The Tale Spinner
Newsletter of the Tri-Area Flyers

 http://webpages.charter.net/russpetersen/

(AMA Charter Number 4063, Radio Controlled Model Aircraft Club)

August 1, 2002, Volume 3 Issue 8

Meeting Minutes         

(Next Meeting: August 13, 2002, Excapees RV Park at 6:30pm)

Minutes of the 7/9/02 Meeting of the TriArea R.C. Flyers

The meeting was held at the SKP clubhouse at 7:00PM.  Attending were Wylie, Anliker, Fitch, Greene, Granger, Calkins, Montell, Benjamin, Oaks, Petersen, G. Smith, Dantzler, Pyles, Allen, Takata and prospective members Brian Bolling, Kenneth Crow, and Pete Hanke.

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved as read and the Treasurer’s report indicated assets of $2544.96, comprised of $1840.96 cash and $704 in fuel inventory.

There was discussion of an all day Fun Fly on Saturday, Sept 14 which would be open  to the public.

It was decided that Howard Morse would be taken in as a member in spite of the fact that he was unable to attend club meetings.  Pete Hanke, Kenneth Crow and Brian Bolling also became members.  (Bolling’s membership is contingent upon AMA membership complete fees).

Wylie proposed that we build two prototype-flying tables for a cost of around $80 and the membership agreed.

Benjamin agreed to head a committee to make arrangements for a Show and Tell session at the next meeting for the SKP residents. The August meeting will start at 6:30 instead of the usual 7:00.

There was a lively contest for the Crash-of-the Month Trophy between Benjamin, Petersen and Wylie/Granger.  Benjamin was the winner due to the quality of the plane, thoroughness of the destruction and many other intangible factors.

The meeting was adjourned and Russ Petersen presented an informative program on electrics.  Oaks and Takata provided refreshments.  

Submitted by Bill Anliker, Sec/Treasurer    

Introducing Club Members

Mr. Kenneth V. Crow

By

Russ Petersen

Mr. Kenneth V. Crow (Ken) joined the club at the July 2002 club meeting.  Ken resides in Tracyton, Washington and receives mail at PO Box 37 in Tracyton.  Ken can be reached at 360-377-3171 or at email address Rkcro@aol.com.  Ken’s wife’s name is Rosemary and they have two children, Laurie and Jody.  Ken is a retired teacher and holds both BA and MA degrees in education.  Ken hobbied with rubber models as a kid but did not get started with RC airplanes until 1990 when he began flying RC with the Kitsap Arcs in Bremerton.  At one time Ken was an avid fisherman, but lack of fish caused him to give up that hobby/sport.  Ken brings a lot of experience in modeling and flying to the club.  He has normally built from kits, but has scratch built two planes and also designed and built planes of his own concept.  Currently Ken is flying an Ultimate Bi-plane and a Pizazz.  (I believe that the Pizazz is his first ARF.)  Ken flys on channels 18, 19, 21 and 22.  When you see Ken at the field be sure that he receives an enthusiastic Tri Area Modelers welcome!

Field Alert Note

PROBLEMS WITH THE NEIGHBORS

The President has asked me to advise you of a complaint from the neighbor (yellow house).  He told John at the hobby shop that glow or gas planes were flying at 6:30 AM last Saturday and Sunday.  Our flying rules specify no engines started before 9:00AM and this has to be strictly adhered to.  Electrics are exempted from this rule.  It behooves us to police ourselves on these matters and see that this type of complaint stops.  Bill Anliker

Rookie Report 

We now have 2 active rookies, Pete Hanke and prospective member Nate Moffett.  Both have a number of flights and are progressing well.  Russ Petersen worked with Nate one morning and got his airplane trimmed out a lot better than I had it.  Pete never seems to lose orientation and I wondered a lot about this ability as even professional pilots lose it occasionally.  I finally concluded that he has a “port and starboard” mental fixation from driving boats since he was pretty young.

Pete Granger

SEEN AT THE FIELD

Monday, July 29 at 9:30 AM I was passing by the field on my way to Seattle.  There in the rain sat 3 vehicles—a red station wagon (Jim Crumley), a white pickup (Bill Anliker), and a blue pickup (John Fitch).  There were no airplanes or people visible.  It looked to me like there was a whole lot of wistful thinking going on!

Pete Granger

August Meeting Special Program 

Take special note of the 6:30pm meeting time for the August meeting.  We are having a short meeting and adjourning at 7:00pm in order to host a club-wide "Show and Tell" for the benefit of the residents of the Escapees Park.  This was suggested by Dick Benjamin as a way that we might say thank you to the residents for the use of their meeting facilities.  Please plant to bring one or more aircraft for display and plan to be available for discussion and explanation for those persons who join us for this evening.

September Fun Fly

Make a special calendar note for the planned club fun-fly on September 14.  The Contest Director is Dick Benjamin.   Details have not been fully worked out, but it will be a full day of flying open to all club members.  Tentative plans include starting around 9:00am and having spouses join us in late afternoon for a potluck/cookout.    More discussion and some final choices about the format will be done at the August meeting so come and give your ideas about how to make this a great flying day and a day providing an opportunity for the spouses to become acquainted.

Black Lake Float Fly

By Russ Petersen

Jim Montell and Russ Petersen attended the annual Black Lake Float Fly in Olympia on Saturday, July 27, 2002.  The Float Fly is sponsored by Puget Sound R/C Flyers.  This is the second year that we have attended this great event.  Black Lake is Southwest of Olympia and about 80 miles from Silverdale.  Access to the flying site is easy and can be achieved off of I5 or by driving down through Shelton and driving to the lake from the North.  The site is the private residence of J. Roach and is located at 7305 Fairview Road in Olympia and is made available for this purpose each year.  Bruce Gale (253-845-0705) was the Event Director.  The location is on the Southeast side of Black Lake.  The event is AMA sanctioned and has a $10 landing fee.  That fee provides as much lunch as you can eat and soft drinks.  

The airplanes this year were largely sport models in the 40 to 60 size.  There was a giant cub and a giant scale model of the Maule Rocket (which did not fly).  There were also two giant gas airplanes both of which flew that day.  It seemed like the number of participants was down somewhat this year and the mix of airplanes was skewed more to sport non-scale airplanes than last year.  The weather was cool and gray in the morning and that may explain what seemed like a little lower attendance.  Last year's event seemed to heavily favor 40 and 60 sized cubs and seemed to have more planes and flyers.  

This event (and many like it in our area) are great ways to meet new modelers and to spread the new of our own club.  A number of flyers there thanked us and asked lots of questions about the Tri Area Club over the course of the day.

The only slight disappointment with the day was some float equipped RC helicopter flying was allowed that was very close to the spectators and also close to those flying RC airplanes.  Some RC boats were also allowed to run while airplanes were being operated.  This is unusual, and I frankly would not think that it would normally be permitted at an AMA sanctioned event.

There is a pretty good collection of photographs on the "Pictures" page on our web site if you would like to look at some of the airplanes and some of the flying activities at this fine event.  

Kit and RC Product Reviews and Comments

Great Planes Giles 202-120 ARF

Review and Comments

By

Russ Petersen

April 6, 2002 - July 30, 2002

I purchased the Giles just prior to our annual trip to Arizona in late Fall, 2001.  It was assembled toward the end of December 2001 with an RCS 140 gas/ignition engine installed.  After much travail with the engine and many delays (this included about 20 flights mostly terminating in dead-stick landings or the engine stopping on roll out), the engine was returned to RCS for credit.  I then installed a Saito 150 and began flying in earnest about the first of March 2002.  This review is based on the 36 flights on the airplane since the Saito was installed.

Here are the Great Planes (GP) and my measured specifications for the airplane:

 Primary Likes and Dislikes

            Likes.  Flying qualities (but see landing below), ARF construction, assembly booklet, airframe alignment, cover, cost and color scheme.

            Dislikes.  Lack of a decal package or basic cockpit package, main wheels size and durability, tail wheel size and linkage, landing qualities.

Overall

            I like this airplane a lot.  The plane as it came out of the box seems well built, with lots of attention to achieving a straight and relatively lightweight fuselage. The color scheme is very helpful in the air in that it is easy to see and clearly delineates top from bottom, which is helpful to orientation during aerobatic flight.  It flys very well and has been instrumental in helping me sharpen my aerobatic skills. It is also a real value in airplanes this size.  It sells for about $100 less than comparable kits from other manufacturers. 

My thoughts below are in the building sequence that is recommended by GP in the construction manual.  I have only provided comments on areas where a problem developed or where I can recommend an alternate procedure, which has worked better for me over the years.

Required Accessories

            GP provides lists of required accessories, building supplies and tools and optional accessories.  When something is not included in the kit that GP thinks you might want, they provide the GP part number for your convenience.  Some items that one would normally consider important are not provided in the kit and are not listed on the optional accessories list. Examples are a spinner, an instrument panel, a decal set and the like.  Now we might quibble about whether or not a decal set is essential, but the overall length of the plane includes a spinner and I can’t imagine flying the plane without one.  When I inventoried the parts and found that a spinner was not in the box, I called GP to find that indeed, one was not provided.  I would not have bothered with the call if the spinner had been listed as something that the builder needed to buy.

Wing Assembly

            A tapered edge wing joiner is used to support the center section of the wing.  On my kit, the joiner was a little smaller than the cavity provided in each wing panel.  Therefore, if you install the wing joiner tightly in one or the other of the wing panels, the other will certainly not fit tightly enough for a good joint.  I corrected this by laminating hard balsa to the side and top of the joiner, and then I sanded the joiner for a tight fit with one half of the joiner fitting tightly in each wing panel.  There are some rumors on web based RC chat rooms suggesting that this plane has a problem with the main wing failing in the center section.  If this joiner problem is not dealt with correctly during assembly it might be the cause of at least some of the failures that have been reported.  My experience with the wing has been great. 

            The main wing panels in the plane are assembled using the joiner discussed above and by using epoxy to glue the facing wing ribs together at the center.  GP suggests the use of masking tape to hold the panels together during this process.  This probably works, but since the panels are already drilled for wing bolts and since there are dowel retainers in the leading of each wing panel, it seems like a better and more effective procedure to place ¼” dowels through the wing bolt holes so that a few inches of dowel protrudes on each side of the panels.  Further, the front wing retainer dowels can be installed prior to gluing the panels together.  Then, rubber bands can be wrapped around the dowels on the top and bottom of the bolt holes and as well around the dowel retainers at the front of the wing for a very good mechanical advantage to hold the panels firmly together during gluing.

Installing the Stabilizer

             The horizontal stabilizer has a double taper on this airplane.  The stabilizer is installed by passing it through appropriately shaped holes through the side of the fuselage.  But, the double taper results in the center of the stabilizer being thicker than it is at the cross section of the stabilizer where it is intended to meet the fuselage side.  If this is not dealt with, you cannot achieve a tight glue joint at the fuselage side when installing the horizontal stabilizer.  My approach to handle this issue was to turn the plane over, and cut balsa shims that were installed between the horizontal stabilizer and the fuselage sides on both sides.  Pieces of firm balsa about 1/16” thickness worked well on my plane.  Again, this problem must be resolved if the stabilizer is to be securely fastened to the fuselage.

Landing Gear Installation

            The two main landing gear legs are bolted to a plate that is recessed into the bottom of the fuselage.  After the legs are installed, this recessed area is intended to be covered with a provided balsa fairing.  GP recommends that this balsa fairing be glued to the face of the installed landing gear.  I chose to cut this balsa fairing into two pieces so that one half of the fairing fit each separate leg mounting plate.  I also used a forstner bit to cut neat holes above the gear mounting screw heads through the balsa fairing halves.  I then glued each fairing half to the appropriate leg mounting plate, leaving the installation bolt holes open so that the gear could be removed for maintenance if necessary later.  As it turned out, I have had to remove both legs twice to straighten them. If I had not made this adjustment in the recommended procedure I would have had to destroy the balsa fairing piece in order to get at the landing gear mounting bolts.

            The wheels that are provided with this kit seem a little small and are certainly pretty lightweight for the size and weight of the Giles.  I used them briefly, but I have since substituted a pair of 4” P 51 wheels that are working just fine.  In fairness, however, the field where this evaluation was done is desert hardpan and covered with small indentations and rocks.  I found it necessary to remove the wheel pants provided in the kit, because they were going to be chewed up at this flying site.  The wheels provided in the kit may have worked out fine if I had the luxury of flying from pavement.

The main landing gear seems awfully stiff, contributing to a tendency for the airplane to skip and bounce on landing.   Also, the tail wheel bracket seems small for this size airplane; however; there have been no problems with it during the nearly 60 flights so far on this airplane.  The tail wheel itself is also small; but if flying from pavement it is probably ok. Lastly the linkage recommended for tail wheel steering is a semi-rigid steering wire, which tends to bend on hard landings, leaving the tail wheel steering out of alignment.

Attaching the Ailerons

            When arriving at this step, I found that the kit did not include the CA hinge strips that were listed as part of the kit materials.  GP was happy to send some hinge strips so that I could move forward with the assembly.

            The instructions also suggest that sealing the gap between the wing and the aileron (and other control surfaces as well) would be a good idea, but no material was provided to complete this step.  I cut strips of white MonoKote about 1 ½” wide and sealed the aileron and elevator gaps from the bottom.  This greatly improves the effectiveness of the control surfaces and reduces the possibility of flutter.

Final Assembly

            The final assembly section of the instruction manual includes the process necessary to install a fiberglass belly pan to the bottom of the wing.  The pan has flanges provided on both sides that are intended to serve as gluing surfaces.  The flanges on my pan were slight tilted up so that they did not meet the wing surface properly.  This resulted in some frustration in getting the belly pan installed properly, but with patience, it can be done.  I used hot stuff and worked carefully down both sides using plastic wrap on my hands to keep from gluing my fingers to the wing/belly pan during the process.  It can be done, but it would be a lot easier if the flanges on the pan had been properly cast. 

Control Throw Adjustment

            The recommended throws for the controls seemed way too small for this size airplane.  The throws for elevator, rudder and ailerons were 5/6”up/7/16”down, 2”right and left, and 3/8” up and down respectively.  I resisted the temptation to increase these throws until the airplane was test flown.  It turns out that the throws are just right for normal sport aerobatics.  They allow easy snapping maneuvers and all the usual maneuvering that would be expected in normal sport aerobatics, so I suggest that GP advice on this matter should be followed, at least until the airplane has been flown a few times.

Balancing the Model

            The balance point on the model is listed as 9 ¼” from the trailing edge of the wing at the fuselage side.  I calculated the percentage of mean chord of this balance point and decided that it was a little too far back for my taste.  I balanced my model at about 9 5/8” from the trailing edge and found that the plane becomes much harder to slow down for landing in this nose heavy condition than it should be.  After struggling for a while, I swallowed my pride and relocated the balance at the recommended point.  This has made the plane much more manageable and has improved the “snappiness” of the plane, which is great for aerobatic practice.

Advanced Aerobatics

            This section of the manual discusses some of the capabilities of this model to do advanced aerobatic maneuvers.  Unfortunately it does not discuss any specific mixing that a flyer might want to use in order to more easily accomplish simple maneuvers like knife-edge, for example.  The plane has a tendency to pitch toward the canopy in left knife-edge flight, and some advance suggestions about the amount of mixing used by the factory test flyers would have been helpful.  Neither does this section really provide a comprehensive discussion of the aerobatic maneuvers that this plane is capable of performing and how they are most easily accomplished. 

Flying

            Our day for testing this model was a very nice, calm and sunny day at the local club field.  It happened to be January 1, 2002, so these were the first flights for me for the current flying year.  The model started out with an RCS 140, which started readily and seemed ready to go.  After conducting the usual preflight and pre-takeoff, check lists I lined up and opened the throttle.  The plane flew beautifully, with nearly no trim adjustments required but regrettably the engine began to cycle and miss-behave as soon as the plane was leveled off down wind.  The unstable running could be made more pronounced in inverted flight, so the plane was landed and everything (tank, fuel line, connections, etc.) was inspected.  The engine was adjusted, started and run up with no indication of problems on the ground.  After the next take-off, the engine again began to cycle in the air and behave unreliably.  This flight resulted in a dead stick landing on our field. After this, the tank was pulled, all of the fuel line was changed, zip ties were installed at each nipple connection to be sure no air leaks existed and so forth.  To make a long story short, after many calls to RC Showcase, returning the engine for their evaluation and trying again with the same result (problems) the engine was finally returned to RC Showcase a second time for credit.  We flew 19 flights with this and a replacement engine provided by RC Showcase and never achieved the degree of reliability necessary for safe RC flying.  The people at RC Showcase were responsive and did all they could to make their engine work in this installation, but frankly, I cannot recommend the RC Showcase RCS 140 based on the experience with this airplane. I finally switched to a Saito 150, which has run flawlessly for about another 30 flights on the same installation.

            The only flying concern of significance that I may have about this plane is that if you like to do power off, full stall, three point landings, this is probably not your plane.  It is difficult to correctly establish a proper (pitch attitude) landing approach speed, so the plane is prone to arrive at the end of the runway off speed and that in turn impacts the flare and the subsequent landing.  But, if you are into a little faster wheel type of touch down or are not looking for perfect power off three points, then this plane will represent a very good flyer and a real value in the RC/ARF market. In fact, with a little practice the power on, wheel landing can be easily mastered with this airplane and probably is the best strategy to get the plane on the ground with a minimum of “hops” and “white knuckles.”

            My overall evaluation of the plane is that it is very good value and meets its advertised purpose in all respects.  The kit appeared to be well designed and constructed.  I have not encountered any issues regarding the construction of the model that would lead me to believe otherwise after a fair amount of flying other than those minor matters that I have listed and discussed above.