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EUGENE RC AERONAUTS
Volume 3, Issue 11
www.eugenerc.com
November, 2007
Eugene RC Aeronauts-- Next
Meeting at EWEB-- Tuesday, November 27th at 7:00 pm
ELECTION of new ERCA Executive Board at November 27th Meeting! President’s Corner: The year is almost up and my term is likewise almost over. I have thoroughly enjoyed being the president of this club and I certainly look forward to the possibility of doing it again. I encourage everyone to be part of the Executive Board of this club. It can be challenging, but it is also very rewarding. At the next meeting we will be holding our annual election process. We determined the candidates at the last meeting, and I thank every one of them for being willing to take an active role in the future well-being of the club. I would also like to thank Bill Hollingsworth for stepping up to the plate and taking the role of Vice President and Newsletter Editor for the year. Al Barrington has done an excellent job as the Secretary/Treasurer and will run unopposed for the next term, (thank you Al!!). Our Field Marshals, Frank Blain and John Bowhan, were kind enough to step up to the plate during the year to take over for Doug McWha, who had a little too much on his plate at the time. All three of them deserve my gratitude and yours for the work they've put in for the club. On a completely unrelated topic, I recently took the plunge and purchased a 2.4 GHz module and three receivers for my Futaba 9C transmitter. After a lot of research, and weighing the pros and cons of the main three systems available, I went with Xtreme Power Systems, (a.k.a. XPS). They are not quite as popular as the Spektrums or the Futaba FASST systems, for they only sell module-based systems for existing transmitters. However, XPS has some great features such as telemetry capability, one short solid antenna, and a much more affordable price. I will hopefully have no major issues with this system, and next time you see me if you want more information about it and how it is working for me, just ask. There was finally a helicopter crash that made my Raptor crash into the parking area not so memorable. The unfortunate Sceadu .50 met its demise when a coupler on the main rotor head decided to come loose and the swashplate was allowed to twist about 90 degrees. This made the chopper uncontrollable and it landed about 8 feet from me after striking the pilot's vehicle. I looked behind me and found one member sprawled out on the gravel. He was smart. I just stood there thinking, "Wow, that thing looks like it may hit me". No one was hurt and the unnamed pilot was not at fault. The pilot was more upset about the heli's damage than that to his vehicle, stating that at least when someone asked him what happened to his truck, he could say, "A helicopter ran into it". My friends, it has been a great year for this club. I know I'm not the only one who had a lot of fun. Until next time we meet, keep your tail down and your airspeed up... Patrick Willis ERCA President Carl Henson Field: The watering system has been put away for the rainy season; the field has never looked better; fly em if ya got em! Thanks to Doug McWha for putting in all those hours lovingly manicuring our world-class flying field. And thanks to everyone who helped Doug throughout the year. Thanks especially to Jim Corbett for wrenching on the mowers and making all the signage. Thanks to Frank Blain and John Bowhan for the excellent flight tables. Thanks to Larry Neilsen for the grub at the August meeting, and to Jackie Bowhan and all the other member’s wives who helped make our summer meetings at the field very tasty! A big thanks to everyone who helped pitch in doing all of the improvements to the field over the past year. NO-FLY ZONE!! The hunting/no-fly zone season starts the 1st of November and runs through the months of December, January and February. No flying is allowed until 12:00 noon on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Since “flying things” are the objects being hunted, don’t turn your aircraft into “fair game.” Please obey the no-fly zone! Coming (. . .and Past) Events: Bill Hollingsworth flew two of his 7th grade students (twins) from Kelly Middle School and their father on the club trainer. After two years of teaching model rocketry and R/C aircraft we finally had some students at the field! Hopefully, we will see more in the future! AUCTION: The auction held at the October meeting was a huge success! There were many excellent deals to be found and the club received ten percent of the proceeds. (Pat Willis may have a second career as an auctioneer)! Al was still counting the money at press time, so all inquiries should be directed to the sec/treas. Election of New Club Officers: Here are the nominations for next year’s ERCA Executive Board: President: Pat Willis, Khoi Tran Vice President: Scott Fellman, Mel Thompson, Khoi Tran Secretary Treasurer: Al Barrington (unopposed) Field Marshals: Frank Blain, John Bowhan, Jim Corbett, Bill Hollingsworth, Khoi Tran, Allen Wellenton Newsletter Editor: Jim Corbett Club Dues: Please be sure to pay your club membership dues as soon as possible. Remember; if you don’t have a current AMA card, you cannot renew your ERCA membership. Get those AMA cards renewed too! From the Newsletter Editor: It has been fun editing the newsletter. Hope you enjoyed it, and thanks for being patient with me during the e-mail problems. Jim Corbett will be taking over the duties of newsletter editor for next year. Thanks Jim!! Included for your reading pleasure is Chuck O’Donnell’s “With the Weekday Warriors.” Contacts: President – Patrick Willis – 543-8999 Bill Hollingsworth– VP/Newsletter Editor - 689-1478 Sec/Treasurer – Alan Barrington - 935-4960 Bill’s e-mail: lrhollingsworth@msn.com John Bowhan - Field Marshal – 607-5752 Frank Blain - Field Marshal345-7449 Club Mailing Address: Eugene R/C Aeronauts PO Box 50034 Eugene, OR. 97405 WITH THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS The Gray Pathetic Northleft is, as I type, treating us to a third consecutive day of rain. The fog, too, has been a regular visitor to the field and has hung around into the afternoon. It disperses only when it is sure there’s enough wind to plague us. Despite all that, there have been a number of flyable days which nobody seems to have taken advantage of. I have been to the strip on a Tuesday, a Wednesday, and a Thursday and have had it all to myself. In two cases, the wind was almost nil and it wasn’t too bad on the third day, either. Am I getting there at the wrong time? The Wednesday, at 12:45, had seen the fog depart and more than just a hint of sun to be seen. Having the field to myself gave me the opportunity to throw hand-launched gliders out on the runway where the footing is better, resulting in stronger launches. I converted my He-Man HLG to a configuration optimized for sidearm throws instead of overhand which conversion requires a complete rearrangement of the tail assembly and a new fuselage to accommodate the rearrangement. I was getting the feel for how steeply I could launch and just where the release point should be in relation to the wind when my He-Man met an untimely end. It is quite shocking how badly a model will behave when it has been given a good sidearm toss right after the fin has fallen off at the launch site. The noseweight survived, as did the stabilizer, and, of course, the fin which hadn’t taken part in the crash at all. Add another to the list of Winter projects, because things looked promising. One of the few I have caught at the field is John Byrne. John had a foam (I think) electric Piper Super Cub. A medium-size ship with flexible, plastic wing struts which clip on to the wing but are held with a screw to the fuselage. They are, presumably, functional. And they do work. Somehow, John got the ship into a full-bore vertical dive and recovered by means of a 90 degree pullout at an altitude of about three feet. It all stayed together - and the elevator must be pretty effective, too. John was taking off very nicely from the ‘electric runway”, but I couldn’t talk him into trying a landing on it. One thing concerns me about John’s Cub. The transmit-ter says it’s on 27.195 mc. That’s okay; the 27 meg chan-nels are still kosher and probably as safe as any channels now that all the inane chatter from the CB radios has appar-ently been transferred to cellphones. We have no pins for 27 meg.. This ship flies quite well and could become popular. Are they all on 27.199? The transmitter is also marked “channel 9’, but where did that come from? Channel 05 is 50.90mc. in the Ham band. And I think I may have seen another guy taking one out of a car as I was leaving one day. Jim Corbett was not only taking off from the wooden runway; he was landing on it. He had a small, electric, swept-wing bipe called a Wildfly. Not all the landings stayed on the runway, but I did see one that managed to stop before the runway ran out. The battery installation on this bird is not what could be called elegant; the battery is just strapped to the top of the cowl. It is, however, practical. Very easy to get at for charging and even sliding back and forth to make subtle changes in the balance, depending on how wild Jim wants to fly. Having mentioned cellphones as I did above somewhere, I will now impart another piece of cellphone news. You are aware, no doubt, that Doug McWha was the only one on the field classy enough to have a phone that played Mozart when it rang. Well, that phone was a couple of years old and, thus, near-prehistoric by electronic standards, so Doug traded it in for the newest thing. The new one not only does phone conversations, but also lets you send e-mail (which the recipient won’t receive) and lets others send e-mail to you (which you won’t receive). It also takes pictures which will go astray if you transmit them to another person and allows you to plug the phone into your computer (which then tells you it doesn’t know you and will you please go away). I got all this information from over-hearing bits and pieces of conversations at the field between Doug and Jim, so I may not have all the details exactly right. It does, though, sound all quite modern. And Doug has stuck with the classics; this new phone plays Rossini. I hope none of you was passionately enamored of Daylight Saving Time, because I moved the clock in the trailer back one hour. That’s what comes of me being all alone at the field, having busted my glider and with nothing else to do. Come January, Jim Corbett will be your new newsletter editor - unless he flees to the Corvallis club and asks for asylum. This column, which is produced on one of Johannes Gutenberg’s original presses, then has to be rolled up and put into the little cylinder attached to the pigeon’s leg. The pigeon then has to get all the way over to Bills house in darkest West Eugene, a trip that involves a trans-Willamette over-water flight. As of January, the poor bird has only to go up a few blocks and turn left. Should simplify things no end. C. O’D. --- EUGENE RC AERONAUTS
Volume 3, Issue 10
www.eugenerc.com
October, 2007
Eugene RC Aeronauts-- Next
Meeting at EWEB-- Tuesday, October 23rd at 7:00 pm
 New pit area covering installed
by Doug McWha, Frank Blain, Jim Corbett and Pat Willis (more pics on
ERCA website!) Thanks Doug, Frank, Jim, and Pat!!
(Go to ERCA website for photos) AlvadoreFieldPics
Carl Henson Field: As you can see from the picture above, the conveyor belt material has been installed. I think it will help control the rainy season muddy conditions a lot. There are five brand new AMA-style flight tables built by Frank Blain and John Bowhan. They are very sturdy and good looking too! A GIANT thank you goes out to the aforementioned members who donated their time and sweat to help make our field the best it can be! Since the rainy season has started(earlier this year from my observation) the sprinkler system has been stored for the season. “Groundskeeper Doug” has done a magnificent job of keeping the field lush and green throughout the summer. THANKYOU “GROUNDSKEEPER DOUG!” NO-FLY ZONE!! The hunting/no-fly zone season starts the 1st of November and runs through the months of December, January and February. No flying is allowed until 12:00 noon on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Since “flying things” are the objects being hunted, don’t turn your aircraft into “fair game.” Please obey the no-fly zone. Coming (. . .and Past) Events: ERCA thanks Al Storey for helping out at the Boy Scout-A-Ganza at Em’s Stadium on September 22nd. Al brought his “Twin Tiger 2” to the event which proved to be quite popular with the scouts and their families. We handed out around sixty maps to the field, so I hope we get some scouts out to Carl Henson field for some intro flights. AUCTION at the October 23rd Meeting! Bring anything R/C related to auction off at the October 23rd ERCA meeting. Be realistic in your expectation for a price or you will be carting your stuff back home. Ten percent of the proceeds go to the ERCA treasury. Make more room on your building table or in your hobby room and bring all those items you never use. Put some dollars in your pocket as well! Election of New Club Officers: This is the month for nominations of 2008 club officers. You had better show up, or we could just nominate YOU if you‘re not there! Think about serving yourself, or nominating someone else from the club for a one year term as an ERCA executive board member! Step up and give something back for the future of ERCA! ERCA Seeks Newsletter Editor: Your current newsletter editor’s one year hitch is nearing an end. If you would like to try your hand at this important and necessary position, let us know at the October meeting. I will provide you with all the info and help to keep the presses running! There will not be a newsletter or ERCA meeting for the month of December. November will be the last newsletter and ERCA meeting for 2007. Included for your reading pleasure is Chuck O’Donnell’s “With the Weekday Warriors.” Contacts: President – Patrick Willis – 543-8999 Bill Hollingsworth– VP/Newsletter Editor - 689-1478 Sec/Treasurer – Alan Barrington - 935-4960 Bill’s e-mail: lrhollingsworth@msn.com John Bowhan - Field Marshal – 607-5752 Frank Blain - Field Marshal345-7449 Club Mailing Address: Eugene R/C Aeronauts PO Box 50034 Eugene, OR. 97405 --- WITH THE WEEKDAY WAPRIORS Well, Oregon has ceased trying to pretend that it is really some other state and has reverted to being the true Oregon: Dank, damp, and dismal. This has brought Doug McWha to the conclusion that he won't be watering the strip for nine months or so. Time to unhitch the pump and store it in the shed, then get the pipe and sprinklers up off the ground and hung on the fence. Doug put away the pump and he and Jim Corbett hung up the pipe and sprinkler heads. Your columnist had the highly technical job of feeding the cable ties through the fence for Doug to tie while Jim held the pipe in place. Notice that the ex-papermill mat is down in the pit area, the better to keep the mud from flowing over the top of your shoes. This was also a weekday operation and you'll notice that the work party has put down some mat in the pilot's boxes as well. I don't think there is any at the station in the helicopter pen. Do we just let those guys sink out of sight? More mat coming in a month or two; can they stay at least awash until then? Speaking of helicopter guys, Scott Fellman was at the field with his usual 5C-powered Raptor, but he also brought along a very large Stik. This has a ECMA 26cc gas engine which is about a 160 in real measurements. Pat Willis made the first flight without incident and Scott flew it afterward. Nov the project is to see how you set a helicopter radio to working flaps. Pat, himself, now has a helicopter to replace the one forced into retirement by that spectacular crash reported here last month. It's another Raptor, again with a 50 in the engine room, and is ex-Alan Wellentin, having been traded for Pat's Showtime Pattern ship. There is also, now, a smoke system in Pat's big Yak 54 and ft works quite well. Gene Parro's Sig Seniorita is ex-Carl Henson and came with a fiat wing, equipped with aiierons. Gene has now swapped this one for an old wing with lots of dihedral and no ailerons. He likes the way the Seniorita flies with this wing. I had thought that Frank Blain's obsession was the Excelleron, but he has brought out an Obsession 3-D which he is powering with a Saito 1.80 4-stroke. Frank says the model came with hex-head bolts so soft that they sheared off when he tightened them. I hadn't thought that such bolts were ever made in anything but the hardened variety, but models now come from far-flung, exotic places and who knows what they get up to there. The Obsession sports a little "sharkmouth" decoration on the nose. I have a photo of a sharkmouth on a Maurice Farman M.F. 11 serving with No. 2 Wing of the RNAS on the Greek island of Imbros during WWI, so that decoration has a 9O-yr. history on aeroplanes. The M.F. 11 had a nacelle for pilot and observer with a 70-hp, air-cooled Renault V-8 driving a pusher prop. The tail was held on four booms sprouting from the wings and the landing gear had four wheels and skids. Not the most warlike appearance even for a WWI plane, but the nose of that nacelle was a great place to paint a sharkmouth. If Scott Fellman, mentioned above, had an uncharacteristic model in that gas-powered Stik, Jim Corbett certainly equalled him. Jim, usually seen with a variety of electrics of all sorts of (sometimes strange) configurations, was flying a Lanier Stinger on the power of a -91 Saito the other day. He had some radio "funnies" in flight and everybody turned off. The trouble persisted, but Jim still had a measure of control and brought the Stinger to a passable landing. Careful inspection revealed, not interference, but a left aileron servo whose signal wire was making contact only when it felt like doing so. Changing servos cured it all, but I have heard rumors that the Stinger succumbed to engine failure right after takeoff in the hands of Bill Hollingsworth. Jim's also been flying another Stinger, this one electric and much smaller. In September, I spent ten days back in Central Illinois, visiting the people I worked and flew with for sixteen years. Lots of gas-burning monsters, Spectrum radios springing up like weeds, bunch of helicopter guys with both nitro and electric, a plague of ARFS – sound familiar? They were getting ready for the Thompson Cup. This is a pylon race whose object is to put in as many laps as possible in 20 minutes. One pit stop is required where the engine must be brought to a complete stop. It's run in heats with planes of equal performance flying together. Everything is raced from outright racers like Vipers to 4-Star 4Gs and even trainers. The racers don't always have it their way. Engine and starting trouble sometimes rear their ugly heads. Duane Holliger is building one of the Reno racers every year. Last year he raced Rare Bear and this year's entry is Bob Hoover's pace plane, a yellow P-51. Duane's model has a piped .40 and retracts and was going like blazes when I saw the practice runs. Seventeen minutes on a tank of fuel, too. I'm looking forward to their newsletter to see the results. Speaking of newsletters, your club is going to be looking for a new editor for next year. It has worn Bill Hollingsworth down to a frazzle. I gather that this column, produced by steam power, is a major pain to get integrated with all the electronic marvels and drives Bill, the transmitter, and Jim Corbett, the receiver, up their respective walls. You have been warned. C. O’D. --- EUGENE RC AERONAUTS
Volume 3, Issue
8
www.eugenerc.com
September, 2007
Eugene RC Aeronauts-- NEXT
MEETING WILL BE AT EWEB-- Tuesday, September
25th at 7:00 pm
 Larry Nielsen helps Gene Parro get some “stick time.” President’s Corner: The year is already nearing its end, but the flying season is still going strong. Now is about the best time of year, because it's not too hot, it's not too cold, and the wind seems to be dying down quite nicely. I've been going flying on Mondays and Tuesdays more often than on Sundays. So, if you haven't seen me for awhile, that's probably why... At the last meeting I asked for a volunteer to be a safety officer for the club, for I felt that with the size of our membership it would be best to have two safety officers. I was astonished by the lack of volunteers. It may not be the most fun job, in fact it may require some "work", but it is necessary. There are many people in this club that simply pay their dues. If everyone did that, our club simply would not survive. I've been noticing lately that there are about 10 people doing 90% of the work, and that is just unfair. There was a recent article in Model Aviation about clubs that have done some pretty drastic things to get their members to contribute. The fact is, however, that if you volunteer to do something, you may find that the satisfaction you get from helping out your club is enough of a reward to make you want to do more in the future. Please keep that in mind next time. With that said, a big THANK YOU to Frank Blain for volunteering for the position of Safety Officer. He and John Bowhan, I think, will make a great team. Their responsibility is to make sure your safety, (and mine!) is protected while we enjoy this hobby. Please treat them with respect and courtesy if they call you on a rule violation. They're not telling you that you're in trouble, just that you need to do something differently next time. At the October meeting, we will be making nominations for next year's club officials. This would be an excellent opportunity for any of you who have thought about what else you can do for your club. I, for one, have thoroughly enjoyed my time as your president, and I hope I have served you well. Please consider running for office. I guarantee you won't regret it. Until next month, happy landings. Patrick Willis, ERCA President Carl Henson Field: As always, the field looks outstanding! The brown spots on the edges of the runway are gone, weeds are under control, and the grass is a color of green that is so deep it has to be seen to believe. Future improvements will be the laying down of a “felt” type conveyor belt material in the pits to help control the muddy condition of the pits during the rainy season. Doug McWha is procuring the material free of charge from the Springfield Warehauser mill. Be prepared to help out with a “work party” around the last week of September to help lay the material down.. Summer B.B.Q. Thank you: If you missed the August meeting / B.B.Q. you were deprived of some excellent “viddles” provided by Larry Nielsen. Larry’s menu included hand-raised beef burgers (grilled to perfection by “Cheffy” Al Barrington), fresh sweet corn, raspberry shortcake, and some wonderful Calico baked beans! Various other “goodies” were provided by Vern Wells and his lovely wife. Jackie Bowhan brought the yummy peach cobbler and more. Thanks to members like these and their families, we at ERCA ate very well indeed during the summer! Thanks again to all who participated in making the meetings at the field such a culinary delight!! Coming (. . .and Past) Events: ERCA thanks John Bowhan, Kevin Kelm, and Mark Stafford for staffing our booth at the Northwest Fly Fest held at Eugene Airport on August 24th-25th. Mark said the booth was among the most popular at the entire event! A flight simulator was set up and a long line of people were seen all day waiting for a “turn at the sticks.” Your editor and Doug McWha will be staffing a booth at the Boy Scout “Scout-a Ganza” at Em’s Civic Stadium on September 22nd and 23rd. ERCA has definitely done a lot of outreach and community events this year! Thanks to those members for donating their time and expertise! Trash Situation at Carl Henson Field: The club voted at the August meeting NOT to put trash receptacles at the field. This means that we must all do our part to keep the field trash free. If you make trash, take it home with you! (This includes scraps from planes that have been “re-kitted“). If you see trash that someone else “forgot,” please pick it up! The cigarette butt situation has improved greatly. Thank you smokers! However, there are used rubber bands from trainer aircraft being thrown on the ground; fast food wrappers and drink cups too! Please do your part to help keep our field clean and litter free! Election of New Club Officers: That time has come again (already?) to start thinking about the election of new ERCA club officers. Nominations of officers will occur at the October meeting and elections will be held at the November meeting. Think about serving yourself, or nominating someone else from the club for a term as an ERCA executive board member! Contacts: President – Patrick Willis – 543-8999 Bill Hollingsworth– VP/Newsletter Editor - 689-1478 Bill’s e-mail: lrhollingsworth@msn.com Sec/Treasurer – Alan Barrington - 935-4960 John Bowhan - Field Marshal – 607-5752 Club Mailing Address: Eugene R/C Aeronauts PO Box 50034 Eugene, OR. 97405 Included for your reading pleasure is Chuck O’Donnell’s “With the Weekday Warriors.” WITH
THE WEEKDAY WAPRIORS
What with continued cooperation from the weather, the usual guys have been out flying the usual models. Don Hutson has his high-wing trainer; Vern Wells his EasySport. Both continue to fly under the watchful eye of Chuck Jen-kins, Mel Graham has had his Funtana, Extra, and Venus II at the field pretty regularly and Ken Springate also has a Funtarta that he flies ouite often. That’s when he’s not flying his Twist or his W.U.E. (Worlds Ugliest Extra). Okay, okay; it flies rather well, but it is ugly. Al Barrington’s Astro Hog sees a lot of air-time. He gets to the field early, so he continues to have to contend with my Rubber ships. Lately, it was an Earl Stahl Gypsy, a 1939 Wakefield I was readying for the Old-Timer meet on 9/8 and 9/9. Or his second pass, Al discovered that the Gypsy was well above him and still climbing, so 0-T Rubber and 0-T R/C continue to be compatible. Doug McWha now flies a 60-size Twist on the rower of the Magnum .91 2-stroke that was in his late, though not- much-lamented, 4-Star 60. Three 40-size Twists have suf-fered shocking indignities at the hands of The McWha, but this one is a bigger, tougher article and may be able to stand up to him. I got to the field ore morning, unloaded my stuff down in my usual corner, then brought the car back up to the gravel lot. Doug had been in the air when I got there and called over to me that his throttle was rot working and he’d be flying until it went dead-stick. I walked back down to my spot, put the Mobar 507 together, ran the engine to check the shutoff and dethermalizer functions, refueled, and was ready for a flight. And Doug flew on. Remarkable how long that Mag .91 ran on a 17-oz. tank. There's another Twist 60 on the field, this one in the hands of Mike Vaughn. Mike was ratter more restrained in his choice of powerplant; it’s a 91, but a Saito 4-stroke. Talk to Doug and this Twist is a squirrel. Talk to Mike and it’s a baby carriage. We need a third guy to build one and resolve the impasse. You probably know that pat Willis’s Yak 54 lost a wing in flight, then became completely discouraged and retired from the aviation game. The Yak, not Pat, who brought out a now example of the same machine. It’s bigger, heavier, but flies better on tie same 3-W 70, so That is quite satisfied. All did not come up roses in the Willis stable, though, as, on the same day as the new Yaks debut, Pat put paid to his Raptor 30 (with a 50) helicopter. Well into a perfectly routine flight, all the controls shut down at the top of a loop. The Raptor came across the strip, rolling upright as it came, hit the leg of a table, went bouncing across the gravel, and fetched up just inside the field to the south of us, much the worse for the experience. At a pinch, it is repairable, but Pat is leaning toward a new helicopter. Maddeningly, when brought back to the table, all the servos worked. Several broken rods up in the rotor head, but when they broke is anybody's guess. Very few at the strip that day, so nobody was in danger. Bob Barrow claimed that he’d not only jumped through the door into his car, but right on through out the other side- I do think we can discount that by at least 50%. By the way, Pats transmitter, which keeps track of such things, said he'd had 21 hrs. on the Raptor. You have seen Rich Richardson’s electric Amp Riders, the ships with the wire (thread)-braced parasol wings, pointed wingtips, wood dowel construction, and minimal fuselage. He’s gone and enlarged the design a bit. The (flant Rider has a 12’ span and the wing is still of dowel con-struction, hut the bracing is now real wire and the covering is aircraft Dacron. The fuselage is of riveted aluminum tu-bing and power is a China-built gas-burner which looks like a chainsaw engine, but is meant specifically for model aircraft use. Early in the game, Rich added to the rudder -and the latest development (Labor Day) is a pair of sharply-dihedraled, sheet aluminum wingtips which Rich says improved both rudder response and lateral stability enormously, lust as on the Amp Riders, this one has a torsion-bar landing gear. (and the handsomest set of wheels I’ve seen in a long time) Jim Corbett made the initial flight of this 18-lb. bird, but Rich has been flying it since. On the other end of the size scale from Pats Yak and Rich's new ship, we find the small electric Gene Parro was flying the other day. Looks as though it might be a Piper Super Cruiser and Gene ROGed from the wooden electric runway” and flew around for a good seven minutes before not quite hitting the grass runway and ending up in the chaff. Ron Sutton is not a newcomer to r/c, having done a lot of flying on a Gentle Lady with a power pod. He did have a short layoff after the glider hit the dust, hut is now getting into power flying with a Goldberg Eagle II. His tutor? Who else? Chuck Jenkins. You have seen that Paul MacCready, he of the Gossamer Condor and Channel-crossing Gossamer Albatross, and an old Indoor flier, died on the 28th of August at age 81. The obit in The New York Times had a great quote. In 1992, MacCready told a newspaper interviewer, “Anybody who’s not interested in model airplanes must have a screw loose someplace.” C. O’D. --- Volume 3, Issue 8
www.eugenerc.com
August, 2007
Eugene RC Aeronauts-- Next
meeting will be at Carl Henson Field Tuesday, August 28th at 7:00 pm
 (Cartoon supplied by Khoi Tran,
aka “Grasshopper“)
President’s Corner: This year's annual ERCA Fun-Fly was not as big as it was last year, but a good time was had by all. I had to work on Saturday, so I couldn't make it, but people still managed to have a good time despite my absence! Many thanks to Doug McWha, (as always, right?) for helping to make the event happen. Our gratitude is also deserved by Mike Burgess for the sturgeon he provided on Saturday, Al Barrington for cooking on Sunday, Chuck Jenkins for assisting Doug with the many pre-event tasks, and Trump's Hobbies for their donations and discounts on the prizes. We didn't have much interest in any contests, so we'll likely save the prizes for the club auction or for prizes at a different event. We did not discuss the event much as it was approaching, so I believe that a lot of people may have just forgotten when it was. I also think that next year we will make it a one-day event on a Saturday rather than a two-day event. Stay tuned for an announcement regarding our next event. . . On a less fun note, I spent a considerable amount of time a couple weeks ago picking up trash at the field. There were paper towels, pieces of airplanes, drinking cups, fast-food wrappers, and other items strewn about in the pits area and on the edge of the wheat field to the south. I also removed a bunch of trash from the 5 gallon buckets inside the club house where someone decided to deposit their garbage on top of club property being stored in those buckets. My friends, this is simply unacceptable. I'm beginning to think that we should reconsider getting an account with the local garbage pick-up company and have a garbage can out there. It is not fair that some of us are spending our time to pick up others' garbage and then take it home. I know I'm not the only one. On an even LESS fun note, my big Yak 54 suffered a catastrophic wing failure in flight a couple weeks ago. I was performing a snap roll when the left wing decided to twist up and then tear off. The airplane continued normally for about 100 feet before the pilot seemed to look out of the canopy to the left, do a double-take, curse, and then spin the airplane into the ground. The cause was an inadequately glued plywood brace where the wing's anti-rotation pin inserted into the fuselage. The airframe was a total loss, but most everything else can be salvaged. I've been working a lot of overtime to pay for a new airframe, which should be coming soon to a flying field near you... Until next month, may your flights be smooth and safe, and your landings uneventful. Patrick Willis, ERCA President Carl Henson Field: The last time I went to the field I thought I had forgotten my golf clubs! And I don’t even play golf! “Groundskeeper Doug” has done a magnificent job! Doug tells me future plans include more “sweetening” fertilizer and aeration of the soil, which involves a machine, run by club member Rod Madison. The field couldn’t look any better! Thank you Doug and Rod!! Summer Meetings / BBQs: The August ERCA meeting will be at Carl Henson Field. Larry Nielsen will be providing the “vittles.” If the spread is anywhere near the feast Larry provided last August, we are in for a treat! Speaking of “vittles,” A giant “yummy-thanks” goes out to Jackie and Melissa Bowhan for bringing the veggie plate, beans, peach cobbler and chocolate cake to the July meeting! And thanks to “chef Don” Hudson for flippin’ the burgers and roasting the dogs. If you missed the meeting. . . you went hungry!! Coming (. . .and Past) Events: The Solvang Retirement Center outing held on Thursday July 19th was a huge success! The eight ladies and gentlemen had a great time. A big thank you to the following members who helped represent ERCA and “went the extra mile” to make this very special event possible: Chuck Jenkins, Chuck O’Donnell, Doug McWha, Mark Stafford (Mark videotaped the event for our AMA grant application), and Dale Williams. A scout intro flight day was set up on Saturday August 18th, but the only scout to show up was the Scoutmaster, Marcus McCabe. Your editor took him up for an intro flight and he was hooked. A future date is in the works for when more scouts will be available. John Bowhan and Mel Thompson will have staffed the booth at the Norwest Fly Fest on August 25th-26th. ERCA will also be represented by Doug McWha and Bill Hollingsworth at the 2007 Scout-A-Ganza at Civic Stadium on September 22nd-23rd from 10am to 4pm. Come out and say “hi.” We still have the prizes from the recent “fun-fly.” How ‘bout having another fun fly before the good weather goes away?? A Special Thanks. . . Jim Corbett sincerely thanks the club for the $50 gift certificate to Chapala’s Mexican Restaurant. ERCA thanks Jim for his “wrenching” skills on the mowers and his awesome sign-making powers! Contacts: President – Patrick Willis – 543-8999 Bill Hollingsworth– VP/Newsletter Editor - 689-1478 Sec/Treasurer – Alan Barrington - 935-4960 Bill’s e-mail: lrhollingsworth@msn.com John Bowhan - Field Marshal – 607-5752 Club Mailing Address: Eugene R/C Aeronauts PO Box 50034 Eugene, OR. 97405 Included for your reading pleasure is Chuck O’Donnell’s “With the Weekday Warriors.” WITH
THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS
Some of this month’s action I saw only from a distance because I was down at the west end of things, getting models prepared for the Northwest Freeflight Championships which were flown this past weekend (18th & 19th). This means I don’t have all the details in some cases, but I will forge ahead. On the day that I was trimming my Scale entry, Greg Knecht was flying a fairly large electric, flipping it around, hanging on the prop, — you know, that sort of thing. Since in cutting all those didos, Greg never got beyond the end of the runway and since, 42’, l2-oz., Scale Rubber ships with lots of draggy struts don’t stray far from the launch point, we never interfered with each other. Treasurer Al Barrington was cruising around with his Astro Hog while I was trimming out my Jabberwook, a ship that climbs higher and roams farther than the Scale ship. Once the prop folds and the plane is gliding, the ‘Wock really moves pretty slowly, so Al had no trouble going over, under, or around it. The Astro Hog is quite a good sport ship, but, in its day (late 50s), it was the hot Pattern plane and they had taken the horsepower race to new heights by putting massive .45s into them. “Where will it all end?”, we wondered, Well, we all know it hasn’t ended yet, don’t we? Jim Corbett brought out an original electric which I will try to describe. Sort of an hexagonal pyramid with three trapezoidal fins (wings?) spaced at 120 deg around the wide (rear) end and carrying the rudder and elevons. Up at the sharp end were three smaller triangular fins spaced at 120 deg, but 60 deg out of phase with the others. The elec-tric motor is a pusher and we asked Jim if he had ever set it on the tail and VTO’d it. He said he had, but that it led to “too high a glue budget’. There’s a skid on it for landing and Jim just takes the plane by this and casually tosses it into the air. He was also testing an original flying wing which flies fine for a while, then buries itself in the gentle Oregon soil. A dicey speed controller is suspected. Beside these strange contraptions stands a rather conventional ship, a joint venture with Doug Deveraux, that seems to have no problems. Another of those events I saw only from afar was a mishap Joe Owens had with his much-modified Sr. Falcon. All the covering peeled off the top of the left wing shortly after takeoff. This leads to a certain amount of drag which results in a certain loss of lift which brings on a rollover and things don’t get any better after that. I was too far away to see how badly the rest of the structure had fared. Looked bad, but it’s hard to tell. Saturday, I saw a guy launch an A ship (.19 engine) straight up, whereupon it described a 100’ high inverted letter “U” and vent in under full power. The wing was shattered; the stab ditto; the fuselage was unhurt. Continuing for a moment ,truth this dreary litany of disaster, Larry Nelson’s twin-boomed “combat” model got into a tight spiral from which it could not be extricated. It got pretty badly battered, but Larry didn’t even hint about “I got hit!. He suspects that a receiver of ques-tionable reliability caused the wreck. Ken Sprinqate has gone and done it. Put an 0.S. 1.20 2-stroke into his Funtana 90. Still tuning it up at last report, but things are going well so far. Frank Blain brought out something with an even bigger engine. This was an 8’ Laser with a Stihl chainsaw engine under the cowl. The plane had been flown down at Short Mountain, but flat, I think, since. I had to go home before Frank flew it that day — if he flew it; it was very windy. ‘Way back, before the Extra and the Giles, et all, the laser was the aerobatic model to have. Vern Wells is raw flying an EasySport. Chuck Jenkins still sits nearby, hut I think Vein is doing most of the flying. He does have a penchant for hard left turns immediately after takeoff and sometimes before actually leaving the ground. After seeing so much of Doug McWha’s example of the sane model, I almost didn’t recognize Vern’s as a EasySport. For one thing, all the covering is on it and its a nice, clean white. F4U-lAs. Enough. No, rake that ‘too many”. Build a -4 with the intake in the bottom lip of the cowl or a -5 with the two cheek intakes. Build one of the FAA’s Corsair Is with the square wingtips and Brit camouflage as a change from that monotonous Glossy Sea Blue. The F2Gs had longer noses and bubble canopies. If you are not entirely wedded to “Warbird”, there are some slick racer color schemes for them, too. Best of all - build the XF4U-1, the prototype, with the birdcage canopy three feet farther forward and gun ports in the top lip of the cowl. I’ll have to gripe about WWI and civil aircraft one of these days. C. OD. --- Volume 3, Issue 7 www.eugenerc.com July, 2007 Eugene RC Aeronauts-- Next meeting will be at Carl Henson Field Tuesday, July 24th at 7:00 pm  “Luke. . . I am your father. .
.” Dale Williams’ fighter-pilot face shield.
Gotta love it!!
President’s Corner: My term in "office" is already halfway over, and I hope that you feel like you have been well-represented so far. There have been some important issues raised during the past several months, and I've heard many of your comments and concerns about these issues and the direction the club is going. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I welcome your input on how I am doing as the ERCA president, so please let me know if you have something to say. A recent disagreement at the field over flying area boundaries caused our Field Marshall to go research the AMA's official position on the matter. Basically, the AMA requires that we establish our flying area and adhere to it. At the June meeting, we voted on some different flying area scenarios. As more people gave input, it appeared we would have to make more and more rules. I am not one for making a rule or regulation for every given scenario possible. All of you have a responsibility to use common sense and courtesy when operating your aircraft, whether they be small electrics or 150cc aerobats. More rules would mean more restrictions on our ability to have fun, and I certainly don't want that. The new flying area that you must adhere to is as follows: As always, there is NO flying over the pits area or vehicles. Aircraft can fly north of the runway's south border, (a.k.a. the "flight line") as far as the eye can see. Aircraft can fly south of the runway only when west of the runway's west end, and then as far as the eye can see. An exception is in place for helicopters and electrics utilizing the heli-pad allowing such aircraft to be within the no-fly-zone but still maintaining a position west of the east end of the heli-pad. There is also NO flying over any houses, including but not limited to the Burgess house to the north-northeast. There is NO flying permitted over any vehicles, occupied or unoccupied. This new flying area is what we're going to use until the membership votes otherwise. You must adhere to it now that it has been established, according to the AMA. For those of you that missed the June meeting out at the flying field, the July and August meetings will also be held there, so please come and make your voice heard. My thanks to the numerous members that were present at the June meeting. Happy landings, Patrick Willis--ERCA President Carl Henson Field: The flying field is really looking good! Thanks to Doug McWha and Rod Madison for “sweetening” up the soil and grass with some special fertilizer. The weed eradication program is working. Considering the record heat we had last week, “Grounds-master McWha” has done a great job of keeping the field, green, trimmed, and ready to go! We really appreciate what you do, Doug! Summer Meetings / BBQs: Don’t forget that the July, and August ERCA meetings will be held at Carl Henson Field. A B.B.Q. will precede the meeting -- bring your planes for some evening flights! Sodas, burgers, hot dogs and chips will be provided by the club. If you want to bring some “tater” salad, slaw, cookies, brownies, snacky-cakes, cheesy-poofs, or any kind of side dish that goes with hamburgers and hot dogs, go for it! Family members are welcome to come too. A special thanks to those members’ wives who brought the excellent tater salad and brownies to the June meeting! And a big “cheffy” thanks to Roger Dahl for doing the grilling! Mmmmm. . . Coming Events: Boy Scout Troop 479 has contacted me about a weekend intro flight for the scouts. Intro pilots; be ready to fly! the Solvang Retirement Center (ten gentlemen were to come out, ranging in age from 80 to 100) event was held on July 19th Stay tuned for a report in the August newsletter! We are having our annual Fun-Fly event on August 11th & 12th which will include fun events with PRIZES! Come have some fun with us!! ERCA will also be setting up a booth at the Boy Scout Jamboree at Em’s Stadium on Saturday, September 22nd from 10am to 4pm. See you there! Contacts: President – Patrick Willis – 543-8999 Bill Hollingsworth– VP/Newsletter Editor - 689-1478 Sec/Treasurer – Alan Barrington - 935-4960 Bill’s e-mail: lrhollingsworth@msn.com Doug McWha - Field Marshal – 741-3326 Club Mailing Address: Eugene R/C Aeronauts PO Box 50034 Eugene, OR. 97405 WITH THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS Doug McWha was grieved about the way the main landing gear legs on his Twin Star kept bending on him. For no reason at all, of course; certainly not due to any sort of hard landing. He replaced the original legs with those from one of the larger Ultrasports. These don’t have a nice 90 deg bend but rather bend at a fairly large obtuse angle, so that the wheels are now out near half—span. Looks a little funny, but has not interfered with the flying qualities of the Twin Star and Doug is pleased with the ground handling. Doug Wade has been flying a Sig Kavalier. This is an ex—John Doyle machine with a Como .40 in it. How long has it been since you’ve seen a Como? I never was sure what, if any, connection they had to Super Tigre, other than both being Italian. Doug Devereaux’s Twist has been modified by some changes made to the incidences and some other details. It’s powered by one of those Evolution .40s with the curved fins wrapping around the cylinder. Doug says it has been running as well as you could ask for a brand—new engine. (Note: That’s three Dougs. I think the club can, possibly. accommodate one more and then it_ really has to stop.) Look at the tail of Joe Owens’s ship and you’ll see what it started out as. Joe had a Sr. Falcon he’d bashed up once too often, so he turned it into a taildragger, lopped a couple of rib bays off the wings, added tip plates, and did away with the canopy. It has a good old 0.5. .61 up front, an FSR, I think, with the separate frontplate. Joe is very happy with the way it is performing. Pat Willis, Alan Wellintin, and Marty Wittman, have all had multiple helicopters out to fly. Pat has put a .50 in his Papier 90 and, to no one’s surprise, it is a lot live-lier. Alan has acquired a Raptor 30, also with a 50, from a guy ‘ho was said to be ‘tired of fighting it”. Alan is tuning it up and, if I heard correctly, is thinking of using it with a buddy box to introduce interested fliers to the joys of rotary—winged flight. The sharp—eyed amongst you will have noticed the new vent in the roof of the trailer. If you’ve looked inside you will also have noticed that the hole under the vent is a bit, er, ragged. The story is this: Al Barrington’s Tiger 60 got caught in a particularly nasty bit of gusty wind and turbulence, causing Al to become just the least bit disoriented. Fortunately, the roof of the trailer kept him from putting the Tiger 60 into the ground. (Was ‘fortunately” really the word I wanted there?) Making a virtue out of necessity, the vent was put over the hole to keep air flowing through the trailer in the hot months to come. Al was the only one there when it happened, but he confessed right away. Upon hearing the tale, certain members of the club hierarchy laughed immoderately. He’s taken enough ribbing. Now you’ve read the story; that’s enough. Dustin Miller, who soloed only recently, was flying his trainer the other day and doing something very smart. Re was shooting a whole flock of touch-and—goes. Worth doing that from time to time, even if you aren’t Just newly—soloed. Dusting using a plain—vanilla 0.S. .40 and John Burns has the same in his P’P-40. Has 0.S. given up using those vivid, not to say lurid, colors on their cylinder heads? That Siq Sornethin’ Extra that Chick roster is flying was built fro. a kit. Is anybody listening? A kit! There’s a new Tower .46 in it which is performing well and Chick is high on the Somethin’ Extra. Randy Sewell was on the buddy box with Pat the other day and it was to be solo-or-die time. He seemed to be coming along okay, except for running it into the grass on takeoff just as I was leaving. By the way, Randy bought his wife one of those tiny indoor helicopters with the infra-red control system. They had a ball with it indoors, leading her to remark, ‘we need a bigger helicopter”. And, yes, they found out that the sun does do things to that infra-red system if you try to fly it outdoors. Are you ready for this? Are you sitting down? Your columnist flew R/C for the first time in four years recently and the model survived. It was my Aquilla sailplane, a 100” rudder—elevator—spoiler ship and a design that was World Champion — in 1977. ‘The rubber on my high—start has seen better days, alas, and I was getting less that half the altitude I should have gotten. A gas ship, a 15—650 with yet another 0.S. .61 FSR, is on my work bench being teased back into airworthiness. If ‘15-650” doesn’t ring any bells, it’s a 13—500 enlarged for a .60. If “l5-650” still leaves the bells silent, well, just wait until I bring it to the field. I went to the Italian AF Museum at Viqna di Valle. I took all the pictures I said I would. I spent 3½ days in two hospitals in Rome. You want to know about Roman hospitals? Old building, new equipment, 1st—class people. And I hung on to the pictures which are available for viewing. C. O’D. --- Volume 3, Issue 6 www.eugenerc.com June, 2007 Eugene RC Aeronauts-- Next meeting will be at Carl Henson Field Tuesday, June 26th at 7:00 pm Come join ERCA and “Chef McWha” for our June Meeting / BBQ. . .mmm!  Carl Henson Field: As I was driving down the gravel road to the field last weekend, I was struck by just how pretty a drive it is! In the midst of the landscape I saw quail, pheasant, osprey and an eagle. We are so fortunate to have such a beautiful flying field! Lets not ever take it for granted. All you have to do is read the AMA magazine about finding and keeping flying fields to realize how good we have it. Next time you happen to see Mike Burgess (the land owner), give him a heart-felt thanks, for “multiple-use-landowners” are a rare breed indeed! Doug has fertilized the field and he is working on a weed eradication program. Watering season is soon approaching so the sprinkler system will get its first full season of duty! (Thanks to Frank Blain and the members who helped him put in the well). Doug and Jim Corbett have removed and sharpened the mower blades, changed the oil, and replaced the ignition coil on the Ford mower. Thank you Doug and Jim! The plywood runway for “electrics” has also been set up in the heli-pad area. If you have noticed that the clubhouse/impound shack is a couple degrees cooler, you can thank Al “The Ventilator” Barrington! Seems he was flying his Tiger 2 and “the wind got it” and it crashed nose first on the roof of the clubhouse! Next time you go in to the shack, look up and you can see the new ventilator which earned Al his new name! Who was Al’s Instructor??? Summer Meetings / BBQs: Don’t forget that the June, July, and August ERCA meetings will be held at Carl Henson Field. A B.B.Q. will precede the meeting -- bring your planes for some evening flights! Sodas, burgers, hot dogs and chips will be provided by the club. If you want to bring some “tater” salad, slaw, or some kind of side dish that goes with hamburgers and hot dogs, go for it! Family members are welcome to come too! Coming Events: Boy Scout Troop 479 has contacted me about a weekend intro flight for the scouts. Intro pilots; be ready to fly! I’ve also heard from April, the activities director from Solvang Retirement Center. Bill Hastings mentioned our club to her and they agreed that an outing for around ten gentlemen who range in age from eighty to one-hundred years old would be wonderful! The event is scheduled for the morning of Thursday, July 19th at ten o’clock. We also are having our annual Fun-Fly event on August 11th & 12th which will include fun events with PRIZES! Come have some fun with us!! Membership: As of June, ERCA is 91 members strong! If you recall, President Pat Willis set a goal to have 90 to 100 members by the end of 2007. Wow! We did it, and it’s only June! By the way, I have been complimented by a few non-ERCA members who have flown as guests at our field about what a friendly, open, and approachable club we have. That is a direct reflection of the great bunch of people that is the ERCA membership! Flying Field Boundaries: There has been some concern that the flight boundaries for the flying field have not been clearly established and/or made known to all members. We will discuss the issue at the June 26th meeting. If you want to have some input, come to the meeting. Attendance at the meetings has been excellent. However, the club is only as strong as its membership, their desire to participate, and help to make the club the success that it is. Come to the meetings! Otherwise, you can’t “gripe”. Trash and Cigarette Butts: Thanks to Jim Corbett, there are some new signs at the field instructing smokers to smoke inside of their vehicles only, as per our contract with the landowner. If you see someone smoking outside their vehicle, give them a friendly reminder. Trash continues to be a problem…especially fast food wrappers, cups, straws, etc. Please take your trash with you! Thanks. Contacts: President – Patrick Willis – 543-8999 Bill Hollingsworth– VP/Newsletter Editor - 689-1478 Sec/Treasurer – Alan Barrington - 935-4960 Bill’s e-mail: lrhollingsworth@msn.com Doug McWha - Field Marshal – 741-3326 Club Mailing Address: Eugene R/C Aeronauts PO Box 50034 Eugene, OR. 97405 WITH THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS Doug McWha was grieved about the way the main landing gear legs on his Twin Star kept bending on him. For no reason at all, of course; certainly not due to any sort of hard landing. He replaced the original legs with those front one of the larger Ultrasports. These don’t have a nice 90 degree bend but rather bend at a fairly large obtuse angle, so that the wheels are now out near half—span. Looks a little funny, but has not interfered with the flying qualities of the Twin Star and Doug is pleased with the ground handling. Doug Wade has been flying a Siq Kavalier. This is an ex-John Doyle machine with a Como .40 in it. How long has it been since you’ve seen a Como? I never was sure what, if any, connection they had to Super Tigre, other than both being Italian. Doug Devereaux’s Twist has been modified by some changes made to the incidences and some other details. It’s powered by one of those Evolution .40s with the curved fins wrapping around the cylinder. Doug says it has been running as well as you could ask for a brand—new engine. (Note: That’s three Dougs. I think the club can, possibly, accommodate one more and then it really has to stop.) Look at the tail of Joe Owens’s ship and you’ll see what it started out as. Joe had a Sr. Falcon he’d bashed up once too often, so he turned it into a tail dragger, lopped a couple of rib bays off the wings, added tip rates, and did away with the canopy. It has a good old 0.S. .61 up front, an FSR, I think, with the separate frontplate. Joe is Very happy with the way it is performing. Pat Willis, Alan Wellintin, and Marty Wittman, have all had multiple helicopters out to fly. Pat has put a .50 in his Raptor 30 and, to no one’s surprise, it is a lot live-lier. Alan has acquired a Raptor 30, also with a 50, from a guy who was said to be tired of fighting it”. Alan is tuning it up and, if I heard correctly, is thinking of using it with a buddy box to introduce interested fliers to the joys of rotary-winged flight. The sharp—eyed amongst you will have noticed the new vent in the roof of the trailer. If you’ve looked inside you will also have noticed that the hole under the vent is a bit, er, ragged. The story is this: Al Barrington’s Tiger 60 got caught in a particularly nasty bit of gusty wind and turbulence, causing Al to become just the least bit disori-ented. Fortunately, the roof of the trailer kept him from putting the Tiger 60 into the ground. (Was “fortunately’ really the word I wanted there?) Making a virtue out of necessity, the vent was put over the hole to keep air flowing through the trailer in the hot months to come. Al was the only one there when it happened, but he confessed right away. Upon hearing the tale, certain members of the club hierarchy laughed immoderately. He’s taken enough ribbing. Now you’ve read the story; that’s enough. Dustin Miller, who soloed only recently, was flying his trainer the other day and doing something very smart. He was shooting a whole flock of touch—and-goes. Worth doing that from time to time, even if you aren’t just newly—soloed. Dustin’s using a plain—vanilla O.S. .40 and John Burns has the same in his PT—40. Has O.S. given up using those vivid, not to say lurid, colors on their cylinder heads? That Sig Somethin’ Extra that Chick Foster is flying was built fro. a kit. Is anybody listening? A kit! There’s a new Tower .46 in it which is performing well and Chick is high on the Somethin’ Extra. Randy Sewell was on the buddy box with Pat the other day and it was to be solo—or—die time. He seemed to be coming along okay, except for running it into the grass on takeoff just as I was leaving. By the way, Randy bought his wife one of those tiny indoor helicopters with the infra—red control system. They had a ball with it indoors, leading her to remark, “we need a bigger helicopter”. And, yes, they found out that the sun does do things to that infra—red system if you try to fly it outdoors. Are you ready for this? Are you sitting down? Your columnist flew H/C for the first time in four years recently and the model survived. It was my Aquilla sailplane, a 100” rudder—elevator—spoiler ship and a design that was World Champion — in 1977. The rubber on my high—start has seen better days, alas, and I was getting less that half the altitude I should have gotten. A gas ship, a 15—650 with yet another O.S. .61 FSR, is on my work bench being teased back into airworthiness. If “15-~69O” doesn’t ring any bells, it’s a 1~—5O0 enlarged for a .60. If “15—500” still leaves the hells silent, well, just wait until I bring it to the field. I went to the Italian AF Museum at Vigna di Valle. I took all the pictures I said I would. I spent 3½ days in two hospitals in Rome. You want to know about Roman hospitals? Old building, new equipment, 1st—class people. And I hung on to the pictures which are available for viewing. C.O’D. --- EUGENE RC AERONAUTS Volume 3, Issue 5 www.eugenerc.com May, 2007  Bill and Doug representing ERCA
at the Boy Scout Carnival April 21st
.
EUGENE RC AERONAUTS – Next meeting will be at 7:00 pm at the EWEB Community Room on Tuesday May 22, 2007 Carl Henson Field and a Special Thanks from Doug: Doug McWha would like to thank the club for providing the $75 gift certificate to the Village Inn. Doug was tickled to get it, and your newsletter editor thought Doug looked “like a kid at Christmas” when he received his surprise! Well done, ERCA! Thanks mostly to Doug, we truly have a world-class flying site! We are soon approaching one hundred members! New Helicopter Landing and Takeoff Area: Please read the post on the ERCA website about the new helicopter flying area, (the north/south runway project that ended up not working out too well). The membership voted unanimously when I made the motion for the area to the west of the benches, just south of the main runway, to be used for helicopter flying. This does NOT limit members from flying helicopters off the runway the way we do now, it just provides an area where the glow-powered helis can make brown spots in the grass without detrimentally affecting the esthetics of our flying site. In addition, it may help alleviate some of the air-traffic conflicts that happen when airplanes want to take off and land, and my helicopter....err, anyone's helicopter, is hovering a few feet above the runway. If you have any questions or comments, please let me know. Happy landings...Patrick May 12th Sportsman Primer Pattern Fly: The event was excellent. Weather was a little cool and grey but a great time was had by all anyway! It was decided by those who flew in the event that Pattern flying looks easier than it is! Be sure to check the ERCA website for some great pics of the event taken by Al Barrington. A HUGE thanks goes out to the following people for making the event happen: Gary, Ray, and Jennifer McClellan who instructed, judged and scored the event. Bill Carder, Jerry and Carl Green for judging and scoring. Special thanks to Rex Lesher for planning and pilot instruction (just like Top Gun)! Thanks to people like these “stepping up” we had a wonderful event! Oh, and in case you were wondering, Pat Willis won the event. Congratulations, el presidente! And thanks to Chuck Jenkins and Doug McWha for doing the shopping and cooking of burgers n’ hotdogs. “Chef Al” Barrington cooked up some mean vittles as well! Yummm. . . Boy Scout Intro Flight/ Merit Badge Program: ERCA is now a Chartered Boy Scout Organization. We will be participating in a “Venture” program which will involve both boys and girls. Intro pilots; please be prepared to fly some Scouts! We now have two club trainers ready to go, and one on “standby.” Trash and Cigarette Butts: Fire season starts June 1st. . . and as part of our contract with Mike Burgess (the landowner), during fire season we are required to smoke INSIDE of our vehicles. Also, some smokers continue to throw their cigarette butts on the ground! Please, at least “Field Strip” your butts! If you need a lesson on the procedure, see your newsletter editor! Otherwise, smokers will be “Policing the Area” and going on “F.O.D.” patrol!! Also, pick up your trash when done flying. If you see trash that is not yours, pick it up anyway! Please leave the flying site cleaner than when you arrived. If butts continue to be a problem, a motion will be made that all smoking at the flying field will be inside vehicles!! Smokers; DO NOT THROW YOUR BUTTS ON THE GROUND!!! Thanks! Contacts: President – Patrick Willis – 543-8999 Bill Hollingsworth– VP/Newsletter Editor - 689-1478 Sec/Treasurer – Alan Barrington - 935-4960 Bill’s e-mail: lrhollingsworth@msn.com Doug McWha - Field Marshal – 741-3326 Club Mailing Address: Eugene R/C Aeronauts PO Box 50034 Eugene, OR. 97405 WITH THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS I think we’ve been getting more decent flying days than we usually get this time of the year. Don Hudson and Vein Wells have continued to fly under the tutelage of Chuck Jenkins and both seem to be making some progress. There have, however, been a few occasions when quick work on Mr. Jenkins’s part has prevented a nasty litter problem on the runway. Chuck also gives Morris Ostrovsky a hand, but Norris seems to be more on his own than not. Mel Graham and ex-pres. Frank Slain are both flying Venus IIs. Mel’s has an 0.S. 120 2-stroke and Franks a YS 110 4-stroke. Both fliers are very high on the handling qualities of the Venus TI. Al Storey has a Venus 40 with his usual Super Tigre .46 in it and Al says that - for him it’s a handful. Al Barrington is flying his old faithful Eagle II, but the Smog Hog (0.S. .60) has been in the air and so has his new Tiger 60. This last is powered by one of those Tower 60s with the vividly purple cylinder head. It was running quite well until one of the carb screws backed out, leaving a neat hole between the carb and the shaft valve. Neat, but it allows in lots of extra air and thoroughly spoils the carburation. President Pat Willis does most of his flying with that enormous Yak 54, the one with the 3W70 gas-burner up front. Odd, but Pats dad, who flies full-size aerobatics, says the Yak 54 is regarded as a bit of a dog, while Pat is quite pleased with the models flying qualities. Other Willis flying machines have included his electric Falcon helicopter (ex-Rich Richardson) and his glow Raptor 30. He’s looped the Falcon, but In, not sure if he has the Raptor. Willis non-flying machines include his Giles 202 which has the engine from his Extra. Said engine has some ailment of its capacitate-discharge ignition system and has been a paragon of non-cooperation. While we’re with helicopters it can be reported that Alan Wellentin has been practicing spot landings with a Synergy, another of his whacking great 90-size machines. Alan puts a small piece of carpet out on the runway and tries to hit it from a fast approach. On or very close most of the time, too. There’s another Tower 60 in Scott Dillon’s Hobbistar 60 Mk III along with another of those Spectrum radios. Pat helps or the landings, he says, but Scott seems to be on his own otherwise. All the way from Florence comes Mike Vaughn to fly his large Christen Eagle very carefully”, according to Mike. This one has a Saito 180, with which Mike isn’t entirely happy. He flies his Twist with rather more abandon and nothing untoward has befallen it so far, even with something as big as a Saito 82 up front. Ah, if only we could make such a happy report on the Twist Doug McWha has, er, had. He buried it. Took two hands and a hearty tug to get the portion with the engine up out of the ground. Pat offered glue and Morris duct tape, but it was a lost cause. Why the crash - signal reflecting off the barbed-wire fence; an errant gust of wind acting only on Doug’s plane; sun, moon, and stars not in perfect alignment? Doug’s assessment was a bluntly honest, “I dumb-thumbed it”. If you are keeping track, that’s the third Twist to have met its end at the hands of The McWha himself. There are rumors of an impending 60-size Twist which should result in a louder thump. Mow about the time you are sitting down to read this, your columnist should be sound asleep due to the nine-hour time difference between here and Rome. I’ll have been out to the Italian AF Museum and I’ll be doing my damndest not to lose all my camera gear to a thief as I did two years ago. My intention is to take more pictures than any sate man would want to take. All this means that I won’t be here to rewind you to celebrate the Both anniversary of Lindbergh’s flight to Paris on the 20th and 21st. Let me remind you that, while the plane might have been built out here on the Left Coast down in San Diego, that Wright whiirlwind that ran for 33½ hours was built in the land of my birth, Paterson, New Jersey. Seventy-five years ago on the same two days, Amelia Earhart became the first woman transatlantic pilot by flying her Lockheed Vega from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland to a farm near Culmore, Ireland. On the 29th, you can mark the 88th anniversary of the first-ever Atlantic flight by the six-man crew of the U.S. Navy’s flying boat NC-4. And you know that Ag Cat that’s been working around the area lately? The first one of those flew fifty years ago on the 27th. So there you are, plenty of reasons to party. C.O’D. --- EUGENE RC AERONAUTS Volume 3, Issue 4 www.eugenerc.com April, 2007 EUGENE RC AERONAUTS – Next meeting will be at the EWEB Community room on Tuesday April 24th, 2007. President's Corner: From your ERCA President: On March 31st we had our first Annual Big-Bird Fly-in. This was an in-house event that I initiated back before I was the President and just the Events Organizer/Public Relations Officer. The weather was sour in Eugene the morning of the event, and I had my doubts as rain was drenching my airplane when I loaded it into the car. However, as is often the case I'm finding, the weather out at the field was completely different, even though I live only 15 minutes away. Sure, there was some wind, and we did see some occasional rain drops, but overall it was not too bad and we had about 30 members turn out for the event. Those that participated seemed to have a great time and I don't recall seeing any aircraft meet a devastating end. I had my new Lanier Yak 54, (87" wingspan) which had only flown once prior to the event. I believe there were only 3-4 planes that were actually large enough to meet the IMAA guidelines of 80" or greater wingspan for monoplanes, or 60" or greater for bi-planes, but hey, we had fun, so who cares?! My thanks to Doug McWha and Bill Hollingsworth for their assistance in getting the event put together. Some safety concerns have been brought up lately that deserve our attention. First of all, notice that my Yak had been test-flown BEFORE the event. AMA rules make it mandatory for all aircraft to be successfully test-flown prior to being flown in front of spectators. We only had a handful of non-flyers for this event, but we had one member with a brand-new airplane there. By the time it was flown, the event was winding down and I don't believe there were any non-flyers around, so it was a non-issue this time, but just be aware of that rule for any future events. Another incident in which a member's plane was taxiing out to the runway from behind the pilot boxes resulted in the aircraft running into the inside of the pilot box/fenced area, startling the pilot who was occupying the box. Although I don't believe it is written down anywhere in our by-laws, I want to stress the importance of either carrying, or physically guiding by means other than your radio, your airplane beyond the rear of the pilot boxes when the boxes are occupied by other pilots. No one was injured and no planes were lost, but it serves as a gentle reminder for all of us that we need to adhere to that procedure for the safety of other pilots and planes. Also, please do not taxi into the flight line past the pilot boxes from the runway. Also, it seems we are getting out of the practice of communicating when we send a plane out onto the runway or bring one in for landing. If you are going to have your plane or yourself on the field, make it known to those that are flying. Guess who is going to be buying a new plane for the guy coming in and landing when you are on the runway without announcing yourself? All you have to do is yell "Coming out!" or "LANDING!" It's simple and it works. At our most recent meeting, we found that several members had not paid their dues and some were not current with their AMA certification. While we cannot take any risks with members not being in the AMA, (in other words, no AMA = no flying!) we have been pretty easy-going with the folks who have not paid their dues in the past. Well, the members at the meeting were in favor of making those who have not paid their dues among the non-flyers until the dues are paid. Why? Simply because it seemed unfair that people be permitted to go enjoy our great facility for free when the rest of the membership has to pay. Please, if you have not paid your club dues, do so as soon as possible, or you may find yourself on the non-flyer list, and we don't want that!! The membership spoke strongly about this, and I have to agree with their reasoning. Our next event will be the Sportsman Primer on May 12th. Practice your Sportsman sequence and come have some fun in this friendly competition with your friends at the field! So, you don't have a pattern plane? Come try it anyway, you'll probably improve your basic piloting skills just working on the sequence. Until next month, fly safely and courteously, and have fun! Patrick Willis ERCA President Carl Henson Field: The field is looking absolutely beautiful! Fertilizer has been laid down and grass seed placed on bare patches. Thanks goes to Chuck Jenkins for repairing the ford mower which needed a new ignition coil. When you see our “World Class flying field” be sure to give Doug McWha a handshake or clap on the back. THANKS DOUG! A new fence-pen has been built to house the water pump thanks to Doug McWha, Jim Corbett, and Dale Williams. PARKING PROJECT IS DONE!! Thanks very much to those members who “got it done!” The scarce parking situation is now a thing of the past! A sincere thanks goes to Doug McWha, Frank Blain, Brad’s brother and anyone else who helped. If you haven’t seen the improvements you are missing out! A new sign was made by Jim corbett (who also did a magnificent repair to our 10mph airplane sign!) and attached to the windsock pole indicating that the graveled area at the west end of the clubhouse (between the windsock and the clubhouse) is to be used for loading and unloading your planes and equipment only, not for parking. Our new parking areas should help . New Club Trainer and Boy Scout R/C Intro Program! Several members have donated parts and equipment for the “new” club trainer. Thank you! We now have three trainers. Doug Wade and Bill Hollingsworth are coordinating a summer-long Scout r/c intro program. If you are an intro pilot please be prepared to give a Scout some hands on r/c time! Attention: If you have not paid your 2007 club membership dues, you have been dropped from the club roster according to the club by-laws. Contacts: President – Patrick Willis – 543-8999 Bill Hollingsworth– VP/Newsletter Editor - 689-1478 Bill’s e-mail: lrhollingsworth@msn.com Sec/Treasurer – Alan Barrington - 935-4960 Doug McWha - Field Marshal – 741-3326 Club Mailing Address Eugene R/C Aeronauts PO Box 50034 Eugene, OR. 97405 WITH
THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS
The weekday crowd had a few nice days early in the month and they made the most of them. The usual cast of Haley, Jenkins, McWha, Richardson, Springate, Storey, Wade, and Wells were on-stage most of the time, flying, most of the time, their usual machines. Rich Richardson now has what I'll call the Mk.II model of that all-dowell parasolwinged electric with the pointed wingtips. The landing gear legs hang from a horizontal strut that sticks out both sides of the fuselage, giving him a wider track and a cleaner installation than before. Rich has done away with the somewhat clumsy strut arrangement for bracing the wings and this wing is wire-braced and much cleaner. (Okay, okay, thread, not wire, but you get the idea.) Hooked a thermal one day and Rich had to force it down. Doug Wade brought out an old Topflite Elder, which was one of those generic pre-WWI types that kit companies thought up. I think this one, powered by an old Fox .35, might be ex-Bill Bodley. Anyhow, Chuck Jenkins test-flew it and found it quite amenable to left turns, but equally adamant about not turning right. That was being looked into when last I heard. On the other hand, Bob Haley knows well what's causing his EasySport 40, so docile in the air, to be a handful on the ground. Bob says the problem is Bob Haley and it's being worked on. Ken Springate has a most unusual aeroplane for these parts -- a Funtana 90 with an 0.S. .91 in it!. That's right, a 90 size model with a 90 in it rather than a 120, 140, or 180. Ken's been trimming the Funtana and has it flying satisfactorily, but "I don't love it". Bob Barrow and Dale Williams were working as a team with Bob's Robin Hood. That's a very large old World Engines kit that vaguely resembles the Curtiss Robin of the late 20s. Bill Hastings used to fly one of these models down at the Creswell field, you may remember. The Barrow version is powered by a Zenoah G28, a bulky gas-burner which delights Dale, the pilot, with its easy starting and steady running. Am I right in remembering that there was some talk of towing gliders with this bird? That's talk in the dim, dark past, I mean. The Robin Hood and the Zenoah date back to the prehistoric era of the "Big Bird" movement. I'm not sure that World Engines is still in business nor that the Zenoah is still made. That's okay. Bob and Dale (and I) are pretty prehistoric too, when you come right down to it. Curtiss Johnson acquired Ray Tatum's 4-Star 40 from Bill Hollingsvorth. He has done away with Ray's Batman color scheme and recovered the plane entirely. If I heard correctly, this was a matter of necessity, because Curtiss decked the 4-Star rather quickly. He seems to have gotten the handle on it now and it's flying very nicely. Tell me, has anybody else on any field of ours ever said, "Watch my stuff; I have to go into town and take a Marine Biology final exam"? Alan Wellinton of the South Lane Club came up to Alvadore on one of those nice days with one of his helicopters. This one is a Freya and one of those big eggbeaters powered by am 0.S. .91. It rolls, loops, does wingovers, flies inverted - with some help from Alan, of course. Somebody asked him how long he'd been flying this particular chopper and he had a classic helicopter-flier reply 'Which part?. Alan is yet another guy who has turned up lately with one of those Spectrum radios which can fly with any other radio, anytime, and not interfere nor be interfered with. That's a half-dozen or more at this field since the first of the year, isn't it? The things are breeding like rabbits. Ivan Walker is just starting out in this madness. Just starting at the stage where the radio, engine, plane, and everything else are still in the offing. He's been looking at everything and talking to everybody and asking all the questions. Fe has found by now that, if you talk to ten different people, you will hear ten different views. He'll take what's running as a common thread through all of them and figure that for the basics von all did that and he'll sift through the fringe stuff ho see what suits his own style and adopt that. As we all did, even those of us who did it back in prehistoric times. Of course, our lot had to un-learn some things like winding escapement rubber, tuning the receiver with earphones at the start of every day at the field (with a Deltron, it was before every flight!), and running a copper ground line between the battery negative pole and every metal part on the plane I have an old pal back in N.J. who pines for "the good old days of rudder-only". I tell him he's stark, raving, mad. I know some of you fool around with computer simulators for models, but do any of you do much with such simulation for full-size aircraft? I have an old friend in Great Britain who is a nut on the subject and is looking for somebody over here to discuss things with. He's not a modeler now, though he used to build plastics before his eyes started giving out. He's an historian and has a fair amount of experience flying around in Yorks and Hastings, including jumping out of the latter at Suez in '56. If you are interested, see me for his address. We get mail back and forth in three to four days. C. O'D.
--- EUGENE RC AERONAUTS Volume 3, Issue 3 www.eugenerc.com March, 2007 EUGENE RC AERONAUTS – Next meeting will be at 7:00 pm at the EWEB community room on Tuesday March 27, 2007 Carl Henson Field: As of February 27th the field was literally a big puddle. Thankfully, the straw spread in the pits is doing a great job of keeping the mud under control. We had two beautiful weekends March 3rd- 4th and 10th-11th. Hope you all got some stick time in that sixty-five-to-seventy-five-degree weather! You all are doing a great job picking up after yourselves. The pits are looking good. Keep it up! Thank you Doug McWha for mowing what can only be described as the “spongy” runway! The gravel parking project is in the works! As soon as we get a week of dry weather we will lay down the fabric and have the gravel hauled in. We will be graveling in the section between the clubhouse and the port-a-potty, and fifty feet beyond the windsock to the west. The club has the funds; all we need is a couple of work parties and some cooperation from the “rain gods.” BIG BIRD Fly-In: Don’t forget the BIG BIRD Fly-in on Saturday, March 31st. Be there or be square! (Event not limited to BIG BIRDS ; bring what you got ‘n fly it!!) Winter Flying Hours are Over! As of March 1st the restriction on flying hours has been lifted! You are now free to fly all days of the week from 7:30 am until sunset, unless otherwise notified of a special event, such as dog field trials. Parking and Unloading: Parking is becoming scarce on good weather days. Remember, you can “double park” your vehicles behind one another to gain more room for others to park. Please pull all the way forward up to the fence if you are the first one to park in the spaces by the port-a -potty. Be patient; the new parking project will be done soon. Several more members have gotten stuck in the mud (still about the consistency of wet concrete) while driving off the graveled road and parking area. Please keep off the non-graveled areas! Please remember that the graveled area at the west end and behind the clubhouse (by the windsock) are to be used for loading and unloading your planes and equipment only. Per request of the landowner (who owns expensive bird dogs) no dogs are allowed on the property. A Special Thanks: A big thank you goes to the members who contributed time, money and/or effort to provide the club with the old Astro Hog trainer(?) plane Al Barrington now owns. Thanks go to Ray Tatum for building, Bill Hastings for covering, and Mark Stafford for donating a nearly-new .61 engine. A Not-So-Friendly reminder: Pay your 2007 dues! If your dues are not paid by the March 27th club meeting you will be dropped from the club roster! A list of current paid members names will be posted on the window of the clubhouse: if your name is not on the list, you cannot fly! Contacts: President – Patrick Willis – 543-8999 Bill Hollingsworth– VP/Newsletter Editor - 689-1478 Sec/Treasurer – Alan Barrington - 935-4960 Bill’s e-mail: lrhollingsworth@msn.com Doug McWha - Field Marshal – 741-3326 Club Mailing Address: Eugene R/C Aeronauts PO Box 50034 Eugene, OR. 97405 WITH
THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS
The weekend guys had a rice Saturday and Sunday on the 3rd & 4th and were boasting of having eight or nine fliers out on the field. On the following Tuesday, the Weekend Warriors topped that with a good, round fifteen. Chuck Jenkins was kept hopping by virtue of having three students to look after. Vein Wells is still flying that Nexstar with the fixed, perforated flaps. Don Hudson is just starting out with a Tower Superstar he bought from Chuck Foster. It’s got a Tower .40 up front for power and Don says he “scares the hell out of Chuck regularly”. Nah. Mr. Jenkins has been at the instructor game too long to be scared by anything a student might do. He might blink a bit at some of the more atrocious didos, but scared, no. Morris Ostravsky was flying his Sierra with occasional oversight from the hard-working Jenkins. Morris, you’ll remember, is the poor soul who lived a couple of blocks from the Lorane field and got back into R/C because of it. Now he has to come all the way up to Alvadore Rd.. Having sold the SuperStar to Don, Chuck roster pulled a Sig Kadet Sr. kit from under the table and built it as a taildragger, not an uncommon mod on that model. Power is an old ASP .61 and it’s plenty. Chuck is quite pleased with the machine and I hear rumors of a possible glider-launching cradle in the offing. President Willis showed up with his Showtime, that big bird with the gas engine. You know, the one that will just hang on its prop for half the flight. Capable of doing it for the full flight, I suspect. Frank Blain, freed from the burdens of the Presidency, was flying his Excelleron with abandon and had a new model as well. it’s a Venus II and has another of Frank’s favor-ite YS 110s for power. Now Franks YS 110s seem to burble along quite happily, but the one in Mel Graham’s Extra has proven fiddly. He did get in at least one flight on his Funtana (YS 91) and upon landing was alleged to have come in between the fence wires at the west end of the strip. Rich Richardson brought out his fleet of own-design electrics. Am I wrong or is he starting to get sorted out the newer of the two canards? Rich also brought an electric helicopter which he sold to Pat Willis. Pat immediately began to fly it quite competently and says it is a much better flying machine than the smaller electric chopper he has been trying out. Raleigh Williams added to the electric crowd and initially trotted out a J-3 which had been supplied without ailerons. Raleigh added them - must be the only J-3 with strip ailerons. The prudent range check revealed a problem, so his flying was done with one of those boomed pushers that look like slicked-up Curtiss Juniors. With all those people on the field, someone was hound to put a foot wrong and Al Storey managed to hit the fence on an approach. The fence fought him off and bounced Al’s Tiger II back on its tail which broke. The break is in the fuselage right ahead of the tail surfaces and is an easy fix. The power in the Tiger II is a Super Tigre (appropriate) 45 Al bought at a swap meet for $5.00 sans carb and muffler. He’s added those amenities, of course, arid the ST seems to be serving Al quite well. An errant takeoff by Morris Ostrovskys Sierra hit the fence and broke the top wire. A repair party consisting of Pat (he had rubber-handled pliers), Frank, and Doug sallied to the rescue. Doug was the one with the rubber gloves, so he was detailed to hold the wire taut while the connection was reestablished. This was accomplished in a trice, at which point Doug discovered that some of the rubber coating had worn off the gloves. He voiced, loudly, his consterna-tion and was roundly jeered by the other members of the party for making such a fuss merely because high-voltage electricity was coursing through his body. When not lighting up like an incandescent bulb, Doug McWha was flying, not that ratty old EasySport, but something called a Harrier, not to be confused with the VTOL jet of the same flame. This one has a see-through covering that reveals an abundance of lightening holes in the structure of the thick wing. Engine is the Magnum .52 that powered Doug’s late, lamented U-Can-Do. You may have noticed that I have stopped noting which models are ARFs. I have adopted a “Don’t Ask-Don’t Tell” policy on ARFs. You don’t tell me and I won’t ask. That way I won’t have to put your name on the list of “people to be dealt with” when model builders take back aerormodelling. C. O’D. --- Volume 3, Issue 2 www.eugenerc.com February, 2007 EUGENE RC AERONAUTS – Next meeting will be at the EWEB Community room on Tuesday February 27, 2007. President's Corner: First and foremost, I would like to once again thank our departing officers for their years of hard work and dedication. We certainly would not have such a great flying site and club if it were not for their efforts. In addition, thanks are once again owed to Doug McWha. Why you ask? Doug mows the runway whenever it needs it, which is sometimes more than once per week during the summer months. This takes a long time, even on a riding mower. Doug also does many other unseen, undocumented tasks to help keep our field looking great. Please pat him on the back and tell him thanks next time you see him. A little about your new president's experience in R/C: I started flying R/C planes was about 10 years old at the Oregon Miniature Aircraft Squadron in Banks. My first plane was a Balsa USA Swizzle Stick/Stick Trainer .40 with no ailerons that was given to me by a member there that didn't like to fly the planes he built. Eventually, I added a new wing with ailerons and, after I learned how to do an aileron roll, I started trying every type of aerobatic maneuver that flat-bottom airfoil could handle, and then some. I went through two Ultra-Sport .40's, a Super Sportster .40, a Great Planes Decathlon, an Aeromaster bipe, and some others made by companies long out of business. I have been in the hobby on and off for about two decades now. I was a member of this club when it was at the Short Mountain flying site, but I ended up selling almost all of my planes and equipment to put toward the purchase of a full-scale airplane. I found out quickly that full-scale aircraft, even a basic Cessna 150, are very expensive to maintain, and I sold the plane about three years ago. So, here I am today enjoying smaller aircraft once again. Which brings me to today, which was a great example of how well our club is doing. Last year at this time, when it was freezing cold out at our new flying site, I was one of 2-3 people that would be out flying on a Sunday, if I had any company at all. I was out today, 1/28, and we had so many people we ran out of parking! We had one new member join today, Ivan "Rich" Richardson, and two others who planned to join as soon as they get their AMA. We have been getting several new members lately, and I encourage you all to go introduce yourselves to the new folks. They are going to need our help to succeed, so please make yourselves available to share your expertise and experiences with them. With all the new field improvement fees being turned in by the new members, I'm hoping to have more parking area covered with gravel in the next few months, when the weather dries out and our budget is prepared. This improvement was approved by the membership late last year, and it is desperately needed to support a growing membership. In the meantime, please do not drive off the gravel at all! The grassy areas are muddy and you will get stuck! Lastly, we have two events coming up: Big-Bird Fly-in March 31st and Sportsman Primer May 12th. The Big-Bird event challenges you to bring out your biggest aircraft to show off and fly. However, if you don't have an IMAA legal plane, bring whatever aircraft you want and fly it! The Sportsman Primer is going to be a lot of fun, and the participants will certainly leave as better pilots than they were before the event. Skilled pattern pilots will spend the first half of the day assisting participants with learning the Sportsman aerobatic sequence and practicing. The afternoon will entail a low-key competition in which the participants will fly the sequence and be scored. This is for fun and learning, so don't worry if your loop isn't a perfect circle, just go have a good time. I look forward to seeing you all out at the flying field. Here's to a great new year! -Patrick Willis NO-FLY ZONE on MARCH 11 Due to dog field-trials being held on Sunday March 11th, flying is prohibited! “I Don’t Think We’re in Kansas Anymore, Toto!” The wind-storm damage to the fence has been repaired! Thanks to several members and Paul Anderson (who got the straw for free) pitching in to make it happen! Straw has been spread in the pits so the mud will not be “squishing through our toes!” Thanks also goes to everyone using the flying site; the trash situation has greatly improved! Keep up the good work! The field looks excellent! Parking and Unloading: Several members have gotten stuck in the mud (about the consistency of wet concrete) while driving off the graveled road and parking area. Please keep off of the non-graveled areas. Let’s all remember that the graveled area at the west end of the clubhouse (by the windsock) is to be used for loading and unloading your planes and equipment only, not for parking. New Club Trainer! Patrick bought a .40 trainer at the January club meeting with his 50/50 raffle winnings of $27 from Deen Speer. Rex Lesher donated a brand new ASP .40 engine. A big thanks to all of them! Introducing new members keeps our sport and our club alive and well! Does anyone have a Futaba type receiver to donate or sell for the club trainer? A Friendly reminder: Please remember to pay your 2007 dues! We need the funds for our new parking project! The next reminder won’t be as “friendly.” Contacts: President – Patrick Willis – 543-8999 Bill Hollingsworth– VP/Newsletter Editor - 689-1478 Bill’s e-mail: lrhollingsworth@msn.com Sec/Treasurer – Alan Barrington - 935-4960 Doug McWha - Field Marshal – 741-3326 Club Mailing Address Eugene R/C Aeronauts PO Box 50034 Eugene, OR. 97405 --- Volume 3, Issue 1 www.eugenerc.com January 2007 EUGENE RC AERONAUTS –Next meeting will be at the EWEB community room on January 23, 2007. Meeting start time is 7:00 PM. ELECTION OF OFFICERS FOR 2007 – At our November 28, 2006 meeting, elections were held and the following officers were elected for 2007. President – Patrick Willis Vice President – Bill Hollingsworth Sec / Tres – Alan Barrington Field Marshal – Doug McWha Newsletter Editor – Bill Hollingsworth DUES FOR 2007 – A motion was made and passed to increase the dues for 2007 to $ 60.00. Members present felt this was necessary to keep up with increasing costs of running our club. NEWSLETTER FOR 2007 – We are trying to keep the cost incurred by our club to a minimum. If possible we would like to Email the newsletter to you in lieu of mailing. Please indicate how you would prefer to receive the newsletter on your remittance with your dues. Bill Hollingsworth– VP Newsletter Editor Contacts: President – Patrick Willis – 543-8999 Club Mailing Address VP Bill Hollingsworth – 689-1478 Eugene R/C Aeronauts Sec/Tres – Alan Barrington – 935-4960 PO Box 50034 Doug McWha Field Marshal – 741-3326 Eugene, OR. 97405 lrhollingsworth@msn.com _______________________________________________________________________________________ INVOICE FOR 2007 MEMBERSHIP – EUGENE RC AERONAUTS Please fill out the following information and send back with your 2007 Dues Remittance Member Name ___________________________________________________________. Member 2007 AMA No.______________ Initial _________ I certify that I have renewed and paid my current 2007 AMA Dues. Member Address _________________________________________________________________________ Member Phone No. __________________________ Member Email Address ___________________________________________________________________ Newsletter Preference ____ Email______ Regular Mail ________ Do not need to receive newsletter Please enclose your check for $ 60.00 as a renewing current member for 2007 and mail to: Eugene RC Aeronauts, PO Box 50034, Eugene, Or. 97405. You can also bring to the January Meeting. |