I finally found the time to put together another Hangar Talk. 2025 is almost over, and still the wind seems to be unrelenting. Fine one day and windy as heck the next. If you needed a reminder of changeable the weather is on this island state, look at the comparison from our weather station for today and yesterday (the 14th and 13th of December).
Club Day – November 9
Another Club day scheduled for the first Saturday, but again poor weather forced a postponement to the following week and for the first time delayed again until the Sunday. It was worth postponing as we ended up with 11 members attending. Alan J, Bob L, Daniel H, Danny N, George & Kerry C, Greg R, Jacques W, Mark H, Meilin H, Mick G and Vince B.
MeiLin maidened her latest acquisition, a Seagull “iSport”. The job of test pilot was handed to Vince, who as you would expect, put the model through its paces. Vince also flew his Boomerang and had it doing aerobatics beyond what it was designed for (and it survived).
It was good to see the old combatants, Jacques and Greg getting together again. Greg flew his Bird of Time glider and Jacques flew his “Excel”, which if I recall correctly, was an own design by Greg & Jacques. So many memories of fierce competition in the LEG championships (Limited Electric Glider) over the years.
Mark took his usual swathe of photos (70+!) and I have again plagiarised them from Facebook. I have slimmed the number down somewhat. (Flickr attributes my name but these photos were taken by Mark Holman).
Here’s a compilation movie of some of the pilots on the day…. (TIP: Watch on YouTube for High Definition)
I was supposed to join Greg & Jacques, and the glider I was readying for the weekend is a “Mantaray”. A Ray Pike designed model. You bought the fibreglass fuselage and scratch built the wing and tail feathers from the supplied plan. It was all but finished the week before club day, but I couldn’t get the CG right. I bought a new Dualsky XM2838EG-14L Brushless Glider Motor outrunner for the job. This is used widely in F5J competitions. I paired this with a Frsky “Neuron 60” ESC. This ESC provides a lot of telemetry data including, current draw, RPM, motor temperature and more. After a nightmare trying to line up the motor mounting screws to the holes in the glider nose (you’d have to witness the frustration to see what I mean), nothing I did could get the CG even close. It was balancing about 1/3rd in front of the trailing edge. It should be around 1/3rd back from the leading edge. No amount of shifting equipment would make a difference. I last flew this model in February 2003, some 22 years ago! What was going on I thought as I’d already flown this model?
When I last flew this model, it was powered by a Hacker B40-5L brushless, “carbon” motor. This was a competition motor that drew at peak 150A, and climbed at a phenomenal rate at over 70kph or 22m/sec vertical speed (just ask Peter Daniel). It cost just under $500. This time I wanted a milder climb rate, so I bought the Dualsky XM2838EG-14L motor. This had an estimated climb rate of 40kph or 11m/sec. I never thought there would be any substantial difference in weight until I tested them! The Hacker weighs 210g and the Dualsky 98g. That’s a difference of 112g or just under 4 ounces. All that at the tip of the nose. No wonder I can’t get it to balance. The tail feathers are already light, although I have 2 mini servos in the tail for the elevator and rudder. It looks like the Hacker will have to go back, if I want to fly this glider again, unless I can extend the nose. Any suggestions?
2 new Silver Wings recipients
On November 22, Max took another two members through their Silver Wings test and we are very pleased to add those to Max’s already impressive list. This time Eddie and Royce Van den Berg. I am sure that will be a lasting memory for father and son. Royce is the youngest recipient of the Silver Wings that I can recall in my time. What was all the more impressive was that Max reported that Royce was doing all sorts of aerobatics and doing fast passes up the strip about a metre above the ground. Max thinks he is almost ready to do his Gold Wings test! Congratulations to Eddie and Royce.
Christmas Lunch – December 6
Another day where the weather was against us – windy and overcast. The days either side were perfect – sun and no wind to speak of. Nevertheless that did not deter a few from flying. Rodney and Kevin H, flew earlier in the day when the wind wasn’t so bad. Ray Green took a glider up after lunch and fought the wind to stop it ending up at Campbell Town, but eventually landed back at the strip.
Whilst the weather was not great, this did not deter members and we had our better turnout than last year, with 25 booked namely – Chris J, Daniel H, Danny & Cheryl N, Eddie & Royce, Fred W & Gloria, George & Kerry, Greg R, Jacques W, Kevin H, Mark H, Max W, Meilin & Vince, Mick G, Nara, Peter D, Peter & Jill S, Ray & Micah, Rodney and Vince G. We were fortunate to have the clubhouse extension, which allowed us to set up a long table inside and out of the wind and weather. Kerry put on the usual banquet, for which the members were extremely grateful and a big thank to Fred and Gloria who, as they have done every year, donated the puddings and custard. Unfortunately Mike G left early due to ill health and Gloria too was ill, so could not come. Eddie and Royce were flying in from Brisbane at 1pm but as we had all packed up by 1:30 due to the weather, they could not make it.
In the absence of Mick, Vice President Danny stepped in and thanked Kerry for her efforts and the wonderful meal and all those in attendance for their contribution to the day. Danny then handed it over to me for the next announcement.
Life Members
The committee has long considered that the awarding of life memberships, is something we needed to recognise sooner. For many years the only life member was Geoff Hays. We made the effort to rectify in that in 2019 awarding life memberships to Dave Jacobs and then in 2024, to Greg Robertson. This year the committee felt there were some that had been long servants of the club, but they had not been recognised for their contributions. Their names are now on the honour board.
- Merv Cameron – Whilst sadly Merv passed away some years ago, it was deemed important that his legacy was not lost on others. Merv was a prolific scratch builder and especially of large scale models. There was almost nothing that he could not turn his hand to. Either working in huge sheets of balsa or turning up all sorts of parts on his lathe. He once turned a aluminium spinner for me on his lathe. Merv’s name will now be on the Life Member board for us to remember his contribution. It was fitting that, on the day, his best mate in Kevin Hay, flew a Merv creation the “Lazy Bee”.
- Tim Sydes – Sadly, Tim is now confined to a nursing home, but he was another member of the club who contributed much over the years before Parkinson’s Disease struck him too soon. Tim as far as I know, was the only FAI Observer in the State (see here if you want to know what the job entails). It was Tim who introduced me to LMAC. He came into my office in 1994 to give me some paperwork and I asked him what he was doing at the weekend. He said he was going flying, and the rest is history.
- Kevin Swiggs – Kevin is a past President of the club and long time member. Kevin’s career as a commercial pilot, saw him flying jet aircraft between Darwin and Indonesia. He was the president when I joined and he could not have been more welcoming or helpful. Unfortunately, Kevin was not well enough to attend.
- Max Wiggins – Max is a past vice president, a long time committee member, and along with Danny N, spent many years keeping the strip maintained. Max has been recognised for his unwavering support of new members. He took me under his wing when I first arrived and provided enormous support. He has done that with every new member since. This is not an easy task as you need to be selfless and very patient! Teaching new members encroaches on the instructors own flying time, but Max has continued to soldier on, encouraging members to get their wings, so they can fly solo. We certainly caught Max by surprise as the committee decided on his membership behind closed doors. It would be fair to say that Max was a bit emotional and grateful for this recognition. Well done Max!
Flying Strip
As mentioned in the October HT, our goals were
- Lay irrigation pipes and install sprinklers
- Smooth strip surface by topdressing with local sand to fill in the “furrows”
- Broadcast seed with fertiliser.
- Roll with the farm heavy roller
We have done the sprinkler line, but due to the heavy workload that Ron has been under, he has only managed to run one of the two feeder lines from the 300mm main line to our strip. He is hopeful of completing this before Christmas. The rest will follow once that is done. Below is a short video of the irrigation working with only one feeder line. The results are very promising and a second feeder will extend the radius, and that is predicted at around 12-13m.
As mentioned in earlier Hangar Talks, we were looking for other members to step up to assist with mowing duties. Danny Nelson has offered to help, making the team of 3 now, with Bob and Mick. Thanks Danny.
From the World Wide Web
For those that don’t spend a lot of time scanning YouTube videos, here is once of a very impressive scratch built B-24 Liberator. The specs on this are amazing –
- Scale: 1/5.5
- Span: 6 meters / 19.7 feet
- Engines: 4x ZG 45 cc
- Dry Weight: 78 kg / 172 pounds
- Wet Weight: 82 kg / 180.8 pounds
- Home made wood & balsa construction
- Time to build: 4 Years
Well that’s it for another month. I’ll close by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Safe and Prosperous 2026 – with plenty of days of flying for a change!
Don’t Forget – Put a Spark in your life and fly electric!
George
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