Have you ever has a week that you would rather forget? Unfortunately the third week of October was one of those weeks for the Kalgoorlie Club, with two nasty hand injuries occurring after a long spell of injury free modelling.

One member came into brief contact with a propeller whist tuning an engine at home received a gash to the ball of his thumb that required five stitches. However, he was easily outdone by another who required two hours of surgery under general anaesthetic and an unknown number of internal and external stitches to his right little finger. A moment’s lapse of concentration saw him drop his hand into the prop on an O.S. 46FX at full noise, stopping the motor.

As Safety Officer you may now expect me to launch into a lecture on the perils of our hobby. However, any message I would deliver is likely to be soon forgotten and filed away with any number of warning from other scribes. Unfortunately it seems that propellers have always been and will always be a major danger to power modellers, with no foreseeable solution. Electric starters have helped, rear needles have helped but there is no real answer except promoting 100% concentration, and encouraging individuals to develop their own rituals of safe behaviour.

The injuries suffered by our two members had an immediate effect on the events planned for the day. They effectively reduced the number of competitors for our second Open Class Combat round by half. Then I suffered a servo failure (fortunately, on the ground) to leave only John Bates in readiness to compete. Sorry John, hopefully by next month we will all be ready for action again. We may possibly be able to field a few of our first Gremlin based combat wings, if all goes to plan, thanks to a visit from Bob Fry from the Mercurians.

During a recent visit to relative in Kalgoorlie, Bob called out to the club and gave a very impressive demonstration of the Gremlins capabilities, pointed out a number of construction details and providing us with plans complete with instruction notes. Bob’s enthusiasm served to fuel our desire to get combat happening in the Goldfields. We are getting there but our progress has been frustratingly slow. Our first round of Open Combat was an outstanding success with Trevor Parnell taking home the twenty dollar gift voucher generously provided by the Boulder Hobby shop. Four bouts (? Rounds ?) were conducted on the day with no damage to aircraft sustained and a number of cuts achieved. The days activities allowed all of us to familiarise ourselves with the time constraints, scoring system and also showed up a few problems with my hastily devised score-board. All entrants had a ball and the spectators certainly enjoyed the spectacle, even blowing their car horns at the completion of some bouts.

In other news, all club members have been watching with great interest the Delta aircraft currently being flown by John Bates. This scratch built missile was originally designed and started by an ex-Kalgoorlie member Brenwyn Mills, now based in Esperance, who left the basic airframe in John's hands. John has done a great job of completing and proving the design, shaking out a few minor bugs to produce an exceptional aircraft. This reasonably large model is powered by a nose mounted .91 ASP and percolates in no uncertain terms. It is capable of very stable high and low speed, impressive vertical performance and a wide range of crisp precise manoeuvres. The one virtue that impresses me above all others is this configurations ability to fly in any weather, and I would recommend the Delta to coastal clubs in particular that experience more than their fair share of windy days.

The last Sunday of October was extremely uncomfortable with strong gusty winds that accounted for two models attempting to take off, both unfortunately belonging to Trevor Parnell. John flew the Delta a number of times before retiring with a broken nose gear and to watch the Delta fly you would think that it was a calm day. Upwind and down wind speed appeared very similar with no noticeable buffeting and landing in the gusty condition appeared to be a simple matter of lining up the runway, cutting the throttle and flaring the model allowing it to touch down on its main gear.

Another virtue that should not be overlooked is the ease of construction. The wing is constructed of 12mm sheet balsa and butted together, cut to shape and having a hardwood leading edge fitted. The fuselage is a simple box design with a few strategically positioned formers to support the large tail fin. To assist in balancing, the batter pack is mounted in a removable tail cone which in turn provides access to the receiver and servo leads. The servo's are simply mounted directly into the fuselage and use short wire rods to operate the control surfaces.

It is said that simplicity is the virtue of good design and this delta is undeniable proof. We are all looking forward to seeing John develop and enjoy this model to its full extent.

While we are discussing deltas I would like to add my congratulations to others directed in Bob Fry's direction for his recent successful test flights of his ground breaking Pulse Jet powered delta. I would also recommend to other readers that if you have not attempted a scratch built project, to have a go for yourself. You will be a better modeller for your efforts and will learn a great deal about engineering lightness into your models without compromising strength. You will also learn much about many areas of aircraft design and the translation of design principles to the model world.

The work environment in Kalgoorlie attracts a diverse range of skills. This provides benefits to our club allowing us to call on members if we have specific needs. One club member, Peter de Groot is a talented computer jockey and Peter is currently constructing a website for the Kalgoorlie club. If you have access to the Internet you may like to take a look at Peters handiwork. The address is http://kalnet.com.au/gam At this site you may find photos of the afore mentioned Delta and a number of other local models. There are also photos of the clubs facilities, contact addresses and other interesting stuff. Thanks Peter for your efforts in promoting aeromodelling in the Goldfields.

As there will not be a December issue of Windsock I will take this opportunity to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Best Wishes as we move into the last year of the second millennium.