Tautenhain 2001
26-27 may

GIRL POWER.

Monique is not unbeatable but wins again.

Junior competition was also won by a young girl named Anja Mobius.

Besides the flying again remarkable things happened. The engine from Phillip Teubel (junior) stopped running suddenly in the minute warming up because it became suddenly flooded. The reason, a fly came in the venturi but was not sucked into the engine. It was just to thick. No air and only fuel came in the engine.

Lothar Hentschel tried to be a quick mechanic and threw model with pit box attached in the air. This combination doesn't work. It is not new to me because my mechanic forgot to take the clamp off too once. A strange experience for the pilot. Now it didn't matter because it was 10 seconds before the end of the bout.

My WAK engines have been running OK but strange enough we have more problems than last year. It has nothing to do with new or old engines. Rik Olijve had 3 engine problems. This were engines from last year and this year.

In one of the engines one of the contra weights (we have 3 per engine) had the idea that it had to go out. So it did but first made a nice slot in the conrod and made itself smaller in length. Then it probably fell out at a moment that the engine didn't run or was close to that point. See the conrod. In the next bout it was off course impossible to start. Monique and Vincent (both mechanics at that moment) had the idea that the engine was flooded heavily and turned the engine so the fuel could get out off the exhaust side. The contra weight must have fallen out off the exhaust because suddenly the engine felt good and could be started when Rik needed it. He flew with it till the end of the bout and because of their story I checked the engine afterwards and saw what happened. Nothing was destroyed, only the contra weight was gone. This is the second time in 7 years engine building that a contra weight came out and I strongly feel that I maybe should stop using contra weights. This contra weight can only have left engine through the exhaust. It is 4 mm in diameter and 3.3 mm long. I guess that the diameter has stayed the same but the length has been less than 1.7 mm. (1.7 mm is the depth of the transfer ducts at their smallest depth)

In another engine a piece of the piston broke of but the engine kept on running and nothing (except for the piston) was destroyed.

In his third engine the element of the glow plug fell down and destroyed the piston. This happened in just 3 successive flights.

Tomas Mejzlik came with a new combat engine. The inside, and then I mean porting/timing, was based direction AKM engine. This was told to me in secret, I didn't see the engine from the inside. It might be true because the running characteristic of the engine was also pointed in that direction. Great difference seems to be the easy handling and stabile running from beginning till the end. AKM engines often have to run very rich on the ground. If you don't do this the AKM often starts running lean after about 1 minute. Nowadays it seems to be popular to have the venturi on the opposite side of the engine. In pylon race (6.5 CC engines) this opposite venturi design is used too and these engines were vibrating more than a standard placed venturi. More logic seems to place the venturi there where it is possible to make a complete symmetric crankshaft. We have the luck that our engines are rather small and the RPM is not as high as the pylon race engines. The new PROFI has a high torque and low RPM. Noise level was OKEE because of a lower RPM. This engine was used for the first time in competition and proved to be well. Even easy handling when the engine was warm. This was also a very nice experience for Tomas and Pavel Kucera. The Kozjol was pretty difficult to start when it was hot. I think that this engine will be a great hit for the future. Reliability and a fair price and good service will do the rest. Look for a picture at he competition gallery. Well, this was the Tautenhain competition in Bitterfeld. We hope that we can fly in Tautenhain next year again. Just because the view from the toilet is nicer. See the photo gallery.

For more pictures  

Junior results