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- FAI Contests – Detroit at Muncie
More on the Summer Contest
From:Fred Terzian
Additional Comments on Walt’s Summer Contest + Henry Feistal’s 27
minute-plus Flight!
Walt ran a great contest considering the high temperatures that may
have changed the outcome of a larger turnout. Flying was very low key and
social distancing was practiced with no significant issues. Bud Romak had
his usual OCD* trailer packed to capacity with Vintage FAI models and
several rubber ships. Seems at least three models may have suffered
re-kitting and cleaning of high performance O.S. Max engines–more to come
on this later!
Junior F1P team member (13 years old?) Henry Feistal was a real shining
star and was getting expert help from both his father and Fresno club
member Doss Porter. He put in a lot of flights with a screaming Cyclon on
the front of a modified Astrostar donated by Randy Secor. His launches were
absolute perfection as the airplane transitioned during every flight from a
half turn at 60-70 degrees into the glide. Around his fifth official
flight, something happened–it had gone past the normal DT time and
continued to circle literally overhead with virtually no drift. Without
binoculars, it was almost difficult to see, but it stayed strangely
overhead for the longest time. I would suggest to the Feistals and Doss to
bring out Chaise lounges to Lost Hills the next time around! Finally, Doss
indicated that it appeared the Astrostar was coming back down. Sure enough,
it was slowly drifting back down close to its launch point. This was after
being in the air for over 27 minutes! It seems the mechanical timer was
stopped by a foreign object being trapped in one of the scroll grooves.
After cleaning it up, several dry runs were tried with no other problems
occurring. Unfortunately this was not the case as in his last flight, a
similar problem crept in and the model was lost from view heading east
towards the oil fields. They, including Walt, made trips in that direction
to hopefully locate it. I was told by Doss that they drove their vehicles
all the way to the California aqueduct with no sight of the airplane.
Back to Bud–I was fortunate to have placed my assembled E-36 into the
trunk of the Turbo Beetle and not on the shelf behind the rear seat. The
trunk lid was wide open. Four wings were resting on each other in the back
seat when Bud launched a Vintage FAI ship into the wind (towards us). I was
timing Jim Kelley’s flight but watched as Bud’s ship was heading towards
me–which way to jump quickly racing through my mind, when I saw that it
was planning to make a direct hit on the Beetle. Sure enough, right into
the back of the car! Both wings were sheared off by the trunk hydraulic
dampers but the screaming fuselage continued forward–into what? Damage was
already done so I continued timing Kelley’s flight. Bud and Ken Walters
extricated the remains of the power ship. Would you believe that the only
damage to the car was a “knife” attack on the forward passenger seat
headrest by the propeller! All my support equipment and model parts were
undamaged–and no one was physically hurt. Bud was extremely remorseful and
I said to him “Don’t sweat it (pun intended), we live to see another day!”
All in all, a great day for flying, and drinking tons of liquid or plenty
of cold water provided by Walt.
* Comment ; In this case for those not aware OCD = Oakland Cloud Dusters, just in case you think of another meaning of this common abbreviation apply. ??
FAI Contests – Detroit at Muncie
From:Bill Shailor
FAI Contests
The Detroit Balsa Bugs are sponsoring the 72nd Annual Inter-Cities Meet and the Brodersen FAI Challenge on August 29-30, 2020.
We have combined the two meets as we had to cancel the Inter-Cities Meet back in May.
Each contest will be held on one day, with mini events staggered so as to allow flyers to compete in both.
Social distancing will be practiced. No time cards will exchange hands. Just report your time to contest management for recording.
These are America’s Cup contests.
Hope you can make it!
Bill Shailor