April Fools Day

To all the April Fools. Thanks for keeping us entertained. Sorry the Stiletto Ultra extreme did not fly, but the good news is the "Stiletto Superior Ultra Extreme Deluxe" will be ready for April 1 2008 Hack Sawed and tape measured Stiletto.

Have a great HTL guys!
Mike May!

Black Eagle Report in the RC Soaring Digest

The April issue of the RC Soaring digest is out with the Black Eagle Slope Weekend report and some lovely photos, not seen before!
The link to RCSD is on the right.

Stiletto Ultra Extreme

Never a dull moment with Mike May. I paid him a visit today and found him hard at work on his latest project.

True to his philosophy of "Go Big or Go Home" GBOGH, Mike is busy preparing the ultimate Thermal Duration glider.

His belief in "Aspect Ratio" as the key to thermalling success can be seen in the Stiletto Ultra Extreme. All 7 meters of it and surprisingly light at just 3,5 kg

He will be flying it in the HTL at Midrand on Sunday.

The BERG team asks that the organisers please make special arrangements for an extra wide launch corridor for this monster.

Good luck Mike! GEBOGH "Go EXTRA Big or Go Home"

Sundays happenings at BERG

A day in the life at BERG!

Mark de Klerk with his baby's, all pink and white!
Charl with Piet's old Aquila, all decked out in brand new white, day-glow orange and black!
Doesn't she look lovely now?

Jason Edwards. Our brand new DAD at BERG. Congratulation Jason on the birth of your daughter Clowie!

And now for the big event of the day! Mike brought his Ventus to try some thermal flying from the flat field!

Video camera being attached!
Camera attached and ready for action!

Final tweaking!

Evan attaching the tow line.
ROG launch of the Ventus. Away she goes!

A rare sight at the field these days! Charl getting in some thermal time!

Piet about to launch Charl's Aquila!

Peter Joffe!

Mark de Klerk about to launch with Piet at the controls,and then getting it all trimmed out and flying nicely!

Evan launching his new Emoyeni!

Our new DAD Jason enjoying some stick time with his electric!

Mike May's GBOGH stable. The Stiletto and Ventus.

What missing? Piet sent me the photos and I've attached the captions, but what we really need is Piet's story telling ability to juice it up a little. Don't you think so! Post your comments!

Evan.

PS. I have also attached a few new links to the BLOG (Top right of this page). Links to both the SA chat groups MGASA, SARFLY and a link to the RC Soaring Digest. A web based RC magazine. I'm told that next months issue might feature the Black Eagle Slope weekend. The last issue has a photo on the back page of Lionel Brink and one of the Aussie towing for David Hobby at the recent F3J World championships!

In the mean time back home

While some of the BERG members were having a ball of a time on the slope, for those that did not make it to the Black Eagle event at Volksrust, day to day life had to go on.

With Wednesday 21st of March a public holiday one of the West Rand Spy Bureau agents had a visit the local skunk works of Evan Shaw to see how his production is going.

The first thing that struck me was that Evan had to increase his staff and he promptly introduced me to his new production manager Mr. Goose Goose and his technical assistant Mr. Wit Willem de kat. Evan assured me that production delay’s are rapidly shrinking and that his Shongolo building group is now running smoothly. Mr Goose Goose is also receiving some winch training and please note that he his using his left foot on that red winch pedal. (no more Lead (right) foot Shaw launches ).







Also noted was after a big battle between the Shaw and May teams (Emoyeni and Stilleto projects ) they now have decided to put there heads together with the design of next project. This could well be the start of a new project called Emolleto as can be seen In the accompanying picture of Evan, Mike and their new technical assistant Mr. Wit Willem de Kat.




On a serious note, “ Evan your workshop will always impress me and the RC gliders you turn out here just as much, keep up the good work and thanks for your unselfish assistants to all our club members”

Emoyeni gets purple wingtips

Top View















Bottom View

Shocking! Hey!
But I should be able to see it now!
I hope!

Emoyeni takes to the air

The Emoyeni maiden flight - Sunday 18th March.

After months of on and off building on the Emoyeni, while preparing for the Shongololo building group, the project was finally completed with it's maiden flight this past weekend.

The plane is 3,4 meter span and weighs in at 2650grams. With a wing area of 65sqdm it has a wing-loading of 40 gr/sqdm. A bit heavy you might think, but first flights proved that the design can carry the weight very easily.

When the project was stated it was decided to build the wings with NO spars , but instead, to use unidirectional carbon skins. The top surface has a total of 5 layers of UD carbon across the middle 400mm then getting progressively less until just one layer at the tip. The bottom surface has 3 in the middle to 1 at the tip. This method is not the lightest of constructions, but it's very strong, quick and easy to Bag and not very expensive. When I realised that the prototype was going to be a bit on the heavy side I chose the SD7037 section because of it's ability to carry weight.

It is a three piece wing with 2 x 10mm solid carbon joiners at each joint. The fuselage is moulded fiberglass and the tail is an all flying inverted "T" design.

The prototype flew with a Shongololo stabiliser, because the Emoyeni moulds are still not completed. This also contributed to the back end being a bit heavier than desired, causing more lead to be added to the nose, upping the overall weight somewhat.

The first flight was really fantastic. Straight into a thermal and it was soon trimmed out and going up like a homesick Angle. One problem was that I had sprayed the underside of the wingtips white (Oops!) and they soon disappeared form sight and all I could see was the black centre 1400mm. It was like flying a HLG in a monster thermal and rapidly loosing sight of the plane.

So Crow break was deployed and it soon got back down to a more comfortable height where I could see it properly. Overall a very successful maiden outing and I was impressed with the tight thermal turns it can make and the responsiveness of the whole package.

I'm a very "happy chappy" as they say!

The first priority is to add some colour to the underside wingtips and the next is to start on number two. Watch this space!

Cheers

Evan

Black Eagle 2oo7 weekend a great success.

The Real Ones (and that includes the Zagi for your information - Mr M.May)

Martie Du Toit took this stunning picture of a real Black Eagle formatting on Ryan Nelson's Zagi on Sunday.
Working out the wing span and presuming that the eagle and the Zagi are at the same altitude, the birds span calculates out at about 850mm. This is about the full size span of a real Black Eagle.

For more info on Black Eagles you can visit the Black Eagle Project at Roodekrans web site at this link. http://www.blackeagles.co.za/ The Story of those Black Eagles makes for some interesting reading and you might even recognise a name there!

So if you ever wondered why this is called the “Black Eagle Slope Weekend”, wonder no more - we play where Eagles dare !!

Camera used- Panasonic DMC-FZ50






















The Big ones and the small ones



















Despite weather reports predicting very light winds from all directions possible,
“Tamatie Berg” near Volksrust once again did not let us down.

Although we had to wait for the wind at times and had to do some cleaver dancing or shall I say “flying” to stay out of big “sink”. Many a good and not so good pilot frequently found them self going way down the hill and had to fight the way back up to avoid the big “ walk of shame”.

The event was attended by +/- 30 slope flyers from mainly Gauteng, Kzn and Freestate provinces. The range of models ranged from a 15 cm twin pusher electric model, park flyers, fomeies, mouldies and “ Go Big or Go Home “ big scale gliders of 5 to 6 meters wing span.


Here are some more pictures taken over the course of the weekend.

Charl sending of Mike's 2 meter bagged Zagi.

Charl and his Electric "Cumulus"

The pilots " No!! we are not fishing !!!."

"leave me alone I need my afternoon nap!"

Zagi combat with long streamers.

Sunset over Volksrust south slope March 2007.

Black Eagle - Volksrust March 2007

Friday

Charl and Piet on the south slope.
Mike & Piet with their bagged Zagis.
Mike's is 2 meter span while Piet's is a standard 1,2 meter.

Mike unfortunately had a CofG problem and his is now looking a bit worse for ware after its altercation with the slope someway down the face. Piet was the one dispatched down the slope to fetch it while Mike directed rescue operation from the bottom, with a cell phone and a pair of binoculars. I'm told Piet has recovered, but looks a lot leaner for his efforts. The good news is that Mike's Zagi Elegance is flying again after some hasty repairs and lots of parcel tape.

Saturday

Not much wind but some flying was possible with the lighter models.

Sunday

Sunday dawned with a light wind from the NW as predicted , but that later swung around to the South. Again light but flyable with some thermal activity.

More photos and details report to follow.

HTL at Groen Goudt