Re: Re: Science Olympiad Wright Stuff Division B (Middle School) for 2009 ?

From: Fred or Judy Rash <frash_at_chartertn.net>
Date: Sun, 9 Nov 2008 21:40:17 -0500

Thanks, Tom. Most of us knew that ornithopter was unsuitable for all except for a very small minority of students or even experienced modelers.

For the rubber powered event (Wright Stuff), it is important that the specs and wing loading give a model with pleasing flight. This means a minimum duration of 1-2 minutes is possible. Pressures from judges and event organizers to reduce flight times for a faster event must be resisted. Wright Stuff and even BLG generate wonder at the slow and graceful flight speeds since almost no one outside our narrow little group has seen such craft before.

An electric event probably would be better than ornithopter.

BLG is less interesting for me and likely for the students than Wright Stuff. We have done BLG two years and Wright stuff 7 years.

I help at the local middle school that my two kids attended over 20 years ago. At least one of my kids participated in Science Olympiad but none of us can remember whether the older one did also.

The students that I work with usually only participate in Science Olympiad as eighth graders. Occasionally someone will participate for grades 7 & 8, but not in the same events. These students are bright, polite, and motivated, but also involved in many other activities. Almost none have been involved in model building before.

I have met one of the two students who will do Wright Stuff this year. I said to him that this was a difficult event, but people like it. He replied that it was his first choice of the SO events.

Fred Rash


From: soslipstream
Sent: Saturday, November 08, 2008 9:24 PM
To: Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Indoor_Construction] Re: Science Olympiad Wright Stuff Division B (Middle School) for 2009 ?


Fred and all,

BLG was simply bumped out of rotation for two years and most likely
come back as a high school event in two more. The new structure of
SO dictates that the "Flying" events rotate in a group of threes in
two year cycles so that teams cannot not spend their SO experience
(theoretically up to 7 years) flying in one type of event.

Right now we have Wright Stuff (WS), and Balloon Launch Glider (BLG)
as the two base events with the third up for grabs. We cannot create
another propeller airplane event as a second event, period. This is
what spawned the creation of BLG. The new official number three event
needs to be dialed in. Ornithopters, especially as tendered during
this current "trial event" phase seems to be a difficult event
especially for middle school kids. Joe Krush saw me at SO Nats where
he came to demo AMA ornithopters and pleaded that SO not
include "Fly like a Bird" (FLB). It is not yet approved to become an
official event.

Jeff Anderson from MI is currently crafting another event that is
based on indoor helicopters as a possible third flying event. It
seems very promising. This would make a compatible third event
category according to the event rotation system.

Some further insight- There could be, in theory, options to change
Wright Stuff and make it say, a "Payload Wright Stuff", a "Pylon
Race Wright Stuff" or even "Electric Wright Stuff" but that all
encompasses the "Wright Stuff Cadre". For Gliders, we could, in
theory, have BLG become a towline glider but still be considered
the "Glider Cadre" of that style event.

The dark horse therefore is the magical third event. This
year "Eggonaut", a water powered bottle rocket is slotted as the
third aeronautics event (which is funny as the event is more
ballistics). This is this season's high school division flying event.

Bottomline, we could use some support in developing a viable third
style event with a science challenge that works. Please contact me
at tomvalpo(at)msn.com if you have suggestions or can lend some
support.

Best Regards,
Tom Sanders, Nat. Supr.

> Wright Stuff seems preferred over Balloon Launch Glider that we
did for two years. The earlier rumor was that Ornithopter would
replace BLG this year.
>
> The specifications that I copied down last week for Wright Stuff
Division B for 2009 were:
>
> 7.0 g minimum airframe weight
>
> 1.5 g maximum rubber weight
>
> 40.0 cm maximum wingspan
>
> 20.0 cm maximum stab span
>
> 6.0 cm maximum stab chord
>
> 20.0 cm maximum prop diameter
>
>
> There is no maximum wing chord but bonus:
>
> +10% if wing chord < 6.5 cm
> +20% if wing chord < 5.5 cm
>
> -10% for incomplete flight log
> -30% for no flight log
>
> I did not copy what constitutes a complete flight log.
>
> Everyone should confirm for themselves that their plane meets all
requirements in case I have copied something incorrectly.
>
> Fred Rash
>



 
Received on Sun Nov 09 2008 - 18:40:35 CET