Hello everyone. This is my first ever post, so bear with me if I'm not doing something right. I am getting back into the sport after a 35 year hiatus. I recently completed an RSM Humongous with an ST.46 installed. I am using a 12 X 6 Zinger prop and plan to fly on .018 X 60' lines. What prop and/or line length would anyone recommend? Do I need less prop and more line length? Thanks for any help.
Lemme tell you about Roger, the OP. He showed up in Huntersville this weekend with his Humongous. It's a fine plane and it ain't no cheapo Monokote job either. It's truly beautiful, I hope he'll post a picture. I helped him practice Saturday afternoon with an 11 or 12x6 Zinger I believe. He was running 29% oil fuel and that ST is a sweet running engine, though he was running it pretty fast. I didn't have a watch but I think he was right on 5 seconds.
Roger was vacillating over whether to enter the Beginner contest which I was registered for, and after flying a few semi-patterns with a few OTS moves mixed in, was leaning toward jumping in. He was still trying to memorize the pattern, I bet he laid in bed all night flying it.
He had some, to say the least, unorthodox moves in his maneuvers Saturday, but that is a seriously responsive and quick plane. He was flying with a really wide handle, and we talked about changing it, but a narrower one may not have gotten him out of more than a couple of close encounters. I urged him to use more sky, but the boy is
fearless!
Anyway, when I got there this morning I was happy to see Roger's name on the list because we needed someone to fill it out. I didn't want to just win because of no competition. There was one other fellow, young Shawn Hicks. His grandfather is Mike, can't read the last name in the picture of the advanced lineup, was helping him out, but Shawn hasn't quite gotten the routine down yet. I know he'll be competitive very soon though. A seriously interested and impressive 8 year old, friendly as he can be and a sponge for knowledge. So, Roger, Shawn and me get to mix it up.
Shawn flew, and then Roger flew before me and I pitted for him. It wasn't long before I thought, Uh oh. Remember what I said about fearless. The dude memorized the pattern in his sleep, and his capable plane was cooperating. He greased a takeoff that looked like the guys on the paved circles fly and he proceeded to knock down a pattern that was pretty damn respectable considering he learned it in his sleep last night. He was running sub 5 this morning and clipped a few weeds, but hung in there like he had icewater in his veins. He pulled off every maneuver with some of the early beginner tightness but didn't bust any of them too badly. I noticed I'm standing there with my arms folded now... the defensive posture I believe.
. When the Super Tigre finally sucked air, he flew it in and greased a 33 point landing.
My turn. At least I have one contest and some practice under my belt and I flew what I thought was a pretty solid pattern, wide pretty loops, nice intersections, good overhead, but jumped my takeoff and bounced my landing. Those two mistakes put him in first place.
Second round, we flew back to back again. I flew a pretty good pattern and Roger flew a pretty good pattern. I finally added a good takeoff and landing to my routine, and it's a damn good thing for me. While I'm standing there gritting my teeth watching him fly his number two, my wife says,
"You think he's sandbagging?" No, I said, I think we're looking at a near future expert. The contest had turned into a shootout.
We congratulated each other and after a while I suggested we go look at the scores... the green mile... neither of us was hurrying. We finally got there. Young Shawn our other new friend saw us and came over too, and we all gazed upon the scores together. I was relieved and Roger was the consummate sportsman. Shawn was just his usual happy self, knowing he'll be kicking both of our old asses soon anyway.
You just can't have too much fun!
Rusty
Topic: Line length and Prop size (Read 3741 times)
