LASS L-Angled Small System - Page 6
David Hunt - Gray, Tennessee, USA March 26, 2000
The wire that sticks out from one side is part of the Futaba On/Off switch assembly and is used to connect to the Futaba battery charger. The charger has two connectors so the Transmitter and Receiver batteries can be charged simultaneously.
First Flights
This is from the first roll from the LASS rig. It was very windy and I had to bring my FlowForm 30 down and send up the FlowForm 16 (an FF 8 would have been perfect). It was hard to catch the rig still enough to take a picture. This is one of the best pictures from the whole role, and the rig was caught out of level.
This picture is from the second roll of film taken with the LASS rig. The winds were light (under 10mph). The rig behaved beautifully.
LASS UPDATE - Possible Structural Weakness May 19, 2000
I recently took the LASS rig to photograph Meadow View Convention Center in Kingsport, TN. I've included the only good picture I have made of this facility (Figure 1). This picture is also in Gallery 1 and was taken over a year ago. I include it to provide context to the following account. If you recall, this is one of two pictures that I have been able to take during 5 visits to this location.
Figure 1
On this visit I decided to send my 9.5 foot Delta Conyne aloft. This would be the first time that I have used the DC with a KAP rig attached. Ground winds were around 10 mph and the wind direction was on the erratic side. I managed to work the rig up to a good working altitude. I then had to fight some erratic winds before I could begin working in toward the building to begin photographing.
Then as has happened on every previous visit to this location the wind began to die. While struggling to keep the kite and rig in the air for several minutes, the rig was just 5 feet above a sidewalk when it "YoYo-ed" down fairly hard against the sidewalk and the rig broke. I had to work my way up the 80 feet of line to the rig, trying to keep the kite aloft in the fading winds, and also prevent the kite from dragging the pieces of the rig across the pavement, and there was the threat of the line becoming entangled in one of the light fixtures in the parking area.
Once I worked my way up to the rig I could not immediately tell what had broken. The break was such that everything was still attached to the kite line. Since I still had to retrieve my kite, I disconnected the rig and left it on the sidewalk. I finally got the kite down (and only entangled the line in one light fixture). Returning to the broken rig I found that the mounting flange had broken off of the tilt servo. The whole rig remained connected together and attached to the kite line because the servo wire was wire-tied to the other wires and plugged into the receiver.
Figure 2
Somehow in the excitement one picture was taken when the LASS rig was broken
(Figure 2). In it you see the bushes next to the sidewalk, the antenna boom running across the top of the picture, and just above the boom you can see the DC. It's almost as if the LASS took one last look back at the kite and said,
"You let me down!!!"
I have been worried about this potential weakness with the LASS rig but have decided not to jump to conclusions without further evidence.
The problem could have been a defective servo case molding. In my mind the mounting flange on the pan servo would be under much more stress than the flange on the tilt servo. I replaced the tilt servo and continue to fly it as originally designed.
If this proves to be a fundamental weakness with the LASS rig then the flexing stress on the flanges can be alleviated by gluing a piece of stiff plastic across the sides of the pan and tilt servos.
I will keep everyone posted.