Re: Beginner events and why they're hard for beginners

From: Yuan Kang Lee <ykleetx_at_gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 07 Sep 2012 17:43:27 -0000

The first thing I discovered when I started flying F1D is that a F1D is a lot easier to launch than the "beginner" models I fly. I have spent a lot of time on EZB, F1L, and Limited Pennyplane (LPP). Raise your hand if you have had your EZB or F1L dive on launch because the motor stick was too flexible? (Both mine are raised.)

In an ironic way, we have made our beginner models harder to fly than F1D. Of course, we know one reason -- a solid wood motor stick is easy to build but it generally does not work well under high torque and tension of the rubber motor.

Bracing a solid motor stick is relatively easy to do, whether using wood bracing or thread. Bracing substantially increases the performance of the motor stick. Not only will this help to make these beginner models launch better, allowing bracing means the quality of the solid motor stick does not have to be as good. Hobby shop balsa can be used. A lighter MS can be used, and the weight budget can be used elsewhere. These all greatly lower the barrier of entry for the beginner -- YET, these effects increases the performance of the model for the beginner. You don't usually find these "win-win" scenarios.

-Kang

--- In Indoor_Construction_at_yahoogroups.com, "olbill61" <wdgowen@...> wrote:
>
> I may be stepping on Kang's toes a little here but he and I had almost the exact same thought about a way to make beginner events easier. Since I thought of it yesterday I'm adopting it as my idea.
>
> The rules for LPP, F1L, EZB and A6 say the MS has to be solid wood and in different ways and to different extents pretty much rule out any sort of bracing. Making a MS work correctly and not weigh too much is one of the hardest parts of building any of these models. It's a part of building that requires the most care in wood selection and building experience. It's probably one of the main reasons why experienced flyers have such an edge in these events.
>
> So this may be blasphemy but why not pick one or two of these events and say that the MS still has to be solid wood but you can brace it. The bracing could be limited to thread or wood or you could just leave it open for people to experiment with.
>
> The people who have successfully conquered the MS problem wouldn't have to change anything and would probably still win but the beginning flyers would have a much better chance of building a flyable model to the minimum weight.
>
> I've seen a few beginning indoor flyers who have spent a lot of time building a model but just get really demoralized when they couldn't make it fly. Having this type of experience is not good for keeping people interested.
>
Received on Fri Sep 07 2012 - 10:43:29 CEST