Next Meeting is this Saturday, Ocotber 9th, Bookland at 9:30

July 7 Meeting Minutes

Members Present:
Mike Farnsworth, Larry Smith

Treasures Report: None.

Secretaries Report: None

Library: No Change

New Business: None conducted as no members were present.  

Old Business: None

August 7 Meeting Minutes

Members Present:
Mike Farnsworth, Larry Smith

Treasures Report:None.

Secretaries Report:None

Library: No Change

New Business:None conducted as no members were present. Several members were attending the Charles River Contest.  

Old Business:None

Is Anybody seeing a pattern here?

 

Sept 4 Meeting Minutes

Members Present:
Mike Farnsworth, Larry Smith, Ken MacDonald, Glen Collins

Treasures Report:
Ken reported that the club treasury balence was $1415.68

Secretaries Report:
No correspondance

Library:
No Change

New Business:

Meeting Location

Members discussed the lack of participation in the meetings being held at Clark Cove. The weather for  July, August, and September meetings  precluded sloping there. Those present agreed that members were not likely to drive the extra twenty minutes down to Harpswell if the weather was uncooperative. We have had many great meetings in the past where we got to eat and fly. This year, however, things just did not seem to work out. A motion was passed to hold our summer meetings at Bookland and not at Clark Cove to try to get more participation in the meetings. Members can always bring airplanes to fly for the given conditions. In the event of rain, we should be able to draw enough members to hold a business meeting. 

Old Business

Slope Combat Contest

The CD (Mike Farnsworth) of the epic Slope Combat Contest made a motion to end the contest with out completing the remaining rounds. The prises for the contest, items such as CA and batteries, will go bad if they are not given away soon. The motion passed. For those who can remeber back that far, this contest began in January of 2003. It is now almost 2005. Is this the longest running contest in history? It sure feels like it! Here is the loot: (2) electric/combat foamies, 2 sets of (8) 1500 mah AA cells, (2) prepaid DSC membership certificates, (6) bottles of various CA. Plaques and prizes will be distributed at the October meeting. All I have to do is blow the dust of them.

Here are the contest results as posted on the forum:

Combat Wing:
1st Mike F
2nd Michael M
3rd Glen Collins (if he pays the contest fee)
4th Jim A
5th Jeff C

Warbird:
1st Mike F
2nd Larry S
3rd Jim A
4th Jay W

Prizes will be distributed by contestants choice with the winner choosing first, then second, and so on. If you can not attend the next meeting, please email the CD with your order of choices for each division that you entered. The CD will use your preferences to pick your prize when your turn comes up.

Competition

Allan Wright took first in Sportsman class at the Charles River Contest. Congratulations Allan on a job well done.  Mark Drelea took first in Expert with some amazing use of the parking lot thermals. Pictures of the contest have been posted by Michael Moore at http://www.pbase.com/mdm/crrc_0704 . Michael Moore won the transmitter launching contest. Remarkably, he was able to catch up to the transmitter and land the airplane without damage.

Mike Farnsworth won the DSC handlaunch contest. Jim Armstrong finished second, Michael Moore finshed 3rd, with Bob Buxton rounding out the field in fourth. We had great weather for the event. Many thanks to Rick Hallett for being the event chef. We ate well thanks to Rick. We had hambergurs, hotdogs, and fresh Corn on the Cob (cooked on the grill in the husk). Mike gets to hold the HLG perpetual trophy for another year. Jeff Carr was last years winner. The club will ensure that his name is added to the trophy.

Michael Moore has posted pictures here and created a "movie". The movie is 2 MB and can be downloaded here . Rick took great pics with Michaels camera. Thanks Rick and Michael for all of the imagry.

The only causualty during the HLG event was the loss of the field for future use. We had asked permission to use it the Saturday before. I explaned that we were flying thermal gliders on that day and that next Saturday we would have a contest with Handlaunch gliders. I gave an explanation of each to the owners wife. She gave us permission to do so. On the day of the contest, the owner asked us what we were doing on his property. He went back and spoke with his wife. She was adamant that we did not ask permission to fly there on Saturday. He rerturned and allowed us to use the field for the rest of day but said that we could not use the field again. I am not sure what we could have done differently other than get signatures on paper. 

New Airplanes

Michael Moore puchased an XP3 from Mark Drela. Michael was impressed with many new DLG building ideas. Simple and Light weight. Notice the stream lining on the alieron servo arms! Every little bit helps with launch hieght. Here are the pics:




Knots

Michael Moore sent this information to me. Here it is for all to share. Thanks Michael!

 From a kite site: http://www.geospectra.net/kite/knots/knots.htm Info on knots, joining two lines, tying to rings. Most interesting: Strength -- This refers to how a knot weakens the breaking strength of the line. The twists, loops, and turns of a knot place unequal stress on the line which reduces the line's breaking strength. In general, knots reduce a line's breaking strength by about 50% (Jacobson 1999). Knots in which the line "bends" back on itself are weaker in general than are knots without bends. For example, the clove hitch (with no bends) has a breaking strength about 75% of the line's rated strength. In contrast, the square knot has a breaking strength only 45% of the rated line strength.

The strongest is the blood knot, study here:

 http://www.physics.helsinki.fi/~galambos/knot/test.html

http://www.marinews.com/fishing/Knots%20&%20Rigging/fk_bloodk.htm

The fishermans knot: http://www.troop7.org/Knots/Fisherman.html The easy square knot is the worse (ok, the granny is THE worse) and my favorate, the bowline is not so great.

Other populat knots: http://www.troop7.org/Knots/

And now for the best way to tie monofilament: Take the outside of parachute chord and run the mono through it. Tie any old regular knot. It will hold and not break. The parachute chord sheath prevents sharp bend whild prividing amazing gripping power on the mono. Dont leave home without it!

New Editions

Congratulations to Jim Armstrong on the birth of his first grand child. Here is Jim's note to me:

Our first granchild was born Wednesday,i.e., Katie Lyn Armstrong, 7lb 2oz and 20 inches (a keeper (grin)) 

Ricks Edition of the Newsletter

In reply to Jeff Carr asking "Newsletter, do we have one?" Rick published this little Gem. Here it is all of its unabridged glory:

First note carefully. Add salt. This short bit of news is from someone that distort things to fit the bias of the moment. How does that go. Stay upwind. Well as news goes it all seems to be through the grapevine. So the "Carr" family were very fortunate to be able to attain legal support of "Lana" and were quickly gone with their house selling dramatically in the first stay - so rumor has it.

 But the rest of us stayed behind. My son says "never again in Maine in the winter. Too cold" But he came to help his sister build a room in her new house before they moved in.

Well we had a couple of club events this summer. I did not go to any lobster feasts. I tried once but it did not pan out. So I do not know if any of them " came off" this summer or not.

Our two events were well supported by the camera of MDM and the pictures are on his page. Of course counting each picture as the proverbial "thousand words:" a lot has been said.

Now at the hand launch contest what could you say I learned. With Jim MDM Mike and Bob flying we can say thermal action was slim. Bob flew his which he got fresh from the last contest and started flying again. Nothing like practicing at the contest. Nevertheless he managed to hook a couple of thermals. I expected from previous experience to see one of four get away almost every launch but it did not happen. At the end of the flying we were all goofing around and by this time I had my Bubble Dancer out on half winch line length ( a piece of line left after cutting two lengths from the 1000m hank you get when you buy) Mike Farnsworth hollered that I should be where he was. So I dashed back to the winch launched and went looking but he was on the ground. I got 7 minutes out of that thermal. It was very easy to do. I launched into the thermal and just followed it sideways to where I remembered Mike being but he was not there by then. Anyway in spit eof my klutziness I did get a good time and was satisfied to wrap and go home. Probably the big thing from the contest after expressing this disappointment was learning to cook corn on the husk on the grill. Just fill it with water and put it on the grill on a low heat. If any one smells popcorn we should have turned it. Meanwhile back to flying.

Now the next time we got together at Ken's field we had a seminar on launching by Dennis Phelan. This was a "should have been there" To sum it up maximum pull before you throw.. But using the calibrated F3B winch you typically stood on it till the chute was almost to the turnaround. So when you see you are not going any higher you zoom off. "How high" "1000 feet" approximately. This was no jest, the glider was tiny at the end of the launch. A ten minute glide should be quite easy from that height. Well the wind was coming from the left. So you build pressure till the winch stops then you throw and maintain the same pressure. Go violently sideways parallel to the ground to the right about twenty feet high retching the winch as you go. When you are straight on to the wind you turn up and zoom off under extreme pressure. Results - spectacular. Guess what - "practice" Keeps you thin too. MDM said that later he made a trip to the 180 degrees to the starting point not just 90. Then finally a circle on the way up. But I missed both of those. I must say it is one thing to read about this and it is quite different to see it in real life now to practice and do it.

Michael Bob Buxton and I made two trips to the CRRC club . Bob and Michel did very well the first time. Second time we did not do quite as well. I went a long for moral support. This allowed them to beat one more person.

Progress yes. We had the opportunity to see Mark Drela fly his planes. Well in the RES contest I found I could launch almost as high but for one flaw. At the end after all the gained altitude the model would tuck. Second contest we saw Mark fly his Supra. Now the Supra used a different layout for the stab. With the new stab and vmount precisely drilled for the hinge pin I got things really tightened up. When we went for the launch practice we did not see flutter , the new setup hung together. It seems as though I had managed to get everything together against myself. I had removed too much epoxy in the lay-up. I had nicked much of the strengthening outer layer of the boom as I took the sharp corners off by sanding. I accidentally used the wrong size drill for the vmount holes so they could move slightly. I tried a pushrod in steel and that would work if the steel was large enough. Anyway with a new fuse now made with a longer pod for the Bubble Dancer and longer yet for the Supra type wing we now have winners I hope. So come this fall contest I hope to emerge a little higher up the ranks. It is fun again to be able to lean on the winch and zoom again. I did make the Bubble Dancer one layer again but the Aegea type fuselage I made the boom with two layer. The carbon is uni carbon off the West System roll 3 inches wide and fifty feet long weighing approximately 11 ounces per square yard with a nominal thickness of .015.

In the casual conversation with Dennis he made the observation that when he goes flying with his two winches he has the habit of making one color always the left winch. That way when they are returned you know which goes with which winch. Now since most of us do not own two the time this would become smart would be in a contest line up. The other aside was the breaking of the stabs. In this type of launch they always break down because the tremendous load is down during this kind of launch. That means that the long carbon should be on the bottom not on the top. I will correct that next time.

Now you have all been aware of some of the shenanigans that we have gone through for the recovery. You have seen winter swimming sand pile sliding and sandpile fishing, You have even seen sandpile fishing in the trees. Successfully at that even. Then there has been the whirling rock and the thrown rock . the plank climb the gutter pipe chimney and the plastic pipe stick. But you probably have not seen the slingshot trials. I managed to make a last pass this side of the tree but it lodged and sat in the very top of the highest. Next day it slid sideways and got itself into a good notch. I could shoot the projectile quite precisely to where I wanted it. But nine out of ten times it would stop instantly just before it got there with drag on the reel. I had to carefully unload the reel and put new line on it under a measured pressure so it would pay out properly again. The problem that you face is that you grab and start pulling and bunch the line on the spool then the next time it will not feed smoothly, But for the very small amount I paid for it at Wal-Mart and with the cheap reel it has served well. The ability is greatly enhanced with the spider wire line. But once you have a line over your glider you should let the line feed down then put the real heavy monofilament on it. Then you can pull the tree down if you have to. We ended up breaking the glider fuselage in two before we got it out of the tree. Wing had no damage but I had to instant glue the fuselage together again . I then put another heavy layer of glass on the outside.

I only wanted a few more nights till I finished the new fuselage. So get yourself a slingshot out of the sporting section and a cheap spinning reel so you will be ready for the next episode. Unfortunately I usually forget to bring it with me., I did buy a heavy spinning outfit this year at Marden's because of watching Jim . Unfortunately I am not the expert Jim is. I quickly abandoned that method of retrieval. I might be able to cast out but I could not do it up without a lot more practice.

1.4mm monofilament line. Michael and I came to the conclusion that generally it is too stiff for most use. It is very difficult to keep on your drum it always wants to uncurl. It is very easy to get snarls many layers deep because it likes to unwind like a big spring. The 1.2 mm at 150# is quite different. Fortunately the rats nests are much fewer with this smaller size. So I reloaded my F3B winch recently completed with this line and sent the cut length to MDM and then loaded the remaining 200m on my tiny winch for use possibly at the BAM field during the winter as we did I think two winters ago. Now lets see. You turn on the launch mode . Step on the pedal with the foot opposite your launching hand. Hold till your arm just about breaks . Then you overhand from the position where the tail had been on the ground. Now there is no dance. You just keep your foot on the pedal and try to remember to change the launch mode to the all out race mode before you get to the zoom. Don't forget to hit the timer at the top. Now that you are up there. you can smile smugly and say "piece of cake".

Grapevine said Larry had a heart attack and repair job done at the hospital to an artery or something.

I have my boots ready for the fall contest.

Rick