Chairman’s Corner for May – June 2023

Hello SEFSD members, I hope everyone is doing well and having fun flying! For the month of May the weather has been on the cloudy side, that’s why we call it May Gray. Next month I hope the clouds dissipate and not become June Gloom, guess we must wait and see. I would like to give our members an update to the Raffle that we currently have going on. I have added a few more items to the prizes, and they are as follows: Along with the Spektrum IX 14, we have a Freewing Vulcan High Performance 70mm Sport Jet, iCharger X 12, X6 AC/DC charger and a B6 mini charger. These are great prizes for only a $1.00. You can’t go wrong with this. Tickets can be purchased down at the field on every Saturday, and you can also get them online at our website. I encourage you all to get tickets. The Raffle is being held on July 1st; this will be our 4th of July celebration so be sure to attend. Just as a reminder, this raffle is to help in getting more cool prizes for our upcoming banquet on January 12, 2024, and it’s being held at the Air and Space Museum in Balboa Park. With the 50/50 going on at each, T-28 races, Electro Glide, and our monthly meeting that this is making a reduction to lower the cost to our members, so I thank you all for your continuing efforts in making this happen.

In May I wanted to do a clean-up at the Roto Plex, however we got shut down by the KOZ event that happened on May 7. Let’s try to do this on June 11, 2023. As I had asked before, I would like to have a few volunteers’ helping in getting the Roto Plex back up again. Also, would like some help with the Heli area in getting it cleaned up as well and make sure that the polls are up for the boarders in which they are to fly in. I did come across a gentleman flying, and he was very cooperative in complying with the rules, and I Thank Him!

This coming weekend, we are having our monthly meeting and it looks like Jim has a great event for us, “Dead Stick Challenge” as he mentioned in the notice that was sent out on May 24, 2023. I hope all of you had read his rules and most important was rule number 1. Do Not Sacrifice Your Aircraft. If you get in trouble, apply power, and get into a safe position and give it another try. With this in mind, you’ll get 3 attempts, and this is “Not 3 Tries, It Must Be a safety for your Aircraft”. When starting, power up, take off climb, within 20 second, then get ready to do your Dead Stick Challenge. For those of you who never had a nitro aircraft this was a common routine. Jim will tell us how the scoring will be done! And yes, we will have our hotdogs being provide by Mark Davis, Thank You Mark!

For last part, I would just like to go over some rules. Many of you are calling out your intentions, Take Off, Low Fly By and Landing, some call out for Touch and Goes an we greatly appreciate it very much. But we still have a few that are not calling out intentions and not using their Manly Voice. Please guys yell it out, if you’re at the East end and the guys at the West end can’t hear you and vise a verse. We do have a few people calling out for you when you’re not yelling. So please use your Manly Voice. Also, when doing low fly-by’s, please stay on the north side of the white center line on the runway, please do not fly close to the gates, you might and could hit someone. Thank You all for complying with the rules and don’t forget to always ware your badges when you’re flying, or you will get me asking you where your badge is. Thank You for hearing me out! See you all at the field and if any of you have questions to ask, please do not hesitate to ask me or any of BOD members.

Happy Flying!
Jovi

Dead Stick Challenge

This month’s club event is the:

DEAD STICK CHALLENGE!

May 27th, 10am
Not too long ago, when we were all liquid-fueled RC aviators, one skill that was required is the mastery of the dead-stick landing. Nowadays, with electric power, hearing someone call “DEAD STICK” is something we simply don’t hear anymore. Since we no longer experience the problem of a nitro engine flame-out, we rarely need the skill of bringing it back to the field without power.

This event will test your “emergency return” skills, and reward those who have a command of the task.

How it will work:

Rule #1. DO NOT SACRIFICE YOUR AIRCRAFT. If during the event, you are not going to make it to the field safely, you can simply power up and come back to try again. 

You get 3 attempts. NOT 3 TRIES. It MUST BE a “safety for aircraft” abort, not a “you didn’t do well” abort.

You get 20 seconds of motor on. Once the motor is off, the flight timer starts. Timer ends when model stops moving on the ground. Points for flight time are accrued. Landing on the runway allows time score, off field landings are zero. Position on runway ONCE MODEL STOPS, can score bonus points.
If you play Electroglide you will understand because it’s similar. Where the model stops, is where the score is calculated from (unlike spot landing challenge which is where the model touches the runway). Scoring zones are LARGER than the Electroglide target.

Scoring will be similar to electroglide where a long glide is helpful and the scoring bonus zones will be larger than the standard electroglide target. 

No gliders allowed. This is a dead stick challenge of a regular airplane not designed to be flown power-off. 

Gliding starts at 10:00am, and like usual, Meeting, Awards & Lunch afterwards.

Aztec Aerodesign Recognizes SEFSD Officers

By Steve Manganelli

The Aztec Aerodesign Club headed by San Diego State University (SDSU) Student Clay Logsdon recognized SEFSD Treasurer Steve Manganelli and Safety Officer Steve Neu at their final club meeting held April 28th, 2023.  Commemorative plaques were presented for mentoring and piloting the aircraft in the 2023 Design/Build/Fly Competition held 2 weeks previously in Tucson AZ.  See last Month’s DBF Article.

The most interesting aspect of the DBF challenge was the wing proof load mission where loads far in excess of what the model could practically experience in the air were designed for and applied in the competition to earn scoring points. The Huizilopochtli model having 55 inch span by 12” chord wing was designed to survive a proof load of nearly 300 lbs, but would it? In competition, our maximum carry was a conservative 155 lbs after some surprising experiments conducted in sunny conditions (hint : West Systems Epoxy and 120 F don’t mix!) but with the competition over, it was time to go for broke…literally. The same mechanism used in competition was deployed (in the shade) with infinite weights available at the Club closing meeting. Each student made their guess as to the final failure weight and wrote it on the test wing.

The custom fabricated wing jointer failed in compression with a loud bang at 274 lbs.! Not sure whom had the closest to the actual, but was an enjoyable time and a fitting experiment to end this year’s DBF challenge. Most of the students participating in DBF this year graduated and are starting their professional careers in aerospace engineering. Myself, Steve Neu and the whole of the SEFSD Club are proud to have support the San Diego State University Aztec community in this endeavor.

 

Max Dommers, Roberto Marquez and Gabriela Gonzalez look on as wing deflects under weight.  Ms. Gonzalez looks a little worried as she was the one that fabricated the wing joiner!

 

Clay Logsdon presents Steve Manganelli and Steve Neu Commemorative Plaques. L-R : Jeremy Johnson, Roberto Marquez, Dylan Lake (looking down) Tomas Mendoza, Kevin Garcia, Steve Manganelli, Max Dommers, Clay Logsdon, Magnus Ramsey, Steve Neu, Gabriela Gonzalez

SEFSD Raffle

Attention All SEFSD members!

SEFSD Raffle tickets are now ready to purchase online. Please use the following link to purchase your tickets!  https://sefsd.azurewebsites.net/RaffleTicket

SEFSD Raffle

The purpose of the Raffle is to generate extra funds for our banquet this coming January 12, 2024. The club wants to reduce the cost to club members for the banquet. This raffle goes from April 22, 2023, thru June 30, 2023. Drawing will be held July 1, 2023, down at the flying field. Every club member may purchase tickets. Members do not need to be present to win. Winning tickets, if not present, will be notified by either Certified Mail, Email or a phone call from the information written on the form. Cost of a ticket is $1.00. Members may purchase as many tickets as they wish.
______________________________________
There will be many more exciting prizes but they have yet to be purchased. When they have been, they will be listed in future raffle announcements.
The top prize is the Spektrum iX14 shown below:

T-28 Front Landing Gear Repair Buletin 05-12-2023

You are probably not like me. You can probably land one of these T-28’s without buggering up the nose gear.  I re-glued it a few times .  It was beyond re-gluing as the foam gets a bit soft after repeated beatings with terra firma.  The plastic insert was fractured in 2 places as well.

 

The red arrows show fracture stress points at sharp edges of the plastic molding.  Note also, the oil  covered belly.  These round engines ALL leak  😉

 

So I made a scarf plate out of .063″ 6061-T6 aluminum as I did not have any 2024-T3 around.  Hey, it’s what I had!  It’s pretty small so it does not weigh much.  Kind of a hack job but, it does the job of spreading the loads out to undamaged airframe foam.  Note the screw hole.  This helps couple the load from the plastic molding.

 

Scarf plate attached.  Note I cut away some foam on the starboard side to match the port side.  Note the screw.  I used a bead of silicone around the perimeter to spread the load from the flat aluminum to the uneven foam.

 

The back lighting made this picture difficult. Note that there is a gap between the nose strut and the aluminum scarf plate.  I’m sure this will be bumped into on landings and take the load off of the broken, glued, beat up plastic molding.  If you zoom in you can see the bead of silicon glue.

So, we’ll see how well this holds up and hopefully it won’t form any more stress concentration points. 

See you at the field,

Bob K

April’s Poker Fly RECAP

Poker Fly success!!

Hello fellow SEFSD’ers.    I am happy to report that April’s club event,  the Poker Fly,  went off without a problem…. I think for the first time since we started!!!  April’s event was a PERFECT example of how a club member can influence our events with great ideas.   Poker Fly has traditionally been difficult to score,  because as simple as it is to grade Poker Hands,  it gets challenging when there are 40 hands played.  A tip of the hat goes to Bob Anson,  who last year suggested using 3×5 cards instead of the score sheet.   AMAZING.   GENIUS.   PERFECT.    Using the 3×5 cards allowed the contestants to be responsible for holding on to their own “hands”.    At the end,  we only were presented with the hands that were worthy of scoring,  not the plethora of junk hands as was in the past.   Scoring went PERFECTLY,  until at the presentation for awards,  a member shouted out “What about my xxxx hand??” My gut dropped as I thought we had again,  screwed up scoring.    Well,  it worked out that the club member didn’t understand the ranking for his poker hand,  and our scoring WAS PERFECT AFTER ALL!!

Additional thanks goes to George Sullivan,  who played dealer so I could get my flights in,  and Jovi who shared the final scoring duties.    Our event went a bit long as there were LOTS OF CONTESTANTS, and LOTS OF FLYING!  The flights were entertaining,  everyone gave the right amount of courtesy to all pilots to let them get in their 4 flights.  All in all a great “Luck Based” event.   Alex was the “Lucky Dog” with his lowest hand,  and came away with a pair of MG Featherlite servos from Hitec.

Next month,  there is NO LUCK,  its all YOUR SKILLS!   The Medal’s come out next month for the podium finishers. DEAD STICK CHALLENGE.   You get 10 seconds of motor,  glide for time,  land for bonus.  Similar to Electroglide,  but NO GLIDERS (any other aircraft is allowed even MICROS!)  Scoring is where the aircraft stops, not where it touches.

Congrats to the winners,  THANK YOU to all the contestants that played.  Again,  these go away without participants.  I’m looking forward to May, as that is a NEW event for us, be sure to come down and play!

Jim Bonnardel

Click a pic below for the entire album:

CVMRCC Field Cleanup Update

From Tom’s emails on the 21st:

“CVMRCC members & Board,

 Well, the biggest part of the cleanup is done! Sorry I didn’t get this out last night. After a long day out there, I just wanted to get a shower after I got home then send this email, but after the shower I just plain forgot and went to bed.

 So the good news, again, is everything (Well the thick stuff) is cleaned up, end to end. And our bobcat driver, Rockie, did an incredible job not only clearing the runways and pits, but also knocking down the piles of silt and tall weeds around the perimeter of the field.

 We still have some sweeping to do particularly at the far east and west end of the runway, and some in the pits. Robert & I are going to be out there soon today for some of that, though my time is very limited today, and we still also have to fill the bobcat fuel tank back up, too.

 But there’s bad news too. Of course being repeatedly flooded and covered with muddy silt for months is hard on the runway. As careful as we were, the bobcat, and even shoveling and using the blowers on the runway have very easily done damage. From simply peeling off old layers of slurry, to some major pot holes. Repairing the worst parts will be a priority in the near future.

 Thanks to those that showed up to help, including two guys from the Chollas club who came to help! Also a big thanks to John Weaver from Discount Hobbies and Max Younan who’s donations payed for the Bobcat rental.

 So while there might be some sweeping going on today (It would be appreciated if you can help in between flights if you come out today), and unfortunately there’ll be some potholes in the runway to avoid, we can finally get out there and fly!

We’re mostly back to normal now. It’s just tough for the turbine guys now, as the east and west ends of the runway took the biggest beating from the weather. We’re already trying to figure out how to patch the holes.

Tom”

Electroglide Report for May 2023

Well surprise, surprise. In spite of a cold, overcast morning, we still had a fun and competitive Electroglide contest.

The temperature was 64 degrees; and winds were Westerly at 10 mph with a solid marine layer. One would not see this as ideal glider weather.

Ten pilots were on hand for the first launch, seven flying Radians, two flying in the Open Class. Some pilots quickly found some wind lift over the Western palm trees and made use of it.

Scott Vance (Radian), had the long flight at 5:04 minutes, Dennis LaBerge (Radian), was second at 4:47 and Jeff Struthers (Radian), was third at 4:23 plus a 30-point landing. Some pretty good times considering the weather conditions. Bob Anson (Radian), also scored a 30-point landing and Deric Knight (Open Class), picked up a 10-point landing.

Second launch had the wind lift disappear on us. Scott again had the long flight, this time being 2:36 but he also scored a 30-point landing. Dennis again was second at 2:23 with a 10-point landing and Jeff was third at 2:20 with a 10-point landing. Alex Sutton and Carl Cox, both flying Radians, picked up 30-point landings. Neil Zhu (Open Class), picked up a 20-point landing.

Third launch was again into poor conditions with short flight times being the result. Deric had the long flight at 2:40 plus a 10-point landing. Dennis came in second at 2:34 and a 20-point landing. Scott was third at 2:29 with a 10-point landing. Bob Anson, Dennis, Neil and Jeff all scored 20-point landings. This made a pretty crowded set of target circles.

Fourth and final launch saw much better glider conditions. The long flight was had by Jeff at 9:15 with a 20-point landing. Scott was second at 9:06 and a 30-point landing and Dennis was third at 6:26. Alex, Deric and Neil all scored 30-point landings.

Winners for the day:

Radian Class

–   Jeff Struthers           191 total points

–   Scott Vance              187     “    points

–   Dennis LaBerge        129     “    points

Open Class

–   Neil Zhu                   162 total points

–   Deric Knight             123     “    points

 

Congratulations to all the pilots for making the best of marginal conditions. Yes, there were a few “Off Field” landings but also many target circle landings that demonstrated great approaches under windy conditions. Good job guys.

Thanks to Frank Sutton for the pictures and to Jim Bonnardel for Carl Cox’s launches.

Next Electroglide is to be held on June 17th.

See you there,

Jeff Struthers

Click the pics below for the entire album:

T28 Racing Report for May 2023

We had 13 pilots show up for our May edition of the T28 races with several newcomers to the series. 

The preliminary rounds were all hard fought contests with lots of wing tip to wing tip encounters. In the finals Alex decided he wanted to take the checkered flag at all costs—the only one in site was the turn two marker flag which he center punched perfectly stopping his plane in its tracks—with zero damage it turns out. Advice: next time go a couple feet further –then turn!
 
The results of the preliminary rounds produced the following matchup for the finals:
 
Bronze:
1) Corey
2) George H
3) George S
 
Silver:
1) Fredrick
2) Steve N
3) Quan
4) Steve M
 
Gold:
1) Otto
2) Brad
3) Larry
4) Alex
All in a a fun Saturday morning. The next T28 race will be June 10 at 10am. Get your planes trimmed for racing. There are setup tips for racing on the SEFSD web site:https://www.sefsd.org/club-contests/t28-racing/t28-rules-information/
 
If you need a prop adapter to use the APC 7x6E prop see me—I usually have some in the car.
 
Steve Neu
Click the pics below for the entire album: