Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego Peak Charge · 2 Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego Peak Charge Mission Statement The objective of the Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego is

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Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego Peak Charge

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Mission StatementThe objective of the Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego is to promoteand further the technology of electric powered R/C aeromodeling;encourage competition in Electric Soaring, Pylon Racing, FAI-F5B/D,Scale, Old Timer, and Pattern Electric categories by hosting majorIndustry-sponsored events and sanctioning “Fun-Fly” types of con-tests; provide forums for the exchange of technical information,instruction and experience; and participate in demonstrations ofelectric propulsion in area-wide model aviation events.

Zip Code 92109

Flying Field GPS Coordinates

Latitude 32.7626416 N Longitude 117.2143138 W

2006 OfficersPresident619-298-7592

Vice President619-925-5357

Secretary760-583-1926

Treasurer858-674-1378

Editor760-967-7259

Safety Officer619-284-0816

Chairman of the Board

Steven [email protected]

Doug [email protected]

David [email protected]

Michael Neale [email protected]

Bill [email protected]

Steve Neu [email protected]


web site: http://sefsd.org/

Field

Aerospace MuseumMonthly Meeting site

AMA Charter Club 3078

Board of Directors

Chairman of the Board619-298-7592

President619-298-7592

Vice President619-925-5357

Treasurer858-674-1318

At Large858-274-7322

At Large619-479-1321

At Large619-427-6392



Doug [email protected]

Michael Neale [email protected]

Chuck [email protected]

Ray [email protected]

Tim [email protected]

Membership760-967-7259

Video/DVD/Librarian858-456-1261

Raffle619-562-3774

Flight Insructor858-272-6882

Sylvia [email protected]

Chet [email protected]

Robert [email protected]

Pedro [email protected]

Committees

619-298-7592

The Cover StoryUCSD Students Fly High with SEFSD Guidance

by Steve ManganelliIn Fall of 1999, during a meeting of the San Diego Chapter of theAmerican Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, I was approachedby an undergraduate UCSD Student seeking advice on the construc-tion of an electric R/C aircraft for a cargo lifting competition. What Ilater came to know as the “Design-Build-Fly” (DBF) competition co-sponsored by the Office of Naval Research and Cessna Aircraft is anannual International competition of undergraduate EngineeringStudents. During the Summer, Contest Organizers generate andpublish a unique set of rules, missions and cargo carrying require-ments to which each student group proposes, develops and builds amodel aircraft optimized for the competition. The competition culmi-nates in a late Spring fly-off in Paxtuxent River Md.(Webster Field) orCessna Aircraft in Wichita KS. Since that initial meeting in 1999, I’vebeen providing aerodesign advice and composite fabrication trainingeach year to students of my alma matter, UCSD. We placed a respect-able 6th in our first attempt in 2000; have been 4th, 5th subsequently

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The President’s CornerBy Steve Manganelli

Let’s startwith theWE.bottomline : It costus $1,330more to puton than we

took in. We didn’t spend a red centon paid staff; you all worked yourbutts off. Was it insufficient contes-tants? Lack of Advertising? Toomuch competition from the RCX orthe Southeast Electric Fun Fly (SEFF)? Did the time of year afford toomuch competition for folks’ atten-tion? Some lessons learned discussedat the Board meeting the other dayinclude having fewer events so therewould be more time for fun-flying, afew less demos and a more cohesiveadvertising strategy. We will require arevenue plan that at least gets us toeven; major fixed costs are the Port-A-Potties, Rental Equipment and CityPermit Fees which total around$4,000.00. To do that, we will beavoiding the dates of RCX (which istentatively March 31 to April 1, 2007in Pomona in case anyone is inter-ested), SEFF (if we can coordinatewith their powers that be) and ofcourse the Spring Triathlon which isapparently is always the 1st Weekendin May. We might require a few extrabucks out of our vendors, but I thinkit is important that we be able tobreak even in order to continue withthe MWE tradition. One of our coolerdemos at MWE was Steve Neu andJeff Keasaman flying their super highpower Avionic Models simulta-neously. Usually we see them climb-ing one at a time straight up at 100 orso MPH then whistling throughparallel gates 150 meters apart withthe motor stopped and props folded.You may recall that last August,SEFSD put on the National Competi-

tion selecting the United States Teamof Thomas Pils, Steve Neu and JeffKeasaman for the upcoming WorldChampionships(WC) in Romania.“Upcoming” is now just a couplemonths off as you read this. You’llsee Steve, Jeff and Thomas outpracticing every couple of weeks ormore as the WC draws near. Thepractice pretty much ties up the fieldduring the actual flying of the course,so ask your indulgence during thesesessions which usually start afternoon on a weekend day after most ofthe A.M. crowd has left. I was mostprivileged today to have received amolded wing making tutorial fromF5B Team Member, former WorldChampion and master machinistThomas Pils. I have seen fiberglasswing molds before, but the highlypolished aluminum, computernumerically controlled wing mold forhis Verminator F-5B model was anabsolute thing of beauty. The finishedwing is a complex orchestra ofcarbon tow, carbon cloth, epoxy andfastidious workmanship : the extremeG-forces these wings stand up to inturns will allow nothing less! Next Iwant to congratulate SEFSD Board ofDirectors Member Tim Attaway onhis magnificent Flying Circus 3DPattern Demo put on by the ChulaVista Club the weekend of June 10th

and 11th. We know what 12 ozfoamies can do, right? Hover, spin,harrier, pop-up, tail touches, whathave you. Now imagine the samemaneuvers performed by 20 to 40 lb.gas guzzling monsters! This grouphad absolute nerves of steel andTim’s organizational skills made it apleasure to watch. Kudos for a jobwell done, Tim. If you missed theCircus, there is still an easy chance toparticipate in Jim Bonnardel’s OpenHouse for the Watts Up Flyers

computer group. This friendlycompetition taking place on July 22nd

will gather up the virtual members forsome live meet and greet with abarbeque included in the price ofadmission. Knowing Jim, this will bea very low-key hospitable event. Ohyeah, speaking of competitions, thenext in our series of AT-6 racesscheduled for the WeedwackersSantee field has been delayed a weekto July 1st instead of June 24th. If yourcranking up to get involved, you havean extra week to get your modelready. If you need details on thelocation, POC is Don Guliher at 619-449-8397, cell 619-723-3609.Finally, I want to plant the seed ofsuccession. SEFSD bylaws limit theterm of the president to (2) consecu-tive terms. In 6 short months my timewill be up and it will be time forsomeone else to step up and take thereins. Time for a little circumspection: back in 1991 when we founded theclub, electric power was still in it’sinfancy. I was President back there aswell. I was a strong advocate of ourvision statement on our mastheadwhich is to advance the science of E-power. Our newsletter back thenfeatured technical articles by SteveNeu much like those that now appearin Steve Neu’s Power On column inQuiet Flyer . Back then, you had tobuild your own balsa wood modelsand for the most part design or atleast modify them yourself forelectric; if you were a neophytemodeler without expert help, yourchances of success were not thatgreat. Now we have hand built, lasercut models from third world coun-tries that are light wieght, covered,ready-to-fly and cheap! Back whenwe started with electric power (~1980), the energy density of “roundcells” was about ¼ of what they are

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now. Recent high discharge Lithiumshave doubled and then some, theenergy density of even the best roundcells we have now. High qualitybrushless motors that are > 85%efficient make even better use of theavailable energy in our batteries.Maybe a bit of chicken and the eggthing and/or the decline of gaspowered due to noise, etc., marketforces are providing us with more andbetter equipment almost daily. Anewcomer can be directed to anyhobby shop in town and come up

with a viable combination of air-frame, motor-speed control, radioand batteries and be in the air in notime. If they don’t want to crash asmuch, they can invest a few extrabucks in a simulator and practiceflying on their computer, risk free. Sowhere am I going with all this?We have around 200 members, mostof you have no inkling of E-power’spast tribulations, the only way yousee it is the way it is now : buy andfly. Perhaps it’s time to water downthe techno-geek aspect of the club

and concentrate on the people aspect.What do the majority of us want todo that we aren’t doing now? Morecompetitions? Less competitions?Less stuff and cheaper dues? Morestuff and higher dues? The nextPresident need not be an expertmodeler or someone who started inthe good old days; just someone withpeople skills to build consensus andtake us to where we want to go : isthat you? Please give me a call or E-mail and let’s discuss.

and were the champions in 2002.While I’m the “professor”, Steve Neuis the pilot guiding various studentcreations around the bean patch overthe last 5 years.This year, more than sixty teams fromaround the world submitted theirintent to compete in October of 2005and 40 of those submitted 60 pageessays documenting their designmethodology. One of the reasons theevent is getting so popular is thatDBF participation is a stepping stoneto employment in the red-hot UAVEngineering field. Essays were due inMid March and are a prerequisite tocompeting in the flyoff held on April21st through 23rd in Wichita. Thisyears mission required as light anelectric powered model airplane aspossible that can carry a 24" wood “4X4”, (2) or more 2 liter soda bottles(yeah, full bottles) and (48) tennisballs in separate sorties. The modelwith each payload must be wheels offin 100’ further complicating thedesign. The scoring is based on thepaper score, the time of the payloadchanges between missions and thelightness of the model. The modelonly has to takeoff and fly a 2000’loop and land on the runway in orderfor the flight to score points.Aside from the aforementioned (3)sortie missions, there were (2) otherchoices : 1) carry 96 tennis balls for

two minutes each, and 2) incremen-tally fly the 2000’ loop with up tofive full 2 liter soda bottles startingwith 2. Only the top flights of (2)missions were counted so most teamschose the multi-mission and the 96tennis balls which allowed them tobuild a smaller, lighter aircraft thanone designed to carry 22 lbs of water.Midwest weather in the Spring hasbeen a factor in the past, but thisyears’ was nearly perfect : 80 to 90degrees, high thin clouds and just abit windy. One of the (3) teams fromMIT built a model for the (5) sodabottles but came just short of takingoff in 100’ with the 5th bottle. Every-one was rooting for them to completethis 5th flight even though it wouldhave put them ahead of severalSchools in this competition. There isa tremendous sense of camaraderie atthe flyoff as the students have puttheir heart and souls into the planesand once the scores for the Essaysand weights of the models are posted,there are minimal things possible toimprove a Team’s placing. Eachsuccessful takeoff and landing wascheered on as well as sympathyexpressed to the relatively few teamssuffering crashes. One such crashclimbed to about 20 feet then rolledover and dove straight into theground impacting 10 feet in front of aTV News photographer; I’m sure we

made a big splash on the KansasNews!Before the field was open for flying,Team UCSD’s Tempus Volat /TLAR 7was faced with 18 Schools ahead ofthem in the Essay portion of thecompetition and 8 or 10 with lighteraircraft. This meant for example, thatwinning Oklahoma State Universitygained 19 points per second shavedoff their cargo loading time whereaswe only gained 9.2; we knew wewould have an uphill battle. PilotSteve Neu was up to the challengeprodding our students to keep gettingback in line so we could do our bestin our (5) allotted flight attempts. We“went-to-school” on the fast cargoloading teams redesigning ourloading system overnight whichultimately shaved over 20 seconds offour loading time and moved us ashigh as 7th place. However some ofthe other Schools had the sameobservation and we settled back to avery hard fought 9th place when thecompetition closed at 5:00 P.M.Sunday. It should be noted that manySchools get class credit and a gradefor DBF participation whereas SarahHouts and her Teammates get nothingexcept the experience of this extra-curricular activity and Steve N andmyself get bragging rights vicariouslythrough the students.

cont’d from page 2

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Introduction-Steve Manganelli brought the

meeting to order at 7:05 PM. Things gotstarted with a video of the 2006 AIAADBF college aero engineeringcompetition. This annual event is agreat experience for students (andspectators), and was held this year inWichita, Kansas on April 23, 24, 25.There were a couple new faces, includingMichael M. Michael joined theWeedWackers and then joined theSEFSD to start flying electric. We alsohad a guest who was interested inlearning about how our meetings are run.

Announcements andClubBusiness-

MWE was a huge success thisyear, even with the date change andseveral other challenges. This year’sMWE was unintentionally “competing”with RCX, SEFF and the triathlon.Needless to say, it would not have beenpossible without the efforts of severalclub members, including Chuck Grim,Chet Tussey, Mark Wood, Phil Marshal,Craig Hunter, the board of directors,Michael Neale, Bob Davis, JimBonnardell Jack Hicks, Jim Marr, TimAttaway, Steve & Jeff for the F5BDemo, Don Griffon, Pedro, Stelio, andmany, many more.Competitions/Events-For those hooked on AT-6 racing, thenext race is June 24th at theWeedWackers field.

Tim Attaway announced the FlyingCirkus Throwdown at Chula Vista, June10-11.

Don’t forget the Watt-Flyer funfly July22nd at the Mission Bay field.

As always, Electroglide is the Saturdayfollowing the monthly meeting.

Safety, Safety, Safety…Please, make sure your models

are in safe operating condition. Whileflying, keep all models away from thefoot path and Sea World Drive.

Club Training Program- The club training program iscurrently in the care of PedroBrantuas. Please contact him if youhave any questions or needassistance.

How To- There was no special how-todemonstration given this month.

Raffle-This month’s raffle included a

firesafe, pliers, a dremel tool, a dyno-tested motor, Hitec servos, a SureFlitebiplane, and a glider kit for theElectroglide contest.

Program-The program this evening was a

slideshow of images from the MWE.

Show & Tell-Steve and Daniel Belknap brought theirnew Century Swift heli. Compared tothe T-Rex or other small helis, the Swiftis more stable and is less work tofly.Parts are relatively inexpensive, andthere is even a “crash kit” available,which includes the most commonlydamaged parts. The ARF is about $250.They are using a NeuMotors 19-seriesmotor and Castle 80A controller. Thebattery is a 16-cell 1400 NiMH.

Mark Wood introduced his new lithiumpolymer battery safety product, which hehas called the LipoSack. They areavailable from DMA for $30. Also seeliposack.com.

The meeting was adjourned at about8:30PM.

General Meeting Minutes Tuesday, May 23, 2006

by David Fee

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This man has been building modelairplanes for over three quarters of acentury.

He made the transition to electriceartly on, but has no pectures.

JD came to meetings regularly with thehelp of his wife, until a stroke put himin a hopital bed.

When I didn’t see him at meetings Iphoned (for several months)before Ifound his wife at home. That day Iwas at his side at the hospital. He wasincoherent and semi consious.

He is gradually coming around. I havebeen showing him slice shows ofevents at the field on my wife’s lap topcomputer. He recently attended awedding at UCD, and one of thesedays I’ll get him down to the field.

Be sure to say hello.Bill

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The Raffleby Robert Abel

For June a DX 6 Spectrum Radio will be the main raffleprize. It is a great, user friendly system, courtesy of Johnat Discount Hobbies, at the club raffle discount. Thanksfor your support John!.The thermals have arrived! A glider pilots heaven. So theSaturday Electra Glide should have a full complement offlyers. A big thanks needs go to Steve Belknap of Diver-sity Models and to Steve Neu for their donations to theraffle. Dymond Model Sports, Hobby people at theConvey store and Pandi at Sureflite have been generouswith their support to our club also. THANKS. The Liposac and Neu motors are great items. Well worth the cost ifyou haven’t got one get one! I don’t normally promoteItems, but these items are an asset for safety and qualityto the hobby.

Roberts’ Tips: When you build do you take the time toclean surfaces’s before you glue or tape? Rubbing Alco-hol on a Q tip is a great cleaning tool. Use the cheap kind,no fuzz. Clean joints make strong joints. They alsoremove excess CA at a joint. Square and fit tightly alljoints, seams and edges. Use the right glue for the type ofjoint. CA is brittle, RC 56 is flexible, Poly CA is flexible,Gorilla glue expands, all need moisture to set and cure.Use water, baking soda, ground, sifted, and dissolved andstrained in an atomizer for a quick set accelerator, foamsafe. 97% water, 3% 70 proof alcohol, about 1/2 an ounceof dissolved and strained Baking soda. Makes 3 oz ofaccelerator. Use lightly for slower set, heavy for quickerset, the faster the set the more heat is created and a brittlejoint so be careful, a little goes a long way. Wipe cleanwhen set. Baking soda with CA will create a hard pointand also fills voids. Hard to sand, so be neat. Good forbalsa and foam. EPP is a different story, not much sticks,Goop, shoe Goo and contact cement if cleaned first, orcoat area with white glue, thinned to form a base for otherglues. Till next time, Build Square and Straight, flies firsttime out if you take the time!

This Month’s Meetingby Doug Rubin, Vice President

Steve Neu from the USA F5B TEAM will be talkingabout his new motors this month! He will tell you howand why they work so well!! Steve has a wealth ofknowledge!! We will also have a great video about howCool show and tells and Big raffle prizes and some swapmeet items too!

CALENDAR OF EVENTSJune 24 IMAC event Whittier Narrows LA

June 27 General Meeting Aerospace MuseumJuly 25 General Meeting Aerospace Museum

July 8th Swap Meet at Balboa ParkJuly 9th Carne Asada BBQ Patriotic Fun Fly CVMRCC airfield

July 22 – 23 Camarillo IMAC Camarillo CAAugust 22 General Meeting Aerospace MuseumAugust 19 – 20 San Diego IMAC CVMRCC

Sept 16- 17 Buzzing on the Border # 2

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person thatwasn’t supposed to ever let you down, probably will. Youwill have your heart broken, probably more than onceand it’s harder every time. You’ll break hearts too, soremember how it felt when yours was broken. You’ll fightwith your best friend. You’ll blame a new love for thingsan old one did. You’ll cry because time is passing toofast, and you’ll eventually lose someone you love. So taketoo many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you’venever been hurt because every sixty seconds you spendupset is a minute of happiness you’ll never get back.

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What: A spacecraft that travels atfaster-than-light speeds by distorting,or “warping,” the fabric of spacetime.Instead of trying to move throughspace, the warp drive moves spaceitself. The ship sits inside a bubble ofspacetime bound by a negativeenergy field that races across thecosmos. Why: Chemical and nuclearpropulsion, solar sails and ionthrusters all are too slow to reach thenearest star systems within a humanlife span. At faster-than-light speed(more than 186,000 miles per sec-ond), a warp-drive ship would travel4.5 light-years to Alpha Centauri, theclosest sun to our own, in about fouryears. Who: This warp-bubble modelis based on thought experimentsconducted by theoretical physicistMiguel Alcubierre of the NationalAutonomous University of Mexico,theoretical physicist Chris Van DenBroeck of Cardiff University inWales and, most recently, by math-ematician José Natário of the HigherInstitute of Technology in Lisbon,Portugal. Where: For now, warp driveexists only in science fiction. When:Figure on some point between thedistant future and never. Theoreticalresearch continues to advance, butthere’s no launch date in sight. HowTo Pilot a Warp Ship:-

1. FuelUp: Start beyond Earth’s immediategravitational pull. Convert matter intonegative energy (particles withnegative mass that are repelled bygravity rather than attracted to it). 2.Curve Spacetime: Emit pulses ofnegative energy to curve spacetime.

Form a sphere around the ship withthe energy, insulating passengers intheir own private spacetime bubble.3. Drop Out: The bubble warpsspacetime so drastically that itactually slips out of the visibleuniverse. Only a narrow tube ofnegative energy keeps it tied to ourworld. 4. Expand Space: Nowthat the craft is protected in itsspacetime bubble, the real work canbegin: Expand space behind thebubble at faster-than-light speed, andshrink the space in front. The WarpDrive To-Do ListA few not-so-minorchallenges you’ll need to tacklebefore takeoff · Discover NegativeEnergy: There are no known particleswith negative mass. The closestscientists have come is a phenom-enon called the Casimir effect,wherein empty space between twoconducting plates behaves as if itcontains negative energy. · De-vise a Way To Manipulate It: Even ifscientists could transform matter intonegative energy, they would still haveto find a way to focus it and create aninfinitesimally thin, yet extraordinar-ily stable, bubble of the stuff aroundthe spaceship. · Harness DarkEnergy: In recent years, cosmologistshave been studying a mysteriousforce called dark energy that theythink is accelerating the expansion ofthe universe. If scientists couldgenerate it at the back of the bubble,it might move, or expand, space. ·Build Bubble Brakes: Because thespacetime carrying the ship would becompletely cut off from the outsideof the bubble, there would be no way

to send a signal to turn off the warpdrive. The signal would never getthere, and the ship would never stop.FAQsIlluminating the far side of lightspeed · Is it even possible to outrunlight? You can’t move through spacefaster than the speed of light. But it ispossible for space itself to expandfaster than light, because it’s notmoving relative to anything, at leastnot that we know of. Cosmologistsbelieve that the entire cosmos ex-panded faster than the speed of lightin the first moments after the bigbang. · What would it be like in thebubble? The area inside the bubble ofnegative energy would be isolated—akind of pocket universe—so passen-gers wouldn’t experience any illeffects from the acceleration. Theship would actually be at rest in itslocal space, like a pedestrian carriedalong on a moving sidewalk. ·Would warping space be risky? Itcould produce the luminous equiva-lent of a sonic boom, a shock wavewith infinite energy. And yes, thatwould be bad. Or, since the bubblewould be connected to normal spaceby only a tenuous tube of energy, itcould pinch off into a new universe,trapping travelers forever. Better pickyour crewmates wisely. ·Could Ireturn before I left? Although timeinside the bubble would tick at thesame rate as on Earth, the bubbleitself could get back before you left.That’s because the passage of time isrelative; it depends on the observer’svelocity. As a general rule, if you canbeat light, you can beat time.

Aviaion $ Space

by Chris Holland

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Ahh, electric flight. It’s overtakingthe radio control flying hobby.Everywhere we see facets of whatused to be exclusive to fuel powerbeing taken over by electrics; 3Dflyers, helicopters, giant scale craft.One last bastion has remained, thaticon of Saturday mornings, the putt-putt noise, oil and gas smell;lawnmower. Well, that bastion toohas fallen! This month, a cordlesselectric lawnmower took to the skiesover Mission Bay.

The craft in question is the Sky Cutter.40 V2, by FlyingThingZ. It beganlife as a .40 to .50 size gas craft, of atype that has been around for manyyears. When it lifted off the SEFSDfield, it was powered by a Phasor 45/3 on a 4S 4000mah lipo pack.Thanks to the Internet, I had beenable to look over the plans andinstructions for the kit before everbuying a thing. It was apparent that

the electric motor could fit rightwhere the gas engine was, and thatthe battery could fit exactly where the8 oz. gas tank had been. The all upweight of the kit was advertised as5.5 to 6 pounds, with 700+ squareinches of wing area. If I could keepthe electric version weight to some-thing similar, I knew it would fly;well “hopefully” fly! The final strawthat convinced me to try this projectwas the video of the Sky Cutter that’son the FlyingThingZ website. Searchand surf on over to them, it’s abso-lutely worth it. Long story short, theconversion went flawlessly, and bythe first of May the Cordless ElectricSky Cutter was ready to cut a swaththrough the sky. We all know thosemaiden flight jitters when an untestedcraft is ready to either soar or spreadparts over the field. Imagine themwhile standing behind an object thatnormally only flies two to threeinches over your lawn! So, even

the Sky Cutter by Robert Stinson

Leo had just finished telling me that he couldn’tunderstand why anyone would want to goswimming on such a cold cloudy day. The windwas blowing about 10-14 mph from the south,when Leo’s flying wing went into a spin.We were sure it had hit the ground before itreached the water, but when we got close to thebay, we could see his plane floating about 200feet out in the water. After a long swim toretrieve the airplane, we stripped out the gearandflushed it in fresh water. Leo then went homeand sprayed the electronics down with somesilicone solution and dried it all out. AlthoughI wouldn’t vouch for its reliability, all theelectronics seem to be working fine except thespeed controller that burned up while in the saltwater. The airframe was fine and should beflying again soon.

The May San Diego Electroglide

Pilot Toss1 Toss2 Toss3 Total

Bob Anson 47 67 0 114

George Sullivan* 27 0 13 40

Roger Pederson 30 0 0 30

Pedro Brantuas 0 0 21 21

Fred Daughery 13 0 0 13

Jim Shadwick 0 0 11 11

Zeke Mazur 0 0 0 0

Congratulations to everyone that was brave enough to compete.

The wind was blowing about 15 mph right from the south.

To give you an idea how these little ships were being affected, at about 200’

high and 50’ away from the field I was still not able to make it back.

Bob and George were able to make it back to the field twice, and Bob

managed to get a 30 point landing on his second round.

There were a total of 9 pilots, and 0 catastrophes.

See you at the next Electroglide on July 1st.

Pedro.

though the sky was dark and theclouds were menacing, it was time doit.

The flight was a success, and subse-quent flights are better and better.How does it fly? Well, like alawnmower of course! Actually, thebody is a lifting wing, 24” wide and29” deep. The control surfaces areelevons, two large flat plates in theback, mixed to be both elevators andailerons. The handlebars act as alarge vertical stabilizer. However,they also make the craft extremelytipsy. It wants, really wants, to turnturtle. In fact, someone at the MWEtold me that they actually fly betterinverted. I’ll have to take his wordfor it, ‘cause I ain’t gonna try it. It’llnever win a precise pattern competi-tion, that’s for sure. I guess, though,that it isn’t how well it flies, but thatit flies at all. It brings delight andlaughter to those who see it, andthat’s the whole point.

see back cover

Leo Marques swimming

by Pedro Brantuas

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Documents

Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego Peak Charge · 2 Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego Peak Charge Mission Statement The objective of the Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego is