Indoor Flying with the O.F.F.C.

The lighter side of things
kittyfritters
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Re: Indoor Flying with the O.F.F.C.

Postby kittyfritters » Wed May 02, 2018 11:42 pm

Legal Eagle was the O.F.F.C. contest for April and it was well attended with 11 contestants. The field quickly separated into two groups, the over 100 seconds crowd and the under 100 seconds crowd. Most of the designs flown were well known. The iconoclasts were myself and Dave Gee. Dave threw a new wrinkle into Legal Eagle with a scale (Well, sort of. It's standoff scale if you're standing far enough away.) model of a Spitfire that met the rules. I thought about this and suggested that maybe we should have a scale Legal Eagle competition in the future but I was shouted down on that idea. I flew my One Night in Jail, an idea that I have almost given up after the showing last month.

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Anyway, the results were

Place Name Time in seconds.
1. Bill Watson 220.3
2. Joe Whiting 184.3
3. Don Butman 146.3
4. Pete Basone 104.5
5. Howard Littman 74.4
6. Dave Gee 63.9
7. Don Smith 59.8
8. John Buntin 44.0
9. Lowell Norenberg 35.2
10. Wynn Hammer 23.6
11. Stan Christopher 7.0

Part of the spread was due to some of the guys needing to build new models because the old ones are worn out and part of it comes under the old bit of advise, "Don't Crash!" However, everyone had fun as is evidenced by the smiling faces in the post contest group photo.


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The May contest is P-18 "Hawk" one design. CD was making noises about requiring stock, per plan, front ends this time. We shall see...
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kittyfritters
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Re: Indoor Flying with the O.F.F.C.

Postby kittyfritters » Thu May 17, 2018 4:25 am

At today's O.F.F.C. meeting the question of the P-18s for the contest being built "to plan" was settled. Stan gave out the official rules and they specified the North Pacific prop and front end "with no upgrades". Dave Gee surprised everyone by supplying, from his amazing stash, a new, unused, North Pacific front end to everyone who said they were going to fly in the contest. I do have some in my "stash" but they are all used and a bit sloppy. This will ensure as level a playing field for this contest as can be had!

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Error in my last post...Stan Christopher did not fly in the Legal Eagle contest. Someone entered his name on the score sheet, with an insulting 7 seconds, and I did not question it. My apologies to Stan!
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staubkorb
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Re: Indoor Flying with the O.F.F.C.

Postby staubkorb » Thu May 17, 2018 1:09 pm

I'd give a right nut for a small stash of REAL NP props - especially the 7" ones (confession: I have a small bunch of the 5" ones) - the "copies from SIG are not-so-fine...
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kittyfritters
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Re: Indoor Flying with the O.F.F.C.

Postby kittyfritters » Sun Jun 03, 2018 11:10 pm

The P-18 contest was held on April 30. Although a contest for models that tend to float around in a stately fashion it was quite exciting to watch. Maybe this is even more so because of the obstructions in the flying site. More interesting are the varying techniques used to try to get maximum performance in this site by modelers flying essentially the same model. Some contestants tried to keep their flights just below the hanging lights while others went for the ceiling while attempting a tight enough turn to circle the center light while avoiding the other lights. The launch techniques varied from a normal hand launch to trying to launch as low to the floor as possible. Of course, any contact with the lights or the backstop hoisting cables destroyed any planned flight pattern, but because of the P-18 design's phenomenal recover characteristics, did not usually end a flight simply made it more interesting.

The pictures:

The group shot after the contest,

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Bill Watson doing a low to the floor launch,

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Stan Christopher watching his model climb.

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The timing table with Kurt Young timing, Barry Dougherty (CD) recording, and Bud Matthews kibitzing.

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Pete Basone's little corner of the gym getting his model ready.

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Jim Leuken assisting Bill Watson winding his model.

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The results were:
Place Name Time in seconds
1. Pete Basone 191.3
2. Lowell Norenberg 170.9
3. Will Woods 166.9
4. Bill Watson 166.0
5. Don Smith 138.2
6. Don Martin 124.6
7. Stan Christopher 111.3
8. John Buntin 88.5

CD Barry Dougherty

June has two contests, the outdoor Spot Landing/Predicted Time contest on the 13th and Penny Plane on the 27th.
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kittyfritters
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Re: Indoor Flying with the O.F.F.C.

Postby kittyfritters » Sun Jul 01, 2018 1:20 am

June was the two contest month for the O.F.F.C., Spot Landing/Predicted Time and Penny Plane.

Spot Landing/Predicted Time is the only outdoor contest in the O.F.F.C. schedule. There was an interesting selection of models flown from Guillow's slip-togethers to scratch built models done just for the competition. I put a new motor stick on my Crash Box Special but didn't get a chance to test it before the contest day. I arrived late after dropping my grandson off at Cooking Camp (He didn't want to go to Science Camp this year.) and the wind was up. The best I could do was 5th in both Spot Landing (49 feet on a 50 foot max) and 2 seconds off my predicted time. This year you didn't just call out your time at launch, you had to write your time on the tally board before you took your model out to the field for an attempt. Five attempts were allowed.

I've attached the pages on the contests from the July Black Sheep Newsletter for photos and details.

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There is a picture of my model riding a thermal at the outdoor contest, I got it a bit too high going for a 36 second time. The end of that flight is shown by the photo I posted.

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kittyfritters
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Re: Indoor Flying with the O.F.F.C.

Postby kittyfritters » Sun Jul 29, 2018 9:20 pm

July 25th was the O.F.F.C. Dime Scale Contest, or as the CD, Joe Whiting says, 9 Cent Scale, due to the relaxed rules. In this case, it was judging only for extra points, 5 points for low wing, 10 points for biplane, and an extra 10 points for ROG. The contest was for best single flight of unlimited tries, The model had to have a maximum 16” wing span, be made of only 1/16” stock and be a “recognizable scale” model of an aircraft that flew before 1945. Reproduction dime scale models with additional plastic parts were allowed, (“Sure, if they don’t mind the extra weight, let them fly.” Joe)

Only five members had models ready for the event. That was partially because we were not sure it was going to happen since the refinishing of the gym floor was supposed to commence on the 25th. Even with only five entrants there were nine models flown. The outside temperature was 110°(F) so the air conditioning was on full in the room. The turbulent air made for some interesting flights and despite the small number of contestants it was fun to watch.

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Results: (Only best flying models of multiple entries counted.)

1, Joe Whiting Howard DGA 56.7
2. Bill Watson Wiley Post Biplane 50.3
3. Don Butman Farman Moustique 40.0
4. Don Smith Rearwin Speedster 17.4
5. John Buntin J-3 Cub 12.3

Will Woods recorded times. Kurt Young and Howard Littman did the timing.

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kittyfritters
Posts: 241
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Re: Indoor Flying with the O.F.F.C.

Postby kittyfritters » Sun Aug 05, 2018 5:11 am

(Written Wednesday August 01)

We thought that we were going to be out of the Stonehurst gym for the month of August while the floor was being refinished. Didn't make sense that the floor needed refinishing let alone that it would take a month to refinish the floor, but OK. We looked for another temporary venue and were offered the gym at Branford Park, 13306 Branford St., Arleta, CA 91331, for our meetings August 15 and 22. We decided to meet today and next week, August 08, under the trees on the Stonehurst field and have an outdoor session. We don't know yet where the August 29 A6 contest will be held which particularly bothered me since I am the CD for that event. I will make a post when that is decided.

When we got to Stonehurst this morning it became obvious why the "refinishing" of the floor would take a month. They are not refinishing the floor, they are replacing it with an entire new flooring system. The meeting went well this morning. We brought our camp chairs and a couple of camp tables and had our meeting in the shade of the trees and walked out into the open field to launch outdoor models. It was a little breezy but we had no flyaways and only one model, a cat glider, had to be poled out of a tree.

More later,

KF
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kittyfritters
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Re: Indoor Flying with the O.F.F.C.

Postby kittyfritters » Wed Aug 08, 2018 9:27 pm

We had another outdoor meeting today. It was too breezy to fly anything not radio controlled so while we sat under the trees and had the meeting we were entertained by Ira Ratner with two RC foamies a T-28 and a Cessna and by Bill Watson with his Jetstream glider. He is a master at Hy-start launches.

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More later,
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kittyfritters
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Re: Indoor Flying with the O.F.F.C.

Postby kittyfritters » Fri Aug 31, 2018 3:30 am

For the month of August the O.F.F.C. was a club in search of a venue. We were chased from the Stonehurst Rec Center because the gym floor was being replaced. The first two meetings were held outdoors, under the trees, on the Stonehurst field. This did not provide an environment for trimming an A6. Thanks to the efforts of Don Martin and Kathy Mader from the Seniors Programs at the Parks Department we were able to hold the next two meetings at the Branford Park gym. Then we were barred from there because that gym floor was being refinished. So, effort was made again and we held the A6 contest at the Panorama Park rec center, probably the smallest venue we have held a contest.

The results were:
1. Bill Watson 272 seconds
2. Pete Basone 206.8
3. Jim Leuken 182.5
4. Don Butman 148.3
Howard Littman was the CD and along with Kurt Young and John Buntin did the timing.

The next meeting will be on September 5th and, as far as we know, will be at the Panorama Park rec center, 8600 Hazeltine Ave, Panorama City.
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kittyfritters
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Re: Indoor Flying with the O.F.F.C.

Postby kittyfritters » Tue Sep 11, 2018 7:44 pm

It appears that we will be in the Panorama City Park location for the next few weeks. The floor renovations at Stonehurst and Branford are going slowly. This is not good for the upcoming Unlimited Scale event since the Panorama venue is minimal size. At tomorrows meeting we will discuss the possibility of making it an outdoor event at Stonehurst.

Two weeks ago, we had a discussion about the Black Sheep Squadron having a rubber powered dirigible at the AMA EXPO in November. During the following week Bill Watson built one and brought it for testing at the O.F.F.C. meeting. (See photos)

Howard
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