Free Flight: Duration
SOGGY STABS: Flying in the rain is not my idea of fun. I doubt that anyone really enjoys getting soaked through-and-through while having to deal with wet equipment, slippery models, and trim changes. But the rain falls equally on everyone at the contest, so we muddle through. At the last team selection finals, held at Palm Bay, Florida, it rained most of the first day, when I was flying Wakefield (FIB). Experience had taught me that the extra weight of raindrops on the tail will cause the center of gravity (CG) to shift to the rear. If it shifts far enough, the model will stall.
Free Flight: Duration
LOCKED UP POWER: With all of the proposals being discussed for a new Slow Open Power event (SLOP), it might be useful to take a look at some of the ways that a power model can be controlled without the use of timer-actuated auto surfaces. But first, a quick refresher course on the basic problem. Lift increases the faster a model goes. Lift is a good thing, so wouldn't more lift be even better? Not if it's going to cause the model to loop. The tendency of a model to loop (or at least nose up excessively) as its speed increases can be counteracted in several ways:
Free Flight Duration
THE 1999 FREE FLIGHT World Championships will be held August 24-31 in Beer Sheba, Israel. The United States will be represented by Brian Van Nest, Jim Parker, and Steve Spence in F1A towline glider; by John Sessurns, Bob Piserchio, and Vladi Andriukov in F1B Wakefield rubber power; and by Faust Parker, Ron McBumett, and Ed Keck in F1C power. Team manager will be George Batiuk Jr.; assistant manager is Blake Jensen. Texan Steve Spence will be representing the US for the first time at this World Championships. But he is not the first Spence to make the team. His dad Henry was on the Power team in the 1960s and 1970s, and made it to the flyoffs at the last finals.
Free Flight: Duration
GROOVY TUNA: Bob White sent along some photos of 16-year-old Evan Davis of Albuquerque flying his dad Jon's Groovy Tuna Wakefield. Surely these couldn't be the same models that Jon flew as a member of the US team at the 1975 World Championships in Bulgaria; they must be new models built from the old plans. To find out, I sent an E-mail to Jon. Here's the reply: "Yes, indeed it is one of the original Groovy Tunas from the 1975 WC. My box of three models from Bulgaria has sat untouched for many years, and other than time and age, they look just like they did then. The tissue has, of course, become very brittle, so there were patches all over; but it still flew reasonably well. The prop that was on it was not the original, and was too much prop for 35 grams, so I have put a new one on it. After the last contest at Lost Hills we have stripped and recovered the model.
Free Flight: Duration
PRIMA KIT: As models-especially the ones intended for the international FAI events-have become more complicated, there has been a growing need for kits that would introduce the less-experienced builder to the newer, high-tech construction materials and techniques. Of course, that can easily be done in the FAI events by furnishing complete, ready-to-fly models. But the cost-often upward of $1,000-can be an impediment. And many modelers want to experience the pleasures of building, as well as flying. Developing a kit that offers ease of construction, high-tech components, and reasonable flying ability is not easy. Doing it at a low price is very, very difficult.
