Sunday 23 November 2003

Even more weeks have passed an no flying... well today I managed to get down to the field and surprisingly I can still fly! It must be like riding a bike - once learnt never forgotten (though sometimes a little wobbly).

 

The weather has now turned cold. This morning there was a sharp frost with the temperature hovering about 1degC. We still got a good turnout though.

 

First things first... the club Annual General Meeting will be held on the Tuesday 9th December 2003 (and not the 2nd December as previously indicated). The reason for the change is that unfortunately the Chairman can't make the 2nd. The committee apologise if this causes anyone any inconvenience - but it was thought that the Chairman ought to be present, even if no-one else was!.

 

The club has now bought another three sound meters - yes we do take noise exceedingly seriously - bringing the total to 4 Digital Sound Meters and 1 Analogue. So there should be no excuse for anyone saying they can't get their model tested. Remember the level recommended by the Department of the Environment Code of Practice (as of the this date) has been identified by the BMFA as 82dB(A) at 7m..

 

Current sound meter holders are:

I also think some other members have their own, should you ask.

 

A special thanks goes to Richard Fry who bravely offered to have his XCell gasser checked. So there he was hovering above a fixed point with at least 3 sound meters trained on his heli!  An interesting effect of gassers appears to be that whilst flying circuits they appear very quiet (or at least they don't have the harshness of an IC engine), but when we checked it at 7 meters it was showing right on the limit. However a further check, using the Club's tacho, showed the head speed to be a lot higher than Richard expected - clearly the Governor wasn't doing its job. After a few teaks Richard had got the head speed and sound down to a reasonable level.