President's Column

By the time you read this, we will all have gathered for the annual flying field clean up and company sock wash.  As I write this, it hasn’t happened yet but I’ll gamble on a good turnout and issue a hearty THANK YOU to all who helped out.

Our first real Wednesday flying session came on the 13^th, with temps in the 60’s, light winds, and blue skies.  Seems strange not to have John C. there but he’ll be back as the leg gets better. George Meullerleille had a new T-bird out for its first flight.  Nice workmanship, an LA 40 and a good flight on a nice looking airplane. Glad to see you back, George.

I got a bit of a reminder on the safety side also.  Wearing an unbuttoned shirt over a knit shirt is very comfortable, but when the prop tics it...well, let’s say I was lucky.  Loose or floppy clothes and propellers are a recipe for disaster.

While on the subject of safety, Sina has a habit of doing a quick pull test on each model before the year’s first flight.  Even if it’s just done by feel, it’s a very good idea. Also, don’t forget to check engine mounting bolts, fuel lines, tank mounts, and all the other things that might go wrong. 

Keith was flying his T-bird/K&B  .40 for the first time this year and on the second flight it didn’t seem to run quite right.  Not real bad but off a bit. I had noticed that the RPM dropped slightly when the clip was removed from the plug, which it hadn’t done on the first flight.  Even though the plug glowed fine and looked OK, a new one smoothed out the engine.  Plugs are one of the most common causes of poor performance and they don’t need to be burned out or blown to make trouble. Make it one of your first changes when performance varies. Save the old one and if a new one doesn’t help, put it back in and lose nothing.  On my K&B’s about 25-35 flights seemed about the limit so I changed them at 25 flights. Plugs are lots cheaper than stunters!

Sorry to report that Wayne Willey has moved to Albert Lea due to a job change. We’ll still see him on Sundays but not Wednesdays. He had taken the job of Field Marshall, but it would be nice to find someone else who will be there more of the time. Primarily, the job is monitoring noise levels and keeping those records.   Any volunteers?

On the building scene, Sina is working on his Buccaneer with pipe. That should be interesting. Dale Mendenhall is getting an ARF Flite Streak ready, I’m getting an ARF Nobler ready (Merco .35 power), and I now have the Buccaneer 740 kit in hand.  After 2 Tempests that Buccaneer looks so simple I can’t believe it. It’ll still be a major project, especially if I try to do a big league finish on it, but nothing like the last 2. Power will be another Brodak 40.

While we’re on that subject, I keep hearing that I “think all modern stunters are ugly” and don’t fly well.  Aha! Another half-truth by my political opponents!  Actually, I really don’t remember being critical of the way newer stunters fly, but it is true that the looks of most of the newer ships don’t do a thing for me.  However, the Buccaneer has clean lines and looks better than most to me, especially in the air.  Sina’s is one of the best flying ships I’ve seen, so why not?  Maybe I can get it done before fall.  It would be fun to be able to paint it when I don’t have to rush and can take the time to really get the details right.

One last thought:  we need input from YOU, the members:

First: you’re ideas are what the club is built around.  You may not believe this but originally this club was heavily into Carrier. Combat followed closely, with Rat Racing (Goodyear didn’t exist then), scale, and stunt holding up the rear. In 45 years it has constantly changed to meet the members interests. Right now it’s mostly stunt and sport by default and the dictates of our flying site.  The fact that I fly stunt doesn’t mean the whole club has to do the same.  Just remember one thing: suggestions of “WHAT” need to be matched with “HOW” for best results.

Second: we need material for the Prop Wash. I’d like to start running monthly biographies of the members.  Fargo does that and it is an interesting part of their newsletter. Also, there’s always room for another “how to” article. Those work two ways, if you don’t have the answers, send the questions and we’ll find the answers for you! 

Third: should we be trying to do things like Mall shows, etc.? Again, the Fargo club does a great job at this and I’m sure that’s one of the factors in retaining their beautiful flying site.

Think about it!  See you on the 28th.

Jeff Welliver

Vice President's Column

How about this weather, folks? There is life after winter, after all. Ryan and I dropped by the field (in a pouring rain) on Saturday and the bright green grass was such a welcome sight. As usual, Bob has the place looking like a fine country estate. I am enormously grateful that he’s willing to do the work to keep the place nice.

Like every year, I want to remind everyone to get their planes down a day early and do that spring-cleaning. New fuel line, blow out the spray bar, clean or replace the fuel filter, new glow plug, tighten the bolts (and I replace doubtful elastic stop nuts-they are really meant for one time use), scrape last years rubber bands off the nose, check the clevises, etc. A trick I heard from Al Rabe on the Net is to frequently pull the motor and K2R the nose, to stop the slow seepage of oil into the wood. One reason some planes seem to last forever is in the maintenance.  If that ten-year-old wooden prop has a crushed hub, replace it and balance it, right? (Based on our past performance, I bought every 9-4 APC prop I could this winter, so we have enough to last one, maybe two flying sessions.) Check those old lines for kinks and breaks. If you use a cable style handle, be sure the cable is good-they can and do break. How is your fuel? Could it have water in it? Maybe it would make good weed killer, instead. Batteries charged?

One more lecture for the season, and then I’ll be quiet. That is to BE SAFE at the field. Most of the insurance claims to the AMA continue to be prop injuries. So be sure your props are in good condition, and secured firmly to the engine. Develop a starting routine and stick to it. Be sure that you and your launcher are on the same wavelength about who’s doing what. And be aware of who and what are around you. As always around airplanes, if anything seems not right, stop and correct it before it catches up with you. If you use a stooge, be extra, extra careful. I saw a good idea about stooges. If you poke a screwdriver in the ground and loop the safety thong around it, the plane will nose over if it gets away while you aren’t in a position to stop it.

Enough already! I’m excited about the new season, even if I am three months behind, as usual. By George, this will be the year of the outside square loop!

See you at the field!

Kelvin Heath

The Design Page

Greetings fellow Poppers.  I guess I’ve been on hiatus for a bit from these articles, and I don’t even have a very good excuse.  I seem to be distracted by a teaching job that somehow found me, and it’s been curbing my airplane activity.  Isn’t there someone out there who will pay us to build and fly model airplanes?  What a rip-off!

Anyway, I haven’t had any pressing topics to write about, but here’s something for all of us to think a bit harder about: Center of Gravity.

When the wing of my flying Candy Cane snapped off despite my efforts to strengthen the styrofoam wing roots, it got me to thinking about vertical CG (the one affecting roll).  When I cobbled together the Candy Cane, I ended up with a shoulder wing arrangement, but I knew there was a bit more weight below the wing than above it.  I should have cut some slots and moved that wing down further into the “fuselage”.  I knew that, but I also knew January 1st was the next day – keep the project moving dummy, it’s just for fun, right?

So, when that ton of bricks hit a brick wall of wind gust, the outer wing did a lot more climbing than the inboard.  Surprisingly, the Candy Cane didn’t really come in at me and there was still O.K. line tension, but the vertical CG problem started bending the plane in half since I had a set of lines keeping upward pressure on the inboard wing tip.  Consequently, SNAP!

I had used this same wing (with far less reinforcement at the root) for the flying snow shovel.  The snow shovel weighed quite a bit more than the Candy Cane, and it underwent even worse gyrations; the wing flexed under the weight, but it never broke.  Now the vertical CG on the shovel was much better balanced than the injection molded plastic tube of the Candy Cane, and while there are a lot of factors in all this, I’m pretty sure the vertical imbalance was largely responsible for the carnage.

LESSON?  If you do your own designing, try to get the vertical CG neutral.  A good way to test for this on a completed plane is to just hang the plane from its lead-outs.  If it’s perfect, the lead-outs would be centered (top to bottom) in their eyelet's.  That may be hard to tell, but you would probably notice if the plane hung visibly crooked when viewed from the nose or tail; if that’s the case, you’ve got a plane that’s considerably out of balance top to bottom.  One of the easiest cures for this might be to change the wheels – heavier or lighter – since they are projecting out quite a bit and will have the greatest leverage (effect) on the CG.  Guess what?  That’s going to change your pitch CG as well, not to mention yaw CG.

If you have any doubts about the importance of all this, consider how high-wingers or biplanes are set up for control line; the bellcrank is in the middle, and there are always those little wire lead-out guides well below the high-wing, and between the bipe wings.

But here’s one more cool thing to think about in terms of CG:  Consider how important CG is to yaw...  We tend to be fixated on issues of pitch – is it tail heavy or nose heavy.  I like mine a bit nose heavy because I set up my controls pretty touchy (ask Keith or Bert), that way the plane tends to go in the direction I put it (the rest is my fault).  Some, like Al, run them very tail heavy and they’re extremely jumpy.  But think about centrifugal (or centripetal) force for a minute.  We know it keeps our fuel pressed against the outside of the tank (even in overhead maneuvers), so what’s happening with the CG?

If your plane is nose heavy, the nose should be pulling harder out of the circle than the tail.  It seems to me that’s probably good; it’s about the same as running your lines back at the wing tip; which is about the same as increasing out-thrust on your engine; which is similar to putting some outward turn in your rudder.  All of these things improve line tension.

Why would I care about this?  I’ve got an older plane with poor line tension, fixed lead-outs, and not much to be done with the rudder or out-thrust.  It could stand a more powerful motor for one thing, but I’m beginning to think I should try drilling out a bit of its lead weight suppository to see what might happen.  I didn’t have a problem with the CG in terms of pitch, responsiveness, etc., but I’m curious how much line tension might benefit from added nose weight.

Such are my thoughts for this month.  Let’s see more of those home spun designs, so that the discoveries and suffering can be spread around a little.  And, it’s about time someone in this club put together a plane with a tuned pipe – good going Sina!  This should be a good opportunity to learn something about this technology first hand.  Sina, maybe you can share some info on a future Design Page.

Straighten Up and Fly Right!

Norman Andersen

Members Space

VSC- 2005

Well, its that time of year again.  Lush green grass, light winds, temps in the mid 80’s with very low humidity and the rainy season over.  NOT HERE, in TUCSON! And to add insult to injury, that was the second week of March. Add well over 100 stunt flyers and you have the Vintage Stunt Championships.

For those who might not know, VSC has three events, Classic for pre ‘1970 designs, Old Time for 1954 and back, and old time ignition, and to a great extent the contestants match the events.  Now in it’s 17^th year, VSC is as much a social event and reunion as a contest. Classic is by far the largest event of the three with 80 plus contestants, but old time comes up with a large draw also.   By the way, a flapless old time design called Humongous was 10^th in classic with flights of 520 and 523. 

One of the neat things about VSC is that while about a third of contestants are high-end flyers, including some of the worlds best, the rest are there to fly, watch and have a good time. Models range from showpieces to ARFs to very basic sport ships, with skill levels to match, and everyone welcomed and treated with respect. It’s not uncommon to see the worlds best flyers helping folks with very basic equipment. I witnessed a couple of times when the novices didn’t even realize they’d been helped by a top pro, until someone told them.

We arrived a few days early to allow for the Tempest being new and unflown. After checking in, I went right to the site and put the first flight on the new bird.  The Brodak 40 ran perfectly even though its last run was the crash last year at Fargo. The plane flew well but needed some tweaks. Several photographers made a point of getting pictures I’m sure in part due to my crash last year.

Toni and I spent that evening at a wonderful open house held by Keith Trostle. He is one of the real gentlemen of Model Aviation, and it was a great evening with the chance to renew many friendships.  Much of VSC is social and the culmination is the banquet Saturday night. Toni was barely able to move last year with the cracked kneecap, but this year she got to know many people and really felt like “one of the gang”.

After a morning at former Piston Popper Burt Brokaw’s home making the corrections and mod’s to the Tempest, it was back to the field. One flight to check run time and characteristics, then the third flight and all the others at Tucson were full patterns. #’S 13 & 15 were official at 489 and 494.5, while # 14 was the highlight of the week for me as Bart Klapinski, designer of the Tempest and ’67 Nats winner with the original, flew mine and did a great pattern. Bart hasn’t flown a Tempest in 15-20 years and was all smiles.  He is noted for taking anything with wings and making it look good.  A good sign of his skill is that he’s always a top flyer in old time, and does it with a K&B .19 powered Fleet Biplane! 

As always, appearance point judging for Classic took place in the grass courtyard of the Rodeway Inn.  Row after row of stunters is always an impressive sight. To me the most notable was Allen Brickhaus’s Trianic, a very unusual design which he flew to 9^th place. Way to go, Allen

We took the time Wednesday to go to the Pima Air Museum. This adjoins the Davis-Monathon air base, home of the A-10 “warthog”.  Hundreds of examples of military aircraft dating back to pre WWII days are on display. If you like full-scale aviation, this one is a must!

A week was set aside for the return trip and we did some great sightseeing. The whole area is full of neat things to see such as the Old Tucson film studio, the Painted desert & Petrified Forest, many aircraft museums, and the mountains and deserts themselves.  It’s a great vacation and a great Model Aviation event.  Anyway, what better than bailing out on Minnesota’s snowiest month?

Jeff Welliver

Our field clean-up day was being washed by mother nature. So after I waited at the field for rains to stop (which they didn’t) I went home confident in the fact nobody would come out in the rain. Wrong, Ivars showed up and proceeded to stomp through the tall grass picking up trash which filled a trash can. Thanks Ivars!

On Sunday the fog was very dense but I decided to head up to the field to at least get our fertilizer down. While I was there Jeff Lange showed up raked an island and scraped the weeds up from around the curbing. As flying time approached Jim Jorgensen became the next victim to rake an island. So now there are two more islands to do, and for a newsletter thank you let me know who you are when you do them.

Also be sure to thank the above mentioned people as you meet them for helping keep our field one of the best in the upper Midwest.

Bob