From: Alan Hieger

Date: Mon, Mar 21, 2016 at 12:02 AM

Subject: VCB Weekly Nag 3-21-16

Today is Monday, and I’m winging (rolling) toward home even as you read.

There’s more to cover than I would have thought, so without further ado:

Official VCB Club Business

May Meet

The peanut gallery has spoken, and the dimensions of our May get-together, albeit still fuzzy, are starting to come into focus.  The date has been set as May 21.  Activity will feature fun flying and a “trade your junk for someone else’s” swap meet/rummage sale.  According to Ray, there will also be some form of competitive activity, but as there is no intent to report the results to AMA, this will not be a “contest” in the literal sense.  Exactly what form this non-competition will take is as yet incompletely defined.  Stay tuned.

Bylaws

I have not received any feedback concerning my quest to discover the true nature of our bylaws.  I thought I’d make one last try at polling the membership before I begin to pursue research by “alternate means.”  Does anybody know where I might obtain a copy?  Bill?  Lee?  Wynn Paul?

Basin Field Activity

There has been no news from the home front.  I cannot report what I do not know.  I’m tempted to fake it, but am concerned about developing trust issues.

VCB at the VSC

The VCB was reasonably well represented at the 28’th annual Vintage Stunt Championships.  Members participating were: Ray Firkins, Chris Forbes, Larry Renger (sharing his glory with the Knights of the Round Circle), John Wright (ditto), and your faithful scribe (Al Hieger, in case I’ve failed to mention it and you missed the meeting).  Let’s review the events in order of increasing nominal prestige.

Ringmaster S-1

Scored on the basis of best flight of two, the event attracted 20 pilots, all of whom logged official flights.  To my knowledge, this is the only time in 28 years that all the flyers who registered for any event put up at least one official (Wynn Paul, am I wrong?).  Trophies were awarded through third place, leaving top VCB scorer Ray Firkins just outside the money in fourth place with a flight score of 299.5.  John Wright followed in eighth with 296, Larry Renger in fourteenth with 272.5, and I brought up the rear in sixteenth with 248.  See Stunt News or the PAMPA website for complete event results.

OTS Ignition

None of us had the cojones to contend with the sparkers.  Too bad.

Super ‘70s

Limited to designs published or flown competitively in said decade, this best-two-of-three event attracted 8 flyers, 6 of whom actually posted scores.  With trophies to third place, John Wright (VCB’s lone entrant, flying a gold Monokoted Top Flite Tutor from the Paleolithic) was out of the money in fifth place.  His two-flight total of 1082.5 (that’s a 541.25 average score, for the arithmetically challenged) should give you a rough idea of the quality of the field this contest attracts.  John, I know you have no patience for pretty, but it’s only the lack of appearance points which kept you from all that wealth and glory.

OTS

Scored on the basis of a two-flight total (no throwaway round), this event attracted 37 entrants, 30 of whom flew, making this the most highly contested event of the gathering for the first time ever.  This fact may have initially escaped the Cholla Choppers notice because Super 70’s and Classic are conducted simultaneously with score postings intermingled, giving the illusion of a higher entry.  VCB had four entrants in this event, making it the one most strongly contested by the club.  Sadly, the results did not reflect our efforts, with all of us placing in the bottom half of the field.  Ray Firkins was tops in thirteenth place with a two-flight total of 594 (297 avg.).  John Wright followed in nineteenth with a total of 556 (278 avg.), and me in twenty-fourth with a 464 (232 avg.).  Larry Renger had a string of misfortune which interfered with him flying to his potential.  His engine run went south early in the flight, cutting out completely well short of halfway through the pattern and leaving him with a first round score of just 88.  On his second flight, a prop strike on takeoff (caused by a bad neutral setting?) unbalanced the prop and ruined the motor run, leading to “controlled flight into terrain” prior to the inside loops.  Although no official score was posted for the flight, John should have been awarded at least 3 points for takeoff and level flight, 1 more for the “landing,” and 25 pattern points (because the 1952 rules are weird) for an absolute minimum of 29 for the round.  Finishing last among those flying (and still beating 8 other pilots), Larry deserved much better than he got.

Classic

The premiere competitive event at the Vintage Stunt Championships attracted 37 entrants this year (the same as OTS), of whom 29 flew (one fewer than OTS).  Three VCBers competed in this event: Ray Firkins, Chris Forbes, and Larry Renger.  With a best-two-of-three format and trophies to fifth, Ray Firkins (flying his familiar Heinz 57) took home the fifth-place trophy (the zinc?) with a two-flight total of 1147.5 (573.75 avg.).  Chris Forbes, at the controls of “Spidey” (See last week’s centerfold.), placed thirteenth with a 1,057 (528 avg.).  Larry Renger, the curse of Jim Walker dogging his bootheels at every step, soldiered through a litany of equipment-related issues through two rounds before bowing to cruel reality in the third, scoring a total of 793.5 (avg. 396.75) for twenty-ninth place.  I will have more to say on this point below.

The Great Desert Shootout

This was not at all an official event, yet it provided some of the week’s best drama.  Bart Klapinski and Gordon Delany, two legends of American Precision Aerobatics and former Nats champs, were provoked by our own Ray Firkins to undertake a one-flight, winner-take-all competition for total bragging rights for all time (no pressure at all).  What made the shootout even more special was that each pilot flew an airplane of his own design, the catch being that the airplane was actually built by somebody else.  Bart flew a Tempest provided by Clint Ormosen, and Gordy flew Ray’s Heinz 57.  Yours truly was one of three judges elected/selected/conscripted to perform evaluative services.  Attempts to affect bribery were numerous and creative, and will not be detailed here.  Bart started out with a real barn burner, but his focus seemed to gradually erode as the flight progressed.  Gordon, conversely, had some serious issues early on, coming within a foot of dorking Ray’s ship (I think it was the outside loops), but then bore down hard and finished brilliantly.  I had a hunch Bart might have had the edge, but couldn’t be sure until the banquet reveal.  In the end, Bart topped Gordy by 2.5 points.  Interestingly, rumor has it that the range from highest to lowest judge’s scores was only 2 points.  I now have street cred!  Congratulations to Bart, now and forever, as agreed.

Non-Flying Awards

Appearance judging at VSC is always a prime Wednesday night attraction.  It is done Nats style (as I wish we would at local contests) with the planes lined up in a matrix of “isopretty” (ie, of equivalent gleamishness) rows.  Gordon Delaney of Utah had a semiscale Bellanca in the front row all by itself for 20 points.  Chris Forbes’s Spiderman Gieske Nobler was in the second row with 19 points, and Ray Firkins’s Heinz 57 just behind it with 18.  Larry Renger’s Ringmaster, which had already endured more abuse than was warranted, was located somewhat farther to the rear, relegated to the “Ringmaster ghetto.”  John Wright’s Tutor was not present for appearance judging. . .just as well (smiles?).

A new prize awarded for the first time this year was the Pilots’ Choice Award for Ringmaster.  Yup, Ringmaster “Concours!”  The win went to our own Ray Firkins’s black and red beauty, which earned 18 of 20 first-place ballots!

A special, one-time only “Perseverance” award was created by Steve Holt, the Ringmaster Event Director, and was awarded to me in recognition of all the [poo] I endured to get my four official flights in (See The Nosferatu Saga below).  It honestly didn’t seem all that bad (or for that matter, unusual) while experiencing it, but hearing the litany of travails laid out at the banquet made me realize what a crappy, miserable week I’d had (I know you can’t hear sarcasm through an e-mail, but the keyboard is drippy wet.).  Seriously speaking, though, I want to make it clear for the record that Larry Renger endured far more crap this week than anything I had to deal with, and still managed to compete in more events.  I merely had the “advantage” in pulling all my significant screwups in front of one guy who felt sorry enough to reward hard luck. Larry certainly deserves this award more than I do.  I do intend, however, to keep the mug and hat.

Unofficial Fun Stuff

This Week’s Centerfold(s)

 

The photos of these two airplanes come to us via the courtesy of Thayer Syme, once and prospective future Editor of Flying Models, the last of the great general interest aeromodeling magazines. 

These two airplanes were part of the static exhibit at this year’s WRAM show in the New Jersey Meadowlands in February.  The red and yellow profile ship, the Mini J—(The rest of the name is cut off in the photo), sports a built-up wing with internal controls, although it’s impossible to tell from the photo whether the airfoil is symmetrical.  Power is from a Cox Baby Bee .049 with the cylinder rotated into sidewinder position.  The prop appears to be a Cox Competition brand gray 6-3 or 5-3.  Wheels seem to be ¾ inch based on comparison with the cylinder head, and my best guess is Williams Brothers.  The model was built by Jonathan Sabini.  The purple low-winger, built by Jonathan’s older brother Andrew, appears to be a Scientific Golden Eagle, a Walt Musciano design.  Like so many designs Walt did for Scientific, the Golden Eagle sported a mildly shaped sheet wing joined to a hollowed-out solid balsa block fuselage, with externally mounted controls.  Power appears to be a Cox Golden Bee .049 mounted normally, with the glow head drilled out and tapped to accept a standard (short reach?) glow plug.  Most of these Scientific 1/2As were built with the engine hanging out in the breeze, but Andrew has gone the extra nine yards and formed a simple-curvature aluminum cowling to enhance steamlining and looks.  Prop is clearly a decades-old Top Flite nylon, probably a 6-3 or 5-3.  Landing gear seems too generic to identify with any confidence.  Maybe someone in the club has had different experiences than mine, but I found the Musciano slab-wingers tended to build obscenely nose-heavy and didn’t lend themselves particularly well to aerobatics.

Protect your hearing

by T. Thorkildsen

At our many FF contests it is always amazing to me how many people do not wear ear protection to prevent damage to their ears.

When I go to a contest I put in ear plugs and if I am running anything louder than a nostalgia 1/2A I always wear Shooters Ear Muffs for additional protection.

People's hearing tends to degrade as they age naturally but there is sure no sense in speeding up the process.  As an engineer,  I wrote one of the standards on acoustics for a printer company I worked for and got to learn how loud a noise will damage your hearing and believe me if you don't protect it from our high reving engines it will definitely affect your hearing.  Extreme loud noise all at once or noise above a certain level for enough time will definitely damage your hearing. 

Ask anyone wearing a hearing aid if they would do anything different in their life with regards to their hearing and the answer will be the same to protect your hearing from noise damage.

Some people think they can tune their engines better without protection but to me it is just the opposite since the ear muffs take the edge off of the noise.

Anyway be wise and protect something you can't get back once you lose it.

The Nosferatu Saga

The Final (?) Chapter

If you’ve stuck with the story to this point (I had to), you know that Sunday ended with Nosferatu’s covering mostly pieced together, with an outermost bay covered with slack, wrinkled silkspan (and thank you, Bob Brookins for making it available) which defied all attempts at water shrinking.  As planned, I obtained the necessary repair materials and tools for the covering and landing gear at Hobby Barn.  Please allow me a plug.  Located at Kolb Avenue and 21’st Street (behind the bowling alley), Hobby Barn is without a doubt the premier hobby shop in the greater Tucson area.  Guys, this is a real hobby shop, and the people there all know their stuff.  Yeah, they have to bow to contemporary realities like everybody else, but Hobby Barn is as old school as it gets nowadays.  Without plowing through the details, by bedtime the repairs had six coats of 50/50 on them, removing the slack from the outer bay without botoxing the wrinkles.  The right side gear clips were replaced, but the holes for the lower clip were hogged out and the screws wouldn’t bite, leaving me with just the upper clip on that side until I could fill and retap the holes.  Oh well.

Tuesday dawned cool and breezy.  I was listed as number 2 to fly in OTS, so I hoofed it over to Circle #2 (asphalt) without benefit of a trim flight.  Takeoff was an adventure.  The outboard gear, having more flex than the inboard side, vibrated back and forth, throwing the airplane about.  The pattern was mostly my usual uninspired stuff, but I lost airspeed at the top of the first vertical eight, and remembering Sunday’s adventure chose to bail on the maneuver.  On landing, the serial bunny hop terminated in a full ground loop.  Score: 202.5 (barely mediocre).

Moving over to the grass circle for the Ringmaster event, I managed a full pattern.  The landing ended up being my best of the contest: only four bounces, none higher than about a wheel diameter.  Score: 248 (fully mediocre) And the morning and the evening was the first day.

On Day Two, I was scheduled to fly first on the grass.  I think I may have flooded the Enya during the prestart routine, but it hadn’t started 90 seconds into my working time, so I called an attempt and pulled it off the circle.  Jim Hoffman (the CD for the whole dang VSC) came over to lend a hand, and in short order he had the Enya Running. . .and had put his finger through the top of the inboard wing.  After he walked away in obvious chagrin, I got to work with the Testor’s green tube and the Saran Wrap.  When Jim returned roughly fifteen minutes later to apologize yet again, he did a double-take when he couldn’t locate “his” hole.  To make him feel better, I turned the plane over and showed him the Picasso-style piece-together on the bottom.  Then I asked him to launch my next flight, which had come due.  He couldn’t believe I’d trust him with the plane a second time.  My quote:”Jim, there’s nobody at the field who’ll be more careful with it than you.”  And so it was.  It seemed to me that Nosferatu was moving somewhat more quickly than usual, but the line tension was good, so what the heck.  Later, ED Steve Holt told me that I’d been timed at 3.6 second laps.  My target had been 4.9-5.1.  Anyway, this time I chickened out on the third vertical eight, and yet somehow still managed to score 235.5 (still pretty mediocre).

My first round score in OTS meant I had no real prospects for glory, but I wanted to see if I could put together one flight that reflected my actual (ahem) talent.  Perhaps it was due to advanced drain bamage, but I forgot to tweak the needle valve.  Surprisingly, the flight was significantly slower, allowing me time to adjust track in mid-maneuver.  Over on the grass, I had  finished the pattern with 4:06 showing on my watch.  On this flight, the time was 5:12 with no needle change.  I have much to learn.  The landing kaboings were in defiance of classical physics, and managed to feather-splinter both prop blades.  Score: 261.5 (borderline respectable).

So, that’s the story of my first competition at VSC in 22 years of attendance.  I want to thank everyone who has bothered to read this pile of self-indulgence, and I hope you found it entertaining.  Now I’m going to put this monstrosity away until at least after Golden State and go back to flying “real” (modern pattern targeted) stunters.  With any real luck, you won’t have to hear about the Ringmaster of the Undead again.

Bonus Pic

The following picture was supplied by our own Chris Forbes.  It shows his Dad and him on a Sunday after church in 1957 gassing up a Firebaby 1/2A, across the street from their home in Glendale in an industrial lot.  Chris writes,”My Dad was a great inspiration.  We had some fun times.”

 

Wanna Go Flying?

I’m thinking of hitting the Basin on Wednesday, or (second choice) Thursday.  Anybody want to join me?  Reply in this space.

Sneak Preview

In next week’s Nag, my intent is to provide a how-to on the Magic Saran Wrap method of repairing silkspan damage.

TTFN

See you at the field, or meet you here next Monday.