To both Don's Re:Bostonians and No-Cals

From: N. A. Monllor <nmonllor_at_tampabay.rr.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2012 08:42:41 -0400

Don. S.,

You have now opened my eyes to something that has impressed the hell out of me!!

You wrote “
By the way I find the 1/10 scale speed comment interesting, and yes I know it was tongue in cheek, but for a quick exercise, a Fike or Lacey built to 3 grams will need about 2 grams of rubber to fly so 5 gram in weight, that calcs out to about 3.42 mph flying speed and the models would be about ~1/20th scale at 16" span so 20*3.42mph ~75 mph which is a reasonable cruise speed for a homebuilt. My 2 gram Cessna Cardinal with its smaller wing flies faster at 5.08mph and is 1:26.6 scale so it is flying at 135mph scale speed and the full size one cruises at 143 mph. So not as far off as one would think :-) “.

 

Does the scaling of speed workout on its own or, do we build to that?

 

Don D.,

In the book Indoor Flying Models, I see a Bostonian Celtic designed by you. Could you email me privately the measurements of this model and any specific information you might deem necessary for me to successfully replicate this model. Please keep in mind it will be my first Bostonian ever.

Thank you,

Ren

 

 

From: Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com [mailto:Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Don Slusarczyk
Sent: Monday, June 11, 2012 11:44 PM
To: Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Indoor_Construction] Bostonians and No-Cals

 

  

You summarized my thesis as "the validity of ones hobby is based purely on paid memberships". I did not say that.


Not directly but here is how I inferred it. You originally posted:

"With due respect if you and Don can't see the absurdity of a 12" prop on a 16" span scale model then I don't know what to say.

FAC ain't for everyone, and it's not perfect either. But around 1800 paid members seem to agree it's a pretty good thing.

How many of those 1800 are inspired by watching 2 gram no cals flop around the gym at one-tenth scale speed?"

It is then implied that the 1800 paid members in FAC outweigh the two of us, so you have 1800 on your side, we are only two. Then you comment on how a 2 gram nocal is essentially unimpressive in the last sentence. So therefore what were are doing is "wrong" as it is not what the 1800 others are doing. So I then concluded that you placed paid memberships of 1800 people in higher regard than what we are doing. They are right we are wrong. I then took that to the next step which was to compare "free flight" as a whole to RC as whole.

By the way I find the 1/10 scale speed comment interesting, and yes I know it was tongue in cheek, but for a quick exercise, a Fike or Lacey built to 3 grams will need about 2 grams of rubber to fly so 5 gram in weight, that calcs out to about 3.42 mph flying speed and the models would be about ~1/20th scale at 16" span so 20*3.42mph ~75 mph which is a reasonable cruise speed for a homebuilt. My 2 gram Cessna Cardinal with its smaller wing flies faster at 5.08mph and is 1:26.6 scale so it is flying at 135mph scale speed and the full size one cruises at 143 mph. So not as far off as one would think :-)






Obviously there are other factors involved. But membership numbers do tell an interesting story, don't you think?


All it tells me is how many people participate in the activity. It says nothing about the validity of the activity. Lots of people play golf but that does not mean it is a better activity than say a guy with a metal detector walking a beach.




But let's not make this a contrast between FAC and indoor duration, because that's a horrible mismatch.


But that is the whole debate isn't it? You treat FAC events flown indoors as if they are still outdoor events. They are not, when flown inside they are now indoor duration events. You say a 12" prop on an indoor Nocal is absurd but at an indoor contest 7" span ministicks have 7" props, OPP has 18" span and 17" props and that is the norm for indoor. So to an indoor guy that is normal, we have no thermals to speak of. So when an FAC event that is scored purely on duration is flown indoors the indoor duration modelers who fly this event will apply indoor techniques and practices to the event. If you want nocal to have plastic props and solid motorsticks then get the FAC to change the rules so the indoor guys will have to fly the same style models as the outdoor guys do. I have been waiting for that change for years actually and have been surprised that it has not happened yet as was recently done to Phantom Flash. (the one piece plastic prop rule reduced indoor flight times from 4 minutes to about 3 minutes) and if that happens to nocal, expect contest grade motorsticks and scraped down plastic props and then he complains will start up all over again :-)
 
Don S.
Received on Tue Jun 12 2012 - 05:42:44 CEST