Our fourth day of preparation started with an early start and a trip to TIMPA the home of the shootout!
We got there at about 8am and as we unloaded the plane it was windy! John Wondra was already flying and watching his sequence we realised it was a real shootout wind, somewhere around 20knots (or so I was told, means nothing to me!! Can I stand up? Then I will fly!!)
We hooked the plane up, fueled it up with the lawnboy mix mineral oil/petrol and went flying! It wasn’t to bad actually, a very stiff wind but it wasn’t gusting! I had one flight, landed and checked the plane over! The telfon coupler on the lead cyclinder’s header had come loose! As we didn’t have a spare we packed up & headed back to DA to change it out! Once at DA we chatted with Tony and Jeff about this and between the four of us, decided to stick a self tapping screw through the header/coupler/clamp! DA don’t think it’s necessary on 150 motors, although my Dad has done it on all my models and we have never had one come off! They came to the conclusion the 170 is too powerful for the standard setup!! (nice to hear the DA engineers say your engine is too powerful!). So with the help of Mr Russo we did a quick pit stop, ran the motor at idle for 10mins to heat the exhausts/couplers up, but without the back pressure of full throttle running. This means the coupler expands then it’s contracts around the clamp and header and in theory shouldn’t move, it won’t now as it’s screwed on! Job was a good one and we were ready to go fly! We decided TRCC was closer and handier so we headed there.
Meanwhile the Kiwi pairing of Frazer & Mike Briggs had hit town, shorts and jandels in toe! Already Frazer had everyone on DA in switches and was giving orders and abuse like he owned the place! Frazer is probably the nicest person you’ll meet in RC, he always has a joke to tell and is very quick witted so you have to be careful what u say!! That said he can’t understand my accent, I was talking to him about his plane for a minute or two, at the end of the conversation he said, “I haven’t a bloody clue what you said paddy but it sounded good!” he’s one of the good guys and restores your faith in the hobby!
The shootout raffle plane also turned up whilst we were there, it’s a comp-arf Yak55sp 3m, it will be completely ready to go with a 170 up front, not bad for a $5 ticket! The paint scheme is as the yanks say “badass” it looks great and I wrecken that it would look even better in our garage! LOL!
We headed on out to TRCC and were meet by Troy, Steve and a few other local Shootout pilots! We managed to burn 2gallons of gas without a hitch! My schedule is improving and I’ve got used to the silly Tucson air! The plane is ripping the heck out of the 30×12 prop, not an issue out here but the Noise Police back home might wince! We’ll worry about that on a months time, probably go to QQ’s prop of choice an air model 32×11! The techniques used in snaps are a lot different in this climate, you have to unload a lot throughout the snap to hit your stop correctly! The 6 of 8 followed by 1 1/4 pos snap needs work, I’m pitching a little too much, need to unload the elevator and rudder a few fraction earlier, I know what I’m doing wrong but it’s hard to adjust sometimes! Especially when your fingers slip of the sticks cause of the stupid suncream and sweat doesn’t help either!!
Tomorrow leaves us exactly one week, so let’s hope for good weather……!!!
Matt
Tags: imac, matthew poots, shootout, tucson
Suncream and sweat?? Enjoy it while it lasts Matthew, the rain is chucking it down here, and the temperture has gone down too. Aagh, to live in Norn Iron. The raffle plane looks really cool.
Cheers
Mathew you should not worry out there being stiff from sunburn and using all that suncream. We need WD40 over here to stop us going rusty. Seriously though hope you guys are enjoying your time over there and savouring every moment. I’m hoping for some good feedback for the UK website when time permits, Cheers for now, Brian