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"COMBINED SPEED / PERKY FRANKSTON 14/2/2010"
Good calm, but warm weather greeted us for our first speed comp
for the year, we have not had one for a while. The usual regulars
turned up, but a few did not, the hassles and discrimination seems
to be having an effect of keeping some away. I have got to the
stage of giving up the fight to promote speed after 35 years, even
though I love the event.
Andrew Nugent did not have a good day had 1 flight with his Class
1 but blew plug so put it away and got his Perky out. He has just
recovered it in silk instead of tissue as it had some holes, and
gave it a spruce up, but on starting it caught fire and was almost
destroyed. I rushed and got my water drink bottle and put it out,
but I don't think it will fly again.
Noel flew his new perky with a force 15 motor, went ok. Paul and
Murray flew Pauls perky with a Super Tigre G15RV, having given up
on the McCoy 19 Spark.
I flew for the first time in 4 months after right shoulder
surgery, but flew left handed as not allowed to fly on the
repaired arm till May, so I flew my GOOK 2.5 ED Racer glo 1953,
model and Perky left hand as they fly well. Flying the Perky is a
misnomer as it flies so well you just hold the handle. I have used
the FAI handle once and put it in yoke and took hands off and it
flew itself (had a tether). Has a forward c/g but flies great, yet
is manoeuvrable/grooves better than any Trainer.
Ron savage has nearly finished his perky, just in the paint shop.
Ken Hunting won combined with his fast midge PAW power, you do not
have to spend a fortune to win.
Ron Blombery is promoting speed in N.S.W. - hurray!!! - finally
someone is doing something up there so I hope he gets support. The
first day was last Sunday 14th but had to be cancelled because of
the bad weather, so is now March 20th. He had 15 yes 15 models
promised, so hope they come on the 20th. There are 2 more planned
I think; one is August 29th. - all are at Luddenham. |
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Our next comp is the Vic State Champs at Easter.
I read Joe Supercools article about forward c/g. I don't like
forward c/g models, some of the European models especially
Kingfisher had long nose/forward c/g, but when the motor cut they
did not glide that well and landed hard. This could damage model
and prop which is bad as once you get a good prop that works you
protect it as you cannot always duplicate it and props can take
hours to tune to perfection. While you are repairing you are not
modifying or developing the motor etc. Some of my early side
winder FAI models (1976) had balance around 50% and they flew
great glided and grooved.
Lately I have had a few dogs of FAI long narrow wing models that
flew straight but low on downwind side and high on upwind, the
faster it went the lower it went ,and I could not pull it up of
the deck. And NO amount of c/g forward and back made any
difference including 2 new wings and another boom and tail.
I chased this problem for 10 years, finally I reset the tail so it
did not have any tailplane tilt to prevent tail (on outer side)
rubbing on ground on landing and it flew much better, yet models
use that system all the time. No amount of aligning of surfaces
etc made any difference, yet it glided great.
I have never worried to much about c/g but I do not like too
forward, I like my models to land gently and glide to stop when I
want them to, I can glide for many laps to cool the motor down
especially a pipe motor as that enormous heat soak goes into
engine, I can glide it for as long as I like or get tired.
Conventional model seem to be less of a problem than long narrow
chord asymmetric type models.
Robin....... |
