Act now to renew your membership in our great club.
Monthly Archives: December 2022
14 posts
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all SEFSD members. “Christmas is the season of joy, of gift-giving, and of families united.” “Peace on earth will come to stay when we live Christmas every day.” “He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.” “Like snowflakes, my Christmas memories gather and dance—each beautiful, unique, and gone too soon. “
This has been a great year for our club. We did a lot this year in all the fun we have had. I am looking forward to the T-28 races and our Electric Glide which follows the T-28 races the following weekend in our upcoming year. Our monthly meetings have had a great turnout with members coming down to the field this past year. I do look forward to the upcoming year and the fun will continue. Thanks to Jim B, we will have a calendar with all the events happening in year 2023.
I would also like to remind everyone to renew your membership and most of all, don’t forget to get your tickets for the Banquet on Jan 13, 2023.
This will be a fun event that we have planned for our members, so be sure to get your tickets for they will sell out fast! As it stands now, we have 55 tickets sold, so only 45 tickets remain, so better get them quick! Remember our event at the Air and Space Museum starts at 6:00pm. With your purchase of the ticket, you can enter the Museum anytime during the day and stay inside when the museum closes. You just won’t be able to enter where we will have our party. That opens at 6pm. Also, when you sign in, make sure you get your photo taken by Frank at the Spirit of Saint Louis. Our Catering will be done by Lisa Bender, and I think we all know how that is going to taste. If you missed last year’s banquet, well all I can say is, don’t miss out on this years, you won’t be disappointed.
We have a lot to give away this year for both our wonderful better halves and for us pilots. We have some really nice aircraft to give away. Your ticket puts you in the running for a gift. Our wives will have their own set of tickets and, thanks to Steve Manganelli’s wonderful wife, she has put together a great selection of goodies! I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at our banquet on January 13, 2023. Event starts at 6pm.
As a note to just remind everyone about a few items at the field. We need to remember to lock the bathroom after every use. I know some like to leave it unlock but let’s not do that. Our last lock was lost including the hasp bar as well. We also need to lock the gate when we are the last to leave the field. This past year someone was locked in at the field and they literally cut the bar by the lock and were able to open and leave. If you are the last one to leave, and you see someone else, please just go over to them and let them know that if they choose to stay, they will be locked in. So just a friendly reminder to be courteous and advise them of the situation when you leave.
I also have another item to talk about and that is calling out your intentions. Taking off, Low flyby and Landings. If you’re in the middle of the pits you just might hear someone at the west end calling, “take off”. However, if you’re at the east end and someone is at the west end saying take off, it is very difficult to hear. So please, gasp extra air and yell it out in a loud voice call out your intentions. Thank You members
And last, I have a few Inspiring Christmas quotes for you all:
“My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?”
“Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.”
“I love the excitement, the childlike spirit of innocence, and just about everything that goes along with Christmas.”
“It’s true, Christmas can feel like a lot of work, particularly for mothers. But when you look back on all the Christmases in your life, you’ll find you’ve created family traditions and lasting memories. Those memories, good and bad, are really what help to keep a family together over the long haul.”
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Jovi
By Steve Manganelli
Well, never mind my November column reminiscing about the past year as your President: we have one more Newsletter to go! Short and sweet says Mr. Editor, the kind Mr. Belknap. Let me start off by thanking Larry Kosta for taking the action to divest the Club trailer. It is one thing to advise on how it should be done, but there are some complicated logistics tasks involved and Larry stepped up to the plate to do so. We should have the anticipated funds to offset some of the costs of the Winter Banquet which brings up my next topic.
Have you renewed your Club membership and purchased your tickets to the Grand Event, yet? Quan Nguyen did a great job enabling the Club Renewal along with the opportunity to purchase tickets to the banquet. We’ve prepaid the Aerospace Museum and capped attendance at 100 guests. Since we have just over 300 members eligible and assuming every member could bring one guest, that’s 600 people eligible, so buy your tickets early (if you haven’t already) to ensure you don’t miss out! Jovi has already spilled the beans on the fabulous raffle aircraft and I can say the non-modeler guest prize array is shaping up nicely, thanks to Michelle Manganelli. The join/renew link was activated on December 1. If you’re currently a member through December 31, your new badge with the new Gate/Potty combination will be printed and first available early in the year when we have “Badge Day”, likely the weekend of the 7th and 8th of January. Badge Day saves the club some $ on mailing; those not picked up on Badge Day will be mailed shortly thereafter. The combination will be changed to the number on the new badges on January 14th . New members will be mailed a 2023 badge when they join up.
Our really last flying event of the year was a T-28 race that took place last weekend, the 10th of December. Ten of us braved 65 degree temps, clear skies and virtually 0 wind to conquer the pylons, tough duty! The impetus for this event was a set of medals identified as “December” and “2022”, ergo we had to have another race to use them up. However, race master Mr. Neu forgot to bring them, but he did remember his airplane which he expertly piloted to 1st place in Gold class. Silver winner was Alex Sutton and Bronze to relative newcomer Artie Means, well done Artie! Steve did remember the prizes for the goodie raffle and the medals will be awarded next time he sees the awardees.
Glen Merrit of the Weedwackers announced he was taking over race master duties at their field next year and we are all invited to join in their races. He will follow our format exactly and his races will be scheduled on a Saturday other than the 2nd of the month so us racers can double up! Watch for E-mail blasts announcing the dates.
Let’s go back to the subject of the Club Trailer. Paying to store things we’re probably never going to use again is waste of resources, but storing a few things we are likely to use is a different story. I have custody of a Gas powered back pack blower and a cordless back pack weed sprayer that belong to the Club. If field maintenance requires these things, let me know and I’ll arrange to get them out for you. One final thing retrieved before the trailer goes to it’s new owner is a dry erase board having (to me anyway) a touching message pictured below. A little sleuthing suggested that “Sunday 5/16” must have been 2010, our last Mid-Winter Electrics, or “MWE Spring Fling” as I believed we called it toward the end. It’s a bit bittersweet that MWE didn’t go on, but at least I will “See you next year!” as your Treasurer.
SEFSD donated forty blankets to St. Paul’s Senior Services. This winter, forty more older adults in need will receive a high quality blanket for the holidays. For many of them, it is the ONLY gift they get this season. Our club is proud that this is the third year we have donated blankets to this cause. Many of the recipients say they cherish their blanket and it keeps them warm on cold nights.
A Forty Size (Test Bed) Standard Electric RC Airplane
By Carl Murphy
Introduction
This article begins where all the rest of the articles, tests of as specified by the manufacturer and flown only a few flights, ended. Real world flying, where parts fail, break, wear out, fly off or don’t match the specifications. Not shiny new hopes with failures censored out, and, what it costs, the net cost per hour of flight. Follow along and try these easily available combinations for yourself. And why I have been declared a bad example where ever I fly by Radio Control.
Before ever starting make sure the airframe is set up right, with components that last, then begin the tuning of the propulsion. The setup of of the airframe follows.
By propulsion we are describing the whole package, motor, propeller carrier, propeller, motor-controller (to include any internal programming) and battery. They have to match a specific RC airframe, location and flying style. Ten motors were flown, seven direct drive outrunners, three geared inrunners, varying the input voltage from 3S LiPos through 5S and matching the propellers. Several more motors, some defective, some obsolete, were rejected after bench tests.
Some combinations were later flown in more suitable airframes, see the parallel Fun Cub and the economic comparison of outrunners verses inrunners articles.
If you read a vast majority of magazines articles and their Internet equals, with the exception of competition machines, matching propulsion to the airframe is a neglected art. You get an entirely false interpretation that the author chose, and demonstrated, the best, on the first try. It becomes a form of censorship by omission not comparing equipment. And the tests don’t go long enough to demonstrate stuff wearing out. I haven’t even decided on the center of gravity or control surface throws at three flights, they are publishing everything is great at that much/little experience? Which has led to the current acceptance that cheap equipment is just as good a real, no risking a quality/efficiency comparison. Although many can set a motor-controller for braking the propeller to a stop when in-flight with the motor off, as for setting the motor-controller timing, it’s which-craft (zu Deutsch Wechseleri) to most.
We had 10 pilots show up for the last T28 race of 2022. Weather was clear and cool with light winds—just about a perfect day for flying!
In the preliminary rounds there were several very tight races that could have gone either way. After the dust settled the results for the preliminary rounds were totaled and the flight groups for the final rounds were set. The results were as follows:
Bronze:
1) Artie
2) Alfred
3) Fritz
Silver:
1) Alex
2) Glen
3) Larry
4) Bob
Gold:
1) SteveN
2) Otto
3) SteveM
I would like to that all the helpers throughout the year that have made the events run smoothly with special thanks to Jovi and Jim for officiating the races.
A note on next years T28 racing schedule. As Glen announced at our last race, we will be working with the WeedWackers club in Santee to coordinate racing
Steve Neu
Turns out the Ukrainians are using these 1970s Tu141 photo drones packed with new electronics and explosives to hit targets in Russia. Picture was from the museum in Kiev after the WC. I was doing my “Dr Strangelove” moment:)
From IFLYAMA
Frank shot some great pics on December 4th.
T28 Racing Pics from December
Mid Winter Electrics Pics from 1996 to 2008
This awesome drawing was made by Seth M. Mad drawing skills, I want to see more. . .
Click below for a pretty cool website:
