Monthly Archives: October 2022

12 posts

Chairman’s Corner for Oct – Nov 2022

President's Corner

Hello members and do we have a few things going on right now. First, it is time for our change of guards, referring to our Board of Directors. We invite any club members who would like to join our BOD. We are accepting names for our upcoming election this November 12^th, I believe, this should be following Veterans Day which is on Friday. We have the following positions if you would like to run for, they are President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasure, and Safety. We also invite you as a “Member at Large” which you too would be joining our BOD meetings. Food for thought, remember, this is YOUR club and if you would like to have a say in what it does, then join our BOD. Thanks, you all!

Next on the list,

Renewal and Banquet……December marks that it’s our time to renew (membership had to go up $10.00 to $60.00 due to cost of living which has gone up on us too) your membership for 2023, and it might be time to renew AMA, before (unless you have a two year, four year or life time) you can renew your membership with SEFSD for 2023 and at the same time, get your banquet tickets!!!!! This will be an exciting banquet at the Air and Space Museum in Balboa Park. Your $55.00 gets you the following: Entrance into the Air and Space Museum any time during the day and when it closes, you get to stay inside and continue to look all around. At around 5:30 to 6:00pm we will start checking folks in and get your picture taken right at the “Spirit of St. Louis.” Photos will be taken by Frank. We will have drinks, just like last year, you buy your own drinks. Food will once again be taken care of by Lisa, Brad’s wonderful wife. We will have more of a menu later next month. And yes, the club will have prizes, consisting of airplanes, chargers, and a few other goodies too. Oh, how can I forget about Hats!!!!! Ok, do not worry, I will not want to do that again……This year, Steve’s wife will gather the gifts for our better halves, giving Lisa a break on women’s prizes Oh just one special note, The banquet is only for members of 2022. If you happen to join as a new member before December, meaning remaining October and November, you get to come. Join as a new member in December of 22 or 2023, you will not be eligible for 2022.

This will be our last Club meeting of the year, so make sure you come this weekend, we got Warbirds this weekend. And I am sure Jim has something up his sleeve……We will want to thank Mark for handing our Hot Dogs and in preparing and getting them cooked up for us! Thanks Mark! Thank You Steve, for keeping our members up to date about the club and being our President for 2022, A Job well Done!

How about our runway!!!! Thanks to Quan (current VP, Steve M (current President) for placing down the “Dust Down” and Dennis for rolling the runway. What a job that all three have done and Dennis, as always spending his time of over 7 hours rolling! Thank you, Gentlemen!

Thank You Larry, I see the club’s Swag being worn by a lot of members and it is exciting to see. I heard of some Tee shirts that will have our logo, so stay tuned for more news on that!

I am sorry that I have had no time to work on the DC-3 and my wife is telling me to get it done. Guess I better get it off the kitchen table………It does look like I will have a week off from Christmas to the New Year, perfect for me to build and perhaps get the wings close to sheeting. What can I say, but really, Work is fun! But in the meantime, I look forward to seeing you all out this weekend at the field for we will have a fun filled day!

Thank You,

Jovi

President’s Corner for Oct – Nov 2022

President's Corner

We are down with Dustdown, finally! The much anticipated process of solidifying the topmost later of our dirt to a respectable runway surface was finally completed last Friday. The real selfless sacrifice goes to Dennis Laberge who spent 7 hours on the roller getting the field just right after Quan and myself orchestrated the water truck disgorging! Thanks so much Dennis, your work is exemplary! For the record, Quan and I hucked (5) 5 gallons of Dustdown to the top of the water truck and poured it into the first 2,000 gallons of water and the 2^nd 2,000 gallons completes the mix. Proper spreading is an art perfected by Quan and duly instructed to <Ms. Water Truck Driver, neighbor of George Sullivan>. One pass only, so you have to go slow, else you would make ruts on a subsequent pass; the remaining water with the dust down shared between the parking lot and edge of the runway/pit area applied with a “water cannon”.

Other than a lot of mosquitos and moving around a few chairs, Quan and I had it pretty easy compared with what Dennis endured. If you see Dennis on the field, you might want to thank him!

Any thoughts or differences of opinion as to how the Club should be run? You still have time to self nominate. Nominations and the nominal composition of the 2023 BOD will be announced following November’s T-28 race which will be the last Club event of the year. Those continuing on the BOD are willing to shuffle around a bit to accommodate newbies. The “Member at Large” is a good place to get one’s feet wet. All you have to do is attend the BOD meetings on the nominally 2^nd Wednesday of the month participate in discussion and vote on the outcomes. The secretary position requires attending BOD meetings and taking minutes, not too hard either. Please think about it. Any questions about roles and responsibilities, please shoot me an E-mail.

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Warbird Day

Events

OCTOBER’s Club Event:

WARBIRD DAY!

The LAST CLUB EVENT OF 2022!!

October 22nd 2022 10:00 am

Our tribute to warbirds of all types.

There will be a chance to participate in an “Axis Vs. Allies” Attack of our field!

Prizes and medals for defending our honor!

All warbirds for open flying before the runway attack.

3~4cell battery types for Axis Vs. Allies event pls.

Participation earns raffle tickets, all raffle tickets are eligible!

Meeting and FINAL BBQ of the year to follow.

Brian’s Huge Amazing 95″ Spitfire

Builds & Reviews

The wait for my dream Spitfire is over.

After having and flying my 80” Phoenix Model P47 for a few months (my biggest warbird at the time), in May 2021, I decided to try something bigger, I ordered a 1:4.75 scale Spitfire (95”). It is also Phoenix Model and distributed by Tower Hobby. Unfortunately, it was on back order and estimated to be shipped in a couple of months. But they have been changing the shipping status month after month, and it is still on back order now.

While waiting for the Spitty to come, I spent time to collect all the electronics and power components for it. I also bought an 80” Black Horse Spitfire from MotionRC (it is still in boxes, a backup plan if I don’t ever get the 1:4.75 scale one).

Then, in mid-September this year, as I almost gave up waiting for the 95” Spitty, and was about to start on the Black Horse. I found on RCGroups, someone in Riverside who had 5 flights on a 95” Spitty ready to fly for sale. I was so excited and, after exchanging texts and messages, the wait is over! I went to Temecula and brought my dream Spitty home.

The plane was equipped with all Hitec HS-645MGs which are analog servos. I changed them to digital D-645MWs except for the rudder, I used JX PDI-6221MG for more torque and less expense.

I also custom made 9 pins quick connectors for the wings and fuselage (picture below).

Here are the specification and setup of the Spitty:

Length: 86” (2184mm)

Wingspan: 95” (2413 mm)

Motor : Rimfire 65cc

ESC: Castle Phoenix Edge HV160A

Propeller: Xoar 23x14x2

Spinner: Falcon 6”

(I will change them to Biela 24x10x3 and also Falcon 6” spinner for more scale)

Battery: 2x 6S 5000MAh 55C in series (12S)

2x 2S 2200MAh LiFE for receiver

1x 2S 1000MAh for retracts

Servo: 6x Hitec D-645MW (2 Aileron, 2 Elevator, 2 Flap) and 1x JX PDI-6221MG for Rudder.

Radio: Tx: FrSky X10S Express (2.4GHz) + R9M 2019 ACCESS module (900MHz)

RX: Archer SR10 Pro (2.4GHz) + R9 Stab OTA (900MHz) in redundancy

(In case the main RX browns out, the long range R9 will take over)

I went over and double checked everything. Then came the exciting and also scary Sunday! The maiden day!!!

Compared to the weight and location of the batteries (8000MAh) from the previous owner, I use much lighter batteries, but it was still nose heavy (picture below, thanks to Fredrick and Brad!). I decided to maiden it with nose heavy since the weight of the nose was reduced quite significant compared to the original setup from the first owner.

Thanks to Fredrick Lorenz for helping as a wingman in my maiden flight, and also so sorry to folks down the runway, as the Spitty created a big cloud of dust when I tested the power before takeoff.

When the plane lifted off the ground, as expected, up elevator trim was needed, also right aileron. After less than a couple laps of adjusting, it flew straight. Although, I had too much throw for elevator and ailerons so I had to adjust my thumbs movement during the maiden flight.

After the maiden flight, I moved the batteries further back and achieved the CG marked by manufacture, and reduced the throws. The Spitty seems to be happy with that. It almost flies inverted without down elevator.

Thanks to Lewis Dotson for perfectly captured both of my flight videos! Links of videos below.

Also pictures from Tom Gluggio, Pete Kwei and help from other friends!

Happy flying!
Brian Zhuang

Maiden flight: https://youtu.be/LbpRA-AB4gw

Flight #6: https://youtu.be/UQSIbAmVGgw

Spitfire landing: https://youtu.be/6Tv2MEfOHlk

P47 landing: https://youtu.be/DOhqsAPyBTc

Mark’s Big Beautiful Jet

Builds & Reviews

The plane is from HSD Jets, and runs on four 90mm fans. I fly with 4 batteries of 6S x 5000mah. The length is 118 inches, and scale is 1:23. For comparison, attached is a photo of me standing next to the fuselage.

This plane is easy to control in the air, but difficult on the ground. The nosewheel has very little steering authority, and there are brakes on only two of the 18 wheels. So that’s pretty close to not having brakes. I first flew it up at Hemet, and even there I over-ran the end of the runway.

Then I took it up to the “Best in the West” jet rally. This takes place on a 3300ft runway, so I was able to complete many flights with no problems. It was super popular there, even though it is not particularly large or expensive by BITW standards. The first BITW flight was captured in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbjcZ_yf0v8

I ended up winning two trophies at BITW, “Best EDF” and “Best Civilian Jet” (photo attached). I would like to bring it to SEFSD sometime, but I think it requires some modification to do that. Thrust reversing on two nacelles would do the trick, but I’m not sure I will get around to it any time soon.

Mostly I just flew docile flights, although after a few I got a little braver and did several banked passes (45-degree-ish partial knife-edge) along the flight line. And on the final flight, I managed to sneak in a barrel roll.

Thanks to Bob Stinson for helping me schlep it up to Hemet for the first flight, thanks to Victor Shamulus for the video, and thanks to Andy Davis at HSDJETSUSA who fedex’d a replacement servo to me the week of the event, which enabled me to fly it at Best in the West.

Thanks,

-Mark

Thank You Dennis

General Interest

Thank you, Dennis, for the 7+ hours maintenance you worked on the SEFSD Field yesterday! WOW! We haven’t seen the runway as smooth as it is now in a long time! Well done!

We cannot thank Dennis enough for all he does, but please TRY.

New Pics for October 2022

General Interest

All photos taken and submitted by Frank Sutton. Thanks Frank!

Civilian Scale Day

Electroglide

T28 Racing

Open Flying

Otto’s Witch Flys for Halloween Video Flying Over San Diego

Electroglide Report for Oct 2022

Electroglide Contest Results

It was a pretty good Electroglide this past Saturday. Winds were out of the Southwest yet only blowing a mild 5 mph. Temperature was 69 degrees at first launch, with a partly sunny sky.

Six pilots took to the sky on the first launch and a few found a surprising column of lift just west of our runway. Neil Zhu, flying a Conscendo had the longest flight at 6:50 minutes and also scored a 30-point landing. Scott Vance, flying a Radian, was second with a time of 6:28 plus a 20-point landing. Third place on that launch was Alex Sutton with a time of 5:19. Daric Knight, flying a Huron, also picked up a 20-point landing.

On the second launch, the lift vanished and flight times dropped. Dennis LaBerge, flying a Radian, had the long flight at 2:33 and a 10-point landing. Scott and Bob Anson shared second place with a flight time of 2:10 and 30-point landings. Alex picked up a 20-point landing and Daric had a 10-point landing.

Flight times on the third launch wasn’t much better with Scott flying the longest at 2:55 minutes and also getting another 30-point landing. Dennis was second at 2:10 with a 30-point landing. Neil was third at 2:06 minutes. Alex picked up a 20-point landing.

The fourth and final launch again had low flight times with Scott flying the longest at 2:28 with a 30-point landing. Neil was second at 2:05 with a 30-point landing and Dennis was third at 2:00 minutes. I would like to point out that Alex landed first at 1:26, (earning the Lucky Dog Award), in the 30-point circle.

Yes, the 30-point circle is not very large so where did Scott and Dennis land their Radians? On top of Alex’s of course. Have a look at the event picture called “crowded landings.”

I think in the future we’ll need to quickly retrieve our aircraft from the target circles if possible.

So, winners for the day:

Radian Class:

1^st. Place Scott Vance 195 points

2^nd. Place Alex Sutton 154 points

3^rd. Place Dennis LaBerge 113 points

Open Class:

1^st. Place Neil Zhu 139 points

2^nd. Place Deric Knight 74 points

3^rd. Place Bob Anson 43 points

This was the last Electroglide for the year; we’ll take a break for the holidays and start up again on January 21^st. 2023. However, I would like to announce this year’s total point winners. This is just based on point totals, not glider class.

1^st. Place Scott Vance 1000 total points

2^nd Place Dennis LaBerge 975 total points

3^rd. Place Neil Zhu 961 total points

Congratulations to the monthly and years end winners. This takes piloting skill and a commitment to the sport of competitive flying.

On October 22 at 9:00, we’ll have a brief awards ceremony and raffle drawing for all of this year’s Electroglide pilots.

A special thanks to Frank Sutton for all the event pictures.

Jeff Struthers

T28 Pylon Racing Report for Oct 2022

Events

We had a good turnout with 11 pilots going for the gold. As is often the case Quan was fashionably late in arriving putting him at the very end of the signup sheet. Jovi did a great job of keeping things moving along and keeping the scores.

In the first round of the preliminary races there was some very tight racing with Alex and myself trading places for much of the race—near the end of the race with things a virtual tie Alex made a bad turn giving me enough distance ahead to get the win. A couple races later Otto and Alex tangled at the downwind turn just a couple laps into the race—with both tumbling to the ground. Steve Manganelli waltzed into first place in that round given that 2/3rds of the group had crashed.

Alex had planned ahead and had a second plane ready to go for the finals—and Otto was able to glue the wing back together all within the 10 minute break before the medal race start—amazing what the right CA glue can do with foam.

The results were as follows:

Bronze:
1) Quan
2) Bob Simon
3) Carl

Silver:
1) Alex
2) Otto
3) Bob Stinson
4) Daric

Gold:
1) Steve N
2) Glen
3) Steve M
4) Brad

For those looking for “tips and tricks” for racing T28s a good starting place is this guide:

Setting up your T28 to race.

The most important thing that many people miss when starting to race RC planes is that going fast is nothing without control! The FMS T28 is a small plane and setting it up to race IS very different than for your basic sport flying. Getting the CG and control throws dialed in are key to getting the plane to “go fast and turn left” and keep in control. As a racer running at full throttle— the elevator and aileron travels needed are minimal . A properly setup T28 will actually be easy to fly with only small control deflections.

The control throws suggested in the FMS instructions are intended for a plane flying much slower on a 2S battery. We are flying much faster with 3S. Here are the control deflections I have on my plane:
Ailerons: 6mm up 6mm down
Elevator: 3mm up, 3mm down
Rudder: 6mm left, 6mm right
CG measured from edge of wing at fuselage opening 71-72 mm

I like about 30-40% expo on both aileron and elevator—helps make the plane less sensitive around center making it easier to do fine adjustments to the planes track. A little nose heavy help make the plane positively stable in pitch which and the elevator less sensitivity but the recommended CG in the FMS instructions is too nose heavy for my tastes. Too rearward CG locations will make the plane neutral in pitch stability or even negative which will make it more difficult to find a stable track down the course. The trade offs in moving the GC is stability vs turning ability with the aft CG setup being able to turn more quickly. You need to be careful with the CG and elevator throws in that if you get too aggressive the plane will tend to snap roll in tight turns.

If you find the racing setting a little too mild for take off/landing and general sport flying I suggest setting up a dual rate switch so you can easily swap from one control rate to another.

Some of you did not read my previous article regarding the “AD” for the nose wheel strut—I learned the hard way that on our rough field the stock strut puts the nose wheel too close to the prop which will result in props getting busted when the blade hits the nose wheel rubber. fix is easy—just turn the nose wheel around (be sure to put a flat on the shaft on the opposite side!).

We had a great time—see you at the next T28 race on November 12th!