The Christmas Eve Brigade.

Getting ready to fly...

Jon

Izak

and Andrew

The new frequency board, and very good it looks too.

At lunch time on Saturday a storm approached the field. Luckily it passed to the North.

The gentlemen (sic) of JOMAC.

With the support of his trusty associates, Jon and Dave, Valter flew his Sopwith Pup.

Here's a short clip.

Photography by Luke (use the Force) Godwin

Andrew's Toledo Special.

Some more photos of Jon's Tiger Moth. Denis says it won an award at Oudtshoorn 2011 for the most realistic flyer. You can see why.

Did a full size Spitfire make a low pass over JOMAC on Saturday, or was it Greg's scale model. You decide.

Flemming's electric glider now has an on-board variometer. Well, more than just a variometer. It's combined with a GPS device. It measures, records and transmits not only the rise and fall of the aircraft but also speed, height, location -- the Full Monty.
The feedback to the pilot is by a rising and falling tone punctuated every now and then by a businesslike female voice giving height above ground.
The tube attached to the fin is a Total Energy Sensor. This allows the device to integrate the kinetic and potential energy of the aircraft. In theory, if the aircraft loops, exchanging speed with height around the loop, the device will give out a constant tone. And so it does. I've seen it with my own eyes, and heard it with my own ears.
Remarkable.

Dave's colourful Farmhand. 

50 cc petrol engine.

Made from plans and a short kit from RC Modelworld.

A couple more shots of Alex and his electric Four Square.

Durban Deep Radio Flyers, wetting of new runway and get together

We went to DDRF by invitation for the "Wetting of the New Runway". Ted and his grandson went as well.

More photos here

Here's a short clip of some of the DDRF helicopters.

 

Launching an Easy Glider.

A bunch of helicopters

Not sure who the pilot is, but as you can see, it was quite windy.

UAV demonstrations and the Intervarsity Flight Challenge

More information on the SAMAA BLOG

Jon's Ju 87, getting ready for Oudtshoorn.

Discussing possible new locations for JOMAC.

Ken's Electric Omega.

Muti at JOMAC

Let's hope these strange devices keep the bad guys away.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Donovan's Minimoa.

Sun Power

THE Paris Air Show, one of the oldest and biggest events of its kind, gets under way at Le Bourget on June 20th with many of the exhibitors keen to promote greener aviation. Besides aircraft powered by biofuel and new lightweight fuel-saving designs, such as Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, there is plenty of other kit promising to help make aircraft more efficient. But nothing could match the rather ungainly bird that touched down on runway 21 in the evening on June 14th.

The aircraft, known as HB-SIA, has the wingspan of a jumbo jet but just a tiny single-person cockpit. It is designed to be powered only by sunlight. HB-SIA was built by a Swiss-based project called Solar Impulse, which was set up by Bertrand Piccard, an adventurer who helped to pilot the first balloon to fly around the world, and André Borschberg, a fighter pilot and engineer. Their ultimate aim with Solar Impulse is to build an aircraft that can circle the world using only the power of the sun.

More here

There are new and updated photos from Ted -- see link at right hand side of the page.

Ted's new Hawker Hurricane.

More photos here.

More vandalism at the club.

The SGM called to discuss the the termination of the lease in February 2012

On a better note, Jon's 1/3 scale Tiger Moth.

It even takes off a little crookedly, just like the full size one.

It's easy to get disorientated if your helicopter goes inverted.

Ask Steve.

GAA League comp at JOMAC

Perfect weather.

More photos here.

Basil's new Ava E. It drew many admiring glances. And when it flew all were impressed.

Here's a clip of its first launch, Francois doing the honours.

(click on the clip for a larger version)

Model helicopters are works of miniature engineering art.

Here's Gerald's Cabrinha, now with a four cell battery.