Aerotow at White Sheet 1999
Here is a report that I wrote to some friends about how I got on at my first aerotow at White Sheet this year.
|
|
01. MDM Fox.
- Tony Vale's MDM Fox on the Ground.
|
I had a superb time at White Sheet this weekend. I Arrived at the site at about 2:00pm on Fri, Tony Vale was
already there with his caravan and, as he had a spare bed, I didn't have to set my tent up. We got our models
sorted out and headed off to "White Sheet" itself to slope soar my LS-3 and Tony's brand new FOX.
The wind was quite light but I chucked the LS3 off anyway. There were some other glider guiders there that
were getting away in light lift. Since the LS-3 had only just been repaired, and the c/g unknown, I had to
guess where it should be - it turned out that I needed some more lead in the nose. I added a wee bit and
tried again, and this time I was able to trim the model out.
I gave Tony his first launch with the FOX....The fuselage is massive, I could barely find a suitable point
to hold it ! Tony had a few problems with trim settings also - I had to program his TX whilst he was flying!
He decided that he also needed some more lead in the nose, but this would have to wait until later as we didn't
have any more. Tony was able to tease out enough height to be able to land safety, and we both headed back to
the site happy bunnies....Well we had a bit of a detour....All those country roads looked the same!
|
|
02. MDM Fox Flying.
- Tony Vale's MDM Fox in the Air "Don't it look real".
|
Saturday
Saturday was not a good day for me! On the first tow I had I found the model initially went up quite well, but
as we started turning the LS3 would weave from left to right to left and I would have to make constant
corrections to attempt to keep the wings level. During this first flight I had to make some more trim
alterations, but at least she flew okay. Fifteen minutes later I was back on the ground (well the Glider was
at least!), and I queued up to go again. By now it was getting a bit busy and Steve Holland (superb tug pilot)
tried to chivvy me up. I started to panic a little as I fumbled with the flair ball release, but after what
seemed like an age, I got it trapped okay. As he called 'ALL OUT' and throttled up, he reminded me to keep my
finger on the release switch.....click.....whoops. Luckily he hadn't picked up to flying speed, and he was able
to taxi back from the far edge of the patch. The embarrassing thing was that I did exactly the same thing on a
second attempt.....D'oh! Finally I got it right and we were off. This time he said he was going to make a
banked turn to the left. As he did so the LS started weaving on the line quite badly and I was throwing my
aileron stick full left and right with seemingly no effect. Steve put up with it for a wee bit then told me to
get off. I did so and carried on having a complete nightmare with my direction control. A number of stalls and
flops later I was at the end of the flight and had to fight the thing to try to land.....a wing went up and the
correction, although made straight away, took ages to take effect.....the model side slipped (tip stalled) slid
and went in on one wing.
Damage: You betcha! The right hand wing was broken along the chord parallel
with the root of the aileron. There was also some damage to the stab (tailplane) and the rudder post broke out
from the fin. I spent the next few hours, through the lunch break and into the afternoon aerotow session with
the epoxy and Zap (Cyano). The cause of the crash?.....I had knocked my aileron dual rate switch to low rates -
which are very low! Every time I moved the stick, the controls surface itself was only just moving!
|
|
05. Tugs.
One Tug lands and another takes off - I was waiting for some Epoxy to dry!
|
At around 3:30pm I was ready to go again although the repair is not pretty by any stretch of the imagination!
Anyhow, off I go again, The tow was straight up, and not much weaving, and I released without any incident.
Five minutes later, as I was thermalling away, I had another problem. The model kept wanting to go right, and
I had to constantly jab left aileron to keep level. The model was just lurching sickenly around the sky and
coming down rapidly. As it got closer, just before finals, I could see the RH Aileron was stuck permantly up.
I flopped it into land with no damage, and set about trying to fix the problem.
I moved the stick left, and the faulty aileron would go down, when it was centered again, the aileron went
permantly up. I adjusted the linkage, and tried again. Same result....scratch head....when I moved the stick
right, there was no effect at all on the rh aileron.....what on earth was going on ?
I decided to take out the Y lead (one channel controls both ailerons) and set it up for flapperon control
(one channel per aileron and mixed). It seemed to work okay, there was movement in both directions on both
ailerons so I set about using the sub-trim to centre the rh aileron. I only made a small alteration, the
aileron didn't move for a fraction of a second, and then swung through 45 degrees. I made an even smaller
adjustment back the opposite direction, and the same thing happened, a delay followed by a slow track through
45 degrees! Diagnosis - one broken servo. Result - severe dissappointment :-(
|
|
06. Tony G.
- Tony G (Left) Obviously enjoying the day.
|
After I had returned my model to the caravan area (& picked up a beer :-) I settled back in the sunshine
near the patch and just watched. Some fun points during the day were:- Tony Vale taping the aerotow release
to his Cobra and then jiggling around on the line at height to pull free. Very hairy indeed! Tony had to pull
so hard that he actually stalled the tug! Then they both raced back down. Steve Holland accelerated away, but
Tony's Cobra was not far behind. The tug reached a max velocity, but Tony was still accelerating. Steve won,
but only just. Tony pulled out and then proceeded to do square loops over our heads!
The other one was our Ian Anderson who stuck a piece of wire through a hole in the nose cone of his Eliminator
SR, and fashioned a hook out of it. Most of us thought his model was a gonner, because the tug and the ESR had
to really throw themselves around the sky to get loose. Eventually he did get loose and plunged about 100 foot
before he got control!
|
|
07. Cobra.
- Buttock Clenching moment as Tony is about to have his Cobra (£600) Towed up attached with only a bit of Tape.
|
Sunday
My mate Pete Weston suggested that I replace the faulty servo, and announced that he had one I could use. He has
a portable generator, soldering iron, solder....just a complete workshop with him. So we replaced the HS-80 with
a futaba micro that he had in his box. I spent the early part of the morning cutting out the old one and
soldering in the new one, and by 10:30 was ready to go.
At Eleven O'clock the aerotowing commenced, and I was the third one up (priority was giving to those people
competing in the scale comp. - so although I was first to arrive at the flight line, I had to wait) . I was
taken up by a fella called Mike who was a bit more cautious than Steve, and when he announced that we were
going to make a left turn the inevitable weaving started, and he immediately ordered me off the line. I came
off with not a lot of height, but it was just enough. I found a powerful thermal almost immediately, and took
her up to spec out height. After that thermal had gone though, I beetled around for a bit longer and found
another one. I was still in the air even after a few of the others had launched and landed again! Tony Vale
thinks I was must have had at least 30 mins up there. :-)
I went up again, and this time the old boy who took me up gave me a straight tow. The LS3 behaved a lot better
with little or no weaving. I came off and had another 30 minuter, with several aerobatics to boot. Despite the
poor repairs, I couldn't resist a few loops and rolls. Actually the thing was that I had gained so much height,
and as there were still very few white fluffy clouds around, All the pilots (including myself) were having
difficulty loosing sight of the models in the clear blue sky.
I was being sucked up in the sky that quickly that I had to get down some how!
Both of my landings were pretty good too. I came in on the approach perfectly, downwind leg, crosswind leg and
finals were right on the button, and both times I brought it in smoothly into the middle of the patch with the
brakes deployed. One of them was a downwind-er too, The only wind was created by small breezes from thermals
popping off causing the wind direction to switch all the time.
The rest of the day I just kept going up, stooging around for a half an hour or so and landing. I sussed out
that if I asked for a straight tow, with little or no turns, I could control the LS3 much easier. We think that
the weaving problem was due to the amount of di-hedral the LS-3 has, which is quite a lot in comparison to most
of the other models I saw there. When the tug turned, the glider wanted to turn even more, and it needed quite
a lot of opposite to correct it. If I didn't get exactly the right amount in at exactly the right time, the
weaving would start. On a few occasions though, once Steve had got used to my model he was actually able to
make opposite corrections combined with increasing the throttle to settle my glider down! Like I say everyone
rates his tug skills.
|
|
03. ASW 24.
Gill's (Pete is flying it) ASW 24 on his finals - Get that speed on.
|
The whole affair is superbly organised. There is a proper TX control - not only do you have to get the peg, you
also have to show the peg and your piece of card with name, Channel, and entry number on it before your TX is
handed over. On the flight line itself, there is constant announcements and talking going on. You have to shout
"Landing" on your downwind leg, and the flight line attendant echos with "Glider Landing",
followed a little later with "Glider on Finals" and then "Glider on the Patch". You are told
when it is safe to run and retrieve your model, as all the while there are tugs racing out of the sky taxiing
around and taking off again. It was just buzzin!. On Sat I watched Pete with his ASW24 - He is superb at flying
scale models - His landings are even better. Every single one was on the patch and perfectly executed. I just
sat there with a grin from ear to ear, just fasinated as model after model took off whilst others were making
approaches and landing, and in between the tugs screaming back down ready to tow the next glider up. If the
landing area was busy the tugmen would hover their Titans (Tugs) vertically in the air (prop at the sky , tail
at the ground) full throttle they could just hold them over the patch!
|
|
04. ASW 24 on the Patch.
- and a few seconds later floating onto the patch.
|
So thats what its all about. It's a fantastic day out/weekend away....what I want to know is when is the next one!
Q&A
I've had some questions from various visitors to my site about the length of the tow line that was used.
A fellow aerotow enthusiast gave me the following information. The line length we found best is 120ft with a 3ft
bright red piece of material in it from about 3ft from the nose of the glider, we also use a metal snap loop to
attach extra hooks to our line and we use metal swivels at each end to avoid any snags! -Using this red insert
in the line then enables you to see if the tow is correct at all times, it's straight out when you are in
position, and bent or curved if you are too low or too high.
|
The Crash Scene strewn with wreckage and legs
A close up of the carnage
Tugs scramble
