B.E.R.G.

Who needs a Rudder?

2009-12-07T16:02:00.028+02:00

Shortly before launch! Note -Rudder is still attached!

Piet - "Now Ev, if the rudder comes off, just keep flying. OK!"

At the last Highveld Thermal League (HTL) held on Sunday 4 December my Shadow and Jochen's Shongololo were involved in a mid-air shortly after launch in the first slot of the first round.

Both of us never even realised that the two planes had actually hit each other. I remember passing, what I thought was another plane below mine. Obviously it wasn't, but because of the difference in size of the two models, (the Shadow at 3,6 met and the Shongololo just under 3 met.) it looked as if they were at different altitudes.

All I remember thinking was that the roll rate wasn't as it should be. I started fiddling with the aileron/rudder mix , but was soon concentrating on working the thermal to gain altitude. I did see a shiny flash a few times, which I thought was a bit of winch line or something but in fact it was the Shadows rudder, which had been torn off and was fluttering down.

It was only on landing approach after 10 minutes of flying that I saw something was sticking out the side of the fin. I recorded a 9minute 58second flight and landed 1,2 meters from the spot. Gavin and Lionel came over and told me that they has seen something land in the adjacent field.

The damaged Shadows fin. Note, no rudder ----------------A bit of Shadow fin stuck to the Shongololo

Anyway after some cyno and some tape I soon had everything more of less back together and then it was back to the comp. Luckily not missing any rounds.

-------------------------------------------Hard at work getting it all fixed up.

Jochen only noticed the bit of the Shadows fin wedged between the wind and fuselage on his Shongololo when he was preparing for his next flight a round later and came and showed me. Up until then I still had no idea that we had actually had a mid-air. I just thought that I had perhaps flown into a winch line on launch.

Looks kind of funny without a rudder, but it still flew pretty good. Wasn't too bad on landing either.

So! Who needs a rudder?

Gavin, on the far left, pointing out something fluttering down to Jason!

Dion Launching Paul's Explorer!

Some of the photo highlights of my Year 2009

2009-11-25T12:00:00.007+02:00

With only one month to go before Xmas one tends to reflect back on the year gone by, Good and bad and then take the positive’s and one will always be amazed at what you were blessed with. So take a moment and relive some of those special moments with me.

On the 3rd Jan 2009 the PSS Rockwell Aero Commander took to the sky at Volksrust for a perfect maiden flight. (Pictures taken by Izak Theron.)

Click on the any picture to open it in a new window and then click again on the picture to zoom biger or zoom smaller.

In April the three cross country flights with the E-Tsotsi 2M electric glider, resulting in a 72 km by road and 63km straight line SA Distance Record.

All the pictures that I took too many to display at once on the blog of the nature and surrounding arias and oom Louis place at Vloksrust but here are some of many of them.

And at last the picture that got on to the front cover of the RCSD October 2009 issue

and don't forget Shrek the tug pilot

New low cost Electronic scale from Life Style West Pack (0.1 gm -500gm)

2009-11-21T18:30:00.002+02:00

BERG Building Group now has 4 members.

2009-10-26T08:32:00.000+02:00

Picture above and below.

Mark holds his new Tsotsi fuse from the mould he build at the BERG building group.

2009 Nationals - Noordsberg

2009-10-02T08:57:00.013+02:00

Dandelions & Unicorns, Wind, Cold, Mist, Rain, Sunshine, Thermals, Sink, Calm, All made up one very interesting and challenging weekend. And thanks to all you made this yet another event to remember.

Tow men hard at work
Team work.
Our ever present companion Max.

Everyone got a screwdriver kit and multi meter.

Team DMAC
The Wolf Pack with Amazimmy for company

The Goodies and Tsepo and Justice

Team ETB

Team Silverton (Don't know what Russ is doing there?)

The Wolf Pack

SOS Children Village Group

Only Lionel will know what he's cheering about?

ETB's Plane rack and Dion

Shadow with power pod.

Tsepo

A few more Purple Dinosaurs

The HLG Champs

No flying in these conditions.

Craig

Rudi

Nigel

Rudi, Johan & Conrad
2009 Victor Ludourm - Rudi king

Tsotsi’s take's over BERG field !

2009-09-27T19:27:00.003+02:00

Mark and Megan with his recently build Tsotsi.

My E-Tsotsi (in fore ground) my normal Tsotsi (in the middle) and Mark’s Tsotsi (the furthers away from camera)

On Sunday we maiden yet another two Tsotsi's, and with most of the club members at the Nat’s in Durban we and our Tsotsi’s were the only one’s there until 1.30 PM.

Both Marks Tostsi and my own flew straight away with no problems at all,. Mark manage to home in on 2 powerful thermals that were driven down wind quickly in the strong wind we had. But the Tsotsi prove to have just enough penetration to come back overhead on both occasions.

Congrats to Mark on completing 4 flights lasting from 10 to 15 minutes each ,but that maiden flight that went straight into thermal land was really something to see.
( at last your perseverance to complete the Tsotsi have paid of and I wish you many more flights like we had on Sunday)

Solpe weekend at Estcourt!

2009-09-18T09:39:00.005+02:00

Wolfy and I arrived at the Blue Haze lodge on Friday afternoon. The trip was quite uneventful, besides the million and one speed cameras that have been hidden in all sorts of placed, at Villiers at the toll-gate when the speed limit changes from 100 to 80km/hr, there is a camera hidden behind a shield that catches almost every car!!!
Saturday, a brilliant, sunny warm day, with good NNW wind 15-20km/hr just what we needed to start a great weekend.
Wolfy and I were expecting the group of the Durban Guys to arrive at the slope but no sign of them (?).
So the two of us we carried on and enjoyed the day. Soon after our arrival at the slope, we were joined by a group (6 or 7) of youngsters, shepherds from the nearby village. They were interested about our planes and watched eagerly the planes flying and whistling through the air.

Maybe watching too eagerly!!!!!!

Wolfy unpacked his planes, an Eish (not sure about the spelling), the ASW20 (3m) his DG-1000, the Zagi and all assembled he left them behind the trailer. He then flew the DG first and then attempted to launch his Zagi, however the wind was a bit gusty and not enough lift. The Zagi landed a bit below the edge, immediately one of the youngsters proceeded to retrieve the plane , very nice of him ....... and a 5.00 Rand reward!
I had a little hard landing with my DG and had to perform a little field-surgery. Wolfy and I where involved in the repair when I spotted one of the youngsters running away with great speed. I got up and inspected the area. I then asked Wolfy to see if he is missing anything. About 20 min later, after a nice lunch prepared by the Lodge-Chef, Wolfy went to fetch his DG and he noticed that his radio transmitter was gone, so his 4m Eish, so his 3m ASW, so his big leatherman knife, so his cigar lighter, so his cigars, so is LiPo charger .......all gone and the youngsters gone as well.

We got robbed!

I immediately checked my equipment and possessions but nothing was missing. We called at the Estcourt police station, within the next hour a police van with two policemen arrived at the scene. After compiling a thorough report (and that is without skepticism) they were really thorough in their investigation.
We then left with the idea the we would get back the next morning to investigate our-self about the whereabouts of the planes. It would be unthinkable for these kids to carry two big planes all the way to their homes, they must have hidden them nearby.

The next morning after having visited the police station at Estcourt (they promised that we could go along with one of them to investigate the robbery, but being Sunday I didn't think that this would materialize!), we decided to get one local chap at the Lodge, Cedric (waiter and tour-guide) to come with us as an interpreter . We arrived at the slope, no one in site (obviously!). Cedric had a brilliant idea, to ask some of the locals the whereabouts and where these shepherds boys are living. We got some very good information, there is a gang of these herds-boys that are involved in cattle theft and other illegal activities and they are harassing the local community. We got lucky, Cedric apprehended e youngster, about 12 years old, and after inquiring about his whereabouts on Saturday, he confirmed to have seen the whole scene, he cam up with the name of the main instigator and where he was living. Not long after an other 4 youngsters joined in the investigation. One of them, actually saw the thieves and knew about their hideout.
They even told us that the instigator comes from a family of gangsters that rules in the township and that he is responsible for many of the thefts and robberies in the area.

We found Wolfy's planes alright, the fuselages and wings all smashed, they only took the batteries, they didn't know what to do with servos and other equipment. They just vandalized the planes, took the radio control, knife, LiPo-charger (?maybe the green luminous color attracted them?), lighter, cigars and batteries.

Te same day, Wolfy went to the police station in Estcourt with all the information the we gathered during the day, the station captain was very pleased and would immediately start the investigation and apprehension of the culprits.

On Monday we got confirmation that the guys have been arrested, all the goods had been found in their possession and that on Tuesday they will appear in front of the court, other thefts and robbery matters have been discovered and additional charges have been laid against these thugs.

The local community was very pleased on our investigating success. The Lodge-Owner promised us that next time he will make sure that an armed guard will be present while we will be busy flying.

This is AFRICA, we must be aware all the time what goes on behind our back, make sure that you are in good numbers and that someone always is watching while the others are flying. Remember when you fly you attention is to the plane and anyone can take even your purse out of your pocket!!!!! Even if you think that a shepherd-boy could have no interest in your plane he will steel it just for the matter of steeling..........fun!?!?!

We will be back again and will still fly at this wonderful site, the wind, the lift, the landing is fantastic., the grass is short and thick, just GREAT!

Have a good one!

Michel aka amzimmy, Zimmy etc etc

RC Gliders for sale

2009-09-11T09:40:00.010+02:00

Tony Roberts is scaling down on his flying activities and has the following models for sale.
If you are interested please contact Tony on one of the flowing numbers.

082 5770072 any time
011 793 4036 after 7 P.M.
011 609 8610 office hours.

E-mail tonyr@dfc.co.za
or pant@iafrica.com

GWS Foamy ME 109 complete with motor and prop.

R400.00

Fomie Spitfire - unflown complete with 3 servos and battery

R400.00

Paragon 40 Trainer w/s 1600mm new and un flown.

Super tiger 45 - 1/2 hr Run time with 3 servos.

R2200.00

B.E.R.G. from the sky

2009-09-01T17:59:00.004+02:00

I fitted a micro video camera on the DG-1000 (foam jobby) with a nice clean result, quite a lot of fun! It is just a 1min13sec video. Unfortunately the quality had to suffer for the upload! If you wish I can make a CD (.AVI file) with the full 18min of the video.

Enjoy,

Michel

F3j Q1 at BERG

2009-08-24T15:32:00.003+02:00

20 seconds to go. Get down there!

Note - Full Crow

Shadow on approach

Just before touchdown

Craig in action

Run

Nice climb out

Splat

Back breaking, arm wrenching stuff

E-Tsotsi Mk2 maiden flight

2009-08-16T07:04:00.088+02:00

Saturday, August the 15th happened to be one of those cloudless winter day's with very light and variable winds (coming from the SSW) and more of a hassle for the winch pilots, but for me and myE-Tsotsi I could not asked for a better day to fly it's maiden flights.

(photo on the right) Piet and the E-Tsotsi -Mk2

After finishing the radio installation an charging the Tx and flight pack lipo batteries, I arrived at the BERG field at around 2 PM. Zimmy, Wolfgang and Boris were already unpacked and enjoying the fair weather.

I don't know who was the glades to great each
other but Zimmy said that he already had the Mafia lined up to come and get me out of my
winter bunker after no flying for the last 3 months or so.

Unfortunately I got bogged down with work and to the boot my left eye acquired a moving black dot that meant that I have to compensate for two Tsosi's while flying. Anyway I assembled the Tsotsi and with the folding prop held close with a rubber band, hand launched it straight into the slight breeze for its first trim glide.

(photo on the right) Wolfgang and Trevor discussing the big Thermal( fish?) that got away!!

True to the Tsotsi tradition it went straight as a die but nosed up a bit and required some down elevator to compensate for this.

I programed in a few clicks down trim, remove rubber band over the prop, opened the throttle stick to 2/3 full throttle and again launched the E-Tsotsi into the breeze and it effortlessly climbed away for its first flight. at about 3 times winch height I cut the motor and had to add a few more clicks of down trim in. The extra wight did not make much difference and it stay up in the very light lift conditions with no problem and the maiden flight lasted for 32 min. (I had to restart the motor a few times) and on recharging the lipo's I used 1340 mah of the 2100 mah battery capacity.

While recharging the flight pack had a chat to Trevor, Wolfgang, Stefan and Boris and not to forget Zimmy. Zimmy and Boris flew a ARF EPP foam DG 1000 electric gliders with unique retractable brush less motor system. the lipo batteries might be on the light side but on a good thermal day they will be more than adequate. It will also be ideal on the slope when the conditions are light.

Now you see me

and now you don't

Zimm and Boris with the EPP electric DG1000

Stefan converted his Tx to 2.4 Gh and look happy with his conversion reporting solid operation a fair distance.

(Below) Stefan (having fun with DHG glider)

(Above) Trevor hunting the Thermals after a winch launch

My second flight with my E-Tsotsi mk2 lasted 1hour 3min 45 sec in almost perfect late afternoon weather and on arriving home recharge the flight liop pack to 1649 mah.

E-Tsotsi mk2 recharging.

I know it's not always the case that a maiden flight works out well but there is not much that can beat the feeling when it do and even more so when you clock 1hour and 35min in your first two flights.

Rc Plans and Moulds

2009-08-14T18:29:00.004+02:00

If you are into building your RC models from Scratch here is a link to Kobus Dirker's web site
for plans and moulds. I had a look at the plans list and there is a good selection of plans at reasonable price (Rands). Local is lekker so go and have a look.
http://rcplansmoulds.jimdo.com/

New XC 2 meter E-Tsotsi to challenge World Distance record.

2009-08-13T21:46:00.008+02:00

After flying 3 distance flights this year ( 35km, 50km and 72km) I have gained lots of experience, and one thing that came out of this exercise is the fact that to go far you need lots of battery capacity, good penetration / glide angel ( more so when gliding) and a wing section that can carry the weight. On top of all this you need a powerful brush less motor that can swing a big prop with out robbing you from your precious battery
capacity. Talking about energy management!!!

With all this info I have now come up with the E-Tsotsi – mk2.
The airframe is still the same except that it is a little stronger and heavier and I have also made space for 4 X 2300 mh lipo 3 cell packs ( ruder and elevator servos are now mounted in the tail) all in parallel giving a total of 9200 mh.

I also fitted slightly less powerful motor 450Watt in place of a 550 Watt motor. From previous data it is possible to fly 40 to 50 Km per 2300 mh lipo pack depending on the conditions giving a theoretical distance of close to 200 km.

I still have to fly the maiden flight , and then if all goes well, tackle the paper work and planning for this flight. Hope my friend Evan and the rest of the team will be there to support me come the big day.

New XC 2 meter E-Tsotsi to challenge World Distance Record.

2009-08-13T21:07:00.004+02:00

AGM Minutes 28th February 2009

2009-08-13T13:21:00.005+02:00

Minutes of the BERG AGM held on the 28th February 2009
at BERG Flying Field at 2.15pm

Present: Mike May, Piet Rheeders, Charl Viviers, Peter Karner, Len Thomas, Gordon Prahm, Peter Eagle, Michelle Goodrum, Wolfgang Steffney, Rodney Goodrum, Trevor Austin, Herman Rimmer

Welcome: Charl Viviers called the meeting to order and welcomed all present.

Apologies: Tony Roberts, Mark de Klerk, Craig Goodrum, Stephane du Ponsel, Michelle Zimmerman, Chris McNiel, John Edwards.

Approval of previous minutes: The minutes of the previous AGM was read out to members by Mike May, (with printed copies available). Approval of the minutes was proposed by Piet Rheeders and approved unanimously by those present.

Chairman’s Report: presented by Piet Rheeders on behalf of Evan Shaw who relocated to the East Rand during the year.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Evan for all the efforts that he has put into the BERG club in establishing, initially the BERG club, and thereafter helping many a member including myself, with building of our gliders using the latest methods. Evan on behalf of all of us at the BERG Club we wish you well for the future.

Last year saw the BERG club gaining a few more new members .
But what was of concern was that the turn out and specifically on Sundays did decrease. On the other hand the members that flew on Saturday’s seemed to increase. Later towards the end of 2008 it started to improve again. I hope to have more information on the numbers of club members at the AGM and on the day’s they prefer to fly.

Good news is that on a financial side our club is doing Ok and Charl will present us with finer details.

On the competition scene BERG had a good year and at the South African Nationals Championships (2008), that was held at ETB, we had some good results when myself managed to be awarded the Victor Ludorum award, first in RES, 2nd in F5J (electric gliders thermal duration) and 4th place in the 2 meter class. I can only hope that this will motivate other BERG members to do likewise in the future. We also did well in the HTL competition where Derek and myself participated. Derek paced in first 10 with in 12th place, and in the BERG leg of the HTL myself in 3rd place.

I was also invited to the F3B team trials last year and managed to be placed 7th with the first 3 places making up the South African Team F3B for 2009.

Later on in the year the ETB club established the first PSS event in October and the BERG club once again gave a good account of ourselves, with Mike and his A10 Warthog and myself with the 1/7th scale Aero Commander. Apart from these events members of our club also frequently visited the slope at Volksrust as a group for more informal flying and I can only see that this trend will become more and more popular amongst our club members. Getting more popular is the end/beginning of the year slope gathering were we had +/- 20 RC slope pilots this/last year.

On the International front the BERG blog has now become very popular and our statistics counter shows that up to 50 % of our readers are from international countries. This will still remain our main form of communication to our members as also a means of conveying the many building projects and other club activities.
I would like to thank all of our BERG blog contributors for the hard work done so far.

Encouraging trend to see is that on the junior side Mike’s son, Blake is now flying well and will be participating in the monthly Postal competitions this year.

In the pipeline are more things to come like Aero Towing, and cross country events as well as the local postal competitions. We will endeavour to keep our club members informed as we go along.

In closing I would like to thank all our members at the BERG club for their continuing support. I wish you a happy and joyfully new flying year at BERG.

Last but not least I would also like to sincerely thank Mr. Peter Bartlett, the owner of the BERG field, for granting us the privilege to fly here and hope that we can continue to do so in the future.

Treasurer’s report:
The treasurer’s report was presented by Charl Viviers.
Summary: R
Balance at bank brought forward: 7,157.16

Income:
Members subscriptions and interest 5,846.37

Expenditure:
Winch battery 823.00
Gazebo & side sheet 1,200.00
Winch line 400.00
Bank Charges 326.76
2,749.76

Balance at bank carried forward 10,253.77

Our account at Nedbank was subject to fraud during the year. Due to lack of transactions, Nedbank re-classified the BERG account as dormant. One or more people who had access to such information took the opportunity to open two cell-phone accounts and charged the debit orders to the club account; which was then cleaned out. The bank and the cell-phone companies were not very helpful until Charl laid a charge of fraud against the cell-phone companies for opening the accounts without following Fica requirements. They have now agreed to refund all the missing monies and the refund is expected soon. The existing account will be closed and a new account opened.
Peter Eagle proposed that regular movements be made on the account to prevent it becoming classified dormant again.
Subsequent to the election of the 2009 committee the new Chairman will replace Evan as a signatory to the account.

Election of new committee:

Following a show of hands where necessary, the following were elected to the club committee:
Chairman: Piet Rheeders.
Vice Chairman (new committee position this year): Peter Eagle
Secretary: Tony Roberts (in absentia)
Treasurer: Charl Viviers – unchanged
Safety Officer: (It was proposed by Charl Viviers and seconded by Piet Rheeders that two safety officers be appointed; one for Saturday and the other for Sunday flying – agreed unanimously)
Saturday Officer: Michelle Goodrum
Sunday Officer: Herman Rimmer

Safety, Safety Officer and Frequency control:
It was re-emphasised, as per last year’s meeting, that in the event of incursion into our airspace by manned aircraft that we must immediately take avoiding action and alert all pilots.
The safety officer is to keep a register of all incidents involving safety or damage to models and any other property. Members should send a report of any such incident they are involved in, or witness, to the safety officer.
Pilots must at all times adhere to the club peg on / peg off system and board.
It was suggested that the club purchase a frequency monitor at an estimated cost of between one and two thousand rand. It was alternatively suggested that the club borrow a unit from SAMAA or MGA. Piet Rheeders is to take up with SAMAA / MGA.
It was agreed that additional peg-boards be made so that two will be available for Saturdays and two for Sundays; one to be kept by the safety officer for each day and the other by a pilot deemed to be flying the most regularly. This should ensure that a board is available on most flying days.
If a peg-board is not available then a pilot arriving at the field is to check frequencies with all other pilots at the field.

Airspace and SAMAA regulations
Our field is registered with SAMAA and therefore should have a ceiling of 1000metres available to us. However at present, legally all clubs have only an allowable altitude of 1000 feet. SAMAA is taking up this matter with the authorities.
Lionel Brink of the MGA is handling the matter on behalf of all glider pilots. It was noted that we are in the approach airspace of Lanseria.
Peter Eagle volunteered to go and inform Lanseria control that we fly at the field on Saturdays and Sundays.

Subscriptions:
Subscriptions will remain at present levels:
Seniors R 200
Pensioners R 100
Juniors R 100
Entry fee R 50
At the previous AGM it was suggested that the entry fee be waived – to be voted on at the 2009 AGM. It was decided to keep the entry fee and use the funds to supply a new member with a membership card and a key to the field.

Winches, parachute retrievals and related matters:
In the coming year the club may have to purchase a new battery and more winch line.
The club now has two winches since Trevor Austin donated a winch to the club during the last year. Herman Rimmer is to keep control of the second winch.

Removable shade structure and other facilities:
A gazebo was purchased during the last year. It was unfortunately destroyed during a storm at Volksrust while being borrowed by Piet. Piet will replace the gazebo.

Driving on the field:
The rules remain the same:
Cars must use the access track and if wind direction dictates otherwise then must only go along the boundaries of the field.
No short cuts are to be taken across the field.
At no time whatsoever must drivers ever drive over the Lucerne.
We use the field with the generous permission of the farmer and such permission could be revoked at any time if members are perceived to be damaging/littering the field.
On Sundays Piet will set up a flag and club members should then park in a line west of the flag.

BERG Calendar for 2009
Events are as per the published MGA calendar.
The Sungazer is planned again this year and Mike May stressed that it is not an event that is linked to any club (although BERG memebers were welcome to participate), but a collaboration between Mike, Charl Viviers and Natal, represented by Russ Conradt and numerous other helpers in their private capacity.

Club Clothing:
There is no stock at present. Due to a lack of demand no new stock will be ordered at present. Club members are encouraged to wear a red golf shirt for competitions as that has become the signature of BERG.

Other Matters:

Wolfgang proposed that the club purchase a case of good red wine for the landowner, Peter Bartlett. This was agreed unanimously.

As a security measure Piet is to remove the club’s banking details from the blog.

Wolfgang is seeking sponsorship for the promotion of gliding to youngsters and would like to use BERG for a show day promoting model gliding to the younger generation. He asked for assistance from club members and for members to bring out all possible models to show to the children attending.

It was noted that all club members should be in possession of a bronze eagle rating in order to fly solo. Any members not having a bronze eagle should take steps to qualify.

Date of next AGM
This will be held in February next year and actual date subject to MGA calendar events.

Closure:
The Chairman thanked the members for attending and contributing to the AGM and closed the meeting at 4.00pm.

Last week in Germany

2009-07-15T10:29:00.001+02:00

Scale gliding at his best! Gliders and Tug.

Michel

Last Saturday at B.E.R.G

2009-07-15T09:56:00.005+02:00

Just thought I would share with you this wonderful winter day!

Michel

HTL Catchup

2009-07-01T21:09:00.045+02:00

It's been a while since I've done any blogging here, hope I can still remember how to do this. Below are some pictures and short summaries for the last three HTL contests - hopefully drumming up some enthusiasm for Sunday's 5th Round of the series scheduled for Silverton. See you there.

HTL #4 BERG
June 7, 2009
By some amazing stroke of luck the big cold front predicted to spoil our Sunday flying was held at bay by some large high pressure system that settled over the interior and we were treated to an absolutely perfect gliding day. Great cloud formations, light winds and very variable and challenging thermals.

BERG support was disappointing with Piet off sick and only Gordon and myself representing the BERG team. I flew my trusty old Sagitta and Gordon flew his Fling.

It was great to see the guys from Boksburg participating despite Alan and Juanita being away at the World Games to fly F3K (in which he placed second - well done Alan. See the MGA Blog for his report).

Also great to see Don Slater visiting us here in Gauteng again and taking part in the competition. SGC, MMS and ETB were all well represented with more than one team each.

The F3B team used the contest as an opportunity to practice the F3B duration task with their Ceres models and did very well against the majority F3J models. Winner in the Open Class was Craig Goodrum with Paul and Chris sharing second place.

HTL #3 MMS
April 5, 2009
Yes, this was way back when the grass was still green ... just seems so long ago. The MMS HTL was flown at the BERG field and BERG was represented by myself, Piet, Robert, Jochen and Tony.

Weather was cool with hardly any wind early in the early morning working up to a fair breeze by lunchtime. The afternoon rounds had us chasing thermals under the cumulus clouds far downwind.

Results were Michelle first, Craig second and Paul third - with the points very close.

HTL #2 SGC
March 8, 2009
A last minute venue change from GGGC to the lush SGC field for the second leg of the HTL league and hot, humid and light wind conditions set us up for a really great day of flying.

Thermals were strong but small so in most slots all models would huddle into the same thermal resulting in some close calls. Just unlucky were Craig and Gert when their models touched. Not too much damaged but both models retired from the contest.

BERG posted two teams comprising myself, Piet, Jochen, Peter and Tony.

Paul, Deon and Johan took the first three places.

A really great social day with many pilots staying well after the contest finished to fun fly and socialise.

Dangers of Props

2009-06-26T17:51:00.004+02:00

Be careful when testing your electric motors.
While Trevor was testing the current draw on his 540 brushed motor with folding prop, a blade snapped of and hit his son, Wesley in the face.

Wesley at the hospital

He is a very lucky chap not to loose an eye or have his jugular vein severed.

Ouch

It seems these props might be faulty, because when Trevor took the plane out to fly the next weekend another blade snapped of exactly the same. Luckily this time nobody was in the way.

Small, but lethal

And as can be seen here, Wesley is healing nicely.

UPDATE - 12th July 2009

Ol' Scarface has just sent me a few more photos showing how he is healing. Nice battle scar there young man!

Roets Aeromodel Design

2009-05-25T15:54:00.005+02:00

How many of you remember the large Scale J3 Cub I posted a few months ago. Well Chris has his own Blog now. And he has some new models in his stable.

Check out Roets Aeromodel Design http://www.roetsaeromodeldesign.blogspot.com/

Chris says he would love to come and fly at BERG one weekend and even do some aerotow for us. If anyone wants to get hold of him, you can phone him on 082 572 2118

I recon one of these beauties are perfect for the job.

So get those big scale gliders ready guys.

SOS Children’s home demonstration day.

2009-05-18T18:52:00.005+02:00

Sherk is not only a Movie Star.

2009-05-12T19:19:00.012+02:00

Yesterday I had to collect the work that I took to Silverton no so long ago and this time round knew that I could pop in to Craig Baker’s (Cloud base Composites) factory next door for a quick cup of coffee. This time it was no surprise to Craig when he saw me.

After seeing the post on the BERG blog he decide to give his workshop complete make over and a spring clean just in case a Berg reporter pitched up again and start snapping some pictures for the BERG blog. To help him he had call in his veteran Tug-pilot (Shrek) as you can see entering his Wilga A35 tug from a unusual top wing position to do some instruments checking.

Sherk is not only a Movie Star but he happens to be a very active tug pilot on weekends at the Silverton model gliding club near Pretoria. During the week he helps Craig with the maintenance and building of beautiful model RC gliders.

To see more of his activities you can go to Cloud base Composites blog at this link .http://cloudbase-composites.blogspot.com/

Big Exl

2009-05-11T08:15:00.002+02:00

Chris and his 3M electric Big Exl

Really nice electric glider but at more than 3 Kg tricky to setup, cover some sky in a hurry and fully aerobatic.

F3B Practice at BERG

2009-05-03T18:44:00.022+02:00

Lionel and Michelle about to launch a Deon’s F3B glider.

On Sunday morning the weather did not look promising for a good thermal activity and RC gliding at all, but I needed my flying fix for the week and also to go and help BERG newest member Chris to maiden his 3 meter electricship.

Deon concentrating on landing after a speed run.

Take that!!! ( Lionel with a strong right hand launch)

I did not expect many members to turn up. To my surprise and as I turned into the gate at the Berg field there were 4 cars ahead of me heading for the parking spot. It turned out to be the SA F3B team all geared up and ready for practicing for not so far away upcoming world F3B championships later on this year.

BERG's newest members Johan and Chris with their keen youngsters.

Apart from a light to moderate wind (that started out somewhat southerly and then turned NW) the flying we did turned out okay.

Later on Stefan arrived and had us all amazed with his latest discus launch glider demonstrating some good launching heights

3 New Members for the BERG club

2009-04-22T04:46:00.015+02:00

Last Saturday 3 new members joined the BERG Club and with the wind coming moderately strong from the west they had to wait until late before the wind calmed down a bit so they could get some flying in. The photo above shows André getting his electric J3 cub away in late afternoon sun. A big welcome to Chris, André and his father, I wish you many happy flights on the BERG field.

Chris overlooking André's J3Cub

On Tuesday (21 April) I had to go to Silverton for my work to have some engraving done. After I was done and as I was about to leave there he was, Craig Baker hard at work building gliders in the factory next door. I only had my cell phone with me but I was not going to miss this opportunity to take some pictures for the BERG blog. It is indeed a small world we live in.