B36 2nd Test Run

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

View YouTube Clip

You can also see the first taxi run here.

Failure is always an option

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)

View YouTube Clip

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.

Magpie Attack

Magpie Attack

If you look out of the club to slightly to the left in the paddock is a few trees. A magpie has decided to make a nest there. Andrew Mysliborski discovered when he flew his foam eagle over in that direction that this annoyed the magpie. Ever the ingenious person, Andrew mounted a couple of cameras on his foamy & filmed the magpie attaching. Have a look at this gallery, it's fantastic. To view the entire gallery click on photos

You can also view the video on Andrew's YouTube Channel.

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B36 First Steps

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

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Westernport Drifters

Westernport Drifters @ P&DARCS

On the 23-26th of November the campervan club Westernport Drifters stayed with us at the club & also joined us for our Fwi-Fly on the 25th. A great time was had by them & our P&DARCS members.

This video was taken by Andrew Mysliborski who did a flyover with a Quad Copter. Thanks Andrew for the great footage

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Moving The Shed 1979

Moving The Shed in 1979

 This is a great clip of a large number of our Club Members moving & erectiung what is the current Tractor Shed. This clip was filmed by Frank Dibble in 1979 & is reproduced here with his permission. It's a great clip that documents the origins of our club. It's VERY hard to work out from the clip where this all takes place. The club look quite different now, in no small part thanks to the likes of the people in this clip. (see if you can work out who they are!)

View YouTube clip

This was originally on 8mm. It is very rare that the image of a single frame of 8mm film is viewable on its own as it is on 9.5 and 16 mm. Getting old film onto DVD is much more frustrating than building a model aircraft where the kit seems to have no connection with instructions....

One of the many challenges in copying from film is the realisation that the lenses on home projectors in the good old days were about toyshop quality...

So the quality of "moving the shed" is so bad in places one has to view it as modern art. Still, I like to think that the music is fairly appropriate and sufficiently distracting.

quoting Frank Dibble in an email sent to the Webmaster