Topic: DS-UK Speeds...

Asked to attempt to up the Weasel record, its launch frontside produced a mostly backward flight of a few seconds duration during which the well secured fin fell off.
So another good day at the office

Crikey Graham - that sounds like a great day of DS achievement! Three D60s over 200 today - you must be looking forward to getting yours in the air 

Having watched Steve's performance the other day up at HH I have to say that I reckon he may well be the finest DS pilot in the UK right now - in very difficult conditions, he still manages to cut great looking laps every time. God knows what he would do on the Skirrid on the right day. It's a shame that he's leaving and that he doesn't have a larger model to really push his potential.

Do be sure to post those speeds up on RCG, Graham - I believe you are correct that Steve is now the quickest 60 in the UK - Adam was at 271mph. 279 also makes Steve the 9th fastest D60 pilot in the world - quite an achievement! Abbo's 5th spot in the UK at 283 just got away with it!

Jonathan's 241 makes an interesting change to our UK top ten - it drops Graham Reed off into 11th, which means that all of the speeds in the top ten have been set by pilots currently active within the last year on the DS circuit. As you said yourself, Graham, it looks like DS isn't dead at all!

Congrats again to all for an excellent day. Any change to the Axis of Weasel? [edit: crossed post - bad luck! - next time I'm sure]

Z

PS Based on last performance, I may well need some help flying the D130!! Although I'm certainly in no rush to try to get lucky with it - some laps needed first with smaller models to get the fingers back to half decent condition I think!

Awesome! Congrats guys 

Was just wondering how you were mate - HNY etc. How's the hangar looking - MCT back in action?

Oh btw - a development which could well mean a substantial reshuffle of our top ten in the imminent future - Scott Ravenscroft has acquired Adam's D80. Can't see Scott sitting under 250 for long with that!

Z

Having watched Steve's performance the other day up at HH I have to say that I reckon he may well be the finest DS pilot in the UK right now - in very difficult conditions, he still manages to cut great looking laps every time. God knows what he would do on the Skirrid on the right day. It's a shame that he's leaving and that he doesn't have a larger model to really push his potential.

+1
Agree absolutely, awesome pilot - and super nice guy. Perhaps we should hide his passport    If Steve & Graham had K100s and Falcon radars today...

Was just wondering how you were mate - HNY etc. How's the hangar looking - MCT back in action?

Good thanks Zim, HNY! 
Yes, still got the Opii, though I mostly stick to smashing up models on the frontside now 

Crikey Graham - that sounds like a great day of DS achievement! Three D60s over 200 today - you must be looking forward to getting yours in the air 

Certainly was, I'm in no doubt Steve passed 300 on more than one occasion during his first D60 flight.
Interestingly, his D60 coped better than his MCT with conditions today; in contrast to previous paired runs where the MCT has proved the more stable.
Perhaps due in part to the Opus having a near-full belly of ballast, which evidently contributed toward very significant wing-bend.
A characteristic not seen with Dynamics........

Jonathan & Chris are going to be climbing further up the list........

Yup, looking forward to pulling the stick with the D60.  After watching 3 perform today, my thumb's tired.

Well done lads

Green with envy.

As for DS being Dead, I think its down to priorities, and for me often not wanting to do it alone. But it can be frustrating.

As for Scot and his D80, Will he DS it? wouldn't surprise me if he kept it for trying to smash the front side record. It would be good to see what he could do with it round the back.

Just really hope abbo gets a wr ds model soon too.

Will

looking at honing in my f3fskills this year will(whats left of em anyhoo)then we will see about rufflin southall,s feathers again .......i have not given up just yet my target is still 350mph! few f3f issue,s yet!

Did you sell Inspector Clouseau's mate to fund an F3Fer? I was wondering if you were selling it to join the Kinectic club 

Z

Great day yesterday and really enjoyed seeing Steve carve out lap after lap of perfect ds circuits, exhilerating to watch

My personnel highlight  was upping my pb by 70mpfor to finally become a member of the 200mph club, chuffed to bits and wasn half as scary as i thought it might be !

Star of the day for me was Jonathon W, very new to dsing and his first time out using his D60 and he smasshed 241mph ? Great speeds and a name  we will be hearing about a lot more about in ds circles in the months to come

Rite when we out again???

Thanks for the kind words guys. It was a pleasure and a thrill to be out there the other day. Some scary conditions at the start. I've never seen my D60 get such a beating by rotors. I remember saying after the first flight that it felt like flying a D40.

A short clip of Jon W from the other day, including a very cool ninja star (uploaded at 720p):

Ninja Star

looking at honing in my f3fskills this year will(whats left of em anyhoo)then we will see about rufflin southall,s feathers again .......i have not given up just yet my target is still 350mph! few f3f issue,s yet!

Do it with your MCT and we'll carve a statue of you and place it on a hill! 

Steve,

Well done for the 279mph PB/D60 UK record.
Thank you for filming my flight; it must have taken some skill recording my erratic flying! After that very first DS flight with my D60 I will definitely calm the throws down as it was a handful at times.

Good luck to you Steve with your new job in Dubai.

Chris, well done for reaching your PB of 210mph I knew it wouldn’t take you long to reach 200.

Thanks for your help guys , it turned out to be a great day .

Cheers,

J W

Well done lads

Green with envy.

As for DS being Dead, I think its down to priorities, and for me often not wanting to do it alone. But it can be frustrating.

As for Scot and his D80, Will he DS it? wouldn't surprise me if he kept it for trying to smash the front side record. It would be good to see what he could do with it round the back.

Just really hope abbo gets a wr ds model soon too.

Will

Prob going to smash the frontside record whilst getting use to it, then just go 1mph faster than you on the backside Wil, because I can.
....................LOL.
tbh dont no if i will ds it

Scott r

Behave! You and I both know you'll be ripping it up over 250 at 1ft high in no time at all! Enjoy it Scott 

Z

Behave! You and I both know you'll be ripping it up over 250 at 1ft high in no time at all! Enjoy it Scott 

Z

No chance! he has took the tip weight out to make it fly nice

I think mine flys nice with it  but then I put in a bit less than you (12 oz per tip). Likely they fly nice with a pound in each tip when they go really fast. Which unfortunately none of us have really done with the D80 yet - world fastest at 393mph and we're only 26th and 27th fastest with that airframe - puts our opinions into perspective! 

Z

No chance! he has took the tip weight out to make it fly nice

wanna bet on it Mr Vespa!!!, we will see.........

Spencer........World Record.....487mph. Ant.

Well done Spencer.

world fastest at 393mph and we're only 26th and 27th fastest with that airframe - puts our opinions into perspective! 

Z

  Not sure what you meen by that?

  Not sure what you meen by that?

Don't mean anything other than with our respective speeds of 290 and 292mph with the D80, we're not yet in the speed range that the fast guys in the US are building their models for. Perhaps a pound in each tip feels fantastic at 350+ - unfortunately neither of us have made it up there yet, so our opinions can't account for how a D80 feels at those speeds. It's likely that that level of ballast comes into its own faster than either of us have yet been, otherwise why would they all be doing it?

I certainly can't vouch for the feeling of a pound per tip myself, as mine isn't set up that heavy at 12oz per tip - so I'll take your word for how it feels at 290  I can't remember what mine felt like at the same speed other than I was just grateful to hang onto it at that pace! Certainly I'll vouch that generally I like the way mine handles with the tip ballast I have in it - certainly doesn't seem too much. But I definitely don't want to get into a tip ballast debate with anyone again!! Let variety be the spice of life!

Z

Captain Spencer Fantastic.
And he did it "before sun up", so in morning twilight!

Note 60" record tied at 360.
D60 of course.

New foamy record 48" Gulp 238 mph.

Wind topped out at  near 70 mph.
Norco, so Joe Manor won't have been there.

Big winds returning for the back end of the week/ weekend, hoping to get out again. Anyone else planning a trip out or are we all tucked up for the winter?

Hoping to get out this weekend.

Weasel fixed - the fin fell out last time due to an undetected split in the fuz.
Hoping to have M60 ready, work in progress.

Need some DS

Nice one G, be interesting to see how the gyro assisted M60 performs, get some vid if poss.

It's a killer build, so might not be ready in time.
Especially as Saturday currently looks the better option.

PM me if you're heading down.

Skirrid looking good for Saturday.

With better planes to hand, think I'd ignore the round trip cost & hoof it down there.

Hope to start my ascent of the Skirrid about 09:00 Sat
I was up the Skirrid a couple of weeks ago. I went up  early but by 11:30 there were so many walkers it was difficult to find a gap to fly in safely. The car park was full when I got down a short time later with cars parked in the road. It looks like early or late flying even in January

Hope to start my ascent of the Skirrid about 09:00 Sat
I was up the Skirrid a couple of weeks ago. I went up  early but by 11:30 there were so many walkers it was difficult to find a gap to fly in safely. The car park was full when I got down a short time later with cars parked in the road. It looks like early or late flying even in January

A couple of weeks ago was probably still in the 'Get Fit for a New Years Resolution' zone - our slopes were packed with walkers too. We had an awful lot of ashes being scattered, and old ashes sites being revisited too.

I think it should mostly have worn off by now?

Good point, YoYo, Curbar was busier than I'd ever seen it, & lots of the people didn't have the appearance of regular walkers.
Especially the bird in hot pants.

Good luck at Skirrid Geoff & I hope a few join you.
It does look v.good for Sat, & still good Sunday & Monday too.

If I did Sat Sun & Mon  somebody would be scattering my ashes

How was it, Geoff?

Hi, The weather was good unlike my flying,  wind 25-30 mph gusts to 40 I think there was a bit  to much North in it . Very turbulent around the back or it might be me not being aggressive enough for the wind speed . With my Stinger plank I only managed a few laps before getting it wrong and slowing up too much then the rotor grabbed it and stuffed it in . No major damage just an aileron snapped. My own design Grass Cutter 60 based on the American Daisy Cutter did a lot better but still very erratic. The Erwin style fuz attachment  worked well eventually with fuz and wing parting with no damage unfortunately one flap was ripped off and I did not have any hinge tape with me 
 No other flyers but local flyer Tim came up to see how I got on. I think he set a new hill record for slopers with a time from car park to flying site of 17 minutes !! It takes me 45 -50 minutes. I  will post a video when I've edited out the boring bits. For the wind I think I needed to  be heaver and make a  faster entry.
Geoff

17mins - awesome! Any pics of the Grass Cutter?

Z

The GC is in bits at the moment ,I'm re hinging everything.But I've posted a video on Vimeo. The first few seconds show the general layout.The glider is inspired By  the Daisy  Cutter on the RC groups forum
The wing construction is the same as any EPP plank with golf club shafts as spars then gooped ,no tape and covered in 250 mil lam film. Ballast tube in front and behind the spar. The aerofoil section is HSNLF(1)-0213 quite thick and the deepest point quite a way back .Its thick enough at the root to use standard size servos for the flaps. The battery is embedded in one wing root and the receiver in the other. The elevator servo is in the tail.
There is nothing left for the fuz to do but hold  some lead out the front and the tail out the back. So it's another golf club shaft.
The wing is taped on to a platform on the shaft like the Ewrin.

Grass Cutter Skirrid 20-01-2012

Thanks for posting, Geoff, that video is a refreshing change from the usual edited perfection. :a

Very brave to DS something with a bendy golfshaft connecting wing to tail!

More, please.

Yes the tail is a bit bendy . I'm in the process of making another fus with some balsa cladding  to give shape and diameter and then glass to add stiffness.
With that aerofoil its certainly not a floater. But I'm please it flies and is more controllable than my Stinger. My first "own design" plane. (most of the design cribbed from various forums )
I only put the video up to show the shape of the plane .I should have put a warning on it that the rest of the footage was dangerously boring

Have you considered carving a wooden fuz from say, an old stair banister?

Possibly easier, stiffer & less prone to damage.
And it adds a bit of mass.

I've just noticed that the lounge curtains are held up by an nice straight 1 1/4  pole. I wonder if she'd notice

I have fuz moulds for a version of this, give me a shout if you are interested in one. Will have to get my wings finished and come down to fly with you sometime, as I have been building it for flights at Skirrid mainly, probably too heavy to fly any of my local hills. glad you are getting on well with it though.  Happy my sugestion to build one from epp worked out for you, Arron would be interested to hear about it as well I am sure, as he is currently building a lighter version.