The Northern Virginia Pattern Clinic and NSRCA Judging Seminar will be held again this year at the LCAA field learning annex. This is at Banshee Reeks park in Leesburg, VA. There will be a judging certification seminar followed by a pattern flying clinic and then flying and coaching at the club field which is about 2 min from the learning annex building. This year we have special presentations by Don Szczur and Dave Lockhart, both very successful and well known FAI world class flyers. Don and Dave will join us at the flying field after the seminar / clinic to give some demo judging flights and help coach those who bring their planes along. This is an amazing opportunity to get into pattern flying for those who are new, and to get help from top level flyers for those who already are pattern flyers.

The cost is free unless you intend on buying the judging certification materials ($10). There is also going to be a free lunch for everyone who attends.

The event is sponsored by the Loudoun County Aeromodelers Association (LCAA), Northern Virginia Radio Control Club (NVRC) and the Delro Modelltechnik US Distributor

Please see the attached event flyer

Geezzz,...I hope I can make it up there for this,...sounds like a good time and very beneficial. We will see how my company is doing by then,..not going well,..the doors are still open.

I hope to see you guys there![8D]


Bill Holsten
Team Fliton, Duralite Batteries and Guardian America.

Sounds great Mr Lotto count me in. Maybe this year the weather will good, a liitle less Wind.

Hope both of you can make it!! I moved the starting time to 10:00am to accommodate those traveling to make it easier to come up that morning. All we need now is good weather for the flying activities. Bring a plane with you!

Chris

Sounds like a good day. Unfortunately I'm leaving town for the week. Plus, I need a plane first .

This is perfect timing as I just made the decision to buy a pattern plane and give it a go and hopefully compete this season. I'll be driving down from PA. Sounds like the perfect thing for a newbie like me to attend.

Mike

Well,...Unfortunately I lost the Element yestarday,....lost a cell in the TP Lipo pack during the third flight. The plane nosed in from the inverted attitude. The engine is fine with the exception of a slightly bent crank, the spinner did not even get damaged

Anyway,..I will not be attending guys,..would love to. At this point I am trying to figure out a way to get another bird in the air for Greensea. I don't think I can get the engine back in time and doing it myself,..hummm,..engine looks complicated!


Regards,
Bill Holsten

Bill sorry about your loss. I was looking forward to seeing that composite Element. Can't make Green Sea due to work, but will see you in Winston Salem in May.

For those planning to come out, the weather looks good and we are all set up to go on Sat. We have a generous budget for lunch courtesy of NVRC and just got some $10 and $20 gift cards from the local hobby shop - Hobby Hangar VA as well as a bunch of other goodies to give out.

Chris

Thanks Chris,..I am looking forward to seeing some of your new stuff in the near future!



Bill Holsten

Many thanks to all that attended. Thanks to NVRC for hosting the lunch meal, LCAA and the Banshee Reeks Park for the great facility, and Hobby Hangar in Chantilly, VA for the door prizes. It was a great turnout with 33 pilots attending. We appreciate Ryan Smith for coming up and representing the NSRCA District II VP, Dave and Ron Lockhart coming down from NJ- A great technical presentation on electrics with much of the latest technology out there. A great discussion and a lot on interest is now generated in the local area as well. Joseph, George Hill who demonstrated the correct settings and outstanding performance of the YS 110. The flying part of the seminar worked really well to demonstrate geometry and technical elements of discusson, as well as wind correcting. There was just enough wind to demonstrate that part of it. Finally would like to thank Smokey. Chris Moon was assisted by Smokey the bear, who was emphasizing how the radius of the back side of the half cuban 8 should look like. Sorry Chis, I think I like Smokey's radius better- has a rounder radius to it.

More pictures from Scott at:

http://www.1nvrc.org/index.php/topic,14.0.html

This one was even better- a captive audience at the nature preserve. Forgot to mention we also had an F3P portion of the seminar.

Thanks for the great time. I am getting back into flying and this was a great experience for me. The classroom was informative but I think I enjoyed and learned more from the field even though it was chilly. I've never had the chance to listen to a top notch pilot break down some of the actions and see the different mistakes and correct flight at the same time. I learned most of my flying trial and error or with the onlooking advice of non comp fliers.
All together a great way to spend a day not flying. (next time I will bring a plane)

Thanks again,

Doug Carlock
Luray, VA

Sorry to hear about your loss Bill. You may want to consider a dual battery/dual regulator setup for your next model to prevent this type of failure from causing a crash.

Great job, Chris, Don and Dave!

This was a first class event, and I'm glad to see that the turnout was so strong. I believe 28 was the final head count for people that signed in, so that signifies a healthy population in just that area. I hope to see everyone that was there at a contest at some point this year, and I really hope that some venture down to somewhere like Winston and try flying outside of their club field. I think most would be pleasantly surprised.

Again, great work guys, I really enjoyed my day, and it was well worth getting up at 4:30 this morning and the 4 1/2 drive each way!

Well, it sure sounds like everyone had a great time and class was educational and informative as usual. Plus,...it's not every day you get that much tallent in one classroom (Dave, Don and Chris) sure wish I could have made it. Anyway I hope to find myself attending the VA contest this year,..darn the bad luck last year on the way there.



Hey Ron,

I am either going to do the dual pack set-up for more redundantcey or just go back to using Duralites in my pattern planes. I am leaning toward using 2 TP-1100 Lipos, any suggestions? It was suggested to me not to use Lipos with the 4-stroke engines as their are many reports of battery fatigue resulting in failures. It was also suggested that the use of Lipos is just fine for electric powered aircraft and very much prefered as a set-up. I will be migrating over to electric as soon as I can get all the stuff together to do so. It would have been great to hang out with you and Dave again,..ahhh maybe the NATS and hopefully not from a chair.

Chis, sorry you will not be attending Greensea,...hope to see on the contest circuit.


Best Regards,
Bill Holsten

Sorry Ed,..I thought you were Ron,..my bad,..LOL! Thanks for the kind words and thoughts anyway,..hope to see you at the VA contest?


Regards,

Bill Holsten

I don't know why a LiPO would fail in a 4 stroke powered model unless it's not being isolated from vibration. I've been using LiPo's in 2C powered Pattern models and even 40% gas stuff for several years. My typical Pattern setup is a pair of Tech-Aero regulators, each with its own TP 2S730 pack. Each regulator is fine adjusted to match output with the other, so the packs drain evenly. A failure of one battery will not cause a crash. You should just monitor the voltage of each pack after each flight in order to see that they are each coming down the discharge curve as expected.

I don't know,..it could just be a case of guys just not isolating them well enough. I know mine was for sure,..I few my PL Partner all of last year with a TP-1100 with no problems at all. The battery that failed was supplied with the plane and I have no history of the pack itself. I do need to invest in some better equipment for the Lipos,.I usually just check the pack with my Duralite tester that puts a one Amp load on the pack. I can't see the voltage of both cells,..either way the same set up will not go in the next plane.

Ryan,

Yes,..the plane went into fail safe dropping the throttle to idle,..sorry I forgot to mention that.

Sorry for hijacking the post,..I'll shut up now,...you can PM me for more info.

Bill Holsten

Thanks guys for putting on a superb clinic. It was definitely worth the drive from PA for me. I'm anxious to finish my pattern plane and go practice and hopefully compete this season.

Mike