Our club is dedicated to the safe pursuit and advancement of model aviation. We offer the newcomer free lessons to learn how to build models and to fly them. If you should have any questions about the club, flight instruction or membership requirements, call any of the club officers. We have a safety checklist available for those new to our flying field.

Use of a computer simulator is advisable. This allows you to practice safely and will end up saving you hundreds of dollars in the long run.

Still, in any case, the best way to learn to fly R/C planes is by finding an instructor to help. Learning on your own can be expensive and somewhat less safe.

We provide instruction for both building model aircraft as well as flying these models. In most cases, a buddy box system is used at the flying field. Experience has shown this to be the safest method to learn.

Those who want to enroll in the pilot training should contact Rick Hanners (phone number is on the list below) or our club secretary, Bob Martin at (425) 483-2348.   

Pilots already enrolled in the training program are welcome to contact any of the

club instructors.                         

Current Flight Instructors:

Dave Bell                     425 672-4249

Ray Gilkey                   360 668-2746

Rick Hanners             360 668-1312

Karl  Schaefer            425 259-1824

Ron Swift                     425 788-6045

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You can see the following on the display:

· The amount of current

being put into the pack

· Charging time

· The voltage of the pack

· The amount of total input

charge

· The number of cells the charger thinks are in the pack (2C in this case)

· The mode the charger is in (here it is 1)        

If the number of cells the charger thinks the pack has does NOT match the number of cells in the pack STOP AT ONCE - something is wrong with your battery pack.

The programming in the 109 is pretty unique among Lithium chargers because it will NOT choose a higher cell count than the pack really has.  If it does ever err, it would always choose a lower number of cells.  This is extremely important as a higher cell count will lead to over charging and, let us say, not good things.

The charger has 3 modes.  If we were charging a 2 cell pack, the charger would first display 2C1.  This means a 2 cell pack, mode 1.  This mode only lasts a couple of minutes.  Here the cell count is chosen, the charger checks

 

for a fully charged pack, the user inputs the level of the charge current and the

 current is being

 ramped up from half

the value dialed in by

 the user to the dialed

in value.

The charger then switches over to Mode 2 and would show 2C2, as shown below in our example.  This is the Constant Current mode of the charger.  In this mode the battery pack eventually will reach its 4.2 volt per cell level.  Again for a 2 cell pack that would be 8.4 volts.  If within 60 minutes, the pack does not reach 4.2 volts per cell, the charger automatically switches into Mode 3.  This is a built in safety feature, and if this happens it indicates that something is wrong with the pack.

Once 4.2v per cell is reached, the unit switches into mode 3, displaying 2C3.  Normally this is the constant voltage portion of the cycle.  The 109, however, uses a unique pulsing current to bring the cell voltages to 4.2 volts per cell.  When current is not being applied, the voltage of the pack is measured. 

 

(Continued on page 5)