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Year: 2006

Radio Carbon Art’s F3 Building Clinic DVD

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I got this 2-hour DVD on building/assembling a modern composite sailplane from Paul Naton at Radio/Carbon Art a while back and have referred back to it a couple of times after initially watching the whole thing.

F3 building clinic

Paul goes into detail about how to install radio gear, servos and receiver installation, push rods, linkages, ballast, and other building details that apply to most current F3F, F3B and F3J molded sailplanes.

As Paul mentions on his site: “Most of the kits you buy today have little or no instructions, and even though the basic building is done, there’s a lot of building still to do to ensure your plane flies at peak performance in a safe and reliable manner.” How true! It is a bit, if not a lot, intimidating to cut into a $1500-plus F3F ship even though I’ve done a bunch of them and with just a couple of tips I picked up from the video, especially soldering, I feel better about assembling my models.

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Pica Pitcheron Sloper

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I finally got my Pica pitcheron sloper done and in the air. Considering it took all of about an hour to get the gear installed and the radio programmed, I am a goof for waiting so long to get this cool pitcheron slope plane in the air. The only other work I did to get it ready was to sand the leading edge a bit where the Mylars had left a bit of a ridge. From past experience with my own bagged planes as well as those from other builders, this is a good performance trick to get the most out of the airfoil and the plane.

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Viking Race 2006 is Now Complete

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The Viking Race 2006, held this time in Scotland, is now complete. Looks like five rounds of racing, with one discard,  which is not what the competitiors were looking for. A minimum of ten rounds is what they hoped for. Some days of light wind, and a couple of rain, tempered the competition. Still, the results show that the cream always rise to the top.

See more complete reports at www.knewt.com

In the end some familiar names topped the list:

Individual results:

  1. Andreas Herrig – Germany 1
  2. Martin Herrig – Germany 1
  3. Kevin Newton – England 1
  4. Helge Borcher – Germany 2
  5. John McCurdy – Late comers
  6. Espen Torp – Norway 1
  7. Arild Mollerhaug – Norway 1
  8. John Bennett – England 1
  9. Alexis Marechal – France 2
  10. Kyle Paulson – USA 1

Team competition:

  1. England 1    Kevin Newton – John Bennett – Mark Southall
  2. Germany 1    Andreas Herrig – Martin Herrig – Franz Demmler
  3. Austria 2    Lukas Gaubats – Alexander Kopecny – Arthur Frenslich
  4. Norway 1    Espen Torp – Arild Mollerhaug – Rolf Borge Retttedal
  5. Germany 2    Helge Borchert – Stefan Eder – Christian Fielder

Predator Bat EPP DS Wing

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What do you get when you combine an inexpensive EPP plank wing from Windrider called the Bat and the modifications from pilots with experience wringing to most out of this plane? You get the Predator Bat.

I got my Predator Bat from Karl about a couple of months ago but just go to building it this past week. Didn’t take long, probably 6 hours total and I’ll bet I could do the next one in 4 or so.

I’m heading to South Dakota in a couple of weeks and I needed some EPP DS planes to get my groove back before I commit to the glass planes.

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WeatherBug Widget for Mac Users

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If you are a Mac using slope soaring pilot this Widget for OSX is a must have! I have mine set for the data location closest to my local slope, about 6 blocks away, and check it regularly. Living on a large lake we get conditions at the lake that can often be different that just a few miles inland. Many is the day when I have been able to pop out and fly when other guys thought the wind was all wrong!
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Diamond Ridge, Washington

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Posted by Chris Erikson on Jul 16, 2006, 22:40

Diamond Ridge is a satisfying, easy to access slope 40 minutes north of the Hood River area of the Columbia Gorge. The moderately open face of the slope and sub-alpine character of the trees and meadow can be rewarding to fly, and when the wind is working, the smooth, powerful, enormous air characteristic of Gorge area slopes emerges.

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1st World Sailplane Grand Prix DVD

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This is a super video of the 1st World Sailplane Grand Prix for full-scale sailplanes. Of particular interest to slope soaring enthusiasts is the venue. The French Alps. The world-class pilots use a combination of thermal and slope lift for the race achieving speeds over 200kph sometimes only feet from the mountains! Very cool. Slope soaring full-scale style.

In addition to the sailplane racing footage there are some great shots of current 18-meter class sailplanes. Whether you are into slope soaring or aerotowing there are lots of sailplanes to model your scale job after.

Pilot interviews and race a race summary are also included.

 

JR 9303 Sailplane Article by Sherman Knight

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Sherman Knight of Team JR has another great guide for sailplane set up and JR radio control. This time for the 9303. If you have read his 347 or 8103 guides, you’ll know this is a must!
I’ve used Sherman Knight’s JR 8103 set up guide for several years now, and the 347 guide before that, and it has taught me a consistent approach that really makes programming my 6-servo saiplanes a piece of cake. For me it is nice to have a systematic approach because I am prone to trying just to get the plane in the air and worry about setting up later.

When I got my JR 9303 last year I tried to use it just like my 8103s. Not quite. I got a preliminary set of Sherman’s instructions from a friend last year and, just like the 347 and 8103 guides before it this one is excellent. His recent article about how to program the JR 9303 is more of the same, indespensible if you want to  get the most from your 9303 radio and your sailplane.

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JART Fans, Rejoice! Reed’s JART World Site is Looking Good

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If you know about the JART slope plane you know it is one mean looking aircraft! Reed did a great job designing and prototyping the original and now provides plans to slope soaring legions around the world!

The site, www.jartworld.com, has lots of pix, info, interviews and videos as well as a Cafe Press store to order JART gear and one of my favorites from the past, PNF stuff.

So, go check it out!

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