PEAK

SEFSD Newsletter
CHARGE
Dedicated to the promotion of electric propulsion in all types of aeromodeling.

June 1998 VolumeVIII Issue 6

Calendar
June SEFSD FOURTH ANNUAL
7 Pylon Racing
17 SEFSD Meeting/Swap Meet
20&27 W/ends X-Games IN-HOUSE SWAP MEET!
July “It’s time to clean out the barn!”
4 BBQ & Funfly
5 Pylon Racing DURING THE JUNE 17th MEETING.
15 SEFSD Meeting
18 Static Model Display at Aero ALL MEMBERS AND GUESTS ARE ENCOURAGED TO RUM-
Museum
25 Coumty Swap Meet
MAGE THROUGH THEIR R/C STUFF (OF ANY KIND) AND BRING
WHAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SELL OR TRADE TO THE MEET-
August ING. OR JUST COME TO SHOP.
2 Pylon Races
19 SEFSD Meeting
MOTORS KITS WOOD BUILDING SUPPLIES
TOOLS COVERING PLANES CARS
June Meeting BOATS BATTERIES WHEELS SERVOS WIRE
ELECTRONICS COMPOSITE MATERIALS
Agenda
SPEEDCONTROLSPROPS LINKAGE HARDWARE
New Site
DOOHICKIES & THINGAMABOBS
Show & Tell AND MORE MORE MORE MORE MORE...
Show what you brung to sell or swap

Entertainment There will be minimal business for maximum time to shop and swap.
Just Swapping & Selling We’ll use our meeting room.

Raffle Prizes
Next Month If you have any questions: Steve Belknap (619) 693-3739
 Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego Peak Charge
Silent Electric Flyers of
San Diego Mission Statement
Club Information The objective of the Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego is to promote and further the
Web Site: http://sefsd.org/ technology of electric powered R/C aeromodeling: encourage competition in Pylon Rac-
ing, FAI-F5B/D, Scale, Old Timer, and Pattern Electric categories by hosting major In-
1998 Officers: dustry sponsored events and sanctioning “Fun-Fly” types of contests; provide forums for
President Wayne Walker the exchange of technical information, instruction and experience; and participate in dem-
284-6119 wayne.walker@daou.com onstrations of electric propulsion in area wide model aviation events.
Vice President Bill Everitt
(760)753-1055 75022.1530@compuserve.com
Secretary
222-4075
Bob Davenport
bobdport@adnc.com PRESIDENT’S CORNER
Treasurer Mike Neale
674-1378 mneale@accucomw.com
Editor Steve Belknap Wayne Walker
693-3739 Let1Fly@aol.com
Safety Steve Neu
284-0816 SNEU@aol.com

SEFSD Mentors
I ’m sure everyone knows that we’ve had to move our field to the West some more and
change our Flight Rules so as not to overfly the California Least Terns nesting on the
old runway, they seem to like the fact that we kept it so clear and clean. As of this writing
These individuals want to help you we are still allowed to fly in the restricted areas West & North of the runway and this
(current or potential members) with should be continued as long as we respect the nesting area and help the Park & Recreation
your electric-flying questions: Department in their efforts for protection of this environmentally sensitive area. Please
Steve Belknap 693-3739 note that it is our duty as well as our obligation to help in the protection of the Least Tern
Wayne Walker 284-6119 nesting area until they abandon the site later in the year.
Jim Baron 278-8099 As of now we believe that the area will be graded & mulched later in the year as the
Harold Reed 273-6023 water runoff problem must be mitigated as a part of the Environmental Protection Act’s
Fred Harris 223-3043 Clean Water Act. In the interim we have started use of the south end of the Over The
Phil Moore (909) 696-1975 Line area on Fiesta Island as a secondary flying site. There are several restrictions to our
use of that area, we can’t be there when the OTL is in progress, we must stay to the
Monthly Meeting extreme south when the D.A.R.T. club shoots model rockets on the 1st & 3rd Sundays of
Held on the third Wednesday of each each month, and there is no access by road when there is a running or bicycling event
month (no meeting in December) at going around Fiesta Island. Other than these restrictions it’s a nice big flat area away from
7:00 PM. Meeting room is at the San pedestrian traffic and when we smooth out and compact a runway it should prove to be
Diego Aerospace Museum, San Diego, very useful for larger and/or faster models. Details on the OTL site will be available at
CA. our next meeting.
Park Bl
Currently the Swap Meet is set for July 25th on the red dirt area, volunteers are needed
Aero.
Museum to show up at 6AM to help with traffic control and car parking. The big perk for coming
early is that you get a good parking spot for your car. We’ll try to park the first cars along
Presidents Way
Hwy 163 the mulch border as a barrier for the Tern area.
On the 4th of July we’ll have our BBQ & Fun Fly in the afternoon and help with crowd
Interstate 5
control at dusk when the fireworks watchers come into the area. Anyone that came out
Flying Site last year can tell you how much fun it was to see “Big Red” lit up for night flying & playing
Located one half mile East of Sea the Star Spangled Banner on a slow fly by. See you at the 4th Fun Fly!!
World on Sea World Drive. The 3rd Annual Fall Fun Fest will be October 10th & 11th and will be primarily for Fun
Flying
Flying, All Up Last Down, Scale, including the San Diego Scale, and Pattern & Fun
Sea I-5
World
Site Aerobatics. Pylon racing & F5B Handicap will be on Sunday. Pass the word around and
Sea World Drive
let’s see how many out of town guests we can have come out this year for a great two days
I-8 of camaraderie.
Membership or Subscription: The 2nd Annual Mid Winter Electrics is set for Presidents Day weekend, the 12th
Twenty dollars per year for membership. through 14th of February 1999! It will be the “Not to Miss” event of 1999.
Fifteen for subscription only. Ten for un- What a month it’s been, Least Terns invasion, Bob Davenport has brain surgery for a
der 18 or additional family member. Con- headache (he’s home now and recovering quite nicely!), and our Senior Old Timer, Harold
tact Mike Neale at 17140 Tam O’Shanter Reed, turns 80! Harold, does this get you Super Senior Discount? We’re all glad Harold
Dr., Poway, CA 92064. is still flying at such a ripe old age, and that Bob is doing so well after difficult surgery, see
you on the flight line Bob!
 Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego Peak Charge

Letters To The Editor

(The following letters represent the view-
May
points of the individuals who wrote them,
and should not be misinterpreted as those
Meeting Pictures
of the club as a whole, Peak Charge, or the Steve Belknap
editor. Letters are always appreciated.)

Kudos!
As featured in Peak Charge last month,
Martin Bamert’s answer to Speed 400
Sport/Pylon Airplane (Speedy) won the
coveted “BEST DESIGN AWARD” on
May 30th at the annual BCRC Electric Bill
Meet hosted by the Burlington County Wayne
Radio Control Club in New Jersey.

Speed 300 Motor

By Steve Belknap

Due to the great popularity of the Speed

300 powered Flea there have been a lot of
Speed 300 motors flying and some dying.
Some folks have fried-a-few! In an effort
to find out why, I did some testing. All 10
motors I had in stock were set 4mm ad-
vanced right out of the box! Here are some
static current draws with a Graupner 5X2
prop and 6 600AE cells:
Timing (advanced) Current
0mm 13
1 13.2
2 13.4
3 13.6
4 13.8
5 14.1
6 14.7
7 15.5
8 16.2
At this point I suggest that the timing
be set at 2mm advance to reduce current.
 Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego Peak Charge

TRAINING YOUR AIRPLANE

By Bruce Cronkhite

N ow that you can take-off and land with some degree of safety, it’s time to move on to better things. Right now you can fly around
and keep the airplane from crashing most of the time. But there is more fun to this game than simply preventing the model from
crashing, although that can really be satisfying, too.
A model airplane is somewhat like a dog: if you don’t mistreat it, it will be a good companion and a source of happiness. If, however,
you give it some concentrated training it will be much more satisfying and rewarding (and do some tricks, too). Now obviously I’m
talking about training you, not the airplane. But the process you go through to train the airplane, and you, is very much the same as that
involved with training a dog, or a great violinist for that matter. You, the owner, must decide ahead of time what you are going to do in
flight, decide how to do it, and then practice it until you get it right..
The most obvious thing to start with is the landing. If all you do each flight is takeoff, fly around, and then struggle through one
landing out in the middle of the field, you are not really getting enough PRACTICE to get much better at it. And by the time you get
the batteries replaced or recharged you may have forgotten how you screwed up the last landing. If you don’t make a lot of landings it’s
very hard to get any practice at it, and very hard to get any better at it sometime this century This is why full scale pilots shoot touch and
goes over and over. You should do that, too.
Decide ahead of time how you will fly the approach and make the landing, and then be very intolerant of your own performance, and
then do it again. Criticize your own performance; if your downwind leg isn’t straight and at a constant altitude, do it better next time. If
you’re high or low on approach, fix it. A poor, or worse dangerous, landing maneuver should be a source of embarrassment, not some-
thing to simply giggle about. Sometimes asking an experienced pilot to help is a good thing. A slightly bent ego is a lot better than a
bent airplane. And a good landing should be a source of pride. You can’t do that sort of thing by accident.
Now that our field operating size is reduced because of the nesting Terns, it is even more important that we become precision flyers.
The best way to do that is to quit making excuses for yourself and your flying, and start doing it right, on purpose, by practicing. And
remember that practice is not just repetition It must involve planning, execution and evaluation.
Making a short approach restricted by the requirement that you not fly over the foliage at the east end is not an easy thing to do well
in the first place. So give it some concentrated practice. You will soon be making good landings with a good short approach.
And maybe you’ll get a pat on the head, too.

Pathfinder Update
This message from "Cawley, Bernard E" <Bernard.Cawley@PSS.Boeing.com> brought to you by EFLIGHT!

T he AeroVironment Pathfinder, a solar powered 6 motored research plane, is on the cover of the May 4, 1998 Aviation Week and
Space Technology magazine. The story talks of Pathfinder's successor, Centurion, which will span 206 feet and be powered by 14
brushless motors each capable of delivering 2 HP (1.5 KW). The motors will turn - direct drive - props which look to be about 6 feet in
diameter, and the plane is designed to fly to 100,000 feet (the Pathfinder already holds the world altitude record for propeller driven
aircraft of 71,530 ft.). The airfoil is designed by none other than Dr. Michael Selig.
There's lots of other neat stuff in the 4 page article, including that Pathfinder has never suffered damage from flying/landing - all of
its damage has been from handling - hangar rash!
One thing the article didn't mention though - who makes the motors and controllers? I know AstroBob has worked with
AeroVironment before, but are these new big Astro brushless motors, or is Aveox or MaxCim doing it, I wonder......
Pathfinder is, after all, a conceptual descendant of project Sunrise - Astro Flight's solar powered drones of a number of years ago -
where a goal is to be able to fly continuously for days or weeks at a time.

Bernard Cawley, Jr.

Auburn, Washington USA
Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego Peak Charge

Saturday, July 25, 1997

BOAT
SEA RAMP SWAP
WORLD MEET
 Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego Peak Charge

By Bruce Cronkhite
SAN DIEGO SCALE
T he Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego will fly this event for the second time at the Fall Fun Fest in October, 1998. It is an Electric
scale event named San Diego Scale. Bruce Cronkhite will be the CD for the event, and he will be properly arbitrary and dictatorial.
as is required. The rules for the new class follow: (The following are provisional rules for a new class of R/C Electric Flying Scale
models.)
Intent.
The intent of this class is to provide a framework where modelers can build and fly scale models simply, inexpensively, and enjoyably.
Hopefully these rules will generate models that are fun to build, fun to fly, and will generate comments from viewers such as “doesn’t that
plane look neat?”, or some such. These rules are intended to remove most of the difficulty in scale competition. No detailed examination
of the model is required. The emphasis is on pleasing, realistic appearance and flight performance. In addition it is desired to keep the
builders investment minimized. The intent is to follow the lead taken by both the Scale Staffel and the Flying Aces Club in making
modeling of real full size aircraft enjoyable and accessible for the electric R/C modeler.
Aircraft
The model shall conform to the following.:
1. It shall be a model of a full sized aircraft. This shall be demonstrated by at least one photo or photo copy of the full size aircraft type
that has been modeled. Additional photos or drawings may be provided to show color, markings, and configuration to make judging
easier. For instance if you want to color your Fokker D VIII red you better have a verified drawing of a full size one painted red..
2. The maximum wing span of the longest wing of the model shall be 50 inches. There are no other restrictions. Unusual airplanes are
desired
3. The model shall be electric powered. There are no restrictions on the motors/s or batteries.
There is no intent to reward complexity in the aircraft choice. A B-36 should not be rated higher than a well built and flown J-3 Cub
just because the B-36 has a lot of motors. It is hoped, however, that a Rearwin Sportster would rate higher than a J-3 Cub, other things
being equal.
Provisional- A separate category is established for models with wingspans greater than 50 inches. Large and small models shall not
compete together.
Competition and Judging
The Competition shall consist of two phases: Flight Qualification and Scale appearance judging.
Flight Qualification
In order to qualify for the Scale Appearance judging the aircraft shall be flown to demonstrate its performance. The model shall
takeoff, fly around the field area realistically, and land on the runway. During the flight the model shall fly as the full size airplane:
zoomy planes should be zoomy, aerobatic planes should do aerobatics, and light planes should fly lightly. C-47’s are not pylon racers nor
do they do aerobatics. The flight realism* will be included in the Scale Appearance judging. If the full size airplane was not designed to
take off, the model may be hand-launched. Landing is optional. If the full size airplane has retract gear, the model should also, or it will
be downgraded for flight realism.
Scale Appearance Judging
The models will be judged to evaluate how well the model duplicates the appearance of the full size aircraft as shown in the supplied
photos. The “beauty” of the full size airplane design is not to be evaluated, only how well the model reproduces the looks of the original.
Size, shape, configuration, markings, color of the airplane exterior are judged. No evaluation of the interior shall be made. A pilot is not
required, but a pilot certainly adds to the overall appearance of an open cockpit airplane. The judging will be done by the “Walt
Mooney” method. In this method there is no attempt to award an absolute scale points number. The models entered are simply rated in
comparison to each other. The most often used method for doing this is to arrange all the models in a line and exchange line positions
with the intent of having the best at one end and the others arranged to the other end in descending order of appearance. The flight
performance of the model shall be considered in the evaluation. It should be noted that photo documentation completely supporting
the appearance of a model, while not required, is strongly desired. Three-view drawings are not to be trusted and are discouraged. The
judges are the contestants themselves. The CD will set up the original order, and will resolve conflicts in favor of the contestant offering
the biggest bribe. That’s it
*Flight Realism Considerations
Flight Speed—Almost all scale models fly too fast. While modelers like to watch their model zoom around it looks wrong for scale.
Fly slowly at reduced throttle. One way to build an airplane that will fly slowly is to build it as light as possible. Don’t build to be
crashworthy. Build to fly.
Cont’d on page 9
Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego Peak Charge

NANO FREAKS
Check This Out!
An excerpt from the Small Stuff Catalog by David Lewis
 Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego Peak Charge

A rik Bracha of Lexington MA, sent the pictures below of an electric powered RPV he worked on/built nearly 10 years ago. The
plane flew completely autonomously! There was no transmitter or control once it was launched. It used GPS navigation only.
Recovery was via the parachute where the Kevlar nose cone was used as a bumper and crushed every time There were several versions
with different camera options. The specs for the smallest are as follows:
Weight: 13 Kg with batteries
Wing Span: 2.4 Meters

It had a custom made motor and gear reduction. Also, the propeller was either a 2 or 3 blade custom made. Arik built the first two
prototypes including the molds. Construction was a hand layup of Kevlar with honeycomb and Roacel core. The boom in the rear was
the parachute chamber. A small .6 meter chute pulled out a larger 4.5 meter chute. At launch the motor put out 2500 Watts for one
minute and cruised at 700 Watts for a speed of 22 meters/second. It could fly for about 25 minutes.
Arik says they completed about 20 flights using electric power. Another 150 were flown with a Webra Speed 90 in order to save the
cost of batteries and to verify the avionics
 Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego Peak Charge
SCALE cont’d
Dihedral Many scale models still have
the large dihedral left over from the days of
free-flight. Many high wing models will
turn very well with rudder and the full size
scale dihedral. The Cub is one of these. You
Classified ads:
won’t do aerobatics, but this is a scale model, “Lady” in Waiting
right? And even if you want to put ailerons
on your model, with the new sub-micro ser- I am a beginner glider pilot and am looking
vos you can put a servo on each aileron with
almost no weight penalty. for a used radio/receiver plus 2 servos. I’ve Airtronics Infinty 660
Wheels. Again left over from free-flight built a ‘Gentle Lady’ 2 meter sailplane that’s
and grass fields wheels are too large. Also, just waiting for the radio. Radio Systen for sale
if the full size aircraft had a tailskid, don’t Dennis Seisun tel 619-672 2927(H) $320 or best offer
put on a tailwheel just to taxi. Most models 619-451 6080(W) contact Joe at 463-3227 or
will taxi very well on a tail skid if you use
bursts of power just like the full size guys email at joeheffern@aol.com
did.
Flight Maneuvering. Keep the bank
angle down. A 60 deg. bank is a steep turn
in full size and causes a 2g. load on your Charging the air with excitement
passengers. The FAA considers a 60 deg ban
and a 30 deg pitch angle as aerobatic ma- P.O. Box 496 Willis, TX 77378
neuvers..
Two excellent sources of airplane pho-
(409) 856-4630 SEFSD VIDEO LIST
tos are the San Diego Aerospace Museum E-Mail: 76221.2446@compuserve.com See Fred Harris, the Librarian.
Library and Bob Banka’s Scale Model Re- One month free borrow.

SkaT
search,
An excellent source for model designs are A CELEBRATION OF EAGLES ( AMA )
Peanut Scale or Rubber Scale kits. Have the
plans blown up to the size you want at your Float Flying ( John Sullivan )
local blueprint shop. The structure will be Airborne R/C Video (Fred Harris)
nice and light, and you just have to use ap- Gas to Electric Conversion
propriate wood sizes Airplane (Joe Wurts)
Getting Started in Electric Flight
NEU FAI Air Force Top Gun
SPEED CONTROLLERS 1994 KRC Electric Fly
A-10 Warthog
Prices for Club Members Only. 1996 KRC Electric Fly
3 Micro FAI Speed Controllers: Speed 400 Basic Construction for Beginners
High rate, proportional, opto-isola- Pylon Racer Lets get Serious About Electric Fligh
Basic Flight Training for beginners
tion, soft start, soft brake, no glitch Kit: $69.95
Monokote
start-up, very light (9 grams with- Byron Originals Show Season 1985
out wires), all operate on 6-18
ce lls,
Th r e e
40 Amps max.
60 Amps max.
80 Amps max.
S MT
mode ls
con str uction.
available :
$55.00
$65.00
$75.00
Flea Monokote-II
Cutting Foam Cores
1996 NATS-Video Highlights
Desert Storm-Tornado
Polyspan Covering Instructions
Double Eagle
2 Classic FAI Speed Controllers: Power for Performance
High rate, proportional, opto-isola- Electric Flight
tion, soft start, soft brake, no glitch Speed 300 R/C Flying
start-up, light weight (25 grams Electric Flight & Schneider Cup
without wires), SMT constuction. Sport kit The Schneider Sport Electric
Both rated at 85+ Amps max. Kit: $49.95 Electrifying the Fantasy
Tw o mode ls avai lable : T-Birde (Thunderbirds)
Steve Belknap (619) 693-8188
FAI-HV (8-30 cells) $75.00 F-16 Falcon
E-Mail: Let1Fly@aol.com
Vacuum Bagging
FAI-LV (7-20 cells) $75.00 Diversity Model Aircraft Wring it Out
Contact: Steve Neu 284-0816 Wring it Out-II
 Join Us
For the Second Annual July 4th
Funfly , BBQ, and Fireworks at South
Shores.
Bring Something to BBQ and something to fly
(not necessarily the same thing)

Flying all day and BBQ about 5 or 6. Fireworks at dark.

SEFSD c/o Steve Belknap

10223 Kaiser Place
San Diego, CA 92126