MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING

Minutes of the 07-11-06 Meeting of the Tri-Area RC Flyers

General Meeting:

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm at the SKP Clubhouse. Attending
were: Anliker, Austin, Berson, Calkins, Cooks (2), Crumley, Dantzler,
Davis, Fitch, Granger, Greene, Hanke, Kampmann, McIntyre, Moffett, Oaks,
Olson, Reinach, Tolpin. Visitor: Tom Cochran.

The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved.
The Treasurer's report: $1220.04 in the checking account, $315 in fuel
inventory (21 gallons) and $4068.94 in a CD for a total of $5603.98. The
gas bill came to $46 last month. The Treasurers report was approved.

Old Business

1. Pete Granger distributed T-Shirts & Sweatshirts.
2. Safety report - lawn mower damage (bent blade) was reported. Please note
no-fly zones.

New Business

1. Pete Hanke & Roy Greene volunteered to be on the nominating committee
for 2007 elections.
2. Tom Cochran was voted in as a new member.
3. Our fun fly events were discussed. The crash certificate will be awarded
to the pilot's choice. Events voted on were: Loop & Land, Climb & Glide,
Dead Stick timed, and Loops.
4. The board has changed the director's meeting time to 6:30 (just before
the 7:00 general meetings).

The Crash of the Month Trophy went to Gary Austin. (Utility pole 1,
sailplane 0)

Bob Reinach's Airtronics transmitter box was won by none other than Gary
Austin!

Roy showed us a Seeker 6 receiver requiring no crystals.

Submitted by Cindy Cook, Secretary

AROUND THE CLUB

After many windy days Wednesday June 28 was much kinder. I met Chuck Dantzler at the field to trim out his new Great Planes Sportster E electric ARF.

It has a 48" wingspan, weighs about 3 pounds, and is fueled by a 3200 MAH battery. It tended to nose over, so I held full up elevator as I advanced the throttle. At about ½ throttle it took off like a scalded cat nearly straight up! Some left aileron, a little down elevator, and a lot less throttle turned it into a pussycat. Lew Creedon attempted to hand launch the plane, but when Chuck advanced the throttle the thing leaped out of his hand! Plenty of power in this one.

>Friday June 30 was a perfect flying day except we had a light breeze blowing across the runway. Roy Greene had a GWS DC-3 ready for its maiden voyage. The plane had plenty of power and flew very respectably, but there was a peculiar intermittent sound none of us could identify. Roy landed the thing when he saw a prop fly off and discovered he had lost both props!!!! Now we know what that funny sound was. Grant Smith and I were the only witnesses—where is everybody?

HINTS, KINKS, AND STUFF

>Friday July 7 I logged the first flight on my Mini 30. That little 4 stroke really has the power, and it pulled the plane pretty high before I came to my senses and throttled back. The plane seemed to be pretty sensitive in roll, but that may have been the pilot’s nerves. The trims appeared to be right on, so I did not do any adjusting during the very short flight. My landing was pretty ugly, but nothing was broken and I called it a day.

The next day I made several attempts to take the thing off, but it kept ground looping. It looks like it will require some "tweaking."

>Nate Moffett sent off an e-mail inquiry about the Chimacum weather station. He got several replies, but I think this one tells the most complete story:

The Chimacum weather site is updating from a very old MAC weather server to a newer Windows PC computer for their "weather server".  The school needed a different type of cable from the weather unit to the computer, and we shipped them out a new cable for free . . . unfortunately, the new cable did not get to the school until after the end of the school year.

I am "bcc'ing" our Point-Of-Contact at the school to this email, and he may be able to provide me with a status report on getting the weather station hooked up to the new computer . . .

My bet is that Chimacum weather site should be back up within the next month or so . . . 

Thanks - - James

SOARING

Mid-June to Mid-July Soaring News by Jim Tolpin

Here are some of the soaring happenings (at least that I’m aware of) on and off the club field over the last month:

Lou Creedon reports flying dead stick during a morning when the thermals were really popping and discovering that not only wouldn’t his plane come down, but an eagle swung by and started circling beneath him! Took Lou 15 minutes to get the wheels back on the ground. The eagle, having gained altitude in the thermal, continued on to refuel at a distant field…

My 4-year-old son Abel and I went to join in with the park-flyer bunch at Fort Worden, flying small power planes and a mini-glider in the field by the blimp hanger. We all suddenly realized that a light wind was coming from rather uncharacteristic direction for mid-June—from the Southeast! We packed it up and scampered over to the little bluff at the far south end of the row of barracks. One guy bungeed up his foam flying wing and I discus-launched a small 48-in. wingspan glider I made just for this type of flying (the Zuni by Art hobby). The bluff lift was smooth and consistent and we were able to crab back and forth above the beach and tree line, sometimes gaining up to a couple hundred feet of altitude. As usual, a few seagulls cruised by to check us out, and because the wind was light, I actually was able to out climb them—a fairly rare occurrence.

Visitor Chris Ploof from Whidbey Island showed up at the club field with me to fly DLG and to try out his new electric powered glider (a composite ship called the Blaster). Turned out to be a glider convention going on with Bob Mollerus flying his Butterfly (a glider-like trainer) and Mike McIntyre flying his now classic motorized Astro-Challenger. Conditions were much better than we initially thought they would be with the clear blue sky and the prevalent inversion layer would indicate. Turned out there was abundant, smooth lift up high and everybody was getting in 10 to 15 minute long flights on thermal energy alone. Not having a motor on my Encore glider to get up to the buoyant layer, I kept scratching for feeders and managed to snag into a few on three or four flights. Most memorable ride was when I was coming in on final to about 25 feet above the South end of the runway and felt a bump of lift. I immediately turned into it, and kept turning in the lift band as it drifted slowly south with the light wind. Within minutes I ended up about 800 feet above the runway and nearly out of my sight range. With a flick of the switch that reflexes the airfoil (lifts the full-span ailerons about 1/8-in.) I brought the Encore screaming back down to the field at about 100 mph! The full-length composite internal spar system keeps its thin Kevlar-over-foam wings from going into any flutter what so ever. This soaring business is definitely more fun than golf!

In early July, Gary Austin went to the annual "Alpine Soaring Adventure" sponsored and produced by Kiona Publishing. In the most idyllic of soaring locations near Joseph, Oregon, with the help of Quietflyer magazine publisher Wil Byer, he maiden-flew his huge 14-ft. wingspan Alpina motorized glider. The conditions were so good they never once had the need to turn on the motor to keep the model in the air. Instead, the plane flew gracefully thousand’s of feet above the floor of Hell’s Canyon for a good part of an hour. He also got many flights in on his classic 3-meter wingspan "Bird of Time"—one of the most beautiful gliders ever designed. Ask Gary if you want more info about this amazing event—especially since he volunteered to help organize it for next year!

That’s about all the news I know of for now. If you have any soaring-related adventures and/or news items, please call or email me!

GARY by John Sherwood

ZUNI by Craig Wester

When Mini Mania closed I bought some large bottles of ca and stored them in our freezer to extend the shelf life. I have been refilling small bottles and returning the large bottles to the freezer with no problem…until the wife sent me to the freezer with the complaint that the door would not open all the way. Indeed, it would open only about 3 inches before it started to resist. After messing with it a bit, I applied force and tore the door seal loose from the door, but it was well and truly attached to the freezer proper. During the cleanup I rescued a large ca bottle on its side with no lid. In the process my hands picked up a lot of uncured ca, but at least none of my fingers got glued together! Perhaps opened bottles should be stored in a plastic bag.

FUN FLY NEWS—August 26 at 9:00am

At the July meeting the membership selected the exact same events we had at the ’05 competition. Since I am an amateur pervert I was compelled to embellish the rules to give the challenges new flavors.

Certain types of planes have distinct advantages in some events. One could even envision a different airplane for each event! Soooo, folks will be expected to fly the entire contest with the same airplane unless said craft becomes a leading candidate for the dreaded Crash of the Month award.

Pilot takes off, does a loop, and lands.  His score is the time in seconds for the flight.  Low score wins.

Each pilot has 30 seconds to take off, climb as high as possible, and KILL his engine (or motor). The longest flight time to a runway landing wins. Timer will count down the last 10 seconds of powered flight aloud for the pilot. Engines not shut down in time and off-the-runway landings disqualify the flight. Two attempts will be allowed. After landing the pilot will roll dice to learn the divisor for his raw time; highest time after dividing wins.

Do as many recognizable loops as possible in a 15 second period. The loops must be normal inside loops with a more or less vertical orientation. This event will require both a counter and a timer. 

Be sure to include your family in this fun day—they have a lot of fun, too! This is a BRING YOUR OWN PICNIC affair. We will fire up the club BBQ, so feel free to bring some meat to burn. I have cups, plates, and napkins left over from last year.

Remember to reserve August 26 for really important fun stuff!

SPARKS

Last month we went over my shopping list. I actually had all the goodies in hand before the last Tale Spinner went out, but I did not allow myself to play with them until I finished the Mini 30. I finally got to pull out my soldering stuff a few days ago after buying out the local Radio Shack’s entire stock of banana plugs and receptacles (2 sets of each).

I started with the Triton charger by replacing the battery input clips with banana plugs. I also modified the battery-charging panel in my airplane car to add a pair of banana receptacles. Then I made up a charging cable with banana plugs on one end and a Deans Ultra male connector on the other end. The ESC also got a male Deans connector. Both battery output leads and the PCM device got Deans Ultra female connectors. The polarity and male/female conventions listed on the connector package were followed for all this work.

The July issue of Model Aviation mentioned using a car jump-start outfit as a 12-volt power supply. I tried my engine starter battery and charger as an equivalent 12 volt source, but the battery could not sustain the voltage at a ½ amp charge rate—the Triton charger kept sounding a low voltage alarm and shutting down. I verified that the small battery was the problem by charging off my car battery. I am using a clean metal paint bucket with lid as a battery fire protection device because that is what I had.

I went looking for a jump start system and found lots of them, most priced well above the $35 mentioned in the above article. I did find what I was looking for at Wal-Mart for $34.77, and bought it. It is capable of a sustained output of 5 amps, so my current draw should not bother the unit at all. More next month.

EDITORIAL

The club is very lucky to be able to meet in such a nice facility at no charge. Our August Show and Tell is the only thing we do for our generous hosts. The SKPs enjoy our little show—and the goodies, so let’s all make a special effort to display our best for them. We were a bit short on participation last year, and some of the lookers expressed their disappointment. This is not only payback; it is also a great chance to recruit some new members.

FOR SALE OR TRADE

If you want to list an item, just send me the details including your name, phone number, and asking price or trade-for item. Low pixel count digital pictures are also acceptable.

Dick Benjamin is desperately trying to create enough space to do some building. He has several planes and a bunch of other stuff that he is willing to part with very reasonably. Give him a call at 379-9851.

MONTHLY MEETING 6:30 August 8 at the SKP Clubhouse

Pete Granger

granger@olypen.com