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Weather: Overcast, about 13degC, with a stiff South wind
Only Nigel and Joe Mycock and me today - and then we stayed less than a couple of hours. I guess the low numbers were partly due to it being Sandown weekend. Flying was OK, but with a southerly wind coming down the slope on the south side of the field, and over a few trees as well, made the conditions a little bumpy.
Nigel's machines are always impeccably turned out - here is a good example of tidy wiring on Nigel's Millennium (right)!
We did have a new member come down - Roger Santon. After I had checked out his newly built Raptor and given it a quick test fly, Roger gathered up his courage and thought he would give it a go. All was going well until Roger decided that he ought to have the heli pointing into the wind. Unfortunately, this meant that he almost got to the point of a full nose in hover and the inevitable happened - loss of orientation and a tip over. Subsequently Roger has informed me that only Blades, Feathering Spindle and Fly Bar needed to be replaced.
Weather: Overcast, about 14degC, with a stiff South wind
Only me today - a very strange sensation. Actually a potential new member came down later and eventually Mike Vinsun. I spent about an hour checking out the new Raptor and other than all controls being reversed it wasn't too bad. However, after a full check-up I still couldn't get any fuel through to the engine - so it was time to suggest that the new owner take out the engine and give the carb a check-over.
I did manage to overcome a fear that has been plaguing me for a while. A couple of years ago I was practicing loops when the Brain decided to take over, rather than let "muscle memory" (as I believe it's called) keep control. Brain decided that the way to exit a loop was left hand down, right hand up - of course the outcome was no throttle straight down, and in! Surprisingly the damage wasn't that bad (tough beasties these Raptors). However the upshot was that I couldn't build the confidence to do a loop again - the odd (scrappy) roll, not too much of a problem. However, a loop? No way! So taking courage in hand it was "let's give it a go". In fact all was well. Brain had learnt its lesson (this time) and stayed out of the process - other than to admire the form of the loop and congratulate itself on overcoming its fear
Hopefully there will be a few more down next week!.
Weather: Overcast, about 14degC, with a moderate South wind, Several Rain Showers
Us modeller's always find something that isn't right. Its either too cold (fingers freeze up) or too hot (Engine settings all go to pot), or its too windy (heli's all over the place) or too calm (no wind assistance in lengthening those autos), or its too bright (now where did I put my sunglasses) or too dull (the heli disappears against a grey sky). Well this week the grass has grown too long (funny we don't complain about it being too short though - of course, it could be too muddy!). So first thing its out with the Strimmer! Two squares later we are ready for the off.
It must be that I
get to the field too early... Once again I thought it was going to be only
me flying.
However, after a while the usual crowd began to turn up. First out was Andy
Harrison shortly followed by SP. Andy had his X-Cell Fury Extreme out to
play. As with Nigel's machines I mentioned and showed last week, this is
another modeller who likes to have a tidy and clean machine (see right).
Andy,
with SP's help, was working on getting his head speed right (see left). Last
year the club bought itself a Miniature Aircraft Tacho (see right) and we
used this to check it out. Initially I think
the readings were something like 1440rpm Normal mode in the Hover and 1510
in Idle up 1. At these settings Andy was suffering from a shimmy of the
skids in Normal mode, but no sign of it in Idle up 1. So raising the
settings to 1500rpm in the Normal mode cured it.
Last to the field
(at least before I left) was our Chairman, Rob Barclay. Now from the outset
Rob has been a staunch "one
helicopter" man! Although he was put under a lot of pressure to buy a
second, cheaper to repair, heli (mostly by me it has to be said), he has
steadfastly stuck to his trusty (and often repaired!) Futura SE. However,
after one more crash (more of which in a moment) he finally succumbed and is
now the proud father of a Raptor 50 (see right). Rob has kindly offered to
provide Journal of his "Raptor" excursion. I was expecting a few words, but
it has grown to more than that and deserves a section of its own (Rob's
Raptor Journal).
Also Rob kindly said that I can put in print the cause of his most recent crash of the Futura as a salutary lesson to others:
As is usual before a day's flying Rob put his Futura on charge and went to bed. The next day it was off to the Chelford flying field. After a quick check it was start up and off. As soon as the heli was in the air it was all over the place; every which way including upside down! A new member who was in attendance appeared extremely impressed at Robs flying abilities! However, such manoeuvres were well outside his normal repertoire! Fortunately, and some how, Rob got the heli down with only limited damage to the tail boom and a stripped gear. On retrieval everything appeared in order. Removing the cowl showed nothing obvious either - until Rob noticed the battery was flat as a pancake! A bit of a surprise as the heli had been on charge all night. Or had it? As it turned out, during the night the mains power had gone off which meant the charger had stopped charging.
The moral of this story is: ALWAYS do ALL pre-flight checks. As someone once said to me "Don't assume anything, It makes an ASS out of U and ME!"
Weather: Overcast, about 15degC, with a moderate North Westerly wind
A good day today. The rain held off - indeed it started to brighten up by the end of the morning.
I
have quite a few photos today. First up is the old lady of my fleet; my TSK
MyStar46 (see left). As you probably know TSK are no longer trading, though
I think spares are still available (check out
http://users.breathemail.net/tskuk/), which is a great shame as they are
really well designed/built machines. They are (were!) all metal helis and
fully ball-raced. At one time they had a reputation for being expensive,
because of their quality, but in fact they were no more expansive than any
of the other heli kits around at the time. (Photo by my
friend and colleague Paul Ward)
Rob Barclay had painted his new Raptor 50 (of Rob's Raptor Journal fame) (see left). As ever, Rob's colour schemes are on the "visible" side! Rob has his family motto emblazoned on his machine (see right). Apparently it means "Either Action or Death" - and in Rob's case it's usually the latter (at least for his heli!).
SP
had brought down his X-Cell Fury Expert with one of the new OS90C installed
(see right). However, before he had a
chance to fly he spent half an hour
sorting out the Raptor 30 of out latest new member; Peter Crossley. A few
weeks ago I had spent quite a while sorting out some basic stuff (all the
servos were operating the wrong way), but I couldn't get the engine to run.
SP did
some more setup work, including getting the gyro in a better location and in
the correct orientation, and then set to on the engine. It turned out that
the Idle needle was set up wrong (from the factory- so don't believe
necessarily that "Ready to Fly" means precisely that!). SP gave me the tip
that for most engines a good starting point is Idle
Needle open 3 turns,
Main Needle open
1.5 turns. SP then had a chance to fly his X-Cell and, as one of the Club's
"B" Certificate flyers, always does things properly - here we see how a heli
should be started, with a tight grip on the head at all times (see right).
Initial testing was done with the canopy off (see left - slightly out
of focus I am afraid). The new engine purred away and although SP was just
hovering to run her in, you could sense the power that is going to be
available when he lets rip!
One last thing before I left. With the loan of a training undercarriage, our new member decided to trust his luck. His Raptor was fired up and I offered to do a final check, and boy am I glad I did (at least I think I am glad after what happened next). After a few lifts into a hover I suggested to Peter that at this stage of his learning curve (i.e. the very, very beginning) all he do is get the heli light on its skids and get used to how the controls affected it. I was about ready to hand over the controls when all hell broke lose. The engine surged to full throttle. Fortunately all the other controls were still functioning, but the throttle was stuck wide open. Well it was just a matter of sitting there waiting for the fuel to run out, or so I thought. Next the training undercarriage, which had been attached using tie-wraps (give me rubber bands every time!) started to come loose. So now I had a heli at full chat with its undercarriage slipping all over the place. Just at the point were I thought I would have to take off and try and shed the training undercarriage the engine decided to quit. The cause? The screw holding the Ball Link onto the Servo arm had not had any Thread Lock between it and the lock nut and so had come out. So even after all the checking that both SP and I had done, it just shows you still shouldn't be complacent!
Friday 30th May 2003
Not a great end to the month.
I have mentioned before that the club has two fields and to some extent this is a precautionary measure. There is a significant problem in finding suitable flying fields within Cheshire. When you do find a field that is flyable, there is inevitably a house nearby that will be affected – and a large expensive house at that. During the life of the club we have lost a number of fields and clearly losing a field is catastrophic. By having two fields we can limit the affect we have on the surrounding area to each of them.
Tonight, I heard via the Club Secretary that some of our members had been visited by a resident in the area of one of our fields once again complaining about our presence. We have been flying at this field for a number of years without any complaints. This particular resident has just moved into the nearby village and immediately complained. About a year ago his first tack was to report us to the local Environmental Health Office as a noise nuisance. After the club met with the Environmental Health Officer and showed him that we were an official BMFA club, with proper rules and constitution, that we abided by the Department of Environment Code of Practice on Noise Emission from Model Aircraft 1982 (i.e.82Db(A) at 7m) and after his observing the club flying he decided not to take the matter further. Clearly not the result the resident wanted. After a quite period he then approached the local Planning Authority. That too went quite for a while. However today, the resident took it upon himself to inform the members that we were in breach of Planning, irrespective of the fact that the club was unaware of any planning orders or constraints.
So once again the club is under threat.
Saturday 31 May 2003
Not withstanding yesterday's disappointing news life goes on - Club Treasury work today with the depositing of new member fees and the withdrawal of field rent money.