ Lunch

Richmond 7.00am Tahn StoweRoy Summersby

July 18 General Meeting Harris ParkJuly 20 Combined % Richmond 7:00am – 1:00pm Jim ChristieAug 10 Combined %, Multiple Entries. Richmond 7.00am- 1.00pm Terry BondAug 24 Scale Rally, P 30, Combined Vintage Richmond 7:00am – 1:00pm Tahn StoweSep 7 ½ Hour Scramble + Tomboy Mass

Launch. Fuller Day, StomperDixielander, Zoot Suit. B-B-Q Lunch

Richmond 7:00am – 1:00pm Chris Dudley

Sep 19 Annual General Meeting Harris Park 7:30 pmSep 28 State Champs F1G,H,J Combined Richmond 7.00am--1.00pm Jim ChristieOct 12 Diesel Duration, P30, HLG/CG Richmond Tahn Stowe

Oct 26 State Champs Combined Vintage,½ Hour Scramble, BBQ Lunch

Richmond 7:00am – 1:00pm Gary Pope

Nov 9 Combined % Multiple entries Richmond 7.00am- 1.00pm Roy SummersbyNov 16 Mills Trophy Scramble IllawarraNov 21 General Meeting Harris Park 7:30 pmNov 30 F1G, H J,(Combined) Richmond 7:00am – 1:00pm Gary PopeDec 14 ½ Hour Scramble, Combined

Vintage with SAMS + Fun Fly.BBQ Xmas Lunch

Richmond 7:00am – 1:00pm Terry Bond

Note All scrambles start as close to 8.00 am as possible

New South Wales Free Flight Society


Pic 2 Altimeter

H:\WAFFS\Contest Calendar\2014 Free Flight Calendar.doc

West Australian 2014 Free Flight Contest CalendarDATE CONTEST CLASS LOCATION TIME CONTACT

28th Dec to 6th

Jan67th Australian nationals Springhurst

2nd March Combined Open Meckering 9.00 am Chris Behr – 9448 9922

16th March WAFFS Free Flight Cup Meckering 9.00 am Paul Rossiter – 9316 025013th April Open Rubber State Championships Meckering 9.00 am TBAAs above SLOP State Championships As above 9.00 am TBA

25th – 26th

AprilSouthern Cross Cup (TT) Narrandera

27th April 1st

MayAFFS Championships (TT) Narrandera

4th May HLG/CLG State Championships TBA TBA George Car – 6161 9381As above Power Scramble State

ChampionshipsTBA TBA George Car – 6161 9381

18th May P30 State Champs / F1G Cup Meckering 9.00 am Rod McDonald - 9316 2762as above Combined Open / Free Flight Cup as above as above

31st May– 2nd

JuneF1A, F1B and F1C StateChampionships (TT)

Meckering 9.00 am Phil Letchford - 9295 2161

as above Combined Open / Free Flight Cup as above as above

22rd June Escargot Trophy Meckering 9.00 am Adrian Dyson – 9295 4418As above WAMAC Cup as above 9.00 amas above Combined Open / Free Flight Cup as above as above

6th July Open Power State Championships Meckering 9.00 am TBAas above F1B Crowley Cup as above as aboveas above Combined Open / Free Flight Cup as above as above

20st July Fuller, Nostalgia and F1Q Meckering 9.00 am Paul Rossiter – 9316 0250As above Combined Open / Free Flight Cup as above as above

17th – 18thAugust

FIA Team trials F1A, F1B and F1C(TT)

Meckering 9.00 am Chris Behr – 94448 9922

as above Combined Open / Free Flight Cup Meckering 9.00 am

NOTES: 1. WAFFS Free flight Cup is a series of events for the following classes:A/1 glider; Coupe rubber, 1/2A Power; P-30 rubber; E-30 electric; Co2; Chuck Glider (including CLG).Competitors may fly one or many classes on each day and throughout the year. Your best scores from thenominated set of flights (normally three in number unless otherwise agreed prior to the event) on three differentdays, adjusted to a percentage of the perfect score using the appropriate K-factor, are combined to determine yourtotal score for the series.

2. Combined Open is for all classes. Competitors may fly one or many classes on each day and throughout the year.Your best scores from the nominated set of flights (normally three in number unless otherwise agreed prior to theevent) on three different days, adjusted to a percentage of the perfect score using the appropriate K-factor, arecombined to determine your total score for the series.

3. Results from the specific events may be nominated in advance to count toward the combined events.4. Sport flying is welcome and encouraged on all competition days.5. E-30 to have 2 minute max.6. CO2 to have 2 minute max and 3 cc tank.7. Chuck glider and CLG to have 3 flights, but 20 sec attempt to apply outside State Champs. CLG may use no

more than a 6” loop of ¼” rubber.8. All events marked (TT) are events where scores count towards the Australian Free Flight team selection.

Interstate participation is encouraged. All events for Team Trials are 7 rounds.9. All competition events are 5 flights except FIA events which are flown in rounds.


The

mys

tery

fly

er o

n pa

ge 3

7 is

non

eot

her t

han

Pete

r Bro

cks,

expe

rt F

1E fl

yer,

F1A

and

f1G

flyer

from

Ariz

ona

USA

.

2014 09 september 2014 ffdukhaan jims camp hotel. it took about 2 hours to do the 50 odd km, 15 out...

Documents