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Christchurch and District Model Flying Club |
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Chairman’s chatter |
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I started the last C.C. with saying how lovely the spring weather had been. Although we had a cooler May & June it did stay good for some types of modelling. Windy! Great, well it would have been if it had been southerly. Because of the wind strength power fliers didn’t enjoy too many wonderful outings. Our slope soaring club spring day out was postponed, then a week later cancelled. Heavy rain (week one) followed by 40 mph winds (week two). Thursday 14th July was a beautiful day. A light to moderate NW wind allowed 11 members to gather at Win Green. A couple of models came to grief! One was a complete fly away as the pilot glanced at his Tx. It was thought to be in a corn field behind the slope but searching did not relocate model with owner. A week later Brian Brockway again visited Win Green. Another slope flyer had a mini camera on his plane. Bingo, it was located and Brian rescued it, returning during an evening. Hats off to Brian and the other helpful slope flyer. Saturday 2nd July was the club elec model day at Strawberry Field. Any type of model was welcome although scale was the main aim. 31 members came along. 15 actually piloted models!!! Almost all took models home in perfect nick. The only major ‘heavy landing’ was by Mike Roach with his Scooper. If you attended the July club meeting, held the following Wednesday, you no doubt stood in amazement, as I did, to see the repaired fuselage ready for covering. Photos of this event can be seen on the club web site (may be a few in this mag, too). This year has been quite a disaster for me. 3 ESC’s and 1 UBEC have all attempted to convert my models back to kits. During late July I also suffered complete model failure to my stick movements. As my birthday was fast approaching it was decided I should invest in a new transmitter. As I already owned 14 Spectrum 2.4 receivers I decided on a new Spectrum Dx8 Tx. The deal came with 2 new 8 channel AR8000 DSMX receivers & a T1000 telemetry unit. The Tx can by powered by a Nihm 4.8 volt battery 2000mah. This is supplied with the Tx. It can also be powered by a 2 cell Lipo. The charger accommodates both types of cell without any settings. You do have to make an easy change in the on screen set-up to allow for this. The equipment has come a long way in the last 3 ½ years, that’s when I bought my Spectrum Dx 7. During early August a member had his model shot down. You may be thinking ‘nothing new then’. This wasn’t a radio problem but a shot gun. What was even more serious it happened on a public sports field, namely, Fawcett’s Field. Nobody was seen but the shot came from the central tree area. The club annual Rosebowl pure thermal glider competition was held on Sunday 7th August at a Wessex Soaring Assoc field site. Chalbury field No 5 was used. Four guys from Christchurch & four from the WSA participated. One hell of a windy day made life challenging. Finally, Ian Duff took the honours for the WSA (rosé wine) and he will have his name added to the Rosebowl for WSA. The runner up was Nigel Bennett for C&Dist (white wine). Me??? I was 3rd Thanks to all who brought along their power winches and put them to good use. See results sheet within, “Sloping Off”. I am currently investigating possible radio frequency problems at Fawcett’s Field. I know of 4 models that have all come to grief in the same spot. Equipment was 2.4!! Different makes, too. It is always possible that sudden wind eddies contributed or caused the incidents. Nobody injured, that’s the good news. Remember, safe flying is no accident. |
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