Jason Arnold

Wow Gav, your first post on RCU....

You're famous mate! Check out the club website.....

Cheers,
Jason.

Brenner

Hey Gavin,

The gearsets are color coded with machined dots on the arms of the driveshaft carrier. Each arm may, or may not, have a dot. The code is interpreted as follows:

0 dots - 9.98:1
1 dot - 10.15:1
2 dots - 10.33:1
3 dots - 10.56:1

The ring gears are coded in the same way.

Brenner ...

gmr1948

Brenner,

I believe you are using a YGE controller. How do you turn on brake during flight?

Brenner

I have a separate channel, mixed into throttle. I use it to switch the brake on and off for different maneuvers.

Brenner...

Jason Arnold

If anyone is interested in what the Gavinator looks like check out our club homepage at http://cksmac.com/home There's also a picture of the Gavman deep in concentration flying a practice P13 sequence.

You'll also see Shane Lysaght's full composite Wind S Pro with contra-drive fitted. Scroll down a little further and you'll see me nursing my new Spark Dynamic without contra-drive...

Cheers,
Jason.

Malcolm H

This weekend saw the Triple Crown Home International F3A Competition between England, Ireland and Scotland. Scotland was the host country and the contest took place at Castle Kennedy airfield in the south west corner of the country.

Four teams take part with an International team made up of fliers from each country. Five Contradrives were flown by Steve Burgess and myself from Scotland and Brian Carolan, Paul Houlihan and Niall O' Sullivan from Ireland.

Our "auld enemy" England won, Scotland were second, Ireland third and the International team fourth. The contest is low key with the social side being as important as the serious bit but traditionally it is where the latest pattern innovations and designs show up in our part of the world. Our Contras sparked a lot of interest and I wouldn't be surprised if others now follow.

Pics of the Scottish Team, all the flyers and a couple of ambience shots attached.

Malcolm

Brenner

Hey Malcolm,

Thanks for posting the pictures. All of the planes are immaculate.

How was the weather? It's hard to believe that you guys are wearing jackets in July. Here in the American Midwest it was 103F (40C) this last weekend.

The previous weekend we had a regional constest in Chicago, and while it wasn't as prestigious as the triple Crown, it was also well attended by Contras. There were six in total. The pilots were myself, Dave Snow, Mike Gaishin, Bill Ahrens, Dan Landis, and Bobby Satalino. Dave, Dan & Bill all flew clipped 22x20s on the rear with a mix of clipped 22x20s and 22x22s on the front. It was impressive to watch these guys fly F13 on Sunday with this setup.

Here are some pictures.

Brenner ...

Malcolm H

Brenner I wish we could import some of your weather!

It was typically 13 - 14 C and mega windy blowing out 90 degrees for most of the weekend. While some of the Contras were running 22 x 20 front and rear others stuck with the 22 x 20, 22 x 18 mixed set and coped fine with 20 mph+ winds. It just goes to show that with the Contra you can pick your flying style and it will deliver.

Malcolm

AmericanSpectre505

Good stuff gentleman,...[8D]

Bholsten

Brenner

Mike Gaishin has been optimizing his process for making props. Here are some pictures of the latest props that he's made. These props have the same finish, and are as stiff and strong as the props we have been making at 50g. Mike thinks that he can keep the average weight at about 40g, +/- a few grams.

Mike is able to preserve the strength and stiffness through careful optimization of the internal air pressure during molding, the mold temperature, the carbon fiber to resin ratio, and the ratio of cloth to tow.

For now, we will continue to make props at 50g, but we hope to start bringing the weight down in the near future.

Brenner ...

Brenner

Just this last week I was able to get a set of Dave Snow wings in the air with my Contra powered Wind S Pro. These wings were built and covered by Dave himself, so all I had to do was mount them. My immediate thoughts with regard to comparision with the stock Wind S Pro built up wings are as follows:

1/.. Dave's wings are lighter by about four ounces. (113g)
2/.. Exits from snaps are easier to hit consistently.
3/.. Dave's wings are noticeably faster than the stock panels. I'm flying with a set of 22x20 front and rear props and they at least as fast as when I fly the stock wings with a 22x22 rear and a 22x20 front.
4/.. I've moved my CG back about 12mm from where I had it with the stock wings. (I'm still experimenting with this though ..)

These wings are not a direct copy of the Wind S Pro wings. They are replicas of the Spark wings that Dave is building for Andrew Jesky, which are also not direct copies of the Krill Spark wings.

All in all, I am very happy with the switch. My AUW has gone from 5075g to 4910g, (includes swapping out the wing tube as well..) and I figure I'm going to pick up points on all my snaps at least.

Brenner ...

serious power

Hi Brenner / anyone,
Do you know anything of this ;

Hans Meij

A lot of innovations are built into this model.
As this is the contra-drive thread, the motor is a Pletty Advance with own build drive. Props are direct driven.

Brenner

How does it fly?

serious power

Hi Hans,
Are you able to elaborate some on the motor / drive and props.

Brian

Hans Meij

Hi Brian,
Saw the model on two WorldCup events and could peek into it and ask Peter some questions. For 'real' info please ask Peter.
Hi Brenner,
Yes it flew very well.

Brenner

Is there any reduction gearbox between the props and the motor? Also, what size are the props?

Brenner ...

Passport1

My Feedback: (8)

Hey Brenner Thanks for everything. heres a pic of my Worlds Visa converted and it flys so straight and true I love it. I only have 3% down elev mixed to throttle and maybe a .5% mix rudder to ail/elev for the Knife edge triangles. This plane is one of 2 or 3 we built with the elipitical which was considerably slower then the stock Visa but has plenty of speed when need be. Props are reshaped to the APC's as close as I could make them and with the 25C TP 5000's its got plenty mo. Front is a 20.5x20 and the rear is 20.75x22. Here is a pic of the polished drive I am using at this time. I am going to use the painted one with the stars as the back up.


The second pic slithered across my shoes when I was doing the knife edge loop. I came very close to crashing lol as well as something else.

C

Brenner

Hey Chip,

The polished spinner looks very sharp! I'm looking forward to seeing your setup fly.

Brenner ...

serious power

Hi,
Is chip using the contra at the Nat's - if so it seems to be going well.
BTW Brenner - you are not doing too bad yourself - goog luck with the rest of it.

Brian

Brenner

Thanks Brian,

Yes, Chip is flying the Contra. I saw his second round of F about an hour ago. He's doing great!

I won the first round in masters, but I had my score zeroed for missing a judging assignment. Right now I'm waiting to fly the last two rounds of masters.

Brenner...

pippy

Hi Brenner, way to go. I didn't know your nats was on the same time as my European champs. Good to hear things are going well. I have 5 flights now in Practice at temperatures over 30°C (hot for us)..all going well so far. Everything, motor, batteries and me running hot that in Ireland..
Best of luck

underdw

My Feedback: (2)

Is Dave Lockhart flying a Contra?

How are the Contras doing in the sound checks? Must be OK.

serious power

Hi Paul,
You must be sight-seeing or something.
The GB boys are doing about 20 flights a day

Brenner; that sucks - you won't do that again
I'm delighted things are going well for you.

Brian

Brenner

Sound checks are tomorrow. By the way, I made the final in Masters. We fly tomorrow at eight. I did get a courtesy sound check, and I was at 94db.

Dave Lockhart flew his Contra all through the prelims, and then switched to his single prop for the semis. He told me that he switched because he hasn't had enough time to trim his Contra powered plane for the double knife edge snap in F.

Brenner...

PS-> by the way, temperatures here in Muncie are about 35C...