The first contest of the season (at least for us) was held earlier this month down in Polk City, Iowa and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Bob Baldus and the rest of the guys down there for a really, really good weekend.  The weather was exceptional and Bob did a superb job managing the contest and all of the details that go with it.  As always, our club had a good showing with eight members being there, and I know we all enjoyed ourselves.  John Christensen, however, seemed to be having the most fun of all.  I've been watching John for years now and he's taught me many lessons, the most important of which is this:  the more fun you have - the better you'll do.

In our last newsletter Kelvin asked people to submit the name of your first plane.  While I don't recall exactly what mine was (typically they didn't last long enough to warrant a name) I do remember very early on I had a Cox powered Scientific Stuntmaster.  It was over painted black with red and white stripes and taught me how to do my first loops.  You all remember the first loops, right?  From level apply full up as quickly as possible and hold it there in a panic while the plane in a full stall stumbles around the loop (for lack of a better word) until it either impacts terra firma or regains some semblance of level flight, then do something else.  This is not unlike how I fly today and it proves how thoughs early habits are to break.  I think that the only reason the Stuntmaster survived is because of all the black paint I brushed on.  After that I had a Fox 36 powered Buster (appropriately named) and shortly after that a blue Banshee with white racing stripes (it was the 70's after all) and a fiber glassed on wire landing gear.  This plane used the very same Fox 36 my Buster had and it shouldn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out why.  I can distinctly remember the broken back plate where the crankshaft came through, the missing fins from the back of the cylinder that were later found inside the pick-up tube, and the bashed in fuel tank.  The next couple hundred planes are nothing more than images of broken balsa and torn silk span in my minds eye.  Although there is no guarantee my planes usually last longer now.  Just in case I am finishing my P-40 now in the event my Legacy meets its demise.  The building part is all done.  Now comes the prime, fill, sand, paint, and repeat part of the process.

In rapid-fire succession we have three more events coming up.  First is Discover Aviation Days on May 22 and 23, then June 5 Loins Park in Ramsey fun fly demonstration, next comes the Milwaukee contest, actually held in Pewaukee, on June 13, and rounding out June is the Sig contest in Montezuma, Iowa on June 26 and 27.  I'm sure we'll have more details at the May 27 club meeting.

See You There,
Keith Sandberg

Vice President's Column

The view out the window is dismal-forty seven degrees and drizzling.  Oh, that's right, it is SPRING... I forgot.

There are lots of little bits to talk about this month.  The Mid-Iowa contest at Polk City was very pleasant.  Ryan and I got down for Saturday, enough to watch P-40, Classic, OTS, some Combat and Carrier.  I had never seen Carrier flown and Ryan had never seen Combat or Carrier.  So we were both gong nuts.  Watching Bill Calkins turn in a near-perfect Carrier flight was a treat.  Combat hasn't changed all that much over the years.  Lots of tape and baling wire, lots of swearing at balky engines, and?  Boy, did you see that mid-air??  Discussions.  This is a very nice contest at a good flying site.  The site is in a rural park, and is only marred by turbulent wind.  They have two permanent circl3es and had borrowed enough space for two temporary circles for combat.  I don't have any results since we had to miss Sunday.  Bob, you got the scores?

I got a couple of responses to the? first airplane? question.  Jeff Lange reports that he started with the Walker (Jim, not Paul) Firebaby and Cox motor.  Gregg Lewandowski sent a long e-mail detailing his life with a Darwing profile with aluminum rudder and wooden wheels.  Powered first with a Forester 29 RI, then a screaming OS Max 35 Mark III that pulled Darwing at around 80 mph (Gregg was only 8 at the time!).  Gregg reports that his Dad started out with a very pretty Berkeley Key powered by a Forester 30.5, read thirty and a half.  It first flew in 1951 and was around for many years.  You guys send some more of your stories to me.  You often wonder why anyone stayed in the hobby after some of these early experiences.

There has been a report that the current Stunt News, which I haven't gotten yet, contains a poll about allowing ARFs to fly in the PAMPA classes except for the Nats finals.  This is odd, because that is the way the rules read now.  People already fly?  bought?  airplanes anyway, with the loss of appearance points.  I assume that it is the clubs intention to let ARFs fly in any of our events.  Is there any discussion needed?  I doubt it, but thought I would ask.

Here's an invitation to what I hope will prove to be a good aviation event.  This year in Rochester's 150th anniversary and there will be an Aviation Day the Rochester Airport on August 7th.  The Golden Wings Museum there at the Anoka airport will bring several oldies, including three (!) different models of tri-motor aircraft.  ANG will be there with a C-130, F-18, and P-51.  FedEx is to bring one of their jumbo cargo birds.  There should be a replica Wright Flyer (I don't know which one) and some homebuilt's and other oldies there.  The May Clinic is going to display some of their WWII vintage research work done on G-suits and pressure suits.  Charles Lindbergh helped with this work, and some photos and items of his will be on display.  The local clubs will do some RC demos.  Fly-ins are welcome.  Looks like it will be an interesting day of aviation stuff.  Ya'll come!  The airport is eight miles south of town on Highway 63

See you at the Field,
Kelvin Heath

Member's Space

Hello all, Bob here and I just have to say thanks to Keith and Wayne for all the effort and hard work they did on my airplanes.  It was like Christmas for me at our last meeting receiving these airplanes.

So many people have gone out of their way to help me succeed in the Old Time stunt event I'm starting to fly this year.  I need to thank these people starting with Keith.  Keith not only got me interested in the Old Time event but he built and painted the Firecat I'll be using.  Sina designed the paint and graphics scheme, Jeff Lange for tying up a set of lines, and in the mail I received from Kelvin Heath a special sized glo-driver.

Now it's up to me to replay these great people by posting some good scores.  Not only do I need to learn the proper way the Old Time pattern is flown, but also I need to learn about this new power package.  A Satio 30 four-stroke powers the plane.  No noise issue here, as from the center of the circle I sometimes cannot hear it running.  Though we haven't had a good day to fly with all the wind we've had, I did get a few flights on the plane and the potential appears to be good.  I think I have a contender.  Thanks to all who made this possible.

Once again, it pays to belong to this club as so many people have skills which we all can use.  Keith's building and painting are great, but without Sina's designing of paint and graphics they might not have that special touch.  Wayne has a source for graphics and this person is someone we all can use (see Wayne for details).  Jeff Lange has been doing a lot of the solder joints for Keith and myself besides making up lines and lead-outs.  Jim Ehlen has many times done machining for a bunch of us.  We also must not forget that Greg Lewandowski has been modifying motors for some of us.  All this help has got me thinking that maybe everyone should list the different things they'll do so we know who to talk to.

All of these people will work hard to help you improve your enjoyment of the hobby at a small cost.

Of course there is also the people in the club that will coach you Jeff Welliver, Keith, Sina, and John Christensen come to mind (but then again, were all experts, you just have to find the right one).

Thank you for all for a great club.

Bob

P.S.  Please note that the Date for the demonstration flying at the Ramsey Lions Park is JUNE 5, 2004 this is a Saturday, which of course gives us another opportunity to fly an extra day this week.  Directions are somewhere in this issue.

Norm's Design Page

To begin, I would like to thank Mike Moylan for responding to my struggle with doping fillets and trying to avoid the bubbles and pull-a ways, which seem to plague me.  I appreciate your suggestions Mike, and would still like to hear form others on the the topic.

Some technical stuff on "home made" mufflers will come along soon, but I've heard kicked around the club and wonder about: stabilizer location.

Study the profile of any conventional aircraft, and you will notice the relationship of the wing (running an imaginary line from leading edge to trailing) to the stabilizer.  There are three principal aspects to this alignment:

1. Distance apart (trailing edge of wing to leading edge of stabilizer - roughly = tail movement).
2. Vertical alignment (is the stabilizer aligned, higher, or lower than the wing).
3. Incidence angles (does the wing and/or stabilizer pitch upward or downward relative to the thrust line - essentially your engine shaft from the side [profile] view).

Those of us who attempt free-flight know how critical incidence is, not to mention tail moment and trust angles.  The beauty of control line stunt planes, is that they are designed to fly as well inverted as right-side-up.  As a result, they have been designed with symmetrical airfoils and both wing and stabilizer set at zero degrees incidence and parallel to the trust line.

So, when you're flying a stunt plane, in order to give your wing (with its non-lifting airfoil) some lift, you have to provide some angle-of-attack or incidence (tilt it upward slightly).  You do this by simulating a little negative angle-of-attack on your stabilizer by means of "up elevator".  Not that this tilts the thrust angle slightly upward as well.  When you fly inverted, or in maneuvers where the plane thinks it's inverted aerodynamically, everything is simply reversed.

Tail moment affects the responsiveness of the tail surfaces (elevators in our case).  Obviously, combat planes with almost no distance between wing and stabilator (stabilizer and elevator as one movable piece), are very jumpy and sensitive.  A longer tail moment yields smoother control but takes sharpness out of the "corners" of maneuvers.

Speaking of stabilators, what would you call the control surface I had on the front end of my flying snow shovel?  I believe it must be a cannardilator!  Sorry for the disgression...

Now, to the esoteric issue: Vertical Alignment.  The guys in our club who know a lot about planes will tell you all about the turbulence, and vortices, and such that fall off the trailing edge of a wing or a prop or anything else that moves through the air.  On our stunt planes, our flaps are particularly prone to kicking up turbulence.  For smooth and predictable flight, you don't' really want any of our flying surfaces to be passing through turbulent air, so designers tend to locate stabilizers on a different parallel plane from that of the wing (usually higher).  This may be perfect during level flight, allowing wing turbulence to freely pass beneath the stabilizer, but imagine the beginning of an outside loop; the flaps kick upward and the stabilizer moves right into the turbulent wing wash.  Is that rally a problem?  I don't know.

As all guys must have unqualified theories, here's my idea on this design issue (and I should mention that I think someone in the club first brought this question to my attention - probably Jeff Welliver).  Since stunt planes are designed in such a "balanced" way, where down is as good as up, it seems to me the ideal alignment is total alignment.  On planes I've modified, and planes I've designed and built from scratch, I've tried to align both wing and stabilizer right on the thrust line.  That way there can be almost no control difference between upright (inside) and inverted (outside) maneuvers.

I have detected no problems whatsoever with this alignment.  In level flight, I imaging my wing is trailing very limited turbulence, especially when compared to having flaps deployed in either direction where an offset stabilizer places itself right in the "line of fire".  On any maneuver, the aligned stabilizer is moving itself in the opposite direction from flap turbulence and into "clean air".  So, I say if your designing or modifying, "line 'em up".  But, let's hear from the opposition.

On a closing note, we should also consider that there's such a mess of prop wash turbulence flowing over the stabilizer anyway, the alignment issue may just be moot.

Norman Anderson

Up-Coming Events

Discover Aviation Days -- 5/22 & 5/23/04  (Setup 5/21/04 1PM)

Loins Park Demonstration -- 6/5/04  12PM - 6PM  (Setup 10AM)

Directions:  From the city of Anoka, take Hwy 10 west to Armstrong Blvd.  Turn right and follow Armstrong Blvd to 161st.  Park is on the right.  This is an open flying demonstration promoting the club and giving youngsters a flight if possible.  Must have volunteers.  MUFFLERS REQUIRED.

Milwaukee Contest -- 6/13/04 (for information see Keith)

Brodak Contest (Carmichals, PA) -- 6/17 to 6/20/04

Sig Contest (Montezuma, IA) -- 6/26 & 6/27/04

Kids Kontest & Fun Stunt -- 7/11/04