Website: www.flyjcrc.com
Johnson City Radio Controllers, Johnson City, TN. • March 2013
Club Officers:President
Anthony Hall
423-477-8291 please, 5~9 PM
Vice President
Rolland Boles
423- 956-2256
Secretary
Michael Lick
423-239-3357
Treasurer
Vic Koenig
423-282-0572
Safety Officer
Dave Peterson
423-915-3535
Field Marshals:
Klaus Kogler
423-534-5430
Robert Mumford
423- 967-4984
Brian Dillard
423-863-7655
Brenda Dillard
423-863-7655
Webmaster
Doug Lindauer
423-725-2918
Event Coordinator
Tom Shuler
(423) 367-0230
Newsletter Editor
Anthony Hall
The President’s Report
Greetings and salutations:
We have had another great indoor fly-in! The article covering the fly-in doesn’t cover all the fun everyone had, so if you missed it, now is the time to check the calendar and get to our next event.
This month’s wild weather has given everyone wonderful chances to get out to the field and fly! As the temperatures rise, our flying time will also increase. Now is the time to do a good check of your aircraft, so that time at the field is spent on flying, not repairing.
I need volunteers to step up for future show and tell presentations. This is a great way to show off your talents and get great ideas on future designs. It only needs to be about 5 minutes long on any topic that you like. Please contact me so that I can add your name and topic to our show and tell schedule.
I can’t wait to see everyone at the March meeting! You can enjoy a good meal and talk with all of your friends. I’ll see you there.
Be safe, have fun with your friends, and fly!
Anthony Hall
JCRC President
Next Meeting is: Tuesday, March 26, 2013 at 6:45 PM
at the Harbor House restaurant in Johnson City.
Special Event:
On Oct 26th, we will be having our Halloween Fun-fly; we will have a club sponsored competition, JCRC Non-Traditional Aircraft Competition. The winner will receive fifty dollars in prize money!
The prize will be voted on by everyone in attendance. Therefore, if you have a large family or lots of friends, bring them out and add to your votes. The airplanes will have to be built in different configurations, i.e. canards, multi-booms, asymmetricals, flying carpets, fictional aircraft, etc. Helicopters should have different rotor configuration if possible and /or radical skins. Again, this is a non-traditional design, think outside the box, or even fly a box; the sky is the limit! (Disclaimer, a contestant will be disqualified for any aircraft flying outside the atmosphere without the proper FAA permits).
Now is the time to start building so that you can win that prize and be the envy of your friends!
Show and Tell Featured Aircraft Spotlight: A Scratch Built Red Tail Hawk by Eddie Cline.
For those that missed the past two club meetings, you have missed more than a good meal. This red tail hawk utilizes an anhedral tail with elevons for control. The anhedral tail gives it a much more life like appearance.
The wings are made from EPP foam 3mm thick laminated to 18mm thick at the spare. The airfoil shape of the wing was created using the feather profile. The leading edge has been rounded to smooth the shape. The lamination process also allowed me to form a smooth curvature in the wing from the root cord to the wing tip. This also kept the natural bird shape. The fuselage has been shaped to a smooth round body to also simulate the real bird. The aircraft features a 48 “wingspan, weighing 12 ounces and running on a 2 cell 610 mAh lipo battery powering a Turnagy 2730-1300 electric motor.
I have now flown this plane several times, even in some stronger wind than desired and it handles very well.
I am now in the process of painting it to appear like a red tailed hawk when in flight.
This project has been a lot of fun. If you have any questions on how to build your own, please contact Eddie Cline.
Eddie’s design images.
Show and Tell Featured Aircraft Sptolight: A Scratch built Red Tail Hawk (continued).
The final aircraft after flight tests, with the first (of many) layers of paint.
Event Coverage: February Indoor Electric Event:
Everyone had a great time at the February indoor fly-in! We had several new planes and a wonderful time.
Only a few crashes occurred during the day, but all were survivable.
Mike Starnes won our flashlight raffle and had a beautiful new plane.
Simple equipment used during the indoor flights. The busy flight line.
Event Coverage: February Indoor Electric Event (continued):
Skip, showing off the “relaxed” pilot style. An acrobatic bi-plane in flight.
Builders Corner: Flying off of snow, by Eddie Cline.
Here in East Tennessee flying off of snow is not usually an option. I have read many articles in magazines about people who fly their aircraft off of the snow with skis. And for about eight years now I've wanted to try it for myself. In our area the snow does not lay on the ground long, if at all. Earlier this year I purchased a small set of skis at the Boy Scouts of America Council office. The small skis came in a package of four for around five dollars. I figured that for five dollars I could give it a try. I made this purchase about two months ago with anticipation that maybe we would get some snow. Recently in an unusual week for our area, we had a few days
of 70°, torrential rains, and then heavy wet snow. At last I had my chance. I decided to put the small skis on my 48 inch wingspan piper cup. This little cup has lived a hard life. The fuselage has been broken completely in to on two occasions; the wing has been broken in several places, had several new cowls and new tail feathers. The plane now supports a handsome new purple and white paint job. Because the plane has been repaired so many times and the nose of the plane resembles that of a pig, my wife and children affectionately call the plane Franken Piggy.
Franken Piggy on snow. Detail photo of skis.
The skis that I purchased were never intended for aircraft use; rather they are designed for a small racecar that the boys use to race on differing surface conditions. Again, for five dollars why not try it on an airplane. Because the skis were heavier on the leading edge, I used rubber bands to hold them up in-flight. As you can see the skis are a little bit small. But that wouldn't stop me from trying.
Builders Corner: Flying off of snow (continued) by Eddie Cline.
I found that taking off from the snow was not that difficult.
It did require a little up elevator as the throttle was applied
to keep the skis on top of the snow. Without the use of the
elevator, the skis with dig into the snow and flip the plane
over. Once I figured that out, I was able to take off with
relative ease and in a very short distance. The plane flew
normally as it would have with its wheels and did not
display any unusual flying characteristics. Landing on the
skis proved to be much more difficult than I had
anticipated. As soon as the aircraft touched down the skis
will dig in and flip it on its nose. With this said, Franken
Piggy had a nose full of snow and ice. This did change
CG slightly but did not keep me from flying several more times.
I came to the conclusion that flying off of snow requires bigger skis. As it turns out, it really was fun even in the cold. I definitely understand why those who live in areas where snow is much more prevalent and is on the
ground for weeks or months at a time would choose to fly with skis. This allows them to enjoy their hobby year-round. Here in Tennessee we are blessed to have reasonably good weather year-round that allows us at JCRC to enjoy our hobby year-round on wheels.
Watch the skies, new planes:
Everyone enjoys a new plane, especially when it looks
really great! It gets better when it is a scale warbird.
Now Ethan has a wonderful looking scale Fokker. So,
The next time you see him at the field, beware and
watch out for the Hun on your six.
Maiden Flight Checklist:
Hand a copy of this list to your spotter before your next maiden flight for a trouble free flight.
Introduction:
I have done many maiden flights of experimental model airplane designs. From hard experience, I have built a mental checklist of everything that I need to check and do during every phase of this critical first flight.
Below is a checklist that can be printed out and brought to the field. Give it to your spotter and have him keep you honest.
The order of the tests in each section was very carefully chosen. Sometimes there are dependencies between tests. Safety was a huge driving factor in deciding what to put in the list and in what order to put the items. The flight tests are listed in decreasing order of importance.
These are the absolute minimum set of items for a maiden flight. If the model does well on the set of flight tests listed, feel free to add more. Loops, rolls, and inverted flying would be good.
Maiden Flight Checklist (continued):
Rationale:
Using a stopwatch to make sure you land before you run out of power is very popular. Landing a model airplane that you are not very familiar with and whose transmitter is not setup to your liking is hard enough. To have to do so without power is even harder. Figure out very conservative maximum flight duration. Have your spotter tell you periodically how much time you have left.
You have to assume that you can lose power at anytime. This is always a good ideal, anyway. But it is especially important on a maiden flight. I would get high and within easy gliding range to the runway and stay there for the entire maiden flight.
Knowing what the airplane feels like when it is coming in for a landing is critical. Take-offs are optional, but landings are not! You do not want to be two feet off the ground when you learn about some nasty low speed-handling problem. Yes, it has happened to me. That is why simulated landings are at the top to the list of flight maneuvers. Do these high up and parallel to the real runway.
Similarly, the stall characteristics of a model airplane can be very hard to predict. You want to get a feel for those as soon as possible. I have seen way too many unplanned stalls on maiden flights.
As you fly the model around, make mental notes of changes that you want to make to the transmitter programming. After you land and before you forget, make them. Frankly, I do this on every single flight. But after a maiden flight the mental list is bound to be long.
Did I leave out some critical step? Do you disagree with my list? Please contact me (RC Advisor.com).
Before Take-Off. Take-Off and Climb Out.
1 Check the lateral balance. 1 Left side of runway clear of obstacles.
2 Check the center of gravity. 2 Take-off flaps (15 degrees).
3 Turn on the transmitter, then the receiver. 3 Spotter announces take-off.
4 Radio system range check. 4 Tell spotter to start timer.
5 Check the control surfaces for loose hinges and 5 Check wind direction and speed.
control connections. 6 Smooth up throttle until full power.
6 Confirm control surface movement direction and range. 7 Climb high.
1 Landing gear ground roll test. 8 Throttle back to cruise airspeed.
9 Remove flaps.
10 Trim model for level flight using
transmitter.
Flight Testing. Landing.
1 Simulated landings (low power, landing flaps). 1 Spotter tells you gas/charge is
2 Straight ahead stall. running low.
3 Idle/power-off handling qualities test. 2 Runway clear?
4 Full power handling qualities test. 3 Runway clear?
5 Dive test for checking balance point. 4 Spotter announces landing.
5 Landing flaps (45 degrees).
6 Check wind direction and speed.
7 Proper landing pattern.
8 Land with good speed margin.
9 Congratulations! High fives all around!
11 Adjust transmitter programming as
appropriate.
Article is from RC Advisor.com
Mowing Schedule:
April May
3 D. Rhudy 1 J. Couch
10 C Daniel 8 D Sams
17 R Barryman 15 J Couch
24 D Campbell 22 D Rowe
29 D Campbell
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Calendar of Scheduled Events:
Saturday, 23 March: Work Day. Starting at 10 AM.
At Bowser Ridge Model Airport.
Tuesday, 26 March: JCRC Meeting, Starting at 6:45 at the
Harbor House Restaurant in Johnson City.
Thursday, 4 April: Return of Thursday evening flying.
Saturday, 20 April: Fly-in and Swap Meet. Starting at 9 AM.
At the Tri-Cities Model Airport.
Tuesday, 30 April: JCRC Meeting, Starting at 6:45 at the
At the Tri-Cities Model Airport.
Notice: Remaining club meetings will be on the last Tuesday of the Month
At the Tri-Cities Model Airport until further notice.
May 11 ~ 18 May Joe Nall Week
(To be announced) Jun: Pattern Event. See Vic Koenig.
At the Tri-Cities Model Airport.
Saturday, 13 July: Fun Fly Competition.
(date to be announced). XX July, Kingsport Fun Fest, Makers Faire
Aug 15 ~ 18 1st Annual Tennessee Fly-Low In.
House Mountain RC, in Knoxville, TN.
Saturday, 28 Sept: Club Picnic & Giant Scale Fun Fly.
At the Tri-Cities Model Airport.
Saturday, 12 Oct: Second Work Day 10am start
Saturday, 26 Oct: 4th Annual Halloween Fun Fly Competition.