Flight of the Goldberg Valkyrie

An electric old timer built by Franny Brodigan.

First SAM 39 flying day at the Shelby Airport

Hi Guys,

What a wonderful day to fly. The winds were very calm and warm. Gil Morris had trouble with the DeeTee fuse on his FAI 1/2 A model which failed did not DeeTee and had a Two & A Half Hour Flight. It left the field heading Southeast and ended up in the top of a very tall tree Five Miles South of the field. Oh what fun
Tom Ryan had driving Gil around the country side searching for the model. When the model was located but not retrieved they returned to the field.

Gil was so happy to located the model he offered to buy lunch for anybody that wanted to go to Paul's Dinner. You know Ole Bucky hopped right on that offer.

Cliff Riedel and Jim Keppler came with gliders and small rubber jobs. Ted Williams came to watch the guys fly. Our R/C friends, Jim Winningham and Paul Stansberry, flew their R/C models. That rounded out the group.

Ole Bucky tried to fly his Tornado II. The 1/2 A Cox engine started with the first flip of the prop. The flight was sheer madness, full down elevator was required on the power climb out. By that time I was not able to control the model and Tom Ryan took over the controls for the glide which turned into a barrel of fun. Tom had full right rudder to stop the spinning to the left from getting worse. The model finally won out and crashed into the nice soft high grass. No damage.

Tom found a warp in the left wing, suggestion to add nose weight and also down thrust. I can't wait for the next flight. That engine starts on the first flip of the prop, what a joy.

Jim Keppler had a ball flying his Polish light model and also his little rubber job. I took a lot of photos of Jim and his models, he was the only one flying.

Cliff did a lot of glide testing with his new glider. No tow line flights due to the lack of wind.

Enjoy the photos,

Bucky

Flying at Shelby Airport May 20th, 2010

I arrived at the airport this morning in time to retrieve Gil's

1/2A AMA ship, a model he designed called the Pop-up powered

by a Russian Profi engine.

The model failed to DT and landed on the asphalt runway. Upon examination, we noted that the DT fuse burnt through the core but the outside (and the rubber band) was intact.

Gil Morris launching his Pop-up on its fly away flight

Dumb luck or bad fuse? Unfortunately, it was probably the latter because next time, the thermals decided to play for keeps. We watched it fly away in relatively calm conditions. I was the last to lose sight of it at 37 minutes. We then pursued by car. For nearly two more hours we tracked it 5 miles to the east, 3 miles south and then another 8-9 miles back west. It was apparent that the model was still airborne but was not in sight and it's anyone's guess how high it went. (I've hit large bugs in a jet >30,000 ft up and I know they didn't get up that high themselves.)

We must have been a strange sight; an octogenarian pointing a strange device at the sky followed closely from behind by someone who would pick him up every tenth of a mile or so. One old lady abandoned her gardening to come over and express her concern when we passed the entrance to her driveway. "I've been out all morning and haven't seen anything--- This is the first time I've seen anyone doing what you're doing." I explained that he had been flying models competitively around the world since the forties and she left with the assurance that we were harmless and wished us luck.

When we were about the give up, the target quit moving and pointing the antenna up in the sky didn't make the Walston beep. I parked along the side of the road and saw Gil emerge from the woods 200yds away. It was found but still lost. To wit, it was in a tree! At least fifty feet above the ground and that's where it stayed when we left Shelby hoping winds would come in the next day or two and we could return to pick it up.

May 22nd update from Gilbert Morris

Hi Tom and Bucky,

I went to Shelby late yesterday expecting the model to be down but it wasn't. It's hung up on the nose and on the tail end and neither will let go despite winds of 18 mph. I sat and just looked at it in the woods from 5:00 pm to 6:30 and then went in town for dinner and then checked again at 8:00 pm. It just sways with the branches in the wind. It's probably going to need a really strong gust. There's no strong winds in the forecast so I'm not going back up again until I get back from Lost Hills a week from Tuesday. Incidentally, the stab is DTed now.

At first, when I went in the woods, I couldn't find it in the branches nor anywhere else so went I back to the car and got the tracker and again spotted it in the same old place. It didn't rain up there but it's expected this evening. More fun!

Gil

June 7th Update

Hi Tom and Bucky,

Got it!!

Fuselage and stab were directly below where it had been but the wing was hidden in the undergrowth about 80 ft away. I had almost given up looking for it because of the mosquitoes. As I was about to pull away, the woods owner dropped by wanting to know why we had been going into his woods. He understood and was a bit surprised after I explained. He took it well but I didn't tell him the next step, had there been one, would have been the chain saw. Minimal damage. Transmitter good as new (batteries dead), engine okay but wing and stab waterlogged. I'm not sure it didn't come down before the big storm. All rubber bands were broken and even the fuel line rubber was badly deteriorated and I'll bet the wing rubber bands broke before the storm. The fuse had burned out in the core and never got to the RB. Anyways, all's well that ends well.

Gil

Latest Free Flight glider built by Cliff Riedel

1/2A Texaco Tatone Atomizer II

Hi Tom,

The color scheme is wild. Should be able to see it at great heights. Also very easy to spot in a corn field, bean field, or a very tall tree.
The model weighed in at 13.5 ounces. Should weigh 15.4 ounces.
My digital scale weighed the model at 13.5 ounces. The scale my mother weighed me when I was a baby some 78 plus years ago weighed the model at 14 ounces.
The C/G is at 62.5 %. The plan C/G called for 33%
I test glided the Atomizer and it had a very steep glide. If I set the C/G as called for on the plans of 33% the Atomizer would have dove straight into the ground. Might have even hit my big toe.
On to adding weight and more test gliding before the maiden flight.

~Bucky Walter

Lanzo Swayback part 2

From Spirit of Yesteryear models....

First flights of the Lanzo Swayback,

a Chet Lanzo design, built by Bucky Walter. Power is an

original HP VT.21 4-stroke.

1/2A Texaco Tatone Atomizer I

Hi Tom,

Construction photos of the Atomizer as you requested. It's built from a Spirit of Yesteryear kit. Included is a photo of the rudder with it's 2-56 screw tiller. The rudder will be glued to the stab and the 2- 56 screw can be installed after the removable stab is screw to the fuselage with 4-40 nylon screws. To allow the the stab to be removed, unscrew the 2-56 screw tiller.

Construction weight with battery, radio, servos, and engine with an APC 8x6E prop is 12 ounces.

The wing area is 278 square inches. Do your math and you will come up with a flying weight for 1/2 A Texaco is 15.4 ounces.

After covering I hope it will weigh 16 ounces.

Last Flight of the Cleveland Cloudster?

2010 Flight Test Program

(2nd flight)

Sue and I went to Veteran's Park again this morning to test the 30% reduction in elevator control and get some in-flight pictures. We arrived around 7:30 a.m., clear, calm, and about 59 degrees. I assembled the Cloudster and took it to the edge of the park on the concrete walk way to check the RPM out in the open as shown below. At full throttle it tached 12,800 RPM. Yesterday I tried to check the RPM in model room and only got 6,500 RPM so it must have been the lights in the model room interfering with the tach.

We walked out to the center of the park's field to launch. I made one last check of the controls before I launched as shown below.

Sue caught the Cloudster a moment or so after launch as shown below.

For some reason I was having problems trimming the model as it was climbing out, but it did get quite high at the end of one minute. However, after I cut the motor I still couldn't seem to get it under control and it was getting higher and further away. I sensed that I was beginning to loose the Cloudster as its image had grown very small now due to range. So I added throttle to try to start coming back to the field. However, the power only aggravated the model's gyrations. Finally it just disappeared out of sight in the morning's clear blue sky somewhere over Arlington.

I have no explanation for went wrong this morning. I only know that the Cloudster is gone, unless someone happens to find it and calls me. Otherwise, this is last picture we will ever see of the Cloudster on its way up........................Tandy Walker



N.B.: This has happened to the best R/C Assist flyers. But, it can be prevented with some on board insurance.