Hi Johnny,

I did notice that you posted a January flight but have not seen a February report. Try thought I may, I was not able to make it out during January and we even had some descent weather for it. I believe George made it out for a little Radian flight time so it looks like you and he are the only two in the running for all 12 months. I am going to redouble my efforts to get out this month, eleven out of twelve isn't too bad.

As to your motor question, I am not electric motor expert but I would guess the motor from a Radian would have sufficient power to pull your Chrysalis for ALES. I would be inclined to get a newer spinner and a good prop. If my memory serves the Chrysalis E calls for a 42mm spinner. That and an Aeronaut 11x8 prop would probably get you to altitude nicely. Maybe Ray will chime in here as to the exact prop as he upgraded his Radian Pro with one and really liked the improved climb. I wouldn't worry about the Radian motor being too heavy as the Chrysalis was designed for a heavier motor to begin with.

Wayne

Thanks, Wayne.

I actually edited my other report to include Feb:

Got the Radian up for a bit yesterday (Friday the 8th) and actually played with some lift in the nearly calm 34F air. Kind a rough landing in a snow drift, but only popped the rubber bands off

I ended up ordering a 40 mm spinner that will fit a 4 mm shaft and 11/8 prop. these will be an improvement over the plastic yoke and spinner, and if the motor doesn't work well, I can always get another. Also got some servos for the new plane.

Sounds like you are up and flying just fine

Steve

Here is the info on the props I bought:

Aeronaut CAM Folding Propellers
Aeronaut CAM 10 x 8
Part#: AER7234/32

I am very pleased with how they perform on my Radian Pro.

I've also upgraded my ESC to one that has a 3 amp BEC. The original BEC was rated at about 0.7 amp. That is enough to drive 3 regular servos, but no where near enough to drive the 6 digital servos in the RP.

Ray

This afternoon, February 24th, taking advantage of really light southeast zephyrs, I got the old reliable Radian up for an old 1300 mah battery worth of climbs and gentle snow landings.

Johnny, keep at it. It is nice to hear the flight reports.


For those of you who are not on my email list but who want to know what is going on here at Rochester Soaring here is the latest news.

I don't know about all of you but I am starting to think about summer soaring. I have also been giving some thought to Rochester Soaring events. This will be the third year we have been scheduling monthly events and I hope it will be the best season yet. I am going to change things ever so slightly this season and I hope you all approve.

For starters I would like to begin the events in April this year. Historically our kick off event has been held in May but this year I want to try to start things in April. That means that we will be starting to have events in roughly 8 weeks. So get those planes ready to go because we will be flying before you know it.

So here is a breakdown of the events that I have thought of and the dates they will fall on. As usual, our events will be held on the third Saturday of the month. That seemed to work out for most of us last year and has the added bonus of not conflicting with any holidays or special days like mother's day, father's day or the fishing opener. So here is what I am thinking of for events: Oh yea and because this is RCGroups I will add the caveat that these are not posted as AMA sanctioned real world contests. None of these will resemble the South West Classic or the TNT. The likes of Joe W and Darryl P will probably not be attending any of these events. Think of these as a club events catering to interested pilots in the lonely flyover state of Minnesota. We are a ragtag bunch of soaring rookies just trying to hold some soaring events for fun and skill building. You are of course all more than welcome to attend should you find yourself in the area.

April 20th - Rusty Thumbs event
This will be the first event of the season and will be very low key. It will be a fun fly, no scoring no pressure, just an opportunity to get out and do some thermal hunting.

May 18th - F3F Slope Event
This will be a first for us. Last seasons slope event was very fun and this one will be even better. May is usually a windy month so what better way to use it. This event will also be LSF eligible so those of you looking for LSF contest points should be sure to attend. Think LSF level 2 or maybe level 3 point eligible at best.

June 15th - My Fair Maiden Event
Back by popular demand, this event will be open to both e-launch and string launch planes. The format will be similar a Ray Hayes' Woodcrafter event. It will be open to all sailplanes, not just woodys, and will be the perfect venue for dialing in a new plane. The event will be an open launch, ladder style format. Hi-starts and at least one OneWinch will be provided for string launch planes. We may even have an electric winch there. More details to follow.

July 20th - ALES Event
Altitude Limited Electric Soaring is back and is stronger than ever. This event format is really taking hold in soaring circles so we will be doing it again. This event will be tailored for e-launch sailplanes and will include the use of height limiters. Man on Man will be the format for this event and landing tapes will also be used. We had a really fun time with this format last year so I wanted to do it again.

August 17 - The Big One
Hmmm... A new event name in the mix. This event will hopefully be one for the books. It will be open to string launch and e-launch sailplanes, it will be a Man on Man format, it will use the ALES landing tapes and it will have the e-launch sailplanes competing side by side with the string launch sailplanes. Height limiters will be set to 150 meters in the e-launch sailplanes and string launching gear will be limited to 500'. This should give fairly equal launching heights for all sailplanes. This is after all a soaring event not a launching event.

September - ???
Undecided, I think we have plenty of time to decide on this one.

October - ??
Undecided, same as September

So, what do you all think? Is there something missing? Is there something you want to try that I have not mentioned? In addition to our events the MRCSS club is going to hold a number of events throughout the summer and there will also be some aero-towing events hosted over in Owatonna. I will post information on the Rochester Soaring website Event Calendar as I get it. There will probably be a soaring contest/event in the area almost every weekend through most of the summer months.

That's all for now, Mark your calendars early because I know summer weekends fill up fast. I hope to see all of you this summer.

Wayne

Had to put snow shoes on my boots to do it, but got the Radian up for three climbs and two landings...the last one skipped nicely over the hardened snowdrifts, barely leaving a mark. Nice north breeze about 5mph.

So that makes 3 out of 3 for 2013 flights for me. Think the snow will be gone by April 20th?

Also finished the frame of the Chrysalis wing today. Spoiler servos installed and fiberglass on the polyhedral joints. Ready for covering after some finish sanding.

Originally Posted by JOHNNYDXYZ

Had to put snow shoes on my boots to do it, but got the Radian up for three climbs and two landings...the last one skipped nicely over the hardened snowdrifts, barely leaving a mark. Nice north breeze about 5mph.

So that makes 3 out of 3 for 2013 flights for me. Think the snow will be gone by April 20th?

Also finished the frame of the Chrysalis wing today. Spoiler servos installed and fiberglass on the polyhedral joints. Ready for covering after some finish sanding.

I had a couple of other projects I needed to work on, so I am not as far as you. I'd better get on the stick so I can be ready for the rusty thumbs event.

Ray

Gentlemen,
I hope you guys don't mind if I drop in on occasion to see what's going on and to post a pic once in a while. My brother I got to go out recently with our Radians, there was a tiny bit of breeze but not enough to stay up constantly. Was fun anyway.

Hi Johnny, way to go on getting out every month. My flying record has been less than stellar so far this year but I have made a ton of progress on the Raven build.

Ray, don't feel pressure to get the Chrysalis finished for the Rusty Thumbs event. Take the time you need to build it, building should be fun. You will finish it in your own time, it's not as though you don't have other planes to fly while you finish it. Some goes for you Johnny, take the time you need to build it right.

Freedom Flyer, thank you for taking the time to post here. It is always nice to see what other people are doing in other areas of the country. Do you fly with Curtis in the Montana Ales summer events? From your pictures, it certainly looks like you had a good time flying your Radian. We have a few people flying them here in our events and I am always impressed with how well they fly. Feel free to post any time.

Wayne

Wayne,

I personally don't fly the ALEs events, I've never been one for competition. My oldest brother does however fly with Curtis and at those events. I met Curtis at our slope one afternoon when he and a group of guys came to join my two older brothers for a day of flying. He is an unbelievably intelligent man and I think he has forgotten more than I'll ever know about RC flight. He has taken my older brother under his wing and his group of guys helped my brother build a plane to compete against them in one day. I think the name of it is an Oracle. He was flying his Radian at these meets but decided to make the next step up and be more competitive and purchased the Oracle, he enjoys it. Maybe someday I'll take in one of the events. My other brother and I do tease Curtis and tell him he'll never covert us to Electric competition.

The slope we were flying at is okay but the wind has to hit it directly otherwise it's no good, but it was a very enjoyable day.

Do you guys get to do any slope flying where you're at? I've got a friend who lives in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and he says there's no where at all to fly slope planes. We're pretty spoiled living where we do we have a pretty great site just not enough time to get out and do it. I'll post some pics when I get a chance if you don't mind. FF

Enjoyed the pictures, Thanks

Steve

Freedom Flyer,

We have a few small hills we can slope off of but they are nothing like the slopes I see posted here on RCGroups or YouTube. An average slope for us is maybe 40 - 50 feet tall and a couple hundred feet long. We do have a lot of nice slopes near us in the Mississippi river valley, beautiful bluffs a few hundred feet high but they are all covered with trees. I have not given up hope in finding that open bluff but I have not found it yet. I've been looking at satellite images all winter and I may have found a couple of possible sites. I am going to check em out later this spring, that is if the snow ever melts.

The events we have here are just that, events. They are an organized excuse for area pilots to get together and fly with a purpose. We focus more on skill building than anything else. I mean really, who in there right mind calls out, "Hey, I got lift over here" at a contest? We do. Lord help us the day a serious contest pilot shows up with a red competition 4 meter carbon molded monster at one of our events. We would probably just all stand around and watch em fly and pester em with questions. Seriously, we have a good group of guys here and we are all learning about this thermal thing and having a pile of fun along the way.

Wayne

Wayne,
I probably should attend one of the ALES events just to see what it's about, I think my brother Arlen attained the altitude limiting device from Curtis for a pretty reasonable price. I know he actually won a few rounds with his Radian, but knowing my brother like I do, he wanted to be a bit more competetive, therefore purchased the Oracle. But I do like the sounds of the way you guys run your contests, light hearted and with the attitude of wanting everyone to experience the lift.

Years ago, and I'm talking years ago... almost 25, I built my friend Dave a couple of gliders for traveling all the way from New York to be in my wedding. He was teaching there at the time, shortly after that he moved to the St.Paul area. I think he's only slope flown the Talon (Red and White one) a couple times and the scratch built Ridge Rat I'm not sure has ever even seen any air time. If I had known where he was going to move I might have built him a couple of thermal ships. I have both of those planes and they fly beautifully out on the slope.

31 years ago was the first time I went flying with Dave, we took his Goldberg Gentle Lady out to the Montana State University practice fields with a high start, at the time, they were building some new married student housing next to the fields. There were huge piles of black top soil piled up from the digging of the foundations. We launched that plane with the high start and within 5 minutes it was a speck in the sky. He brought it down and flew over the dirt again same thing. He landed it and then we started hand tossing and flying it over the dirt and same thing, we flew til the battery was questionable, and would've kept flying had we had the field chargers of today. I was hooked and really do enjoy thermal flying, but with the slopes around where we live, we've got the best of both worlds and we seem to gravitate to the slope when we can.

Wayne, I'm sure that you've seen some of these pics already so I apologize if it's a repeat for you. Here's a few pics of our area and our main slope. Tracy.

P.S. Wayne, what kind of plane is that you have pictured in your Avatar?

Oops, I forgot to include the photo of my friend Dave