The NEW VOLARE PRODUCTS STORE IS NOW OPEN!!!

Posted on 16 February 2020 by Bredehoft

31 January 2024:

Click HERE to shop NOW!

This is my new store on SHOPIFY.  All of my Blog Posts and Documentation will remain here.

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Modern (and Low-Cost) Tools to Help Find your Model

Posted on 29 July 2024 by Bredehoft

When you get better at building and flying, your models start going higher and farther downwind.  If you want them back, you need to be able to locate them after they land.  I am going to talk about three or four things that will help you with your location techniques.

  1.  watch the model land.  You (or your timer) need to keep an eye on the model throughout the flight and note exactly where it lands. For most of us, we had pretty good eyesight when we were young, but these days it is getting worse – we need some optical assistance.  I use a pair of binoculars whenever I time for someone.  I have a generic brand of 10×50 binoculars with a built-in compass (google “10×50 marine rangefinder compass”).
    I have found that the compass is suspect, so I don’t use it, but 10×50 is a good power size.  I know I can get greater magnification, but I already have trouble finding a model that is far downwind.  A narrower field of vision (which a higher magnification would have) would make spotting the model even harder.  Get an eye on the model early and track it through the entire flight.  As it comes down, it is CRITICAL to do three things: a) mentally note where you are seeing the model go down and its direction of travel, b) find a landmark behind that location that is easily identifiable – a tree, or a building, etc. and c) note where you are currently standing or sitting.  Two points define a line:  the landmark in the distance is one of those points and where you’re standing/sitting is the second.  This line will be very important – your distant landmark is useless without the origin location.
  2. taking a step into “modern” searching, especially when the model is very far away, requires some new tools, including a compass.  This can be a hand held mechanical compass or a digital compass app on your phone. You will need this to get a bearing in degrees (you will need this numeric degree value later).
    1. For the mechanical style, get a “lensatic” or “military sighting compass” like this:

      another web image. You can find these for about $10, give or take.

      Obtain the degrees like by sighting into the eyepiece like this:

      another web image. Find your landmark and read the degrees.

    2. there are many cell phone compass apps, but here are the best for our purposes.  “Compass i8” (for iPhone) and “Compass 22G” (for android).  These are free, but may contain ads; you can purchase the app to be add-free for under $5.  These use your cell phone and camera to obtain the bearing.  Open the app, hold the phone vertically, find your landmark on the screen, and read the bearing.

      This is a real-world screen shot of Compass i8 that was sent to me by Tom Hallman when he had a line on my plane that went into the corn. We found the model (see below).

      Both of these apps look like this and they have a picture-taking function.  Unfortunately, the resulting photo does not have the compass overlay, so it is best to take a screenshot.

  3. The last bit of modern technology is another cell phone app called “Bearing (Azimuth) Navigation” (for android).  This allows you to enter in the bearing you just obtained and it will plot a line over the google maps image of the area.  The best part?  Keeping the app open while you go search will track your wanderings and allow you to move back to the plotted line as you deviate.  This really works.  Check out this image:

    This  is a real world plotted line (in Yellow) and tracking (in red) of our search for a missing plane.  Doug Griggs was standing at the left end of the yellow line and know where he last saw his plane.  I went out to where he was standing and plotted the yellow line using a compass bearing app.  We rode back to the base, got a golf cart, and went down the road to an entry point into the woods.  Then we went into the woods on foot and tried to find his landmarks as we approached the plotted line.  As we came out of a low area and finally saw his landmark on a rise, Doug found his plane.  This was at the last intersection of the Yellow plot line and the Red wandering line.

    Doug Griggs finding his plane right on the line he sighted and I plotted.

    This app was created by a modeler for just this purpose.  Unfortunately, I do not know if there is an equivalent iPhone app.

Do you want to increase your accuracy even more?  Use these techniques with TWO people standing at different locations.  If both have done a good job of sighting the model and bearing, your model will be at the intersection of their two plot lines.  The searcher needs to go along one line and then the plotter of the second line needs to say when your line intersects with his line.  Your plane will be in that general area (this is triangulation).

Winn Moore (left) and me after a successful trek into the corn to find my lost Miss Production. We used all of these tools, including two lines (one by Tom Hallman, one by Pat Murray), a pole (to locate us in the corn), and a cell phone (taped to the pole) to coordinate the lines and searchers. Note: a tracker would have made this much easier! a Tom Hallman photo.

You can increase the odds of discovery by utilizing a tracker, but these are higher tech and more expensive tools that may be out of reach for most modelers.  The use of a long pole can be helpful when searching in the corn – so the observer can see where you are.

 

 

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2024 AMA Free Flight Nats – Muncie, Indiana

Posted on 28 July 2024 by Bredehoft

The Continuing Story of a Guy trying to get back on the Winning Horse

I went home Sunday from Geneseo and left Tuesday for Muncie and Week Two of National Free Flight contests.  The weather was very good with mild winds over the large field.  We did have to fly from three different locations on the three days, but that wasn’t a difficulty.  I will highlight two stories here; one of “oh, so close” and the second of a final flight.

My so-called luck continued and I had extreme difficulties fulfilling official flights.  Here is seemed to be more focused:  I was able to get two maxes (or similarly good results) but couldn’t get that third, important flight.  Specifically, twice, with two different models, I was set up for a possible win, but the third flight was a dud – and both times it was a rare case of the rubber bunching around the prop shaft. Very strange.  I started to wonder what I did for Fate to point its Fickle Finger at me.

But let’s not dwell completely on the negative.  This part of the story is a tale of how the air can be at Muncie in July – and that is “buoyant”, to say the least.

I wound up for my second flight on my HepCat, flying in FAC old Time Fuselage.  This is a pretty dependable model and I would recommend the design to anyone wanting a good flying Fuselage model.  Even though we were on the north side of the AMA Site, right near the control line circles, and had plenty of space to the south, I borrowed my friend’s new BMK Tracker.  I had tried this at Geneseo the week before and was sold on its capabilities.  So sold, in fact, that I ordered one while at home between contests.  I strapped it on top of the wing and proceeded to the launch table.  Don DeLoach snapped a couple of pics while I launched and I turned to follow the model as it rose up and up.

My HepCat get pretty high if the air is right and this air was good, even though I hadn’t paid particular attention to conditions when I was at the table.  The model climbed higher and higher.  I had set the BMK Band Burner DT to 2:10.  My timer, Pat Murray, later told me it went off right at 2 minutes (I set it to 2 minutes plus 10 seconds just for that – it might take 10 seconds to get the model positioned and released at the table).

I had the hand-held receiver and made a note when the DT went off – it was at a reported 200 meters.  I immediately noticed that number was NOT going down; in fact, it was going up!  I still followed the model farther and farther south.  The reported altitude kept going up.  Finally, it peaked at 270 meters and started to decrease.  The model finally landed – on the field just short of the grass runway at Site 4 (the southern edge of the AMA flying site).

The tracker was not needed to find the model on this particular flight, but the story it told was rather amazing.  200 meters (at DT) is equal to 656 feet.  270 meters (when it started to descend) is equal to 886 feet.  One quarter of its total altitude was gained AFTER the DT went off.  The tracker reported the total flight time was 434 seconds – 7 minutes and 14 seconds and it landed on the field.

This is not unusual for Muncie in July.  Boomers are everywhere.  At certain times on certain days, it is like you cannot avoid a thermal.  Just put your model up, get it in cruise and eventually, it will hook one and extend your flight time.  Unfortunately, my third HepCat flight was one of those bunched rubber flights and I failed to place in the competition.

 

The second story, as I said, is of a final flight.  I had flown my Peanut BD-4 in Peanut early on the third day.  It needed trimming as I had switched from a long loop of 1/16″ rubber to a shorter loop of 3/32″ and then a longer loop of 3/32″.  I placed second in Peanut, not being able to max, nor having any bonus points, so Wally Farrell beat me with a max on his 10-bonus-point Pegna (from my short kit, so there’s that).  But in the afternoon, I noticed that no one had maxed out in Modern Civilian.  This was a surprise, since a) conditions were good and b) Pat Murray and Wally are fully capable of maxing out – they just had failed.

I got out my little BD-4, calculated that I could get 3000 turns on the long motor, and wound it up.  It was still a little zoomy and got 91 seconds or so.  I got out my calculator and determined that I would need something like 2 flights of about 111 seconds to get first place.  This was possible.  I wound up again and went old-school and put in a stem of a clover flower of just the right diameter for downthrust to tame that zoom.  This is “old school” because this is how I flew long before Gizmo Geezer nose buttons were available; I’d grab a piece of grass or a stem to set the thrust.  I had already just about maxed the adjustable nose button, so I needed a touch more.

We were on the east side of the southern field, just south of the cemetery.  The winds had been going due west, but they were slowing drifting to the south.  Off to the south of the field is a field of deep soybeans.  These beans are over waist deep (a fine crop, but rough on planes).   South of the bean field is Reese Airport, a small single strip general aviation airport.  Of course, that single strip has a wide swath of cut grass surrounding it.  As I chased on my bike, it looked like it might make it over the beans and land on the airport.  That would be an easy retrieval.  I was traveling west along the bean field, trying to keep the model roughly due south of me for a “better” line on the tiny white model.  I got a line to a white house on the road south of the airport.  I decided to get on the airport, hoping the model was in the clear.

I had to ride WAY around the back of the airport.  Unfortunately, there was no access from the south to the strip and I continued around to the east to the airport entrance.  Pat had called me and said he had a great line on it and I should come back so we could set up a search.  Well, I wanted to check on my line and rode into the airport to where I hoped the model would be.  It was not on the airport property.

By this time, Pat was on the edge of the bean field, where I had been riding parallel.  I was on the opposite edge of the field – actually two fields – one dense one near the flying site and one struggling field next to the airstrip.  Strangely, Pat was saying that I was way, Way, WAY off his line – like hundreds of feet.  This didn’t make much sense to me since I was closer to the model when it went down, but we searched his line for a bit of time and I finally called it off – no hope of finding the tiny model in those tall, tall beans.  We went back to his RV and I lamented that a victory in Modern Civilian was just not to be.  Fate had struck again and I would not win.

Pat, Mike Smith, and I talked about the flight and why we couldn’t find it.  It wasn’t a big surprise, given the beans.  But I kept insisting that Pat’s line just didn’t make sense.  He insisted he had a perfect line as the model was aligned perfectly with the radio tower on the horizon.  I said that was crazy since I was closer and had a distinctly different line and our two lines did NOT intersect.  All of a sudden, he says “OOPS!  There’s a SECOND radio tower and THERE is that bare spot I saw!”  That bare spot was the same area I saw and was, in fact, the runway.  HAHA!  He took off to the edge of the bean field on his new line and I went around, again, to the airport and got on his line, too.  I started walking towards him in the struggling beans talking to him on the cell phone.  Miracle of miracles, in less than 10 minutes I walked right to the model!

Of course, that second flight was a max.  There was 30 minutes left in the contest.  All I had to do was get the model and me back to our site, wind up and put up another max.  And I did.  My final flight of the contest won the Modern Civilian event!  Let it be known that when Pat Murray has a line, he HAS A LINE (you just have to make sure his landmarks are accurate!)

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2024 FAC Nats After Action Report

Posted on 22 July 2024 by Bredehoft

There are always plans and expectations when you go to a large and important contest like the 2024 FAC Nats.  I think everyone has dreams of how it will turn out.  Mine were big plans; I intended to defend my 2022 Non-Scale Championship.  This is not particularly easy as you must place significantly high in most, if not all of the non-scale events.  This year, that included: Old Time Stick, Jimmie Allen, Old Time Fuselage, 2-Bit, Half-Wakefield, and Embryo.  I was also defending NoCal Champ and had several Scale events that I intended to fly.  All-in-all, I registered for 27 events to be flown over the three days of official flying.  That’s a lot of flying and it is known (to me, at least) that I would never get all of them flown, but you have to have big plans to make big things happen.

As I posted earlier, I worked hard between the mid-June contest in Muncie and the mid-July contest in Geneseo to fix and build planes.  I built three new planes (Miss Production for OT Stick, KK Gipsy for ½ Wake, and Folkerts SK-2 for NoCal) and repaired 10 planes.  Some of this worked and some of it was for naught, but all of it had to be done.

Sometimes Hung smiles on you and sometimes Hung toys with you.  He was toying with me all week.  Invariably, I would put up a test flight and it would be well over a max and I would go to official flights and struggle to get even one of the three official flights to exceed two minutes.  This is so frustrating when a) you know the planes are good for it and b) you know you will likely need three maxes to even compete for the top spot in many events.  But half of success is just showing up, so I kept plugging away.

I won’t bore you with too many details, but I had some spectacular flights and almost all of them were not officials.  One was a test flight on my Miss Production:  the DT went off dutifully at 2:05 and the plane landed at 3:06 – deep in the 9-foot-tall corn.  Thanks to Tom Hallman, Pat Murray, and Winn Moore it was found and I could continue – no, START – flying Old Time Stick.

Another “thanks” needs to go out to Vance Gilbert.  On Wednesday evening, he stopped by when I was flying my Jumbo Focke-Wulf FW-189.  I’ve had it for a couple years now, but can only really fly it at large contests.  He helped me with the final trimming and it started climbing out and flying right.  His recommendations?  “That thing is ready, stop messing around and put some turns in those motors.”  He was right.  More Power and it climbed to altitude and got some decent times.  I flew it in WWII-Combat (a mass Launch event).  There were 31 pilots and the first round took out 11 – but not me!  I made it to the second round (where they took out 10) and made a respectable middle-of-the-pack 14th place showing.  I was satisfied.  Few people fly models that large in WWII and virtually no one is crazy/stupid enough to fly a large TWIN-engined model.  So, being crazy/stupid, I did and I was happy with the results.  I know some people took videos of the rounds, I’ like to see my plane in action.

I later flew it for times in Jumbo Scale.  At the FAC Nats, Jumbo requires an Average of three flights to compute your overall flight score.  One single flight isn’t good enough; you need three flights.  So I had a decent first flight (roughly 55-seconds) – the photo here is where it landed.  And then I did a second flight after adding a touch of nose weight to help the pitchy glide.  The video shows that entire flight – Including the reason why I didn’t get to make a third flight.  Regardless, I took 5th in Jumbo (awards are to five places at the FAC Nats) – again, I was pleased with the performance.  Watch the video – the ending may surprise you.

As for the non-Scale events, I flew every one, but only maxed-out in OT Stick. I had started with my trusty Holy Ike.  I had a max test flight followed by a too-short first official – 10 seconds under 120.  So I set that aside and got out my back-up – the brand-new Miss Production.  Eventually, I got three maxes.  The CD had decided that tie-breakers (if there were ties) were to be decided by an unlimited fourth flight.  I waited until after 4pm and put up a 2.5 minute flight – the shortest flight I had made with the Miss Production all day!  Because of that short unlimited flight, I placed second in OT stick.

I kept going in the non-Scale events, but my performances were not very notable.  Well, I was fifth in OT Fuselage and did manage to win Half-Wakefield – with a brand-new half-size Keil Kraft Gipsy.  In fact, my “showing up” in all the events was enough for me to place second behind Tom Hallman for Non-Scale Champion.  That’s pretty good, I guess.

Two more notes:

Firstly, a report on my three new builds done in the 3+weeks immediately before Geneseo:  the Miss Production triple-maxed and placed second in OT Stick, the Gipsy placed first in Half-Wake and my trimmed-trimmed-on-the-field-and-adjusted-during-official-flights NoCal Folkerts Sk-2 placed second in NoCal, behind Scott Richelen flying an F-4 Phantom with a single flight over 6 minutes long.  So it was a good thing I actually built those models as they were my best performing ones!

Lastly, a surprise for me at the Awards ceremony.  My Jumbo Focke-Wulf FW-189 won the “Earl van Gorder Memorial Award – World War Two Best of Show”.  This is a perpetual FAC Trophy awarded at the FAC-Nats only and the model is selected by anonymous judges based on appearance (and possibly impressiveness?), not performance.  It is an honor to have my model selected.  This is also sentimental to me for another reason:  Earl van Gorder wrote a column in the Flying Models magazine “Flying Things for Fledglings”.  Not only did I read that article, but I sent several plans to him when I was starting out in this whole plans business.  He was kind enough to comment on every one in his article and that helped me sell them for like $5 each.  That was way back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s (check those old issues!)  Who knew where all that would lead?

My final Awards Ceremony tally:

1st – Half-Wake – Keil Kraft Gipsy
2nd – OT Stick – Miss Production
2nd – NoCal – Folkerts SK-2
3rd – National Air Races – Comper Swift
4th – Modern Civilian – Bede BD-4 (Peanut)
5th – OT Fuselage – HepCat
5th – Jumbo Scale – Focke-Wulf FW-189

Posted in Builds, Events, Products | 2 Comments

Out-of-Office until 28/29 July

Posted on 14 July 2024 by Bredehoft

I am off to the FAC Nats in Geneseo, NY this week and then the AMA Nats in Muncie, IN next week.  If your order has not been filled by now, it will not be filled until I return.  I WILL have a selection of items for sale at both contests, so stop by and see if you need something!

Thanks for your support and LET’S GO FLYING!

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TWO NEW KITS!

Posted on 18 June 2024 by Bredehoft

Peanut Scale Midget Monocoupe and 1/2Wake Keil Kraft Gipsy

Two new kits, finished this month!

Midget Monocoupe for Peanut and Goodyear Races HERE

Keil Kraft Gipsy 1/2 Wake HERE

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PRE-ORDER for Geneseo and Muncie NATS!

Posted on 11 June 2024 by Bredehoft

Please consider pre-ordering for these two contests:

  • FAC Nationals – Geneseo, NY (16/17/18/19/20 July)
  • AMA FF Nats – Muncie, IN (23/24/25/26 July)

Please make a cart comment about WHICH Contest you are ordering for!

I will have your order ready to pick up upon my arrival at each contest.  This will also ensure that you get a kit that you want, since I will not have stock-on-hand of all kits at each contest.  I will have stock of some kits, but definitely not all kits, and possibly, not the kit you want!  So order ahead, pay ahead, and pick up at the contest. **

** – Note:  you WILL be charged postage, but I will refund the postage back to you after delivery.  If you do not pick up your order at the contest, it will be shipped to you.  (I tried to set up “Event Pickup/Contest Delivery” in this shopping cart as I had done in the past, but I immediately got a handful of orders from people that only saw “FREE” postage.)

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CALCULATORS – Back Online!

Posted on 30 May 2024 by Bredehoft

After much frustration, my Calculators are back online.  For some reason, WordPress (my blog software) prohibited the embedding of non-Wordpress pages within WordPress.  This broke the connection to my Calculators.  Finally, I gave up fighting and have made the links to (apparently) external pages.  The Calculators will now pop out in a new tab in your browser.

There are now SIX calculators:  Carve Calc (for prop block dimensions), Cone Calc, Strut Calc, Safe Torque Calc, TVo-CG Calc, and Density Calc.

You can find them in the Menu Bar at the top.  Eventually, they will return to the right side menu, also.

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NEW PRODUCT – Bradley Glider Reel

Posted on 27 May 2024 by Bredehoft

After a winter of waiting for good weather, I was finally able to test a new product this month.  It is a 10:1 Glider Reel, designed by (and produced with permission of) Paul Bradley.  This is designed for the Flying Aces Club Scale Glider event.

It is printed in ABS plastic (7 hours of print time) and assembled with quality hardware, including four sealed ball bearings.  It is also loaded with the FAC-maximum of 50 meters / 54 yards of high-visibility 30lb flyline.  It is ready to use with the exception of adding the required flag at the end of the line.

Find the Bradley Glider Reel HERE in my shop.

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Contest Delivery – Order Ahead!

Posted on 21 May 2024 by Bredehoft

Ok, it is that time of year.  If you are going to the following contests, consider ordering ahead.  I will have your orders packed, ready for pickup.

  1. FAC Contest McCook at Muncie, IN (7/8/9 June)
  2. FAC Nationals – Geneseo, NY (16/17/18/19/20 July)
  3. AMA FF Nats – Muncie, IN (23/24/25/26 July)

Follow these guidelines:

  1. Fill your shopping cart with what you want
  2. During Checkout, add a NOTE to your cart
    1. tell me what contest you want to pick up (I am not a mind reader!)
  3. Complete the order (pay).

You will be charged postage, BUT – either I will refund after delivery – or I will use the postage to mail your order, should we not connect at the contest.

I will pack up the order and have it ready for pickup when I arrive at the contest.  Just stop by and say you are picking up your pre-order.

One benefit is that you can likely order things that may not be at any given contest to purchase.  Here are some reasons why that may be:

  1. I will NOT have items for sale at McCook.
  2. I will be selling with a setup at Geneseo during registration on Wednesday, but during flying day, all my sales stuff will be in a trailer while I fly.
  3. At the AMA FF Nats, again, I will not be set up during flying time, but will likely have my stock in a trailer.
  4. I will NOT have a full stock of kits at any contest.  If there is a specific kit you want, order ahead!

Thanks!

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Creating a New Instance of My Site

Posted on 15 May 2024 by Bredehoft

I am working re-creating or re-building my site.

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