Hi All,

Northwest is still on strike, so once again, I am grounded whilst I write you my monthly note.

I’ve actually got a few worthwhile things to go over, so I’ll do my best to keep you interested and our editor busy. As I write this, it is the Monday following our annual float fly. As usual for me, I was only able to attend a very brief time on Saturday morning due to large family constrains, but I did enjoy my brief stay and continue to marvel at how well we as a club put on and run a world class event. The list of who to thank for this event contains every member of the club, so thanks to you all! Darrel Watts continues to run this event magnificently, and we all owe him an additional thank you. Darrel was also challenged by his winter project of building a house this last year. Any of us who has had to deal with the major headaches of having a house built knows how consuming a task that can be.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but our Top Gun event usually ends my flying season and begins my building season. I have one additional building project now in line thanks to my superb inverted flying skills, but chasing the glory was worth it!

One of our BOD members, Paul Shurtliff, has taken on considerable more responsibility at work and needs some assistance for the remainder of the year. Paul will be able to continue his regular secretary duties (with a little help when business has him travel on meeting nights), but would like someone to take over our VCR tape librarian duties. This person is responsible for bringing the tapes to each meeting and chasing down the scofflaws who over extend their borrow time! Please see Paul or me if you might have some time to devote to this until at least November elections. It is also not too early to start thinking about if you would like to become part of the Skymasters BOD for 1999. Elections are in November. One of my goals has been to pick on as many members as possible in this column so that one of them would be encouraged to take my place and get to go after me. Since I NEVER make mistakes and always fly flawlessly, it will be a large challenge for anyone to have material, but our current newsletter editor has rarely let a few facts get in the way of a good story from the president! (At least for me) (Ah, the power of the pen… Ed.)

September begins the building season for me and I have a few projects planned out. I am off to a slow start, as lots of things have conspired to keep me out of the shop so far. My oldest son and daughter have taken a liking to rocketry, so we are busy building a Big Bertha right now. I remember well building and losing that ship many times as a young lad myself. The instructions say that this rocket was first introduced in 1965. Now that I’m a little older, I have figured out how to make the ignition work almost every time without failure (big 12Volt R/C battery), and how to pack the ‘chute/streamer, so that it actually deploys. What dismays me however is the lack of open area to fly these things. When I was a young lad, my neighborhood school had plenty of land to shoot off any rocket, including the multi-stages that went out of sight and we had very good chance of getting it back on the open ground. I have now resorted to cutting big holes in the parachutes (assuming I can’t swap in a streamer) and aiming the rockets well into the wind with the hope that my wind correction angle causes a drift back to recoverable area. It is quite enjoyable to do this with my kids, and I am secretly teaching them the skills necessary to build up my next planes for me.

I plan on finally fixing my Super Stinker this winter, but changing to a 1.8 Moki, as in my One Design. I also would like to find a home for my Saito 300, and get my 4^th SIG Wonder up and flying (don’t ask what happened to the other 3 L ) I am thinking about putting an idle 26 Surpass in the Wonder, not knowing if it will work, since the little ship likes to fly fast (but not crash!)

I also finally broke down and brought a R/C flight simulator (the real reason I bought a new PC for home, since I wanted good graphics!) and have been staying up way too late playing with this thing. I am surprised how much fun it is. I am attempting to just hover and fly a helicopter as well, and have newfound respect for those that can fly the darn things. 20 minutes on the simulator has me convinced that helicopters are indeed instruments of the devil!

Finally, I have a request of the entire club and that is to help your BOD with candidates and topics for our programs. It is becoming increasingly difficult for us to find new blood to run our programs, and I am sure you are all getting sick and tired of me discussing computer radios. Our current program manager, Randy MacInnes is recovering from open-heart surgery and obviously would not mind someone stepping up to help him out. Randy, by the way, is now home and recovering (I just need to talk him into fixing my Ultimate Bipe I planted at Top Gun – too much time on his hands!) Many of you in the club have great building skills that the rest of us would love to know about. Some of my favorite programs last year were from Al McGee and Vince Pettke on their way of doing things. Most of you have a talent that could be shared, and having a captive audience is always fun – please see me or any other BOD member with ideas or suggestions you may have.

Time to make new balsa dust!

Joe Finkelstine

Welcome to the October issue of Skywriter.

What a busy month September was! I’m glad there were 5 Wednesdays in September, so I had extra time to get this newsletter out (even then it is later than I wanted it to be).

Included this month is a report of our Midwest Regional Float Fly. Some of the best weather yet, and a lot of hard work by many Skymasters (and families) for another fantastic event.

Swap shop season starts again in October. I haven’t gotten any flyers, but there are some dates listed for 2 upcoming swap meets. If you haven’t attended swap meets in the past, they can be a lot of fun, even if you don’t buy anything! You never know what you might find!

Please send me any input you may have for the newsletter. By email to GMCardillo@misi.net, or to my address on the back cover… Note my email may be changing. My ISP is merging with Bignet. For now the misi.net address still works.

Sunday, October 11 Indian City R/C Club 12^th Annual Swap Shop, Jim Tesen

Thursday, October 22 Weak Signals Annual Auction, Kevin Matney

Sunday, November 1 Midwest R/C Swap Meet - Northville, Herb Judd

Thursday, December 31 DAM Red Eye Night Flight (11:50 pm), Stan Spiewak

*See additional information for these events in this issue of Skywriter!

Event info from mailings received, AMRCC, and Michigan RC Flying Times

Absolutely perfect conditions for a float fly – what can I say!

98 pilots - approximately 130 R/C floatplanes - 80-85 degree temperature - calm to light winds. It just doesn’t get much better than this!

Skymasters members walked away with two of the judged contests. Vince Pettke won the "standoff scale" contest with his F18 on a single center float, and Terry Overton won the scale contest with his beautiful 82" span Stampe biplane. The sport contest was won by Jeff Landis and his Phaeton .90. Jeff has attended several of our events in the past. And, in the "door prize" drawing, Chet Brady hit the jackpot - winning the 84" PBY kit. Harold Brown, one of our pilots from the RCCD club, won the F18 in the "Super Prize" raffle.

90 people attended the Saturday evening cookout. The food was delicious, some of the ladies won door prizes and The Patchcords (a barbershop quartet from Lansing) entertained us.

A great big "THANK YOU" to all who helped with the many chores that are required to put on this kind of event. There were too many to list everyone. Special kudos must go: to my wife Jane for preparing all of the entry packets, AMA forms, name tages, etc., and overseeing the registration process; to K.C. Satchell for organizing the "volunteer" corps; to Carl Long for overseeing the setup, the kitchen, and arranging for the retrieval boats (as well as bringing along the "flying pup"); to Bob Dean for maintaining the past participants database and mailing flyers; and finally to Donna Burns, the "Sales Manager" of raffle tickets.

If you missed this one - either flying, working or just joining us for dinner, you really missed a fun event! There is still some debate whether next years event will be on the 1^st or 2^nd weekend after Labor Day - but reserve those dates now and start getting ready for -

This event takes not only a lot of work from our club, but a lot of support from the industry and some individuals with donations for this event. We would like to extend our thanks to these manufacturers. They get more and more requests for donations throughout the year, and still fortunately choose to continue to help us!

Airtronics, Inc.
Balsa USA
G&P Sales
Great Planes
Hitec RCD Inc.
J.R.
Mike Russell
Sig Manufacturing

Byron
DuBro
K.C. Satchell
R/C Planes and Things
Satellite City
Sullivan
Tower Hobbies
Vintage R/C Plans

Well, the Float Fly weather didn’t hold out for this day, as we were met by rain on and off throughout the morning, but over 450 walkers showed up anyway to walk for the American Heart Association in Bald Mountain State Park. Skymasters set up our trailer and cooked about 400 hot dogs for the walkers! Thanks to Pete Foss, Vince Pettke, and Darrell Watts for joining me to help out. Our efforts and donation were greatly appreciated by the organizers of the event.

Elections for the Skymasters Board will be held in November. Now is the time to start thinking about who would like to help run the club. It is a great way to give back to the club. There will be several openings on the BOD for 1999. If you are interested, talk to a current officer about what is involved.

Designer Scale 75" P-51 Mustang Kit for sale! Designed and kitted by former National Scale Champion. Total Detail. $75 plus shipping from CA. Contact Darrel Watts at xxxx. This is one of Darrell’s contact from the float fly. Darrel estimates this to be a $300-$350 value!

The following planes (built) are for sale:

1. Flair SE5-a with Engine; Williams Bros Wheels/guns; 4 servos, battery. Add receiver and fly! $150

2. Birdi 40 with Irvine 40 engine; 4 servos; battery, receiver & Futaba 6VA Transmitter (CH23)! All for $200

3. Raven 40 ARF; 5 servos & battery $150. With OS .46FX $225

Contact KC Satchell.

Pictures of Vince Pettke’s Cesna or F-18 from the Float Fly. In flight pictures especially desired. Please contact Vince if you have any!

As the building season approaches, some thoughts on keeping your next project light. Two articles from Clay Ramskill, one on why build light; one on ways to lighten your next plane…

-By Clay Ramskill

We all know that airplanes are created as light as possible, consistent with structural strength. To most of us, this is a pretty obvious reality -- after all, they use aluminum, not cast iron, right? But ALL the advantages of a light airplane may not be so apparent.

So let’s have a peek -- we’ll start with the most obvious.

Load carrying capacity. Hey, this one’s easy! All other things being equal, the lighter plane can carry more load. Big deal? Well, maybe yes – how about more fuel, or a larger battery, or bigger servos?

Climb performance. Again, everything else being equal, the lighter plane will climb quicker. For us, that means better vertical performance for acrobatics, among other advantages.

Turning performance. How tightly a plane turns is one more area that is directly related to weight. With all else being equal (i.e., speed, angle of attack, etc.), the lighter plane will turn a smaller diameter circle.

Acceleration. F = MA, remember? Again, a direct relationship exists, the heavier plane (more mass!) being the loser!

Stall speed. Ok, this one’s not a direct relationship. But without going into the math, it’s a fact that a heavier identical plane will have a higher stall speed. And it follows, then, that both take off and landing speeds will be higher for the heavier plane.

Top speed. Really? Yes, indeed! -- but not by much! Every wing produces drag in the process of getting lift (the lift vector is ALWAYS tilted back a bit with respect to the line of flight). So, the more the lift required for a heavier plane, the more drag will exist, cutting top speed somewhat.

All the above itms can be calculated accurately, with the right formulas and an ordinary calculator. But some of the "light is better" advantages are more subjective -- words like "quicker" or "more responsive" come to mind. And heavier planes? Have you heard the terms "dog" or "slug"?

The wind/turbulence factor: Ah, you say, here comes the BAD part! Well, yes -- and no. The lighter, more responsive plane will react more quickly to wind gusts and shifts. However, self-correcting and any corrections you can make can also be effected sooner with the lighter plane. And note - problems with wind, turbulence and gusts is more related to wing loading than just to weight itself. If we took some weight out of a plane, then lowered the wing area proportionally, then the planes behavior in the wind would remain about the same.

We’ve all seen a very light plane being blown around badly in gusty conditions -- but this is more a result of the plane’s design, and is most certainly a result of lower flying speed.

One more comment on lower aircraft weight. If you can save weight somewhere, you may be able to save even more somewhere else! The lighter your plane, the less structural "beef" is required. An obvious example would be landing gear -- a lighter plane can use lighter landing gear. But this principle will apply all over the plane’s structure.

Another point of contention here could be crash survivability. But the fact is, crash damage is a result of how well or how badly a plane can absorb the energy that must be dissipated in a sudden stop. That energy is, again, related to the planes weight - less weight, less energy to absorb in the crash! If you add in the point that the lighter plane has a good chance of crashing at a lower airspeed, then the light plane actually may suffer LESS damage in the same circumstances!

by Clay Ramskill

Okay, so we all know that we want our planes to be as light as possible. How do we do that, especially with a kit already in hand?

WOOD: The first and primary rule is -- do NOT use heavy wood!!! Select your wood at the hobby shop. Get good, straight grained balsa pieces and compare them -- then buy the lightest. If you buy mail order, get contest balsa (4-6#) or "light" (6-8#) wood and hope for the best.

With a kit, you may have to throw out some wood and replace the heaviest stuff with lighter stock.

GLUE: Use light glue -- CA is the best for the weight, aliphatics come next, and epoxies are the worst. Where you feel you must use epoxy, such as on your firewall or landing gear blocks, use as little as possible.

PLY: Plywood is heavy, but necessary in some spots -- firewalls, landing gear plates, and some formers need to be ply. But use it sparingly, substituting lite ply or even balsa ply if you can. But where bolts are involved, you should use aircraft ply.

Even using the heavier ply, we can shave some weight. For instance, 3/16" ply is enough for most 40-size firewalls and landing gear plates. Throw out the 1/4" stuff.

Further, use the strength of the engine mount. If it’s a one-piece mount, you don’t need the wood inside the bolt pattern. Cut it out, stuff the hole with balsa. The same goes for a plate for mounting landing gear.

Wing mounting blocks can be cut down -- moving the bolts back an inch may allow you to cut an inch off the front of the blocks.

Ply formers can usually be trimmed from the inside, ply fuselage sides can usually stand larger lightening holes.

CUT AND CHOP: Lightening holes can be cut in balsa fuselage sides and on the top. (You may want to keep the fuselage bottom solid.) Thinner balsa may often be used for top and bottom cross-grain planking. Hollow or eliminate large blocks, such as are often supplied for wingtips.

BUILD UP: Ailerons, rudders, and fins/stabs may be heavy 1/4" - 5/16" solid balsa. Building these up from 1/16" balsa skins with trusswork interiors gives you a light, stiff structure, perhaps even stronger than the originals. Building up these surfaces may also be preferable to using the original solid wood with lightening holes. Skinned "built ups" are considerably stiffer than open frame construction, but not as light.

FOAM WINGS: Foam wings can also be improved upon. Note that using light wood for wing skins and minimal glue applies here, too.

Consider that the actual bending loads on the wing are greatest at the center, ranging down to near zero at the tips. So strength can be tapered off as we go out to the tips. Skin and foam may be cut away increasingly progressing outboard toward the wingtips; this is best done behind the thick point on the wing. [See diagram 3]

BUILT-UP WINGS: The same principles apply; strength (and weight) can be cut out near the tips. Spars can be of thinner stock. Gradually cut the thickness of the webbing to 1/32" out at the wingtip.

Note: The above is fine for flight conditions -- but if you "catch a wingtip" on landing, that’s another story!

COVERING: Not all coverings weigh the same! The low-temperature mylars are lighter -- fabric is heavier. Even among the "standard" coverings, the weight varies. (Monocote is lighter than Ultracote, for instance.) Color also makes a difference -- lighter colors are heavier! It takes less pigment to color something black than white! And don’t have any large overlapping areas on your covering, that’s just wasted weight!

SANDING: Can anything be simpler? The more you sand, the less your plane will weigh! Obviously, this could be overdone -- but at least sand in curved corners when they are shown on the plans. That sawdust may not seem like much weight, but it all adds up.

FUEL PROOFING: Using thick coats of epoxy for fuel proofing adds unnecessary weight to your plane. Try dope, glas-coat, brushed on rustoleum, or equivalent. But don’t skip out on fuel proofing. Besides being harmful to your wood and glue joints, soaked-in fuel is heavy! FITTINGS: By all means, use quality, strong fittings (pushrods, clevises, control rods, etc.). But be weight conscious, too, and don’t overdo strength to where you add unnecessary weight.

BALANCE: DO NOT ACCEPT adding any lead to a plane! The exception is an ounce or two in the wingtip to balance laterally. Move servos, battery, and even the engine to avoid adding lead to your plane. Bolted or glued in lead is unnecessary weight -and adds extra loads to your airframe. Scale builders may be stuck with this -- quite often scale planes tend to be heavy anyway; adding lead becomes the "last straw" leading to the stall, snap, crash tendencies of some of those planes.

EXOTICA: There are more exotic measures taken to save weight -- usually in larger, more complex aircraft. Modelers use aluminum, carbon and boron fiber, expensive honeycombs, and kevlar to increase the strength-to-weight ratio. All this stuff is expensive, but worth it when performance is the prime consideration.

SAFETY: You must keep in mind that whenever you make changes to a design specification, YOU are now responsible for the aircraft’s integrity.

Most model designs are heavily overbuilt -- but it’s always going to be up to you to decide what is overbuilt and what isn’t. We’re not rocket scientists (and neither are the designers!), so don’t be afraid to ask an experienced modeler (perferably several!) about modifications that you’re not sure of.

Don’t be reluctant to experiment! If a ply former seems heavy, try making a duplicate of balsa ply, and compare. Try doing a built-up stab (they’re easy, really!) and compare weight and stiffness with the solid version.

FINAL THOUGHT: Keep weight in mind constantly as you build. Would EZ hinges be lighter than the conventional hinge-pin type? Can I use shorter (lighter) bolts than the ones the kit supplied? Can I trim the ends off the engine mount? Is this piece of balsa too heavy?

An ounce here, a half-ounce there -- it all adds up!

Skymasters field is located within the Bald Mountain State Park (see map). State Park Permits are required and can be obtained from the Park Headquarters located on Greenshield Road or at club events. Flying is permitted from 10 AM to 8 PM. The noise limit for 1998 is 95dB at 10 feet - this noise rule is strictly enforced.

Wednesday evenings during the summer is Student Night and there are usually instructors around all afternoon. Student night is also ‘pot luck’ buffet night so that you can fly-n-feed (though not usually at the same time). Students are encouraged on other days and weekends. It is a great idea to come on Wednesday, meet the Instructors and arrange for more instruction time together. Our Chief Flight Instructor is Pete Foss. Assistant Chief Flight Instructor is Graham Overton.

From June to August, Club Meetings are held at the field on the first Saturday of the month at 12 Noon - a great chance to fly and gossip too! Winter meetings (September to May) are held at Larson Middle School (on Long Lake just east of John R - see map) on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month at 7:30 PM. Show and Tell, coffee and donuts, and model-speak are the order of the evening. Come along - they are fun.

The Skywriter newsletter is sent to all members, local hobby shops and other local R/C clubs. Any and all contributions are welcome, please pass any articles to the Editor. If you know of anyone who may be interested in our hobby (friend, relative, neighbor, colleague or acquaintance) - please give them a copy of this newsletter or a copy of an AMA magazine - it may spark their interest and get them into our hobby!