June 2016 BBQ Time - Take two!!! Well last months BBQ was a total washout, lets hope that this months turns

out to be a little bit dryer, the BBQ will be lit around 6 ish, bring your food, drink and models and lets see if we can get some flying in! Please shut the gate when you enter the field. From the Chair We have now renewed Dishforth for 16/17, fees will remain at £4 per person per session Sat or Sun As the airfield is no longer active we don’t need to do

FOD walk of the runway but still need to do the car checks before coming onto the airfield. We need to keep up with the crash book and also be aware of the air ambulance and other air traffic that fly over the airfield now. Unfortunately I won’t be available for the June BBQ as once again I am in the US. Adrian Membership News Memberships this month have slowed somewhat with only a couple of enquiries and a couple pending, we will see what happens over the next month. So to keep me busy I have been working on revamping the membership cards, Some of you will have received their new cards and some haven't, to those who haven't if you see me at any of the flying fields stop me and get yours! Funfly news The fun fly will be held some time soon, watch the forum and your inbox for details as I will do a mailshot with more details when they become available. www.harrogate-model-flying-club.co.uk www.harrogate-model-flying-club.co.uk

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Competition season is here again! Thought I would give you a brief overview of how I got on in the first of this years Northern League E-soaring competitions

The firsts northern e-soaring competition was scheduled for Wetlands in Lincolnshire, I arrived at the flying field at 9:15, got parked and assembled my aircraft for the day the euphoria 4 metre and the backup plane the Supra Ultralight 3 metre (which is actually my heavy plane despite the name). Once assembled I had a test flight of the Euphoria and then went to sign in and pay. The competition was to be flown over 7 rounds, each round having three slots with 6 pilots in each slot. I was drawn in slot 2 for the first round and then slot 1 for the remaining 6 rounds, not a bad draw really as it meant that even if I timed for someone in one of the other slots I would still have a free slot to prep for my flight. (should say that each pilot is expected to help out with timekeeping when they are not flying). The weather for the morning session was superb for thermal soaring, lots of patched of lift blowing through, subsequently flight times were all in the high 9 minutes and the landing bonus was the deciding factor, I managed 3 flights with the shortest being 9 minutes 45 seconds but missed any landing bonus by dropping short of the spot, this put me way down the field (in more ways than one!). Round 4 was flown after a short lunch break and the weather had started to change, all three slots in the round recorded scores in the 6 minute ballpark, not a major disaster as one round from each competitor is dropped so I was going to drop this flight. Round 5 saw a band of very strong lift blow through a couple of people got caught out by this and ended up way too high to get down safely in the time allowed (one got disorientated and lost his model all together, lucky for him it was found in a field a couple of miles away in perfect condition – just goes to show that setting a failsafe and putting your phone number on your model is a great idea!). When I got into the air the lift had passed and I only managed to score a 7 minute 25 second flight with a 35 landing bonus, not the worst score in the round but a good 2 minutes behind the best! Round 6 was back to form doing 9 minutes 25 and 10 landing bonus. At this point I knew I was out of the top 5 but still had a change to finish in the top half of the table, but as the last slot of round 6 was flown the weather changed dramatically, the wind dropped to nothing and the clouds started to change to black, usually a localised weather front causes this and its usually a sign that there will be some lift around, which was just what I needed as I had to put in a flight in the high 9’s to have a chance at finishing up the table. As soon as the hooter sounded to start the slot I launched and as there was no wind at all I climbed steeply towards the far end of the field as any warm air trapped under the trees would probably be released by the cold front that was coming, as I neared the top of the climb the glider got knocked to the left by a bump of air, this is just what I was looking for so I swung her round hard right to come nose into the lift (the motor was off by this time) and sure enough she got bumped again but again to the left meaning I had missed the centre of the lift, again I came round hard left this time to see if I could find the centre of the lift and missed it again, at this point I noticed I was drifting out to the far left of the field, wasn’t losing any height but also not gaining any either, my time keeper told me I had 6 minutes to fly. Suddenly I noticed out of the corner of my eye that all the other pilots in this round were way out to the right and all appeared to be hovering!! Not a good sign, then the wind hit me, it had shifted through 90 degrees and picked up to what I was later told was gusting to 20 mph, suddenly I found myself in the worst possible position to be in with a lightly loaded model……200 metres up half a mile down wind and being blown in the wrong direction!! Suddenly the idea of getting a maximum score went out the windows, I had two choices, 1.

Call it a day on this round and switch the motor on, score zero and save the model.

2.

Try like hell to get back by feeding in down trim and lifting the flaps and hoping that have enough height to clear the pits and land in the field.

I opted for option 2 as I could always use option 1 if I ended up too low or likely to land out of the field. Two clicks of down trim had little effect so the flaps were lifted into speed mode, this was like pressing a down button in a lift, the model sank but didn’t appear to be getting any nearer, I fed in a little more down trim thinking that I must be gaining speed when all of a sudden the model appeared to level out and as I clicked the down trim off she ballooned up, obviously the trees on the far right of the field were providing some shelter from the wind, enough to allow me to scream back into the field and bounce down in what was probably the most ugly landing of the day! Recording a 7:40 flight with 10 landing bonus, and surprisingly the second best flight in that slot! But was it enough?? Well…….. no I ended up finishing 8th, not my best finish but as there were only 200 points separating first and 10 th I feel that it wasn’t a bad showing! Next competition is at wetlands on the 18th June if you fancy helping, we could always use a timekeeper or two! Andy Nelson

www.harrogate-model-flying-club.co.uk

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Lets go fly a kite! Radio Controlled Kites Yes!!, R/C kites No Strings attached. These kites are not too well known in the UK or Europe, but in the Far East especially Singapore and Malaysia they are very popular. I first became aware of these kites whilst on a business trip that involved a few days in Singapore, with nothing much to do on an evening I wandered along the sea front area towards the Marina. I saw what I thought was a brightly lit UFO, then another appeared, only to find it was a weekly demonstration by a local model flying club called 'goflykite' using a radio controlled kite, 'NO STRINGS'. They have been operating in Singapore producing R/C kites since 1998, so it is not a new idea. The kite can fly extremely slow, even hover, and is fully aerobatic. As can be seen from the photos below, the kite is basically a carbon fibre rod framework covered in high strength nylon. It is powered by an electric motor running off a 7.4 v 1100 ah LiPo battery and turning a 9 x 7 plastic propeller. The whole unit is extremely light and therefore troublesome in windy conditions. The transmitter operates as a throttle and a combined elevator / aileron input I ended up buying one of these kites as a ready to fly kit complete with servos and transmitter. The first time I tried to fly it was a complete disaster, it was like a magnet being attracted to the ground, so I had some work to do on the balance and Centre of Gravity. On my next visit to Singapore I arranged a training session with the suppliers expecting to be flying in a couple of hours, unfortunately it was on a simulator and it didn't go down too well as I was trying to fly it using separate elevators and ailerons when the kite had a combined elevator / aileron feature, and on my return home the kite was put away in storage. On a recent visit to Dishforth to watch a cycling event, my wife talked me into walking across to where the R/C flying was taking place. I met Andy Nelson and explained that I had a Radio Controlled kite and wanted to learn how to fly it. He and other members present had never heard of a R/C kite an were curious to what it would look like and how it would handle. I have now joined the club and attended a couple of meets at Dishforth but I still haven't flown it myself yet due to too strong a wind. So when you see someone constantly crashing what looks like a big yellow and purple kite, complete with LED lights it will be me trying to get to grips with it. It flys in Mode 2, so if you want to have a go let me know. There are a number of good videos on the internet showing what the kites can do. The main site is www.goflykite.com, or look at a site on Youtube called Sky dancers Singapore (Make sure you get the wording right or you could get a dodgy web site). Geoff Mason - New Member

www.harrogate-model-flying-club.co.uk

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Buddy Lead setup A common theme at Dishforth seems to have been “setting up buddy box” problems on spektrum, after a couple of emails with some friends (one on the spektrum helpdesk US) I got sent this procedure for initial buddy box setup, I have posted it here in its entirety, I bear no responsibility for its accuracy!!!! But hope it helps! From now on in the article remember - the DX6i will be the MASTER transmitter (The one the Instructor will hold in hand during flight) The DX4e will be the SLAVE transmitter (The one the student will hold in hand during flight.) 1. Before leaving the house make sure BOTH transmitters have fresh FULLY charged batteries. 2. Go the field where you will be flying. Make sure there is enough room for a new student to fly (A big field with few trees and obstacles) 3. The instructor will bind the DX6i (MASTER) to the model. 4. Always do a pre flight check of control surfaces and a range check for safety! 5. The instructor should now fly the model. Trim the plane out so it flies straight and level and stable at about ½ throttle. Land the plane. 6. Put the plane on a bench and remove the battery & propeller for safety. (If something goes wrong with the setup, no one will get injured and the plane won’t fly off the bench and get damaged.) You are now ready to set up and test the Buddy Box link. Follow the procedures listed below in order and it should work perfectly and you will have a safe and fun experience teaching someone to fly. 1. With the propeller removed make sure the throttle is all the way back and turn on the DX6i TX. 2. Put the battery in the model and let the DX6i bind with the RX in the model. 3. Check that all control surfaces and throttle are working properly. 4. With the power switch remaining in the ON position, plug the buddy box cable into the port on the back of the DX6i (FIRST.) 5. Pick up the DX4e TX. 6. IMPORTANT: Make sure the power switch on the DX4e is in the OFF position. (Important note: During Buddy Box instruction the power switch on the DX4e should always be in the OFF position even during flight.) 7. Make sure the throttle is all the way back on the DX4e. 8. Plug the Buddy Box cable into the port on the back of the DX4e. The TX should turn itself ON when you plug in the cable. This is normal and how it should work. Leave the power switch OFF on the DX4e, even during flight! 9. Now thoroughly check the buddy box link by doing the following: 10. Pull up and hold the trainer switch on the DX6i. Move the sticks on the DX6i. They should NOT move the control surfaces on the model. 11. Release the trainer switch on the DX6i and the control surfaces should move again. 12. Pull up and hold the trainer switch on the DX6i move the sticks on the DX4e and the control surfaces and throttle on the model should work. (Make sure the control surfaces move in the right direction!) 13. While moving the sticks on the DX4e release the trainer switch on the DX6i. The control surfaces should stop working on the model and return function to the DX6i. 14. Cycle the trainer switch a few times to ensure that the link is good and both transmitters are working properly with the buddy box link. You have one more step to do before your first Buddy Box flight. The model is already trimmed by the DX6i. (MASTER) IMPORTANT: You MUST make sure the DX4e (SLAVE) is trimmed to match the trims on the DX6i (MASTER) before you fly. This is the procedure to match the trims equally on both transmitters. 1. With the cable still plugged in to both transmitters, set both transmitters on the bench side by side. 2. Make sure the throttle stick’s are all the way back on both transmitters. 3. Keep your eyes on the control surfaces of the model. 4. Without touching the sticks pull up on the trainer switch and release it repeatedly on the DX6i. If you see the control surfaces change when you cycle the trainer switch, it means the trims are not matched. 5. Do not touch the trims on the DX6i. 6. You must adjust the trims on the DX4e to match the trims on the DX6i. 7. Keep fine tuning the trims on the DX4e until you can cycle the trainer switch on the DX6i without seeing hardly any movement on the control surfaces. Turn off the DX6i (master) remove the battery from the model and install the propeller. You are now ready to maiden your buddy box system.

www.harrogate-model-flying-club.co.uk

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June Spot the Difference

OK there were 5 differences last month, congratulations if you managed to find them all, this months picture has quite a few more , let me know how many you can find this month, there are quite a few so best of luck and happy hunting!

Useful Internet Resources

easycomposites.com

modelfixings.com

sussex-model-centre.co.uk

screws, nuts, etc

Carry a great range of models and supplies and can ship even the largest stuff at reasonable prices

nogginend.com

advantagehobby.com

gliders.uk.com

suppliers of small quantities of aluminium, brass, steel, etc

O.S. engine spares( where parts are unavailable in the UK )

Not all sailplanes but actually a really great model shop too!

tracytools.com

westwalesmodels.co.uk

fast-lad.co.uk

drills, taps, dies, reamers, etc

all RC supplies (had good service from them)

All things rotor, great for ESC’s servos and radio stuff too

If you need carbon fibre, glass, kevlar these are the people to go to, they also have carbon fibre tubes, sheets, basically anything you could need in the composites field.

www.harrogate-model-flying-club.co.uk

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Items for Sale

DAS LIDDLE STIK I have this DAS LIDDLE STIK for sale, it was built by the late Andy Brewster to the original plans as published in the AMA. I am selling this one as it is taking space in the workshop and I doubt if I will fly it again, so offered to club members at a knock down price of £ 60-00. This is a “Built Up” model, not an ARTF, yes this one is made from balsa, ply, nylon and dope. It is 48” span, it comes with a strong OS 25 engine, Futaba 3003 servos, switch and NiMH battery, so it is basically add your receiver, fuel it up and fly. It is currently fitted with a Futaba 35 Mhz receiver which can be left in, this is great nowadays as no one uses 35 Mhz If you would like to view the model let me know, Tel 07740 391 869 or Email [email protected] I do have a 35 Mhz Futaba TX that I can throw in for £ 10 extra.

FOR SALE I have a Sundridge full length outdoor winter suit for sale, super quality, fully waterproof, fleece lined, cost over £100 originally, worn only a couple of times, and in perfect condition. Detachable hood. Bought for me but sadly too large (size large) I`m asking £35 ...a real bargain. If your interested drop Mick Chadwick an email on [email protected]

www.harrogate-model-flying-club.co.uk

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