National Free Flight Society

SEN 1962

Table of Contents – SEN 1962

  1. Ice Contests
  2. Joy
  3. Lost Hills Info
  4. Golf carts for FabFeb
  5. talking about SEN on FB
  6. More on the THE proposals


Ice Contests Entry Open !

From Per Findahl

Hi Roger !

Do you think you can post this on Scat ?

” The registration for our three ice contests are now open. This year we have a real winter again so the ice is great. Please join us in march ! It starts with Swedish Moose Cup 5/3 and Bear Cup 7/3, both contests will be in Finland. Then the Iceman challenge ends the weekend after in Norway with Holiday on ice 14/3.

http://www4.idrottonline.se/NorbergsFK-Flygsport/Alltomklubben/Arbetsrum/SwedishMooseCup/

http://www.lennokkipojat.fi/

http://frifluktvegar.no/holiday_on

Joyful News
It made my day to get the above email. Email from someone who is a regular participant about 3 up coming events, classic events on the calendar. No rules wrangling or selection sniveling.

Information from the Lost Hills Free Flight Association
Walt Ghio f1bwalt

The start of the contest season at Lost Hills is less than two weeks away. I would like to remind all the flyers that plan on attending the Fab Feb week of contest that we need to respect the new orchard that is south and west of our flying field. The owners have given us permission to ride your motorcycle into the orchard. When you inter the orchard, ride down the rows, which are defined by the plastic irrigation pipe. Please do not ride over the plastic pipe. If you went down the wrong row and your model is one or more rows away, park your motorcycle and walk to the model. If you have driven over the plastic pipe and I find out about it, you will be asked to leave the field. You will not be allowed to return for any more of the competition during the remainder of the week. This is a hard rule that I will enforce if we have any issues.

Please be prepared to move if the drift sends the models into the orchard. The Holloway owners allow us to use their land to the north and the flight line will be moved to their property if needed.

At this time the field is very dry with no grass. Remember to drive slowly around other flyers that are parked on the field, as a fast moving vehicle will put up a cloud of dust. Also, the speed limit on the dirt roads into and out of the flying field is 20 mph.

I want to remind each of you who are planning on attending the Fab Feb contest that we require a Lost Hills membership to fly on the field. You have the option to join the association or you can pay a $10 fee, which covers two weeks of flying. We will start collecting the fees on Friday the 6th at 1:00pm. Each of the contest, we will have a separate table set up near the contest headquarters to take membership.

Thank you, Walt Ghio

Golf Cart Rental at Lost Hills
A number of people have rented golf carts from
All Carts
1636 S Union Avenue
Bakersfield, CA 93307
Phone: (661) 836-9800

Golf carts are good at Lost hills because of the roads and flat terrain.

All Carts charge by the day with discounts for longer periods. They also charge to transport the carts to Lost Hills. Savings can be made if more than one cart can be transported to Lost Hills at the same time. It is not possible for the organizers of the events to coordinate this but you can ask All Carts if they have another delivery to Lost Hills at the same time. Also if you are renting a golf cart and want to look at sharing delivery transport with other participants send you email address and events you are attending to SEN we will share that information with others who do the same thing so you can get together and coordinate your golf cart delivery to the field.

Talking about SEN on FB
Comment on FB from Bernard Guest Interesting to note that in the last issue of SEN the F1A and F1C commentators are people who would never show up at a contest regardless of what the rules are. They have their reasons (travel expenses mainly) but I sort of resent it when folks who have no intention of actually participating and putting their time effort and money where their mouth is then proceed to sound off about what those of us who do participate should be doing. This debate should be left to the people who would actually be affected by any rule changes in my opinion.

Editorial Comment

We try not restrict what people say in SEN. We do have some rules about content and these are more related to personal attacks or bullying and non-modelling items such as politics. While we agree with Bernard that there are many comments from people who clearly don’t fly the events or understand the motivation of those who do and these are very frustrating, it is maybe a little arrogant to say that this category of person can never have a good idea. For this reason we include those articles in SEN.

Also what actually makes the rules is the voting at the CIAM and the way that each national delegate is directed how to vote varies from country to country, it seems that process in each country is very important….. and not always very clear.

Faifreeflight.org: Proposals 2….
From: Damjan Zulic

My dearest and respected friends

If someone dissagrees with the BFMA suggestions, that doesn’t mean that they are insulting he organization or the people who put out the suggestions. Democracy also means that you could dissagree with some one, and you tell them directly with respect of course even though the person is older than you, or more experienced or on a higher position.
I personally wrote that I have a feeling that the suggestions were given by people who don’t compete in F1ABC categories or haven’t competed for a very long time. I still stand by what I said. The main reason for this feeling is in the nature of the suggestions. I am sure that most of the suggestions weren’t tested in the field before there were put out in public discussion. People who compete actively would definetly test those suggestions before giving them out. Even in the debates in FB and SEN I am seeing comments and suggestions from people whom I usually don’t see on the airfield or competitions. I am completely on board for democracy and dealing with the suggestions, but I do not support the main idea that the future of FF is making from the offices and sofas and from the people who don’t have any knowledge in FF, even without maybe asking some active competitors what do they think about this idea. Have you ever seen me that I gave suggestions in a category that I don’t have the knowledge of? Definetly not! But Mainly I am sure that those suggestions were definetly not tested in the field. Neither practically or mathematically.

This is the thing that is inexcusable.

My second point that really bothers me is the actual goal definition. What are we actually trying to achieve with this changes?
I am an active competitor in F1C and F1A categories, I also compete in F1B category from time to time. I have tested some of the suggestions in the field. They are not good at all. Why am I bothered with the limit of the wing diameter? Aerodinamycs (my love) which we ought to develop, doesn’t mean just the wing airfoil but also includes the geometry of the model, meaning the range of the wings. What is more beautiful to see than a elegant, thin model in the air. Secondly, the models that I own weren’t cheap and will be still competitive for the next 5-10 years with minor modifications. Why should I throw them away?
Almost every suggestion requires major financial investments. Reducing the engine run requires completely new propelers. Changing the diameter of the air intake or changing the fuel means completely new propelers and completely new engines, not only new fuel or air intake.
But most of all I don’t know the reason of those drastic changes. Are models flying high and very long? They were flying the same way 10, 20 even 30 years ago. Models fly far? If they are flying a long time of course they will fly far. By my opinion this is the whole point of Free Flight. Everybody wants to reduce the height that the model reaches in the start, which has, with exception of F1A hasn’t changed for last 10 years. Why then reduce the height?
By my experience you can launch one model at 50m, another one at 80m ant the third one at 110m height and they will be all in the same height if the thermal conditions are allowing them to. After 3 minutes they could all be on the same height, maybe 200m maybe even 300m.
Comparing the Formula 1 with the Free flight isn’t so fortunate as you may think. Mainly because the F1 is a very well payed sport in contrast with the FF which is more of a hobby sport financed mainly from our wallets. Believe me, if FAI gets some financial funds for their competitors, in the same way as it is in the F1, I wouldn’t complain as much, because I could live and support my family of the Free flight, and finance all the changes from a bag full of money.

Best Regards

Damjan Zulic

……………….
Roger Morrell