Dr. Edward J. “Ned” Britt has over 40 years of experience in many areas of research including space nuclear reactor systems, low energy plasma physics, space power and propulsion systems. He was CEO of Space Power, Inc. when it was sold to Pratt & Whitney and continues to be an expert in ion drives for space vehicles.
South Bay Soaring Society is fortunate to have Ned speak about the possible use of atmospheric ion propulsion technology to something really important like model gliders. His talk will focus on assessing the use of electro-static propeller (ESP) are an array of very small carbon nanotubes mounted on top of a glider’s wing to add thrust using very small amounts of electric power.
Come to our next meeting Wednesday7:30 (business meeting starts at 6:30pm), 4/8/15 at the Main Saratoga Fire Station. Anyone with an interest in model aviation are welcome to both meeting.

NOW ON SOUTH BAY SOARING SOCIETY'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Using Ion Propulsion in Model Aircraft (53 min 1 sec)

http://www.gocomics.com/brewsterrockit/2015/04/12 Brewster Rocket comic strip on ion propulsion.

Thanks Ned for a great talk.

We just posted two more talks

SBSS ➜ How To Buy A Used Sailplane (38 min 30 sec)

SBSS ➜ The Everyman Discuss Launch Glider ~ The Throwbot (57 min 31 sec)

Next Wednesday, May 13th, 2015, Bruce one of our resident sailplane technical expert will teach us how to wire sailplane electronics. Our business meeting starts at 6:30pm at the Saratoga Main Fire Station and the presentation will start sometime after 7:30pm. Anyone is welcome at either time.

For this program Bruce will discuss:

Making Wiring Harnesses - including design, tools needed, wire needed, soldering, connectors, and installation

Servo & Telemetry Wiring - Making servo extensions, running servo wires, telemetry considerations

Battery Wiring - Pros and cons of making battery packs, types of batteries to use, soldering, balancing plugs, connectors, battery safety, battery storage.

Wiring Safety - preflight inspection, after crash inspection, preventative maintenance, avoiding shorts or open circuits during building and at the field.

We look forward to another great technical presentation by Bruce.

If you missed this program, now you can see it on SBSS's YouTube channel

SBSS ➜ Sailplane Wiring 101 (52 min 17 sec)

Francesco will be presenting what is happening in California for F5J contests. F5J is a multi-task electric glider contest that allows an electric motor to “launch” the plane. The Sacramento Valley Soaring Society, http://www.svss.org recently held a contest in which Francesco finished in the top three. SVSS is in the process of starting up a NorCal F5J league and started with a demo contest last April 24th and the first full contest last May 17th. They are also looking for other venues and clubs to host these contests around northern California. Come see his pictures/videos, and hear him talk about this contest and what is needed to fly competitively in an F5J contest. Come to our meeting and hear about this fast growing area of our sport.

The South Bay Soaring Society Program is held every 2nd Wednesday of the week at the main Saratoga Fire Station at 14380 Saratoga Ave, Saratoga, CA 95070. The business meeting starts at 6:30pm and the program begins sometime after 7:30pm. Anyone is invited to either meeting and you can bring friends.

NOW ON SOUTH BAY SOARING SOCIETY YOUTUBE

SBSS ➜ Flying F5J Electric Gliders (51 min 51 sec)

As you may know South Bay Soaring Society have been very involved with community outreach and our favorite area is helping kids learn about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) through building and flying model gliders.

At our next meeting July 8th,2015 we are fortunate to have Eilanna Lowry from John Montgomery Elementary School (and/or her fellow 5th grade teachers) talk about her STEM project she developed on Engineering Design. This is a component of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

This project was inspired by John Giddings and Veronica Craven who after presenting the John Montgomery story (and future film) to South Bay Soaring Society, held a program at Eilanna’s school. At this inspirational program, the kids made balsa gliders and learned why their school was named after John Montgomery.

At our Wednesday meeting, Elianna will share her STEM project, how effective it was with her kids, and future plans for this unit and other STEM learning opportunities. She will be looking for volunteer support for next year's implementation, feedback on making STEM learning through this unit more authentic, and advice/support on how to develop other STEM learning opportunities. Be sure not to miss this meeting and perhaps participate in this valuable component of South Bay Soaring Society’s community outreach through the schools.

The South Bay Soaring Society Program is held every 2nd Wednesday of the week at the main Saratoga Fire Station at 14380 Saratoga Ave, Saratoga, CA 95070. The business meeting starts at 6:30pm and the program begins sometime after 7:30pm. Anyone is invited to either meeting and you can bring friends.

NOW ON YOUTUBE

SBSS ➜ Teaching Kids Science and the John Montgomery Story (1 hr 0 min 43 sec)

Hello Elianna, Sonia, and Brett,

Thank you and Hedwig for coming and giving such a great presentation. Having two of our favorite movie celebrities, John Giddings & Vernica Craven drop in to hear your talk was a special bonus we also give you credit for.

The really exciting thing was how much fun you made learning about gliders and John Montgomery to your 5th grades. I was not sure what interest level I should expect from our club membership, after all for most of us it has been a few years since 5th grade, but their interest just kept building and building. By the end we had to break up about 4 or 6 private conversations on how exciting this talk and program is, in order to leave the fire station 30 minutes after the talk. That never happens. Hat's off to you and the great program that Hedwig and the Evergreen School District supported.

Please let Noel (and cc me) any specific topics, times, and locations that your think our membership could help you on in your similar programs in the future. From my experience the club members tend to not think of ways to volunteer, but rather help out when presented with a specific task. Ideas I heard or thought of during the talk include:

ENGINEERING REVIEW - of aeronautical, physics or electronically topics.
FLIGHT SIMULATOR - inputing of one of your glider designs into a low cost PC/Mac simulator program to show how design changes could improve glider performance.
TALKS - On subjects including the model gliding hobby, model building, radio control, battery technology, careers in engineering & technology etc.
EQUIPMENT - We may have model gliders and radio equipment which we could donate to the school.
MODEL FLIGHT TRAINING - we have volunteer instructors who may be able to help teach kids.

Now on our YouTube channel:

How to Design a Cross Country Sailplane (49 min 22 sec)

Greg has done the aeronautical engineering behind many of South Bay Soaring Society & East Bay DLG's famous home built RC model sailplanes. These include the XC series (now in its 11th generation of large cross-country competition sailplanes), the Atomic Pickled Thermal Spud DLG (Discus Launch Glider, aka. the Pickle), the Skinny Pickle (for easy throwing) and Noel’s latest modification the Broken Pickle (with a separating wing). He also provided key engineering on the Baffico (a modified Drela Allegro 2 meter polyhedral 100” sailplane).

At our Wednesday night meeting 8/12/15, Greg will explain that steps how to design a plan that best fits your goals. Topics will include:
• How to Design the Task
• Words of Wisdom from Joe Wurts on Aircraft Design
• Analyzing One Plane Against Another
• Overall Plan of the Design & Build Project
• Build Threads to Checkout
• Example of the XC cross country planes
• Example of Next Pickle Modification, the Unbroken Pickle

The South Bay Soaring Society Program is held every 2nd Wednesday of the week at the main Saratoga Fire Station at 14380 Saratoga Ave, Saratoga, CA 95070. The business meeting starts at 6:30pm and the program begins sometime after 7:30pm. Anyone is invited to either meeting and you can bring friends.

NOW ON OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Pushing RC Sailplane Racing Technology With the Arcus 6.6 meter (1 hr 14 min 5 sec)

Rick will be bringing in his 6.6 meter Arcus sailplane that promises to be one of the dominating models in GPS Triangle Racing. GPS Triangle Racing uses electronics to determine when the planes reach a corner of the course and the pilots compete to see how many times they can complete the 1.5-mile course in 30 minutes. Large planes tend to dominate these contests and the Arcus uses it size along with a lot of high tech develops to be one of the most completive planes on the circuit.

Come here Rick talk about the full size German sailplane and why bigger is better for models competing in this completion (capped at 1/3 of full scale size). Setting up the high tech features of the Arcus model will also be explained, including:

• Retractable landing wheel
• Advanced electronics, including GPS and Sbus for multiple servos on same channel
• All internal linear and rotary drive servos (LDS & RDS)
• Replacing control surface gap covers with wipers
• Radio programming GPS racing

The South Bay Soaring Society Program is held every 2nd Wednesday of the week at the main Saratoga Fire Station at 14380 Saratoga Ave, Saratoga, CA 95070. The business meeting starts at 6:30pm and the program begins sometime after 7:30pm. Anyone is invited to either meeting and you can bring friends.

It was a real treat to see an RC model of this caliber. Many thanks to the club members who helped carry the plane to and from the car and assisting with the assembly. For those who missed it, a couple of pics of Rick Weber's Arcus below;

Kyle, Sean,
Thanks to you and all the SBSS members for an enjoyable meeting last night!
FYI here are links to the videos:

Brief description of GPS Triangle Contest (3 min 34 sec)

Arcus 6,67 Seiser Alm Mai 2012 (9 min 51 sec)

And to the build log for anyone interested:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show....php?t=2406793

Best,
Rick

Hello Rick,

Thank you so much for coming in and showing us your Arcus 6.6. As you see can see below this bad boy really had a big presence at our meeting. I really felt like I saw 10 years into the future of model technology and will probably incorporate some of your latest GPS triangle racing tech in my next build project. Sorry we ran out of room time, I could have listened about your Arcus build experience a lot more.

Thanks,

Throwbot

PS: Thanks for posting the YouTube videos those are great. We look forward posting your talk on our YouTube channel más tarde. https://www.youtube.com/user/SBSSSouthBaySoaring

PPS: See the maiden flight of the Arcus at:

Arcus First Flight (12 min 10 sec)

PPS: Also let us know when you plan to do your maiden flight, hopefully at a Los Banos aero tow. We'll bring out a whole cheering section and maybe a large bottle of champaign to crack over the nose...just kidding, champaign and flying a 6.6 meter racing sailplane don't really mix.

New Year's is a record time for joining a gym and we should starting thinking this as the time to clean out that weird model gear that you haven't touched for years. Does your spouse really believe that you will build that glider with a retractable wheel housing the size of a dune buggy tire?

So, start planning for this special meeting January 13th at the main Saratoga Fire Station. Business meeting starts at 6:30pm, show & tell and auction at 7:30ish. All are welcome, but nonmembers might want to post that they are coming to this thread just so we know if we are running out of room.

More details will follow.

The October meeting presenter is our very own Bruce DeVisser. A few months ago Bruce traveled to Europe to attend some RC Sailplane flying events and visit a few RC manufacturers. There is more to this story and Bruce will talk about it at the meeting. He has taken many photos and videos and will share many with us during his presentation.

In Bruce's words;

"Flying in Europe is just like the USA, but different...
Modelers are the same worldwide despite differences in cultures...
In Europe sailplanes are a sport, not just a hobby..."

See you at the meeting,
Sean