G,day from the Goldfields!
It seems that there is no better way of putting the kiss of death on someone than to tell him that he needs a better plane or for a person to say that they have had a good run from a particular plane. This was the case on Sunday 15th when one of our boys pointed out to Dave Holub that he could probably step up to a more capable aircraft than his trainer. On Dave’s next flight he was attempting to reset his trims slightly when he accidentally switched off his transmitter with predictable results. Fortunately although the plane was completely destroyed the gear seems to have survived so it will not be too hard for Dave to upgrade to a new plane. I had a look at Dave’s Transmitter after the dust had settled and noted that the On/Off switch is not shrouded in any way and is large and easy to bump. It is also very close to the trim slides, less than ten millimetres and they are not shrouded in any way either. This would be something I would consider the next time I purchased a Transmitter. Trim adjustment has always been slightly risky often needing a quick glance at the Transmitter, a less than ideal thing to do. Wouldn’t it be great if the manufacturers could come up with a better system. One possibility would be to incorporate the adjustment into the actual stick itself by making it possible to pull up on the stick and move the stick in the desired direction to adjust the trim. This would mean no need to fumble for the trim switches.
As reported in the last Sock we hosted a hastily organised impromptu fly in on the Long weekend at the beginning of October.
By all accounts it was a great success with good weather for the two days, a pleasant BBQ at Mike Prouds home, a successful swap meet on the Sunday and an impressive helicopter night flying demo by Brian Simpson on the Sunday evening.
Unfortunately there were a few aircraft losses amongst our visitors, but to their credit they did not seem to be too concerned and enjoyed themselves anyway. I would like to thank our visitors from Mandurah and Perth for making the effort to come all the way out here to fly with us. My members really enjoyed your company and also enjoyed getting the chance to see a good selection of different aircraft in action.
I would also like to thank my fellow members who assisted in the preparation of the field and facilities, Mike Proud and his good wife Kerry for hosting the BBQ and providing the desserts. My greatest debt for the weekend is without a doubt to my wife Naomi who organised the meat purchasing for the BBQ and made up about eight different salads, delivered them to Mikes and then came home to look after her useless husband who spent his entire weekend on his back in bed with a particularly nasty dose of the flu. Due to the success of the weekend moves are afoot to make it an annual event, so hopefully next year I can participate. The weekend will also be advertised well in advance to allow as many of you good readers to attend as possible.
Those of you following the progress of the Caribou will be pleased to hear that I have had some success with my fiberglassing and have successfully made up the underside cowlings for the Engine undercarriage nacelles. All that is left to make up in structural terms are the engine cowlings and by the next edition of the Sock this should have been done. A very generous friend of mine has provided me with an ARF Pheonix Robin in which to run in the two .25 GMS engines to be used in the Caribou. This is going very well at this stage with the GMS engine proving to be ultra reliable at all speed ranges, a great relief as this is a necessity for successful twin engine operation. I could also recommend the Pheonix Robin to anyone looking for an agile .25 size aircraft. It flies remarkably well, lands easily and went together beautifully with few problems. Fitting the fully fixed cowl engine is a little fiddly but not impossible, however some attention is needed to engine angles. Remember, this is not a biased magazine revue but a true recommendation. Feel free to contact me for more information and building tips if you decide to purchase a Robin. I have an ARF PC9 on order and it will be interesting to compare it to this little plane for ease of building and flying especially as the retail price for the PC9 is double that of the Robin. I will keep you posted.
Peter deGroot has been inspired by a recent visit from Ray Sherburne from the WARMS club. Ray was travelling through Kalgoorlie and gave Peter and myself an impressive demonstration of his Tango gyrocopter midweek. Peter is constructing a Tango and Rays visit has helped speed up the construction process. This aircraft is quite remarkable and I can’t wait to see Peters lift off for the first time. If you have not seen this model fly, its performance falls between that of a fixed wing aircraft and a helicopter. It hovers on the breeze, rolls remarkably well for a rudder, elevator model, fly's inverted and generally belts around the sky in amazing fashion.
All that is left for this edition of the Goldfields report is to pass on my commiserations to Garry Adams who unfortunately destroyed a near new ARF VMAR CAP 232 powered by an OS120FS last weekend. At time of writing the cause of loss of radio contact was not known. This was a great shame as this aircraft, apart from being very attractive and a favorite with our spectators, had a lot of potential. Gary put on a brave face but it was obvious that this was a painful loss, however not one to be easily deterred he is already looking for his next model as I write.
For those of you on the net, check out this site if you are into big (up to 14 foot) multi engine models.
Best wishes, Tim Bailye.
0890913714