Phil's SCSA Newsletter
10/12/2007

News items to phill@scsa.org.uk

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Editor
We are not receiving many articles for the newsletter, it looks likely that it will not survive in its present form, the last article to be submitted was by Bryan in October. Perhaps this reflects the general lack of interest in flying models. Thursday 29th November was perfect for flying, warm, sunny and good lift on Selsley, but there were only three flyers.
It seems most people are busy or taken up other interests, our membership suggests many people still take an interest in flying but don't get round to doing it. 
At the AGM  we must have a think about where the club is going now that most members don't fly; there was a brief interest in park flyers but this has disappeared with only me and Mike turning up at the indoor session at Gloucester.

No articles or model reviews have been  received for the club web site this year and although most of you own digital cameras only a handful  of people have submitted photos for publication. Mike is again updating the club web site, I still have access for minor updates
Thanks to those who have sent in items over the last year

There will be no news letter next week I will be away for a while


Trying to fly indoors has giving me an interest in learning to fly power, I find it a challenge to use my left thumb after years of flying one handed. Many power flying maneuvers are tricky like going from inverted spin to high Alpha, the one roll rolling circle is also hard.
I have decided to join Gloucester MFC and hope to receive training for the A and B test 

 

Video clips
We have a problem with videos on our club site, we only have 1Gbyte of bandwidth and this is quickly used up.
Broadband allows us to watch full screen streaming movies, I have been looking for a free host for these.
Try the link below on Stage6 , the clips are compressed using the DivX codecs and you need to install a small program to watch them. Youtube reduces the resolution and changes them to Flash. I would like to find somewhere to load Windows WMV which is more universal

 

 
If you are not able to see the movie clip download this free viewer for DivX
 

     The  Annual General Meeting of the South Cotswold Soaring Association which will be held in the Bear Hotel at Rodborough on


 
WEDNESDAY 12th DECEMBER 2007 at 8:00pm.  

followed by a quiz

 Membership will be taken on This evening

 


Barcs open letter click link to read  http://barcs.f3b.co.uk/0-PDFs/openletter.pdf 

I have a Pik 20 ¼ scale glider kit for sale it's wingspan is 3.75m £150 this is the last one I also have a spare fuz I will give with it  Tel 01452 714701

John Williams

 

  • The clear display shows the voltage on its 3 digit LCD screen and allows you to probe up to 2 & 3 cells on your battery pack at any one time.
  • Size: 40mm x 30mm x 9.5mm (1.6 x 1.1 x 0.4'')
  • Weight: ~8g
  • Input Voltage:4-13V/DC
  • LED Voltage: Individual Display of Voltage one cell by one
  • Empty Voltage : 3.70V/cell
  • Full Voltage : 4.20V/cell

I bought one of these Li-poly voltage checkers off Ebay , at first I was confused by the readings, 401. 40.2 and 4.05. After checking with a volt meter I found the first reading is cell one, decimal point to the right, the 40.2 is for cell two. The photo is showing the voltage of cell two (white and yellow wires)
I am not sure about the 3.7V being an empty cell, I thought that was nominal voltage and 3 V exhausted

on sale here from ebay at about £5

R/C equipment -> Servos7712105 

SUPER MICRO (6.0g SERVO (S6 EnErG) 

  • Type - 6g micro high performance
  • Voltage - 4.8 - 5.3V
  • Size - 10x24x19mm
  • Weight - 6g
  • Speed (Sec/60`) - 0.10
  • Torque - .kg-cm 0.9kg

For sale  £8.00 for two, SRP £7.99 each , Bought for indoor  4oz model project but too heavy, I used 3gram servos
Phil

Tel 01453 826164

 

Indoor Flying at Bristol  Grammar School  post code BS8 1SR map
 starts 21st September 8-30 to 10PM every week with one missing, please check


Also AMRC  Indoor Flying at Bristol  Grammar School 
 The last session of 2007 will be 14th DECBMFA event list for December 

We restart Friday Jan 4th 2008 for a 10 week run.  Be there

  http://www.bmfa.org/events/ev_dec.html 

 


 

Mike the web has given me a CD with FMS Flight sim scenery and model files.
The photo is a screen capture of a light shockie flying in a stadium, this flies like my 3mm depron Yak, or rather crashes like it
I will bring it to the AGM if you want to copy the files, lots of models and three indoor venues.

 Selsley on Friday 

After a gruesome week, Friday afternoon produced a strong 20 mph WNW at Selsley. Len, Alan, Andy D and Guy braved the cold air to enjoy some superb soaring. Alan flew his Phase 6 look alike, Andy his Aliaj, Len his Discus and Guy both Prodij and Miraj. The lift was awesome and surprisingly smooth.  

Andy managed to decapitate an extra large cow turd on landing, much to our amusement but Len was less fortunate, to suffer an intermittent transmitter failure with his Mpx Cockpit, resulting in some fuselage and tail damage to his Discus. 

We decided to run for home as dusk was falling and a squall could be seen heading towards us from the Severn. A wise choice as the rain drops started to fall as we reached our cars, a well worthwhile if short winter outing. The weekend, to come, looks as though it will be a another washout.
Guy

A good session at Chosen Hill school on Saturday, CB has mastered the stable prop hang and tight spinning, I appear to have not grasped basic safe flying.
Mike came with another Extra, this time with a flexible under carriage. Steve had two new models but flew with great caution, not flying one of them. I finally managed a couple indoor one roll rolling circle, but only when no one was looking. The Holy Cow has turned into a raging Bull with the addition of a 200 watt motor, be very afraid 
There are some photos at http://www.ebley.plus.com/limbo/?M=D and  a video in DivX at http://www.stage6.com/  and on Youtube at lower resolution http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4d8pvO-gfGs  .  I have just strung the clips together without editing, no music, just me and the motors wining.  Chris will post the report on the Gloucester club  blog. at http://www.glos-mfc.co.uk/  later
This event will now be weekly, Saturdays at Chosen Hill School Churchdown 6.00 till 8.00PM 

My Mini IFO

CB's home brew bi-plane

Sunday

Sunday 8th December I went to Haresfield for about 8:00am , the wind was measured at 37mph on the small slope but I reckoned it was more
South Westerly than Haresfield. I called Pete Wolf and  we met at Frocester. We just about got our coats on and models out when the
rain started so we got in my car to sit it out. Paul Jewell soon arrived and we all 3 piled into his smart Peugeot people carrier and
enthused about all the electronic gadgets that it had. The rain continued and absolutely hammered down for 75 minutes. So about 9:30 we ventured to the slope and took the 2 posing photos before any more rain came. Note the photo with me & Pete - looks like Pete is in a cloud - that was a rain drop on my lens - smart effect!

 The wind was in the 25+mph region, Pete flew his Sambal 60 inch pylon racer - you all must know the one - when he flips the ailerons up for brakes it screeches like a banshee. There is a photo of him flying it. The lift was very bumpy with the occasional bit of South wind getting into the equation.
Paul flew his Zaggi and made several landing on top of the slope at his feet - pretty smart. I flew my WingBat   and had a couple of good flight with my Zipper but broke an aileron horn on landing.

 I eventually got my old Graffiti flying and had 10 very good minutes
before a shower called for me to land. It seemed very slow to react on the final few metres of approach and when I checked it out the 4
wing servos moved very slowly - the elevator and rudder (V-tail) worked at full speed - so I decided to check it when I got home. I
checked the battery on an all moving 6 servo load (option on Futaba FF9 servo test menu) and the voltage dropped to 3.6 volts. I had a
cell gone down. It was surprising about the servos, the 2 working normally were the old fullsize Futaba 3001s, the wing servos were
Graupner C341 minis which although they are rated at 4.8 Volts certainly objected to 3.6 volts. The battery pack is now in my
recycling bin and I will get a new one this week. I think the more sensible flyers came out later when the weather had brightened up but I bet they missed the best of the wind and the lift.
Bryan

Sunday p.m. Selsley 15+ mph WNW another superb session but only Andy D, Christine D and Guy. Where are all the SCSA slope soarers?  You can’t all have been out in the morning, it was raining! (Wasn’t it?) AJ, PJ, MJ and a Zagi, all had a good time in the booming lift. Wrap up warm and come flying…..

Guy  

 


For more photos go to  http://www.scsa.org.uk/photos/phil/photopage.htm the pages have been added to since last week