Letters to the Editor
Mark Drela, more flight simulators, another helpful answer and simply a kind word.
Mark Drela’s Other Accomplishments
In this era of celebrity it should be mentioned that Mark Drela still holds the world boat man-powered speed record and has for 22 years! 21 mph, 100 meters.
John Vigour
For readers who may have missed the reference, in the first part of Tiberiu Atudorei’s Project ALTius series (see Resources, below) the author made reference to Mark Drela’s remarkable contributions to the world of RC sailplane design. However thanks for reminding us, John, that Mark’s accomplishments are in no way limited to this one discipline. Information on his record-setting Decavitator design is linked below. — Ed.
An Answer to Sanjay’s Graupner Mosquito Question
I would strongly advise him to build the model as designed. The plan shows that the steel and brass tube wing joiners are highly integrated in to the spar structure and, together with the ‘D’ box leading edge, this will be adequately strong for the purpose the model was designed for — thermal soaring. A 300W (or so) outrunner will provide adequate power on a 3S LiPo and will be significantly lighter than the original power system. Perfect for summer thermalling with the sun shining through transparent film on the open structure wings!
Mike Goulette
United Kingdom
Sanjay’s letter from last month is linked below. Mike is an experienced, expert builder and he seems to have offered some great advice. — Ed.
More Simulators!
I see there’s a new ongoing series Condor Corner starting up in which Scott Manley is going to talk about the full-size Condor soaring simulator. I’m looking forward to reading more in the coming months.
But how about featuring some content on other RC flight simulators, specifically ones that work well simulating RC soaring? I have been a fan of PicaSim for a while now, but then found out that Michael Selig had released his FS One simulator last year and I really like it too.
Perhaps the authors of each sim would be willing to publish an article each with some history and insights on how each of their sims came about, and what their plans are for the future? Thanks!
Bill Tsang
Bill—thanks so much for that positive feedback. Almost everything in the New RCSD starts off with an experiment and in this case, it seems to have panned out. We actually had a great article by Chip Kaye about PicaSim a while back. Also, our Cool New Stuff section last month featured the upcoming Yawman flight sim controller. Both articles are linked below. We see this area as one of real growth for the New RCSD — your idea of having all the sim makers weigh in is a great one! Thanks again for your note. — Ed.
It’s Simple — Insomnia Is Our Friend
I don’t know how you guys do it, but you somehow manage to make each months issue, excitingly new and shiney! The February edition is no exception and comes in like a breath of fresh air!
Lyle Jeakins,
Hamilton, Ontario
To be entirely candid, Lyle, this month was a rough one for the New RCSD team. However when we receive letters like yours, it makes it all worthwhile. Every bit of it. Thanks so much for passing this kind thoughts along. We’ll keep writing if you promise to keep reading.— Ed.
Resources
- Project ALTius | Part I: A simpler approach to high-performance glider development using CAD/CAM. — The first part of Tiberiu Atudorei’s series. The second part appears in this month’s issue.
- Decavitator Human-Powered Hydrofoil — “On 27 October 1991, Mark Drela pedalled the human-powered hydrofoil, Decavitator, to a world-record speed of 18.5 knots (9.53 meters/second) over a 100 meter race course on the Charles River in Boston, Massachusetts…”
- A Question about a Graupner Classic — “I was wondering if anyone had any tips on a wing joiner arrangement. The one shown in the plans is just 3+3“ long and about 3/16” (5mm) diameter of unspecified material. Lots of doubts there…”
- J’Adore PicaSim! | A superb — and free — flight simulator for slope soaring. — “Flight simulators are, of course, no substitute for the natural-world pleasures of RC soaring. But they can be loads of fun to fly and can serve as an excellent, risk-free training tool. With PicaSim you will be able to put in stick time easily…”
- FS One — “can work with practically any USB simulator controller. After your download, follow the setup instructions in the online user manual to get going…”
- Cool New Stuff | Gaming Controller Designed for Flight Simulators — “The Yawman Arrow is a new type of hand-held gaming controller … [it] combines all the traditional flight controls of an aircraft…”
Send your letter via email to NewRCSoaringDigest@gmail.com with the subject “Letters to the Editor”. Alternatively, you can leave a reply in the Responses section below (that’s the little 💬). We are not obliged to publish any letter we receive and we reserve the right to edit your letter as we see fit to make it suitable for publication. We do not publish letters where the real identity of the author cannot be clearly established.
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