Well, if at first you don't succeed, try three more times then give up!
The Heli Challenge Round 1 will be held on Saturday 10th May, 2008.
Keep an eye out here for any changes.

Once again the threat of poor weather has called for the postponment of Round One of Heli Challenge Trophy 2008.
At present the new date is provisionally set for
** Saturday 10th May 2008, SRFC, Co.Wicklow **

Congratulations to our club treasurer Brian McIntyre and his wife Carmel on the birth of their twin sons.
That makes four altogether.
I hope one day he will figure out what is causing this! :-)

The forecast doesn't look good for Saturdays heli challenge, so keep an eye out here for updates.

Due to a bad weather forecast, the Heli Challenge is postponed until next Saturday the 3rd of May

A full one piece version of the stuka review can be found here:

"STUKA REVIEW"

Who can guess this WW2 airplane?
Send your answer to me at the address above.

'93 Alfa - full of Iron and Ruthenium!

You can observe a lot of glass,

It side-swiped some linden trees,

It loves its brother Las Vegas machines but doesn't get into a tizzy,

Benito likes it,

But newborn babies just LOVE it. Need I say more?

YES, it was COLD!!!



Well, I had every intention of just taxi testing the Stuka today. After all, it was blowing a gale (almost) and was very gusty. Met Eireann described it as "blustery" and I think they hit the nail on the head. Neil Agnew was the only one hardy enough to join me in trying to freeze our backsides off.

Assembly on the field was quite easy and straight forward, thanks to Tim Costello's nifty stand. Even in the high wind there was no trouble and I can recommend it highly.

The next thing to get out of the way was the range check. With the XPS gear the check goes as follows: Remove antenna from tx.

Turn on tx and rx.

Hold button on tx to lower power to 10 milliwatt.

Walk 50 feet away and do a complete circle around the plane while making sure no control is lost. I varied the procedure here by having Neil spin the plane while I stood still.

Walk away from the plane with the low power button pushed until control begins to be lost then walk the same distance again to make sure there is no control. Once there re-install the antenna and make sure control comes back (button still pushed).

The last bit found me out of the gate and almost to the road before I lost control!

Replacing the antenna brings back full control and releasing the button brings the power up to 100 milliwatts. The next thing we did was take a few pictures, you know, for proof just in case :-)

That done, I taxied it out to the runway. One of the things I was worried about was the small amount of control movement. The rudder only has 20 mm each side. Flaps have 30 mm. Elevator only has 15mm and ailerons have 20mm. Well I didn't need to worry. The plane taxied just fine, so I started a medium speed run down the runway. This seemed to go just fine, so I tried one a bit faster. This time I brought the tail wheel off the ground and even got the mains up a few inches before shutting it down. I then taxied back and said to Neil; "I think I will fly it". Now that I look back on it, Neil had a "ARE YOU MAD" look on his face, but I didn't really notice it then. I then asked him if he thought I should fly it, but I didn't hear his answer because I had already decided to fly it by then and my ears were switched off along with my brain and many other parts of my body. All I could do now was concentrate on not needing a body bag to bring my Stuka home.

So I gradually increased throttle. Roll down the runway. A bit of a push was needed to get the tail wheel up so the plane didn't take off before enough speed was gained. "OH CRAPP!" The control movement was plenty" The extra few millimetres I gave it were not necessary and combined with the very gusty conditions, made it worse. Not to worry though, I managed to get it up and away. It was very twitchy to fly, because there was way too much movement on the elevator and ailerons and even with expo, it made for a bumpy ride. Also, every time I turned, the pitch would increase considerably. I think this was due to me pulling back a bit and the elevator being too sensitive.

The climb out was ok but a bit steep. Then the turn to downwind and "zoom" , it was gone with the wind (BIG wind) and I had to turn before I had chance to think. It got a bit far away and I almost lost orientation in the turn when the high aileron movement made the wings bank too fast. I managed to complete the turn and level off for a much slower upwind pass. This is when I noticed the sound of a full size plane coming from the general direction of my Stuka. I stopped shaking so much then and began to smile, because the sound was coming FROM my Stuka. This has to be the best thing to happen to electric planes since lipos. The sound is very realistic and I can't wait for a calmer day to do some low fast passes with engine roaring and guns blazing.

I only did two or three circuits and decided it was time to land. I was very nervous about this as you can guess, since the elements and the controls were ganging up on me to try to get the plane in that body bag. I was still at the end of the runway in the same position as when I took off and in spite of Neil telling me several times to move to the middle of the runway (ears still closed) my feet were rooted to the spot. This caused me to forget the wind direction and the runway I was supposed to land on and I made an approach on the same line I was doing the circuits on. By the time I realized my mistake, the plane was half way down the runway and just starting over the high grass. With "Got to get down" planted firmly in my mind, I got hit by a big gust that picked the plane up and over a bit. I was able to mostly regain control, but it bounced in from about a foot and a half and then nosed over. It wasn't going too fast by the time it was on the ground so the nose up only dislocated the barrel on one of the guns. The landing gear was bent and one of the wheel pants was cracked where it was glued together. I will have it fixed and ready to go in about an hour.

As Neil said, "there are not a lot of planes that would have flown in that wind" and I can tell you, I am not going to try it again! The reason I did is because I thought it would be safer to have a big headwind for landing since the weight of the plane might cause a high stall speed. I don't think it was necessary. The flaps slowed it down and even stabilized it a bit and if I was lined up with the runway, I might have had a good landing. (Don't laugh Neil!)

Here are a few pictures. There are two that look the same, but one has the guns firing and the other doesn't. They look better in real life and of course they sound better too.



This was quite a big project for an ARTF, but I have to say I have enjoyed it tremendously. There were a few bits and pieces that had to be worked around, but despite that, it was a well made kit and boy, does it look cool! I can recommend it to all intermediate to advanced builders, but I don't think it is for beginners. I would also suggest that if anyone was going to build a large plane and use the same sound gear and power that I did that the plane should be at least 86 inch wingspan so you don't have to worry about 37 oz/sq.ft. wing loading. This would also give you the opportunity to install larger speakers, which will increase volume.

Don't forget, you can find this plane and a lot more fantastic ARTF's on the YT International website www.ytinternational.co.uk . Tell em I sent ya.

Bob Finley
IRL 3345

Here are a few from the field today (April 3) Thanks to John Shortt.

Stuka part 4.



Well, the building is done and I am now waiting for the weekend for the test flight. I just finished last night and I want to write this now so I don't forget anything. ( The real reason is so I don't have to start cleaning up the mess I have made during the build. )



A lot has been done since the last update. The horizontal stab and stab supports were installed. This worked out well. If you remember, the joining tubes were not installed straight, so the stab halves did not match up with the fuse sides. After contacting Martin at YT International, I was sent a new stab, but on checking this, I found it to be a slight bit off as well. It was not too bad though so I bent the tube a small bit and that fixed the problem. I also installed a small pin at the trailing edge of the stab that continues through the fuse to make sure the halves don't come apart.



The elevator halves were easy enough to install once I spent an age making sure they were going to work after they were glued in. I spend too much time thinking about what I am going to do, but that is because there were times when I just ploughed ahead on things and then realized that there was a better way to do it ( or it doesn't work) after the glue was dry. That's when I use all the nice words I learned in the army.



Gluing the rudder was a bit of a pain, because the hinges don't go all the way in to the wood in the vertical stab. This is because they are hidden hinges and the joint of the hinge has to be inside the rudder. To support and retain the half of the hinge in the fin you have to make up small half disk like pieces of wood that get glued to the fin post and the hinge goes through and is glued to this and the fin post. Remember, these are Robart pin hinges. You also have to figure out how far to have the hinge line so the rudder will move far enough without binding on the bits of the fin that hide the hinges. Needless to say, I took a few days to study this and I am not sure even now that I have it as good as it could have been.



The tail wheel was a bit of a pain as well. It attached to the rudder via a torque arm with two screws and a bit of glue. The arm was only about ¾ inch long and the rudder was thin fiberglass where the screws went, so you know that would not last long. I decided to cut the bottom of the rudder and install a tube that fit the torque arm nicely. Leaving the arm free to twist in the tube kept it from binding. It seems to work, but time will tell.



Here you can see the AXI 5330/24 and the Phoenix 110HV speed controller.



Next it was the control linkages. I decided for two reasons to move the rudder servo all the way back under the horizontal stab. The first was that I thought I might have to put a battery where the pull-pull wires were to get the CG right. And second, I thought it would be easier than installing the wires. As it turned out, the CG was fine with both 6000 mah batteries as far forward as they could go. I decided to use ball links for the attachments on the rudder and elevator as these provided a bit of twisting movement without binding. This was necessary because of the angle the pushrods exited the fuse.



The battery compartment is in the nose of the plane and is made by hot gluing pieces of Styrofoam in to the shape of the batteries. A piece of epp foam wedged in between the batteries and the servo tray keeps the batteries in place.



The receiver is mounted inside the gunner. There is only a 2 inch antenna on the 2.4 gHz XPS system I am using so it fit nicely with just the part where you plug in the wires sticking out. I may cover this in the future, but for now it will do.



The receiver battery is a 3 cell 2250 mah lipo connected to a 5 amp ubec. The ubec brings the voltage down to 5 volts. The battery is monitored by a circuit that I made myself. It has 4 leds that come on as the pack voltage reaches 3.3 , 3.2, 3.1, and 3.0 volts per cell. This monitor works while the rx is on so the pack is under load and the leds show the true condition of the pack.



With everything put together, the empty weight ( without fuel, in this case the batteries ) was 14 pounds. This gave me a bit of a shock, since I was planning to use 4 pounds of A123 batteries. That would have made the total weight 18 pounds with a wing loading of 42 oz/sq.foot! So, I decided to use standard lithium batteries instead. This saved one pound and a bit which brought the wing loading to 39 oz. When you take off the weight for ethanol, you come up with 37 oz. This is still high, but I am told that it is not too high for a war bird. I know I will have to keep the speed up on landing and takeoff. I hope approach speed is under warp 9!



I ran the motor in the waiting room of my office last night. Try that with an IC motor! The power was breath taking and it blew the curtains and cushions all over the place.

I have to say, I am a bit nervous about flying this bird. The wing loading is high and I am planning for a great flight while preparing for the worst. If it is a good flight I will be over the moon, but if not, I will plan to put all the bits that are still working in a model with a larger wingspan.

Wish me luck!

If you are looking for a good place to buy lithium batteries, you should check out
www.desire-battery.com
They are manufacturers and can give you the best prices you will get anywhere.
Just email Kerry at
kerry@desire-battery.com

Here are a few more (click the picture above) taken by Colin Block. He has more on his website,
www.the-dream-factory.com/private.php .
click on "Click Here"
Input User Name: SRFC
Input Password: 1234567
Click on the "FunFly" folder
He can also do professional quality prints from his originals (up to A4) for anyone who wants them.

Wow! What a day. There were about 25 guys flying and about half of them were flying in the Fun-Fly competition. Since a lot of guys didn't realize it was a competition and brought some really nice scale and crazy-fast models, we broke up the day by having off the peg flying after every two rounds of the competition. That worked out great and everyone got a chance to fly, even a few heli's.

We started the day off with ten planes. Six of them went home in body-bags and two went home badly bent! Terry Heffernan managed to come in third. Then Neil Agnew in second. And for the first time I (Bob Finley) came first! Woo Hoo! After 10 years of trying! All I had to do really, was to not crash and let everybody else turn their planes to toothpicks. A strange way to win.

There was lots of food and great fun and it is a shame there weren't more from our club to enjoy it. How ever, what we lacked was well made up for by members of several other clubs and we enjoyed their company greatly. You guys are always welcome.

Click on the picture above to see the rest of the beautiful and brutal.

Easter Monday Fun-fly & Futaba 2.4GHz radio testing clinic
A crazy & fun family event with free testing of all Futaba 2.4GHz for the “Zero ID” Problem.

STARTS 12 NOON

Garry tells me that the farmer said it would be OK to add another container to the clubhouse which will give it an “L” shape with a covered patio section. We also got the OK for an electricity supply via a windmill. We will be asking for a water supply as well. Things are looking better all the time.
If anyone knows where to get a used shipping container, please let Garry know.

The committee would like to ask those who have not paid their subs to please pay them as soon as possible.
You are not allowed to fly at the field until you do.

For Sale:

Depron sheets, white:
700mm x 200mm 3mm thickness 3 euro each
700mm x 200mm 6mm thickness 3.50 Euro each
UHU Por depron/foamie glue 3.50 euro per tube (over 7 euro from Green Hobby!!)
  I have these sheet sizes as 3 sheets does an entire shockie (1 for wing, 1 for fuz, 1 for tail/rudder)
  086 042 6139   Richard Blackburn

All hardy and fair weather flyers alike are cordially invited to our fun-fly and barbecue on Easter Monday, March 24th (‘cos you never came out for the turkey and ham). There will be the craziest maneuvers, the finest burgers and side splitting laughter a plenty – come on, dust off the airplanes and get a move on!

Indoor flying has really taken off this year. There have been ten to fifteen guys and a few kids there every Friday. IFO’s seem to have taken over as the weapon of choice in the crazy aerial combat that takes place in the gym at Rathdown Girls School in Glenagery from 8PM till 10PM . There are also heli’s and shockies and all sorts of weird things that John Moriarty brings with him for us to knock out of the sky. Why not come by and have a look. It is mad fun and you might get hooked.

HAVE YOUR FUTABA RADIO TESTED AND CERTIFIED FOR FREE AT THE FLYING FIELD ON EASTER MONDAY. WE HAVE ORGANIZED TO HAVE THE TESTING SYSTEM ON THE FIELD ON MARCH 24TH SO BE SURE TO BRING YOUR FUTABA RADIO TO BE TESTED, LABELED AND REGISTERED WITH RIPMAX. ASK ANY COMMITTEE MEMBER IF YOU NEED INFO. YOU DON'T NEED TO BE AN SRFC MEMBER. ANYONE IS WELCOME

Futaba Owners – Please be Aware – Urgent Notice For those of you who own Futaba 2.4GHz radio control equipment and who have not been reading the modeling press, you may not be aware of this important issue. Ripmax, the Futaba distributor for Ireland and UK has released the following notice

Futaba 6EX and TM-7 Important Notification

This notification affects only owners of the Futaba TM-7 module and 6EX FASST systems. Each FASST transmitter contains a unique eight digit identification code, programmed at the factory to identify the respective transmitter and to allow a receiver to be paired only to that radio's signal. Recently we have learned that a very small number of the TM-7 modules, and 6EX FASST systems were incorrectly coded with a common code number during the manufacturing process. These units were subsequently sold prior to our awareness of the situation.

If two or more units using this common identification code were to be in use simultaneously, they may cause interference with one another. Please note: Units which use the correct identification code will not be affected by these units.

We're extremely confident that this is not a widespread problem. However, to give you peace of mind that your system is not affected, we will soon be setting up test points at participating model shops throughout the country where you will be able to go to determine -- within a matter of seconds -- whether or not your transmitter is affected, at no charge to you. (We anticipate that all shops will have been advised and that this testing system will be starting in participating shops very shortly, so please contact your local shop to arrange testing.)

Here is a list of events at the club for this year. All are welcome, you don't have to be a member of the SRFC to attend.

March 24th

Easter Monday Fun-fly & Futaba 2.4GHz radio testing clinic
A crazy & fun family event with free testing of all Futaba 2.4GHz for the “Zero ID” Problem.

April 26th

Heli Challenge Trophy Round 1
The most spectacular display of helicopter aerobatics on the east coast with the usual club barbecue. All members welcome to enjoy the action.

June 22nd

Midsummer Family fun day and Barbecue
If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it! Flying off the peg with more of our famous Sugarloaf Burgers.

July 26 or 27th

Wicklow Champs (Scale Contest)
If it looks like a scale airplane – bring it with you. Our qualifying scale event with points counting for national honors. This is a one day event with Sunday as a weather backup.

Sept. 6th

Scale Association Fly-In
A friendly gathering at our field organized by the scale association. Always a great selection of airplanes and endless chat!

Oct. 4th

Scale Association Fly-In
No way to squeeze it all into one fly-in! The same guys, more burgers and airplanes galore at the Sugarloaf.

Just a short update on the Stuka. I had to take a break from working on it for the last few months, but have started again now. The wing is nearly finished after having all the electrics installed. There is a lot of wiring in the wing with four servos, two speakers, gun flashers, gun sound, engine sound, power for the amplifier and the battery to power it all. (I hope this thing gets off the ground!)
This is the flasher circuit board for the guns.

The servos are attached to a small piece of ply and then the ply is screwed to the wing with the servo inside the wing. This is about the easiest method of attaching wing servos that I have seen.

Despite the generally good quality of this kit, there are still a few minor annoyances, like the missing landing gear hold down straps, which I had to make and the bad positioning of the wood blocks on the inside of the wheel pants that the straps get screwed to. It seems that the model was designed well but the person that finished it after it was out of the mould, didn't care that much. Fortunately there were not that many parts he/she could mess up so I am still happy. After testing the cannons with the flashing lights and sound, the excitement makes me forget about any shortcomings.

Well, it is finally official. The cottage is going to be occupied starting in May.

We will begin work soon on the new site, which is the field directly behind the clubhouse.

The committee will be looking for all able bodied members to lend a hand, since they can't do it by themselves (and they shouldn't have to). Messages will be posted here and sent by email to those who have given us their address, as to when we will begin work.

If anyone has any expertise or equipment they can share, please let Garry know. His number is 086 406 7684.

Helpful things are Ground preparation and gardening, contacts who can get hard core, concrete, JCB, a vibrating roller and possibly another container (40 foot this time) and someone who can build a roof on it.

We will be starting this as soon as Garry talks to the farmer and gets him to put in a fence for us. The fence allows him to move his sheep from field to field without having to go through our field which means no more feet and planes covered in sheep droppings and no more wives giving out for bringing it home with us. :-)