Roly Drop's In

On Wednesday 14th we had a visitor drop in, you could say a flying visit

A Bell 47G landed at the field with Rolly G in the passenger seat. He was doing some work for the owner/pilot John who took him for a fly.

(click image to enlarge)

Photos courtesy of Alan Foley

Video courtesy of Andrew Mysliborski

B36 2nd Test Run

This video shows the 2nd taxi test run of Ivan Chiselett & Andrew Smallridge's B36. This proved successful with a few small issues to be ironed out. Next outing for this beast will be it's maiden flight.

Video by Alan Foley

You can also see the first taxi run here.

Failure is always an option

You see it all began like this...

Frank Mac said, "Wouldn’t it be fun if we could attach a plane to a water rocket & have it launch and release" and we said "yes"

And thus began the silliness. McPherson Rockets handled the propulsion, Mysliborski Engineering handled the Shuttle release mechanism & Foley Aviation purchased the aircraft hereafter referred to as the Shuttle & I made the tea.

On a bright sunny morning (it was a Friday) we assembled at launch HQ and proceeded to assign responsibilities

Professor McPherson was Rocket Launch Director
Captain Foley was Pilot in Charge of Shuttle flight
Dr Mysliborski (Dip Eng) was made Videographer charged with videoing the event for future study
Myself Daniel Jenkins (Dip Switch), I was promoted (from Tea boy) to Parachute Deployment Manager

The first flight left the launchpad successfully, but we discovered the launch arched over seriously. The pilot in charge of the Shuttle released (upside down) & the rocket flew on, now horizontal. The Parachute Deployment Manager (he's made of Stern stuff) kept flying until the fuel (water) was exhausted & then successfully deployed the parachute. Unfortunately the flightpath of the rocket caught the Videographer off guard & it flew over his head (he's new to the job) so the video of the event fails to capture the true essence of the first flight.

Anyway, Take two, we angled the launch vehicle a lot more & also applied elevator offset onto the Shuttle to compensate for the arched flight. The launch went successfully & whilst the rocket flightpath was still effected by the Shuttle, it was deemed a successful rocket flight & shuttle release.

Now the rocket flight trajectory was still a problem, so we consulted a Rocket expert via teleconference, Rick Talman (he charges by the word for consultancy, so we had to be quick) he said something very posh sounding like "your thrust to weight ratio is too low". To fix this you need more thrust. Well, we the Rocket Launch team thought this sounded very clever, so we had two choices, add more water, or more pressure. It was decided to do one thing at a time, so we upped the pressure from 200PSI to 220PSI.

We then began the countdown on launch three. Things went wrong at around 217PSI. If you listen carefully to the video, you can hear the Launch team's reaction to this indecent, which has been slowed down for scientific analysis . (Use the View YouTube Clip button to see clip in a bigger window)

Awesome video by Andrew Mysliborski

Anyway fun was had by all. Unfortunately nothing of value survived, but a new rocket & plane have been acquired & a new round of testing will begin shortly.

Maiden Flight of M 18 B Dromader

PZL-Mielec M-18B Dromader built by Dave and Ray Chivers.
Super Giant Scale RC plane: 57kg, 176"(4.47m)span.
Engine: 7cyl. MOKI 350 cc.
Can carry up 15 liters of water for firefighting and crop-dusting demos.
Flown by Dave Chivers at P&DARCS 5.11.2020

Link courtesy of Andrew Mysliborski

B36 First Steps

Here is a video of Ivan and Kevin Chiselett and Andrew Smallridge's first systems test. This is the first time for the model to be moving under it's own power. This test run revealed a few teething problems and once these are rectified a maiden flight will take place.

This plane was designed from scratch by Kevin & Andrew
Fiberglass & painting by Andrew
Built by Ivan
4+ Years in the making

Some stats for you on the model

6 Meter wing span
65 Kg in weight
6 Electric motors with 1610 Props, 6S batteries each motor
4 70mm Ducted fans

The plan is to have this model flying at the P&DARCS Scratch Built Scale Rally on the 11-12 November.

Video filmed and produced by Alan Foley