Growing Pattern

[John Pavlick]

AOL EmailPhil,
 Here's what I've done to "grow pattern". I flew Sportsman last year with a
scratch built Super Kaos Jr. I built it in 3 weeks. It didn't have digital
servos or a pipe. Just a 30 year old design that flies honestly, albeit a
little bit fast with an O.S. .46 Fx (some say ballistic). No computer mix -
the plane has no roll coupling tendencies thanks to Joe Bridi. I finished in
second place in D1. I WAS the only one in my club flying pattern last
Summer. Most guys didn't even know what pattern was (they thought it was
racing) until I invited them to watch a contest. I told the 3D guys that
pattern flying is a good solid foundation for 3D. One day at the field, I
asked if there was anyone that wanted to fly better. Everyone (except one
guy) said "Yes". I told them that if they learned and flew the Sportsman
pattern, this would happen. "Too complicated", "I can't do that", "I'm too
busy learning to hover"...
 But three of them did. These guys are now flying in the wind when everyone
else is grounded waiting for it to calm down. They can even use the rudder
now. One guy has an Ugly stick, one has a Venus 40, and the other is using a
3D plane. Not 2 meter ships. I told them what to expect if they go to a
contest, but right now all they're interested in is getting through the
sequence and doing the maneuvers properly. I spend as much time helping them
as I do helping myself (or trying to) but I think it's worth it.
 I realize that there aren't a lot of people that can scratch build and most
of the new ARFs are targeted at the 3D crowd. There are some (like the
Venus) that will work in Sportsman. The bottom line is if someone really
wants to do this, it doesn't really matter what they're flying. You can
survive in Sportsman with a 40 size ARF. Sure you'll be at a disadvantage
when someone shows up with a 2 meter but you're really only competing with
yourself anyway.
John Pavlick
http://www.idseng.com




 -----Original Message-----
From: discussion-request at nsrca.org [mailto:discussion-request at nsrca.org]On
Behalf Of Prmoore at aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, December 14, 2004 7:34 PM
To: discussion at nsrca.org
Subject: Re: Growing Pattern


        My 2 cents.

        To grow pattern there has to be competitive low cost entry level
planes.  You can argue all you want about it's all about the flyer not the
plane, but it won't rectify the reality or perception that a 2 M plane
designed for pattern flies better than a 40 size that isn't.

        Some of the lower cost ARF's coming to market such as the Swallow
90, Excelleron, Arresti III will be a help.

        I also suspect that a set of free plans to an entry level plane (90
or 120 sized) designed to be easy to build that could be downloaded would be
a big plus as well.  Something along the lines of the Kaos's or Boxer series
from years back, but brought up to today's aerodynamics, style and designed
for fewer parts and simple scratch build techniques.

        The open source community has shown that the "build it and they will
come" method works and gains steam as time goes on.  A set of CAD drawings
available from the NSRCA web site might do the same.

        In my club there is a retired flyer that flies the sportsman pattern
with a profile fun fly very, very well.  He flies it routinely, would be
very competitive, but he won't enter and compete with that plane.

        Phil


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