ETpilot

ETpilot

acdii

Have a similar issue, Maple tree behind the house is encroaching on the septic tank and has entered the pipes. There are even roots in the drainage pipes under my basement floor.

ETpilot

acdii

It is on my list for next spring when I have the money for an arborist to come out and remove the tree along with cut down some willows that are falling apart. I cut the smaller ones myself, but this one is too large and right next to the house or I would have felled it last year.

donnyman

OH BOY! You guys have me worried, I got a tree very close to my septic tank and I bet I am in a similar situation especially with this dry spell, I dread the thought but the reality is I better check before problems arise Aww s...

I just checked there is no evidence on the surface but I will take no chances I will try to get the gardener to do some digging to check below the surface.

acdii

Get some of that root rid stuff to pour in your toilet, it helps eat through any roots that make their way into the drain pipes.

I had an almost expensive situation this past year with my field. The ground was saturated over where the field is. I have the type that uses a plastic shell with a pipe centered at the inside top of it, with a 8-10" air gap before the stone bed. Water was sitting on the top of it. We had a lot of rain earlier this year so it was mainly attributed to that, but to be on the saf side I did a bacteria shock treatment. I flooded the system with septic bacteria, let it get well acquainted in the tank, then ran a second dump of it and ran a lot of water to get it into the field. The ground has dried up which is a good sign and we have not had any indications of a backup in the tank, so fingers crossed all is well in the field since it is only about 10 years old.

ETpilot

ETpilot

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

No sense of adventure!

gmeyers

to those who pull (vacuum form) their own parts - what do you or how do you make your plugs??

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

That canopy doesn't look very complicated I'll bet you could make one from a two litter bottle and a heat gun.

ETpilot

ETpilot

donnyman

22" canopy?????? how big is that bird?

mkjohnston

My Feedback: (2)

here is a link to a guy here in Wichita falls tx that makes canopies:Lazer Works - Engraving & Design. He made one for contender kit that I got from him last year.
Michael Johnston

ETpilot

ETpilot

Telemaster Sales UK

Driving down to Macon today with Miss Blue Eyes. Yes they named the city in Georgia after it! It's about half way between where I live and where La Coupe Des Barons takes place. It's famous for it's white wines and a little further south is the Beaujolais Valley, famous for its red wines so I'll be buying some of that too!

If it's not to fanciful or disrespectful I feel like those Hawker Hurricane pilots must have felt, who'd survived the Battle of France and returned to England for what turned out to be the Battle of Britain. My club is entering a team of novices in the competition but I've already been there and done it. We'll see. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the club's tortoises do better than the hares.

I'll let you know we get on. Photos to follow etc.

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Good luck!

gmeyers

Hi -- I used the heating element wire from an electric clothes dryer and I also used a vacuum cleaner motor for the pull down. Simply sticking a hose through a hole in a box won't give you enough pull. The hose accounts for considerable volume for your vacuum cleaner to pull so I used a larger box with the vacuum motor directly attached. I got my parts from ebay.

ETpilot

Telemaster Sales UK

La Coupe Des Barons took place on Saturday 7th September. My club, Berry Marche Modelisme or B2M for short entered a team of six pilots. All of the models except for Jean-Luc's are shown in Post 7121. In La Coupe, pilots are divided into groups of ten which are numbered 1-8. Therefore, the maximum number of pilots the event can cater for is eighty. On the day 77 pilots turned up. Pilots are allocated a group and fly from marked positions on a fence marked 1-10. For example Francois, at 79 our oldest member, flew in Group 2, Position 4 while Jean-Luc and I flew in Group 8 from Positions 5 and 3 respectively. Jean-Luc had crashed his newly-built model in practice and resorted to his old model for the event. Roger Aubard, the club's president and best pilot opted to act as guide and helper to all of the other pilots, talking them through their manouvres, except for me!

Miss Blue Eyes,aka Trish and I decided to take two days to drive down the 472kms (293 miles) to the event staying the first night in Macon. I bought some white wine there and some red Beaujolais a little further south at Chenas. We reached the town of Chambery, population 62,000, only 50 kms (30 miles) from the event at about 5pm on the Friday afternoon but there were accidents allover the place and traffic was stationary for nearly two hours but we finally reached the hotel I had booked.

Next morning we arrived only just in time to register but soon the competition was under way. We had no members flying in the first group so we watched the others flying the "Caisse Baguettes" round. In this round you have to try to knock over balsawood sticks which are only 1 metre above the ground. Some models hit the ground, others either missed each other by millimetres or collided with each other. Spectator reaction ranged from disappointment to outright schadenfreude and shocked or sarcastic cheers rang out! Then it was Francois' turn. Francois can get rather nervous but Roger counselled him throughout the ten minutes of the round. I'm not sure whether he hit any sticks but his model survived to go on to the next round.

Gerard was less fortunate in Group 3. An inexperienced pilot, after two or three passes, he flew too high and too slowly and stalled. The fuselage snapped in three places and he was out of the competition.

We had no-one in Group 4 but Ludo who built the beautiful grey and red model pictured in Post 7121, flew in Group 5. With Roger again providing advice and guidance, he flew the round without hitting a stick but the model survived to the next round.

Roger flew in Group 6. He had once finished tenth in the French National Championships and he is a much better pilot than anybody else in our team. Jean-Luc carried his model to the start line, Roger took off and circulated with the rest of them. The Contest Director sounded his air horn and they were off! I watched the models fly past but could not see Roger's. His motor, an old OS 30, had cut and he was forced to land.

With Trish and other members of out club helping, Jean-Luc and I took our models to the starting boxes. The previous Wednesday, 4th September, I had gone with Trish to our local flying field. There I flew the Baron with a 13x4 prop and which proved to be suitable for slow speed flight but with a 10x8 fitted to the OS 48 FS, the model flew much more quickly. I therefore decided to fly the 13x4 in the first round.

I had made final adjustments to the engine in the pits. The mighty OS fired up straight away. Trish carried the model to the start-line I took off, climbed magnificently and circulated waiting for the others to get airborn. The CD sounded his airhorn... ... and my motor cut! I managed to affect a forced landing.

Jean-Luc was less lucky. His motor cut and he stalled and crashed severely damaging his model. I offered to help him to repair it but he wasn't interested. He spent the rest of the day helping out his clubmates.

The next round was a pylon race around two pylons. Francois dealt with the situatation by flying his under-powerred electric model high above his competitors but nonetheless succeeded in flying around 20 pylons. Ludo with his model powered by an OS 25 two stroke giving away a lot of power to the OS 35 AXs, managed 17. Roger managed only 9.

I had changed the prop to a 10x8 and I was having a great time flying much faster than I had ever flown the model before and was over-taking several competitors. I managed several pylons before I noticed that the tailplane was vibrating. After a couple of more circuits I was ordered to land by the contest director on safety grounds. I was allowed 12 pylons. Last year with an electric powered model I had managed 23.

Then we all adjourned for a four-course French lunch.

It's late here and the evenings are getting colder. I have driven nearly 700 miles (1127 kms) in the last few days and I'm rather tired. I hate driving these days so I'm going to bed. Part 2 of La Coupe Des Barons 2019 tomorrow!

FlyerInOKC

My Feedback: (6)

Good luck with part 2!

Telemaster Sales UK

La Coupe des Barons 2019.
Part 2.

The third test last year was the Chasse Renard or fox hunt in which a trainer slowly towed a crepe paper streamer while the rest of us tried to cut it off with our propellers. Apparently this was deemed too wasteful of Barons and too stressful for the trainer pilots, consequently a spot landing contest was adopted. Pity as I enjoyed the Chasse Renard. Two rectangles,10 metres by 5 metres were marked out on the ground. The object was to land and stop in one of the rectangles.That was worth 10 points. If you landed in the rectangle but rolled out you scored three points. If you landed outside the rectangle and rolled in as Francois did, you did not gain any extra points. Once all of the aircraft in a group were airbourne, the Contest Director told the No 1 pilot to cut his engine and attempt to land in one of the rectangles. If his aircraft landed a long way from the rectangle, as most did for by now a stiff breeze was blowing, the second pilot was told to cut his engine and attempt a landing and so on. Those few that landed in or close to the landing zones were cleared away by a helper. Roger, Ludo and I all managed to land and stop within 1.5 metres, (five feet) of the landing zone and each of us was awarded ten points for a successful landing. So was Francois. In fact of the fifty-six surviving Barons only three managed to land and stop within the rectangles.

Then we all got ready for the final round, the dreaded Limbo in which you have to fly beneath a goalpost 10 metres wide by 4 metres high. As the Baron only has a 1.5 metre wingspan this sounds easy but you just try it! The survivors of the first group took off took off. Every one of their models was wrecked within the next five minutes. In fact the round had to be run in two halves as one of the Barons brought down the goalpost after crashing in to it! This happened twice in subsequent rounds.

Then it was Francois' turn to fly. He managed six passes and several touch and goes which were not recorded in the results. A touch and go is worth 3 points, then his propeller touched the ground and whipped off the cowling and electric motor as neat as you like. Roger managed one pass then wrecked the wing of his model against the stanchion. I was surprised to see that is wing was made out of expanded polystyerene foam with balsa strips over laid to simulate wing ribs. Ludo wisely opted out of the Limbo claiming that he loved his model too much and that he had engine problems so I had to uphold the honour of the club. I changed the propeller for 13x4 and as I waited for the event to start I noticed for the first time that several of the models in my group were powered by four-stroke engines. Perhaps the organisers had deliberately put all of the four-stroke competitors into the same group. I shook hands with most of the pilots and wished them good luck. We took off. My first pass was too high but I managed to fly under the cross bar at the second attempt. The sun was by now in our eyes and the next pass was to one side. I prepared for another go when... ... my engine cut again! I landed out in the winter wheat, the judge said that he had awarded me one successful pass worth 10 points. I watched the rest of the round. Towards the end of the five-minute slot only two models were airbourne, a red electric powered model and a blue model powered by a four-stroke. They proceded to follow one another with metronomic precision until the propeller stopped on the four-stroke and he landed dead ahead. The electric model continued to clock up pass after pass until the CD started the five second count down, "Five, four ,three.." at this point the model hit the goalpost and was wrecked! I retrieved my model. The wing had become displaced in the forced landing and had slightly damaged the forward fuselage. Easy repair.

Doubtless all of this will have been recorded on the official video which will be published in a few weeks time. The group photograph and the provisional results are available below. Four of the B2M contingent stand at the extreme right of the picture in our pale blue club polo shirts: Jean-Luc stands extreme right with his model finished in olive drab with RAF roundels; Your Humble Servant stands next to him, silver model RAF roundels; Roger stands next to me, cream and dark yellow model; Gérard is behind us, black and transluscent orange model, Belgian roundels; Ludo's grey and red model is held up high at the back towards the centre of the group. I haven't been able to identify Francois and his Antique Solartex covered model but it's there somewhere.

In the end I finished 54th overall, one place down on last year but there were more competitors this year so proportionately it was a better result for me. If I had been allowed my 10 points for the limbo event I would have finished in 50th position.I don't think I'll bother with an official complaint! Francois was the best of us finishing in 30th position,a real case of the tortoise beating the hares if ever there was! He also won a prize for being the oldest competitor! Ludo finished 46th, Roger 48th, Gerard 67th and Jean-Luc 70th.

The twin fifteen year-old girls, Clara and Iris Fesquet were among the three entrants who didn't turn up on the day. Trish said that they'd probably discovered horses. I said, "Boys more likely!"

https://saffiotipatrick.wixsite.com/vl38/les-barons



Francois with his prize for being the oldest competitor. Our youngest pilot, Lodovic, stands to his right.



Trish watches me about to take off in the afternoon.