The Kerswap that refused to come down

Got the Kerswap down from the tree this AM with just a little bit of help from Mr. Winchester. Damage not too severe, mostly a lot of holes in covering. Did cut receiver antenna in two, That may have been holding it up there. Got the locator back which was the important part.

Bob Erpelding

Revised Walston Transmitter Installation

The picture below shows the Walston Transmitter inside the earlier lipstick tube. The problem was there was no quick or convenient way to hold the tube in its position and so it kept backing out during flight and falling down in the bottom of the fuselage.


I really wanted a design that was simple, functional, and easy to work with. The transmitter batteries have to be removed and installed and the transmitter itself has to be transferrred from aircraft to aircraft. The design would have to involve some very small rubber bands that go around the tiny transmitter to hold it in place. So I went to the orthodonist and got a package of his dental bands shown below that are used on kid's braces to straighten their teeth. These bands are quite small, very durable, and extremely elastic.


The design for the transmitter holder that I came up with is shown below. It consists of a 1/16" X 1/2" bass wood base with a short piece of 3/16" X 1/4" spruce drilled out for the antenna sheath and glued across the end of the base as shown below. This was cleard doped three times and two pieces of loop Velcro stuck to the bottom for securing the holder inside the Cloudster's cockpit. The antenna sheath was also CA'd in place. The transmitter's antenna was instered into the sheath and the transmitter was secured to the holder's base with four dental bands. What could be simpler or more functional and it does protect the antenna joint at the end of the transmitter.


A piece of 1/32" plywood was cut out to fit down on the fuselage's cross members to the left side of the speed control's platform. It was clear doped three times and two pieces of hook Velcro stuck to the top for securing the transmitter holder as shown below.


To install Walston transmitter, you simply slide the antenna sheath back down into the fuselage and then move the holder forward and push it onto the Velcro hooks on the right side of the speed control as shown below. Notice that the holder sticks out over the fuselage's cross member in the back a 1/4". To remove the holder, you put a finger under the holder's overhang and lift up, which easily separates the Velcro interface thus releasing the holder from its platform. This truly is a design that is simple, functional, and easy to work with moving it from plane to plane..............................Tandy Walker

Walston Retrieval System

2010 Flight Test Program
In preparation for flight testing the newly completed Cloudster, as well as my other models, I purchased a Walston Retrieval shown in the two cases below.






The antenna was connected to the receiver and batteries were put in the transmitter as shown below. After reading the instruction manual several times, I called Jim Walston at his home yesterday and he walked me through the Walston's tuning procedure. I did a little practicing on our street locating the transmitter with receiver.








I was little concerned with the joint where the flexible transmitter antenna is potted into the transmitter base shown below. To support this joint, a 2-gram transmitter/antenna holder was made out of one of Sue's old lipstick clear tubes and the yellow sheath of a Sullivan's Gold-N-Cable as shown below. Notice that a short piece of larger Ny Rod was also used. The Walston transmitter is a snug fit when it slides into the lipstick tube so the loop cord shown below was put on the end of the transmitter to pull it out with for installing the three batteries.

The complete 2-gram transmitter/antenna holder is shown below. The yellow sheath of a Sullivan's Gold-N-Cable provides stiffness to the small fine antenna for installation purposes.

The yellow sheath containing the antenna was inserted into the Cloudster's fuselage and the Walston transmitter was slid in along the left side the JES 020 electronic speed control up front as shown below.

This is a view of the Walston installation through the Cloudster's windows on the left side. All in all, this worked out very well I think






This morning around 10:00 a.m., Sue and I drove over to Veteran's Park again to conduct the maiden flight on the newly finished Cloudster 300 built for the Speed 400 electric event. We had a thunder storm blow through last evening depositing over an inch of rain, but in a relatively short time. This morning it was crisp, clear, and the temperature was only 80 degrees, somewhat cool for Texas this time of year. The wind was about 5 mph out of the south. The Cloudster's rudder and elevator controls were set up with reduced end points coupled with exponential deflections. After a thorough review and a radio range check, I set the throttle at about 1/3 and gently launched the Cloudster into the wind. It was a little out of trim as it climbed out, but I corrected that immediately and added a little more power. Climbing on up to about 150 feet, I did a few turns and cut the power at 1-minute and set up a glide. The wind wasn't bad at all and after some gliding turns and additional trimming, the Cloudster was gliding well. I came in for a landing.

The trims were examined and there was a fair amount left rudder trim in. I suspect I still have some wash out (TE Down) in the left wing requiring the left rudder trim. There was also a small amount down elevator trim in. I changed the rudder end points to provide considerable more rudder defection and I increased the elevator end points, but only a tad for a little more elevator deflection. Then I did another 1-minute motor run flight, starting off with partial power and then adding more power to get a little altitude. I stayed at a reasonable altitude and did not go up high. I worked on gliding flight with a few more turns to the left and to the right. The Cloudster was handling nicely so I landed and we came home. I removed the 1350 mAh Li-Po battery and charged it with the Triton charger. It only took a 413 mAh charge, but then I had not been flying on full throttle most of the time this morning.

All in all, it was successful Cloudster flight test. As Sue said, "At least you came home with it!" :O< I want to adjust my control end points a little more to provide better response, and I want to remove the wash out in the left wing's inner panel. Over the next few days I hope to fly the Cloudster a number of times getting much higher so I can assess the Cloudster's flight duration capability.................................Tandy

Flying at Shelby Airport May 20th, 2010

I arrived at the airport this morning in time to retrieve Gil's

1/2A AMA ship, a model he designed called the Pop-up powered

by a Russian Profi engine.

The model failed to DT and landed on the asphalt runway. Upon examination, we noted that the DT fuse burnt through the core but the outside (and the rubber band) was intact.

Gil Morris launching his Pop-up on its fly away flight

Dumb luck or bad fuse? Unfortunately, it was probably the latter because next time, the thermals decided to play for keeps. We watched it fly away in relatively calm conditions. I was the last to lose sight of it at 37 minutes. We then pursued by car. For nearly two more hours we tracked it 5 miles to the east, 3 miles south and then another 8-9 miles back west. It was apparent that the model was still airborne but was not in sight and it's anyone's guess how high it went. (I've hit large bugs in a jet >30,000 ft up and I know they didn't get up that high themselves.)

We must have been a strange sight; an octogenarian pointing a strange device at the sky followed closely from behind by someone who would pick him up every tenth of a mile or so. One old lady abandoned her gardening to come over and express her concern when we passed the entrance to her driveway. "I've been out all morning and haven't seen anything--- This is the first time I've seen anyone doing what you're doing." I explained that he had been flying models competitively around the world since the forties and she left with the assurance that we were harmless and wished us luck.

When we were about the give up, the target quit moving and pointing the antenna up in the sky didn't make the Walston beep. I parked along the side of the road and saw Gil emerge from the woods 200yds away. It was found but still lost. To wit, it was in a tree! At least fifty feet above the ground and that's where it stayed when we left Shelby hoping winds would come in the next day or two and we could return to pick it up.

May 22nd update from Gilbert Morris

Hi Tom and Bucky,

I went to Shelby late yesterday expecting the model to be down but it wasn't. It's hung up on the nose and on the tail end and neither will let go despite winds of 18 mph. I sat and just looked at it in the woods from 5:00 pm to 6:30 and then went in town for dinner and then checked again at 8:00 pm. It just sways with the branches in the wind. It's probably going to need a really strong gust. There's no strong winds in the forecast so I'm not going back up again until I get back from Lost Hills a week from Tuesday. Incidentally, the stab is DTed now.

At first, when I went in the woods, I couldn't find it in the branches nor anywhere else so went I back to the car and got the tracker and again spotted it in the same old place. It didn't rain up there but it's expected this evening. More fun!

Gil

June 7th Update

Hi Tom and Bucky,

Got it!!

Fuselage and stab were directly below where it had been but the wing was hidden in the undergrowth about 80 ft away. I had almost given up looking for it because of the mosquitoes. As I was about to pull away, the woods owner dropped by wanting to know why we had been going into his woods. He understood and was a bit surprised after I explained. He took it well but I didn't tell him the next step, had there been one, would have been the chain saw. Minimal damage. Transmitter good as new (batteries dead), engine okay but wing and stab waterlogged. I'm not sure it didn't come down before the big storm. All rubber bands were broken and even the fuel line rubber was badly deteriorated and I'll bet the wing rubber bands broke before the storm. The fuse had burned out in the core and never got to the RB. Anyways, all's well that ends well.

Gil