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January 2003
January, 2003
Vol. 20, No. 1 U.S.A. $3.50 R/C Soaring Digest
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ABOUT RCSD
R
/C Soaring Digest (RCSD) is a reader-
written monthly publication for the R/C
sailplane enthusiast and has been published
since January, 1984. It is dedicated to sharing
technical and educational information. All
material contributed must be exclusive and
original and not infringe upon the copyrights
of others. It is the policy of RCSD to provide
accurate information. Please let us know of
any error that significantly affects the
meaning of a story. Because we encourage
new ideas, the content of all articles, model
designs, press & news releases, etc., are the
opinion of the author and may not
necessarily reflect those of RCSD. We
encourage anyone who wishes to obtain
additional information to contact the author.
RCSD was founded by Jim Gray, lecturer
and technical consultant.
RCSD should not be considered to endorse
any advertised products or messages
pertaining hereto. An advertising rate card is
available for businesses, and clubs.
Feature Columnists
Bill & Bunny Kuhlman (B
2
),
Lee Murray, Tom Nagel, Mark Nankivil,
Dave Register, Steve Savoie, Jerry Slates,
Greg Smith, Gordy Stahl
Artwork
Gene Zika is the graphic artist
who designs the unique ZIKA clip art.
RCSD Staff
Jerry Slates - Editor/Technical Editor
Judy Slates - Managing Editor, Subscriptions
Lee Murray - RCSD Index/Database
(available on-line)
Bill & Bunny Kuhlman - RCSD Web Masters
PayPal Coordinators
Copyright © 2003 R/C Soaring Digest.
All rights reserved.
R/C Soaring Digest
556 Funston Drive
Santa Rosa, CA 95407
phone: (707) 578-7871
e-mail: rcsdigest@aol.com
http://www.b2streamlines.com/RCSD.html
OTHER GOOD STUFF
19 Classified Ads
-
New Products
18 Schedule of Special Events
Monthly Feature Photography & Web Version of the Printed Article
(where appropriate)
Highlights & Mailing Status of the Current Issue
About RCSD
..................................................................................... Subscription Information
...................................................Advertising Rate Card
(Adobe Acrobat PDF format)
.............................................RCSD Feature Columnists, Reporters, and Editors
.......................
(E-mail/web addresses, plus general information about their areas of interest)
"Getting Started in RC Soaring"........
Getting started guide - Adobe Acrobat PDF format
Links to Organizations, Special Interest Groups & Clubs
On-Line Articles -
Great articles originally written for the printed version of
RCSD
.
........................................ "Trimming Your Sailplane for Optimum Performance" by Brian Agnew
.................................................................................................. "Flys Faster" by Dr. Michael Selig
.............................. "The Square-Cube Law and Scaling for RC Sailplanes" by Dr. Michael Selig
.................................. "Modifying & Building the MB Raven (Parts 1-4)" by Bill & Bunny Kuhlman
............................................................. "Butterfly and Moth Airbrushing Tutorial" by Joedy Drulia
Bookshelf Listings -
A listing of recently published books of interest to aeromodelers.
Complete RCSD Index, 1984-2001
RCSD ON THE WEB
http://www.b2streamlines.com/RCSD.html
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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"Soaring Site" .......................................................................................
Judy Slates
Editorial ........................................................................................... Vintage Sailplane Association
5
Short Story..............................................................................................
Paul Cox
......................................................................................................................Winter Time Projects
6
Technical Analysis & Design .............................................................
Martin Simons
.......................................................................................... The Myth of the Bell-shaped Lift Curve
10
Retriever Design ..............................................................................
Dick McDonald
...................................................................................................................... My Golden Retriever
(Feature article available in .pdf format for downloading from the RCSD web pages.)
14
"Have Sailplane Will Travel!" ..................................................................
Tom Nagel
Travel Sagas & Other Neat Stuff ..................................................................... The Ronnie Winch
16
Battery Maintenance ........................................................................
Dave Register
......................................................................................... Getting a Charge Out of Your Batteries
17
F3J......................................................................................................
Stefan Eder
.......................................................................................
(Translated for RCSD by Roger Segers)
......................................................................................... Tips for the Fine Tuning of F3J Models
15 Aerospace Composite Products
15 Cavazos Sailplane Design
15 R/C Soaring Digest
Special Interest Groups
19 Eastern Soaring League (ESL)
19 International Scale Soaring Assoc.
19 League of Silent Flight
19 Sailplane Homebuilders Association
19 T.W.I.T.T.
19 Vintage Sailplane Association
Advertiser Index
Events
5 Tangerine Soaring Championships, FL Page 3
January 2003
The
Soaring
Site
Back Cover
The Ronnie Winch
D
esigned and built by
Ronnie Woodyard, he
shares his Ronnie Winch
design this month in Tom
Nagels travel saga column,
Have Sailplane, Will Travel!
My Golden Retriever
D
esigned and built by Dick
McDonald, a member of the
Seattle Area Soaring Society, Dick
shares his Golden Retriever
design in this issue of RCSD.
(Thanks to B
2
for editing, coordi-
nating, and transmitting! Article is
also available on the RCSD web
pages in pdf format! Ed.)
New Web Address
W
e received an e-mail from Buzz
Waltz. He has new e-mail and
web addresses:
www.buzzwaltz.com
buzzwaltz@earthlink.net
E-Mail Problem
We recently received the electronic
version of the Tulsa RC Soaring Club
newsletter, TULSOAR, from our Dave
Register, who is also their newsletter
editor. We noted that he has been hit
with an enormous amount of spam
lately and has been trying to aggres-
sively block the unwanted junk mail.
And, hes not the only one! So, I
dropped him a message in case he
could offer suggestions on getting rid
of the mail other than shift/click/
delete...
Dave responded with, No luck so far.
I downloaded a spam blocking pro-
gram for AOL but it was so cumber-
some it wasnt worth it. Ill keep
looking. For me, all I need right now is
something that catches a few keywords
in the subject line and rejects them
before they get here. Things like
mortgage, credit, debt, viagra and
then a whole host of body parts that
dont need listing here.
AOL 8.0 allows you to automate the
blocking part a bit. But it works only
for specific e-mail addresses. So far
Ive got a list thats approaching about
200 addresses. Im sure they keep
hopping around with these things so
its essentially useless.
If I find something that works, Ill let
you know. This has become more
offensive than telemarketers. At least
with caller ID you dont have to
answer the phone and you can turn
your answering machine off during
peak times. But this stuff is over-
whelming and much of it is in over-
whelmingly bad taste.
And for those of you that know what
were talking about, overwhelmingly
bad taste is obviously an understate-
ment!!
Since about 90% of our mail is spam,
that means we delete a lot of e-mail
without even bothering to open it. If
we dont recognize your e-mail
address and the subject line fails to
indicate that the message is somehow
RC related, the message is deleted. If
any of you have sent a message, and
we have not responded, please send it
again, but with a different message in
the subject line.
The Tulsa folks and RCSD arent the
only ones to address the e-mail prob-
lem. Raul Blacksten, editor of Bungee
Cord, addressed the subject in his
Winter 2002-3 editorial. He said, Also,
please know that if you e-mail me, be
certain that what you put in the subject
line is clearly and concisely stated so
that I know your attachment is not a
virus. I have been hit by viruses over
300 times since June. Even if your
message gets past my Norton anti-
virus software, if it is at all question-
able, I delete it rather than take a
chance opening it.
And, what is Bungee Cord? As many
of you already know, its the Voice of
the Vintage Sailplane Association!
Vintage Sailplane Association
(VSA)
http://www.vintagesailplane.org
The following information was obtained
from the VSA web site. Like our discussion
on T.W.I.T.T. last month, we thought
some of you would be interested in the
scale aspects as they relate to our RC
models, or perhaps youd like to attend one
of their yearly events as a spectator or even
a volunteer.
The purpose of the Vintage Sail-
plane Association (VSA)
is to
promote the acquision, restoration and
flying of vintage sailplanes by its
members, and to assist the National
Soaring Museum
in the preservation
of soaring history and the promotion
of vintage sailplane activity. R/C Soaring Digest
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A Vintage Sailplane is any glider
out of production since 1958, or a more
recently built glider with appearance,
performance and construction charac-
teristics similar or comparable to
gliders manufactured before 1958.
A Classic Sailplane is a glider that
is at least 25 years old, but is no