Raymond LeFlyr

My Feedback: (2)

I was just thinking about the success of the recent North Carolina get-togethers, and I had a brain burp; why don’t all of us who are fans of half-A and smaller powered models get our little airplanes in the air with as many like-minded individuals as we can convince to play with us at whatever places are convenient – here’s the kicker (wait for it……) - all on the same day! Woo hoo.

Hey, Free Flight guys do it all the time and they often require that the same model be flown by all. We could be more flexible and just set the limit on engine size. Golly gee, the models could be FF, CL, R/C or anything else (powered kites, boats) for that matter.

Can’t you just hear all those wonderful, un-muffled screamers whipping the air into a froth all over the continent – nay the World – on the same day! Why, I’ll bet we could affect the Earth’s axis tilt if we got enough of us to participate.

Then in the days following we could take turns posting the results (real or imagined) on our favorite forum for all to see. How many people got together, what they flew, how many planes managed to fly at the same time, descriptions of crashes, photos, etc. (I guess we’d have to pick a forum that was very popular amongst us ‘displacement-challenged’ people. Any recommendations?).

Of course there would be many competitive tasks and huge prizes. “Spot landing” for example; who could draw the best ‘spot’ around their just-landed airplane? The prize a ‘Round-Tuit’ pin from a couple of decades ago. Or “touch-n-goes”; the airplane would have to have touched the ground after the engine becomes quiet – then be able to fly again. The prize would be a gift certificate for a child’s beach/sand shovel, useful for subsequent touch-n-go attempts – that have failed. How about, “most small airplanes in the air at the same time”; the prize could be a group photo – after everyone has landed, silly – of all participants, to be posted on the yet-to-be-named forum. Why, the possibilities are semi-endless.

Here’s what I suggest we do right away.
1. Pick a forum.
2. Start arguing about what date would be appropriate. One possibility could be the first Sunday after January 1, 2004 (which is the 4th). It won’t be THAT cold here in North Carolina. The rest of you can work out something for warming toes, etc. An alternative could be something sooner, much sooner, like the Sunday after Thanksgiving. (Why not? You wanna watch football or something?).
3. Offer suggestions (again, using some forum) for events – both real and imagined. Inverted, rudder-only, limbo anyone? If you come up with an event, you gotsta do the prize too.
4. Maybe we could follow the FF’ers lead and suggest, offer up, recommend, insist on, demand the use of a specific and very popular model, designer, manufacturer, engine, whatever. For example, we might require that anyone who flies a model of .010 displacement MUST use a Cox engine. Or, that entrants identify models designed by Willard, Kampen, Flugputz, etc. In any case, participants would be encouraged to provide information (specs even) on each model flown so that future generations might benefit from such data – possibly to the level of stealing/borrowing ideas/designs.

I anxiously await your comments and decisions. But don’t take too long. I have difficulty holding on to a train of thought for very long these days

bsindel

Actually, with the advent of wireless internet computers and webcams the idea of a "virtual" fly-in isn't all that impossible.


Bill Sindel

Tim Wiltse-RCU

OK Raymond take your meds!!! No really you have a bunch of good ideas in there. I pledge at the next NC SMALL fly-In I will give away one of my little custom Cox engines to the winner of a limbo contest! Also I think this would be easy enough for us NC boys... a one design event of some sort...like all up last down.....pylon or something I think that would be cool! I think a Pee Wee .020 or .049 engine size as most of us have one of those. Something like the Guided Mite for the plane. Easy and fast to build without a huge cost. Better yet I know of a new contest...find a plane that Deadstik can't fly!!! It really is great that we have all been able together together twice now. I'm going to be building like a mad man this winter and by spring hope to have a truck load of mini flyers. Looks like the boys up north don't much care.


Later,
Tim

William Robison

My Feedback: (3)

How about bone stock Littlest Stick/PeeWee 0.020 pylon racing? Rudder only, of course.

If someone has a R/E version the elevator servo could be unplugged.

Given the tank size of the PeeWee it might have to be based on who could make the most laps rather than how fast a set number was flown.

Bill.

Mike_Mc

Slightly off topic: Just an idea. Would someone be interested in flying by proxy at the next small fly-in? i.e. I put my little plane in a box and mail it to you. You send it back (or what's left of it) afterwards and tell me how much fun it was or was not.

Tim Wiltse-RCU

I would love to crash...I mean fly your plane for you!



Later,
Tim

Raymond LeFlyr

My Feedback: (2)

Bill,

I personally could not think of a model I like better than the Littlest Stick/Wee Stick with a PeeWee engine for any type of event. However, I would have to vote for R/E or A/E controls for pylon racing. There are a couple of reasons for my preference: There aren't that many people who can safely fly RO without crashing. If you wanted to fly more than one airplane up at a time, they could be flown closer to a course - and each other. And those models would be more likely be built if the "participant" could build it anyway they liked.

But just to start something, how about we "suggest" that people fly their small birds on the Sunday after Thanksgiving - and then send in a "report" sometime the following week.

Harumph, I make a "motion" from the above paragraph be voted on. Anyone care to second?

William Robison

My Feedback: (3)

Ray:

Glad you like the Littlest Stick/PeeWee combo.

But I still say rudder only.

Pylon racing using the LS with elevator control wouldn't be any fun, in my opinion. Consider. Take off, hold altitude with the elevator, go around the pylon and blast down the straight to the next pylon. Still using elevator to hold altitude. Since "Blasting down the straight" with a LS is going to be somewhere around 20 mph, the excitement will be on the order of watching Fords rust.

Now, rudder only. Launch and go for the pylon, you're at 70 or 80' when you get there, go around, still 70' and climbing when you straighten out. Got to get it down - hard left rudder, do three rolls, down to 20' at the near pylon, Crank in some left, oops, too low, straighten it out to keep from eating dirt, then finish the turn. Only 40' at the far pylon this time, crank it around to come back. Not letting it climb this time, doing "S" turns all the way to the near pylon, and rack it around. Whoa! Dead stick! Out of fuel! Now, to keep it from stalling in we have to do the "S" turn bit again, then straighten it out to land. Darn! Two feet short of the finish line!

Now consider three or more LS/PW planes all doing tbis at the same time. See the difference?

Yes, there could well be a mid-air or two, but the LS is light enough that damage would be minimal. Mine has survived nose in from 20' more than once, the only time I've damaged it was landing in a tree.

Bill.

Mike_Mc

LOL. Thanks, I'll keep you in mind.

Deadstik

My Feedback: (8)

Raymond,

I think you have a good idea there concerning the One Design Pylon Races. The Carolina Small Fly Group is easily led into unknown territory and therefore are perfect lemmings for this type of madness!! I think the Wee Stik/Littlest Stik is the right plane and the Pee Wee .020 the right engine. Control surfaces should be up to the builder. We just don't have enough people who are comfortable flying rudder only to do it that way although I can certainly see what a hoot it would be. As for location..we need somebody new to step up. Count me in, just give me a frequency !!

Tim, I would like my new engine in blue.. thank you, LOL


Deadstik[8D]

Tim Wiltse-RCU

Deadstik,


Hey you still have engines in shrink wrap!!!!


Later,

Tim

Lynn S

I have a LS with no engine. How about setting up a course and do a timed lap?
Hey why don't we just meet in Memphis?

Raymond LeFlyr

My Feedback: (2)

Bill,

Fords rust? Well why not? What would you expect them to do after they have run for a year or two? Chevy's on the other hand would go for three year minimum - but I think I read somewhere that they rust more aggressively than Fords. But I could be mistaken.

Rudder only LS's making less than one circuit around a course at 20 to 80 feet high. Snooze.

Now three or more LS's humming along within ten to twenty feet high around a seriously shortened route, now that rivals watching the Marlins choke.

Actually, I just stripped the old covering off my LS becasue I was seriously embarassed to show up at the same field with Bobhh's Wee Stick beauty this weekend. Otherwise I would go out tomorrow and test fly my R/E Littlest Stick with .010 power to determine a reasonable (in my mind) length for a two-pylon course. Anybody have actual experience? Recommendations?

Would you insist on Pee Wee power or could .010's be run with them. I would think that the Pee Wee would be faster. Am I wrong (unlikley, but possible)?

I think Tim suggested limbo. Hey, I'm game. If a LS snagged a line, killing the engine, and fell out of the sky the resultant "landing" would have to be less damaging than a mid air during a pylon plunge to earth under power. Wouldn't it?

Raymond LeFlyr

My Feedback: (2)

Lynn,

I am struggling with your idea to race LS's with no engine. Would you line everybody up at the start line and have them toss their model, then run after it and toss again, and again, and again, and again ... perhaps until someone completes an entire lap - or everyone collapses - whichever comes first?

Wouldn't that be similar to HLG golf? It would save on fuel and glow head costs, but I fear that younger flyers would triumph. I find that repugnant since I am a mature person and I am tired (grin) of being one-upped by wippersnappers.

Dan,

We spoke briefly about our mutual enjoyment of combat. I have stripped what I used to call "engineers tape" (the 1" wide plastic stuff they sell at Home Depot) down to about 1/4". My Littlest Stick will pull 10 - 15' of it. What do you think about a little informal tail-chasing (with the airplanes silly) the next time?

William Robison

My Feedback: (3)

Raymond:

Since we're talking Fords and Chevvies you must be referring to the Rambler/AMC Marlins, right?

TeeDee 010s running with the PeeWee 020s? Probably pretty close, but who cares? It's a fun fly, right? Restrict the fuel supply to internal tankage only. Pit stops.

My description of a 90% lap was for illustration only, run time should be enough for three or four laps with a 40' pylon spacing. Maybe even more laps with elevator control.

Another little fillip to add - the airplane must be seen to go behind the pylon. Not over it, behind it. Then with the pylons set at 20' high this would give the rudder only boys even more fun.

And rudder only for limbo? Now you're getting into the spirit of the thing!

Nice part is, as you said, these planes will bounce, seldom doing any damage.

Bill.

dhansen

Them is almost fightin words............ But hey, I'd rather fly than fight. Just wished I wasn't so far away. I'd love to join in the fun.

I have inlaws in Baltimore. How many hours drive from there to where you fly?

Might be time for a field trip!

Dennis in Maine.

bsindel

Bill,

I am trying to picture 5 or 6 littlest sticks buzzing around a 20 foot pylon course. Would probably be like the time I sprayed weed killer down a hornets nest. Sure had me jumpin I'll tell ya.

Bill Sindel

William Robison

My Feedback: (3)

BillS:

You're getting the idea too. More fun than when the Women's Christian Temperance Union raided our beach party and we convinced them that Artillery Punch was just a different flavored soft drink. When they started drinking it like water the party got interesting.

OK, we'll let R/E and A/E controls in with the rudder onlys. But with elevator control you have to put the prop on backwards. Or maybe a handicap - the two channel planes have to fly five laps, the rudder only planes just have to make four.

But I just think rudder only would be a lot more fun.

Bill.

Raymond LeFlyr

My Feedback: (2)

Dennis,

Balto huh? I'm afraid that might take a while by car. Commercial air travel could be interesting these days if you tried to take one of these "little missiles" as carry-ons. Heavy sigh.

But hey, if we are talking multi-day trips, I'd do Memphis with Lynn or Balto but I would have to be reasonably sure we had enough bodies - with flyable models - to make it worth while.

"Worth while" to me means at least 7 -8 pilots - and if you are going to have specific "1/4 - 1/8A LS events" I'd like to see pylon, limbo, combat. whatever. Spot landings are OK if everybody flies at the same time.

Otherwise, if we are talking about a traditional flyin, then why wouldn't we just join the regular SMALL flyin that's reported in the magazines? (I ought to do that one of these years anyway.)

But back to the "Intergalactic... on the same day" gig, nobody has really responded yea or nay, nor discussed a date. Anyone, anyone?

DICKEYBIRD

Here's something that we did here in the Memphis area starting in 1982 (I think it was) and resurfaces from time to time. It has been very popular at times 'cuz of the big fun factor.

We flew 3 events with mall glider foamies converted to 2 channel (rudd/elev) powered by integral tank reed valve .049's. 1) Climb/glide/loop contest with spot landing. 2) "Figure-8" races around 2 pylons about 150-200 ft. apart, 4 plane matrices. 3) Mano a mano combat free for all with no streamers. The last event was the biggest fun! We had up to 20 contestants and it was a HOOT! The planes are cheap, easy to build & repair plus have a lot more performance than you'd think with a hot Black Widow up front! The color schemes and aircraft names were great as well. Magic markers and Krylon only!

I'm thinking the Pee Wee isn't a realistic power plant for group fun unless the contest is to be who can keep their's running consistently!

There's a thread in this forum a while back with various construction pix & such.

Tim Wiltse-RCU

Raymond,


I think someone said the day after Thanksgiving. I would be game to that. What ever day is fine with me. Just give me a week or two to finish the Mite'.


Now back to the Pylon idea. The foamie idea of Dickeybirds is a good one. We would need to somehow all have the same glider to work with. We could have two class's ...Stock Cox Black Widow type.049 and a run what you brung...Norvel's, Cox TD's ....my new 30,000 rpm rear rotor Cox... whatever. Don't ask how we would make the wings stay on!!! I think we all have alot of great ideas for these little planes. The spot landing contest last weekend was great. Once a few more of us get planes together it opens up the door to so much more fun. I vote for a Guided Mite PeeWee .020 pylon event too!

Later,
Tim

dhansen

Hi All.

I'd try to hold up the northern end of the front for an attempt at flying the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Any excuse to go fly. Just not as exciting as having a half dozen or more .020 bugs in the air at the same time.

No response to my post requesting insight as to the quality of the current production Pee Wee 020s vs older stock. Someone must be running the newer engines.

Dennis in Maine.

Or the Friday after turkey day........... whatever!

Raymond LeFlyr

My Feedback: (2)

Dickeybird,

I'm glad you said that about Pee Wee's consistency and not me. Frankly, I gave up on Cox reed valve engines back when I started getting "serious" about 1/2a CL combat and Mouse racing a couple of decades ago. TDs on pressure suddenly became pleasureable to start and tune. Like you said, consistency is not a Pee Wee's long suit. But they are cute, relatively cheap, and there are some people who can handle them (at least better than I).

As for selecting one (or two, or three) designs for a semi-spontaneous, no-together, get-together; If the majority is in favor of Pee Wee power, that's OK with me. However, if we get to talking .049 - .061 - .074, then I'll be using a Norvel thank you. Oh, all right if people start whining I'll break out a TD - but only if you insist.

Right now I'm planning on flying whatever 1/2a - and smaller models I have at our Smithfield, NC JCAC field on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I will have streamers for anyone who is interested. We have provisions for pylons thanks to our pattern flyers who use some markers during practice. For limbo, I'm thinking of just setting up one height and letting people count the number of times they make it under during a single flight. But I don;t think I will stretch a line across the runway, just get someone to climb up on a table and eyeball it. The judge's decision is final (but who really cares anyway).

Or, none of the above if the majority of people there prefer a flyin rather than "events".

There, I've made a commitment. Entry fee will be the usual. A used prop of any size with at least one good blade left intact - or a cereal boxtop.

As for 'Mart foam models. I have a couple of different versions tucked away in my hermetically sealed time vault - just waiting for some incentive to put them together. The one with the most potential is the swept wing fighter, one piece glider that was reviewed in the "Model Sport Video Magazine" some time back. I think it was powered by a Norvel but I thought of putting a TT .07 in it for speed since it didn't look like it would be much of an aerobat. But curiosly, I never did anything more than accumulate the parts. Huh.

Tim Wiltse-RCU

raymond,



Sounds like another get together!! Count me in!

Later,
Tim

goldguy

I like your idea Raymond. Sounds like the EBENEZERINTERNATIONAL event flown every year, around the world and reported on in the British magazine, Model Flyer.

If I can find a web site on this event I'll post it for you, as you may find a few ideas to make this work.

fly SMALL, have a BALL: