By Steve Manganelli
Spring has sprung! Daylight savings time is back; birds are singing and we’re flying. Gotta love our San Diego weather, I can scarcely remember any Winter flying Sunday I missed for rain. If you like the condition of the field, thank Dennis LaBerge. We try our best to roll the field coincident with the last Friday rain storm of the year and “we” AKA Dennis pulled it off early last month; thanks Dennis! Dennis has the rolling technique down to a science. When I came to the field late Friday afternoon to offer support, I found the job complete and was offered the chance to take out any aggressions on the parking lot! I also want to welcome aboard to our new Treasurer, Mr. Alan Isaacs whom has now fully assumed the duties from Quan Nguyen.
I next want to thank our humble editor, Mr. Steve Belknap whom was “scheduled” to receive a recognition plaque at the Banquet. Due to his other commitments, I was honored to present his plaque commemorating his 13+ years as our Newsletter Editor at the field at the end of February. One of the potential make-up days Steve was busy, he and Frank Gagliardi raised $650 for the Club via an R/C Estate Sale! Thanks for that too, Steve. Keeping us in communication is a vital function of the club. Next time you see Steve’s classic 60’s black van parked at the East end of the runway, give him a shout of thanks for his service. Speaking of awards, (2) types of medals have been awarded at least once, so it’s time to show what you’re playing for.
“SEFSD Sports” with the T-28 depicted was designed by Frank Sutton and will be awarded for monthly T-28 Gold-Silver-Bronze cups and the monthly club meeting fun event. The latter only when there is some flying skill involved; the “Foam Frenzy” and “Poker Fly” don’t qualify. I have it on good authority that for April’s “3 Ring Circus” event, there will be 3 medals awarded for each sub-event. You won’t want to miss that one! We have Larry Kosta’s professional graphics designers to thank for the Electroglide medal design, thanks for that and production of the inserts, Larry. These are awarded at the Electroglide pilot’s meeting commemorating the previous month’s winners.
Up until the last Newsletter, I only knew Mark Davis as an ace barbecue man. Little did I know Mark knows his way around an Oscilloscope! Mark’s write up about glitches caused by long wires and digital servos (and how he solved it) is the kind of fantastic content that put SEFSD on the map. Thanks for that Mark. Servo Twitching in Large RC Airplanes
I’ve been involved with the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Design-Build-Fly (AIAA DBF) competition for teams of undergraduate College students for the last 20 years. In most cases this is the first time students get to see an aircraft of their design take to the air. This year, Steve Neu (Pilot) and myself (Design Advisor) are helping San Diego State University design an (R/C model) aircraft that carries and deploys simulated vaccine vials and syringes. What’s most interesting about the competition, is that the cargo/rules change every year so there can be no year upon year iteration. The competition took a Covid hiatus for 2020 and 2021 became a video competition, but this year we are back to a flyoff which will take place at Cessna’s field in Wichita KS, April 20th to 24th. SDSU will be joining the top 110 schools invited to participate in the competition after submitting a design proposal at the end of October. I did not know there are more than 110 schools with UnderGraduate Aerospace Engineering Programs! There are only when you count the 30 or so entered from abroad. The SDSU
Students’ so named “Quetzlcoatl” prototype aircraft took to the air on February 20th and we’ve been doing flight and mission testing most Sunday afternoons since. For more information, see here : AIAA Design/Build/Fly | AIAA . The SDSU Team is led by Jeremy Johnson (red sweatshirt, holding plane) and Systems Integrator Roberto Marquez (standing, 5th from the left).
University of California San Diego is having their own model design competition and up to (4) teams will be competing at our field on Friday, June 10th. Don’t know much about it except it involves approximately 3’ span models.
Finally, it’s about time to start running the gates! By that I mean fly super high powered “hot liners” on the Federation Aeronatique International (FAI) Class F-5B Motor Glider distance course. The aircraft have to climb outside the course and then glide between the planes of the course for 200 seconds. The 2 parallel planes of the course are located at our runway Gate 5 and parallel to the fence, 150 meters East of gate 5. A judge is positioned at both gates and for safety precautions, both the drone course and the runway must be closed to sport flying when F-5B distance practice is taking place.
FAI-F5B is an international event with a World Championship scheduled to take place this September in Bulgaria. The USA Team consists of our own Steve Neu, Jeff Keasaman and Lenny Keer. Closing the field to practice doesn’t mean closing the field to other members with “hotliners” wishing to try their hand at the course. We highly encourage that will be happy to provide coaching on this challenging international event. Watching a full on 7kW , 10 cell Avionic climbing at 150 mph is breathtaking enough, but really any 3S+ powered aileron equipped glider is capable of negotiating the course, so watch for an announcement soon and we’ll see you there!
