rdepalma

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TO ALL PATTERN GENTLEMEN WITHIN AREA 51 OF THE PATTERN CENTRE OF THE WORLD..SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
FROM RALPH DEPALMA
DEPALMA AIRCRAFT CO.
LAS VEGAG NEVADA.
JON CARTER..TONY F. GREG F. JARVIS J. CHIPY..AND ALL model airSPACE IPHONE pattern SCOUTS.
IT IS NOW time to go pattern Rogue..meaning all rules OUT..Fly what you bring..fly what you got..20 pound 2 meter monsters welcome.
We need more UFO's in pattern land to jump start activity.
65% Nitro burning aircraft. Jon Carters secret Nuke Oxai pattern ship that is so secret Mr. W Matt cant even take a peek..
Tony F. at skunk works..great flying..now bring out the good stuff..
TIME FOR A CHANGE BOYS.
BAN CONVENTIONAL THINKING..gas cost too much. Coming from the man who gave out gas cards to partipants.
Think outside the Box. FORGET THE AERO BOX..IT AINT WORKING ANYMORE IF YOU ONLY GOT 10 PEOPLE PAYING $35 entry fee.
go to $1.00 entry fee.
No trophy wives..You win..you get bragin rights..You lose..you get free beer.
Cheat, bribe the judges..make it so fun that you cry all the way home.
See Ya soon.
Ralph DePalma
1971 control line stunt national champion.
Close personal friend on no one.

woodie

Ralph

HUNH????

Woodie

PS Where ya been?

AmericanSpectre505

Anyone in D2 flying these yet?


Thanks,

BHolsten

rcpattern

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Bill

Larry Kauffman has one. It is the F3A company plane He passed it around last fall at Green Sea. GREAT flying airplane. I would have a pair of them if I wasn't running the NATS.

Arch

AmericanSpectre505

That sounds great,..on both ends. Dave G. decided to retire from the NATS picture or will he be involved?
Been away so long now, I have no idea whats going on in the pattern world,..What are you flying,..anything?

Thanks' for the info. as always.

18 MZ,..LOL!


Bill

rcpattern

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18MZ should be here as soon they are back in stock....Still flying my Wind S Pro currently, and doing a lot of heli flying,

Arch

shannah

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I had a real treat today. I took the ferry boat ride from Hong Kong to Zhuhai and met Mr. B.J. Park, his father and his company team. I got a tour of the BJ Craft factory and, the best part, we went flying. Too bad I only had a short time to visit and the weather was really crappy. But I am looking forward to my next trip when I can spend more time. Mr. Park is a very sharp man and really understands the aerodynamic principals at work. Its funny, pattern flying is a universal language just like mathematics. I will post the full load of pics and notes when I get home next week. But, suffice to say that B.J. Park is a true craftsman and very intelligent engineer.

I really enjoyed being able to fly a plane in China, even though we had ridiculous fog and gusty winds. I got to try the new Nuance wings and I also flew the Prolog. I can't wait to try them in good weather.

Haram

Hi. Steve.
I was try to be there. but can not find return air ticket to Korea.
Anyway, i'm so glad to yourvisitingat factory.


have a good trip and see you soon.

shannah

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Hi Alex,
I had such a short time this trip. I hope that I can spend a full day flying on my next visit. I think I will be back in May, but I am not sure of my exact schedule at this time. I really enjoyed meeting B.J. Park, his father and all of the BJ Craft team. It was a very special day for me.
Steve

shannah

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I'm back home, so I wanted to post some pictures and info from my visit to BJ Craft in Zhuhai. I was pressed for time, but managed to cram in a full day's visit in just a few hours. I am looking forward to going back and flying with Mr Park and his friends.

To get to the factory, I took the CKS ferry from China Ferry Terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. It's about a 75 minute ride. These clip along about 20-30kts and are a great ride. Here's a pic of the ferry and the ferry terminal in Zhuhai.

shannah

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BJ Park (in the middle), his father (left) and his factory manager picked me up at the terminal. From the minute I got in the van we were talking about airplanes!! It was great fun discussing everything from Contra Drives to CG placement.

shannah

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He's got the entire end to end manufacturing operation in his factory. He takes in raw balsa blocks and planes his own sheeting from them. He has full surface finishing equipment and his balsa sheeting is very nice, hence the light weights he achieves.

shannah

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They have a couple CNC cutters. This one is for wood parts and he has another one for fiberglass plate parts.

shannah

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The assembly operations are done in different areas. He has a room where all the built up wings and stabs are fabricated. Parts come in and finished sheeted goods come out.

shannah

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In another area he does the glass layups. He has CNC molds that the parts are formed in. The layed up parts are put into a heat room that is temperature controlled. They use a bunch of heat lamps from the ceiling in the curing room and get it up to curing temp and then put parts in and let them cure. The temperature is monitored.

shannah

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They have a separate paint booth and also a sealed/heated curing room. They paint work was really looking good.

He has the monokote work done in his main room. The were doing wings and fuse's when I was there. Also some very nice work was being done.

shannah

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We spent a while talking about his new wing design for the Nuance. It utilizes three different airfoils on the wing. The root section near the fuse is a laminar flow airfoil, the center section (the main flying section) uses a NACA airfoil and his tips are an Eppler airfoil. We discussed the differences between this and the standard Nuance wing and Prolog wing. He explained how the MAC was different between the wings and why he did things the way he did. I should have taken better notes. BJ really knows his stuff with regards to aerodynamic engineering. He is an aerodynamic engineer. He actually started his model factory to build UAV's. But they got too high tech for him to be competitive and he switched the factory over to a Pattern Plane (and IMAC plane) factory.

shannah

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We hurried off the the flying site to get some flying done before I had to leave. He brought the Nuance with the new wings and the Prolog. I hadn't seen the Prolog before and it was a very nice looking plane. It has the same basic fuse as the Nuance but uses a totally different wing and also a rearward canopy location.

shannah

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We made it out to his flying site only to find that the weather wasn't going to cooperate with us. It was windy and gusty but the worse part was that the ceiling was only about 300'. We flew anyway!! Luckily BJ's flying assistant, a young guy named "PaPa" flew mode 2 so I was in luck. He had a 12MZ I could use. It was fun listening to PaPa give Park a ration while trying to get the throttle curve set on his TX. I was laughing. Now, I have to say that I was not about to take off and land from his "runway". It was a tree lined street with lightpoles on one side and plane eating trees on the other. In fact, one crop of trees was conspicuously missing..... We speculated that was the tree which ate one of BJ's planes. Ha Ha

shannah

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I flew the Nuance and the Prolog, but really couldn't wring them out. I liked the snap on the new wings for the Nuance. I can't wait to get a set and really put them through the paces. He felt that since I fly with a rearward CG then I will probably like them a lot. He says that with a more forward CG then they may not be as stable as the normal wings.

The Prolog flew very well too. I wished that I could have flown the full pattern so that I could have a comparison. I guess that will wait until next trip.

shannah

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There are more pics on his blogsite here: http://rcone.kr/board/index.html?id=bjair1&no=81

There are a lot of pics of me taking pics :-)

I had a really great time meeting everyone there and they were such great hosts. I felt bad that I couldn't stay longer and they went to all the trouble to come get me and to take me flying. It was a fantastic experience for me. I will try and go spend a full day on my next visit to the area. I hope BJ can come to the US sometime so I can return the favor. He really wants to come to D7 and fly with the guys. He knows all about NSRCA District 7.

Steve

wattsup

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Hi Steve, thanks for the update and pictures. I've had the privilege of exchanging several e mails with BJ Park and found him not only knowledgeable but very honest and straight forward which I find to be refreshing in today's environment. Could the Prolog be a better candidate for the CD unit than the Nuance? Just a thought, Everette

shannah

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Hi Everette,

We talked about the Prolog for Contra Drives. I think it would probably be better than the Nuance with a Contra Drive. For one, the canopy shape and placement is better suited. The tall, forward canopy on the Nuance might result in some of the yaw stability issues that others had seen with the CD. BJ thought that it might be better suited for the CD as well.

wattsup

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Steve, my thoughts about the suitability of a CD unit on a Prolog vs Nuance were not based on anything I had heard from anyone, just a feeling. I know the Genesis is no longer "in vogue" but, there are some similarities with it and the Prolog and could very well be a very affordable alternative/experimental candidate for a CD unit. What do you think? Everette

shannah

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I don't recall much on the Genesis. I think you have to look carefully at the design. You want small frontal nose area, rearward canopy, generous fuse side area, and a large-ish vertical fin. I think BJ is intrigued with the concept so it wouldn't surprise me if he comes up with something in the future.