My Pike Precision in RC Modely Magazine

An article about the Pike precision has been published in RC modely, a Czech specialized RC magazine. I mention it here because I provided some pictures to illustrate the article and result is nice :). Some of you will recognize one of my home slope near Grenoble in the french Alps. This is the slope where the next F3F french Championship will be organized end of May 2012.

Unfortunately, I don't speak Czech.  Anyway, I can add this magazine to the long list of Magazines I contributed to, directly or indirectly by providing pictures.

• RCM (France)
• RC Pilot (France)
• Looping (France)
• Passion'ailes (France)
• Modèle Magazine (France)
• QFI (UK)
• Silent Flight (UK)
• Aufwind (Germany)
• RC Soaring Digest (USA)
• ... and now RC modely (Czech Republic)

You can find the website of the magazine here: RC modely

Prodij HM prototype

Aeromod posted a video about the Prodij HM prototype, their new 60 inches. The fuselage is still the fuselage of the previous version of the Prodij. The Prodij HM will be available before the end of the year.

New MKS glider servo approaching

Few weeks ago I was mentionning the MKS DS92 which is a plastic case + core motor version of the DS95. MKS, on its facebook page , is announcing the glider version of the DS92. The name is of this newcomer is DS6188. Perfect for V-tails or small glider ailerons.

F3F automated base detection system

Reto Blumer, the most frenchie of the swiss currently works on very interresting project which consist in building a automated base detection system, that could be used for training or during competition for accurate base beeping.

The project is at the very beginning, but here is a video which shows some results:







you can read more information on Reto's blog here: PureAirCaving

Team Black sheep: The slovenia experience

Team Black sheep released a new video "The slovenia experience", a video taken above the Triglav National Park. A Great video with superb editing:

Typhoon Race report by Stanley Chan

Here is the link to a very interesting report by Stanley Chan about the Typhoon Race 2011 which ended with amazing times and a world record. 

Courtesy of Stanley Chan

then you can watch this video:

Flying above Monteynard

A onboard video taken with my Easyglider and the goPro HD yesterday afternoon above the village of Monteynard, a small village of 500 habitants near Grenoble, and which gave its name to the big artificial water reservoir for the Électricité de France power station on the Drac River, created in 1961, when the 145-meter-high dam was built. The lake is 10 kilometers long, and in some places up to 300 meters wide.

Adhesive Film Covering

Developed more than 10 years ago by Gérard Prat and Thierry Martinet, this covering technic is used now by large manufacturer like Tangent. The following article based on the detailed description provided by Gérard and Thierry has been published in QFI 10 years ago, but is still up to date.

I propose you the complete article in English as a PDF format, that you can download here.

Shark attack !

This is not about sailplane, but still lots of fun:





What doesn't say the video if that, just after I stopped to record, the Shark flew away (given that the infrared remote control range is about 10m only), and disappeared very high in the sky. We didn't have the time to catch it, and possibly, the sun warmed the helium inside the envelop and made the shark to climb quickly... too bad !

So don't be surprised if, somewhere in the french alps, even at 3000m of altitude, you meet a shark :) !!!

Stiction 1.7: "PSP" - Profile Slope Planes for VTPR

I received a mail from Eric Johnson who continues to explore a new concept for Aerobatics / VTPR and called: PSP - Profile Slope Planes.

He is working on the Stiction 1.7. You can follows the building on the following RCgroups thread:
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1534741

Caracteristics are: 1.7m wingspan, SB96 section, about 800g.

The Stiction will use the proven rubber band wing mount that can save the wing when hitting the ground. The revisited old good recipes are still working :) !

T12FG upgraded with a Lithium Ion 2S2P 2800mAh battery

I upgraded my T12FG with a Lithium Ion 2S2P 2800mAh battery from Robbe. This battery is equiped with a integrated balancer/limiter, which simplify the charge. This new battery should give 8:30 to 9 hours of working time which is more that needed.

I also decided to change my NC Manager 2 plus, a 20 years old charger from Simprop by a Robbe Quad EQ-BID 4x50W. This charger will allow me to charge simultaneously the transmitter and 3 planes. Convenient at the slope after a day of flight or competition to prepare the next day in a record time.

F3F french league results

2011 season has been disapponting as 4 contests over 10 have been unvalidated for weather condition or lack of participants. Just for information a contest is valid if there is more than 12 participants and at least 48 flights (4 rounds at 12, or 2 rounds at 24 participants, etc ...).

Laurac 1 was a good practice with good consitions before to drive to La Muela FAI/Eurotour.TOA, in the center of France near Aubenas allowed to discover a new south slope. Briançon, an high mountain slope gave very variable conditions. FU was on one day only, but allow to discover another extreme F3F slope, world record capable. Caussols, in October, gave low wind conditions, but was still validated. Laurac 2 ended the season with great condition during 2 days. Contests not validated were: La Banne D'ordanche, Notre Dame de Vaulx, La route des crêtes (Vosges), La Madeleine (Basque country).

That said, the participation remained good, with a total of 63 participants, and about 30 pilots playing for a ranking. Season 2011 was the season of the Vampire with lots of them. The Alliaj HM remains a best seller. Ceres/Cyril are still good value. At the end of the season we saw the some FS4 and the new Pike Precision, both very promising.

Some video of the season 2011:

TOA 2011:


Fond D'urle

Weasel Black Edition

I started the building of my Weasel Black Edition. This time I didn't papersand picos on the surface to keep it shiny. I used again vinyl for the ailerons. The rest of the assembly should'nt be too long as the most difficult is now done.
For the equipement, I will use a 4 x eneloop 800mAh cells battery, an Assan 2.4Ghz 6-channels small receiver, and 2 hitec HS82mg servos that fit perfectly in the servo compartiment molded. Stay tuned !

Rotmilan final review

I compiled all my posts and pictures about the Rotmilan to end with a review of the plane with tons of pictures and videos. The review is located here: http://pierre.rondel.free.fr/images4/Rotmilan/

Good reading !

F3F at the TV news !

This is not often, so it is important to mention it. Here is the report about the Typhoon Race at the TV in Taiwan. Congratulations again to the new world record holder !

MKS DS 6100 tested: Small but muscular !

Olivier Segouin (aeroglide.net) just sent me the test results of the MKS DS6100 with servormances, the benchmark test bed developped to test servos the same way and have comparable values.

Olivier already tested the prototype of the DS6100 few monthes ago and was amazed by the results. Of course we couldn't publish test results and had to wait the production version.

The production version is even better. This 10g class servos has a usable torque of 2.1kg !!!! Yes, you read well, more than 2kg of torque ... But this is not all: The DS6100 provides an excellent precision, without any compromise on the speed, so you can easily imagine how good is this little monster !

For what use ? Many application are possible. Given that you can buy as option a RDS adapter, this DS6100 will fit in HLG or a 2m sailplane and provide the power you need for the ailerons. But with such torque/speed/precision, it can also find its place into a F3X for the V-tail, and save lots of place in the fuselage.

Please note that this servos is designed to operate under 4.8 to 5V, so 4 Nicd/Nimh Cells. If you want to use more cells you will need a voltage regulator.

You can find the new DS6100 on the manufacturer website: http://www.mks-servo.com.tw/goods.php?goods_id=ds6100

Video: Flying the Rotmilan

This video has been recorded last week-end during a short afternoon after we changed from summer time to winter time !

As you can see on the video, it is autumn now ! unfortunately, the light was poor, so the video is a bit dark, sorry for that.

Anyway, with a wind about 15 to 20 km/h on a vertical slope, the Rotmilan was really nice to fly. I had only 550g of ballast in the fuselage.

With such wind, I obtained the best compromise without any camber or reflex position.

I think this video shows very well the straight speed easily achievable, without diving from 300m height. The snapflap setting is now satisfying.