December
2020
Flight Lines
Cover Page: Malcolm Foster offering flying lessons. We all needed them on Float Plane Day
2 FLIGHT LINES HAMILTON MODEL AERO CLUB INC. December 2020 www.hamiltonmac.org.nz
PATRON Graeme Bradley – Retired and living the life of luxury
PRESIDENT Grant Finlay 027-273-7461 VICE PRESIDENT Gordon Meads 021-125-2911 SECRETARY Alan Rowson 07-843-3889 TREASURER Alan Rowson 021-025-93002 CLUB CAPTAIN Sel Melville 027-482-3459 BULLETIN Ed. Dave Crook 021-123-6040 (Editorial Email: send to: [email protected] )
COMMITTEE:
Mike Sutton Chris Tynan 022-353-9231 Sel Melville 027-482-3459 Dave Crook 021-123-6040 - Lyndon Perry 021-02518474
WEB SITE Grant Finlay CATERER Colleen Tynan
CLUB NIGHT: Wednesday 9 December , 2020 7.30 pm VENUE: Beerescourt Bowling Club 68a Maeroa Road - Hamilton
Club Night Theme: Christmas cheer – Bring a plate and a building project. Club Themed Flying Day: Christmas BBQ Lunch, Sunday 6 December – Again bring a plate, a plane and your wife or partner. (Note : This is not a swap meet)
3 Presidents Report Grant
Well Xmas is upon us and the silly season has started in the shops and around town. True to form, the weather leading up to Xmas has been all over the place with rain, wind and fine days all in the mix. I managed to attend and compete in the scale competition at Waharoa a couple of weeks ago and this was a nice relaxing day which I really enjoyed. The Aero tow meeting that I was contemplating attending went ahead at Tauranga last weekend, but looking at the weather forecast I opted to stay at home instead. By the looks of it and viewing their onsite weather station, that was probably a wise decision for the most part. I did however get some valuable time in the workshop and got through a number of small maintenance jobs. So something good did come out of the last weeks undesirable flying weather! Novembers Club night action was a bit of a hotch potch of things including some photos, general club discussion and entertainment. The evening was finished off with some home video from the team Briggs’s construction of their very first Composite Extra aircraft which they took to the Tournament of Champions Scale Aerobatics contest in Las Vegas in 1997. A fascinating view on modelling 20 years ago…not much has changed…yeah right !!! December's Club night will be our final evening get together for the year. Everyone is welcome to come along and join in with an evening where I hope you will be suitably entertained with a light hearted wrap up of the year that's been, some awards and more. As in the past, we intend to wind up the last part of the evening with an extended supper, so if you care to bring a plate along to share, then that would be awesome. Also please don’t forget to bring along your models for show and tell, as last month the hall seemed very bare without anything to look at!! November’s themed club flying day was our final float plane event at Lake Kainui. The weather didn’t play the game and was very windy for 4 the most part of the day. For my part I did manage to successfully fly my new Cessna Cardinal Float plane, so I was best described as a happy man.
There’s a report elsewhere in the bulletin so I won’t say any more here, except to mention we hope to get our dates sorted for next year shortly, with our first event likely to be in late march or early April up at Lake Puketirini in Huntly. Our final flying event for the year will be our Christmas BBQ Lunch out at our Reekers flying field this Sunday 6th December (Rain date 13th). As in past years, the club will be putting on a BBQ for members and supplying meats and soft drinks, tea and coffee. For all those coming out for lunch, we would invite you to bring a plate of salad or dessert to share for this potluck lunch. And please don’t forget, wives and partners and family are more than welcome to come along and share in the day’s events. We will be organising some low stress flying events to keep 5 Pilots and guests amused as well. If you have a fold up chair, portable table, spare chilly bin, Gazebo for shade or any other useful item, then please bring them out with you if possible to help us through the day. Thanks and I look forward to see many of you there. And so that wraps up my columns for 2020. The next bulletin will be out in the first week of February, as we do not have a bulletin in January, nor a club night meeting. The February meeting will also be our Annual General Meeting, so please consider your involvement in the club for the upcoming year and ask yourself what you can do to add value. I mustn’t forget to add our best wishes to all of those who are partaking in the Model Flying NZ Nationals Events in Carterton in the New Year. Here’s hoping you all have a successful Nat’s and even bring home some of those trophies once more. And that's pretty much all I have for what has been a more than an interesting year for more reasons than we could care to have imagined. I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry and safe Christmas shared with friends and family (and without Covid!). At this time I'd like to give a special shout out to Jan Reekers, his family and the farming team for their continued support of our club and its activities, a very Merry Xmas to you from all of us . Likewise I would also like to acknowledge the support from our neighbors, the farm management team of The Land Farm Group next door. Okay, that’s it, one last Merry Christmas one and all. (and please play safe ☺ ) Grant
6 And from the Bulletin Editor: Dave
The year that was:
2020 has been a weird sort of year and we all know why. It started off well enough, went quiet for a while and is back to finishing where we started. Regardless of whatever events unfold it will always be the members of any club or organization that are the key to its survival. Here are some highlights of the year that was in case you’ve forgotten.
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12 Building Tips 1 Al Ward
I've been using a cheap supply of light weight straight grained wood which can be laminated in various ways for strength for making stringers, frames, fuselage formers etc. for scratch builders. These are Cedar venetian blind slats usually found in "Op Shops".& not expensive Great for WW1 scale models as there is a lot of exposed varnished wood up front in that type of plane.
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Cedar Venetian Blind Slats
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(aka The Curse of the Electron)
Bernard Scott
As in other areas of aeromodelling, the majority of Vintage fliers have welcomed the adaption of electric power for its benefits of less noise and mess, and the convenience of not having to adjust and manage a glow motor on the field. The first Texaco event to go electric was 1/2E which was an electrified version of the Cox .049 powered 1/2A event. At that stage, 2008, ¬NiCd or NiMH batteries were the options with battery packs limited to seven cells of 650mAh maximum and motors limited to direct drive Speed 400 brushed types. By today’s standards, this power train would be rather puny but the tight definition of battery and motor placed everyone on the same starting line and created an event where the 15-minute target time was a real challenge.
When NiCd and NiMH batteries were replaced by LiPo cells the whole game changed. Light batteries with greatly increased efficiency coupled with potent AC motors gave models so much performance (and in Texaco that means duration) that flights became such marathons that it was wise to come prepared with a folding chair and Thermos - and in the case of certain fliers, a sleeping bag as well. Over the years, keeping performance in check has been an on-going challenge for all the electric Vintage events because of ever increasing efficiency of motors and LiPo cells. Interestingly, many of the Vintage electric events in the USA have stayed with old chemistry batteries and brushed motors - not so much a result of foresight as a resistance to change, a rare example of stagnation being better than progress.
15 The NZ Vintage movement runs seven electric Texaco events, each offering a different slant on the “economy run” theme. Three of these events are briefly illustrated here while the full rules for all events may be obtained from the MRNZ website.
1/2E Texaco Models for this event may be up to 350 sq.in wing area and 18oz maximum weight. As with most Vintage events, there is a minimum weight of 8 oz per square foot of wing area. Battery size is determined by model weight.
One of the good things about Vintage flying is that you don’t need to bust the bank keeping up with the latest trends and models. You can even be competitive with a simple design as the emphasis is on flying, not on hardware. Proof of this is the flier below, someone you might recognise, with his 1/2E Nationals winner - a flamin’ Tomboy!
16 E-Texaco Here there is no limit on model size other than the General Rules governing safety, and since efficiency increases with wingspan (all else going well) the usual model for this event is quite large. The dry weight of the model is used to determine the maximum size of the drive battery. To anyone new to E-Texaco, the motor battery sizes seem distressingly small, but that is what the Texaco events are about - using a limited amount of energy to get the best result.
E-Rubber Texaco Now you’ve seen it all - Vintage rubber designs converted to electric power. This variant of Texaco is different to all others in that it does not have an 8-oz per square foot minimum weight rule. Sounds like a small difference, but it has a big effect. Models can be built big and light, 4 oz sq ft and less for experienced builders, and are held up by the gentlest of thermals. Motors can be stopped and the models left to do what they do best, waft around taking full advantage of any whiff of lift, looking like huge iridescent insects as the sun shines through their light-weight covering. It is amazing how long these models can stay aloft on a few milliamps.
17 But wait, there’s more. Never ones to let a good thing go to waste, Vintage fliers have pushed the Texaco boat out into Classical waters, that is, designs published between 1st January 1951 and 31st December 1975. There is a huge resource of beautiful designs from this era and it’s a shame that so few of them are seen today. So, for the 1/2E and E Texaco events, there is a matching Classical event.
Classical E-Texaco. The 1961 Nig Nog below is used by Wayne in both Classical E-Texaco and Classical E-Duration. With just a change of Prop and battery and it is potent is both events. Originally a British FF Power model it has a near vertical climb (in Duration) and a glide to challenge an albatross. Not a slow clunker for the unskilled!
And yet more … there is also Scale E-Texaco and Sport Cabin E-Texaco, but they are stories for another campfire. With such a tempting array of events, it’s no wonder Vintage fliers look more than a tad ragged at contests.
All Vintage events are contest oriented (even the one we claim we fly for fun) but competitiveness is not compulsory. Just as an aerobatic design can be used for Sunday flying, Vintage and Classical designs make great fun-fly models if you are not feeling competitive. At last count there were 352,278 pre-1975 designs that have been published, so there are plenty to choose from. 18
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Aircraft I Dream About— The Buhl Bull Pup Bruce Pickering
How does a company that produces forged hand tools embark on building aeroplanes? Well, for the Buhl Stamping Company of Detroit it seemed to be comparatively easy. In 1855 Christian Buhl became a partner of a hardware firm established six years earlier. While retaining his interest in hardware, in 1888 Buhl also founded the hugely successful Buhl Stamping Company, manufacturing forged and stamped spanners and tools. The company’s success resulted in enormous growth in their hardware company. In the following few years other related companies were added to their holdings. So I suppose they somehow considered it to be a natural progression to found the Buhl Aircraft Company in 1925.
One of their early designs was the Buhl Airsedan, which was a series of sesquiplane aircraft (a biplane having one wing of less than half the area of the other) with an enclosed cabin. Frenchman Etienne Dormy, already 20 familiar with the sesquiplane concept as used in France, was responsible for the design. A unique feature for the time was the Coffman Gas Starter which employed the expanding gas from a “shotgun” cartridge to provide necessary energy to turn the engine over; these became widely used in some military aircraft during War II. Several variants of the Airsedan were produced, but they all had common construction: fuselage of chromium molybdenum alloy steel faired with wooden stringers, lower wing integral with the fuselage, spruce and plywood wings. Rudder trim could only be adjusted on the ground, elevators were adjustable in flight. All flying surfaces were equipped with aerodynamic balance horns. In 1929 one example of the Airsedan made the first non- stop transcontinental round trip of the US.
Although it was a successful and well respected aeroplane the Airsedan suffered from the stock market crash of 1929 and production ceased suddenly that year as sales dried up. The following year, to keep the company buoyant during those difficult days, Buhl Aircraft designed the inexpensive small sport aeroplane they called the Bull Pup. Unfortunately, sales of the Bull Pup were not as great as hoped and the Buhl Aircraft Company, along with many other companies, succumbed 21 to the Great Depression in 1933. When production ceased the remaining aircraft in stock were sold at half price. The single seat wire-braced mid-wing monoplane Bull Pup was a basic aircraft that was fitted with an open cockpit and fixed tailskid. It could be purchased with the options of shorter wings for competition, longer wings for high altitude flying, and floats. This diminutive little aeroplane was only 5.8 metres (19ft) long and had a wingspan of 9.14 metres (30ft). Its 45 hp Szekely SR-3 three cylinder radial engine gave it a maximum speed of 130 kph (95 mph), cruising at 122 kph (76 mph). With an initial climb rate of 800 fpm, its maximum ceiling was 4267 metres (14,000 feet).
Despite the fact that Buhl manufactured the first aeroplane to receive an Approved Type Certificate and their aircraft won a number of speed and endurance records, little is known about the Buhl Aircraft Company today. That’s probably not surprising as it only lasted eight years before becoming a victim to a debilitating economy, from which it never recovered. Coincidentally, about the same time that the Pup was produced Buhl also embarked on a new endeavour in the arena of autogyros. They created the promising A-1 Autogiro, with its first flight in 1931. Designed as a photography platform for both commercial and military use only one example of this aircraft was built before the company closed its doors. 22
Would the Bull Pup make a good model? Well, a 1950 Air Trails magazine printed an article and plan for a free flight version. Then in 1973 a 76 inch RC version was featured in an American magazine (possibly Model Airplane News). And Radio Control Models magazine also produced drawings for a 52 inch RC model powered by an OS.25, which sounds somewhat under powered—a copy of their plan is attached to this article. Apparently they were all successful, so there is no reason why a well built and well powered model shouldn’t fly satisfactorily today.
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Cessna 336 Skymaster One Fifth scale
An ARF produced by Kondor Model Products, Canada (KMP) Wing Span - 89.1" (2263mm) Fuselage and booms - Fibreglass Wing – Balsa and ply Front engine RCG 20, rear engine DLE 20. Can sell either with engines and servos or without.
This is a really nice aeroplane to fly, lands very easily Flies quite fast on full throttles, will easily fly on one engine If anyone is interested, please phone or email and we can discuss details. Bruce Pickering Mobile 0212383572Home 092832240 [email protected]
24 Building Tips 2 Aunty’s Construction Tips
Have you ever tried drilling a prop for a gas engine that requires more than just the hole in the middle? Yes, well if you have then it’s likely the additional holes for the 4 or 5mm cap bolts will have gone off line and been hard to tighten up or even get the threads started into the drive plate. Well here’s one method that might make the job a little easier, but it does depend on the individual motor setup. If you have a Prop Drill Jig like the one that Desert Aircraft engines produce, then the whole job is made a lot easier. If you can find a jig that’s the right size for your engine then buy it, they’re worth the money.
However if you don’t have a drill jig, then here’s a possible alternative method to getting the job done, with my examples being shown here for a DLE 35 Gas engine. First up you will require a Drill press to do a good job, no drill press and you’ll need some good luck!!
25 Next, if the cap screw bolts are metric such as 5mm, then you will be requiring a drill size one Imperial size larger eg for a 5mm Bolt, drill a 13/64 hole (5.15mm) Now, if you have access to someone with a lathe, then see if they will kindly make you up a prop shank insert that you can plug through the engines prop washer and into the prop to hold the prop washer in place. Check the Crank shaft size first, the DLE 35 is 10mm. See the pictures. If you can’t organise an insert, then a bolt the same size as the crank shaft can be used as an alternative (cut to length though). In the case of the DLE 35 engine, the crankshaft size is 10mm, so that’s an easy size to sort out a suitable 10mm bolt. Using the prop washer as a drill guide and with double sided tape on the bottom to stop it turning around, you can now drill out the cap screw bolt holes with some confidence that they will all line up. The most important thing to ensure when drilling the holes is to have your drill shaft dead vertical in the drill press relative to the drill presses foot plate. If the foot plate is even slightly off then there will be a problem!!! Drill your first hole and then place a cap screw bolt into it before drilling the remainder of the holes, this is a quick safeguard to ensure you keep the prop securely washer in place. And that’s that, simple if you take care to set it all up first!
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27 Windy Waterplanes on Sunday 22 November Wayne Cartwright
The day started with an unscheduled but very impressive paddling demo by Phil Hall. He had taken his rescue boat for a warm-up buzz around the lake but had a fuel feed problem that stopped the outboard near the western side. He had to paddle cross-wind back to base, taking about 30 minutes – a mighty effort.
A suggestion that Gordon Meads might strip off and swim to help was quashed on the grounds that he would not be a pretty sight! While Phil recovered, mechanic Gordon made a temporary fix for the day – much appreciated. There was a good turn- out, including visitors from Auckland and Rotorua, with about twenty models.
However, only seven aircraft flew because conditions were dominated by turbulent south westerlies of around 25kph gusting 30 kph.
Gordon flew his ‘No Collisions’ fun-fly style model twice – probably for honour more than enjoyment. He said that the thick wing made flying tricky in the choppy air near the water.
28 Gordon’s “No Collisions” takes flight Little chance of any with so few flying
The Cessna Cardinals flown by Lyndon Perry and Grant Finlay coped with the conditions very well. Both were built from Lyndon’s mouldings and had the wing loading and power (a 60 and a 90) needed to cut through the gusts. Smooth aerobatics were flown at about four times scale speed. Amazingly, this was the maiden for Grant’s yellow model – in conditions that were very challenging. His confidence was justified when the model needed only a few trimming tweaks before a second flight.
Grant flew his Cessna Cardinal very well, but then we would expect him too !
29 One of our Auckland visitors flew a low-wing Calmato with confidence until a float dug in during an attempted touch-and-go.
To me, the highlights of the day came when Malcolm Foster flew two very light twin electric flying boats. One was the high wing model that was written up in MFW a while ago. The other one was more recent – a biplane styled after the British flying boats of the late 1920s, complete with much struttery and rigging. The motors were mounted on carbon rod tripods attached to the foam fuselage in front of the wing and were cowled by realistic dummy radials.
Malcolm Foster’s stunning electric flying boats
30 Malcolm’s models are all own- design and are literally works of art. They use carved foam and other low-cost materials to produce very light but strong airframes that ‘look the part’. The biplane had stout cotton thread rigging that kept the thin foam wings very firm in the rough conditions. Both models were bounced around by gusts but were highly controllable in the air and on the water. The biplane levitated as soon as power was applied. Malcom gets no techno help from his radio because he uses a pensionable long-wire Futaba transmitter without rates or exponential.
Malcolm’s two flights should have sent the message to the rest of us that the conditions were obviously flyable for all of our models. However, most of them continued to shelter in vans or sit stubbornly on the grass – mine included. But ….. it was still a good day.
The bulletin editors Timber stayed in his car all day….wimp.
31 More from a very windy float plane day
Phil Hall and Malcolm Foster
HMAC’s top man Graeme Bradley holds court with Mike O Grady and others.
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Confucius says “Don’t be deceived by the blue sky”
Lyndon about to test the water so to speak.
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Quadcopter 550 square Carbon construction, 4 x TURNIGY D3530/14 11,000 Kv / 25A ESC's, LED's and KKS controller, needs 3 cell battery. $150
Tricopter homemade 450 wooden booms folding construction, 3 x RC Timer motors and 20A ESC's, LED lights, LV alarm, tail servo, KKS controller. Needs 3 cell battery. $150,
Call or txt Noel 021 644 785
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36 November Scale Competition Waharoa Gordon
After a long break a scale competition was held at the Waharoa flying field. With the disruptions to flying this year due to covid, weather, etc. this was the first & last comp. for the year. Unfortunately only two were able to attend from HMAC and the overall entry was light but about 10 competed. The weather was fairly kind although there was a bit of a breeze across the strip. There were only 2 entry’s in novice with the rest in advanced. Our main man Grant Finlay took away the winners spoils in advanced with his first outing of the Bruce Pickering built/Warren Setters owned/ Grant Finlay finished Fletcher FU24. He flew superbly all day to take out a well deserved victory. Arjen Visser (Auckland) was in second place flying a newly completed Wilga which is a superb model and was well flown. The rest of the field staggered along trailing in the distance! Damo (Auckland) was first in novice flying his P40 Warhawk. This was his first attempt at scale competition. Rumour has it he has a very nice Fletcher almost completed so it will be nice to see it in a future comp. So, a good day of flying with no dramas or misdemeanours!
Arjen Visser - Wilga
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Damian Van Heusen – P40 Warhawk
Grant Finlay – FU24 Fletcher
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Gwyn Avenell – Cessna Birddog
Mike Briggs – PT19
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Tony Christiansen - Stinson
First place - Well done Grant
40 Building Tips 3 Yet more from Aunty
Ever had issues plugging all those extension leads together when you are bolting the wing on and getting them all mixed up….yep, me too and more often than I like to admit ! With complicated models requiring a multitude of servo leads to be plugged together, it easy to get it wrong. I’ve tried labelling the leads, but that means reading the labels which also means glasses or big labels! So colour coding seems an obvious solution. I’ve used coloured cable ties in the past and that works, but means finding different coloured ties. Plastic coloured labels attached to the wires is another solution if you can find them So recently I thought I would try Nail Polish and see how that went… (and yes… I did have to go and buy some!) A trip to the $2 Dollar cheapy shop saw a supply of different brightly coloured nail polish for around $2 a bottle. Six bottles and you’ve probably got your life times supply…unless your partner takes a liking to the colours that is! Anyway, as you can see from the photo’s it a quick and simple job to paint the ends of the servo lead plugs and job done. Thus far I’ve upgraded a couple of my models and its definitely proven to be a great result (even with blurred vision). Try it and see for your self!
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Ooops. Parting Shot:
Lyndon Perry brings his Cessna Cardinal in for a spectacular landing
Photo: Antony Wright (Highbrook MAC) 43 Coming Events 2020 - 2021
December 2020 • RC Aerobatics Competition Norsewood December 5, 2020 - @ Galloway Farm, Norsewood (Southern Hawkes Bay) • RC Aerobatics Competiton December 5, 2020 - @ JR Airsail Airfield, 299 Native Rd, Pukekawa • HMAC Christmas BBQ and Fun fly December 6, 2020 - @ HMAC Reekers Field, 231 Collins Road Hamilton • HMAC Christmas Club Night Meeting December 9, 2020 - @ Beerescourt Bowling Club Club Rooms, 68A Maeroa Road (behind the tennis pavilion) • HMAC Christmas BBQ and Fun fly (Raindate) December 13, 2020 - @ HMAC Reekers Field, 231 Collins Road Hamilton • RC Pylon Racing Series December 20, 2020 - @ JR Airsail Airfield, 299 Native Rd, Pukekawa
January 2021 • MFNZ National Championships – Multiple events January 3, 2021 11:00 am - January 8, 2021 @ Clareville • RC Aerobatics Competition January 23, 2021 - @ TECT All Terrain Park Model Flying Centre, Pyes Pa Road. (29km from Tauranga, 27km from Rotorua )
February 2021
• Warbirds over Awatoto February 6 and 7, 2021 - @ MFHB Awatoto Field, Napier • HMAC Club Night Meeting February 10, 2021 - @ Beerescourt Bowling Club Club Rooms, 68A Maeroa Road (behind the tennis pavilion) • Vintage Competition and Rally February 20 and 21, 2021 - @ JR Airsail Airfield, 299 Native Rd, Pukekawa • RC Aerobatics Rumble Competition February 26, 2021 - February 28, 2021 @ Hawkes Bay Radio Flyers Field, Awatoto, Napier • RC Pylon Racing Series – Waikato Champs February 27 – February 28, 2021 - @ JR Airsail Airfield, 299 Native Rd, Pukekawa
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The Editor would like to thank all those who have contributed articles and photos throughout the year to help make the HMAC Newsletter one of the best in the country
(Editors view is final and no correspondence will be entered into)
Merry Christmas everyone
Next Flight Lines February 2021 February Newsletter deadline – Wednesday 3 February 2021
For further up to date event info please visit: http://www.hamiltonmac.org.nz/
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