Here's a link to some photos of the 2013 SAMAA Airshow.

Height restrictions for aeromodelling in SA

John asked that I publish this on the JOMAC Blog .  My only request was that this be placed in context but agreed that it is relevant to the broader membership.

It must be recognised that RC gliding has a number of differences to the traditional power fixed-wing side of the hobby (specifically that the launch, flying & landing are infinitely variable according to weather conditions, and not ground based fixtures such as runways).  Some debate arose recently on the MGA forum (MGASA) regarding the legality of RC height restrictions & how this affects RC Gliding in South Africa.  During the debate numerous comments & queries were raised, following this email arose (I have only edited the parts not relevant to the discussion on height) :

From: Peter Joffe
To: mgasa@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Saturday, 4 February 2012, 11:41
Subject: RE: [mgasa] Legal flying
 Hi there all, ...

Now is the time to ... leave it to those, like Lionel who is busting a gut to get the CAA to see reason. ...

Peter

I needed to set the record straight regarding this & followed up with the following email:

Hi Peter,

Just a small correction: I wish to single out Keith Nicholls who has been pivotal in HIS efforts to obtain increased ceilings for the past two or so years. Keith does not fly RC gliders - but has spent untold hours & travelling expenses, all funded by himself - to find out more & has been doing so unselfishly on behalf of RC glider pilots in SA!

I suspect that the Montgolfiers & Wright brothers et al, were still wiping down early airframes, when for some bizarre reason, the 150' (aeromodelling limit) became codified within the CAA. It is through the serious effort of Keith that constructive steps have been undertaken & the first success of national 400' approvals at SAMAA registered RC airfields have been achieved. We currently have a process in place to ensure that competitive flying, as per FAI rules (Gliding, Large Sclae, Aerobatics, & RC Jetcs), have a provisional approval for there events at specified airfields (the 2012 events list was submitted to ATNS & CAA in December last year). The next stage will be to seek & obtain approval at select RC fields for the specified activities requiring airspace defined within the FAI rules. But there are still two stumbling blocks to this: we first need to convice the CAA that the reasons for change are valid & safety is retained: after all, they claim that the 150' limit has apparently prevented accidents so far! Secondly, the CAA have informed us that they will unlikely deviate from permitting incursion into TMA - a blanket height restriction across SA in which commerical aviation operates - so we have to ensure that our requests for full operational ceiling still occur under the TMA & we are in progress with this.

This is an excrutiatingly painful process - I honestly admire Keith's patience & determination when dealing with the government departments & NGO's regarding this. However, I can assure you that SAMAA is resolute to continue in this endeavour & execute this fast as it is being permitted to do so. We should all value the support of individuals such as Keith, et al, by understanding this process & the challenges of advising changes to regulatory organisations completely outside of our own & who have vastly differing objectives to ours. Infantile responses such as demanding to fly where-ever & bumblingly incorrect statements such as "we never had this issue before" should be ignored & ultimately considered destructive towards the cohesion of our group.

Regards,

Lionel Brink
Chairman: SAMAA

 

 

My thanks to John for the opportunity to publish this to a broader audience,
Lionel Brink

 

Some info on Futaba 2,6GHz sets from Dave Armitage

It has come to my notice that Futaba have issued a number of 2.4 Ghz sets all with a global identification code of zeros. Whilst this will not affect a normal correctly identified and bound set of equipment it will interfere with another set that also has a global identification code of zero's. No one as yet knows where all these sets have sent to but the chances are that some may have come to South Africa. I will check with Redipak tomorrow and see if they have the correct equipment to sort out this problem.
The other problem that seems to be manifesting itself with this equipment is that if a quick power check ie. switching on and switching off again quickly can overwrite the global ident code as well.
I think a warning on SARFLY and MGSA is necessary, plus maybe a note in SAMAA News.
How do the committee feel about this
Regards
Dave A


Hi All,
Furthur to my previous mail. I have checked with Bossie of Redipak. He was unaware of the problem but did confirm that he is not allowed to modify or upgrade FASST systems at all. Any modifications or software upgrades have to be done at the factory.
Spektrum is the same.
It is recommended that any pilots flying more than one Futaba FASST system at any one field check for interference between units before flying. If any interference takes place then the offending units must be returned to Redipak.

Another recommendation is that once a FASST System has been switched on it must be allowed an adequate time to boot up completely. This takes 5 seconds or more. A quick switching on /off can corrupt the global identification code. This can be detected if the set suddenly fails to bind with its receiver. This will also require a factory software reload to correct the problem.
It is not known how many sets were programmed incorrectly and apparently it is difficult to ascertain as to where they all went. The USA and the UK seem to have distributed problem equipment.
I hope this helps
Regards
Dave Armitage

SAMAA AGM 2007

Info here.