Bipe Flyer

Bruce "pay it forward" Matthews.

CP. Multiple entries from contestants would be cool.

What should be the due date?

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

Andrew, if Bruce enters we could set the due date for 2020...?

There once was a design / engineering contest, [I think it was held at MIT] where the teams of contestants were handed a grocery bag full of building materials and given a simple task for their machine to perform while being measured against time, distance, or even "sparring" against another team's machine. Inside the bag would be an electric motor, batteries, string, rubber bands, chopsticks, scrap wood, cardboard, glue, tape, empty spools, toy wheels, ping pong balls...etc. I haven't seen coverage of this event in many years, but it was very interesting to see some very clever contraptions built and then made to perform under pressure.

049flyer

My Feedback: (18)

Guille-

It takes a certain type of person to come on to a message board devoted to 1/2A & 1/8A glow powered aircraft and imply that no one flies them. Maybe no one flies them in Italy, but I assure you that 1/2A in particular and small glow planes in general are still plenty popular in the USA!

Personally I vote for a glow only contest. Isn't that what this message board is all about?

Let the electric guys do their own thing.

BMatthews

Oh..... oh..... that's LOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW ! ! ! ! !

OK, I know I've lived up.... er.... down to that in the past. But still............ that's just looooooooowwwww......




It'll soon be summer and I know that a lot of folks will have summer things to do. So let's be fairly generous and put it to something like Oct 1?

And I've got a project in mind. It's a doodle that I did a few years back that I think needs to see the light of day. Chuck won't like it because it'll have more in common with a Lazy Bee than one of his screamin' snarlin' rockets....

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

OK Bruce, time to fess up.
When was the last time you finished and flew a 1/2 A Cox powered plane of any sort.........?
I'm very pleased by the prospect of you joining the group of builders. I'm looking forward to following your build[s]..!

Cross Check

Hi All,

I'm in. For me, any due date, is just a reason to 'get it done'...

I've started by finding my nice pencils, and 'European' curves.
(French curves I have sanded the 'knicks' out of !)
Picking up fresh 1/4in. Graph pads and a nice big 'Gummy' erasor tommorrow...

Found my palm orbital sander, to make a CP 'UltiSonic' cleaner for 'the Cox.049s'...Need the right size jar...

This is going to be fun !

Blank paper and ideas, are very cool,

Then make it fly.


Cheers,
Dave'crosscheck'Fallowfield

And a good excuse to learn how to post photos here !

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

Dave, build one of those planes that have 2 wings....I forget what they're called.

Cross Check

Hi CP,

I allways build two wings. A left and right one !
I have two .25 coro WW1 Combat planes. (D-7 and an Albatross)
They will be 'going down' in combat before 2018. !
Stupidest combat ever ! But fun towing streamers!
People at 'scale ralleys', don't get combat...

My hands hurt. Sharpened axe/spade 5 times, getting the hopp garden thinned out... Ouch !
Wicked roots, last year there were 'Bonsai' hopps, it was so rootbound.

Cheers,
Dave'crosscheck'Fallowfield

BMatthews

RC? That would be, I hate to admit, the rudder only model you saw me flying a few years ago. More recently though I finished up a long running 1/2A free flight power model last summer. It lasted a total of 12 seconds worth of air time over two flights.

..... I'm sticking with rubber power for free flight from now on......

But like I said. The shop renos are done, I've hung up the racing leathers and I'm looking skyward.

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

If I ever try rubber power, the plane will have a battery powered whistle blasting away.
Your mention of building a slow model for the contest got me to thinking......that it would be a real challenge to build a Wright Flyer complete with chain driven props off of a single petrol burning .049.

Bipe Flyer

The forum is 1/2A andd1/8A planes. I don't think his statement was intended to be as much of a slight as it sounded and the truth is that there are a lot of electrics out there. The great thing is that the radio gear is so small and light now that 1/2A engines can really be put to good use. Lets all just show each other our design skills and go from there. There's a category for everyone and I'm planning on building an entry for more than one.

Guille,
I'm sure you have some nice designs, but the contest is about creating a new design, not showing one you've already built.

So, let's break out the pencils, balsa and CA and get building.

Bipe Flyer

Should I start a new thread with the rules on the first post that Bruce can sticky, or should we continue with this one? We could all link our build threads there and follow along. I'll get a new contest site set up soon and we can upload photos there as well.

newtech

I have always hoped that another Design Contest would get underway. I still have my unfinished 2004 "Sky Terrier" entry; I can finish and fly it for the 2015 contest, right? This is the vacuum bagged carbon fiber model with plug in, hot wired polypropylene wings.

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

A Sticky Post is a capital idea.

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

Sorry, Steve.
Didn't you hear about the "Ten Year Rule"...?

Pond Skipper

Why is there a offsite site data and media was lost over the years or erm vaporize into cyber land?

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

It looks like old RCU threads end up in an "Old Thread Wrecking Yard"...?

Bipe Flyer

I'm not sure if you're asking why we had a site for the contest or why some of it was lost, so I'll answer both.

In the beginning there wasn't any voting mechanism on RC Universe and we wanted to keep all the contest entries together so they were easy to find and vote on. Try finding them on RCU now - not easy. Think of it this way. We're having a contest and using RCU to discuss it.

The ISP which hosted the original contest site went out of business and closed up one night and I didn't have access to the data anymore. Unfortunately I hadn't backed 2004 since early on in the contest that year, so most of that was lost. I'm trying to rebuild it from the Wayback Machine archives, but it's a fair bit of work.

Edit:
A lot of 2004 now restored.
I noticed that most of the pictures from 2006 are missing. I'm working on it.

Bipe Flyer

OK, here is a link to the design contest rules thread.
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/1-2-...ial-rules.html

Bruce, if you could sticky it, that would be great.

Bipe Flyer

Only if you finish it this time. lol

BMatthews

Glued firmly to the top.

By all means put it on your site as well but I'd like to see a build thread for each entry. Links to each thread can be put into the stickied thread as a "one stop shopping" point.

This pretty much mimics what we had in the past anyway.

Bipe Flyer

Sounds good. Just need to pick a due date.

guille2006

Yes BipeFlyier;
Actually I do fly what I built and I build what I design; namely: one F3A plane (5Kg, 2x2), one 1,5m-220g glider and its electric motorglider version and a sport aerobatic one.
I'm eager to show what I did / do for many reasons... and to promote my skills or my laser cutting machine is not one of those. I want to demostrate that today is still fun to build; to show that to fly something that you really built is twice satisfactory than putting a batt on a foamy (which I personally hate, no exception) and to show other modellers that today is easier for buiilding thhan it was 20 years ago.
I hope you all undertand that my cause is in pro of the "home built" airmodels; just tell: how many hours of TV are you sparing for a kid? How much a kid can learn by building an airplane? We all know the answer...
Cheers;
G.

guille2006

Yes BipeFlyier;
Actually I do fly what I built and I build what I design; namely: one F3A plane (5Kg, 2x2), one 1,5m-220g glider and its electric motorglider version and a sport aerobatic one.
Check one: http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-g...w-concept.html
I'm eager to show what I did / do for many reasons... and to promote my skills or my laser cutting machine is not one of those. I want to demostrate that today is still fun to build; to show that to fly something that you really built is twice satisfactory than putting a batt on a foamy (which I personally hate, no exception) and to show other modellers that today is easier for buiilding thhan it was 20 years ago.
I hope you all undertand that my cause is in pro of the "home built" airmodels; just tell: how many hours of TV are you sparing for a kid? How much a kid can learn by building an airplane? We all know the answer...
Cheers;
G.

Bipe Flyer

I have no doubts that you're a skilled designer and builder. What I was trying to say was that you need to design something new for the contest, not just a link to a plane you've already designed and built In the past.