Pikes Peak Radio Control Club Newsletter

Transcription

1 Pikes Peak Radio Control Club Newsletter Volume 39 / Number 07 AMA Club Number 179 / 2616 Glen Arbor Dr. / Colorado Springs, Colorado Phone: / Website: Club President Mark Gus Grissom / Club Vice President Kevin Kinzel / Club Safety Officer Rick Paquin / Club Treasurer Adam Heffington / Club Secretary Ryan Dillon Club Web Master Ryan Dillon / Club Newsletter Editor Keith Davis Next PPRCC Meeting: Local RC events happening this month: 7:00pm / Jul 5th (Tue) 2011 PPRC Scale Pikes Peak Public Library on Union Denver RC Eagles Open Fun Fly-in Last Month s Minutes... (June) Meeting Started: 7:00 pm Meeting Adjourned: 8:05 pm Members Attended: 30 Visitors: 1 Mark Menozzi New Business: 1) Club President Gus Grissom, talked about Mike Evans Celebration of Life event that took place in June at the PPRCC airfield. It was a great turnout for all to pay their final respects to Mike. The event was organized by Kevin Kinzel and Ben Woofter. 1) Club President Gus Grissom, reminded everyone about the upcoming Colorado Springs Spree event taking place at Memorial Park (June 18 th and 19 th ). More volunteers are always welcome! Talk to Gus for more details if you are interested. 2) Club member Larry Laughlin, talked with club members about the final preparations for the PPRCC Warbirds event. He then spoke briefly about the Warbirds over Denver event that takes place two weeks before our event. Both events should be fun. Airplane Funnies... Submitted By: Mr. America 2) Club Treasurer Adam Heffington, talked about the club s finances for the month of May. Adam expects club spending to go up in June because of the two upcoming club major events. 3) Club members Adam Heffington and Dan Brunson, are pondering the idea of putting together a club history page for the club s website. Currently there is no consolidated information about the history of the club. 4) Club member Keith Davis, brought in flyers for the Denver RC Eagles club, advertising their open Electric Fly-in taking place on June 18 th. The Denver RC Eagles fly out of the Cherry Creek State park. Old Business: Since these are the greatest colors in the world, I thought it would make my plane look great too! Happy 4 th of July! PPRCC Newsletter 1

2 Show & Tell Part - I Rod Hart s VQ Models Hawker Hurricane Propeller Chart This chart was sent to me by one of our club members and asked if I could post it in the next newsletter, so here it is. Good info! Propeller Chart Rod brought in his electric powered, 57 inch wingspan Hurricane. He has had the plane for awhile but hopes to finally get to fly it, once the winds die down! From the Safety Guy By Rick Paquin With the flying season beginning to roll, remember to stand at the pilot s stations when flying your plane. Flying from center field is not allowed when there other pilots flying from the pilot stations. Flying from center runway is allowed if you are the only pilot flying from there OR the other pilot(s) agree to fly from the center too. And don t forget to use the plane holds when starting your planes. We haven t had any runaway planes in awhile and hope to keep it that way! And finally, great job on keeping the airfield gate locked when the last person leaves! Choose The Right Propeller While all engines produce power the Propeller is essential to transmit this power. A more efficient propeller will transmit more power to the air. It would be fair to say that these recommended props are often much larger than those typically used in the USA but this helps significantly with noise reduction and therefore we will go with a larger prop. The engines will not bog down with these props, they just won't quite develop all the power they could. Though to be fair we do overpower anyway. Prop sizes are only slightly above US recommendations. If you field is noise sensitive (as many are) then head for one of the large sizes. These figures are merely estimates - do not take them as gospel. They are merely a rough guide to get you started. Note: This Chart was Hijacked from the UK. Please note the disclaimer above!!! Engine Size Ideal Prop Size 2-Stroke Glow Engines Propeller Size Range Ideal RPM Range x4 7x4~6, 8x ~16000rpm 7x5~6, x4 8x4~ ~16000rpm 9x4~6, x5 10x4~ ~15000rpm PPRCC Newsletter 2

3 x5 9x6~8, 10x5~6, 11x4~ x5 10x6~8, 11x5~7, 12x5~ x6 10x7~9, 11x6~8, 12x5~ x7 10x8~10, 11x7~9, 12x6~8 12x8~10, x6 13x6~7, 14x5~6 12x9~11, x7 13x7~8, 14x6~ x10~11, 14x6 14x6~8, 15x6~8 16x8 15x8~10, 16x8~10, 17x8 18x8 17x8~10, 18x8~10, 20x6~ ~15000rpm 11000~12000rpm 10000~12000rpm 10000~11000rpm 9500~11000rpm 9500~10500rpm 9000~10000rpm 8500~9500rpm 8000~9000rpm x10 20x10, 22x8 8000~8500rpm Engine Size * ** Ideal Prop Size 4-Stroke Glow Engines Propeller Size Range 10x6 10x5~7, 11x4~5 11x6 11x6~7, 12x5~6 11x7~8, 11x7 12x6~7, 13x5~6 12x7 12x7~9, 13x6~7 13x8~11, 14x7 14x7~9, 15x5~7 14x7~8, 14x8 15x6~10, 16x6~8 16x8~12, 16x8 17x8~10, 18x6 Ideal RPM Range 10000~11000rpm 10000~11000rpm 10000~11000rpm 10000~11000rpm 10000~11000rpm 9000~10000rpm 8500~9500rpm x8 16x10~12, 17x8~10, 18x x8 18x10~12, 20x6~ x10 20x8~12, 21x8~ Engine Size cc 45cc 50cc 60cc 21x10 Ideal Prop Size 20x10~12, 21x8~10, 22x8 Gasoline Engines Propeller Size Range 16x8~10, 16x8 17x8~10, 18x8 18x10~12, 20x8 19x10, 20x8~10 20x10~12, 20x10 21x8~10, 22x8 20x12, 21x10 21x10~12, 22x8~10 22x10~12, 22x10 24x8~10, 26x8 75cc 24x10 24x12, 26x10~12 100cc 26x10 26x10~12, 28x10 150cc 32x12 30x10~12, 32x10~12 32x12~14, 200cc 34x11 34x10~12, 36x ~9500rpm 7500~8500rpm 7500~8500rpm 7500~8500rpm Ideal RPM Range 8500~9500rpm 6500~7800rpm 6000~7500rpm 6000~7200rpm 6000~7200rpm 6000~6800rpm 6000~6500rpm 5500~6000rpm 5000~6000rpm Do you have an article, story or a picture that you want to share with the club? Get it to me at: Lkdavis02@msn.com Keith Davis PPRCC Newsletter Editor Airplane of the Month Send in your airplane pictures to Ryan Dillon to get it posted on the front page of the newsletter as Airplane of the Month! PPRCC Newsletter 3

4 Show & Tell Part - II Duane Zinke s kit built Chipmunk Clue #1: Initially designed to be an artillery spotter, it failed because of its slow speed and the accuracy of anti-aircraft guns. Clue #2: This plane turned out to be one of the best Special Operations aircraft for the RAF during WWII because of its ability to take-off and land in small areas. Last month s picture was a Seawind 300C. Joe Jacobson was quick with the first correct answer followed by Paul McCoy and Tom McCallum. See, they know their seaplanes! Show & Tell Part - III Rick Paquin s ESM Spitfire Duane talks about his newly acquired Chipmunk from fellow club member Larry Laughlin. Duane said the kit is about 20 years old, had to make plenty of modifications to get it ready to fly and installed an O.S. 65AX engine. So, What is this Airplane? Rick just finished building his 89 inch wingspan ESM Spitfire. He installed a DA-50 gas engine and air retracts, total weight about 23 pounds. He hopes to fly it this month at the PPRCC warbirds. Support Your Local Hobby Store! PPRCC Newsletter 4

5 Warbirds over Denver JEFCO held its 8 th annual Warbirds over Denver last month and they had a great turn-out this year, to include several of our own PPRC members. The weather was a bit rough on Saturday and a bit windy on Sunday, but that didn t stop the 85 pilots to fly their 150 plus airplanes and jets. This SBD Dauntless was another very scaledout warbird. It took first place in the WWII category. PPRC members from left to right Larry Laughlin, Rick Paquin, Adam Heffington, James Murphy, Larry Sipes, Keith Davis, Dan Brunson and Greg Moore. Kevin Kinzel missed the group photo but came out Sunday. Like all warbird events, there were WWI, WWI, modern planes and jet aircraft of all shapes and sizes. One of the larger planes to appear was an A-1 Skyraider that was from Minnesota. It had a smoke system and dropped six plastic bombs, pretty neat to watch in action. Dan (left) and Greg (right) lining up their F-15 Eagles for flight. Rick s Zero in hot pursuit of Larry s Corsair. Go Larry, Go! The A-1 Skyraider did a great show to include smoke and bomb dropping. There were a few mishaps with electric planes that crashed and actually caught fire. But the fire response team was quick to extinguish the fires! Overall it was a great weekend event, to include a real B-17 and AT-6 Texan fly-over. Check out the club website for a few hundred more pictures! PPRCC Newsletter 5

6 All About Helicopters A few newsletters ago I did an article about the world s fastest helicopters, the British Lynx (#1) and AH-54 Cheyenne (#2). But one of our club members recently sent me this story and now there is a new sheriff in town! Here s the story of the world s newest fastest helicopter, the Sikorsky X2... On 26 July 2010, Sikorsky announced that the X2 exceeded 225 knots (259 mph; 417 km/h) during flight testing in West Palm Beach Florida, unofficially surpassing the current FAI rotorcraft world speed record of 216 knots (249 mph) set by a modified Westland Lynx in The X2 flight was purposefully made 37 years to the date of the S-69's first flight. "The U.S. military already has its eye on making a combat version of the X2. The picture shows a mock up version of the armed X2. The Sikorsky X2 is an experimental compound helicopter with coaxial rotors under development by the American aircraft manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft. Sikorsky has incorporated decades of company research and development into X2 Technology helicopters. The S-69/XH-59A Advancing Blade Concept Demonstrator showed high speed was possible with a coaxial helicopter and auxiliary propulsion; the Cypher UAV expanded company knowledge of the unique aspects of flight control laws in a fly by wire aircraft with coaxial rotors; and the RAH-66 Commanche, which developed expertise in composite rotors and advanced transmission design. On 15 September 2010, test pilot Kevin Bredenbeck achieved Sikorsky's design goal for the X2 when he flew it at a speed of 250 knots (290 mph; 460 km/h) in level flight, an unofficial speed record for a helicopter. The demonstrator also reached a speed of 260 knots (300 mph; 480 km/h) in a shallow 2 to 3 dive. Crew: 2 Rotor diameter: 26.4 ft (8.05 m) Disc area: 548 ft (50.9 m²) Max takeoff weight: 7,937 lb (3,600 kg) Powerplant: 1 LHTEC T800-LHT-801 turboshaft, shp ( kw) Propellers: 1 six-bladed pusher-type propeller Rotor configuration: 2 four-bladed co-axial Maximum speed: 260 knots (299 mph, 481 km/h) Cruise speed: 250 knots (287.5 mph, 460 km/h) Range: 702 nmi (808 mi, 1300 km) Last month s All about Civilian Birds was about the largest flying aircraft in the world, the Russian An-225. Here are the answers to the question; Can you name the next four largest airplanes in the world currently flying today? Notice the pusher prop for increased forward airspeed, similar to the AH-54 Cheyenne. 1) (Russian) An-225 2) (French) Airbus 380 3) (Russian) An-224 4) (U.S.) B-747 5) (U.S.) C-5 Galaxy PPRCC Newsletter 6

7 Tuning Your Gas Engine By Larry K. Laughlin Huh? From a Jet Dude you say? Guys, I like just about all power plants we use for our models. Small electrics, medium sized Nitro engines, Jet engines of course, and even the big Gasser engines. I don t care for the massive brain damage and battery expense involved with the Big Electrics and I ve been totally spoiled by the easy to start Jet engines, (where you merely flip a switch to get m started). But until recently, I thought my 40 years of modeling had me more in the know than not. In particular, I thought I knew the big Gassers close enough. I could make them run and fly OK, but rarely without issues (hard starting, flame outs during flights, four-cycling, low power output, etc.). So I just lived with my issues, fat, dumb and not so happy. I thought one cure might be to install a 4 oz Nalgene Header Tank, much like we use on the Jets. This tank stays full so there s never an air bubble gulped and moving towards the carb to cause a burp or flame out. The Header Tank has a filter built in and it s easier to fuel the airplane with its third fill line. That was all great and it works wonderfully on the Pitts, but the engine still died in flight and the tuning was still an issue! I was still suffering from flameouts, hard starting and sorry performance while in the air. It wasn t so much an air bubble either. It was that my engine was running too rich and I was loading up the cylinders during flight. Dead stick landings can be hard on an airplane, especially one that drops like a manhole cover when the engine quits. The lousy performance and hard starting issues were just more bonus features to add to my frustrations. After all, I fly Jets. I generally just flip a switch to start, so this silly gasser was giving me no end to the grief! Fortunately, right after a long, sorry attempt to start my YW, Doug Knowlton approached me and said, you know, I read this very simple, brief thread on one of the chats as to how best to tune your 2-cycle gas engine.and it really works. Wow, that simple introduction and what Doug had to say a few minutes later changed my life, in respect to making the YW engine run and the Pitts fly like it s never flown before! A picture of what Larry s Twin cylinder, two cycle, YW-48 cc gas engine looks like. My Cermark Pitts S2 has a beautiful twin cylinder, 2- cycle YW48CC engine up front. I ve never been able to make the engine run consistently well, much less maximize on its power potential. I thought that s just the way it was to be. I d chase those two needles all over the map and just could never get reasonably good performance out of the engine. Frustrating! All of that changed during the off hours during the War Birds over Denver 2011 event, when I pulled the old Pitts out to get my aerobatic fix. My Pitts engine, however, continued to be hard starting and just not right of late. Chatfield proved to be no exception. Here s what Doug told me: Start your engine, perhaps a high idle and let it warm up for 2 minutes. Now, advance the throttle to full and lean the engine s HIGH needle to max RPM, then richen the HIGH needle so the engine runs 100 rpm to the rich side of peak. This procedure requires a Tack, since we re only talking about 100 RPM and your ear can t typically get a read on a very small, 100 RPM difference. At no time should you hear any 4-cycling at full throttle. Now throttle back to about 50%. Here you ll want to adjust the LOW needle setting to where again; the engine is not 4-cycling. You re listening for that magic, clean 2-cycle operation all the while. Again, you should not hear it break off into a 4-cycle operation, period. Next, you ll throttle down to idle. Once again, you ll adjust the LOW needle setting further yet so as to get rid of any 4-cycle tendency, listening for that perfect 2-cycle idle. Nice and clean running. From this point, you will redo the whole procedure, starting at the full throttle testing point again. The two needles interact, so you will have to test two, PPRCC Newsletter 7

8 three or more times, making minor adjustments accordingly. If you can safely get to your adjustment needles on the carburetor while the engine is running, the whole procedure will take you less than 5 minutes. In my case, the needles are pointing forward, directly towards the propeller, so I had to shut down, make adjustments and restart. Show & Tell Part - IV Dave Story s A-10 and R-3 Fantasy Racer When you are done, you should get immediate, very clean throttle up response and at no time, on the ground or in the air, should you hear any 4-cycling! For me, this tuning procedure was revolutionary! My YW started easier. It had way more power and more importantly, it didn t flame out while airborne anymore. I fell in love with the old Pitts S2 all over again! Overall performance improved an easy 20%, which is huge, and all because I finally learned how best to tune this 2-cycle engine. I can t wait to apply this tuning technique to my Chain Saws. LOL I m now forever indebted to Mr. Doug Knowlton. Should he ever decide to make that plunge into Jets, I might be able to share MY expertise there and return the favor! I mean to say, I really know how to flip the start switch on my transmitter for Jets, you know? LOL Dave brought in two aircraft for the crowd to view. The Banana Hobby A-10 (above) and the Cermark R-3 Fantasy Racer (below). Gus Said Thanks! Club President Gus wanted to thank everyone that came out to help in the field clean-up last month in preparation for the upcoming club events. And a special thanks goes out to Chuck who came out with his riding mower, tracker and ground spreader, which really cut the work time in half. Once again our field looks great for all of the upcoming club events this year! Both planes are foamies and electric powered. Dave was not sure which one he likes best, the looks of the A-10 or the speed of the R-3 racer. Support Your Local Hobby Store! PPRCC Newsletter 8

9 Show & Tell Part - V Curtis Hughes P-51 Mustang and T-28 Trojan June Flyers! June turned out to be a better month for flying than May, but we still had to deal with the winds and the hazy skies from all of the smoke from the Arizona and New Mexico forest fires. But that didn t stop many of the PPRC flyers from coming out! Curt also brought in a pair of foamie, electric warbirds for the crowd to view. The P-51 Mustang and the T-28 Trojan were bought from Nitroplanes. I finally got to test-fly my Ryan STA! This new generation of electric airplanes comes complete with Tx & Rx, retracts, electric motor & battery and functional position lights and landing lights! Bob returns from another successful flight. And of course you can see plenty more pictures of April, May and June Flyers on the PPRC website! You don t have to wait once a year for the JEFCO auction to sell your RC items or find good RC deals. You can post RC items on the PPRCC website wanted to buy, sell or trade anytime of the year! PPRCC Newsletter 9

10 Warbirds over Pikes Peak By 1:00 pm, the pilots were ready to get their planes back and start flying again, and so they did! Another great Warbirds over Pikes Peak has come and gone and once again, the club had a great time. Weather was great both days, despite some high winds in the afternoons. But that did not ground the 40+ pilots that registered to join in on the fun. Just a snapshot of the many aircraft open to the public to view close-up. There were about 50 airplanes in the line-up. A few pilots getting an early start in filling out their registration forms. There were an assortment of warbirds, from Zeros, Mustangs and Thunderbolts to turbine powered jets like the F-15 Eagle and a F-22 Raptor. Quite a collection! I was busy taking pictures of other planes, but I did manage to fly my Val at least once! (Photo taken by Rod Hart) Club President Gus Grissom, explaining the basics of RC flying to new recruits. On Saturday around 12 noon, the club did the traditional open flightline time to allow spectators to see the planes close up and vote on their favorite model. And of course they had plenty of questions to ask the pilots about their airplanes. Adam and Murphy performing dueling Trojans in front of the crowd. Flying started again early Sunday morning. It was a bit warmer and windier than Saturday and both runways were being used all day because the winds would not stay from one direction! The event was PPRCC Newsletter 10

11 finally called around 1:00 pm in order to give out the awards and raffle items before everyone packed up. Here are the award results: Dan Brunson won Best Show with his turbine F-15 Eagle. Keith Davis won Pilot s Choice with his T-28 Trojan. Keith Davis won People s Choice with his T-28 Trojan. Ken Monbuatt won 1 st place Large Scale Warbird with his P-47 Thunderbolt. Rick Paquin won 2 nd place Large Scale Warbird with his Japanese Zero. Leo Hurlika won 1 st place Small Scale Warbird with his P-6 Hawk. John Fay won 2 nd place Small Scale Warbird with his F4U Corsair. PPRCC Scale Fly-In If flying warbirds is not your thing but looking for an event to display your Cessna or Cub, then get it ready for the club s scale Fly-In happening on Saturday, July 23rd. Rick Paquin will be the host and the event coordinator (EC) for the event and plans on handing out an award for best scale military airplane, best scale civilian airplane and best scale helicopter. Of course your model must represent an actual type airplane, jet or helicopter (nitro, gas or electric). Sorry, planes like Big Stiks, U-Can-Do s or Funtana s are not considered scale airplanes. So if you were out of town and missed the club s warbird event last month, then come on out to the club s scale Fly-in this month! Ed Sweeny won 1 st place Electric Warbird with his C-47 Dakota. Adam Heffington won 2 nd place Electric Warbird with his P-51 Mustang. Dan Brunson won 1 st place Best Jet with his turbine F-15 Eagle. Clark Graves won 2 nd place Best Jet with his F-22 Raptor. Joe Gilbert won 1 st place Best Helicopter with his AH-6 attack helicopter. Congratulations to all those pilots listed above! PPRCC hopes that all of the pilots and spectators had a great time out there and hope to see you again next year! A big thanks goes out to Larry Laughlin the EC of the event, Frank and Laura Ostermiller and their great PA system, the food catering services that provided lunch and all of the volunteers that helped with the food, the gate, registration and clean-up! There were also a few photographers out there taking pictures of the event (Rod Hart, Doug Ransom and myself). Hopefully in a few weeks, there will be plenty of pictures posted on the club website, so keep checking the gallery section! PPRCC Newsletter 11

12 Upcoming RC Events: Jul 5 th (Tue) 2011 PPRCC Meeting Jul 16 th (Sat) 2011 Cherry Creek Open Fun Fly-in Jul 23 rd (Sat) 2011 PPRCC Scale Fly-in Aug 2 nd (Tue) 2011 PPRCC Meeting Aug 14 th (Sun) 2011 PPRCC Family Day / Swap Meet Sep 4 th & 5 th (Sat & Sun) 2011 Sky Corral s Warbirds over Pueblo Sep 26 th, 27 th & 28 th (Fri & Sat & Sun) 2011 Fort Collins Warbirds over the Rockies PPRCC Newsletter 12