RADIO CONTROL AEROBATICS
Ron Van Putte, 111 Sleepy Oaks Road, Ft. Walton Beach, FL 32548
If you fly RC Precision Aerobatics (Pattern), sooner or later someone will ask, "How can you stand practicing that stuff all the time? Don't you get bored?" I have never heard a Pattern flier say "yes" to that question, and I've never met a questioner who understood (or believed me) when I said "no." Non-Precision Aerobatics fliers don't know what motivates or interests us.
I've tried to convince sport fliers that participation in Precision Aerobatics flying makes fliers better. The ones I persuaded to try it have agreed that it did make them better fliers. Not all tried competitive Precision Aerobatics flying; for many, competition has no lure. Nevertheless, performing Precision Aerobatics caused fliers to pay more attention to little things in their sport flying, which made them better fliers, so they enjoyed sport flying more.
Club clinics have been the most successful way to spread the word on Precision Aerobatics flying. A high percentage of fliers (more than one-third) who attend a Precision Aerobatics clinic will hang in for a long time. A clinic needs to tell fliers what to look for, so fliers can look for these things on their own.
The fundamental pieces of maneuvers should be emphasized. All maneuvers can be represented by complete or partial lines, loops, rolls, and spins. The Novice maneuver schedule can be used to show sport fliers how to break maneuvers down into components, work on improving the components, and put them back together as good-looking maneuvers.
Simple things like performing Straight Flight Out (nothing but a long line) can be interesting to a sport flier, if he or she understands what is supposed to be done and there are others of similar ability around with whom to try it. I never tire of seeing the look on a flier's face when he or she gets the hang of it and starts enjoying Precision Aerobatics flying.
ProMags wheels
I got a telephone call from Vern Koester, the National Society of Radio Controlled Aerobatics (NSRCA) vice president of District IV (Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia). Vern also heads Precision Model Products, 14423 Hix Street, Livonia, MI 48154; Tel.: (313) 464-8594.
Vern told me about some new wheels he is marketing called ProMags. We talked about wheel problems, and he claimed that the ProMags solved most of them and offered to send me a pair to evaluate.
Wheels are wheels, right? Not by a long shot. Do you want heavy wheels or wheels that must be replaced every dozen flights? Probably not. Do you want tires that must be glued to the hub and are tough to replace? Probably not.
The pair of ProMags arrived, and they are very nice. Vern described them this way:
"ProMags were designed with the intention of producing the finest mag wheel on the market—bar none. We started with the wheel first and made tire retention our top priority. Our solution was the Riblock tire retention system which has three main components:
- A rib machined into the hub between the two outer flanges of the wheel that locks into a groove cut into the center of the tire.
- A relatively low-profile sidewall design that reduces the flexing action of the tire under side loads.
- Rubber that is stretched a significant amount over the generously-sized flanges and hub.
"The wheel is CNC-machined from 6061 T-6 solid barstock and features a true, five-spoke classic mag wheel design instead of a series of holes drilled around the center. The high-stress areas are radiused for additional strength, and the center hub is recessed to keep the wheel collar inside the rim. The center hub is sized to fit Lite Flight's aluminum C-clip axles.
"Selecting the foam rubber was quite a job and involved a significant amount of time and research. Our priorities in rubber selection were lightweight, flat-spot resistance, and durability, particularly on asphalt and concrete. What finally boiled down to was a compromise kind of like a perfect Pattern model—bottom line: the tires are going to provide excellent ground-handling characteristics, better wear factors, and significantly better flat-spot resistance with a slight weight penalty. A pair of 2.25-inch ProMags weighs 1/2 ounce more than Dave Brown's of the same size; that's not too bad considering the appearance and performance benefits. The original prototypes were field-tested during the 1993 flying season on a 9.5-pound, 120-size taildragger and two 8-pound, 60-size trike-geared Pattern models. Incidentally, wheels look very nice and can actually make a model look better."
I have condensed Vern's letter; the complete text describes how to make the wheels look like chrome using Semichrome aluminum polish from a motorcycle shop. Like quality products, you can't expect ProMag wheels to be inexpensive. A pair retails for $29.95; single wheels $15.99. Replacement rubber tires are $4.99.
I haven't done any extensive testing with the ProMags yet. A real test will be how they stand up to the granite-aggregate asphalt we have for our club runway: it eats up puny tires. When I have a chance to brutalize the ProMags on our runway, I'll make a report.
Club newsletters — "Seen at the field"
I rely on clubs to send me their newsletters, and I periodically share items that are of general interest. Such an item was published in the newsletter of the Crestview Model Aviators of Crestview, Florida. Editor Jim Giffard routinely denigrates his editing abilities, but it turns out to be a fine newsletter:
- The Technical Expert: arrives at the field early; spends 45 minutes assembling the model, then rebuilds the engine; owns four tachometers and two expensive scale voltmeters.
- The RC Expert: makes repairs with plastic electrical tape; re-epoxies the fuel-soaked firewall each week; an outspoken authority on any RC problem; owns RC gear that has had at least three previous owners; does most of the talking at all RC gatherings; nothing less than a powerful .60 will hush his crate into the air when he's flying; old-timers head for their cars.
- The Experienced Novice: designs and builds beautiful models; knows every airfoil used since 1926; still hasn't learned to fly since that attempt 17 years ago.
- The Family Man: always brings two (or more) children to the field; often brings the dog or toys for the children to run uncontrollably after; is often outflown by number-one son using his model and radio.
Thanks, Jim. Anybody see anyone they recognize in the list? N-PAC is coming soon! I hope to see a bunch of you there.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
