RADIO CONTROL ELECTRICS
Author
Bob Kopski 25 West End Drive, Lansdale PA 19446
This month's topics include two meet announcements, how to get your meet info in this column, some history and thoughts on Electric and Electric meets, and continuing discussion about Electric beginner confusion.
Upcoming Events
- DEAF (Dallas Electric Aircraft Flyers) Fun Electric Event — June 27–28
Location: Irving, Texas RC Club field (site of the 1997 Scale Masters meet). There are at least nine "fun" events scheduled; no formal AMA events. $5 covers both days. Contact: Jim Bourke, 501 Goodwin, Richardson TX 75081; Tel.: (972) 680-0220; E-mail: jourke@ezonemag.com.
- 1998 Mid-America Electric Flies — July 11–12
Location: Midwest R/C Soaring Society field, Northville Township, Michigan. This is two meets (one each day). Hosted by the Ann Arbor Falcons (CD Keith Shaw) one day, and Electric Flyers Only (CD Ken Myers) the other. Low-key fun-fly format. Contact: Ken Myers, 1911 Bradshaw Ct., Walled Lake MI 48390; Tel.: (248) 220-2297.
How to get your meet info in this column
I routinely announce E-meets in this column and am always eager to do so, but I have to have the information early for it to be useful.
- Example: I received the DEAF announcement about two weeks after I submitted the June-issue column. The best I could do was include it in the July issue, which won't be in readers' hands until late May—marginal for a June meet.
- Timing: I normally write a column in the last days of one month/beginning days of the next. For example, on March 3 I was writing the July issue, which is due at Model Aviation by March 10 and available to readers in late May.
Guideline: It's best to have meet announcements to me before the end of the calendar month that is five months before the meet month. (January is month one; June is month six.)
About E-meet formats
Have you noticed that almost all E-meets are low-key fun-events? I may have helped promote this format early on, but you are to blame for keeping it going! (It's always important to be able to fix the blame.)
I started flying Electric in the early 1970s as a member of Keystone Radio Club (KRC), then a largely glow-power club. After a couple of years I was flying E-power routinely, and a few other KRC members developed an interest as well.
In June 1980 two KRC members suggested hosting an Electric meet. I was "automatically" elected to run it. The club approved a $25 budget for a one-day invitational—I had no idea if anyone would come. I sent out a meet mailer for a low-key fun-fly (avoiding anything that sounded like "contest") and attracted three guest fliers—who had to be coaxed to get their airplanes out of their cars! The activity was considered a success and the club approved another E-meet the following year, doubling the budget.
Some milestones:
- 1980: First KRC Electric Fly — about 3 guest fliers.
- 1981: About 7 guest fliers.
- 1982: About 11 guest fliers; moved to a two-day affair and numbers roughly doubled thereafter.
- The meet continued to grow, eventually attracting hundreds of participants, representation from as many as 33 states and several foreign countries, and a current budget of several thousand dollars.
I believe the meet would never have taken off if originally structured as a contest. It was the first club-sponsored Electric meet in the country and had no "meet model" to follow—every aspect had to be invented. It is fair to view KRC's format as the model for nearly all E-meets since. The overwhelming majority of Electric gatherings have been and continue to be low-key fun-flys. As far as I'm aware, the only true "contest" E-meet is the E-Nats, although some club E-meets mix AMA events with the open-fun-fly theme.
Events and AULD
Knowing some folks like prizes, we included informal "events" in KRC's early years: Longest Flight (since everyone knew Electric simply could not fly long), Largest, Smallest, Best Scale, and so on — all low-key.
Roland Boucher of Leisure Electronics sponsored an All-Up Last-Down (AULD) Electric competition on the West Coast in the early days. That was a serious competition—the $1,000 prize made it so! I liked the idea and incorporated an AULD in the KRC format (but not for a kilobuck prize). It has been popular ever since.
Because AULD is a mass launch, participation is limited to about 25 persons for logistics reasons. With interest exceeding that number in recent years, KRC has required preregistration. Many dedicated E-modelers pursue the AULD with a vengeance, devising schemes and specialized airplanes—pushing the AULD art. I feel the AULD has become a science within Electric. Is it still low-key? I think so: KRC remains a "non-contest."
Aeromodelling—and Electric—is for fun.
Fun attracts participation, but "fun" is personal. Some like indoor microflight; some like serious, tooth-and-nail Free Flight Gas contests (as I once did); others are into FAI Pylon. Then there are the AULD guys. That's what is amazing about aeromodelling—vast diversity with something for everybody, and no expectation that anyone will like everything.
As for Electric, it's a hard-to-pigeonhole aeromodelling "high" for those so inclined. It continues to be low-key, because that seems to be the way you want it.
Electric beginner confusion
Last month's column discussed how difficult Electric may seem to new E-modelers. Perhaps the most common confusion is knowing what motor and battery to use in a given airplane.
This classic quandary goes away quickly with just a little successful E-experience; nowadays there's no reason anyone can't be successful with Electric. If you're new, you might be temporarily overwhelmed by all the new stuff and terminology. But each year hundreds of modelers of all ages become successful E-modelers.
You can approach the problem two ways:
- Get down to basic physics and calculate the whole system; or
- Look at successful, similar E-models and use their power-system makeup as a guideline.
This is why I urge you to collect E-model columns and feature articles from magazines—they contain many examples you can use as guideline information or inspiration.
Future columns will offer more specific information and insight into motors and batteries. I hope that such information, combined with your own attempts at E-flight, will lead you to eventually roll your own E-designs. Many present-day E-experts began this way, and I see more and more of them every year at KRC!
Please enclose a SASE with any correspondence for which you'd like a reply. And do continue to safely enjoy the fast, high, far-flying fun Electric affords!
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
