Tucson Shootout 2008

Thursday was a fairly uneventful day to be honest, 2.5 gallons gone again, some good practise in a crosswind and a quiet TRCC field.

Chris Brislin was practising his freestyle, it was outstanding to watch with and without music! His invitational knowns were pretty good too!!

Frazer was out with his new PBG Extra 260, it was going well and the 200cc DA was hauling it around great. Frazer’s knowns looked pretty bloody good (that’s what PBG stands for!)

From my point of view, some good flying done today. I’ve started to unload my snaps much better it’s tracking cleaner on my exits. Looks and feels better. The 170 has transformed my model. I’m really keen to see how it goes again back at sea level.

An earlier night ahead, we have sorted out a new field much closer than TRCC, in fact about 5min from our hotel. I have a flying test/meeting at 7am with the club’s safety officer. Hope I don’t scare him! LOL

We are heading to TRCC in the afternoon though, Mr Leseberg, Jesky & Geilizes are in town tomorrow and are flying at TRCC so I’m looking forward to seeing them prepare!

Matt

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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

Monday morning and we decided to head to DA early to get our engine tached by the DA engineers! Before going to DA we called into HobbyBarn which is world famous pilot Bill Hempel father’s shop. It is a great store and we got lost in it for a good hour and gave the credit card a bit of a hammering! The staff were very friendly and we meet Bill’s mum and the president of the field were the Shootout is held, Mike Cummins, it’s always good to meet these people, makes it handy if/when you might need a favour!

We headed into DA after all that. My dad wanted to check the plane over in the comfort of a workshop rather than at the field, after all it’s a new engine and the most things on the plane got re-bolted on after shipping, so somethings may have worked loose! As it turns out everything was fine! When we had the cowl off, Brian Gilmore, DA’s chief engine builder and field engineer, decided to tach our engine! We ran it up and got 5950rpm on a 30×12 prop with MTW 110 Cans, the exact setup I have used on my 150 all season! Watching over this run up was Dave Johnson and Tony Russo, so we had the 3 best engine experts in the world working on our engine/setup! Dave and Tony both agreed that the MTW cans had been designed around the popular DA150 motor, as of yet MTW haven’t released an exhaust to suit the more powerful DA170. The engineers at KS exhaust have just released a new 95 serious exhaust with new baffles specially for the DA170. We all chatted and agreed that the MTW setup was ok and pulled my lightweight model through the schedule well, but they wreckened the KS system would give me more power and a better midrange as they were 170 exhausts not 150’s, well at least on their test bench. So within an hour, Brian and my dad had the MTWs out and a new set of KS cans installed! Luckily they fitted straight in with any mods to the airframe!

We did a test run again and with the tacho we got readings of, wait for it 6140 rpm, almost 200rpm more than my previous setup, 200rpm you might think isn’t much, but believe me on a 40% model it’s a lot!! DA think this its the best setup available for a 170 motor, I’m the only person running it at the shootout, Dave also noted that I will have a lot of questions about it once people start to catch on! It is better than pipes, the tuned pipes that are being used are designed again for 150cc motors and people are having tuning issues with them, my throttle responce is very linear, without any curve required, I’ve never had that before on my 2cylinder petrols! Increased performance coupled with a 35lbs model means, I’ve got the best chance to overcome the altitude and heat problems that kill your performance! The Extra has lost weight from back home, the engine is 6oz lighter than a 150 and the exhausts are overall just under 3oz lighter!

There aren’t many people get the opportunity to have Dave, Tony and Brian for a whole day working at their engine, so I’m very happy and grateful! If we had to pack up and go home today, the trip would have been worthwhile just for the learning experience we had today! There were so many techniques and technical issues we picked up and can now tweak our other DA’s back home to get the ultimate setup! A big thanks to DA for their time and help!

Whilst we were working at our model, Troy and Steve the Aussies finally tracked their plane down and collected that! They spent the day building the plane and at about 5pm we both headed to TRCC to get a bit of flying in before dark! Tony came with he as he wanted to see how our new 170 setup performed in the air. We fired her up, did a range check (we had everything unbolted so thought it was best to be sure, all checked out fine). Into the air we went, it was fairly windy but I could tell I had even more power, the figure N with a pos snap on the upline, it just sailed through it, unloading on the way up, brutal power! But if you’ve got it you’ll use it!! I did one unlimited known and landed to check things over, all was well. Troy put a few flights on his DA150 powered Comparf Super Xtra, it was going nicely as well. Also at TRCC was Bill Hempel, John Wondra and a few other guys I didn’t know! It was pitch black by 6.30 and we were the last to leave!

So all in all a brilliant day, we learnt so much and had great fun with the Aussies and all the people at DA! Tomorrow our plan is to hit TIMPA the shootout field and we believe the Kiwi’s are in town, so not doubt Frazer Briggs will keep us all on our toes.

Matt

Hi just on my way back to the hotel from the flying field. We went to TRCC again and it was quiet. Most of the club members go early in the morning before it gets too hot. The good thing for us is that it’s empty by 11am, the bad thing is it’s 40 deg!!

We had the field to ourselves apart from John Wondra a fellow unlimited pilot! What a nice guy he is and gave me some good tips! He was flying a Carden Yak54 and very well too!!

I managed to burn 2 gallons of fuel and the schedule is getting there. A few tweeks on the rates and my knife edge mix has the plane flying better, it’s funny how the air effects even mixes?? The 170 is definately stronger than my 150 was back home, through the power zapping loop and humpty it keeps pulling! It will get better with more running in too!

Two Austrailan IMACers came out to the field, Troy (who’s competing in Advanced) and Steve his caller. Their plane is somewhere in Tucson but they don’t know where, so hopefully that will clear customs soon!

Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures was too busy flying! The one pic is off the plane in our hotel room! The reason for this is that it’s easier to charge in the room, if you think charging lipos is risky in a car back home, you want to try it out here, inside the car today must have been well over 50 deg when it was parked up at the field, so there is no chance I’m charging a lipo in it! So the plane sleeps in the room (so many jokes, but not enough time!!) I’m sure the maids appreciate the smell of petrol!

Right we are off to have dinner with the Aussies, I wonder will it be BBQ’d??

Matt

Saturday morning dawned earlier, after a bite to eat we were at the DA factory for just after 9am. We were meet by Mr. DA, Dave Johnson.

We soon had our crate opened up and began to unload the various parts. Checking them as we went we were glad to see that everything was intact and undamaged.

Dave kindly provided us with a new DA170cc engine. This bolted straight onto the same mounting pattern as the 150, only a minor trim on the cowling ducking and the installation of round port headers which is a feature of the 170 engine to improve air flow between the engine and exhaust. After a few hours we were ready to run up the engine out the back of the DA factory. After a few flicks on the chock she fired, choke off a few flicks and away she went! Throttling was good, top end was good for a new engine and a mineral oil for run in, we were ready to go fly.

About 4pm when the sun had cooled a little, still in the 30’s though, we drove out to the TRCC site. This site is about 10 mins from the DA factory and is a purpose built facility for RC flying. We arrived to an almost empty field, after meeting the few very friendly members we got the plane built up and fired the 170 up to do a range check, that was successful. There was a strong wind and wait for this rain on the horizon, we lifted the plane under the canopy at the flying site and waited for the heavy shower to pass. So let’s recap, we travelled about 8000miles to the desert and it rained just as I was about to fly!! Typical and the story or my flying year and indeed career! Luckily it cleared and brought with it a beautiful evening with a light breeze. I went for a 5min flight, the plane felt odd in the thin air, almost like it was hanging in the air by the engine, it didn’t feel like it wanted to fly?? Strange, but after a few minutes you just get on with it! The engine was pulling well, as well as my 150 at home. That is good as it’s still very rich and there’s a few hundred rpm still in it!

Another local Tucson shootout pilot was flying his Comparf 3m 260 very nicely. We were joined by Tony Russo from Dalton Aviation & DA, he watched my second flight when I performed an Unlimited known, it was a bit rough as I was still gettin used to the model and the Environment. As Mark Lesebergs caller, Tony knows his stuff, he gave me some tips that I’ll work on. Tony flew his heli a few times also.

So that’s it’s for today, a busy but very successful 1st day.

Thanks,
Matt

Hello,

Boredom has set in and I am playing with my iphone & this Wordpress app (that will mean nothing unless your a techno geek).

Currently it’s 22.15 LA time which is 6.15am UK time, we have been on the go from 8am Friday morning UK time so it’s been a long day. We have a 1hour connection flight to Tucson to catch, but it’s been delayed! The joys of international travel!

The hilight of today was being on the same flight as Peter Andre and seeing BoyZone at Heathrow, honoured as you’ll understand! You see it’s not all about the flying! LOL

Right I’m off, before I get banned from the Internet for publishing rubbish!

A very tired Matthew

The Extra 300 was taken apart, engine and fuel system removed and was placed into a wooden box ready for Air Freight to Tucson. All of the parts got wrapped in bubble wrap or placed inside a made up polystryene box to minimise the chance of damage during transport.

Tailplane in it's Box

Tailplane box with Lid on

All parts in large wooden box

All boxed up!

It left Belfast, flew to Los Angeles, then was transported to Tucson. This took almost 3 weeks and fingers crossed it will be all in one piece in Tucson for our arrival on Saturday 27th September.