TARMAC NEWS JUNE, 2007
This week’s horror story! Alex
Cunningham has been flying his nice Wombat but has been plagued with vibration
coming from the vintage Fox.29. In
flight, the vibrations could be seen coming down the lines to the handle and no
amount of trimming, tuning or tickling made any difference. The Fox would make a good Vibratac with a bit of wire stuck in the
venturi. Battling on, the boys were
preparing for another flight in the hope that this time things would be
different; the problem solved. The pre-flight check had reached the up,
down, neutral, part of the line check when Al noticed that he was getting
results of Nothing! Nothing! Nothing!
No matter what he did. So, he
figured a control rod had come adrift and took it home to try a bit of delicate
surgery.
The problem was soon found. All rods and wires were where they were
supposed to be but the bellcrank/pushrod connection was now a neat slot instead
of a neat hole! Vibration had elongated
the hole in the bellcrank to the point where any movement of the handle just
moved the pushrod back and forth in the slot.
The bellcrank is aluminium but we can’t blame that. Minimum vibration means minimum wear. I have several plans for .35 powered stunters which specify ally bellcranks.
The good news is that the model has survived,
but getting the engine to behave is still a grey area.
From Graeme Cook comes the “Duration Times”,
with many photos of the action at the S.A.M. champs at Canowndra and a report
of the “Tomboy” Rally which was held locally and attracted 14 flyers. The list of engines for this event is
slightly mind boggling, plus a heap of big O.T. engines for the “real thing” –
Up to and including “Sparey” diesel, Model Dockyard “Whirlwind”; “Marden .60”;
“G.B. 5cc “Atwood Triumph 49”, and many more.
There is much of interest in the “DT” including
the news that the TAIPAN TRAINER could be the next machine for a one
design; National racing type
competition. Postal comp I guess.
I have no further news at this time.
Also, lodging a claim for this “soiree” is the
“SABRE TRAINER” so we will just have to wait and see what happens.
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HK FLYER ON TIME
This from WeekendExtra of The West Australian –
June 2, 2007.
TRAVEL CRUISING:
Of 98,000 Cathay Pacific flight departures last
year, 85.2 per cent left within 15 minutes of their scheduled takeoff
time. The Hong Kong-based airline’s
annual report reveals that those aircraft flew 357,000 million kilometres.
On average, the 747-700F/BCF aircraft flew 15.3
hours a day, while the 747-200 and 300’s, A340-300s and A340-600s flew 14.9
hours. The report shows an operating
profit of $812 million, despite a fuel bill of $3161 million, up 29.7 per cent
on 2005. This was only partially offset
by fuel surcharges, chairman Christopher Pratt says.
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