2011 Ring Master Round Up.

[Jerry Leuty]

  Warm/hot, and fairly windy in Houston this weekend for the annual RM Round Up. Several planes including my own folded up wings during the stunt pattern. Larry Bordon brought his super large RM 1000 for it's maiden flights. Several of us got to take her up for a spin. For such a huge plane with a K&B .61 on it it is quite nimble. Sunday is team stunt. I will be flying on Joe Gilbert's team doing the OTS pattern with a borrowed RM. I am vowing to de-kit my RM and build 2 new ones with Fox .35s on them. I also have a RM 579 kit that I am thinking of converting to a 579 Super RM with flaps. This stuff is a lot of fun. If you live within 500 miles of Houston, Texas you owe it to yourself to come fly your RM S-1 planes. There is Classic, OTS, endurance fast and slow, ballon bust, team stunt, and pursuit which is lite combat. You will go away with the giggles.

[John Stiles]

  Warm/hot, and fairly windy in Houston this weekend for the annual RM Round Up. Several planes including my own folded up wings during the stunt pattern. Larry Bordon brought his super large RM 1000 for it's maiden flights. Several of us got to take her up for a spin. For such a huge plane with a K&B .61 on it it is quite nimble. Sunday is team stunt. I will be flying on Joe Gilbert's team doing the OTS pattern with a borrowed RM. I am vowing to de-kit my RM and build 2 new ones with Fox .35s on them. I also have a RM 579 kit that I am thinking of converting to a 579 Super RM with flaps. This stuff is a lot of fun. If you live within 500 miles of Houston, Texas you owe it to yourself to come fly your RM S-1 planes. There is Classic, OTS, endurance fast and slow, ballon bust, team stunt, and pursuit which is lite combat. You will go away with the giggles.

By this time next year, I'll likely have too many Ringmasters[is that possible?]. If I don't start flying some of these planes, mama's gonna hafta move out.

[john e. holliday]

Sounds like you guys are having too much fun.   Now where are the Ringmasters breaking?   I have a Sterling version that has flown in some winds I normally would not fly in.  It is still in one peice and the wings are Monokoted.  In fact on the Ringmaster fly day  it was put in the grass a little hard.  Broken APC prop was all that happened.   

[Garf]

I'd also like to know exactly where the weak point is on these things. I have a gold short kit wing to put together to make a new S1.

[Bill Gruby]

Sounds like you guys are having too much fun.   Now where are the Ringmasters breaking?   I have a Sterling version that has flown in some winds I normally would not fly in.  It is still in one peice and the wings are Monokoted.  In fact on the Ringmaster fly day  it was put in the grass a little hard.  Broken APC prop was all that happened.   

 The outboard wing snaps clead at the sheeting line in a violent meneuver. It bereaks away totally Doc.

 For you guys to oogle here is the maiden flight of the 1000. Joe Gilbert piloted it. Rich Stubblefield fittet the K&B .61 with a pen bladder tank and it was a short run.



  "Billy G" 

[John Stiles]

I'd also like to know exactly where the weak point is on these things. I have a gold short kit wing to put together to make a new S1.

I never have broke the wing on an S-1....broke one on an Imperial....I'd be more inclined to say they are weak at the fuse, right behind the wing. I have seen the fuse broken at the leading edge by a fellow that always ran backwards and fell down right at the moment the engine plowed into the turf. Not me.....another fellow

[De Hill]

I heard that Joe Gilbert, a Tulsa Gluedobber, won all the marbles down at the Ringmaster Roundup.

Congratulations, Joe!

[Bill Gruby]

 Joe has won all the marbles 5 years in a row.  LOL  John Cralley won the Pilots Choice Trophy for his Electric Ringmasters and Larry Borden won the Pilots Choice Non-S1 Trophy with his beautiful RM 1000. Rich Straight won Balloon Bust again.

 "Billy G"

[Pat Johnston]

For those wondering about broken Ringmaster wings, this is a problem with some Ringmasters using a built-up leading edge.  The leading edge carries the vast portion of the overall stress for the wing.  We decided to go to a solid leading edge like the original S-1 kits had.  The material is, however, contest grade balsa in the range of 4-6# stock.  The weight of the total leading edge is usually from 30 to 45 grams.  This is one part helping to get the overall weight down to the 23-25 ounce range in the "Gold Kit".  Hope this helps clear up any questions.
Pat Johnston
Skunk Works

[Garf]

I guess this wasn't a problem with the Sterling "poured concrete" L.E and T.E. Maybe there was a reason for that hard stock being used. Maybe a spar reinforcement is in order.

[W.D. Roland]

The only wing failure I looked at failed at the outboard side of the fuselage on an airplane with a solid shaped L.E.
Did not look at the density of the balsa in the L.E.

With wind in the 20-25+ mph range the RMs would be moving like an AMA fast combat plane after just one or 2 loops and the stress on airframes was about 2-3 times higher than normal.

We played around with a very solid old AMA fast Combat in the wind and the pull on lines was enough to be worrisome and caused me to inspect for structural failures after every flight.
One well timed gust of wind almost pulled me out of the pilots circle. Stublefield made a much better anchor than my 140lbs.

On Sunday while flying one of Dee's Loaner RMs and while performing the upwind part of overhead 8 we think I did a barrel roll back to the down wind side of the circle.

I would not think that any C/L airplanes are designed for the kind of wind we had ALL weekend. Just the fact that everyone flew was amazing. If you did not make a down wind landing running(fast) from the airplane was required.

The wind was the defect!LOL

David

[John Cralley]

Here are a couple of links for photos from Friday and Sunday.

https://picasaweb.google.com/golfrice1/Friday2011RMRoundup?authkey=Gv1sRgCJqalojxsO7ipQE#5608914884445898498

https://picasaweb.google.com/golfrice1/2011RingmasterRoundupSunday?authkey=Gv1sRgCJr97OnAl87-HQ#

Saturday's shots are not yet posted.

John

[john e. holliday]

Thanks for all the pictures.  Maybe next year, they may have to make Joe wear a blind fold.    Way to go Joe.  I know you work a little at this and still have fun.   

[larry borden]

Picture I took of the 1000 with Joe at the controls.

[Jerry Leuty]

I also got to fly the 1000. I found it to be quite nimble for it's massive size. I did a few wingovers. Dee did some square loops and 8s. I am looking forward to getting a 6 oz. tank on it and doing the full AMA pattern with it. And it did not pull as hard with a K&B .61 as some of my FP .40 planes on a run away. I got an e-mail that RSM is making a special price on RMs till August with about 30% off the regular price. I am getting one and repairing my old one with the broken wing. I have removed the wing and am strengthening the mid section with stiffeners and fresh planking that will extend out to the second rib from the center. Then it is back to the 'serious' business of Intermediate stunt............)

[John Stiles]

Picture I took of the 1000 with Joe at the controls.

Dang that thing cases me a buzz!