- Helping my mother with some broadband connection and some electric but I did get away for a flight with the Organic...
DAY ..
30.may 2006 -
Perfect
- Had to get some sailplane flights in so me and son
went to Klanten airfield and started with a barbeque. This
place is awesome. 800m grassfield and a clubhouse with all
you need. Just take out the gas grill and pull some burgers
out of the freezer. Flew 2 flights with my Pike Giant and 3
flights with my Pike Perfect. Last two I broke the line and
had to walk a long way to get the parachute so I ended the
session there with 30-40min flying time. The wind had also
picked up to 7-8m/s so my only spare line would not have
hold up anyhow. The Giant was flown unballasted while the
Perfect where loaded with 450g. They both could perform well
offcourse in the high wind but the Perfect amazes me in
circling downwind. Coming home with 1-3mm reflex was easy
with the Perfect while the Giant only needs neutral to speed
home or to the next thermal. And there is the difference in
a Giant and a Perfect. The Giant is flush in searching lift
while the Perfect is flush while working lift. Yes it is snow you can see on
the ground ;-)
DAY ..
28.may 2006 -
Katana 2M
- At our local club field again and took out my
Katana 2M. Had only one flight as I experienced flutter
because of broken gears in the aileron servos. New metal
geared servos in later in the day but the wind was picking
up so no more flying today.
DAY ..
27.may 2006 -
F5J eXtreme
- Great weather as it has now rained for almost 2
weeks. Postal competition today so I took out my Organic
2,5m equipped with Kontronik 42-60, Beat80, 16x13 and
8xGP2000 cells. 14 Celcius (57F) and sunshine. The local
club had a big day with 13 people working hard to give the
motorfield a fixup. My job was to buy and spread some new
seeds so I took the chance and had 3 flights while the
others worked hard... Pictures of the field
http://www.eurofoto.no/show_album.php?aid=1121295
I took some chances today and had to work hard on two of the
flights. This field has lots of thermals but also huge sink
in beetween... Slided a bit to much off and was not perfect
on the time but good scores I think.
Flight 1 594 + 30 - 8,6 (9s) = 615,4 - Flight 2 598 + 24 -
6,7 (7s) = 615,3 - Flight 3 598 + 27 - 7,6 (8s) =
617,4
14C 12points, Total 1860,1. Pictures by Tom Olav
DAY ..
24.may 2006 -
Katana 2M
- Finally a day with sunshine and good temperature.
Took out the
Katana 2M
and the Organic (both electric). Lots of thermals around so
after two flights with the Katana I switched to the Organic
and some thermal flying. Good to be in the air again! Since
I had installed the
Emcotec switch in the Katana I was very eager to check the power
consumption. It was not as high as I expected but overall
consumption was as I thought around 100mah on a 10min
flight.
DAY ..
23.may 2006
- It has been raining now for what seems a looong
time. I want to fly!!!!
The rain have atleast one good effect. All my sailplane
models have been checked up and have now FAI labels, some
new batteries and
How
High altimeter in two models. Cool these small
altimeters as they are only 2,2g and fairly inexpensive. A
LED blinks the altitude "**-****-**"=242m max altitude. I
also finally got new battery to my Katana 2M and I installed
the
Emcotec switch (DPSI BIC) with 2x5cell 1000mah Rx pack. Quite funny to
watch the discussions about how much Rx-power you need for a
2 meter and above model. The Emcotec power-switch will tell
you ALL you need to know about this. Some switched
regulators have the ability to give 10A on max. Clearly
after just switching on I see that one might need more if
the model is bigger or the servos were digital. The
Emcotec switch I have chosen can give 20A in peak and 8A
continuously. The switch can take two Rx-batteries and takes
power from both. I can use 5-6 cells NiCd/NiMh or 2-3 LiPo/Liion.
There is also a version for even more cells. In my
Katana 2M
I have 5 BMS-620 (analog cheap servos) and the current was
easily up in 7A just by waving the sticks around on the
ground. The display also shows time on, mah used, etc. I
have chosen to have my switch inside the canopy since I need
to be in there to plug in the batteries anyhow. One can also
buy a small switch to have on the outside of the model. In
total I needed to go slightly up in weight to have 10cells
and a 70g switch. But the difference is actually only the
switch. Before I had 4xCP1700 (apx 190g) + a 45g switch.
That gave a total of 245g with wires. Now I have 220g
(10xHecell) + 70g switch and that gives 300g with wires. So
I had to give up 55g but have now more reliable power and
even more since it is regulated at 5,5v.
DAY ..
20.may 2006
- My uncle had some parts for a Graphite 3.1 so I
have repaired a fuse and joined the parts to a Graphite
sailplane but with servos in the tail so one can change
nosecone and use it as electric. The total weight with
servos in the tail was 1745g. Good! Tested it on bungee on
the local football field. And Arild got his DA-100 from
RC-flight.
Nice...
|
DAY ..
14.may 2006 - Woke up early at 07:00 so me and Tor had our first flights with his Blaster at 08:30 I think. Nice model and it performs well also in wind. It was blowing 5-7m/s but I caught a thermal and got away. It would perform even better if he bought a new tail boom as that was broken and repaired. We had an easy HLG competition later in the day and Tor launched for me. We lost because of less launch height and the winner had a better setup (We were only 3 flying and I came second). Todays main event was LSF 21minute. That means 3x7min (one can be 10min) and a hard landing task. We also use extra resistance on the winches so that there is only apx 20kg power on the winch. This way one can launch all kinds of models and nobody have a real advantage in the zoom. It became a great day but actually difficult to make the times. Only 5 of 10 pilots managed that. There was not so much wind but lots of sink between the thermal cycles. I flew my Pike Perfect and won the event. |
|
DAY ..
13.may 2006
- Me and Tor went early to Spydeberg for some practice
before tomorrows LSF-event. Great practice and some
pizza/beer in the evening. Sadly for Tor I am very allergic
this time of year so I fell asleep at 22:30 with a beer in
one hand and Tor trying to get in contact in the other end
of the room... Well I was not drunk atleast.
DAY ..
11.may 2006 -
Organic
- First some flights on the local football field with the
Organic sailplane version and I managed to hook a couple of
thermals from handthrow. I did not take out the histart as I
just wanted to check the model after I had it in the
workshop. I fixed the broken gear and changed the pushrods
as I had gotten some new teflon tubes from Mark Stockton.
Very cool these teflon tubes. They are very light and with
the carbon pushrod in place you can glue the teflon tube in
place as you want it down the inside of the fuse. Very easy
and the carbon rods slides easily inside. Thanks Mark! From
before I had gotten some tubes for my Supra with 1,5mm
carbon rods. But Mark got me some 1 (STW12) and 2mm (STW20)
tubes from this company in UK called
Adtech.
These are chemically etched tubes so they can be CA'ed in.
Later in the day I visited a slope just above Fagernes and
fitted the electro cone and the two loggers. Again I wanted
to see differences in height as the Zlog have had a few
meters higher. But today I did it a bit different. First
flight I switched on as usual and after landing the height
was Zlog: 164m (161 after fixing drift in software) and the
"How High" logger 154m. But on the second launch I just
zeroed the altitude on the Zlog and started a new log. Then
there is no calibration time in the Zlog and now the numbers
are equal (350/349m). So as a conclusion the Zlog needs a
bit time to adjust to the conditions before it settles.
One of todays logs
DAY ..
10.may 2006 -
Organic
- Flew the Organic of the histart on a local football field
but it was so turbulent I managed to strip a gear on one of
the ailerons as I landed a bit bad. So I only got two short
flights.
DAY ..
9.may 2006 -
Organic
- Out flying my favourite electric model the Organic 2,5m.
It also gave me the opportunity to try out a new "gadget" I
got today in the mail.
How
High altimeter is a tiny little altitude logger
that is only 2,2g and gives you feedback of the altitude by
blinking of a LED sensor. The blinking is activated my
moving the hand over the LED fast several times and I had
some problems activating it. But when I did - the reading of
altitudes was very easy. Testing at home revealed that a
small flashlite might do the trick or more feeling for the
"hand over the light" thing... 298m top altitude is 2
blinks, 9 blinks and 8 blinks and can be repeated. It also
does not need a restart to log next flight. As long as you
have read the top altitude or have switched of it starts a new log after it has
past 15m. This logger off course does not do anything else
than top altitude. It does not have the memory or
PC-connection. But for launch heights it should be a nice
tool if I just get the hang of the "waving" of hands in
front of the LED. I did put both loggers in the plane and
had 4 flights. The last one I forgot to read the logger
before I switched off. Then I remembered that the logger
stores the last data so when I got home I did the last
readout. Comparing it to the Zlog that also was onboard
revealed that the differences is small. The Zlog usually
peaks up 4-10m just by sitting on the ground before it
settles so by taking away these numbers the altitude
readings were very similar.
Logs
DAY ..
8.may 2006 -
Perfect
- It was no wind when I started and some small thermals
coming by so I got away on a few hand throws before the wind
picked up. But in a valley like this when the wind comes
down the side you need some altitude. So the bungee came out
and I could search a bit more without waiting for the
thermals to come straight by. It was really hard sinking air
at times so it was a great session. I love it when there is
difficult and I have to work hard for it. Had to land on a
field lower a couple of times but got away plenty of times
also. Changed the CG a couple of times but no big difference
in the altitude lost coming home in sink.
DAY ..
7.may 2006 -
Supra
versus Perfect
- Late afternoon and it is hot to be this time of year. Used
my short bungee (30m layed double to 15m and 20m line). This
gives not an F3J launch but possibly a good 1-man tow with a
ok zoom. I flew both the Supra and the Perfect and found
what I have found before. The Supra can work very small
thermals and goes up as a feather. The Perfect also works
the small thermals well but its main weapon in these
conditions is that it covers more ground. But in these
conditions working "fiddling air" I must say the Supra is an
edge in front. It also launches a bit better in these
conditions. It actually was building power as it went up the
line though it was only slight headwind (1-2m/s). But for
stronger conditions I recommend a full carbon version. The
lightweight glasfiber Supra is only for weak conditions and
TD winching (tapping).
DAY ..
6.may 2006 -
Supra
- Sorry! Totally forgot to take pictures today! Had so much
fun on a local football field that is known as a windy
place. It was warm today with 21 celcius (70F) so lots of
thermals passing thru this place. It is placed in a tight
valley so it gets pretty turbulent. So it was a good test of
CG, joiners and ballast. Took out the short histart (bungee
layed double and 20m line) and launched the Supra 11 times.
I ended up with the medium joiners, 96-97mm CG and sometimes
with 400g of ballast in. I also tested a little extra
negative camber in those situations that I needed badly to
get home. The Supra responds well to handling with ballast
in though I offcourse could see the climb rate went a bit
down. First 5 flights was with the biggest dihedral joiners
but it was a bit too much in the turbulent air. It was
smoother and more stable with the medium joiners. Did not
try the straight ones. Logs
HERE
DAY ..
5.may 2006 -
Supra
- I was keen on some early night flights (partly as I am
slow in the morning) and was hoping for calm conditions with
no thermal activity. I wanted to test different CG's so I
tried 92, 95, 97, 100 and 102. Problem was it was not dead
at all. Most flights showed a little bit of ups and downs
and even one time I climbed pretty good. I did not like 92
and it was maybe a bit optimistic with 102mm but, but... All
of the tested CG's are easy to fly and the more back I had
the CG the more feedback I got on moving air. 102 is near
similar to my Giant in feedback and I think I will try
further back also. For a steady flight some probably want
92mm but that will give a lot of small stalls that will need
to be corrected. 92 is good straight ahead but turning just
slightly will make you loose power. So for these conditions
a safe and nice setup would be 95-97mm for most.
Logs HERE -
More pictures HERE
DAY ..
3.may 2006
- Got a visit from National Team member Alf Erik Ross as he
wanted some practice flights in and some help on mounting
the Giant. So we rearranged his model completely and got
pretty good setup on it. He had also tried some Futaba 3150
but we put back the Volz MM X. We went to Klanten airfield as it
is snow free and we hoped it was not so wet. It was WET but
we had a good time and the launching conditions were pretty
good with 1-3m/s wind a little bit from the side. Alf Erik
flew his Giant and the smaller Brio while I flew 2 flights
with Perfect and 3 with Giant. We ended the session when Alf
Erik broke the 1,15mm line. It was expected. 1,15mm line is
not strong enough for these conditions and these planes.
4 flights log here
DAY ..
1.may 2006 - The
plan!
- Here is the major events this year for me:
3-4/6 Podhorany Eurotour F3J
30/7-6/8 World Championship F3J in Martin
21-24/9 World Soaring Masters in USA, Muncie
Thanks to all my friends an sponsors that is partly
responsible for this: Gordy Stahl, Jim McCarthy, Marc
Gellart, Kennedy Composites, Volz servos, Samba Model,
JR/Horizon Hobby. I still have to pay for travel but these
guys are so helpful that it makes my sport so much easier to
do!!!!
I am looking forward to see all my friends around the world
again. The Norwegians are nice but I need more!!