If not the best attended OFFC contest it was certainly one of the most fun. Everyone agreed that we will have to do this one again. There were only two entries, Bill Watson and Jim Leuken. Now, that may not sound like much of a contest but everyone there was fascinated and many more will participate the next time. Bill and Jim took two different approaches to the problem.
Bill took the high camber airfoil approach. His model was sturdy but only weighed 10 grams and had a low wing design reminiscent of a 1930s ROG model. He installed a small keel, under the wing, to attach the clay payload, keeping the CG centered. His motor was 1/8” flat, tan rubber, as required by the rules, and the final motor weighed 2.4 grams. The last flight lifted 25.6 grams of clay.
- Bills_Loader_1.jpg (364 KiB) Viewed 40144 times
- Bills_Loader_2.jpg (198.68 KiB) Viewed 40144 times
Jim’s approach was a high winged, contemporary ROG type model with a pylon, tip dihedral and an airfoil with a very small camber. He wrapped the clay load around the pylon to maintain the CG position. His last flight, with essentially the same motor as Bill’s model lifted 25.3 grams of clay and might have lifted more except he ran out of time.
- Jims_Loader.jpg (349.01 KiB) Viewed 40144 times
This contest was more closely fought than would appear with only two contestants. The biggest problem was getting the heavily laden models to turn inside the gym. There were many flights that did not lift off and became high speed taxi runs. Several flights did not make the 20 second minimum (leading to an observation that ’20 seconds can be a long time’). And, of course many flights ended against the wall. Hitting the ceiling was not an issue here.
- Load_Contest.jpg (321.74 KiB) Viewed 40144 times
This contest was a successful experiment and it was agreed that the next time there will be many more contestants.
The next contest is Comet Phantom Flash, plan stock except for thrust button, prop shaft and prop, on August 28th.