Brodak day one

[De Hill]

Elwyn Aud and I drove up from Tulsa, and got to Waynesburg on monday, June 10.

Report from the field on June 11:

The turnout at Brodak's is about what it was last year; about 140 entries.
Of interest to the ladies, there are 9 porta pottys, 3 for women only, 6 unisex,and one handicapped porta potty.

I talked to Tom Morris; he had his shelves full of wing building jigs,
handles,bellcranks,wheels,clevises,nuts,bolts,screws, etc. etc. ect. He also had four profile ARC E-Cavaliers sitting on his bench. They are set up so that all of the electrics are hidden from view. Quite a nice setup! Tom has gone to all electric. He has a E-Cavalier and a n E- Vector 40 with him to fly. They were both white trimmed with yellow - very pretty! He won Advanced profile PA today! Tom says that you have no wasted runs with electrics (once you have them dialed in) I will not be going electric. I'm old and don't want to learn anything new.

My Fox, and my Ringmaster; they comfort me.

As I walked around the field,  I saw a lot of LA .46 powered airplanes and   a lot of familiar faces growing older.

I saw Dan Banjock's Fox twin cylinder .70  powered Bearcat profile, it was impressive.

Also saw a Fierce Arrow Ultimate with 1600 square inches of area! It was slightly underpowered by a blue head Supertiger .60. It was built by Josh Harel, who had the Fierce Arrow '86 plans enlarged to give the FA 1600  squares! Joe Gilbert flew it once with a rich engine run; it took two laps to take off, and staggered around for 3 or 4 minutes, and then quit. It lands very nicely. After fixing a fuel tank situation, Dan Banjock flew it for 20 minutes. ( He was begging it to quit) The ST ran much better, but it was still underpowered.

I Talked to Sleepy Dawson about attracting kids to the hobby. He said that in New York City, the schools have dropped a lot of the shop classes, and kids don't learn how to build stuff like they used to. I think it is happening everywhere.

I visited with Jack and Shirley Sheeks, Julie Woolard, Elaine Brookins, and Merry Phelps. We spoke of the perils of growing older and our pets. (pretty racy stuff, huh?)

I visited with Buzz Brodak, and met her two new Coon Cats. They are 6 months old, and weigh 16 pounds each. They are nice friendly young cats, and will continue to grow until they are two years old. Their father weighed 33 pounds. (now that's a big cat!)

Flash! Joe Gilbert won Expert Profile flying a T-6 Texan powered by a Bob Reeves modified Saito .40.

I saw a bunch of Scale airplanes up on the hill being static judged.

Then Elwyn and I, tired after 12 hours on the field, rolled back to Waynesburg to the scenic Super 8 motel.

More tomorrow.

[Elwyn Aud]

A few pics

[wwwarbird]

 Thanks for the update and great pics guys!

[Elwyn Aud]

A few more

[Will Davis]

Profile results, congratulations  to all, great weather, a little rain in the afternoon,  30 minute break then back to flying,

[Will Davis]

A few more  pics from Tuesday .. Wednesday is classic Day

[Joshua Harel]

I would like to offer a correction to Dee's comments regarding the Fierce Arrow. It is not the 86 version but rather the 96 which to the best of my knowledge was "Wild Bill"s latest and perhaps unpublished version. In the construction article published in Model Aviation magazine for the FA 86, Bill commented that in his opinion: for a FA type plane to realize it's full potential as a viable competitive aerobatic plane - it would require a wing are of at least 1600 sq.in. I built this model to test Wild Bill's theory and hopefully validate it. He is my all time hero and if nothing else - hopefully this effort will be a humble tribute to his memory and legacy. Dan Banjock comments to me were that the airplane is nose heavy and this is going to be rectified today and test flow again hopefully later this evening. When Dan took off the airplane was up and flying in less than 1/4 of a circle. The engine cut during Joe's short flight was due to fuel starvation. I accidentaly reversed the Fill and Overflow tubes and therefore Joe took off with very little fuel on-board. The fuel tank is 6 1/2 oz. and if the flight time was indeed 20 minutes (it surely was very, very long) - I am at a total loss for explaining how an otherwise notoriously thirsty ST 60 Bluehead would fly wide open for 20 minutes on 6 1/2 ozs of standard 10% nitro Brodak fuel. Dan also commented that he felt that the engine may be slightly underpowered in the overhead regime but I prefer to see how it flys with the CG correctly placed first, and, after Dan perform aerobatic manouvers with it. My heartfelt gratitude go to Dan and Joe for their help.
For those interested in this model - stay tuned. I will update my report after the next flight.
Joshua

[john e. holliday]

Thanks for the pics and report.   I see Elwyn is looking great after his bout with Pneumonia.   Also Larry S. is looking younger than I remember.

[catdaddy]

Why in the world did Bob, Tim, and Lloyd all scratch in advanced Profile?

[Tom Niebuhr]

Joshua,
That has gotta be the best looking of the Fierce Arrow series. The only possible addition would be wheel pants like Steve Wooley had on the original version of the FA.

You did a great job!

Does anyone have pictures of the FA 86?

Elwyn and De,
Thanks for the pictures.

[Joshua Harel]

As promised here is an update on the FA. On day 3 Les Dick's flew the airplane after some trimming. Due to turbulent air he did not perform any aerobatics but commented that the airplane has potential. Since there was a question whether the Super Tigre 60 Blue Head has sufficient power, I ran the airplane on the ground with the original 13-5 prop and tached it at 9000 rpm. I than installed a 14-4 prop and it revved 9100 rpm static. The following day Leonard from Canada flew the airplane and even though we launched at only 8500 rpm he easily performed most of the aerobatics except for the vertical and horizontal 8s and the clover leaf. Upon arriving back home I pulled the engine and tested it on the bench. It was soon very clear that the venturi was drilled too small. The bore was enlarged from .325 diameter to .394 and the engine now runs at 10,200 rpm steady - static. I think that this much more power will be enough to fly the FA very well throughout the entire pattern. More flight testing will either prove or negate this claim. All in all the airplane flys well now. If there is any interest in this experiment, I will gladly provide progress reports.
Joshua