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August 24, 2007
JART in Australia
Another JART in the land of OZ. Very inspiring! Randall Salau built this sweet, old-school fuse and stuck some foam core wings on it. I hope to see some video or at least pics when it finally takes to the air. Here's what Randall had to say about it:
Here is a pic of my brand new Aussie Jart. It hasn't flown yet, but I can't wait to get out on the slope and give it a good hurl. Being a novice at all things foam and glass, I built the fuzz out of balsa and ply, and was going to do the same with the wings until a friend offered to cut some foam cores for me. It came out quite light at 34 oz. Anyway, I took it down to my club last week for a show and tell, and the guys were just drooooling over it. Thanks for sending me the plans for such a cool bird.
Randall
August 16, 2007
JART in Thailand
When I designed and started building the original JART I had no idea that someday a fellow sloper in Singapore might be building a version it. But Joe Yap actually has a very interesting method for putting together a beautiful plane without bagging equipment or molds. His JARTs are gorgeous as you can see in his build thread on the Team DaddyHobby forum. Scan through the thread for more pictures and videos of his lovely toy in flight. He recently loaned one of his JARTs to some friends in Thailand and this is his report:
Hi Reed,
 I thought that these cool pictures will interest you. I passed my JART to my friends who went to Phuket Island in Thailand last month where they fly their slope gliders. With such good wind conditions there, they yanked and pulled some spectacular stunts with my JART still holding very well in one-piece. But the most breath-taking moment is when a local Sea Eagle decided to locked into an aerial dogfight with it for no less than half an hour. It even extended its talon and ready to take it out of the sky. Luckily, no physical contact is made and the photographer managed to shoot some nice shots during the whole ordeal.
Regards,
Joe Yap
August 6, 2007
JARTWORLD in the UK
Walking briskly beside an old stone wall, which happens to be the only thing separating me from surly gangs of English sheep and brown cows claiming not to have hoof-and-mouth, my only thought is to move quickly so as to make my 9am appointment in town with a well-known UK flier-guy (and to keep my body temperature up – England in summer ain't exactly St.Tropez). Suddenly someone is hollering at me from across the road: "Oy! I'm lookin' for a pointy-headed git who likes to play with toy airplanes! 'Ave you noticed anyone around by that description?"
So that's how it's going to be, is it? Welcome, Reed, welcome to the wonderful world of British RC.
 Andy Ellison and Steve Dorling have agreed to cart my carcass around this little island with the clouds over it for a day of RC fun. Here at the start, I should thank Andy's wife, Sharon, his kids, Daniel and Emily, and Steve's wife, Linda, for letting the boys off the leash to come play with the strange, bald-headed American sporting the salt-and-pepper goatee. Very patient and I'm sure long-suffering these English families. In fact, when Sharon said, "All he does is work and fly," I felt a bit abashed at having told Andy I don't have time to fly all that much. My only burden is an aged Macintosh computer and a penchant for naps while he's managing dogs, cats, kids, a better half, a proper job – and still he squeezes out a slew of builds, countless hours of flying, and dozens of RC-related magazine columns every year. Perhaps I should have a look at my schedule, there may be room for an extra afternoon of flying now and again.
Steve's been busy, too. These days, Mr. Dorling's name can be found on the masthead of the excellent UK-based Aviation Modeller International (AMI) magazine as editor. His decision-making as an editor cannot be praised highly enough, as he recently had the wisdom and good taste to feature a multi-part column detailing Julian Beckett's artful painting of Andy's unbearably gorgeous JART.
While Dorling headed up from Wales, Ellison was kind enough, or mad enough, to drive 80 miles to pick me up in the Lake District, where I'd been calmly meditating and minding my own business, and drive me back down to the environs of greater Manchester. Once we'd blasted down the M6 and I'd met Team Ellison, we settled around the kitchen table and tucked in some tea and toast, courtesy of Sharon's toasting and brewing skills. Soon enough, the Dorlings arrived and I was treated to the easy bounce of conversation between these good friends as they tossed gentle jibes around the table. Meanwhile, Emily displayed her latest portfolio of artwork for my discerning eye (not a shy 3-year-old, that one) and Daniel puttered around dad's workshop (destined for RC greatness, I'm sure).
After more tea and a good look around the Skunkworks, Andy's enviable workshop (look, the Beckett-coiffed JART, and over there, a SlopeStream, and could that be a Barracuda? And say it ain't so, is that a Kestrel I spy?), we three slope males packed up the official Ellison slopemobile and headed for local toy glory. Within minutes I could be found dodging sheep crap on a rutted path burdened with two molded beauties. In this case, beauty came in the form of the brand new Mini Air One from the makers of the Acacia line of F3F planes, and the rare and now unobtanium Luna 2 meter. Steve Dorling carried his own Luna along with his sloper's-pet Weasel, and Andy packed up his Acacia II and a mean-looking UK-produced F3F plane, the name of which escapes me. Clouds threatened, but there was a decent breeze building and as the slope came into view my hopes for good flying rose like an unballasted glider.
My assumption had been that most pilots in the UK flew mode 1, so the plan was to just watch Andy and Steve fly and maybe shoot a bit of video, being the strictly mode 2 flier that I am. Andy then surprised me with the happy news that he flew mode 2 and that he was foolis...er, fine with me having a turn on whatever he was flying. Lordy, this was getting good fast.
Steve was first out, testing the air with his Weasel, the little foam wing dancing around brilliantly with his easy command of the sticks. Watching a good pilot is almost as fun as flying for me and when Andy took to the sky with his Luna it was quickly apparent that here were two men who knew air and knew how to use it. By instinct, I grabbed my video camera and began following the aerial artistry as best I could. Sooner than expected, Andy called me over and I found myself guiding the Luna out over the sheep-dotted, rolling green hills of England, downtown Manchester sitting in the distant background like a dour wallflower.
Although the clouds never broke, the breeze remained steady, and not even the cold I'd been battling could dampen my spirits as we continued to chat and fly for hours. At one point, Andy treated me to a mini-F3F training session, burning through a variety of turning techniques while describing the uses of each and loading my mind with bucketfuls of information on snapflap, reflex, ballasting, launch and climb-out, course tactics – hell, he probably told me how to game the stock market and make milliions but it would have skipped right off the hard surface of my aging brain. Clearly, I had stumbled out of the States and into the presence of an expert RC pilot. This man knows how to make a toy sing!
When Andy wasn't overwhelming me with technical info about flying, he was sharing a fair number of secrets about the history and workings of the international RC sailplane scene. My provincial view of all things slope was often shaken as Señor Ellison sketched the rough contours of F3F, F3B, F3J, sport, EPP, MoM building and flying across multiple time zones, languages, and exchange rates. As interesting as these details are, my little corner of slopedom is so small that I'm afraid all this juicy info is lost on me. Still, it was fun to hear Andy weave the threads of international aero-centric RC. Someday, somehow, maybe the world of JART will benefit from his generosity.
Sad to say, although it was a huge treat to get on the sticks with Andy's Acacia II, Luna, and Mini Air One, my own flying abilities are so tuned to JARTing at the coast that I was hopelessly timid with the TX and made myself content with straight passes and a bit of slermalling. At one point, Steve had us all chuckling by calling me on a strange, inadvertent manuever I managed to perform when surprised by the Acacia's crisp inverted performance. Suffice to say, all the years of training myself to make a somewhat silken purse out of a sudden sow's ear saved Andy from carting home Acacia bits and pieces instead of the lovely and decidedly whole plane he now enjoys. How could I have explained to my wife that our vacation budget would now include the purchase of a European model?
After watching Mr. Dorling spend the late afternoon light and air with his Weasel (must get me one of those), we finally packed it out, de-rigged and began one of the most enjoyable hour and a half drives I've had in some time. Topics of conversation ranged from world politics to waste management in full-scale gliders to the reason one should never eat chicken in certain regions of the world. At one point I thought, well, this is it, I can't stop laughing so they'll just have to drop me at the nearest hospital and let NHS sort out my giggling fit.
Tall and small of it is, this day will long stand in my memory as a peak and a pleasure. To have come six thousand miles and found two such knowledgeable and talented pilots, not to mention expert story-tellers and generous souls, was a treat made only slightly less happy by the awareness that it will not soon be repeated, if ever. My only hope is to get these boys over to California for a sloping safari at some point. Anyone care to join us?
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