SEN 2454
- Batteries and air travel
- Batteries again
- Skyscrapers Annual
- The Fly-off Problem
Batteries and air travel
From: Tapio Linkosalo
For several years now I have packed my flight batteries (mostly for timer,
but recently also E-36) in a plastic sorter, individual compartment for
each battery, and take it as carry-on luggage. The airlines rules about
carrying batteries are ambiguous, as they say that consumer electronics
should have their batteries installed, but I do not know if my models count
as consumer electronics. Thus I pack no batteries in the model box, but
carry-on.
The carry-on rules give a rather large allowed total capacity, easily
covering all the flight batteries. I also have a 5Ah 3-cell (12V) lipo for
field-charging E-36 batteries, and last time I checked it also fits into
the capacity/energy limit of carry-on. WIth each flight of E-36 (or F1Q)
taking only a couple hundred mAh:s maximum, the 5Ah battery should provide
enough energy to do all the needed field charging. With a mains adapter, I
can then use my lipo charger to charge that battery at accommodation
overnight.
-Tapio-
Batteries again
From:Jim Lueken
Another battery concern…
Technically, Li-Poly batteries cannot be put in an airliner unless it has been DOT approved. This is extremely expensive and probably not done by model companies. The airlines are becoming very sensitive about this subject. Every year there’s a surprising number of cabin/cargo fires cause by batteries, mostly from laptops and cordless drills. Just something else to think about.
Have fun, Jim Lueken
Skyscraper’s Annual, June 23-24,2018
America’s Cup,National Cup
Saturday
F1B, F1C, F1S
10 AM start, 5 rounds. F1B and F1C first and fifth round with a 4 minute max+
7 PM flyoffs.
Sunday
F1A, F1G, F1H, F1J, F1Q
8 AM start, 5 rounds. F1A first and fifth round with a 4 minute max+
Flyoff time and max to be determined.
AMA, NFFS, SAM Events*
P-30, HLG, Catapult glider, E?36, Electric B, Mulvihill, Dawn Unlimited (sunday 6:45am), Classic towline, 1/2 A – AB Gas + Nostalgia combined, Pee Wee 30, 1/4A Nostalgia? 020 Replica Combined.
*These events can be flown on either day, but must be completed within one day.
$ 25 Entry fee covers all events.
Awards to 3rd
+Weather permitting
Dave Acton CD. (Cell) 914 393 7491
daveActon@hotmail.com
The Fly-off Problem
From: Charles Markos
The rules structure of FAI Freeflight competition has been under assault in
recent SEN communications.
(a) Numbers in fly-offs may approach or exceed half the field and that
strains the management of a contest.
(b) Over the years changes to the specifications of the airplanes have
not accomplished the objective of reducing their performance. Quite the
opposite in fact.
(c) Top of the line aircraft are expensive and that increases the risk
of loss.
(d) Many contest venues are not capable of containing the aircraft during
afternoon extended flight tines.
These problems bring to mind a proposal many years back by Richard Lyons,
who was once on the USA WCh team in the FAI power event as it was known. The
fly-offs back then mandated engine runs of 10 (maybe 8, but I cannot
remember) seconds for the first 7 rounds then reduced by 2 seconds for each
fly-off round. Richard dropped the fly-off flight at the 4-second engine
run.
His proposal was to allow each competitor set a personal max for every
flight, not just the fly-offs. It could be any whole minute time from 2
minutes to 10 minutes. Make the max and it is recorded. If not, that
round score is recorded as zero. Such an arrangement would certainly
reduce the numbers in fly-offs and perhaps even make a fly-off unnecessary.
It would also provide some interesting possibilities for tactics. Perhaps
legacy aircraft may be rescued from obsolescence since risk of flying them
would not be as expensive as the risk with today’s aircraft.
There is precedent for setting the standings of a contest by means other
than a fly-off at its end. Consider that most of the F1G-H-J contests
employ an early morning fight timed down to the ground to settle ties that
would otherwise need flyoffs in mid-afternoon conditions that would
increase the risk of lost models, place them in difficult retrieval
locations, or (often not the least) interfere with contestant travel plans.
There was also a formal “supermax” proposal a number of years in the past.
However, it was not well accepted by many and was rejected by volt of the
CIAM. To my way of reasoning, it did not go far enough. The time is
past for half-measures. In the immortal words of Pogo, “We have met the
enemy and he is us.”
Chuck Markos