Districts
District News start to fail. I found one with my current Olympus 1400 model on one of the ailerons. Lightly flexing the aileron out of hinge-plane, and shining a light from the back side are good techniques to enunciate if a portion of the hinge has begun to fail.
D1 |Salvatore Piu spiurc@comcast.net
It is always better to catch an item on a model showing signs of failure, rather than having to diagnose pieces of a model after it crashed as to why it crashed! I do not recommend attempting to fix only the failed portion of an all-foam-full-length hinge. Cut the entire hinge, separate the entire control surface, and use your favorite trusted hinge and glue method in several places along the control surface as if it was a new installation!
CT•ME•MA•NH•NJ•NY•PA•RI•VT
D1 starts 2021’s with a semi-cold start! Local temperatures on January 1st were somewhat bearable to some folks, making it a fair day for many pilots to get a flight or two in, including myself with a sport foamy plane. With winter weather set it, now is a good time to do a thorough review of each model. My winter check list now includes checking hinges on all control surfaces. I usually do not have problems with pinned hinges, nor with full-composite hinges on full 2M pattern ships. However, I have encountered several foamy models with full-length integrated foam hinges that
Due to the Covid-19 situation still in progress, I have set up a virtual on-line video meeting for D1’s annual meeting on February 20th, 4PM EST. It would be nice to see everyone with D1 area attend! I plan to run a judging seminar in a similar manor, most likely in March while weather is still generally in winter-non-flyable mode. Other than the judging seminar, D1’s tentative contest schedule for 2021 has essentially not changed since the January 2021 k-factor D1 article was written. We’ll have to monitor this situation as Covid-19 could adversely impact some of the earlyseason-planned events. Maneuver complete, Sal Piu
D2 | Tim Pritchett 740 Baldwin Orchard Drive Inman, SC 29349| tjpritchett@aol.com DC•DE•MD•NC•SC•VA
We’ll be short again this month. I haven’t heard from many but can tell you that ‘inside sources’ confirm that our sequences for 2022/23 are well underway, and have apart from some jots and tittles, the maneuvers are in place. NO early disclosures though…only test pilots have seen them or flown them, so look for some membership input soon. Our schedule is set, as mentioned next month. However an unfortunate consequence of ongoing COVID-19 concern is that we may loose our judging clinic venue on March 20th. Virginia has shut down large groups and non-essential functions for the foreseeable future. If this situation persists, we’ll switch to a virtual (Zoom) meeting, and open it up to a much larger audience. Although I really enjoy the in person opening of our season, a virtual get together has the potential to reach a lot more people, so I’ll keep you posted on our Facebook group. Weather is hit or miss, so I haven’t heard of much flying or practice. I’ve enjoyed a new Avanti jet for a few weeks, which hopefully will provide some better reaction times at a higher speed. However, flying the Pandora through masters at 27mph is hard to overcome! I’m surprised I haven’t turned it into foam-corn yet. Having retracts again for the first time in 5 years is pretty neat, and reminiscent of pattern days gone by. Hope to see you in March, but if not, Let’s set our sights on Aynor (still love that
January 2021 K-Factor | 9
