It does not seem like we have been having the Katie Martin Tribute for eight years. What started out as simply my friends way of getting me back into society and having a reason to live, to other friends putting it on RC Groups and becoming a fly in with twenty or thirty pilots showing up. My good friend, Eric Johnson started the first thread and when the event was over everyone wanted to know when the next one would be. This was the birth of the Katie Martin Tribute and in our second year, good folks in Spain and Venezuela joined in making it an International event. Year after year it has grown with good folks in Great Britain and Germany joining in and last year a second Spanish Tribute was established. Here in the USA the Katie Tribute has also grown, last year around 100 aircraft and this year well over 100 in attendance.

To briefly cover this years event, I can say that nearly everything went perfect. We had more flyers, more planes and terrific flying conditions and of course a terrific crew from TPG's and the great location of the historic Torrey Pines Gliderport. For greater detail and many pictures of the 2018 rendition of the Katie Martin Int'l Tribute, here and abroad, click here: https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...l-tribute-2018

Blogs are a place to discuss and make statements and show concerns. With nearly everything that I could want to happen for this years Katie Tribute, although not feeling well, something bothered me greatly. On the...Continue Reading

Back in March of 2016 I wrote about an updated SR-7....With the expertise of Daryl Perkins, we had a special new airfoil cut for the SR-7. The shape of this airfoil was such that it would not fit the molded Dura-lene fuselage saddle so I set out to build a new fuselage from balsa and ply.
The wing was blue foam and expertly bagged by Daryl with carbon top and bottom. Other than the Hobie Hawk wings, I had never bagged a wing before so I enjoyed watching one of the best at work. The wing came out very light and incredibly strong with razor sharp trailing edges. These cores were complete airfoils, therefore the ailerons had to be cut from the wing.....talk about being nervous. Plan was to have the hinge line straight on the ailerons which made them much larger at the root and smaller at the tip....still 2 to 3 times the size of the original ailerons. From the start we would install independent servos for each aileron...giving us differential, flap, camber capabilities. Servos and linkage was installed on the bottom of the wing and in that they are vulnerable on landings, clear plastic protectors were made to cover the servos and linkage. Once the ailerons were cut out, I had to face all areas that foam was exposed and I did this with balsa. Now, how do I hinge these ailerons.....gap must be sealed.....I had heard of silicone hinges but like so many other things on the new SR-7 that I had never done before....I gave it a try and it worked the first time.....really...Continue Reading