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aluminium bell cranks to operate the wings. These weredesigned and machined by Doug Boyd and were installed withthe drive pins at the trailing edge of the wing. Other than thedrive system for the wings, the fuselage was built the same asthe plans. It did come out a little heavier than I was hoping, butit proved to be very strong.The wings were built a little differently than the plans. I followedJay Decker’s article on installing sparless joiners for twisty wingplanes (see www.slopeflyer.com/artman/pubish/twf> for more details). The cores were theoriginal e374 thinned to about 8% and cut from polystyrene andsheeted with balsa and 3oz fiberglass. The finished wingloadingcame out at 24oz/sq ft, meaning that it was by far the heaviestand fastest plane I had ever seen or built.About half way through the build, I was lucky enough toconvince my fiancée that I needed another pitcheron, andmanaged to get onto the list for the last run of the Sky KingsRC Products Shrike, a re-release of the famous Harris Nelson60" pitcheron. As I was working in a winery in New Zealand,I wanted to finish and maiden the Orca before harvest began(mid-March) as I was working flat out for the six or so weeksthat harvest runs. Thankfully I was able to complete it in timeand managed to have a number of flights before the harvestbegan.To say that I was nervous before my maiden would be anunderstatement. I had set up the controls as per Harley’s plans,but never having flown, let alone seen, a pitcheron before, I wasunsure what to expect – other than it would be a handful tryingto land (no flaps/spoilers and a heavy slippery design).The day of the maiden saw my flying partner and I at the topof our favourite slope in 45kph winds. I’d flown my Destiny andseen my friend maiden his heavy PSS Hawker Hunter so I waspretty sure that it would be able to fly.Detail of the wingeron/pitcheron system.44 R/C Soaring Digest
We agreed that Dan would launch for me,both so that I could have both hands onthe controls in the event of a mishap andso that it would receive a proper throw.I tested the controls with Dan hangingonto the plane at the lip of the slope – allthrows were correct and felt good, so Igave him the nod.A heave into the lift made it pitch upviolently and I had a few thunderousheartbeats before I managed to getit down safely with little damage. Wepatched up the damage and I dialedin some down trim before Dan walkedfurther down the slope and threw itoff again. This time I was ready for thesudden lift and kept it under control,though I did need every bit of downtrim to get it flying level. The lift washuge, probably nothing compared tosomewhere like Eagle Butte, but for me itwas a wonderful moment. A scratch builthigh performance plane flown in big lift –just slightly addictive!!!The plane felt at home in the air, theheavy AUW meant that it cut through theturbulence that I had struggled with whenflying my Destiny, and meant that it flewfast.All the controls felt very precise, almostdigital like, so much so that after only afew passes I did a fast pass and rolled toinverted six feet across the front of theslope.Rolls were fast and smooth, while theelevator was smooth without being overresponsive. To be honest, I only flew itfor about 10 or 15 minutes. The releaseof adrenalin was too much and I beganto think, somewhat nervously, aboutlanding.I ran a couple of approaches to getthe feel of the landing zone and howthe plane felt in the rough turbulent air.The first was a little high, however thesecond from the opposite directionfelt right if a little bumpy, so I put herdown firmly. Stories of tip stalling whileloitering over the LZ were in the back ofmy mind. To say I was elated would bean understatement, we were both veryhappy with the day and left to go home,talking nonstop. Two successful maidensleft us both wired.Sometime after the maiden, I founda new slope that put all our others toshame. With 150m or so of steep front,600m wide, a smooth laminar LZ withfew rocks, and the approaches for thewind were super smooth. Nothing acrossthe river flats to impede the flow of airfor kilometers, this slope quickly becameknown as the “Mecca.”While the wind wasn’t as strong as theday of the maiden, there were somevery strong thermals cycling through. Ilaunched — no easy feat by myself —into some great lift and spent the next15 minutes or so doing endless pumps,aerobatics and speed runs.One thermal I found gave me some niceheight for a speed run across the slope,so I put the nose down and let the planegain some speed. About 50m before Iwas going to level out, one of the wingsfolded in the blink of an eye, and the fusewent into a ballistic trajectory headingsouth. I didn’t see the landing, but wassure I would be picking up the pieces toput in plastic bag, so I was shocked tosee that there was almost no damage.The horizontal tail surface had broken offthe fin, and there was a small crack in thefuse. Other than that, there was a brownscar where the nose had dug a hole25cm into the hard dirt. The wings weredifferent,. The one that had folded wascompletely beyond recovery, so I packedup and went home depressed...Harvest came and went, my Shrikearrived, was built, maidened and flowna lot, but always in the back of my mindwas the fuselage of my Orca sitting in themidst of the spare/model room waitingfor a new set of wings.A local RCGer was generous enoughto volunteer his time, expertise andequipment to help me build another setof wings. I settled on a slightly largerwingspan (2m), both to give me a largerplane and to bring the wingloading down,but I stuck with the original 8% e374.This time I cut the cores from blue foamand vac bagged on white poplar sheetingwith 3/4oz glass and a carbon golf clubshaft spar out to 50% span. They cameOctober 2008 45
Page 1 and 2: SoaringDigestRadi C ntr lledOctober
Page 3 and 4: R/C Soaring DigestManaging Editors,
Page 5 and 6: the towmen and the strength of theh
Page 7 and 8: October 2008 7
Page 9 and 10: Tents are a poor description of the
Page 11 and 12: of the juniors from Seattle so I di
Page 13 and 14: adrenaline is up in preparation. In
Page 15 and 16: The WorldChampionshipsThe Team Even
Page 17 and 18: US Junior WC F3J Team: Dave Kalamen
Page 21 and 22: 2October 2008 214
Page 23 and 24: spin and managed to fly the plane b
Page 25 and 26: Above and clockwise: Junior Team to
Page 27 and 28: Clockwise from above:The Supra wing
Page 29 and 30: Joe Wurts, Manager for Team New Zea
Page 31 and 32: 2316October 2008 31
Page 33 and 34: Above and right: Cody Remington pre
Page 35 and 36: Above: One of the many collisions t
Page 37 and 38: The F3J WorldChampionship Fly-offsT
Page 39 and 40: Ben Clerx’ plane box and travelin
Page 41 and 42: Above: Ordering at McD’s is easy
Page 43: first became aware of Pitcherons/I
Page 47 and 48: out light and stiff and looked up t
Page 49 and 50: Uncle Sydney’s gossip columnMiles
Page 51 and 52: quite as grand for this club compet
Page 57 and 58: Rol Klingberg built and flew hang g
Page 59 and 60: The KW 100 awaits another flight. H
Page 63 and 64: Flaps down!October 2008 63
Page 65 and 66: The FerengiRules of SoaringBy Peter
Page 67 and 68: Tinamous are strictly neotropical b
Page 69 and 70: Tinamou SpecificationsSpan 95"Chord
Page 71 and 72: The finished tip panel ready for sh
Page 73 and 74: One of the two tow hook blocks inst
Page 75 and 76: in the hatch, thus holding the hatc
Page 77 and 78: in handling, but I’ve since remov
Page 79: October 2008 79

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