Next SubRonLA Run: December 14th

[jefftytoo]

Yes, as noted in the heading above, the next official, full-squadron SubRonLA run will take place on Saturday, December 14th, at the usual time and place. Hope to see you all there.

Of course, Will and Mike and sometimes Ralph (and occasionally even Tom Chalfant from Vegas) have been known to run boats there at other times—sometimes even weekly—between official squadron outings, so contact them if you get the urge to submerge at any point before our December gathering.

Good Luck and Good Hunting,
JeffP

[Ben Brigham]

"Urge To Submerge"! Great T-shirt idea!

[Ben Brigham]

Hi Quartermaster, hi wlambing, hi Scott T, hi all,

Yes, well, the Sir Frankie Crisp is still fulfilling its destiny as a hangar queen in yet another apartment of mine. I've been carrying it around the country with me, hoping to get it going again. Some very sharp eyes and good memories out there who remembered it from Subregatta 2001! wlanbing: you're being polite; the Crisp ran horribly that day, likely due to the Tekin Titan speed controller shorting across its own copper heat-sink plate. (fixed) So so many changes inside the hull, though the outside looks largely the same as it had, uh, 18 years ago? (dear god) After the initial frustration of things not working I went through the five stages of grief....moved, met a girl, got married, moved again, had a kid,....it's been a long road. It really is getting close to completion this time though. I'm just buttoning a few things up.
One hangup has been the radio: the crack staff at SubRonLA did some diagnostics & concluded the receiver to be resoundingly kaput. (Ralph: any luck finding anything 8-ch 75MHz in your stuff?) Once Cornwall gets more Marine F-14's in 40MHz in stock I'll PayPal the s**t out of them & get one. Oh yeah, might as well ask the SubRonLA group:

In choosing a channel within the 40MHz range, Will O. says the middle frequencies are pretty busy by you guys and that it would be wise to choose one on the periphery of the available range. So has SubRonLA got anything listed for channels already taken by the group? I'll grab something on the low end if it's available. Don't want to step on anyone's frequency toes.

Thanksthanks!
BB

[Ralph --- SSBN 598]

Ben,

I found 1 new in box 8 channel Futaba 75 mhz Rx.

[Ben Brigham]

Ralph! You're the best! Would it be okay if I tested the receiver with my system? If it works, name your price!

[Ben Brigham]

Hi Ralph, We can take this off-thread if you like. I assume people aren't interested in any of this.
My email is bbrigham1@gmail.com

[jefftytoo]

Reminder, guys: SubRonLA run this Saturday at the usual place and time. Will cannot make it so I won’t be bringing Nautilus this time. Tom won’t be coming either. Anyone else? I’ll send out an email reminder too.

See you there,
Jeff

[secrtwpn1]

Farlan will be there. Still needing help in trimming the Blueback. Almost got it!

[Ralph --- SSBN 598]

Friday is here and I can not get the Gato finished enough to bring it.
(some of the glue needs 24 hours to cure before I can finish the part)

But I have 2 boats to choose from.
Skipjack will be the boat I bring.
Might bring both. Akula II is the other.
Time to gather everything up so it gets in to the car.

[Ralph --- SSBN 598]

Today's run was met with drizzle.
Not rain but very thick low clouds. Not quite fog.
Everything on the tables was wet.

3 Boats made in to the water.
John's wooden fantasy boat.
It is amazing to me how it works.
To control running dept, he pressurizes the inside of the boat.
Do not know how that works.
He got the pressure too high on the first run and could not dive the boat father than deck awash.
He brought it isn and vented it a little and out again.
This time the boat ran surfaced and periscope depth a slow turns.
Again, this is a scratch built wooden boat.
He says the paint is 5 coat of epoxy.
First thing I notice whan he brought it out was it was black enstead of white.
I asked if this was a new boat.
No. It's just gone over to renew it.

Jeff's Blueback has had it's cylinder rebuilt.
And maybe modified.
Once in the water the boat did everything Jeff asked it to do.
Before he had to run with a bit of speed to get the boat to run at periscope depth.
Today, I watched it running at slow turns.
There was none of the porpising as before.
Jeff has found the sweet spot in trimming this boat.
A pleasure to watch running.

Then there's my Skipjack.
In the water, I did the static dive twice to get the air out of the piston and out from under the deck.
I did the customary surface circles before diving.
Brought the boat to the edge of the lake and statically submerged the boat to top of sail at the water surface.
Then slowly started my patrol.
THere was something not right.
I was fighting to get the boat to trim level
The stern was riding high.
The stern planes should take care of this and push the stern down to level.
Then I control depth with the sail planes.
Well I could not get the boat level so using the sail planes did nothing to effect the boat.
I brought the boat in twice to check for water in the cylinder.
Not a drop.
Third time in the water, I ran the boat out and still I can not get the boat trimmed level.
Back to shore where I could see all the control surfaces.
Okay, what's this?
Everything works but the rear planes.
They are not moving at all.
Out of the water and on to the table.
Open the boat.
tried all the controls and everything works except the rear planes.
I took hold of the planes withmy fingers and I could not move the planes.
The servo was frozen.
Turn ever thing off and was finished for the day.
Then while help Farlan with trimming his boat, I had a thought.
When I arrived at the lake, the rear linkage was not connected.
I connected it and tested it. It work then.
But while running, the boat was not turning a tight as it normally does.
So, I there the stick of and I slide the fine trim over to get more angle.

The thought I had was to disconnect the rear plane linkage and test just the servo.
Well what do you know.
Works perfectly.
Okay what's the propbem.
Connected the linkage and again the servo froze.
My connection is two wheel collar clamped together with the set screw.
Loosed the set screw and move the rods right to left.
I noticed that the control rod was rubbing against the support plastic that hold the control rods from falling to the bottom of the hull when disconnect.
So when looking down on the linkage, where the two rod touch, the right side is now on the left and the left is on the right.
Yep, the control rods no longer touch the support plastic.
It now works smoothly.

I am going to have to make a prefight check lest.
Last time out I did not remember to reverse the planes channel so up was down and down was up.
The fix is to open the Tx and unplug the channel plug and turn it aroudn.
At home on the bench I find the setup paper for the Skipjack and right there is say, reverse channel plug for Skipjack.

I cured that by rewiring inside the servo to reverse te servo.
Then I tapes a small piece of paper on the servo to remind me that the servo has been reverse should I need to replace it.

All in all it was a very light turn out.
No one lost a boat.
Well, John's boat got stuck un a fallen tree branch.
I was able to use my Skipjack to push it free.
This with my stern planes jamed.
There were witnesses.

Even with the wet weather it was still a nice day at the lake.

Oh, Mike was there but being wet, he got very cold and decide it was best to call it a day and go get warm.
==================
Next gathering date, t be announced By Jeff.
But there could beun offical gathering before then.
It happens a lot with this group.

Some of us are old and have the time to sneak off to the lake more often.

[jefftytoo]

Thanks for showing up this morning, guys. As usual lately, I just found out that Ralph has already beaten me to the punch in his reporting of today’s events. I’ll share my pre-written thoughts below regardless. And I’ll also send this out as an email.

It was a good turnout and a decent run today despite the cold, drizzly weather. On hand in order of appearance: Mike and Ralph, then myself, John Lim, Farlan, Ben Brigham and newcomer Dave Moran, who dropped by to check out our running spot and get acquainted with the squadron. No photos to share of any of this however, unfortunately.

Ralph, John and I did get in some good runs, plus the usual good conversation with Mike, who soon unfortunately found himself a bit too cold and wet for his liking and made an early exit. Farlan got in a little more experimental trimming on his reconfigured Blueback. Ralph and Ben did some electronics horse trading and thus Ben has now acquired a functioning receiver for his radio. Yee-ha!

Speaking of radio waves, Ben is looking to get a few different crystal sets for his 75 mhz radio and is wondering what channels his fellow squadron mates are already occupying. So, could everyone sound off to help him out? I’ll start: I’m on channel 75. The rest of you? Please check in with this info.—via email or SC forum post—when you can.

Anyway, there was also a brief discussion with the following result: our next full squadron run is now slated for Saturday, February 8th. Of course, there’s no reason there can’t or won’t be some other smaller sub gatherings at the pond before then.

Green board,
Jeff

P.S. We all hope Will is experiencing a rapid recovery from his recent eye surgery. (Feel better, Will!) We missed Tom Chalfant’s cheery presence too, and also hope Shuzo, Brian, Steve Neil and Alan Haskell will rejoin us soon as well.