Mark,
This is the beauty of the project. These are juniors in HS. After basic aerodynamic lecture and discussion, we gave the students the "rules" of the event and turned them loose on their own design. If something was way out of line, we stepped in. Otherwise, we gave the building techniques and turned them loose. They were allowed to re-engineer, re-construct, re-fly, until contest date. I spent alot of time stripping rubber. One year everybody flew on 1/16" super sport. They could tie their own of differing lengths (an experiment all its own). Seeing their own creation fly was worth it whether they had the longest duration or not meant little to most of them. Way back we entered an on-line A6 contest. Some had their names posted on the web. That was a big deal.
Ric
-----Original Message-----
From: Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com on behalf of Mark F1diddler
Sent: Mon 2/1/2010 3:38 PM
To: Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Indoor_Construction] Re: A6 to become new AMA event ?
--- In Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com, Ric Thompson <thompsonr@...> wrote:
<<Plastic covering was OK, 50% stab area, 1.90 gram minimum w/o rubber, the rest unchanged. It was a stunning success. My students loved it and they learn alot...
Limited A6 as a separate category may make everyone happy. >>
I like it, "A6-Limited" for the novice-beginner-Arseer-whatever-step. I did a rough calc to figure that your stunning success 1.9g A6-Limited using any covering weighing .35g/100 sq. could be built with 6.7 lb wood. I'm going to make one to see how it survives in low ceiling. Get to fly this Saturday, weather/roads permitting.
What design did you use?
Mark F1diddler
> Mark,
>
> I also qualify as one newcomer that would be affected by A6 rules. I teach a high school engineering tech class in Ohio. In the past we used A6 as our aerodynamics project. Condenser paper was hard to come by and warped our structures. We stopped doing the project out of frustration. The next year I decided to heck with your rules, I'll make my own. Plastic covering was OK, 50% stab area, 1.90 gram minimum w/o rubber, the rest unchanged. It was a stunning success. My students loved it and they learn alot. The students went out and solicited pledges for time aloft and donated the money to a local aircraft museum. We tried Limited Penny planes the next year (seniors) and that proved too technical and took too much teacher involvement (Warping prop blades). You guys can discuss all you want, but we'll go back to my rules and just have our own contest. Limited A6 as a separate category may make everyone happy. It just might help some new kids enter your hobby.
>
> Ric Thompson, GlenOak HS
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Received on Mon Feb 01 2010 - 13:00:19 CET