RINGMASTER FLY-A-THON

GUS THE I.A. Mon Sep 23, 2019 11:06 am

The Worldwide Ringmaster Fly-A-Thon for 2019 happens on October 5th-6th, 2019.

Fly your Ringmasters, of any size, on these days, and report information about the people, place, planes and any other information that you would like to include to the Official website, to be included in the official total of pilots and planes that participated in the event. A Worldwide tally will be kept, and hopefully a new record-number of participants and number of flights will be logged.

Be part of a great event that you can fly in, wherever you normally fly! The Fly-A-Thon is Worldwide, therefore, your local flying site is the location where your event, for this event will happen! Cool, huh?

ticomareado Mon Sep 23, 2019 2:06 pm

Where??

Oldenginerod Mon Sep 23, 2019 5:20 pm

ticomareado wrote:Where??

As the flyer says, "Wherever you are in the world".

rsv1cox Tue Sep 24, 2019 7:02 am

Seems it falls on my birthday so to celebrate I dug out my two Ringmaster Jrs and will fly one or the other on that day.

Built wing was made and flown in Rhode Island back in the 1960's. Probably the first plane that I proudly pictured here on the forum back in 2014. Someone - Cribbs I think burst my bubble when he noted that I had screwed up the position of the vertical stab and rudder. Smile

So to make amends I made the slab wing pictured with it.

Original has flown in many states making it as far West as Colorado where my son flew it.

batjac Sun Sep 29, 2019 1:17 pm

Oops! This one snuck up on me. I didn't make a new plane this year. Sad

I guess I'll bust out the THT and my Beginner's RM that was the first plane I built when getting back into CL back in 2013. It's been pretty abused, but I think I can make it presentable.

The Unprepared Mark

edit: Screw it! I'm busting out the balsa tonight and building a .020 RM. If my CEF .020 horseshoe backplate gets here, it's flying. If not, one of my Skycopter conversions...

The Determined Mark

Kim Sun Sep 29, 2019 2:03 pm

batjac wrote:Oops! This one snuck up on me. I didn't make a new plane this year.

I guess I'll bust out the THT and my Beginner's RM that was the first plane I built when getting back into CL back in 2013. It's been pretty abused, but I think I can make it presentable.

The Unprepared Mark

edit: Screw it! I'm busting out the balsa tonight and building a .020 RM. If my CEF .020 horseshoe backplate gets here, it's flying. If not, one of my Skycopter conversions...

The Determined Mark

YOU GO BOY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kim Sun Sep 29, 2019 2:05 pm

Hey Gus,

If it's OK, I'm gonna shift my Ringmaster stuff over to this thread !!!!

The Shifty Kim

GUS THE I.A. Sun Sep 29, 2019 10:08 pm

Kim,
Make it so! This is as good a spot as any, to put Ringmaster stuff! I think our group has about 8 Ringmasters to use in the Fly-in. I will try to get a picture of the Ringmasters that I have, and also pictures of the other ones around here.

Let's see the Ringmasters that are going to be flown in this year's Worldwide Ringmaster Fly-A-Thon.

getback Mon Sep 30, 2019 9:11 am

Looking good for Saturday , 75F here and i got a ring that has not made it in the air yet so maybe this time ..

akjgardner Mon Sep 30, 2019 4:34 pm

getback wrote:Looking good for Saturday , 75F here and i got a ring that has not made it in the air yet so maybe this time ..

. Your airplane looks good Eric

getback Mon Sep 30, 2019 5:06 pm

Thanks Joe but she has some twist in the wing that will need to bee address before flight >>> Hoping to put that PT-19 in the air i got from you Very Happy

Funny thing i have a video of the (damn engine/plane caught on fire)) But i can't put it on here LMAO !!1 lol!

batjac Tue Oct 01, 2019 5:54 pm

Out of curiosity, I haven't seen a thing about the RM Fly-A-Thon over on Stunthanger. Usually there're a lot of posts leading up to it. Did the subject get banned over there or something that I didn't hear about?

The Inquisitive Mark

**Cribbs74** Sat Oct 05, 2019 8:21 pm

5 flights for OKC, we have done better, but it’s better than none. Not having flown for over a year I wrecked it. Thank goodness for 15min epoxy, CA and packing tape! It was ugly, but I was able to put in two more flights before the wind was too much to deal with. It was fun to get out and fly, I had almost forgot how much fun it is. I am going to retire my Ringmaster, it’s time to make another this one has too many things wrong and too many repairs, it’s also well over 2 lbs now.

Here is a photo of today’s lineup, only 2 Ringmasters

batjac Sun Oct 06, 2019 1:18 am

Okay, I threw this together real quick. Due to family and work, I didn’t get to play much with this other than throwing it together. Due to rain and cold, I didn’t get to fly today, and probably won’t tomorrow, so I have a couple of things I didn’t hurry to finish off. But I should find time to fly next weekend for the rain-out date for the RM fly-A-thon.

Initially, I drew out a wing with a wingspan of 16 inches. That looked too small. So I drew out a wing with an 18 inch wingspan. Well, maybe for a TD .020 engine, but I don’t think for a PeeWee. So 17 inches it is. That gives a wing area of just under 70 sq.in.

First I cut out all the wood and made a kit:

RINGMASTER FLY-A-THON DSCN6844

Fast forward about four hours, and you get this:

RINGMASTER FLY-A-THON DSCN6865

I still have to calculate where I want the leadout guide, but that’ll only take a few minutes to install. I just got my CEF .020 backplate yesterday evening, so I initially built this with one of my Skycopter conversions, but now I’ll go back and retrofit with the CEF Cox .020 bckplate before I fly it. Man! I LOVE these little backplates!

Oh, what is it called? Since a Beginner’s Ringmaster is .049 powered, I call this my “Beginner’s Little Brother’s Ringmaster”. I plan to start with 20' lines, and adjust as necessary.

The Sibling Mark

Kim Sun Oct 06, 2019 5:16 am

batjac wrote:Okay, I threw this together real quick. Due to family and work, I didn’t get to play much with this other than throwing it together. Due to rain and cold, I didn’t get to fly today, and probably won’t tomorrow, so I have a couple of things I didn’t hurry to finish off. But I should find time to fly next weekend for the rain-out date for the RM fly-A-thon.

Oh, what is it called? Since a Beginner’s Ringmaster is .049 powered, I call this my “Beginner’s Little Brother’s Ringmaster”. I plan to start with 20' lines, and adjust as necessary.

The Sibling Mark

Fantastic !!!!

Great-looking plane, and yet ANOTHER version of this old circle-turner!

Kim Sun Oct 06, 2019 6:28 am

We had a full day on Breezy Hill! Haven't tallied the flights yet, and going to do it all again today if the weather allows. If not, I shall be conducting Fly-a-Thon flights on Sky Tiger Field next Sunday!

Our official endurance flyer, Leo Edler, has once again set his sights on wearing out the landing gear of his Fly-a-Thon specialized S-1...logging 220 flights, and looks to return today. His Ringmaster's O.S. .20 FP is has a 1/4oz tank behind it that gives the plane just enough flight time for 5-6 laps. He has his own "Crop Circle", and was launching and landing pretty much the whole day

We had three visitors who took a turn on Billy's Jr. Ringmaster. Young Eli had a bit of a rough arrival which broke the model's prop. He was presented with the prop as a souvenir, along with and his Official Breezy Hill Flyers Ringmaster Fly-a-Thon Certificate.

A bunch of other stuff happened, which will be expanded upon later, and I even had enough residual energy to put in 5 flights in the front yard when I got home, so allowing me a "Bi-State Log Entry" of both Illinois and Missouri this time around!

...................................

ian1954 Sun Oct 06, 2019 8:18 am

All nice looking planes and pictures. My two Ringmasters still are not finished but we haven’t had flying weather here this weekend. Strong winds, rain and flooding!

Seeing these pictures spurred me to revisiting my builds. Other projects took priority last week and I had to clear my build top for them.

The wind here is a steady 13mph gusting to 25 mph, yesterday was much worse with driving rain rather than drizzle.

I hope the record is broken.

ticomareado Sun Oct 06, 2019 8:30 am

I'm glad to see that someone is representin' Wen Mac in good style.

rsv1cox Sun Oct 06, 2019 12:08 pm

ticomareado wrote:I'm glad to see that someone is representin' Wen Mac in good style.

Mark and I flew the two Ringmasters pictured above today. Here's a preview.

Black Widow at full chat.

rsv1cox Sun Oct 06, 2019 12:39 pm

Mark just sent me his pictures. I have no pride, all I can say is that the solid wing clone Ringmaster that I built kept coming in on me resulting in some amusing postures.

I had to keep backing up to keep it in the air. Finally backed the 20' lines right into the tree. I put a few R/C's there but this is my first treed C/L. Sad

Climbed a ladder, broomed it out. Little damage, bump in the wing and lead out guide off probably occurred as I tried to pull it out of the branches.

Mark had better luck with the built wing (probably 1960's). Black Widow running too good on 20' lines about screwed him into the ground. I'm surprised that he lasted until the tank finally ran out. Just missed the grass by a foot hitting the asphalt cracking the tail a bit. Both minor damage and will fly again.

ticomareado Sun Oct 06, 2019 3:58 pm

If you insist on 20 ft. lines, you better go with a Pee Wee .020.

**Cribbs74** Sun Oct 06, 2019 4:02 pm

Proud of ya Bob! Those photo’s make me laugh, I have never seen anyone perform an Irish Jig while flying a Ringmaster. Very Happy

Oldenginerod Sun Oct 06, 2019 4:13 pm

Cribbs74 wrote:Proud of ya Bob! Those photo’s make me laugh, I have never seen anyone perform an Irish Jig while flying a Ringmaster.

I agree. That was a great dance you did there. Makin' hard work of things! Stick a left hand prop on it and run it the other way to see if it pulls the lines a little tighter.

rsv1cox Sun Oct 06, 2019 4:40 pm

Thanks all.

Ya, 20' lines were a guaranteed fail but necessary in my confined back yard, witness the tree. Alternative was to drive many miles to a school yard where we would have probably been evicted anyway. Not much free space here in WV.

Both engines started right off running backwards four finger flips out of five. Both ran great in the right direction.

Maiden flight for the clone Ringmaster Jr., built RM Jr. is an old hand at this. Got to shim the clones engine out a degree or two, plenty of out angle on the rudder. Tricky in pitch, small up inputs resulted in dramatic movements.

I hope to see many more flights documented here.

Edit add: Oh yes. That picture of Mark on the ground. Check the black marks on the back of his shirt. He found the only deer droppings in the back yard. Smile

Funny day for us all around. And, BTW - I didn't get dizzy. Much of the time it was spinning above my head and I was to busy trying to keep it in the air.

Kim Sun Oct 06, 2019 5:10 pm

Breezy Hill wrapped up the 2019 Ringmaster Fly-a-Thon in the rain earlier today.

Leo Edler aka "Mr. Endurance" finished his run, more thru mercy for his pit volunteers than being bothered by the rain that became steady late in the morning.

Leo cranked out 382 flights over Saturday and Sunday, and I'm claiming a total of 434 flights at Breezy Hill in Chester, Illinois, plus my 5 evening flights at home last night in Jackson, Mo. for a grand total of 439 Flights.

I'll have the pilots, planes, and their individual totals sorted out shortly. We had three visitors who took the handle on Billy Lang's Ringmaster, and received, with everyone else, an Official Breezy Hill/Ringmaster Fly-a-Thon Certificate!