Apologies for the absence of any HT’s since January. I managed to get to the February and March Club Days but everything went downhill after that. It’s been a rough couple of months health wise, but slowly getting on top of things now. Unfortunately given my absence, I don’t have a lot to report. I do ask you all to drop me an email or a text with your latest build or anecdote from the field, but alas nothing has been forthcoming this month. STOP PRESS: Mick G and Max W, must have heard my rumblings and called me this weekend as I was finalising this HT, and supplied me with some material – Thank you, it doesn’t take much to give me a few snippets of information that I can pull something together.
FunFly day – May 4 is now a CLUB DAY!
Unfortunately we have been thrown a few curved balls and we have decided to cancel the Fun Fly event. President Mick has an operation scheduled for May 1 in Hobart and will be convalescing for a few weeks post surgery. I am also unable to make it due to recent health issues. Numbers also indicated that the colder days were keeping people at home. It was therefore decided to cancel the Fun Fly Day and to hold just a normal Club Day. Visitors are still welcome and for those that have something to sell or swap, bring your items along as there will still be a car boot sale. We will rerun the Fun Fly Day when the weather warms up and the full committee are in attendance.
Club Days – February 10 & March 2
A good turnout on both days 17 in February and 18 in March. In March, our latest Associate member Alex Porter and his partner Leigh, visited for a brief look at the field setup and a chat with some of the members. Friends of Ray Green, Clinton and Briana also visited to have a look at our setup and were quite impressed with what we offered. Liam E brought along the “Lazy Bee” that was gifted to him by Fred W. Fred gave it to him with the caveat “it is near impossible to fly it!”. Liam demonstrated how that would not deter him and flew the Lazy Bee with consummate ease. Oh to be young and fearless!
Micah Green gains his Silver Wings
Congratulations to Micah Green on gaining his Silver wings on March 23. Max took Micah for his test and now father Ray and son are solo pilots!
Mick Green’s Sopwith Triplane
Mick has been back in the workshop after spending many months restoring his beloved Alfa Romeo. The Alfa is still a work in progress, but he has now returned to some aircraft models. This time it is restoring his Sopwith triplane. Mick flew it some time ago but it was underpowered and as a result, it had an untimely meeting with terra firma. This is a picture before the mishap –
The model is a K&W ARF for stand off scale and here are some specs –
SopwithTriplaneNever perturbed by these events Mick has started on rebuilding the triplane, this time Mick has upgraded the engine from a Laser 100 to a Laser 150. Some progress pictures below. You’ll notice Mick has changed the colour scheme from the original livery, that of the aircraft in the Shuttleworth collection in the UK, to that of the original prototype of the triplane. (Click on the first image to enlarge and then scroll through)
Max has a rare crash!
We all know what a good pilot Max W is but as all of us know sometimes the little things in a model aircraft can let you down! On Saturday, April 27, Max invited as many members as he could to join him on Saturday for a bit camaraderie , chit chat and because the weather was perfect, a few nice flights. All was going well and Max thought he would dust off one of his slippery gliders, the Samurai. Here is a before shot of the Samurai –
Max flew the model to about 350ft and suddenly lost elevator control! The model snapped into a vertical dive and like and arrow went straight down and plowed into the earth. the likely culprit, a broken elevator horn! Below are the after shots and remarkably, the LiPo battery did not catch fire.
Peter’s Scale Helicopter
Past President and new Associate member, Peter Kidson is putting together a scale helicopter. Peter is a previous Gold Wing helicopter pilot and has decided to try his hand with a electric powered helicopter. Peter passed on this information – “fyi it’s an Align Trex 700E dominator, (electric). The fuse is a Vario 1/6th scale EC145 and pretty big including the rotor span about 1900 long and drowns the mechanics. I’d like to do it military as a light attack helicopter. EBay have the right size gun for it as well as pilots all at 1/6th scale.” Specifications are –
- Base model: TRex 700x
- Scale Fuselage: “Vario” 1/6 scale EC145 built by Airbus
- Length: 1320mm
- Height: 360mm
- Width: 195mm
- Main Blade Length: 700mm
- Main Rotor Diameter: 1582mm
- Tail Rotor Diameter: 281mm
- Motor Drive Gear:13T
- Main Drive Gear:110T
- Autorotation Tail Drive Gear: 102T
- Tail Drive Gear: 23T
- Drive Gear Ratio: 8.46:1:4.43
- Weight(With Battery): Approx. 5100g
- Motor: 850MX Brushless Motor(490KV/4535)
- ESC : Hobbywing Platinum HV 200A SBEC V4.1
- Battery : 2 x 6s 5400mAh LiPo in series (12s)
A couple of pictures that show the TRex is dwarfed by the scale fuselage Peter is going to use.
Strip Update
Seona Findlay, the contract agronomist for Symmons Plains, has provided us with an update on our strip. The weeds are about to flourish again and on Saturday, April 28, Seona called me and said she was going to have a look at our strip and provide some feedback. This is what Seona had to say;
Hi George
Suggest two sprays per annum one in autumn and one in spring. Please do not keep rec and keep re using as it depends on time of year, grass growth stage, weed growth stage etc. Suggest not mowing for the next two weeks to get fresh leaf area on weeds prior to spraying. Avoid frost that morning, have a good water source, don’t spray until a few plants have lifted and plants are dry (no dew) and no rain forecast that day.
Also do not mow after spraying for at least 5 days.
Agritone 750 @ 1.3L/ha plus
Kamba 750 @ 185mls/ha plus
Lontrel advance at 100mls/ha plus
Activator at 100mls/100l of water.
Please measure your entire area including ends of strips etc and outside club house and then adjust rates accordingly. Eg 1 ha is 10,000sq metres.
Kind Regards
Seona
Using Google Earth, our fenced off strip area is about 1Ha and the pits and car park are about a ¼Ha. Seona advises that we should spray at the rate of 100L/Ha. That would mean 2 tankfuls will well and truly cover us. Mark H has volunteered to do the spraying and he will collect my spray unit, when the time is right.
Committee Changes
Some of you may already know that our Vice President, Meilin has resigned from her position. Meilin has started a new job down south and this prevents her attending any meetings and as such has decided to relinquish her role as VP. Meilin has been a strong contributor on the committee, and whilst we are sad to see her step down, we wish her well in her new endeavours. Meilin has indicated she will make every effort to visit the club regularly as her “toys”, as she puts it, are still in the north and she looks forward to dusting them off for a fly at LMAC.
AGM
Don’t forget to put in your diary the date for our AGM will be Monday, June 3, commencing at 7:30pm. The venue is at our usual location, the Kings Meadows Community Health Centre, 22 McHugh Street, Kings Meadows.
Club Assistance Scheme
We have again made a submission to the MAAA for a grant under their Club Assistance Scheme (CAS). Some of you may recall that we were successful in our CAS submission in 2019, where we were granted $5500 by the MAAA towards the purchase of our new ride-on, the Ferris Zero-Turn. This time we have applied for $7700 towards weatherproofing our barbecue seating area and the large model starting slab. Mark H kindly prepared a quote for the materials and this formed the basis of our submission. Even if we are not successful in obtaining the full amount, let’s hope we gain some funds so we can start this project. Details of our submission can be found here. Unfortunately the online form that the MAAA used, cut off some of the extended text in a few of our responses.
From the WWW
Well that’s it for another month. I’ll remind you all again, I see plenty of new models arriving at the field, but very rarely does anyone send me an update of their latest acquisition. PLEASE send me something. Just a couple of pictures, especially if you are assembling it and a couple of words of where purchased etc. Hangar Talk cannot survive without material. Leave your suggestions or feedback in the Comment section below.
Don’t Forget – Put a Spark in your life and fly electric!
George
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