control liners in the 'ready box' on the back of Marks truck.
(Pictures and stories from the last 12 months. For earlier stories see 'Archived club news')
Cowra Model Aircraft Club flies at 'Milroy field' on the Canowindra road almost every Sunday (see 'Who we are and where we fly')
Last years post-dinner Saturday get-together for some 'indoor' flying seemed to go down well so we are planning something similar this year. The 'model of the night' will be the 'Hangar rat'. This is an easy model to build and yet has a remarkable performance (look up u-tube for videos of what's possible). The aim is to have as many flying as possible so that we can do a mass launch at the end of the nightTo help you start Andy has sent out plans people who had registered in previous years. To help people who have never built one before Andy has put together a few tips to get you over the trickiest parts. So no excuses! If you can't knock one together in a night there' something wrong. Should be a good night.
As a club we are really looking forward to this weekend. Our regular flyers really get a buzz out of the CL session at the end of the day when its nice and calm. Many of us are still learning the 'art' and there are plenty of stacks but usually nothing that can't be fixed with a tube or two of CA. It's all good low-cost aeromodelling, something different that gets you out of your rut and great fun. Hope to see you there, perhaps I will have perfected my 'lazy eights' by then!
Click here Andy's Hangar Rat building tips
Helicopter pilots seem to be taking over CMAC at present. Mark, a new member who is very keen has teamed up with Matt to fly at the field most weeks. Several other members who have dabbled in the past are now getting enthusiastic again. We seem to have reached a critical mass of helicopter expertise and who knows where this will lead the club in the future. Certainly the entry-level costs are relatively cheap. While some toys do not really provide long-term satisfaction they still serve as a important entry point into the sport.
As you can see in the pictures, that doen't mean we don't fly other models including control liners . All forms of model flying are great fun and should be encouraged.
Don't forget the 'Oily Hand Diesel day is just around the corner (August 28-29th).For the events flier click here Oily Hand Diesel Day
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| A couple of very nice eleectric helis mixing it with control liners in the 'ready box' on the back of Marks truck. |
Owens little 'Mini Titan' | The interested advisors! |
No easy feat this "combat". After a few rounds we decided it might be best just to try to fly two aircraft in the same circle WITHOUT hitting each other. This was not as easy as it seemed either and was just as nerve-wracking to watch from the sidelines. Just as much fun as 'full-on' combat at this stage.
However the Sabres are just about worn-out and we will probably need a building program soon to keep them in the air and 'non-combat' on the go.
In the mean time I have been putting a "Plank" togther although Mat reckons it's taking way too long as he slapped his togther in a night! The greatest delay has been caused by a lack of balsawood as I didn't have any in the right sizes. Local toyworld stores in the area didn't have any stock in the right sizes that were hard enough for the job and wern't too interested in getting any more in. Another bigname model supplier also didn't have any and said he was mostly into ARFs these days anyway. Finally 'Bunnings' came through with the goods. Although it is also a bit on the light side I can't wait any longer. Looks like Balsa is becoming a specialist item these days!
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| The 'Blaze' from an old Aeromodeller magazine. Hollow foam wing covered in brown paper and PVA. OS25FP power: smooth running and trouble free. |
"Another 'Plank' under construction (still deciding whether it needs a vertical fin). Refurbished Enya 19 converted to CL and a 30yr old Aeroflyte tank that was cut to size. CL belcrank from who-knows-where or when, but I've had it a while. |
Andy and Owen's "NA Sabre" jets are now very war-weary. |
On the other hand you don't need to go out and buy new stuff. If you have a couple of old engines and set of wires at home (or can srounge them off someone else) you can make something very cheaply that will put a smile on your face.
Andy has been flying his fleet of well patched 'all sheet' Cox 049 Sabres as well as a Fox 29 powered Hearn's 'Demon. I have been flying a Sarpoulos 'Little Brother' powered by an AM10 and a OS25 powered 'Blaze' from Aeromodeller plans. Matt's model which has become known as 'The Plank' was put together and fuel proofed in a single evening. This is not hard to believe but despite its simple lines it flies well. It does inside and outside loops, extended inverted flight, lazy eights etc. with ease. Both the Sabres and Matts 'The Plank' bounce when they crash and are soon back in the air. This is just as well because Andy has been perfecting his 'number 9 manouvre' (a 3/4 loop followed by a vertical landing). While the other models are great they take a bit more to fix, which is why we don't take the same risks with them as we do the simpler designs and as a result don't seem to get quite as much enjoyment or satisfaction from them.
The moral of the story is if you want to maximise flying time and adrenaline...keep it simple. A photos of Matts plane is included to inspire you.
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| Two of Andy's now much patched Sabres in better days (he now has black one and a red one too). Cowra MAC also has a few spare Sabre plans if anyone would like a copy |
The Sarpoulous 'Little Brother' to one of his larger designs (a free Aeromodeller plan) |
Matts own 'The Plank' design. Vertical stabiliser kept falling off but didn't seem important so its not used now! |
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Thursday morning saw us at River Park with Ian’s Sopwith Pup, Jeremy’s little Parkzone Sukhoi and and aged TD3 Cap. Great mornings flying capped off at a local coffee shop. After lunch we headed to the field. I had my good friend the Fourstar and my Adrenaline plus a couple of C/L models.
Jeremy had his Mega brushless powered Stryker. This is an incredible performer which has been in Jeremy’s stable for years. He also had a Multiplex Easy Star motor-glider which is a testbead for different motor, prop, battery and controller combos. Fitted on board is a GPS and data logger which records data throughout the flight which can then be downloaded to a laptop to analyse performance of differing combos. Ian bought out his Irvine 61 powered Phoenix Tiger 60 and his little Pup so it could play with the big dogs out at the field.
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| Andy's trusty Adrenaline - not sure about the pilot though. | Jeremy and Ian flying the Stryker Ian's open mouth says it all I think. |
Matt Robson came down at afternoon teatime for cake and a cuppa. He bought along his rough and ready “Plank “(apt description) control liner. Everyone had a fly and as the sun sank in a ruddy glow below the horizon yours truly managed to do a number nine and break the prop. That meant it was time to end an excellent day and head home. Looking forward to the Randle chappie finding time to come and visit again sometime.
The main problem was the instructions. The english translation was not clear and some vital bits were missing. Thankfully the internet came to the rescue and everthing now works as it should.(for more information see http://www.chucklohr.com/808/#raisethedeadone)
Having tried it out over several weeks on a GWS pico moth I consider it a sucess.The beauty of it is it size. It's so light and small you can put it on small vehicles such as Bell, Lama or Blade2 type indoor helis or the GWS foam pico moth or cub types. Picture quality is surprisingly good! 2-3 minute translates to about 200mb (and anything longer is a bit boring anyway).The video clip below is about 47mb.
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| The Pico moth camera plane with velcro camera mounts> |
The landing looks rough but the grass was a bit long! |
Best location for the camera seems to be either looking back over the tail or forward to the side (avoiding the prop) pointing about ~15-30 degrees down. If you get the prop in the image it puts a series of horizional lines across the image. The GWS moth is a very nice platform because it’s light and you can mount it in either front or rear cockpit or on the wing center section.
On the down-side the pico moth gets blown around even in mild conditions. Calm on the ground is not always calm at 30m AGL though this is not a huge problem if you choose the right time.
Unlike the OS engines you can't just take the rear crankcase cover off to check crank position either (see photos).One approach is to take photos before disssasembly and try to put the cams back in the same position. I tried this but wasn't too confident I'd got it right. Then Andy suggested I use a timing-disc.I tried it and it worked really well.
The photos below tell the story.
The engine is mounted on two pieces of aluminium angle. Two school protractors (cost 50c each) are drilled out and fastened to the prop driver using the prop nut and suitable spacer. TDC is determined by inserting either a dial gauge or a small probe down the glow plug hole. The protractor was then adjusted until the 180 degree mark and TDC coincided with the top right hand face (looking from the back) of the aluminium angle.
| The $1 timing-disc marked in red at 40 degrees before TDC, TDC (red dot), 30 degrees after TDC and direction of rotation |
The instructions for the Laser 150 indicate that the inlet valve should start to open at 40 degrees before TDC. This is achieved by turning the engine over until the protractor indicates 40 degrees before TDC and then placing the cam so that it is just starting to lift the cam follower. I found it easier to remove the rocker by undoing the single retaining bolt and sliding the rocker shaft out rather than removing the 5 cylinder head bolts. The exhaust cam is set in a similar way so that the cam follower bottoms out with the disk positioned at 30 degrees after TDC . A dial gauge on the rocker arm above the valve as a final check showed the settings to be spot on.
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| setting inlet valve cam (LHS) at 40 degrees BTDC |
TDC (note red dot on disc is aligned with top of aluminium angle) | setting exhaust valve cam (RHS) at 30 degrees ATDC |
Is all this really necessary? While the photgraphic method probably would work I certainly felt happier using the timing-disc method. When you think of it the cam gear only has 24 teeth so one tooth out = a whopping 15 degrees. With practice you probably would detect this by eye. On the other hand the timing-disc cost me almost nothing and next time will be even easier.
Just before lunch time a bit of blue sky appeared again and it was on again. At the field models of all sorts appeared from cars and trailers and soon the gentle drone of diesels and the screem of cox 049s indicated that things were getting serious. By the end of the day people were happy.
The Saturday night indoor program a the local highschool hall was also well supported. It proved a little small for the HLG'ers who kept on hitting the walls and other models. RTP was sort of sucessful once we found the where the break in the power lead was. There was a bit of battle damage but after all Mitsubishi Zeros were WWII aicraft so it added an air of realism to procedings. CA fixed most of the damage but eventually the damage got too great and we had to retire. As usual, hangar rat types went really well. My 'vintage' Hangar Rat flew well considering it hadn't flown for 4-5 years and the tissue is a bit the worse for wear.
Sunday was pretty average weather wise and was much too windy for FF. The C/L boys continued to make the most of it. Even the little 049 'CAC Sabre' of Andy's went well until the wind picked up. I have never seen a C/L model do barrel rolls before, but there was no real damage done.
There was a bit of carnage. By the end of the day the were a couple of models in the scrap bin but that's aeromodelling isn't it. If you are too afraid to crash them don't fly them. Flying any model has it's risks but that's what we make them for and crashing a model or two just clears space in the shed to build some more.
Anyway, thanks to all who came. You really make our job easy, it was a pleasure to have you come. See you next year perhaps.Here are some shots from the weekend.
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| Saturday morning was miserable... almost called it off! |
But it cleared in time for lunch... in time to get down to the serious business of flying |
Sunday afternoon was really quite nice...except |
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| that it was a bit windy... but that didn't stop the C/L'ers |
The Cox 049 CAC Sabre handled it too...sort of here's Andy showing how it's done |
Line up of models awaiting their turn |
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| so many models came out of cars as it cleared on Saturday afternoon |
Phil's sorta Hurricane 'Ebeneezer'? | Anthony and Ray from Leeton showing their stuff |
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| more models kept on appearing | the smile says it all we hope | some scale RTP battle damage |
After a promising start work has once again got in the way. So far I have only finished the two Ebeneezers. I might get the Tomboy finished before the event If I am fortunate. The CL Spitfire and FF Sopwth Pup may have to wait till next year.
Other than that everthing is just about ready. Matthew has had his hard working girls out there mowing the whole paddock so we should have plenty of room for about 3 CL circles of various sizes if needed and as long as you don't fly out of the paddock (i.e. if you remember to set the timer) finding your FF model should be no problem. Andy and I also spent a relaxed evening screen-printing the OHDD 'rags' that we give out as part of the registration package. With a bit more training from Andy I reckon I'll be ready to have a go at that WWI German 'lozenge' camouflage fabic a 1/4 scale DVIII project. Now all we need is the weather to do the right thing and we are all set for another enjoyable weekends aeromodelling.
As those who have come in the past know, the Weather at this time of year is unpredictable. So far we have always managed to get some good flying in over most of the weekend, but come prepared with warm jackets, beanies and perhaps a raincoat. For those who suffer from hay fever remember this is spring and the wattle and the canola will be out in full bloom. Nice to look at but a bane for those who suffer - still its hard to get away from wherever you are I guess.
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Here are a few shots of Andy hard at work screen printing rags in the shed.