Meetings and Minutes

This year’s Free Flight Forum takes place on Nov. 13th, the day after the 2011 BMFA AGM, at Barcelo Hinckley Island Hotel, A5 Watling Street, LE10 3JA, starting at 10.00 a.m.

Tickets are £9 and all proceeds help to fund the teams that represent Great Britain at World and European Championships.

There’s an even wider range of topics covered than usual, so come along and discover there’s a lot more to model flying than you may have thought.

Topics and Speakers

• Anodizing – Simon Dixon;
• Playing with Pistachios – Paul Seeley;
• Catapult Glider Technology – Phil Ball;
• Model Aircraft Technology – A Review of Invigorators as an Aid to Stable Flight – Neil Cliff;
• Printing Tissue for Models – Paul Seeley;
• Experiences with Electronic Timer Design and Use – Alan Jack;
• F1D Indoor Topics – Mark Benns;
• Model Aircraft Construction with an Emphasis on F1G – Neil Cliff;
• Model Construction Using Brown Paper – Ivan Taylor;
• Experiences in BMFA Electric in 2011 and the Rule Changes for 2012 – Chris Strachan;
• Rice Pudding Skin Pullers 2011 Rules for E30 – Peter Tolhurst;
• A Newcomer to Indoor – Allan Weighell/Tony Hebb.

2011 Control Line European Championships Medals – the magnificent F2A Speed Team,Ken Morrissey, Paul Eisner & Peter Halman, took the championship team gold medal for the 14th year in succession. Seven World Championships and seven European Championships. The individual bronze medal went to Paul Eisner and the gold individual medal, European Champion’s crown and a new world record went to Ken Morrissey.

Jamie Griffin, our talented young F2D Combat flier, took the F2D individual junior bronze medal. That’s an individual junior medal for Jamie for two Championships in a row.

Ken Morrissey breaks the F2A World Record four times at the recent European Championships with a final, magnificent speed of 307.4 kph.

Ken Morrissey was a member of the British F2A (Speed) team at the 2011 European Championships in Czestochowa, Poland. Ken broke the current world record of 302.5 kph each of the four times that he flew. His flight in the fourth and final round was an astonishing 307.4 kph.

The engine was a Halman Special, 2.5 cc producing 2.5 bhp and running at 40,000 rpm. Ken’s “pit crew” were the other two team members, Paul Eisner (individual bronze championship medal) and Peter Halman. It was Peter’s magic fingers that set the engine on each of the flights.

In the first round, Ken recorded 304.3 kph which smashed the current world record by almost two kilometres per hour. In the second round, he broke his own record by 0.1 kph. In the third round, he broke that record by a further 1.5 kph and in the fourth round, with another increase of 1.5 kph, he broke that record with a magical speed of 307.4 kph.

In four flights he took the world record from 302.5 kph to 307.4 kph. When the top competitors are separated by just tenths of a second – and sometimes by just hundredths of a second – then the overall increase in the world record of 4.9 kph shows just how astounding this achievement of Ken’s really was.

On lap 6 (of 9 laps) the TransiTrace electronic timing system recorded 309.3 kph. Nothing like this has ever been seen in F2A competition flying since it was first introduced as an FAI class. Ken was deservedly, and to wild acclaim, crowned F2A European Champion.

Please see below, a rule change notified by the Silent FLight Technical Committee:

BMFA CONTEST RULES

SECTION 7

BOOK 1

GLIDERS

PAGE 19
5.3.2.2. LAUNCHING GENERAL.

DELETE PARAGRAPH 3

REPLACE WITH
Launching may be made by winches but only if each winch meets in all respects paragraph 5.3.2.2.in the FAI rule book from (a) through to (s) Take special note of the battery specification.
In addition launches may be made by fitting the model with a suitable electric motor and propeller with appropriate battery and control equipment. The point at which the motor is cut shall be controlled by a height limiting device of the type specified on Page 32 in BMFA CONTEST RULES BOOK 2 ELECTROFLIGHT.
The actual height of the cut-off to be determined before the start of the contest task based on the height expected to be reached during a typical launch by means of a winch.