Jaro Muller Egida specs

Few information starts to appear here and there regarding the Egida from Jaro Muller. Below are the specs of this new F3J/TD sailplane:

• Wingspan 3625 mm
• Length 1670 mm
• Ratio 20,5
• Wing area 64,2 dm2
• Flying weight 1825 g

A new video from team blacksheep

Team Blacksheep has been invited to cover a weekend flying at the Soarist R/C Club in Istanbul, in Turkey.

Here is the video result with very nice soaring actions:

Technical article from Thierry Platon: Tailplane story part 3

En complément des articles précédents, voici une nouvelle version du fichier de calcul « centrage + Vlongi ». Cette nouvelle mouture permet de calculer le Cz de stab pour des planeurs utilisant un mixage snapflap. Elle permet notamment de calculer les courbes de réglage optimisant ce type de mixage.
Les résultats ne sont sans doute pas à prendre au pied de la lettre car les approximations sont nombreuses. Mais ils pourront donner d’utiles indications aux pilotes pour le réglage de leurs machines :

- Quel est l’ordre de grandeur des débattements à adopter ?
- Quelle est l’allure de la courbe de mixage optimale ?
- Faut-il modifier les réglages en fonction du ballast ?
- Quel est l’effet du centrage sur les réglages ?
- etc…

Autant de questions auxquelles la réponse n’est pas toujours facile….

Snapflap et Cz de stab

3 exemples:

1. Centrage + V Stab + réglages F3K
2. Centrage + V Stab + réglages Slimfast
3. Centrage + V Stab + réglages TP370 bis

FPV: New round trip record flight from Roberto Montiel: 55/110 km !!!

Roberto Montiel (Spain) improved his recent record by 20 km !!!!! 55 / 110 km flight is just unreal. It took 5 hours to achieve this record. But what is absolutely awesome is that he used only 34 seconds of motor, which corresponds to only 350 mAh !

Roberto's setup is the following :

• Model: Grafas Top Model CZ, 3 m. span. (14:1 glide ratio @ 50 km/h.)
• Motor: AXI 2820/14
• Prop: Aeronaut foldable 13x6,5
• ESC: Jeti 44 adv.
• Battery: Graupner LIPO 3S 5200 mah.
• Aux. battery: Flightpower LIPO 3s 2500 mah.
• FPV camera: Pixim DX 201
• OSD: Range Video Gen 4 (with autopilot)
• RC TX: Thomas Scherrer LRS (Standard whip antenna tx 0.5 W.)
• RC RX: Thomas Scherrer LRS 12 ch. V 4 (two dipole antenna).Transmiter: Graupner MC24
• Video TX: BEV 1.3 Ghz. 1.5 W. (3 db. whip).
• Video RX: BEV 1.3 Ghz. (14 db patch antenna).
• Logger: SM Modellbau GPS Logger.

Here is the video of this great accomplishment:





Soaring is opening the door to long distance flight since transmission max range is not reached.

I bet Roberto will improve the record again in the coming weeks !

Congratulations Roberto !

Video clip: French Aerobatic Patrol

A "teaser like" video clip about the Patrouille de France (French aerobatic patrol) during the airshow at Grenoble St Geoirs the 22th of May. (Music by Audiomachine).

More video to come.

Egida: new F3J/TD sailplane from Jaro Muller

Despite a total blackout regarding pictures of this new item, here are the very first pictures about this new F3J plane made by  Jaro Muller (Slovakia).
According to people working closely with Jaro Muller, the Egida will bring many new interesting features, and moulding techniques.

The release should be now very soon.

Source: http://www.rcpilotai.lt/forumas/index.php?topic=1455.0

Grenoble St Geoirs Air Show

This is not about sailplanes, but I wanted to share with you some pictures taken yesterday during this fantastic air show at Grenoble St Geoirs. The reason was the 70th anniversary of the school of "Les pupilles de l'air" in Grenoble. This school hosts about 700 children until the bachelor degree.

During the air show  we could see warbirds, aerobactic patrols, the superb Brietling patrol, The Tiger helicopter, a Seafury, the Rafale jet figther, and of course the French Acrobatic Patrol (Patrouille de France), one of the world's oldest and most skilled demonstration teams, flying the Alpha jet. For information, In 2009, the Patrouille de France achieved a world premiere when Commandant Virginie Guyot was appointed leader, becoming the first and only woman in history to lead a demonstration team.

8 hours of show, with a sunny weather. 40000 spectators, lots of spotters and photographers. I will remember this show for a long time !

Here are my pictures:




I have lots of video too, so stay tuned !

Website: Drone d'images

"Drone d'images" is a website created by Olivier Durand, an aerial picture addict who lives in Britanny. He has THE ultimate eye to shoot superb landscapes, capture with the right light, the right angle. Olivier already published a book in 2009 with the same name (Blurb edition).

Being also from Britanny, I'm probably not completely unbiassed :), but this region is so nice for aerial pictures. Take few minutes to visit his blog, browse the different photo album, and I'm sure you will agree with what I'm saying ...

Drone d'images, the book from Olivier Durand

Enjoy !

FPV: 90km round trip record !!!

This FPV amazing record flight has been established by Montiel Roberto in Spain, taking off from La Muela (the F3F slope), near Guadalajara, and flying to Sigüenza, 45km north to La Muela. This 4 hours flight, using only 482 mAh of motor power took benefit of the numerous thermal. The electro sailplane used is a Grafas, a 3m wingspan plane from Topmodel.cz

Congratulations to Montiel Roberto for this record !

Here is his video:

Video: Pico del Fraile

This nice video from Fernando Moro (www.henryF3F.com) is about a competition in Spain, on a new slope discovered last year: Pico del Fraile, near Vitoria. The lift seems really great according to the times they do.

TOA 2011: video of a 38s run

Here is a video of Frédéric Hours flying his Freestyler 3 at the TOA 2011 and achieving a nice 38s with EM turns. Frédéric finished 3rd at this competition of the French F3F league.

More info about the T18MZ

More info about the T18MZ can be found on Futaba website

• It’s the first true 18-channel Futaba radio system ever. It comes with an R7000SB receiver, as well as transmitter and receiver batteries.
• The R7008SB is a high-voltage design that lets you use as many — or as few — channels as you want.
  • You can operate on up to 8 channels using the 8 standard PWM inputs. Servo options are wide open, ranging from simple analog to S.Bus and new S.Bus2 servos.
  • You have access to up to 18 channels (16 proportional + 2 digital) through the 18MZ’s two S.Bus2 ports. That means simpler, more foolproof setup and full support for S.Bus and S.Bus2 servos.
• It features a SD Card slot. Slide a card in the slot, and you have ample (and adjustable) capacity for updates, model memory and more.
• It includes versatile “internal memory”. It’s not just for model/setup data; it can also be used for sound and picture files. That’s especially nice, since the 18MZ has…
• A built-in 0.3M megapixel camera. No need for a digital camera or even a flip phone. Just point the 18MZ, click and you have a foolproof picture ID of your model in seconds.
• It includes a 6” touch screen with 640x240 resolution. Big, brilliant and backlit for easy viewing anywhere, it provides sparkling clarity on remarkably little power. Gentle finger pressure is all that’s needed for fast, easy navigation and programming.
• You can download software updates online. This is a standard feature for Futaba computer systems, and easily one of the most popular customer “perks.” It’s a fast and easy way to keep your system “current”.
• A 7.4V, 3500mAh LiPo transmitter battery is standard equipment.
• It features a built-in U.S.B. Port. You can use it to connect a memory stick or connect it to a keyboard or mouse or use it to download telemetry data to your PC or laptop for storage and reference.
• It includes a Serial Interface, too. Futaba already offers a stand-alone serial interface (the CIU-2) for programming the travel, endpoint and other functions of S.Bus and S.Bus2 servos. This built-in (and the free download) lets you do the same with the 18MZ.
• Stick angle adjusts quickly and easily. First introduced on the 14MZ, the adjustable gimble angles feature has proven so popular that it was included on the 18MZ, as well. It’s more than a comfort/convenience feature; it allows you to customize your control setup for greater ease and precision.

F3F Eurotour in Poland

Below is a movie (from specyfickRC) about the F3F Eurotour Competition in Poland. The slope is a water powerplant near Gniewino ! Competition was won by Lukas Gaubatz (Austria).

Video: TOA 2011

Here is a short video I made about the TOA 2011: Great competition, new promising F3F spot

Breaking News: Futaba to release the high end T18MZ transmitter

This new high end tramsitter T18MZ and currently on show at the 2011 Shizuoka Hobby Show in Japan. It features 18 channels, a large LCD touch screen, and even a camera on the back plane to take pictures to store in your model memory. More importantly, it features a 2 ways transmission FAASTest enbling the famous telemetry we are still waiting .... This new transmitter should be into the stores this fall 2011. More pictures can be found here

TOA 2011

This is the third contest of the 2011 french F3F league. 25 pilots met this week-end in Ardèche with sunny weather. For this edition, the organized took us on a new spot. After a 40 minutes’walk, we reached the slope which is a 15m basalt cliff on top of a 45° slope, facing the south. As soon as the wind has been established, we managed 6 rounds in growing conditions, and thermal activities on top. The 2 best times of the competition has been achieved by the 2 juniors ! A magic 33.99s has been flown by Sebastien Lanes who progressed a lot the last few monthes, followed by a 35s by Thomas Faure.





On my side, I started 3 rounds with my Vampire but was not happy of the snap flap settings, so switched to the Ambrosia F3X and won the next round, then flew a 37s and finished by a 42s in crossed wind. The Ambrosia flew very well in EM style. What again surprised me is how it was easy to place the plane where I wanted, following the right path along the edge, with a great stability.

Sunday, we returned to the same slope but the wind decided to not blow enough, so we were unable to do additional rounds. I took the opportunity to work on the Vampire and try to improve the snap flap settings by adding some expo to the elevator in order to have the snap flap acting first, then later the elevator. The result is now much better.

Sébastien Lanes won the competition followed by Mathieu Mervelet and Frederic Hours. I finished fourth with 989 points.

A big thanks to the organizers for this friendly and nice competition, and for all participants for the fun we all shared !

Here is the video of the best flight taken by Sebastien Lanes himself using a contour HD fixed on his head, while piloting. I have also some nice video about other flights that I need to edit.

New release (v1.2.3) of chrono F3F (F3F stopwatch)

Thibaud Ringenbach released a new version of "chrono F3F" which talks english. In addition, some bugs have been fixed, and there is a new feature that allow to define the number of round a pilot can achieve in a single flight. This is convenient during practice session.

As reminder, the application is freeware and can be found on the Android Market

Video: Rügen 2011

Here are 2 videos from Thorsten Folkers about Rügen 2011 (Open FAI and German Championship in the same week-end) with very technical slopes like the Turbulator and the Wind Tunnel. Rügen will held the first F3F world championship from the 6th to the 13th of october 2012.

Part 1:






Part 2: