HTL Catchup

It's been a while since I've done any blogging here, hope I can still remember how to do this. Below are some pictures and short summaries for the last three HTL contests - hopefully drumming up some enthusiasm for Sunday's 5th Round of the series scheduled for Silverton. See you there.

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HTL #4 BERG
June 7, 2009
By some amazing stroke of luck the big cold front predicted to spoil our Sunday flying was held at bay by some large high pressure system that settled over the interior and we were treated to an absolutely perfect gliding day. Great cloud formations, light winds and very variable and challenging thermals.

BERG support was disappointing with Piet off sick and only Gordon and myself representing the BERG team. I flew my trusty old Sagitta and Gordon flew his Fling.



It was great to see the guys from Boksburg participating despite Alan and Juanita being away at the World Games to fly F3K (in which he placed second - well done Alan. See the MGA Blog for his report).

Also great to see Don Slater visiting us here in Gauteng again and taking part in the competition. SGC, MMS and ETB were all well represented with more than one team each.

The F3B team used the contest as an opportunity to practice the F3B duration task with their Ceres models and did very well against the majority F3J models. Winner in the Open Class was Craig Goodrum with Paul and Chris sharing second place.

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HTL #3 MMS
April 5, 2009
Yes, this was way back when the grass was still green ... just seems so long ago. The MMS HTL was flown at the BERG field and BERG was represented by myself, Piet, Robert, Jochen and Tony.

Weather was cool with hardly any wind early in the early morning working up to a fair breeze by lunchtime. The afternoon rounds had us chasing thermals under the cumulus clouds far downwind.

Results were Michelle first, Craig second and Paul third - with the points very close.

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HTL #2 SGC
March 8, 2009
A last minute venue change from GGGC to the lush SGC field for the second leg of the HTL league and hot, humid and light wind conditions set us up for a really great day of flying.

Thermals were strong but small so in most slots all models would huddle into the same thermal resulting in some close calls. Just unlucky were Craig and Gert when their models touched. Not too much damaged but both models retired from the contest.

BERG posted two teams comprising myself, Piet, Jochen, Peter and Tony.

Paul, Deon and Johan took the first three places.

A really great social day with many pilots staying well after the contest finished to fun fly and socialise.

Dangers of Props

Be careful when testing your electric motors.
While Trevor was testing the current draw on his 540 brushed motor with folding prop, a blade snapped of and hit his son, Wesley in the face.

Wesley at the hospital

He is a very lucky chap not to loose an eye or have his jugular vein severed.

Ouch

It seems these props might be faulty, because when Trevor took the plane out to fly the next weekend another blade snapped of exactly the same. Luckily this time nobody was in the way.

Small, but lethal

And as can be seen here, Wesley is healing nicely.

Roets Aeromodel Design

How many of you remember the large Scale J3 Cub I posted a few months ago. Well Chris has his own Blog now. And he has some new models in his stable.

Check out Roets Aeromodel Design http://www.roetsaeromodeldesign.blogspot.com/

Chris says he would love to come and fly at BERG one weekend and even do some aerotow for us. If anyone wants to get hold of him, you can phone him on 082 572 2118

I recon one of these beauties are perfect for the job.

So get those big scale gliders ready guys.

SOS Children’s home demonstration day.

Sherk is not only a Movie Star.

Yesterday I had to collect the work that I took to Silverton no so long ago and this time round knew that I could pop in to Craig Baker’s (Cloud base Composites) factory next door for a quick cup of coffee. This time it was no surprise to Craig when he saw me.

After seeing the post on the BERG blog he decide to give his workshop complete make over and a spring clean just in case a Berg reporter pitched up again and start snapping some pictures for the BERG blog. To help him he had call in his veteran Tug-pilot (Shrek) as you can see entering his Wilga A35 tug from a unusual top wing position to do some instruments checking.


Sherk is not only a Movie Star but he happens to be a very active tug pilot on weekends at the Silverton model gliding club near Pretoria. During the week he helps Craig with the maintenance and building of beautiful model RC gliders.




To see more of his activities you can go to Cloud base Composites blog at this link .http://cloudbase-composites.blogspot.com/

Big Exl

Chris and his 3M electric Big Exl

Really nice electric glider but at more than 3 Kg tricky to setup, cover some sky in a hurry and fully aerobatic.

F3B Practice at BERG

Lionel and Michelle about to launch a Deon’s F3B glider.

On Sunday morning the weather did not look promising for a good thermal activity and RC gliding at all, but I needed my flying fix for the week and also to go and help BERG newest member Chris to maiden his 3 meter electricship.

Deon concentrating on landing after a speed run.

Take that!!! ( Lionel with a strong right hand launch)

I did not expect many members to turn up. To my surprise and as I turned into the gate at the Berg field there were 4 cars ahead of me heading for the parking spot. It turned out to be the SA F3B team all geared up and ready for practicing for not so far away upcoming world F3B championships later on this year.

BERG's newest members Johan and Chris with their keen youngsters.

Apart from a light to moderate wind (that started out somewhat southerly and then turned NW) the flying we did turned out okay.

Later on Stefan arrived and had us all amazed with his latest discus launch glider demonstrating some good launching heights

3 New Members for the BERG club

Last Saturday 3 new members joined the BERG Club and with the wind coming moderately strong from the west they had to wait until late before the wind calmed down a bit so they could get some flying in. The photo above shows André getting his electric J3 cub away in late afternoon sun. A big welcome to Chris, André and his father, I wish you many happy flights on the BERG field.

Chris overlooking André's J3Cub

On Tuesday (21 April) I had to go to Silverton for my work to have some engraving done. After I was done and as I was about to leave there he was, Craig Baker hard at work building gliders in the factory next door. I only had my cell phone with me but I was not going to miss this opportunity to take some pictures for the BERG blog. It is indeed a small world we live in.

Recent trip to Volksrust

E- Tsotsi does it again!

On the Easter weekend and only 6 weeks after the first record attempt, my electric Tsotsi has done it again. This time round it flew for just about double the distance set before (72 km by road and 63 km in a straight line). Like last time all information will be forwarded to the MGA for recognition of the new distance record.

In a second attempt on Sunday to improve on the 63km we could only achieved 50km due to a faulty throttle set up and ESC not responding properly in strong head winds.

This time round the conditions was just the opposite from the near ideal conditions we had on the first attempt. Starting of on Saturday the 11th of April at around 7 AM and 6 km from Volksrust , heading towards Amersfort, Moregenzon and Bethal . The total course distance of 100km.

The condition did not look promising at all and with a cold front passing over the day before there was a distinct nip in the air. We were fortunate to have the AMT Bakkie from Evan's work to improve visibility while tracking the E-Tostsi and this proved to be a much better option than the one sided view I had from Evan's Kombi on the first attempt .

My normal camping chair was secured to the back of the Bakkie and apart from the rushing wind noise, was reasonably comfortable. Once again and like the last attempt there was just about no wind, but what we did not take into consideration was the low cloud and mist that developed after the flight had stared . This made for some interesting and challenging flying for more than 2/3 of the distance. After the first encounter with low cloud and losing the Tsotsi for about 15 seconds, I was restricted to very short motor runs and low climb out heights.

At times the mist and fog got so low that I hat to fly the Tsotsi about 20 meter above and in front of the Bakkie and when I had to go over telephone lines I opened the throttle for a short burst and climb to a point maybe 40 meter high until the Tsotsi’s outline was only just visible in the mist. This routine cost us some distance of the flight but I don't think even if the conditions were ideal that I could have gone the full 100km. In any case I have once again accumulated a lot of data and you can be sure that I will try again to go the full 100km.
I would like to thank Evan, Edmund, Sam and Kayleigh for giving up some of their time to assist me with the two attempts and also to AMT who kindly loaned us their Bakkie for the weekend.

Record data:
Date of Attempt: 11/4/2009

Distance by road : 72 km

Distance in a straight line: 63Km.
Start point: S 27 deg 17.117 min
E 29 deg 53.786 min
End Point: S 26 deg 46 min 16.4 Sec,
E 29 deg 37 min 32.8 sec

Duration: 1 hour 34 min 59 sec.
Average moving speed: 45.6 km/hour.

Motor run time 17min 40sec.

BERG Field in great shape for HTL MMS #3

Guess who is Back( and with out snow boots)

Zimmy on landing!!!

Good turnout of BERG members on Sunday

Sunday morning early the weather did no look promising at all with some heavy clouds hanging around. But I haven’t flown the week before and I needed to get my fix for the next week and so I set out for the field anyway. I took the winch with just in case some other members needed it but my intention was to fly the E-Tsotsi only.

I arrived at the field at around 10.00 AM and found that Craig , Michael and Lionel were already hard at work practicing for the upcoming F3B world championship later this year.

The heavy cloud cover suddenly cleared up and we had very good thermal conditions for the rest of the day with Tony doing a 35 min flight with his normal Tsotsi and myself , 2 flights with the E-Tsotsi of more than 1 hour each.

Lionel timing for Craig(F3B practice)








Lionel's new "Wit Blitz" Electric pylon racer

MGA announcement.

Piet with the 2M Tsotsi and the team that establish a SA Record.

Yesterday the MGA made the following announcement.

Hi everyone,

I am pleased to announce that the following National Records have been ratified by the MGA:

F5 Open (Radio Control Flight): Aeroplane: Electrical Motor Rechargeable Sources: Distance in a straight line: 21 February 2009, Piet Rheeders, 35.1 km (new SA National record)

Congratulations Piet!

Lionel Brink
Chairman: Model Gliding Association

I would like to once again thank my team (Evan, James, Kayleigh and Robyn) that help me establish this record, also my thanks for the efficient way the MGA and in particular Lion Brink dealt with all the paper work that had to be done.

I am planning to do a 100 Km stint shortly and then the world record will be my next goal. But for now I need lots of Lipo cells and that means digging deep down in ones pocket so please do not tell my wife yet.

Sungazer Surprises

Nice Pic of one of the sailplanes being pre-pared for the Sungazer event next month
This beauty is and ASG 29 the latest 15mtr follow-on from the ASW27/28 with which it shares its fuselage, however it sports an advanced wing with a tapered planform and winglets.
Cant wait to see it soar.