Tag: Gliders

Huge Dilemma Concerning David Higgin’s Overhead Bin Packed Full of Airplane Model Drawings !!!

by JB Nisley, posted in Gliders, Posts

What’s a Webmaster of an Aeromodelling Website to do about a Jam-Packed Airliner Overhead Bin full of Model Airplane Drawings belonging to David Higgins?

Create a new Web Page of course !!!

BE CAREFUL !!!

Be sure to open that OVERHEAD BIN SLOWLY or a rush of
MODEL AIRPLANE DRAWINGS will SPILL OUT !!!
WE WOULDNT WANT THAT TO HAPPEN —
NOW WOULD WE?


We now have a sizeable backlog of Dave’s drawings he’s either drawn himself and or collected from others from the numerous years he’s been  engaged with the Aeromodelling Hobby—and now they seem to be camping out in an undersized Airline Overhead Bin!
What’s a Webmaster to do? 

HERE’S OUR ANSWER!

Click on this link to a newly created Webpage
that will provide enough STORAGE for these JEMS!

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David Higgins’ Overhead Bin
Aeromodelling Drawings & Plans

(You can also click on the image above.)

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YES—DAVE’S AT IT AGAIN. 

We thought the best place to deal with these was to create a brand new storage unit in the form of a Web page especially designed for Dave called David Higgins’ Overhead Bin — Aeromodelling Drawings & Plans. We think that you will agree. As time allows we will be adding more “Additions” to this page at regular intervals.

I seems in most cases—a great number of the drawings that he is providing have a personal story that goes along with them which only adds immeasurably to the charm. In some cases he includes additional insight into the model as well. Often he has personally constructed the model—having designed it himself or made modifications to an original design, He describes his experience with having flown it, and has advice as to its trimming aka flight adjustments. In some cases he has chosen to completely redraw the model using his CAD software to his liking, which in most cases is an upgrade to the original design. 

The drawings on this Web page will be downloadable as PDF files so you can print them on your computer or take the file on a flash drive to a printing service for your very own (to scale) copy.

Also note that in the future you can easily get back to his new page as it is nestled immediately under the Web page link to his popular DAVE’S GALLERIA OF GLIDERS Web page shown in the Main Navigation Menu located at the top of this page. It will be the first link in the “Sub-Menu” if you hover your mouse over the “GALLERIA” link. (Try doing that now. 😉)

So—stay tuned as more drawings get added
to this crazy page! 🙃

Thanks for viewing,

—Jb— Webmaster for KCFreeFlight.org

P.S. — If you like the new page or this Website in general, tell your Aeromodelling friends where to find us and as always — Warm Thermals.

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HAFFA Tribute to Tem Johnson: Our Famous KC Glider Guider!

by Jeff Renz, posted in Gliders
Tem at his best! Studying his details notes ready to compete in the auditorium!

2020 HAFFA Thanksgiving update: As it is now Thanksgiving week….which is now over… and I have had my yearly dose of turkey, sandwiches…turkey pot pie, turkey soup, turkey salad sandwiches…

I was thinking of all the people I have been lucky to meet over the years. One of those people was our own club member Tem Johnson. I wanted to get out a quick post about Tem. I am so thankful to have known him for at least a decade or more.

Example of Tem Johnson’s Cat 1 Glider (I have 30 or 40 of these drawings) plan included

Tem’s Catapult Indoor Glider planDownload

We have been updating our Glider pages for the HAFFA website. This post will eventually morph into a separate page under the “Galleria of Gliders” section of our website. Nisley has done a “bang-up” job….and has enlisted the assistance of Dave Higgins from the Seattle area. I have been wanting to get a start on another local HAFFA member who left us with a legacy of competitive glider designs….so this post is just a start on “Tem Johnson’s Legacy”

Tem Johnson was an excellent model airplane craftsman and competitor. He passed away going on 3 years ago…..and caught the big thermal June 22, 2017 for his final flight. He was a local active member of the Topeka Model Aircraft Club and Heart of America Free Flight Model Airplane Club for decades within the KC area. Tem was a fixture at many model airplane contests, on the local and national levels. Tem competed and won against some of the worlds best free flight modelers frequently at the yearly national contests in Moscow Idaho and Johnson City Tennessee over the years. Tem logged many miles going to contests with his OFBs “old flying buddies” Emil Schutzel, Gary Hodson, and Larry Coslick. Tem majored in Mechanical Engineering at Purdue. He always took an organized scientific approach to model construction as well as the art of flying competitively. He created many personal reference note books with full of documentation and records and data along with a performance summary of each design. Many of his designs and aerodynamic related technical articles were published in technical journals and news letters. His JETEX Payload design appeared on the 1961 Zaic Yearbook page 238. His HLG the Bronco appeared in Zaic Year book as well. (Dave Higgins researched Tem’s Bronco outdoor chuck glider is in Zaic’s 1964-65 Yearbook on page 166.  This is the same yearbook that the Sweepette 16 Mk. III and Sweepette 18 Mk. 9 appear.) Tem had an encyclopedic knowledge of model airplanes and lectured on many flying and design topics. His dry wit and competitive spirit are deeply missed by the model airplane community.

Dana Field always reminds me of Tem’s indoor 30 second flights in our 26 foot ceiling gym at Osawatomie. “Tem would pull out his catapult glider….walk to a certain pre-determined point on the floor…..aim at a certain spot in the ceiling and let it go…..just has it appeared his glider was going to bounce off the ceiling….it would transition instantaneously into a perfect set-up for a slow descent circling gracefully ….it seemed forever to land perfectly on the gym floor with no damage…..really amazing”.

I intend to keep adding to this post over the next few weeks. Come back and visit it again for more info. There is so much to cover. When I met Tem he was mostly into indoor gliders. By the way his real name is “TEM” spelled with an “E”….I will explain that in a future post. However for years he had been flying and designing outdoor competitive designs decades before I had met Tem. One of his most famous designs was the “Bronco”.

Dana Field had published this “Bronco” design a couple of times in our “Dispatch News Letter” over the last few years. Several of our club members have built this glider. A good consistent flyer. I will get the plan and add it in a future post.

Image courtesy of Dave Higgins

Gliders Group Forum is the latest category added to “Galleria of Gliders”

by David Higgins, posted in Free Flight Contest, Gliders

Gliders Group Forum is the latest category added to “Galleria of Gliders” and it is designed to get people talking and thinking about all aspects of model gliders, from the most basic chuck and catapult gliders to some of the current ARF/RTF radio controlled gliders.

Topics may include glider aerodynamics, balsa wood selection, construction techniques, glider design parameters, flight trimming, etc. We want to have a free exchange of ideas to benefit everyone, especially those who are new to this aspect of aeromodelling.

For instance, suppose someone has a problem with their catapult glider looping during the catapult phase and wants suggestions on how to solve this problem.

I or someone else may suggest that they warp the trailing edge of the stabilizer down around 1/64” to 1/32” and remove some clay from the nose of the glider and try launching it again, and someone else may have another useful suggestion that worked for them. 

Another person may have a suggestion on some building technique that they used relating to gliders and wants to pass that “tribal” knowledge on to others. 

So come see what all the HUBBUB is all about . . .

NOTE: The dictionary defines HUBBUB as a situation in which there is much noise, confusion, excitement, and activity.

Doesn’t that describe a Rowdy Group of Glider Enthusiasts at a Flying Event Chucking their Gliders?

Go to GLIDERS GROUP FORUM. You’ll be glad you did.

HAFFA November Indoor Flying Update

by Jeff Renz, posted in Free Flight Contest, Gliders, HAFFA Events

HAFFA November Indoor Flying Update

Modified Guillows “Sky Cadet Airplane”

Just wanted to give everyone a heads up about our November 2020 Osawatomie Auditorium Session. Photo link included below

Paul Meganroth…Roie and Cheryl Black, Dana Field…. we all had a good day of flying. We flew a lot of different models. We all flew the P18 event to get warmed up.  We are all getting better at indoor flying. Paul turned in a 2 minute and 6 second flight once he got his P 18 dialed in. 
Dana flew hand launch glider. Dana had built the new glider from a Joshua Finn kit called the “Cat’s Meow” carbon and foam glider. He is still working out the kinks with this new machine. I flew mini stick and managed to get a 4 minute and 10 second flight. Paul flew his penny plane with great results. At one point he would have had an 8-minute flight with his Penny Plane…. however it stuck to the side wall of the gym walls fabric material….. so we stopped the clock and got a long kite pole to bump it off the wall and started the timer again once it popped loose from the wall. We did not count this as official…. but the Penny plane continued on for almost 3 minutes….and it would have been almost eight minutes total when we added the two times together. It was really fun to watch. It has been a while since we had a flight that long in the gym. 
I had a good time just watching all the airplanes fly. My new P18 (A Dave Higgins Design called the ” PURSUIT P18 “) flew quite well but not good enough to beat Dana or Paul. I still need to get some stiffer wing posts….the wood I had used was not stiff enough for the flight loads encountered….during some minor taps and bumps on the walls and ceiling of the gym.

Roie showed up with a Guillows Cadet that he had revamped for indoor flying and made it portable for easy transportation as well. I like how Roie built it so it could be stored for travel in a cardboard box easily with a small footprint of space…in the trunk of a car or back seat…. this modified plane would break down easily… it was held together with rubber bands.

Dana brought a Dave Diels kit and opened the box to reveal tons of documentation and 6 sheets of plans and several sets of laser cut parts.   I had never purchased a Diels kit….wow you get your money’s worth! Check out the photos of the “un-boxing”

Anyway a good time was had by all next flying session will be in December the first weekend in December. It was a pain…. but we wore masks. And stayed distant from each other. Thanks again Renz.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/h9q4Bw4MMeDK1fRX9