Radio Control: Electrics
ANOTHER Electric event: The Model Airplane Club of Huntsville, AL is including an Electric event in its Heart of Dixie Free Flight Championships scheduled for September 28-29, 1985. This meet looks like a biggie-there are 17 other events! For more information, contact Ray Baker, 701 Esslinger Rd., Huntsville, AL 35802; telephone (205) 881-9043. My thanks to George Batiuk for this info. Tell Ray ya read it in MA! Continuing popularity. The easily-constructed charge systems presented in the May and June issues (1985) continue to bring in mail. It seems that many readers were just waiting for this sort of article to appear! Anyway, a question of continuing interest concerns the use of a standard charger as part of the system: it is used only as a convenient way to provide the time-switch and metering functions. YES: if you want to use a separate timer and/or meter (and know what you're doing), please feel free to!
Radio Control: Electrics
CHARGE! Even the "lowly" charger can benefit from some tender loving care (TLC). Here are some tips. Almost all chargers on the market come equipped with a 15-minute time switch. This timer is a clockwork mechanism and is generally very reliable. In operation, the user rotates the timer knob back to the start position. When the knob is first moved by hand, a set of internal electrical contacts is closed. These are connected in series with the charge circuit, and thus the charge current begins to flow with the first turn of the knob. Then, when the 15 minutes has elapsed and the knob returns to zero: the contacts open, and the charge current is terminated. It's all very simple and straightforward, and foolproof-almost.
Radio Control: Electrics
ELECTRIC ACTIVITIES. This summer is distinctly different from all summers past. Folks in and around this part of the East have the opportunity to visit and participate in several organized Electric events this year, and that's different! The KRC Electric Fly is no longer "the only game in town!" Let's take a brief look at two such meets just past. SAM 76 Electric event. It is two weeks since the annual SAM 76 Old-Timer meet in Hatfield, PA where this year that group ran a first-ever Electric event along with their regular O-T gas categories. July 14 was very hot, and very windy, and the latter did tend, I think, to reduce the total amount of flying-there were several Electric and gas planes that were not brought out of the cars that day.
Radio Control: Electrics
SUCCESS! The Sixth Annual KRC Electric Fly was held on September 21 and 22, 1985, at the Keystone RC Club Flying Field about 30 miles north of Philadelphia in Hatfield, PA. This event has been growing steadily since 1980, and this year drew 54 guest fliers on Saturday and 41 on Sunday for a total of 95 registrations for both days-not counting KRC members! Attendance at this year's event represented 23 states and Canada, with visitors from as far as California. In effect, almost half the nation was represented! The weekend weather was once again nearly perfect-comfortably warm with very gentle breezes throughout both days. There was plenty of thermal activity for those interested, and the skies were always very busy.
Radio Control: Electrics
MORE ELECTRIC ACTIVITY. The Daniel Boone Silent Fliers meet is an annual 2-Meter RC Soaring contest and was held on Saturday, and Sunday, September 28 and 29, 1985 on the Daniel Boone Homestead near Pottstown, PA. Why mention this in an Electric column? Because this year, there was something more than 2-Meter Soaring going on-there was Electric going on, too! CD Jerry Zeigenfuse explained to me that there is a growing interest in Electric among Soaring enthusiasts, and a growing interest in getting away from some of the unpleasantness of always having to haul out the winch systems. So, a trial Electric event was included in 1985's activity.
