A month of perfect Sundays since my last article. Not only have we had four Sundays of good weather the only casualty has been one of my Gremlin combat wings in a stoush with Bryce McGrath. We had a spectacular collision in our first bout that totalled my one day old plane. Fortunately Bryces plane has since been repaired. I never lose a lot of sleep over the loss of a combat wing. This one had proved some of the modifications that I had included in its design were viable even though its lifespan was so short. I hope to include these improvements in the new series of coreflute plastic combat designs that I am developing at present. The only relationship to the old Gremlin design is the flying wing layout. Wing style and profiles have all been revised. I will let you know via this column how the trials go. My intention is to provide a very cheap, quick build open class combat model to help get rc combat off the ground (pardon the pun). If successful these kits will be available via the internet.
My next area of effort is to have a go at making up some WW1 biplanes from coreflute. There are moves afoot in the US to initiate WW1 combat, and frankly the thought of a sky full of Eindeckers, Spads, Soppwith Camels and Tri-planes all going hell for leather at each other sounds like the most fun you can have with your clothes on!
Apparently WW1 combat has been tried in US before however the 12th scale Bipes used were a bit too small to handle. The result was very agile aircraft that unfortunately were hard to see at any great distance. My intention is to make up some 1/8th scale Bipes of very basic design that use a forty / forty six size motor. We have the advantage over the US as they have new rules coming into play that limit the size of engines used in combat to .32. This doesn’t make much sense to us as the smaller engines actually cost more than a .46 in Australia. Besides, used .40s and .46s are much easier to come by and parts are more available. I think the Yanks may be shooting themselves in the foot by putting a blanket limit on engine size on all combat models. I agree that the WW2 aircraft that they currently use would be a hazard with a 40/46 up front due to the slipperyness of the designs from that era, however the drag imposed on a one metre Bipe would be enough to limit the speeds involved to a safer level. Trying to dodge a tuned piped .32 powered Spitfire could not be any easier than getting out of the road of a .46 powered Neiport 17. Either one would do similar injury due to relative speeds involved.
We have had some progress on the club front in the last few months. After a few days work on the south side the field is now at its maximum size potential apart from a very small area containing a few stumps that we will get rid of in the coming years. It is now so big that it is not feasible to mow all of it every time with our 8 foot tractor drawn mower. We rotate mowing the whole field with a mow of just the (football oval size) centre area. Future plans to infill the centre area with topsoil so that the ground is a bit more forgiving on our gliders are afoot. A proposed shed extension to provide more shade will make our summers a bit more bearable, that is if we can wade our way through the truck loads of red tape involved with gaining council approval for our simple 12m by 3m Patio style extension.
Progress has also been made by Dave Holub and Brian Gibbs, both soloing in recent weeks and now going ahead in leaps and bounds. Dave’s full size experience has obviously been beneficial, and Brians total lack of fear is also a bonus. Both have progressed at a faster rate than most and display real potential to progress to a very high level. Well done Guys!
Dad and son combination, Ray and Tom Ciantar are keeping me employed as an Instructor. It is a new experience for me to teach two at once, however it is going well, and the club is benefiting from their presence. Welcome to a great hobby guys and I hope you both have many years of fun from it.
By the time you get to read this the Fly-in/ BBQ / Swap-Meet on the long weekend of the 1st of October will be just a memory. Sorry it wasn’t advertised in last months Windsock as the decision to hold it was made after we found out that we were to have some extra Flyers visiting from Mandurah. If you had visited the WA RC Forum via our website at kalnet.com.au/gam you would have been aware that it was on otherwise there was no way to let everyone know at such a late date. Details of whom did what with what will be revealed in the next addition of the Sock.
Best wishes, Tim Bailye.