Radio Control: Aerobatics
Ron Van Putte 111 Sleepy Oaks Rd. Ft. Walton Beach, FL 32548
Nationals site and Pattern competition
Based on the letters and telephone calls I've received and the articles I've read in K-Factor (NSRCA newsletter), there are a lot of unhappy Pattern fliers out there. The decision to hold the 1992 Nationals at Chicopee, MA has not made Pattern fliers happy. Part of the unrest is because it appears the main reason for going to Chicopee is to get all Nationals events together on one site as a big publicity event, regardless of the effect it would have on competition.
The local officials at Lawrenceville, Illinois had welcomed a return of the Nationals. That would have meant the RC Sailplane event would have to be held at the Vincennes, Indiana high school again rather than at Lawrenceville's Mid-American Air Center. Sailplane competitors liked that arrangement, based on feedback I've heard. In addition, Free Flight competition could not be held at the same time as the other events at Lawrenceville because of space problems.
All major events will be held on Westover AFB near Chicopee. However, due to frequency and space allocations, RC Pattern will be reduced from the five full days available at the 1991 Nationals to six half-days, with half the fliers competing the first three days and the remaining fliers competing the last three days. That equals a reduction in competition time of about 40%.
On top of that, it is very possible that Free Flight airplanes will be dethermalizing into the Pattern airspace during competition as they did during the last Lake Charles, Louisiana Nationals.
Apparently the Nationals Management Committee was informed by the AMA Executive Council that Chicopee would be the Nationals site—period. So the committee is trying to do the best job it can with what the Executive Council mandated.
It's going to be tough to satisfy Pattern fliers who had ample time to get in all six rounds of competition at the 1991 Nationals in Lawrenceville. During the six half-days of competition at the 1990 Nationals, not everyone got all their planned rounds in.
Practice fields
Another problem with the Chicopee Nationals site is the lack of practice fields. Pattern fliers are very good at sniffing out practice sites, and I haven't heard that anyone knows of a practice site within reasonable driving distance of Chicopee. I was at the Chicopee Nationals in 1985 and I couldn't find any.
RC involvement and finances
All the controversy in recent years relative to the Nationals is particularly frustrating to RC fliers since their entry fees make up a large fraction of the Nationals budget. There has been a lot of discussion about the apparent lack of adequate consideration of the needs of RC competitors by AMA officials.
In the extreme, it has been suggested by more than a few people that the RC special interest groups should sponsor their own national championships and give up the struggle to try to make the Nationals something resembling a real contest; allow it to become just a showcase model aviation national media event. I don't pretend to know what's going to happen, but AMA officials need to know RC natives are restless. I would hate to have the Nationals turn into what is essentially a media event because top RC competitors would stay away in droves, making AMA National Champion a meaningless title. Besides, that would mean income loss and would send the Nationals budget deep in the red, and I don't think AMA could afford to run the Nationals as a money-losing media event for long.
Engines and airplanes
What airplanes are we going to see at the flight line at next year's contests? Based on what I've heard lately, reports of the competitive demise of two-cycle-engine airplanes have been a bit premature. A lot of innovative modelers are experimenting with new two-cycle airplanes and modifying current four-cycle airplane designs to use two-cycle engines. Why are they doing this when everyone knows that the four-cycle engine is the acknowledged powerplant of the future?
Until the F3A World Championships were held, it was a foregone conclusion that the two-cycle engine was passé. Then Chip Hyde changed things up by winning the World Championships with a two-cycle engine. No longer can the judges think, "He must not be a serious Pattern flier because his airplane only has a two-cycle engine."
Thanks to Chip, the rest of us who use two-cycle engines are legitimate Pattern fliers again.
Turnaround schedules and calling maneuvers
I have received several letters recently about the new turnaround patterns. Among the questions was one I hadn't thought about.
Question: "How do you call all the maneuvers when you're flying Turnaround?"
The simple answer is that you don't. The requirement to call the maneuvers went out when the new turnaround schedules came in, unless it somehow wasn't deleted from the rule book. I haven't seen the new rule book either, but the intent was to delete the requirement to call the maneuvers.
Having said that, I think it's a good idea to have your caller announce the maneuvers—not only for your benefit, but especially for that of the judges. The judges will be hard pressed to remember the maneuver sequences for all the new schedules, and you will probably score better if the judges are told what's next, rather than having to guess based on what your airplane appears to be doing. It presents a more professional image to the judges if you have your maneuvers announced, and sometimes that's the difference between placing and being an also-ran.
Field charging and the Pro Charger
Do you charge your batteries at the field? If you're like me, you begin to feel nervous after four flights and like the secure feeling that freshly charged batteries can bring.
There are several field chargers available. They all have their advantages and disadvantages. Now there's a new one on the market.
Radio South is now selling the Pro Charger. The charger hooks to a 12-volt source and will charge two battery packs. The amazing thing to me is that the Pro Charger doesn't care whether it's hooked to an eight-cell transmitter pack or to a four-cell receiver pack.
According to the instructions, the charger will sense when the respective battery packs achieve the proper voltage and drop to a trickle rate. So, you can charge two transmitter packs, two receiver packs, or one transmitter pack and one receiver pack. The charger will generally bring a typically discharged battery pack in your transmitter or in a plane to a fully charged state in a bit more than half an hour.
The Pro Charger even has a polarity sensor and warning light which will tell you if you've hooked up to the 12-volt source improperly. When you hook up the battery pack to be charged, an LED indicating "Charge" comes on, and when the pack's peak voltage is achieved, the "Charge" light goes out and another LED indicating "Done" comes on. As soon as the "Done" light comes on, you can take the pack off charge and go fly.
If you want, you can leave your battery pack on charge. When the "Done" light is on, the charge rate is very low and will not damage the battery if you leave it on the charger.
Even though I've only mentioned the charging of transmitter and receiver battery packs, the Pro Charger will charge more than just those packs, but the peak voltage detection works only for four- and eight-cell combinations. You have to decide how long to charge other battery combinations based on the capacity of the cells and how much charge you think is necessary at the charge rate of approximately 500 milliamperes. The instructions accompanying each unit tell you how to do it.
I bought a Pro Charger when they first became available and can report that it's a great product, and I recommend it to anyone who feels the need for a field charger. You should never have to buy a field charger again, because for $5 Radio South will either repair your charger or give you a new one.
- For information about the Pro Charger, call the Pattern Hotline: 1-800-962-7802.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
