Windsock Reports.

July/Aug 2000 Sept/Oct 2000 Nov2000 Sept 2001

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Pilbara Aeromodellers Association

Sept / Oct 2000

This month we are trying something different with the monthly report. We are going to have a 2 people writing this article and at the end joining the stories to make one report. I purchased a Seagull Plasma ARF back in Dec 99 and I have to say that it was not a good buy on reflection. When opening the box for the 1^st time, the covering job was terrible. Bubbles could be seen all down the fuselage and wrinkles in the wing skin. I rang Brian Simpson at Perth RC hobbies and we arranged to have Model Engines send another Kit as a replacement at no cost to me. With fingers crossed the 2^nd model was perfect in the covering job and it looked great. Time to put it all together, and at this point it was all down hill. I have made a list of all the problems that I have had with the Plasma and would be interested in hearing from others that have this particular model or was it just that I got the lemon of the pack. Here is the list of faults. 1- the firewall is made in 2 sections, 75% of the bottom section is 1/4 ply and the remainder is 1/8 ply. The split engine mount bolts through the 1/8 ply at the top. This is not strong enough to support the weight of the engine & with a nose gear landing, the 1/8ply portion of the firewall is easily pushed in. It wasn't glued to the formers properly and was glued to balsa of the fuselage. 2- The Pilot came free inside the canopy. 3- the throttle cable snapped. 4- if you follow the plans on how to install the rudder/elevator push rod assembly and servos placement, the 2 push rods rub together at the tail section. 5- during re-training I made some heavy landings, just heavy and not a crash, and in Instructors and my opinion the undercarriage should have absorbed this shock. But both undercarriage mounts and blocks had broken on the 1st heavy landing. The mounts for these, in places were again 1/8 ply and of insufficient glue to hold them in place. Both undercarriage blocks were split to some degree and needed to be replaced. 6- In the First few flights both sides left and Right side elevators hinges broke and were replaced, next all rudder hinges broke and were replaced. And a week later I changed the entire left aileron hinges and on the next flight the rudder control horn snapped at some point after take off. 7- this model is tail heavy. I have an ASP 46-mounted full forward with plenty of lead bolted up front, and it only just makes it to the CG with this amount. 8 -Because of the full forward position of the engine the cowling will not reach the firewall for installation, its about 1/2 inch short of it. 9- The Left aileron it a solid rectangular piece of balsa that has not been fully tapered to an even point at the trailing edge, in places it is 2 mm thicker at the trailing edge. I wondered why I couldn't trim the ailerons properly. With all these repairs done the plane no longer looks flash, turning it upside down shows all the repair jobs that I have done. I wasn’t happy with this situation and thought the suppliers Model Engines should be informed of the poor quality of parts and construction. After emailing and speaking to the manager regarding these faults they agree with most of the problems with the Plasma and informed me that the manufactures in Asia have been told of my complaints & forwarded my email to them direct. Even with all of the faults the plane did fly quite well and there is always potential in this design, they only have to improve their quality of accessories and construction. And it could have been a winner. Even with a old ASP 46 this model is very slippery and it belts along at a very good pace, with say a OSFX46 I think It would have ripped the wings off. It was with regret as few weeks later, I was doing some low level aerobatic stuns and ended putting the thing into the dirt at full noise. I have since purchased a Vmar Cessna to keep my fingers in touch till I choose a new aerobatic type of plane to fly. You can check out the crash photo of the Plasma at our web site and whilst there you can go to the Message board to read my opinion on the very nice Vmar Cessna. Our Web address is http://www.norcom.net.au/~spot/aeromodelling.htm Speak to you soon. Regards Jon Brunini for Pilbara Aeromodellers Association. Spot@norcom.net.au   Second Story .The onset of September has seen the winds pick up in the Pilbara. This has forced us die-hard modellers to get out of bed extra early in the mornings to get a little flying in before the wind picks up. The strong winds have proved to be a challenge for those of us with little flying experience, although we have gained valuable experience in the art of model repair. Congratulations go out to Frank Groen, Colin Sclater (and myself!) who have gone solo over the last month with minimal damage to the models. Brad Gray has also gone solo but in a slightly different way. He has made the big step from mode 1 to mode 2. A couple visited us recently from the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. Bob Henderson & Ruth Wood was driving into town and noticed our windsock. They flew a couple of tiny models and even with the strong wing they flew well. You can see the photos of their visit on our web page gallery1 at http://www.norcom.net.au/~spot/Gallery.htm we hope to be visited by many more people travelling through the Northwest. New models seem to be springing up regularly with a couple of extras recently hitting the flight line and rumours of a DR 109 somewhere in town awaiting a test flight. Interest and membership is growing slowly but the early signs are encouraging. Work is continuing at the flying field and the motivation in the club is still high. May the ground stay below you and the runway in front of you. Regards Graeme Lawson lawso1@wn.com.au

Windsock reports

Pilbara Aeromodellers Report.

July / August 2000

Welcome to the Pilbara Aeromodellers, over the past couple of months there has been a surge in members and at the moment we have about 16 members. Our club hasn’t been flying very much in the last 4 years and numbers were at a minimum up until July, the word got out and we all started coming out of the woodwork, great to see and we have a few more checking us out on the weekends as well.

Due to the neglect and lack of flying at the field, the area had fallen into disrepair. The shelter has some bad corrosion and we are approaching the shire for a grant of $750 to do the repairs. The weeds and spinifex had over run the field, you couldn’t even walk to the flight line unless you were stepping up over the weeds and glass, and as area is open to for public to walk-in access, the glass and broken bottles around the shelter were a serious problem. So it was all hands on deck for the busy be in mid July, and there was about 8 of us turned up, and with 5 lawn mowers going flat out doing circuits around the field and runway borders, it didn’t take very long to see it the way it used to be. It was hard work but the end result was worth it, we have our flying field back again, all be it, very dusty.

We are trying to obtain about 600 tons of reject fines for top dressing the main runway, which are aligned North/South and is 180m x 15m long. At the moment it’s very boggy and planes are even having trouble taxiing onto the center section to take off. We are like to get it laid to a thickness of 4 inch and after the grader and water truck are finished a heavy roller is required to pack it down hard like concrete. If the runway is improved, some of the better models may be brought out.

The club has ordered a trainer plane and 2 radios with buddy cable. This will help the visitors get a go at flying and when training, the beginners can approach the strip without the fear of biting the dirt.



Whilst Graeme had been giving his 1^st trainer a run doing circuits & under the watchful eye of Wayne one of our instructors, Graeme was attempting an approach and when within 3 meters of touch down, the dreaded dumb thumb reared its head, the model went down inverted and a snapped wing was the result. To Graeme’s credit he was off to North West Hobbies in Karratha that same week and bought another trainer, returned the following weekend and was back up flying with no time lost. Colin our president, was also training with Wayne and after his plane did a heavy touch down which made it to go airborne again, & seeing that it was off line and heading toward the flight line, he had thoughts of mincing meat so forced it back to the ground but was unlucky to rip out the nose gear. I don’t get off so easily, I was flying my Seagull Plasma around after going solo the weekend earlier, I was doing circuit training and thought that I was doing pretty well with myself, heading downwind- good, crosswind -good, line here up for approach, everything looking great the wings are level bring here in over the threshold, this will be great, and it was, right up until it disappeared into the scrub 30m short of the runway. What makes it worse is when the noise and dust settles the only thing to be heard is the laughter from the shelter, Thanks guys, I’ll fix that firewall later. Wayne’s new Jet turbine arrived in July, it was bench tested at Anthony’s place and after rearranging the contents of his workbenches it was given the thumbs up. Wayne did say that he had ordered a Delta Something type plane to put his turbine in but was unsure about flying in from our strip. I Cant wait to see and hear that thing fly overhead.

When I joined the Pilbara Aeromodellers club in July, I was lucky enough to be on leave, and had the time to design the clubs web page. This was a lot of fun to do and it is an ongoing project. You can access it at http://www.norcom.net.au/~spot/aeromodelling.htm I also decided it was a good idea to create a Message Board for West Australia R/C hobbies. It’s a place where you can connect with other modellers and read / chat or reply to messages that are posted. So far we are connected with the guys at Goldfields Aeromodellers their web address is at http://203.57.128.33/gam/ and they have added the link to their home page as well. To get to it from Pilbara Aeromodellers and Goldfields page just look for the MESSAGE BOARD icon, it will get you there. It would be great if we can get more W.A clubs to take it on board and add it to their web pages so we can get as many people on there as we can. Well that’s about it from our club and me for the moment, until next time.



Best Wishes.

Jon Brunini

spot@norcom.net.au

Pilbara Aeromodellers Association.

Windsock Report Nov 2000

A note from the Pilbara

We at the club have been very busy lately trying to get our group up and running trying to expand our numbers of fanatic flyers with a show and tell at the local shopping centre this was a great show of all the models with in the club. Many of our members whom are new to flying have gained enough flying time and confidence to start collecting some new models some very nice ones at that. We are waiting on Wayne our instructor\test pilot all round nice guy to purchase a “Hot Spot” for his new jet engine that has clocked up quiet a few runs now with a little help from Chris Mounkley, so we can see it fly I hope father Xmas comes early! It has been great to see the enthusiasm of the members with someone flying at the field almost every day not bad considering that no one flying six months ago! We all recently descended on one of our ex members garage sale like a flock of seagulls with some good bargains to be had. I purchased a Dago Red with os91four stroke I have had more offers from the blokes to buy this than a pro on Saturday night, Graeme picked up a pattern plane and later did a deal with Wayne (in his hands it looks real slick), a swap for his thunder tiger 60 size trainer and tiger stick. Graeme’s motto is the one with the most toys wins! Currently he has eight planes and still going. Young Tayo bought a 20 size four stroke for his Texan that he is building, also Gerald picked up 3 brand new asp91’s and says he is going to put them in as a twin in a model. Ervin our newest recruit is our first learner on the club Kyosho trainer and doing very well under Wayne’s tutelage, he has decided to buy a Vmar Cessna after seeing Jon’s in action. Young Steven has been putting in lots of practice so that Dad I mean Father Xmas will bring him a Vmar Ram Rod. Jon awaits with anticipation for his new Seagull PC 9 after what he thought and wrote about the plasma I hope Seagull have made it a good kit. We look forward to seeing Brad’s spitfire in the air one day meanwhile it is good to see him down flying his extra and Yellow Bearcat I think that’s its breed, sounds about right as it is a rocket and has out lived three engines good testimony to a good pilot. Crazy Ken has been let loose in Graeme’s shed with all sorts of bits and pieces and what sought of plane comes out no one knows maybe it will be Frankenstein’s transport? Either way it should be fun to see him flying. Harold has built himself aDr109 and I here it is ready for its test flight it will be nice to see a large model on the runway, speaking of which our local shire has just renewed our lease for the next 7 years now the runway upgrade can begin in Ernest using BHP iron fines 600 tones of, this should solve our powdery red mess that we currently try to fly from. It should allow us to keep our planes cleaner and stop them from bogging. Some rust removal and coat of paint on our shelter will see us finish of the year on a high with some nice facilities for all to use we just have to hope that the cyclones stay away so the field does not get flooded in. We would like to offer an open invitation to any one traveling this way to pop in and visit, as we like to see and hear the latest from down south.

I leave you with this Death notice for my plane may it rest in pieces.

Ode to a broken Heart

Here I Sit and lament

About all the hours I have spent

Thinking what a lovely sight

Glistening in the sun my Ultimate Bipe

Tis with pride I remember its first test round

Up up and around and safely back on the ground

The controls I then took

As the crowd stood around to look

And all of a sudden to earth it went

There it lay buckled and bent

With a few more hours with the glue

It was back in the air and flying true

When again it fell from the sky

There I stood trying not to cry

Again with more glue and thought

Also a new receiver and servo were sought

I tried again with another test flight

Tried and true was the ultimate Bipe

Then with one flick of the hand

The plane came spiraling into the sand

Here I stand with a big pile of balsa at my feet

This time I have to admit defeat

Tooth picks any one!

May all your landings be better than mine!

Merry Christmas to all and a safe new year

Colin

PAA

President

                                                  September 2001

I would like to congratulate all those that have contributed to the new look format, which the Windsock magazine is now presented to us in. It looks a treat and the picture quality is excellent. Keep up the good work guys.

Hello from the Pilbara Aeromodellers. It has been a very long time since I last put pen to paper and on reflection it is the 1^st since November last year. The club still struggles to get our field into a reasonable condition. Most problems centre on the strip and the boggy conditions that we have to put up with. We have had many a meeting trying to work out a viable solution to this problem. Short term we are looking at applying Hi-mag. This is a liquid salt extract, when mixed with water and sprayed on to a sand based surface it forms a hardened layer of crust on the surface. This material is bio-degradable and over 6 months time with wind and rain battering the strip it will be back to square one. We are looking at getting a permanent fix to this runway problem. The basic method of the upgrade would be to dig up and re-surface the main runway with a more stable material. We have had rough estimates of just over $5000 and this would include the members providing a large amount of the labour. We will be stretching the friendship with all the local dealers/contractors in town trying to get donations and support where we can to overcome the problem with the strip. This is a long-term solution and will take a lot of work from members to get it to gel together on the day. On another note, we must thank Anthony for his extra efforts in the painting of our shelter. The end result is excellent and all those that participated are to be congratulated. Last week the club held a busy bee and a general tiding of the strip and surrounding areas. The tall grass that was surrounding the shelter was cut and it came up excellent, thanks guys. We are trying to obtain grey wastewater to our site. This is another long term project and if it comes through we will be able to consider grassing the strip or just having a permanent supply so we can keep the dirt watered at all times. I will keep you posted on any improvements in this area.

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Nick & Derek two of our newest members to the club. Nick with his new trainer plane can be found down at the field most weekends and under the instruction of Wayne, he wont to be far off going solo. And welcome to Derek who is interested in Helicopters and will be starting his training very soon. Welcome and good luck guys.

There have been many new models going through our club, from the standard trainers to Graeme's large-scale aerobatic models. Graeme has been interested in large models for a while and has decided to put his planes and construction methods on the net, you can access his web address at http://www.westnet.com.au/lawso01/ but be patient as more content will be added as the models progress through to completion. Wayne has finally received his kit a Graupner Hotspot, so now he can install his Jet engine a TJT / Simjet hybrid and finally give an airborne display rather than a ground run up of the turbine and control systems. We all wait the day that the thing gets into the air. Some models are not in top condition any more, including my Vmar Cessna. I had actually retired my trainer, but due to having to run-in a new Saito 65fs, I dusted it off and got it back into the air. It still flew well, and I was giving it a good work out, when I did a number of snaps, then into spins towards the ground, on the last manoeuvre it entered into a flat spin, that’s right a flat one, I have never seen this performed, either deliberate or by accident, so I looked on in amazement and not considering the difficulty to recover, and not knowing how to anyways, even with Graeme’s prompting, it fell flat, spinning with the nose just below the horizon. All of the essential parts survived ok, except for the nose section of the fuselage, which took the brunt of the landing. Im too lazy to fix it and I will pass it on to a member with the same kit. A few months ago an X member gave me the fuselage & Wing of a Transall C-160. This twin has a wingspan of 2.1m and im running 2 Saito 65fs. After the initial flight the model was fuelled and sent back up for more testing, unfortunately the newest engine cut out whilst turning for base leg, there was not enough altitude and airspeed to make it over the threshold and it spun in from about 10ft into the drainage ditch just in front of the strip. The fuselage was broken in half at the glued joint but to my luck it only broke the glue and not the model in any way, except for one aileron horn and a chip from the elevator. At this point in time im repainting the fuselage and will soon have this bird back in the air. When all the bugs have been sorted out I will repaint the entire plane and get it looking new again. I will attempt to get some photos for the next magazine. Steve put his DR-109 into the dirt the other day. Whilst performing a Square loop and on the down line pulling out of the dive up to level flight the model done the dreaded wing slap The resulting damage was terminal and at a huge cost to them as they had just installed a new engine, apparently they are still waiting for the other half of the wing to come back to ground. Jimmy has had a couple of attempts at re-arranging the configuration of his trainer, he must not be happy with the design because he’s always modifying and patching the thing.

Since our club re-formed almost 18 months ago, the majority of our member’s are now gaining enough confidence to fly faster and with varied types of models and styles. We have started to organise aerobatic & spot landing competitions for our monthly gathering. The schedule we fly is not demanding and is just a basic aid to improve our flying skills and later on lead us towards more advanced aerobatic flying, which is our goal. Our last fly-in resulted in Graeme winning the trophy for the Novice section using his 72-inch Cap 232. Wayne took out the sportsman section using Graeme’s cap 232. A popular model that one, I think I might borrow it for the next round. Congratulations to both guys for their efforts. And a thank you goes to Colin and staff from Troppo’s cafeteria that generously donated both trophies for these events. A majority of the club members are interested in starting combat competitions. At present nobody owns a combat craft and I am waiting on the design that Tim Bailye of the Goldfields club is perfecting for this form of flying. We have about 6 guys that have said if it all the works out ok, they will get straight into it. With our location being a short distance from the main road & having 6 models dragging streamers behind them this will certainly attract some attention to our site.

Our club web page has a new message board, which includes general discussions and a for- sale section. You can add or reply to messages on this board at your will.

Well that’s about it from the Pilbara Aeromodellers, You can check out our web page at http://www.aeromodellers.pilbara.net.au/ Till next time, Keep it up !!

Regards, Jon Brunini
Spot@norcom.net.au