Don Martin Cup

[kittyfritters]

The Black Sheep Exhibition Squadron is holding another incarnation of the biannual Don Martin Cup competition.
This is an open competition for indoor, free flight, rubber powered helicopters.

This year's competition will be a challenge since the usual venue, the Luther Middle School gym with it's high domed ceiling, will be unavailable. The contest has been scheduled for the Boys and Girls Club gym in Sylmar. This venue has a "helicopter' of it's own, the infamous giant ceiling ventilation fan known as "The Sikorsky". The fan will, of course, be off during the competition and since it is an evening competition the updrafts and downdrafts due to the solar gain from the skylights will not be an issue. Feel up to a little challenge?

The Don Martin Cup
April 27, 2018
Boys & Girls Club gym
11251 Glenoaks Blvd, Pacoima CA 91331

For info contact:
Dave Gee
818-383-7651
StukaDave@cs.com

[kittyfritters]

Forgot to mention a couple of things about the Don Martin Cup.

This is an AMA sanctioned event and is the largest rubber powered helicopter contest west of the Mississippi.

There is a section for full bodied, scale model helicopters and wingless autogyros. Ten second minimum flight time required. (No-cal types compete in the open category.)

Chinooks (tandem rotor helicopters) will compete in open unless more than three are entered.

Hope to see you there!

[Site Admin (Dave)]

This would be something I would definitely visit if I were a local. Would love to see some photos.

[kittyfritters]

The attendance at the Don Martin Cup competition was somewhat disappointing. No one showed up with a scale helicopter or a Chinook although I know that several people out here build them. It might have been Friday night traffic, which is horrendous in the Los Angeles area. (If you've never driven out here you have no idea!) I'm sure the turnout would have been better if the contest had been on a Saturday. Anyway, there were single rotors, ceiling walkers, coaxials, ornithopters (If I forgot to mention it the contest was open to ornithopters.) and autogyros. Since I was flying, I didn't get much chance to take photos except for the ones posted below.

Now you might be asking, "Who is Don Martin?" Don is a member of the Black Sheep Exhibition Squadron, and president of the O.F.F.C. He is in his 90s and flew B-17s during WW2, 22 missions to drop bombs on Germany and many more to drop food to the Netherlands. The Don Martin Cup started out as a joke on him, 14 years ago, because he very vocally had no use for "those twerly little things", but he good naturedly attends, acts as a timer, and passes out the prizes.

Bill Watson took first place in helicopters with a ceiling walker type, Dave Gee was second with another, Dana Wall was third with still another, and I was fourth with the first single rotor. The interesting thing was that both Bill and Dave's models had kotflugels with bearings on top. What I call a "kotflugel" is a "fender" that allows the helicopter to touch the (flat) ceiling as spin against it by holding the rotor free of the ceiling. On my Sillycopter the kotflugel is a simple wire loop extending up from the center of the rotor hub. The ones that Bill and Dave have are sticks extending up about an inch and a half from the center of the rotor hub with a bearing on top. It really works when you have to fly competitively in a venue with only a 30 foot ceiling. Things would have been different if we had been flying in someplace like the Tustin blimp hangar. I don't know if this should be legal but this time it was allowed.

Dave and Bill reversed finishing places in the ornithopter part of the competition. The ornithopters flew worse as the night went on as it seems they beat themselves apart the more they are flown. One of those flippy tailed things from a recent issue of Aeromodeller with entered and it was agreed that it qualified as an ornithopter.


My autogyro entry was one of my Bostillation prototypes with a rotor mast in place of the wing. It flew, but one of my flights was somewhat embarrassingly humorous. It flew halfway across the gym, pitched up, stalled (Yes, model autogyros can stall!) and landed on its back on the floor without breaking the rotor. Then, because the flight started with 2500 turns on the motor, swept around the gym floor for nearly a minute like a berserk, propeller driven floor polisher. Worse still, Dave Gee videoed the flight! Yes, if I get a copy I will post it.

Everyone who entered received a "Don Martin Cup"

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Bill Watson stooging for Don Smith winding a single rotor (Single bladed too!)

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Dana Wall with his third place finishing ceiling walker, the only one without a kotflugel.

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[kittyfritters]

More photos from the Don Martin Cup:

My venerable Sillycopter

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My autogyro, the larger disk under the rotor hub is a pulley for a spinup lanyard for ROG take offs. The first time I used it I was surprised by the amount of coordination required to hold the prop and the model on the floor with one hand, pull the lanyard without hitting the rotor with the other, and then release the model. At my age, amazingly, I can still get down on the floor and do this.

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Some of Bill Watson's entries, his winning ceiling walker, a single rotor, the "flippy thing" and another ceiling walker. Not seen his ornithopter and autogyro.

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Hugh Langhan with his coaxial. This design goes back to 1947.

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