RC Airship Regattas

[johannes.eissing]

Hi all,

I'm just about to build a new RC airship model for a pylon race in Berlin/Germany in May. Another race is scheduled in Dresden/Germany this June.

I startet to organise these RC Airship Regattas in 2004. Basic idea is to facilitate a direct comparison of airship concepts w.r.t. speed and manoeuvrability (and to have good good fun of course!). A racing formula encourages the participant to build the ship to a size, so it would fit in a box of one cubic meter (35.3cbft).

The parcours is just two pylons, placed in a distance of 25m (82ft). These are to be circeled (please excuse my limited English) three times.

Please find further info at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rc_airship_regatta

For my last racing bag, "Tinkerbell", I used envelope material from www.balloonkits.com
Any other experience with this material?

Best,
Johannes

[johannes.eissing]

Hi all,

just inflated "Tinkerbell" after rewelding her seams. She's got an envelope weight of about 160grams and a net lift of 340 grams. I'm curious how much lift will be left tomorrow...

cheers,
Johannes

[hgraves]

thanks for the link to balloon kits
i would like to see photos of tinkerbell and get your opinions on what makes an fast manuverable rc blimp.
i have one at my house but she is not very quick. the problem seems to rest in the different basic speeds of the two motors. if i put them both on full power the ship "blimpy" takes an steady right turn.
do you know any triming techniques?

[johannes.eissing]

thanks for the link to balloon kits
i would like to see photos of tinkerbell and get your opinions on what makes an fast manuverable rc blimp.
i have one at my house but she is not very quick. the problem seems to rest in the different basic speeds of the two motors. if i put them both on full power the ship "blimpy" takes an steady right turn.
do you know any triming techniques?

Hi, I attached a photo of Tinkerbell and other airships (hope the attachment worked, this is my first try...).

A "good" ship in my humble oppinion shows a length to diameter ratio of 5, at least 4, a stern propeller and a low center of gravity. Difficult to combine, but a large field for optimisation ;o)

you can find loads of photos and hints at my RC Airship Regatta Yahoogroup:
http://tech.ph.groups.yahoo.com/group/rc_airship_regatta/

Cheers,
Johannes

[johannes.eissing]

Dear Airskippers,

time is fleeting, the date of the Friedrichshafen Regatta is approaching.

For planning purposes I need to know who presumably will participate. One scheduled date is Wendsday, 8th of October, the Weekend is unfortunately stuffed with other events. Eventually we can manage to reschedule to Saturday. So please let me know as soon as possible if you could manage to be in Friedrichshafen on Wendsday or Saturday. To motivate you to take a day off or two for the Ragatta, here are a few goodies:

- Herr Brandt, CEO of ZLT sponsored a flight with the Zeppelin N07 as a first price, plus several items from the ZLT store as additional prices.

- Dr. Straeter, the former CEO of ZLT, managed to get Linde Technische Gase as sponsor for 100m^3 Helium. Until now it is "Balloon gas" but I will try to upgrade to Helium 4.6.

- I'm in contact with the Aeromodelling devision of the FAI, see
http://www.fai.org/aeromodelling/
to make our Regattas an official FAI competition. I.e. it will be possible soon to set an official FAI World record in the aeromodelling discipline F7 - Lighter Than Air. Imagine you being official world champion in RC Airship Regattas!

I think these are a few good reasons to take part, not to talk of the "supporting programme": the International Airship Convention, The DGLR Symposium and the Centennial of the Zeppelin Foundation, see
http://www.airshipconvention2008.org/ and
http://www.iag.uni-stuttgart.de/luftfahrzeugaerodynamik/DGLR/DGLR_FA_2_3.html

So please let me know if you would like to participate, harvest fame and fortune and getting the chance to be the official worlds best RC Airship designer, builder and pilot. First come, first serve ;o)

Furthermore it would be interesting to see, who feels able to cope with the Demasting/Masting Parcours. What do you think?

Best, Johannes
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/rc_airship_regatta/

[Torpedochief]

Wow now that sounds like a real hoot!

Back in 1992 I organized the first ever RC submarine regatta, and boy was that some fun. Now it is a annual event. Let me just run this by you. Why not include static models also?

You will get more folks interested, not to mention attract some other sponsers. YOu have a catagory for Card Models, Out of the box, and scratch built.

This will also furtherthe hobby in all directions. Static model builders will see what is goig on and want to get into it, andthe RC folks will see the extreme detail and want to be part of that also. Everyone wins! Just a thought. I will not be able to attend, but I sure wish I could!!!!!!!!

Best


Don