Sorry guys - I have not time to update much on
each day of the trip so just brief information before I get home..
There will be a full article in FMT-magazine and more here later.
DAY
.. 1.- December - 2003
Read on in December about Opus , Viking, Majko, Accacia, RaceM,
Elita.....
DAY
.. 30. November - 2003
First and final destination today was
Samba that makes my Pike models. The whole day was spent here with
them and lots of food and talking progressed through the day. The
new electro fuse is now progressing and they will start on the
moulds next week. We discussed final details on the positive mould
(final before moulds are made) and it looks very good and exactly as
I would like it. Canopy fuse, X-tail and with servos in the tail.
The electro fuse will be delivered with servos and wires installed
and this means easy setup for us customers (one can off course get it
without servos).
I also collected some spare parts and two models for myself. One
Pike Brio Carbon and one Pike Superior in special version that I
will use for next season and World Championship in Canada.
Thanks to all at Samba for a nice day :-) And don't I have a cool Zebra
design on my new models ?
DAY
.. 29. November - 2003
Jiri Tuma is the producer of X21 and we
went to him for a look at the new X-tail that is now in production.
Espen sells these models (
www.et-air.com ). It looked nice by first looks.
Prague was next stop and some drinking
and discussion with Mr. Lomcovak.cz , Roman Vojtech. We had some
laughs and eagerly discussed aerodynamics. We also looked at new
Viking, Lolo speed logger, Lolo Vario and a new 43g 3phase motor
from Model motors.
 DAY
.. 28. November - 2003
Today we went to Rotordisc shop in
Denmark and picked up some parts that needs to be made for the
Scorpion helicopter. Looks like a great helicopter. We also met
Victor Drezniek outside Kiel to look at a F5B model that his friends
from Polen make ("Raketenwurm"). Good and light model for F5B it
seems. We ended up in Hamburg at a Hotel pretty late.
DAY
.. 27. November - 2003
On my way but only in Norway. First stop
is by my uncle for a short but nice dinner. Then to Kristiansand
were I met Espen Torp and got to stay with Egil Myr-- but Egil was
not there since he is working hard on his company Engsys. Anyhow his
wife is smilling as usual and we got a good sleep before the Ferry
went to Hirtshals the next day.
 DAY
..
26. November - 2003
OK Tomorrow I will go on a trip around
Europe with Espen Torp. We will be gone apx 8-10 days so keep looking for
updates. Maybe I find time to let you know some new stuff.
In the mean time I have a great story from Gordy Stahl.
It is long but with some good points stated:
I flew a
contest in St. Louis and got into a discussion with the pres about why
lots of guys show up if they call a 'fun soar' day, but not many show up
for contests.
I knew why but heck its just my opinion...so
I asked him who would be a representative 'sport soarer' in the club. He
told me and I got the guys address, and proceeded to head over to the
guy's house to find him cutting the grass. I snuk up and conked him on
the head with my Super Stand pole, then stuffed him in my truck.
When I got to the motel, I tied him to a chair with wing tape, then took
off his shirt and applied the new really aggressive hinge tape that I got
from Don Richmond at Visalia...all over his hairy chest and back.
I brought him back by spritzing some CA Kicker under his nose and began
my interrogation (for an RCSD article of course :-)...asking the same
question over and over...
WHY DON"T YOU
FLY YOUR CLUB CONTESTS!
"I'm not interested in competitions"..
.yep I could
see it was going to be a long nite before I'd make it thru the usual
canned 'reasons'.... RIPPPP! I pulled off a piece of tape.
YEOW!!!! he exclaimed
"its too much stress" RIPPPP!
"No full size plane sticks its nose in the
ground for a landing" RIPPPP!
"I don't need to prove anything" RIPPPP!
"Its not 'fun' " RIPPPP!
I finally ran out of Hinge tape, so I
clipped a long length of carbon pushrod and began shoving them under his
finger nails....then inserted some elevator bellcranks in places they
don't fit too well....and finally I was close to him finally fessing up
with the truth... he replied,
"Cuz I don't own a stop watch!!!!"...
It was getting late and I had a 8:30 pilots
meeting the next day so it was time to get serious, pull out all the
stops, yep the one thing that will break any sailplaner....
I reached for his wallet....
"Okay Okay!!!! I'll tell you why us sport
soarers don't come to contests, its because we aren't PREPARED!" We never
practice.... heck we aren't sure how to practice!... When we come to the
field, we don' t have a talking timer to count down specific amont of
minutes of flight time, and we never have a target to land at. SO when
contest day comes up we aren't comfortable suddenly being expected to
control the sailplane on purpose!. We just aren't prepared and that makes
us feel like we aren't welcome.... We love to fly and want to fly every
opportunity, we want to join in the fun those contest guys seem to have!
We just haven't practiced and don't have the confidence to feel we belong.
Now that I had him talking, I couldn't get
him to shut up...
he continued...
"When I turned 16 there were 8 of us in our
town who went down to get our drivers licenses... when we got there, there
was some government guys there who separated us into two groups....I was
in the 'Sport Drivers' group of four, the other group was called the
'Elitists'.
Those poor Elitests really got screwed! Us
Sport Drivers were taken to a 100 acre driving area that had no
obstructions and was surrounded by thick soft rubber bumpers. The
instructor assigned us each a car, showed us how to start it and make it
go, but that was it....he may have mentioned something about a 'brake',
but there really was no need, mostly all we had to do was to stay away
from each other. IT was a ball, we could drive anywhere, anyway, fast or
slow. On weekends we go out and drive around for hours on end, we'd do
circles and figure 8's, and pretty much just drive around....it was
great.. and we did it for about 2 years...near the end it got kind of
boring"
The Elitist had it really bad, they had to
go to classes, and were force to place their hands on certain spots on the
steering wheel, even had shift their hands in a certain way when turning.
They had to drive in skinny lanes, could only drive one direction is
certain lanes too...and were restricted to specific speeds...uck, seemed
like a lot of work for nothing.
The instructors would make them do really hard boring stuff over and over
and over....things called U-turns, Y-turns, Parallel parking,, then even
made them back up with trailers hooked to their cars. As the 2 years went
on, the Elitist group was made to do more and more boring and scary stuff
like drive in rush hour traffic with lots of other cars packed in really
close, and really fast on freeways. Or drive downtown and park in really
tight spots (we couldn't figure out why they would bother with stuff like
that, since mostly all we did to stop was just let the car coast till it
stopped somewhere on the driving area..sure it was a hassle cuz it could
be a long walk back to the entrance, but it sure was a lot easier than
what those poor Elitist had to put up with...imagine this! Their driving
area had lots of weird obstacles called stop signs and stop lights, and
their instructors would make them practice making their cars stop with its
front wheels on a thick white line...EVER TIME and if they missed it they
would get penalty cards called 'tickets'....which they had to pay fines
for!
While we got bored with driving near the end of that 2 years, the Elitists
were soooo brainwashed by the government men, that they couldn't wait for
the next driving class, they'd actually run to get there!
 The abuse to the Elitists group didn't stop
there, their instructors even had them doing math , they'd have to figure
out how long it would take to get from one place to another, traveling at
specific set speeds which only varied pending on signs posted along the
ways.
Anyway, near the end of that two
years, us Sport Drivers pretty much hardly ever went to the driving area.
Sure we had fun driving around with no rules, no requirements, no need to
fine tune our control...for a while,
Little did we realize the atrocity the
diabolical evil of this government experiment. But that wasn't to be
revealed till just before Senior Prom....
This gorgeous girl who I had been in love
with since grad school came up to me and asked me if I would take her to
prom, she said she planned on having all the fun that was the stuff of
dreams! However, she'd only go with me IF I agreed to drive her......
How could I? I mean, I had never had to
keep my car in a lane, or at a specific speed, and what would happen if I
had to do one of those parallel park things and ended up smashing into
something....I couldn't bear the pressure and possible embarrassment...I
just wasn't prepared!
I told her, thanks for offering...but I was
only a 'sport driver..I just do it for 'fun''.... I couldn't admit that I
wasn't ...prepared....she ended up marrying one of the Elitest Drivers.
:-(
Club Leaders...Here's the secret to
increasing club participation.... start holding club 'clinics'. One nite
offer landing classes.... you know, the 30sec pass over your shoulder, 20
second turn on approach, then work the 'throttle' to a spot. Make it fun,
offer rewards for best averaged score for the month of clinics! Vary the
shape of the landing zones.,, heck assign each participant the duty of
coming up with a different zone for each clinic.
Set a nite of time flights, each
participant alternates as a timer and a pilot..same sort of reward thing
for best average precision time for the month of clinics. Take some of the
club money and get some cheap stop watches for the clinics. Issue each
participant monthly clinic score cards..
Set an example....you always flight with a clock, and always toss a hat or
put down a tape.
Help your members learn to control their
sailplanes...and maybe they'll be part of those
elitists...the guys who have so much
fun in the hobby that they get up at 5am to drive hundreds of miles in the
rain to make a 9 o'clock pilots meeting to find out that the landing is a
crazy shaped spot and the time tasks are all minutes plus seconds, in a
weird add em up of a limited number of flights...who have so much fun that
even after losing a $1,000 plus plane, are on the phone that Monday
ordering another..and a week later back on the phone threatening the
supplier that if the plane doesn't show, he's going to expose his lousy
service on the RCSE,,,,shaking in the throws of TD withdrawal symptoms:-)
Build your club by helping sport flyers
learn where to place their hands on the
steering wheel, and how to launch with their left hand, while keeping
their right thumbs on the control stick. Teach them launch techniques,
and coach them in the logic of 'there is never a good reason to have a
downward component of a thermal turn!..they're supposed to be falling
UPWARDS :-)".
....Damn, I forgot to untie that guy when I
checked out....Oops!
Gordy
M. Rajsner shows how
its done with a Pike Superior...
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