Terminal Velocity

What an Awesome days sloping at Chappies on Sunday
Started out a bit naffy and from the Northerly, but then cooled down
and started to pump from the North West. Just what the doctor ordered.
Most of the crew were up early in the day due to cabin fever after a no wind show on Saturday.
Awesome conditions saw the Lightning fly on 2 occasions sans mishap in this difficult to land zone.
Malcolm Riley got to test out the wing principle of strength vs elevator,
when doing a 200km/h run down the front of the slope with his Aldij.
At the very bottom of the run, deep in the valley, he applied a tickle of elevator and BOOOM…
the Aldij wing just explodes into a million little pieces.
The view was just awe-inspiring as the wing gave way and parts flew in every direction.
After a spirited fetch in the fynbos by at least 5 slopers(Thanks guys) to find all the pieces
it was determined that the wing had given on a previous fix area, so not entirely the wing construction fault.

It does however bring in sharp focus safety on the slope or field, and the need at all times to assume that
danger is not so far away … and things can go dramatically wrong with any form of RC glider/plane and due diligence, consideration of surroundings and other pilots is paramount in the hobby of RC.
It is important to notice that the Aldij’s we fly, really do an amazing amount of time in the air,
and are our work horses/journeymen that tend to take a bit of a beating on our rough slopes.
Great planes these, that I could heartily recommend to all and sundry looking for a good overall performance ship.
Just wish we could afford them while dicing the Rand with the Euro!

Our condolences Malcolm and here’s to a new wing sometime soon.

Till next weekend

Malcolm explains the finer details of exploding wings – ouch

OUCH ONE

OUCH TOO…RIP

Signal Hill visit on Sunday

TOSS had a bit of a visit to Signal Hill on Sunday.
Saturday was just a plain washout, so we looked at the weather and saw a Westerly and called it a Signals day.
Boy, what a good day it was. To get some serious wind under your wings for the whole day, was just great.
A lot of guys up there on the hill and the TOSS crew made up of Steve, Grant, Damien, Marc, Brendan, Carlo and myself
…. just added a few numbers to somewhat crowded day.
Steve maidened his ex-water plane as a new found slopie and it just goes like a bomb. Sleek and fast and more than held its own.
Everybody had a lot of planes on hand and we got to maiden several planes on the day in perfect 40km/h winds from the west/north west.
We got to fly the scale 5 Kg P38 Lightning on three successive flights… so the lift was not half bad.
Combat was just brilliant and between “two-minute Carlo” and myself there was a lot of walking and fetching on the day
after yet again, taking a ground shaking hit. Grant, I owe you a few smacks me thinks!
Brilliant fun and packed with laughter for  the whole 2 sessions, of 30 minutes apiece.
Nice to meet and have a chat with the AFC guys that we do not see that often.

Steve's ex-water plane does the slope thing

Cooking west slope against a darkening sky

Bobby Purnell (centre) hold court "now listen here young tosser! if you don't behave…"

P38 lightning doing the rounds in excellent lift

TOSS weatherline now active

Hi Guys

We have re-activated the TOSS weatherline.

Please call Kevin to update the message should you by some miracle beat him to the slope

the new number is:

071 210 8400

and will be updated on the weekends based on the first man on the slope/s

and  called as the gathering point for the day, based on existing conditions.

Please call me to update if I cannot make it.

Cheers

Kev

HRF Electric fly in day

Great day had out at HRF on Sunday 10th May. Well attended for a Mothers Day fly-in.
Organised by Marc Wolfe… On Mothers Day…
Great to see what electric power can handle now day’s and the conversion of some great models to this power source.
Some truly nice planes there and a great field to be flying at, with the impressive
runway, pit facilities, bar, braai area and in general, a beautifully kept venue.

WELL DONE Helderberg Radio Flyers
Well done  to the TOSS guys who took the time to run out their and keep the flag flying.
Best crash goes to Gus and the Hawk…
Best repair goes to Gus and getting the Hawk back up in the air
and then getting involved in triple-dekker low level inverted passes over the runway sandwiched between my Cessna and Steves EPP Sukhoi,
Very brave and quite spectacular at times..

Gus reconstructing the Hawk after a wee incident…LANDING!

Steve and his new glider called Electra Streak

General pit lane on the day

A beautiful Sopwith Camel, just stunning

Great warbird fly-by

Marc Wolfes barnstormer doing great in his capable hands, looked awesome

AMT Composites Building clinic

Hi Guys
Check out attached DOC. – amt-composites
AMT are holding a composites clinic showing a whole range of composite applications for wings, fuselage etc.

As below from their flyer …. so don’t ask me, read to the bottom…

and book early if you want to attend…. Saturday 13th June 2009, a months notice.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………….

It gives us great pleasure to offer you a course on Wing Bagging and General Composite work

Venue        :     AMT Composites, Cape Town
Date        :    Saturday, 13 June 2009
Time        :    08:30 – 17:00
Presenter    :    Evan Shaw
Cost        :    R450,00 for the day (Includes Lunch & Refreshments)
Venue        :    AMT Composites
Unit 3
M5 3Way Park
Cnr Upper Camp / Berkley Road
Maitland

The course will include the following and more:

Introduction to basics
Safety
Reinforcement types
Bagging a foam core wing
DEMO: Cutting foam blanks – Preparing Mylar’s – Inserting – Carbon Spar Caps and Shear webs – Cutting and laying up the glass fabric – Bagging the wing.
Mold construction
DEMO: Fuselage mould making – Preparing the plug – How to make the splitter board – Applying gel coats – Reinforcing the mold with a balanced laminate – Laying up a fuselage in a mold – Wet joining the two halves in the mold. – and lots more.
Sandwich construction (model glider stabilizer)
DEMO: Wet laminate using airex as the core, including vacuum bagging

Contact John at Benchmark Models to book
Tel.Fax    : 021-872 5445
E.Mail    : John@benchmarkmodels.co.za
………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Telos Rising

I had the chance to bring in a new plane recently.
It is called the Telos and is a Canard slope glider.
Weird as it may sound the elevator is at the front of the plane,
not the back…. so to all intense and purposes this is flying backwards.
This is produced in Oregon USA by Richard Jarell, a very active builder designer of RC gliders…
check out the link that sparked it all…

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=955809

He was running a limited edition release of these planes from the original moulds
so I hopped in line for one. Something very different and what were not used to seeing.
Been trying to maiden the thing, but the weather has just been pitiful the whole long weekend
so had to wait for the right conditions. It did however have a bit of a maiden flight on Friday evening
in some light lift on Chappies and behaved very well and is surprisingly fast.
Still need to have a decent flight though to get some of the characteristics sorted out.
In the meantime, enjoy the sleek and very 80′s design… notably the very first plane to fly was indeed a canard….

Telos completed build

Groovy lines make a very pretty bird

Backwards in time