| News Letter EUGENE RC AERONAUTS | |
PDF version 2005_JJAS_ERCA_NL.pdf EUGENE RC AERONAUTS Volume 1, Issue 11 November 2005 EUGENE RC AERONAUTS – MEETING – TUESDAY November 22, 2005 Start Time: 7:00 PM – EWEB COMMUNITY MEETING ROOM – 500 EAST 4TH AVE. ROOM IS JUST NORTH OF THE FOUNTAIN IN THE COURTYARD. CARL HENSON FIELD – ALVADORE - I stopped by the field on Saturday November 12. Only a couple of hardy souls, Doug McWha and Khoi Tran were brave enough to fly. The Grass has been mowed several times and looks great everywhere. It can only improve come spring. ELECTION OF CLUB OFFICERS - Please attend this meeting, as we will be voting on club officers for 2006. At the October meeting a motion was made to retain the current officers for 2006. Your presence and vote is needed. It’s not like we want to continue with the same officers, however, in order to keep the club going this seems to be the only choice we have. This club is for all members so give some thought to showing your support and volunteering to fill the officer positions in the future. Also, this is the last meeting for 2005. Our next meeting will be January 24, 2006. WINTER FLYING TIME –November, December, January, February-Saturday, Sunday & Wednesday flying time start is 12:00 Noon. AMA AND CLUB DUES – Just a reminder to get your AMA dues paid for 2006. We will start collecting club dues for 2006 at the January meeting and will need to see your 2006 AMA card before we issue a 2006 club card. PLANES & PROJECTS – Since it was pouring ran last Sunday, I decided to start building a kit that I have had since 1992. It is a Aeronca Champ. Wish me luck, it is very lacking in instructions and quality. I’ll show you my progress at some meeting next year. I ran into Don Watson a few days ago and he is making progress on a scratch built he brought to a meeting earlier this year. I believe it is a Stepacaproni but don’t quote me on the name or spelling, I think it’s close. It’s a hollow tubular fuselage with the engine mounted inside the fuselage. Prop air will flow through the fuselage. You need to see this thing, its great. See you at the meeting. ERCA WEB SITE –http://home.comcast.net/~erca/. Ray Tatum – VP Newsletter Editor --- Volume 1 Issue 10 October 2005 EUGENE RC AERONAUTS — MEETING — TUESDAY OCTOBER 25, 2005 Start Time: 7:00 PM — EWEB MEETING ROOM —500 EAST 4th AVE. CARL HENSON FIELD - I have not been to the site since October 8th. At that time the runway grass was just coming up. The infield area received a mowing this week and the runway is really green. Just imagine what our site will look like come spring of 2006. Thanks to Bill Hollingsworh for contacting Sports Source TV Channel 16 - Dave Wenda. Bill contacted Dave about his program called “I Dare Dave” and dared Dave to try his hand at RC flying. Chuck Jenkins was the instructor, Doug McWha gave support. It was broadcast several times. We plan on showing the video at the meeting. As you will see the club trainer needed to be “re-kitted”. THANKS FOR HELPING Frank main wanted to extend his personal thanks to Doug McWha, Bill Hollingsworh, Chuck O’Donnell, Chuck Jenkins, Bill Hastings for their extra effort for he work on the field. And thanks to all others that pitched in and made it happen. I would like to personally thank Frank for his exceptional effort. Next time you see him shake his hand, he deserves it. WINTER FLYING - November is fast approaching so just a reminder that during November, December, January, February – Saturday, Sunday & Wednesday flying time start is 12:00 Noon. Also, the runway is new, if you are picking up mud on your wheels the field is to wet to fly Let’s be a little patient and let the runway grass grow. PLANES & PROJECTS — The sky at Carl Henson Field is endless, there mast be some new plane projects in the works, scratch or ARF we like to see them. We have seen some interesting projects in the past and new planes showing up for maiden flights. Possibly some members can give tips on how to it kit various styles of planes, self included. NEW MEMBERS - We have several new member, and have had visitors from Corvallis and the surrounding area stop by our field. We expect we will be seeing additional new members signing. Word is out about our premier site our membership is growing. This is going to greatly benefit our club and will help us continue with our future plans for the field. ERCA WEB SITE –http://home.comcast.net/~erca/. Ray Tatum – VP Newsletter Editor --- Volume 1, Issue 9 September 2005 EUGENE RC AERONAUTS – MEETING – TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 27, 2005 New Start Time: 6:30 PM – EWEB MEETING ROOM – 500 EAST 4TH AVE. CARL HENSON FIELD – ALVADORE - Consider our club fortunate to come up with such a premier flying site. When we lost our last field September 2004, it may have been a blessing in disguise. We know a number of members lost interest in our club at that time but we are on the rise again, just ask the new members that have joined. The fence and flying stations are in place. Our club sign is in. The runway will be sprouting grass in the near future. Seeding of the runway occurred on September 20, 2005. We will discuss flying activity at this meeting regarding the runway and new grass. Doug McWha can’t wait to start mowing. Doug will need assistance with the mowing so check with him. Thanks to Frank, Bill, Chuck & Doug the clubhouse is painted. As the rain sets in lets keep in mind that we need to keep on the gravel road and park only on the gravel parking area. Let’s not allow ruts to occur in the non-graveled areas. The gravel area on the west of the clubhouse can be used for unloading and loading, but please, park in the designated area. There will be a BBQ at the June 2006 Meeting at the field, just a bit premature but I can’t wait FIELD RULES REMINDER – We are back to using our frequency rules we have used in the past. When you arrive, obtain your frequency pin and place your club card in the frequency pin location on the frequency board. This allows us to track the pins should you forget to replace before you leave the field. We still request that when you are not using your transmitter, don’t just set it on the flying bench, set it back in the clubhouse impound until you are ready to fly. Please make sure if you are the last to leave the field that the clubhouse door is locked and secure. Try the door after you lock it and replace the key back on the table. WINTER FLYING TIME – Just a reminder that during November, December, January, February-Saturday, Sunday & Wednesday flying time start is 12:00 Noon. Duck hunters use the adjacent ponds. Let’s make sure we comply with this, it’s my understanding they will shoot at anything that’s flying so you may want to contain the urge to start a little early. PLANES & PROJECTS – Since the sky at Carl Henson Field is almost endless, there must be some new plane projects in the works, scratch or ARF we like to see them. We have seen some interesting projects in the past and new planes showing up for maiden flights. Flying at Cinderella was a bit confined for the larger planes, no excuses now. Will be great to see those big ships from the past come alive again. We miss the smoke trails. NEW MEMBERS – During the past several weekends we have had a number of visitors come to the field and express an interest in joining. Word is out about our premier site our membership is growing. This is going to greatly benefit our club and will help us continue with our future plans for the field. ERCA WEB SITE –http://home.comcast.net/~erca/. Ray Tatum – VP Newsletter Editor --- Volume 1, Issue 8 August 2005 EUGENE RC AERONAUTS – MEETING – TUESDAY – AUGUST 23, 2005 ATTENTION – MEETING AT NEW FLYING SITE - ATTENTION Meeting Start Time: 7:00 PM – PLEASE NOTE – WILL BE AT THE NEW ALVADORE FLYING FIELD – MAP ATTACHED – SHOW UP EARLY AND FLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NEW ALVADORE SITE – We are cleared for takeoff and are holding this month’s meeting at the new site so all members can see what a great site this is. The gravel is on the roadway and parking area. The Club trailer is moved and grading of the runway is completed. You need to attend this meeting to see the site and offer your assistance on the remaining items to be completed. Word is that flying is great, bring your plane and come out early. With sunset at about 8:00PM there probably won’t be time to fly after the meeting. EUGENE TOY & HOBBY – Thanks to Eugene Toy and Hobby for their generous donation towards our new field. Go see Alan or Mark Agerter the next time you need that new plane, engine, radio, parts or just stop by and say thank you. They are closer than someone on the line of a 1-800-phone number is and most likely just as competitive. TIM WAGNER FLYING FIELD (CINDERELLA) – At our last club meeting on July 26, 2005 we had good turnout and served up 32 hotdogs, chips and drinks for those arriving before the meeting. There were a number of members flying before and after the meeting. After the meeting adjourned there was no wind at all and was a great time to fly. NEW MEMBERS – I think the word is out about our new field. We have had a number of inquiries about joining our club. This is great news and we envision our membership will again rise. Pass the word around and bring a prospective member along to the meeting. If you are at the flying site and a visitor shows up, greet them and let them know that as a club, we welcome new members. Get their name, address and phone number to me and I will send them the next newsletter along with a membership application. PLANES & PROJECTS – Bring out that new ship so we can all take a look at it. Bring a prospective new member. Note: If you have any items for sale you can bring them to the meeting or email me at rjtatum@msn.com or mail to me at the address below. I need to have by Wednesday the week before the meeting in order to include in the newsletter. FOR SALE: Glen Hughes 541-935-0162 has the following Items; Sporty Forty ARF w/ Supertiger-45, 4CH Hitec Radio - $ 150.00 Thundertiger Trainer with Magnum 40, 4CH Hitec Radio - $ 150.00 JR XF421 4 CH radio, receiver,4 servos,12V fuel pump,12 V starter, glow plug igniter, 12V deep cell battery & props. - $ 100.00 Mark Stafford 541-683-5445 has the following Items Javelin Pattern trainer w/ OS 46fx $200. W/O fx $100. OS 91 FX in great condition, orig box and instructions $150. ERCA WEB SITE –http://home.comcast.net/~erca/. Ray Tatum – VP Newsletter Editor 3124 Tanner Park Drive Eugene, Or. 97405 WITH THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS Bill Hastings bought one of those 20”+ wooden props from Mark Stafford who had gotten it, but had never taken it out of the box. When they did open the box out at the field they were surprised to find that it was a unfinished prop. The leading edge was flat and the wood was bare of any lacquer. Bill took it home and did a dandy job of making a usable prop out of it and it is now on his Robin Rood. It wasn’t an easy job. The first try involved two finishes that were incompatible and the prop had to be scraped down to the raw wood for another go at it. Larry Church was wandering around a patch of the Creswell strip with the air of a man who had lost something. He had: An upright for the rear fuselage of his Topflite Elder, lost when that rear flexed more than somewhat in a hard “arrival”. You’ll remember that the Elder is a generic “pre WWI” monoplane of the Morane/Bleriot/pflaz/Fokker sort, with the fuselage uncovered behind the cockpit. “So, just cut another upright’, you say. “But this one fit”, is Larry’s plaintive reply. This ship has one of those old HP .46 4-strokes for power, the ones which have the carb coming out of the top of the head in front. Looks like a streetlight hanging over the crankshaft housing. Doug McWha’s U—Can—Do has the same Magnum 52 power that Ray Tatum’s has, but Doug was having starting trouble - but only for the first start of the day. He'd have to flip it over upright for the first flight, but subsequent starts were all with the engine inverted. That was eventually traced to a siphoning problem caused by a misalignment in the tank-filler-engine piping. More serious were the glitches he was getting from time to time in flight. A change of receiver was the solution there, if I am remem-bering correctly. The model has since been “dumb—thumbed”, in Doug’s words, but, seeing as how it happened on a weekend, it didn’t really happen at all for purposes of this column. Now that brings you up to 8/1, but since then, I have been at the new field, getting ready for two contests. I can tell you that on one of those days I encountered the well—known airfield—building firm of Hastings and McWha laying out mat and supervising the spreading of gravel. Did I hear correctly — 20 truckloads? Another day, the Prez himself was overseeing a guy with an earthmover leveling the strip. This isn’t just a matter of scraping out a large rectangle. The strip has to be raised in one place, lowered in another, and arched on the centerline so that the rain runs of f and we don’t end up with an ROW pond the size of Crater Lake down at the west end. On another day Frank and Doug were taking turns on a roller which I gather would loosen the fillings in your teeth if you stayed on it too long. Between stints on the roller, Frank was pulling a timber/cyclone fence creation around the perimeter of the strip. This not only smoothed out what will be the pit area, but also gave Frank an Unparalleled opportunity to collect a thick layer of dust on his truck - inside, too, said Frank. So you see, people have been out working on your new airfield. FIRST FLIGHTS I may have the first flight on the new field and it also ended in the first crash. An ill—advised launch of my Dakota into a big gust just as the engine sagged. Took off the whole nose. It’s flying again, as Frank and Doug can attest. The next day, 8/3, I had a whole morning of successful flights with four models. I gather that Jim Corbett was out with some of his electrics. Did he beat me or was his just the first R/C flight? Frank made the first takeoff from the new runway (dirt) this morning (8/16). First landing, too, right down the strip. Not sure about the future of this column. My typewriter is on its last legs. Most of the “n”s in this column took multiple strikes - as many as 20 — to get one to come up on the screen. The ‘tc”e and “m”s are almost as bad. The manufacturer abandoned it long ago and nobody fixes them. There are no parts to be had - I fear I will be forced to buy a very expensive “word processor’ which will take up more than twice the 16½” x 16½” this machine occupies. I’ll resist that for months. C. O’D. --- Volume 1, Issue 7 July 2005 EUGENE RC AERONAUTS – MEETING – TUESDAY – JULY 26, 2005 Meeting Start Time: 7:00 PM – PLEASE NOTE – WE WILL BE MEETING AT CINDERELLA FIELD, CRESWELL, OR. . Driving Directions to Cinderella: Go south on I-5 to Creswell exit. Turn left heading east Go about 1 mile; Look for Lane county Recycling on the left. Look for white metal gate just beyond the Recycling center. There is a Lane County sign on the gate – “Cinderella Park”. Meeting BBQ: Doug McWha and Ray Tatum will be hosting a BBQ prior to the meeting starting at about 4:30 PM. Bring your plane, fly prior to the meeting and enjoy a BBQ. NEW ALVADORE SITE – Grass seed harvest to be completed by the end of next week, July 29th. Frank Blain has equipment lined up and ready to start within the next couple of weeks. SITE HELP! Frank would like to have phone numbers of any members who could help on a day’s notice. Give Frank a call on his cell 954-2342 and let him know when you can be available. There is plenty to do and with a little help from each member, we will have the site up and going. Frank will discuss additional details and help he needs at the meeting. CINDERELLA FIELD – We had a reasonable turnout for last months meeting, there were still plenty of vacant seats. If you can get to the meeting early, it is a great time to fly. The sun it behind you and we all enjoy watching other members planes in the air. Garbage at the field, Yes there are a couple of trash barrels at the field. We have to pay to have them dumped. If you keep some plastic bags in your flight box you can take your garbage with you. Please, if you pack it in, pack it out. The barrels are there to keep the site clean, not for your field garbage. PLANES & PROJECTS – Bring out that new ship so we can all take a look at it. Bring a prospective new member. Note: If you have any items for sale you can email me at rjtatum@msn.com or mail to me at the address below. ERCA WEB SITE –http://home.comcast.net/~erca/. Ray Tatum – VP Newsletter Editor 3124 Tanner Park Drive Eugene, Or. 97405 WITH THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS The sun’s been out! So has Steve Harris with his 4-Star 60, the one with the 1.08 in it. While cleaning it after a recent day’s flying, he found the portside stab pretty well cracked off. It’s been fixed and is back to flying wildly. Steve has also been flying a 40-size "bitsa" - you know, built from bitsa this one and bitsa that one. There’s a piped OPS 60 and this bird has a landing gear, since Steve has sworn off hand-launch. Bill Hastings has been bringing out a Robin Hood with the whopping span of 99”. This is from an old World Engines (I think) kit and was put out in several sizes. It’s a stand-well-back-scale version of the Curtiss Robin, a late-20s (originally) cabin ship, built with a variety of engines ranging from the 90-horse OX-S to the 185-horse Challenger, Bill’s has a hulking Super Tiger 4500 on the firewall, an engine he has had converted to capacitive - discharge ignition on which it is running very happily (making Bill equally happy) and is proving particularly abstemious when it comes to gulping its gasoline-based fuel. Bill is using a higher oil content than most users of CD engines because the ST’S crankshaft has a sleeve-, not ball- bearing up front. While we’re talking about Bill, it must, alas, be reported that he attempted to fly his Dragon Lady between two tree limbs across the field - not intentionally, it must be added. It was an endeavor not crowned with success. Repair methods are being debated as this is being written. And what of Doug McWha? Doug has tried to outdo Bill in the old-kit game by bringing out his Contender, now with an 0.S. 45LA for power. Surely this design goes back a good thirty years. What the heck! The Kaos is a very nice machine to fly ad it goes back thirty-five. 7/4/05 was a Monday, but a holiday, and it brought some weekenders out to be Weekday Warriors for a day. (We allow that, hut only once-in-a-while so they don’t get uppity.) It was V.I.P. Day as the President himself, Frank Blain came out with his Funtana 90, modestly powered by a mere YS 1.20 four-stroke. This is a Silvestro Sebastiani ARF, the second one of its kind that Frank has had. The first folded a wing due to diagonal (!) grain in the mainspar. Frank shot it back to the company and they refunded his money. A few weeks later, they sent him a new kit which is the one he’s flying now. The prescribed CG location was farther to the rear than Frank found comfortable, so it was shifted forward after the first flight made in concert with Steve Harris. Frank says the rearward CG is for the wild-and-crazy fliers and he doesn’t intend to be one. Hermon Lowery, an old Mid-West friend, says of the so-called “3D” flying, “You have to admire the skill of the guys who do it, but it ain’t got nothing to do with flying.” Not only do I make allow-ances for a old B-17 pilot in the matter of grammar, hut I agree with him fully. Ray Tatum has a U-Can-Do with a Magnum53 two-stroke and it impressed the assembled throng with its vertical perfor-mance. This seems to be a nice-flying design, so it is a shame that it’s a ARF and thus can never hold up its head in respectable society. Ray did have an unexpected flame-out at low altitude and arrived with a thump from a too-tight, too-slow turn onto final. Big hole in the turtledeck. Oh, he landed upright - but the gear came of f, flew up, and bashed the top of the plane. A day after the debut of Frank’s Funtana 90, Fritz Peters showed up with the same design, just a bit smaller. Maybe less than half the size, it was, and with a electric motor instead of the YS. Looked okay to me, but someone said that Fritz was juggling batteries for ideal performance. By the way, when I was wrestling with single-channel P/C about 45 years ago in Northern N.J., Fritz was going through the same contortions in Lowell, Mass.. Here we are, 45 yrs. and 3000 mi. removed - and still struggling. Joe Kaiser’s ARF Pizazz has an 0.5. .46FX for power and appears to go quite well, but Joe is not high on the aero-plane itself. He says it doesn’t do exactly the sort of flying he expected of it and that he really prefers his tried-and-true profile Gee Bee. Did you read the piece in Model Aviation about the “Shared Spectrum” technology that enables a transmitter to send out its signal on constantly-changing frequencies to a slaved receiver. This lets thousands of signals go through without any interference and is what makes it possible for all those horrid little mobile telephones to intrude upon your daily life. Now they are saying that it might apply equally to R/C work. Were you aware that the whole idea started as a radio-control application 65 years ago? Two people came up with the idea, patented it in their names, and gave it to the Navy out of sheer patriotism. The application was for a radio-controlled torpedo and the fre-quency changing was done mechanically, electronics not being what they are today. The Navy thought, correctly, that it wasn’t practical given the technology of the time, hut thought enough of the idea to clamp a “Secret” label on it for 25 years. The inventors were an interesting pair: George Antheil, a very “modern” composer of classical music, and Hedy Lamarr, one of the major glamour-girl actresses of the 30s and 40s. In fact, Miss Lamarr had several scienti-fic patents in her name as time went on. The lady wasn’t just decoration. C.O’D. --- Volume 1, Issue 6 June 2005 EUGENE RC AERONAUTS – MEETING – TUESDAY JUNE 28. Time: 7:00 PM – PLEASE NOTE – WE WILL BE MEETING AT CINDERELLA FIELD, CRESWELL, OR. . For those of you who have never been there it is easy to find. Driving Directions to Cinderella: Go south on I-5 to Creswell exit. Turn left heading east Go about 1 mile; Look for Lane county Recycling on the left. Look for white metal gate just beyond the Recycling center. There is a Lane County sign on the gate – “Cinderella Park”. Map attached. NEW ALVADORE SITE !!!!! – We are waiting for the grass seed harvest to be completed before we start work. Depending on the weather, we should be able to start in late July or first part of August. Frank Blain would like to have phone numbers of any members who could help on a day’s notice. A map is attached for future reference. CINDERELLA FIELD – On Sunday June 12, 2005 a memorial was held for Tim Wagner. About 60 - 70 friends and family members attended. Bill Hastings & Doug McWha put on a barbecue and no one left hungry. The field will now officially be know as Tim Wagner Field. There is a trust fund set up at Siuslaw Valley Bank, Creswell in Tim’s name. The fund will be used to support maintenance and improvements to Cinderella. It was quite a turn out for Tim. We continue to improve Cinderella. There is new gravel in the parking area. We have removed the metal fencing in the flight box area and replaced with 3 portable flight stations. This was done so the fight stations could be moved allowing this area to be mowed. More chairs are now available for use. Please put them back in the covered area after you use them. The landing strip is always mowed and ready for your use. If you have not flown here, this meeting is a chance to try out the field. MEETING ATTENDANCE: Last month we only had 15 members present. We have 45 members. Discussions were heard and decisions were made on the Alvadore site. The meeting is the only time to discuss your interest for the club direction. If you are not present, those that are will be making the decisions. Don’t voice your opinions on what you wished the club had done at a later date. PLANES & PROJECTS - Be sure and bring any planes or other projects that you have been working on. Everyone always enjoys seeing what others have been building during the winter months. Also, now is the time to bring anything that you may want to trade or sell. MEMBER ITEMS FOR SALE: Joe Kizer – Ph 895-5399 – 82043 Hillview Road, Creswell, Or. Has the following items Fledgling with Magnum .46. No radio gear. 50” WS. $ 75.00 2 Lazy Bees. 1 complete with radio gear & motor. Futaba 4 channel radio & charger. Both for $ 70.00 Wild Thing complete ready to fly. Futaba 4 channel radio & charger. All for $ 75.00 Plus other items – Contact Joe Note: If you have any items for sale you can email me at rjtatum@msn.com or mail to me at the address below. ERCA WEB SITE –http://home.comcast.net/~erca/. Ray Tatum – VP Newsletter Editor 3124 Tanner Park Drive Eugene, Or. 97405 WITH THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS The Cray Pathetic North Lefthas been living up to its name. but it does tantalize us from time to time with a sunny day. Just, I guess, to show us what it could do if it weren’t feeling so mean. These nice days catch people off guard sometimes, because I have been don at the field all alone on some really flyable days- By the way, you will notice a couple of County—property picnic tables added to the rest of the field furniture. All in aid of this actually being a COUNTY PARK. I’d think that we shouldn’t spill fuel, drip oil, or blow engine exhaust on them, though dumping coffee or dribbling soda would seem to be accepta-ble. Just to keep the record straight, those table came on a Sunday, so you certainly didn’t read about it in this column. Bill Hastings has continued to fly his Dragon Lady and its 0.5. .4OLA appears to be enough horsepower. He has installed a new set of wheels, almost big enough to be classified as “tundra tires. They let him taxi with impunity through the rough on the east side of the runway. Joe Kaiser turned up one day with a profile Gee Bee R-2 with an interesting control set-up. With the profile fuselage, all the electronic thingys are in the very thick wing, but the closed-loop cables that operate the rudder and elevator run through tubes enclosed in that narrow fuselage. This bird originated with Dave Upton, then went to Steve Harris before landing with Joe. It had a .40 in it at first, but Joe has installed one of those X&B .65s that came out between 15 and 20 years ago. They weren’t firebreathers but did swing a big prop reliably and were docile to handle. The plane is In the usual Granville Bros. Red-and-white, but age has decreed that a couple of red patches don’t quite match. And there’s a big green one which must be the product of an “It’s the only color I had!’ situation. Vaughn Handchet’s Four-star .60 has a Magnum .80 4-stroke up front. Vaughn, no stranger to rough fields, also has a landing gear that is meant to shear off in times of stress without taking acres of the fuselage belly with it. It can be replaced in a trice — and was the other day after an encounter with that rough on the east side. Time for some of those Hastings balloons? Jim Sherlock showed up at the field with a Great Planes ARF, the U-Can-Do, with a Saito .72 4-stroke for power- He had this one at Lorane last year and had a slight mishap with it near the end of the season. After gaining about 50’ of altitude in a vertical climb on takeoff, there was an engine failure. Now, if you had to choose a place for a sudden engine failure, nose-up-fifty-feet-in-the-air would probably be pretty far down on your list of choices. It was on Jim’s. There was a short tail-slide before it flopped over and almost pulled out. Almost wasn’t good enough and the bottom of everything suffered. This was its first day out after release from the repair shop and Jim was tuning the Saito, using newly-acquired 30% nitro fuel. 30% I think I’m being daring when I run the .049 in my Dakota on 25%. Of course, it is a 53-yr.-old OK. Cub .049B. Two ARFS on the field on the same day is almost more than my sensitive soul can bear, but Larry Church came with a Hangar 9 machine called Twist. He has an older O.S. .46 in it, old enough to have a real man’s needle valve up front instead of on the backplate which gives you no real chance of acquiring a few honorable stitches. The 0.5. started at the first flip, but Larry says that was just the engine showing off for strangers. There are still some internal details to be worked out, so this was just a range-check and engine-run outing. In between flights with his EasySport 40, Doug McWha has been holding my little PT-49 for me while I wind for some low-power test flights. He’s getting pretty good at handling something whose longerons are 3/32 sq. and whose nose sheeting is 1/32. When last I left you, I was on a nighttrain between Munich and Rome. A lot of you know how many trips I have taken without the slightest hitch disturbing the procee-dings. On this one the tolerances finally ganged up on me. I won’t go into all the sad details, but consider this: I left on a Monday and didn’t see my bag until Thursday. The one good thing that happened was that I finally got to the Italian Air Force Museum. It is outstanding. I have been to air museums in ten countries and I haven’t seen one better. Bigger, yes. Just as good, yes. But not better. There are four big hangars, all light and airy. The exhibits are in first-class condition and displayed so that you can get a good look at them and photograph them. It starts with WWI and goes through to the Jet Era. They have four of the Schneider Cup racers, including the M.C.72 which did 440 mph on floats, mind you in 1934. The Caproni- Carnpini C.C.1 is there and I had to chuckle when I read the placard which described the powerplant as “sort of an after-burner without the jet engine”. I have been describing it that way for years. Some hot stuff from WWII as well. I took about 10 pictures there and you won’t see a one. On Sunday morning, in Rome’s main railway station, I lost my camera bag to a thief. He also got my good nylon jacket, my contact lenses, railpass, U.S. cash — and the pills I had to take for the next two weeks. I was on a plane home the next morning. Ah well. .C. O’D. --- Volume 1, Issue 5 May 2005 EUGENE RC AERONAUTS – MEETING – TUESDAY MAY 24, 2005 Time: 7:00 PM – EWEB MEETING ROOM – 500 EAST 4TH AVE. This meeting is the fourth for 2005. We need your attendance at the meeting. NEW ALVADORE ROAD FLYING SITE– Final discussion about the lease will be presented at the meeting. Please attend and voice any comments you may have. At this meeting we will vote on final approval and development plans for the site. CINDERELLA FIELD – Flying during the spring weather has been hit and miss. Just have to take your chances. A load of gravel has been spread in the parking area and used to fill some of the water holes in the drive. Chuck O’Donnell has been keeping an eye on the pulse of the field. See his observations in the enclosed letter. The pond claimed a visitor’s 1/3 scale Pitts a few of weeks ago. The raft was launched to retrieve the remains. As a reminder, be aware of the tall trees to the northeast. PLANES & PROJECTS – There must be some new or resurrected projects in the works. Have something to sell or trade, bring it to the meeting. MEMBERS – Word about the new field is obviously helping Our membership is on the rise. Last count we have 45 dues paid members. Bring a prospective member to the meeting and let’s see if we can break 50. DUES FOR 2005 – We will continue to accept dues for the year so bring your checkbook – cash is ok. Will also need your current AMA registration for 2005 so we can record on your new club card. ERCA WEB SITE –http://home.comcast.net/~erca/. If you have something you want in the newsletter, email to the web site or mail to my address below. Ray Tatum – VP Newsletter Editor – RJTATUM@MSN.COM 3124 Tanner Park Drive. Eugene, Or. 97405 WITH THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS The County tore down the sign on the gate early last month and has now gotten around to putting up a new one. Ra-ther smaller than the original, it proclaims the field as a County Park and adds, “Open to the Public- Walk-ins Welcome” which all sounds very cheery, but consider the following tale. All the fliers had left one day, with the exception of Chuck Jenkins. In comes a pickup full of people who hop out and head into the bush. Chuck, being the good guy that he is, thought he should wait until they returned rather than lock the gate and leave them trapped. He waited two long hours! I think we need a sign warning people that the last of the fliers will lock the gate. I seem to remember that there was such a sign some time back, but nobody else does, so I may be remembering wrongly. We have added one recently, a fairly blood-curdling affair dwelling on the hazards of “aero modeling” (sic. Surely, it’s a single word). I hope some nervous-nellie in the County administra-tion doesn’t see it and decide we are too, too, dangerous to have around. On a happy note: At least the new sign on the gate doesn’t say, “Coming Soon - A New Golf Course”. Bill Hastings got a Dragon Lady from Chuck Jenkins and has been giving it an airing. This is a low-wing, fairly slick, 40-size ship which was kitted a good 20 years ago. Fill has also acquired, from Tim Wagner, a nearly-finished DHC-2 Beaver and needs - or at least would like to have - a little help. It came without a set of plans and they or the name of the kit-maker would be helpful. This is, by the way, a Beaver among Beavers. It spans over eleven feet and the fuselage is a good foot wide. Somebody should remember who kitted such a Goliath. How about it, you connoisseurs of the truly frightening? Where can Bill get a set of draw-ings for this beast? Chuck Jenkins himself has been doing some flying lately when he hasn’t been helping other guys tune their engines. What the heck has he been flying? Dunno. Forgot to take notes. I always have trouble organizing things when I get back to writing this column after a long layoff. Vaughn Handchet brought out an ARF SNJ a few weeks ago and I am tempted to say that he fueled it ASAP and flew it PDQ, but there was some slight engine problem to be sorted out before it got on the runway. The aftermath was not, sad to say, a happy one. The ship rolled to the left on takeoff and went in, doing moderate damage. The ailerons were working in the correct sense and the cause of the mishap remains under investigation. Doug McWha has been flying his Ultrasport 40 since the demise of his veteran Kaos 40. Of course, the Ultrasport is flying with the wing from the Kaos, because its own wing was torn up in the Kaos crash. It’s a long story; talk to Doug. Steve Harris stops in at the field on his way home from working all night and gets in a few flights. He’s been flying a 4-Star 60 with, typically for Steve, an ASP 1.08 up front. There was - note the “was” - an even more Harris-ish hotrod in the form of a V-tailed something I think started life as a 500-Class pylon racer. Steve’s was minus landing gear, hut plus a large, piped OPS. How large? Alas, again no notes. Launching this monster was the sort of event that had spectators deciding which table to dive under - just in case, you understand - but it always came out well, albeit a tad shaky. It was quite fast and Steve said it was not as twitchy as you might think. No, I don’t have the details of its passing. The Toilet Saga is all over, but it was an epic while it ran. Since we have such hordes of crippled people coming out to the field, the County decreed that we had to have a “Disabled Toilet” on the premises. The first two we got really were disabled: One had a door that would not open and the other had a seat which was trapped behind a grab bar and could not be lowered. To make up for this, the company raised the price, so we got a new company and a working fa-cility is in place. The first two we got were enormous and I was afraid we’d get out there one day and find that a family of four and their horse had moved in overnight. The one we have is a bit smaller - they'll have to leave the horse outside. The old outhouse is History. The move to place it on the National Register of Historic Places failed and the firm of Hastings & McWha demolished it without even a decommissioning ceremony. And what has Your Columnist been doing? Well, tossing hand-launched gliders, hand-gliding some higher-performance ships, and hoping that we get out to that big, new field soon. I did go down to the NORCAL meet at Sacramento at the beginning of the month and rejoiced in the best weather we have ever had there in the seven times I have attended. Friday gave us a day about half cloudy for test-flying and it just got better and better. The wind was never too much to cope with except for the guys flying the ultra-modern birds whose engines turn 30 grand. As an Old-Timer and Nostalgia flyer, I’m tempted to say that they deserved it, but that would be mean, wouldn’t it? Okay, so I’m mean. Next Tuesday, when you gather at the meeting to grouse about how badly you were reported in this column, I will be safely out of reach - about four hours out of Rome on a night train from Munich. In a six-bunk compartment which is coed. I’ll let you know how that came out. C. O’D. --- EUGENE RC AERONAUTS – MEETING – TUESDAY APRIL 26, 2005 Time: 7:00 PM – EWEB MEETING ROOM – 500 EAST 4TH AVE. This meeting is the third for 2005. Let’s see if we can fill the room. NEW FLYING SITE– We have a signed lease on our new site. The final lease agreement will be presented at the meeting. This is great news for our club, so roll up you sleeves and plan on helping develop our new site. We want input from all members and the meeting is the only time we all get together, show up for the meeting. DUES FOR 2005 – We will continue to accept dues for the year so bring your checkbook – cash is ok. Will also need your current AMA registration for 2005 so we can record on your new club card. CINDERELLA FIELD – With daylight savings time now in effect, you might be able to get in a flight after work. As usual, the runway is always mowed and ready. Thanks to Bill Hastings, the south end around the pond has been seeded. Lane County Parks representatives met with Doug McWha at the site and we are required to change to a handicapped toilet. Doug will arrange and South Lane has agreed to split the cost with us. PLANES & PROJECTS – Last meeting we had several planes. Frank Blain, the always-devout builder, built a P40E Warhawk ARF. This was a team effort between Frank and Khoi Tran. Steve Harris is continuing to push the envelope (or wet his crouch) with another speed demon. NEW/PROSPECTIVE MEMBERS – We need more members. Pass the word around about our new field. ERCA WEB SITE –http://home.comcast.net/~erca/. If you have something you want in the newsletter, you can send it to the site or email directly to me. Ray Tatum – VP Newsletter Editor – RJTATUM@MSN.COM --- EUGENE RC AERONAUTS – MEETING – TUESDAY MARCH 22TH. Time: 7:00 PM – EWEB MEETING ROOM – 500 EAST 4TH AVE. This meeting is the second for 2005. Let see if we can get another good turnout of all members. NEW SITE DEVELOPMENT !!!!! – On March 2, 2005 Frank Blain, Mark Stafford, Doug McWha, Ray Tatum and Vaughn Hanchett met and agreed on a lease to present to the owners of our proposed new site. Frank will be meeting with the owners and presenting the lease. Details will be discussed at the meeting. CINDERELLA FIELD – With the great weather the past few weeks we have seen a number of members using the field. Have you ever wondered how the field is always mowed to perfection. Thanks to David Heisley – Creswell for keeping the field in top shape. Pat Dodson has delivered about 9 – 10 loads of dirt and we should be able to start spreading and planting the south end soon. GATE LOCK ! – Every now and then someone seems to use the entry road inside the gate as his or her private dump. Doug McWha and Bill Hastings have picked up several loads at taken to the dump next door. We are changing the combination to the gate lock after this meeting – Attend the meeting to get the new combination. DUES FOR 2005 – To date we have 26 paid members for 2005. Our past roster list member count was 54. With the new field in the works we need your support and dues paid to assure all current and future members we can move forward with our plans for a fabulous new site. PLANES & PROJECTS – Don Watson brought a very interesting scratch building project to the meeting last month, expect a great barrel roll from Don’s first flight. Bring your planes or projects to the meeting. NEW INTRO PILOT – Jim Sherlock has signed up as our third intro pilot. We now have Jim, Mark Stafford and Chuck Jenkins as intro pilots. We are ready to train anyone interested in trying the sport and continue to train those already learning to fly. ERCA WEB SITE –http://home.comcast.net/~erca/. Newsletter is posted on the site as well. Ray Tatum – VP Newsletter Editor --- EUGENE RC AERONAUTS Volume 1, Issue 2 February 2005 EUGENE RC AERONAUTS – MEETING – TUESDAY FEBRUARY 22nd. Time: 7:00 PM – EWEB MEETING ROOM – 500 EAST 4TH AVE. Second meeting for 2005. IMPORTANT - We need your attendance at this meeting. NEW SITE DEVELOPMENT !!!!! – We may have an opportunity on a site that we have not discussed to date. Attend the meeting to find out what might be great news for our club. If this develops it will give a boost to our success, prospect for new members and retain our existing members. We need everyone to attend, discuss and possibly approve the development of this site. Just think what facing north and not having the sun in your face might add to your enjoyment of flying. CINDERELLA FIELD – If you have not been to Cinderella in the past couple of weeks you might be not recognize the south end. We approved money at our January meeting to have some site work done. Frank Blain arranged. All of the blackberries and small trees to the south have been removed and the south end is really opened up. Cinderella is our flying site for this spring and summer. You can now land and take off north or south depending on the wind. Thanks to Pat Dodson for using his mobile sweeper to clean the paved drive into the site. Just a reminder that parking in the pits is no longer allowed DUES FOR 2005 – We will continue to accept dues for the year so bring your checkbook – cash is ok. AMA – Will also need your current AMA registration for 2005 so we can record on your new club card. PLANES & PROJECTS - Be sure and bring any planes or other projects that you have been working on. If our prospective site develops, I know you will want to build that plane that you have been waiting on. I have a Biplane kit that will be on the building bench if our new site is a go. NEW/PROSPECTIVE MEMBERS – No new members were introduced or discussed at the January meeting. Lets see if we can get a prospective new member to this meeting. ERCA WEB SITE –http://home.comcast.net/~erca/. Ray Tatum – VP Newsletter Editor --- EUGENE RC AERONAUTS – MEETING – TUESDAY JANUARY 25TH. Time: 7:00 PM – EWEB MEETING ROOM – 500 EAST 4TH AVE. This meeting is the first for 2005. Please make an effort to attend. The club is dependent on all members and the meeting is the only way for all members to get together at one time and discuss the activities of the club. DUES FOR 2005 – We will be ready to accept dues for the year so bring your checkbook – cash is ok. AMA – Will also need your current AMA registration for 2005 so we can record on your new club card. PLANES & PROJECTS - Be sure and bring any planes or other projects that you have been working on. Everyone always enjoys seeing what others have been building during the winter months. Also, now is the time to bring anything that you may want to trade or sell. CINDERELLA FIELD – Thanks to the South Lane R/C Modelers Club for allowing ERCA to use the field. For those of you who have not flown at the field we encourage you to do so, it gives you an opportunity to keep current with you flying skills and also have some fun. Thanks to Bill Hastings for disposing of the trash and wire spools at the site. With efforts like this from all members we can keep the site in top shape and show our appreciation to South Lane R/C Modelers Club. The club trainer is intact and ready for any new member or someone interested in trying RC flying. Contact our intro pilots Chuck Jenkins – 736-5148, Mark Stafford – 747-8926 to arrange a time at the field. NEW/PROSPECTIVE MEMBERS – We are interested in obtaining new members as well as maintaining our current membership. Bring anyone to the meeting or out to Cinderella field. If the weather is decent there is usually someone at the field during the weekend. ERCA WEB SITE – Thanks to Jim Corbett we do have a web site and will work with Jim to keep it up to date as possible. The web site address is http://home.comcast.net/~erca/. Ray Tatum – VP Newsletter Editor |
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