Radio Control: Sport and Aerobatics
MANY of you are aware that I did not exactly welcome Turnaround Pattern. The reasons are complex, but my resistance was mainly a reaction to what appeared to be an attempt by a few individuals to cram something down our throats, whether we wanted it or not. It was like, "Eat your vegetables, they're good for you!" That apparent attitude by Turnaround promoters was resented by many of us and caused hard feelings for years regarding the event. Years have softened the edges of my feelings about Turnaround. I can think and talk about Turnaround now without getting all riled up. I even attend and compete in an all-Turnaround contest once a year in Jackson, MS.
Radio Control: Sport and Aerobatics
FIRST I want to rectify an error. In my August 1988 column I discussed how to determine the center-of-gravity of a canard (tail-first) airplane. I noted that the sign of the term involving the tail length had to be changed, and it should be multiplied by two when converting the equation from a tail-last equation to a canard equation. Unfortunately, when the canard equation appeared in the August column, the "2" multiplier was missing. It's really necessary to get that canard center-of-gravity equation printed correctly. It appears below as Equation 4.a.
Radio Control: Sport and Aerobatics
WHAT'S all this fuss about noise? Just about every issue of Model Aviation has something about reducing aircraft noise. Competition Pattern fliers are under increasing pressure to reduce the noise of their aircraft. It wasn't too long ago that most Pattern aircraft had noise levels around 110 dB. Now, almost nobody has a problem meeting the FAI's F3A class 98-dB noise requirement. At the recent World Championships one Pattern flier had a noise level under 88 dB! The difference between 110 dB and 88 dB is enormous. If I remember the equation for dB correctly, a 6-dB decrease is a 50% reduction in sound pressure level. So, the sound pressure level at 88 dB is only about 8% of what it is at 110 dB. That's major improvement! Pattern fliers seem to have the noise problem licked. So we're in good shape, right? Well, we're not in as good a shape as you might think.
Radio Control: Sport and Aerobatics
Oops! In the June issue I requested that readers let me know the name of a reliable YS engine parts source. Right after the issue came out I ran into Radio South's Tony Stiliman at a contest. Tony told me that he had a bone to pick with me about the YS parts source request. When I asked why, he asked me if I remembered where I'd gotten a YS sleeve and piston combination about eight months ago. Well, I did remember right then (but not when I wrote the column). I'd gotten the YS parts from him at Radio South (9003 N. Davis Highway, Pensacola, FL 32514; phone 1-904/478 6745). Tony told me that he keeps a good stock of YS parts on hand, ready to ship. When you've written a column for as long as I have, you cover a wide range of topics, and you don't want to go over a topic again without good reason. One reason for a recurring topic is if it is controversial - such as the downwind turn that I've used in many columns. The biplane-versus-monoplane issue in Pattern competition may end up that way, too.
Radio Control: Sport and Aerobatics
AN UPDATE on the "toad." You may remember that, in the April issue, I wrote about Paul Verger's attempts to "detoad" an unsatisfactory airplane by using all the magic of a Futaba 1024. Paul didn't end up with a prince-he had a toad on life support. Well, Paul called to report a breakthrough. It seems that when Nat Penton (deQuincy, LA) heard about the struggle to detoad the airplane, he called to offer his services. Paul Verger has popularized Nat's reputation as a high priest of voodoo aerodynamics in his column in the K-Factor. (Remember? That's the newsletter of the NSRCA.) Anyway, Nat figured that this problem was right up his alley. He listened to the symptoms and said he'd get back with the detoading team of Paul, Mike Hayden, and Jim Fife.
