Magicien d'Oz: first flights
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About people's
tasks..
 Gérard, the artist, made the
plan; Jean-Marie, JMP for those who know, designed the
receiver and the speed controller (of course) and Jean-Yves,
the last guy to join the team, took over the motorisation
design.
By a
stroke of luck, a tennis court is available next to
Jean-Yves's house and he can easily try many combinations of
motors, propellers and gearboxes to find out the best set-up
.
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Jean-Yves preparing for flying...
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Some trials...
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Unfortunately, there is no heater system
in the tennis court and the tests,starting during Christmas
98 period, were carried out while it was freezing.
Sometimes, the DC/DC converter refused to start for that
reason. Instead of trying to warm it up with his hands,
Jean-Yves should try to use the IR transmitter used by some
other Indoor fans...
When it is
too cold, Jean-Yves walks beside his plane around the tennis
court to get warm again...
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Public meetings
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The first
public presentation of the "Magicien d'Oz" was held in
Wissous on January, 3rd, 1999,
just on time since the plane was completed only in that
morning...(See records in the French magazine RCM N°
214 - February 1999).
The second
public presentation was held in Cormeilles-en-Parisis on
January, 23rd & 24th, 1999 in front of a large audience
(See below).
On the
right, the French "Twisteuse team" is interviewed by the
editor of the French magazine RCM; underneath, you can see
other Gerard's models (Lucy in
the sky,
Twisteuse,
Raid débil).
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And then...
Two "Magicien d'Oz" were presented on March 6
& 7th, 1999, at the German exhibition in Sinsheim, the "Mecca" of
Slow-flying (See report on
Klaustrophobia
site). Repeated flights were accomplished, the longest one was a
10 minutes and 30 seconds flight, including several touch-and-goes
until the 7th minute (With a new geared coreless motor and three 50
mAh Nicads). The two models take-off in less than 3 meters and
perform just like any other normal slow-flyers.
But, as we had vaguely expected, Rick Ruijsink
from Holland, who presented last year in Paris Miss Daisy, a 31
gramme plane, was on the watch. He presented the "De Lite", a 14.1
gramme ( 0.497 oz.) radio controlled three proportional channels
model. It flies on a 3-cell 30 mAh NimH battery (flight duration: 90
seconds) and is powered by a 1.9 g coreless motor geared down 5:1.
Wing area is approximately 4.5 dm2 ( about 70 sq. in.). The flight
performance is still marginal (hand launch only), but, with no doubt,
Rick needs only few days to improve its model.
The competition is going
on....
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