MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING

Tri-Area RC Flyers July 14^th, 2009

Opening meeting: Meeting opened at 7:08 pm.

Attending: Pendleton, Berger, Smith, Bruce, Berson, Creedon, Austin, Crumley, Olson, Cochran, Jim and Cindy Cook, Beres, Granger, Bangle, Stephens and Greene.

Guests: None.

Minutes posted on the web site additions or corrections? None.

Treasurers Report: Income for the Bank of America account is $ 55.01 with the expenses being $ 44.40. New balance for checking account is $ 1,928.30. The CD is currently $ 6,128.85.

Old Business: None.

New Business: None.

General Business: The Jefferson County Pilots Association voted Jim and Cindy Cook a well deserved recognition. Bill Berson had the honor of presenting them with an award for their volunteering. Lou Creedon "got down" to the facts about what size electric motor really goes into one’s airplane. Tom Cochran graciously printed copies of Lou’s info for everyone at the meeting.

Crash of the Month: Roy Greene won by a no hands down, chuckling, unanimous vote!

Special Service Award: None.

Closing: The business closed 22 minutes later with chairs banging and a mad rush to participate in the evening’s program.

Program: SWAP MEET

FROM THE PRESIDENT’S HOBBY SHOP

Mr. Stephens,

As far as I know you are the first and only to volunteer for the position of Safety Officer. If that is the case we would be honored to have you on staff.

Mr. Granger,

If you have no other name in the hat, please announce to the membership we have filled the position of Safety Officer, soon to be relinquished by Tim Bangle.

We also want to thank Tim for his support in the club, wish him the best of luck overseas and look forward to his return.

GREG MARKEN

AROUND THE CLUB

J Thanks to Bob Kampmann for this one (where the heck does he find all this weird stuff?):

NEW MEMBERS

I hope to obtain a brief bio and a picture of our new members to enhance their introduction to the membership. This is voluntary on the part of the newbie, but it should be beneficial for all.

HINTS, KINKS, AND STUFF

J Thanks to dear friend Ben Fellows for this SR-71 RC model web site:

J Thanks to Jack (the retired airline pilot) Brown an old mountaineering bud for this one.

JUST PLANE FUN

I found a rather amusing bit in last month’s Model Aviation. One of the write-ups made mention of "The Bag of Shame." I deduced from the context that this referred to a large black plastic bag filled with small pieces that used to be a model. I really cannot think of a more appropriate term!

About 1951 the McNabb Co. brought out a radio system on 465mc that did not require a ham license to operate. The receiver operated a single relay and the sheet aluminum antenna was mounted under the receiver printed circuit board which was roughly 6 inches square. The intent was to shock mount the radio from the 4 corners of the board using rubber bands.

The system was the first reliable non-licensed equipment that I know of and they sold a bunch. I bought just a receiver in hopes of using a friend’s transmitter—and that just about exhausted my tiny savings account. I designed many of my airplanes back then, and my first RC was to be no exception. It ended up looking a lot like present day trainers. I used cheap silk scarves from the dime store to cover my creation (orange wings with green body and tail feathers) and painted it with clear dope. If memory serves me, I had it ready to go in the Fall of 1952.

All the RCers in our club took over when I got to our flying field and I was allowed to start the engine only after they had finished inspecting, tuning, testing, and just plain tinkering. It was dusk by then, so there was time for only one attempt. The only control was rudder with a wound rubber band supplying the "muscle" to an escapement. The normal escapement sequence was right rudder, neutral, left rudder, and neutral—all activated by a single pushbutton on the transmitter. Since there was no engine control, the engine had to be set up so that it could fly the plane, but not climb excessively.

They hand launched the plane for me and it climbed up to about 30 feet. I turned left and it appeared to hold at 30 feet. Two more left turns brought it back toward us, still at about 30 feet. Just after it passed over our heads it stalled…and the flight was terminated! The airplane was easily repaired, but we could never get the receiver to work again. That rubber band shock mounting was supposed to have a travel limiting cord in case of a crash, and I had not installed one. The receiver was sort of "wrinkled" and I did not have the money to send it in for a factory repair.

FIELD MAINTENANCE

I think Seth Stephens should be anointed Volunteer of the Year. Not only did he step up to the Safety Officer job, but he is also the field maintenance guy for this month. Many thanks, Seth.

EDITORIAL—How fortunate we are!

Our club had its organizational meeting in the tri-area community center. Our small meeting room cost about $15 for the 2 hours we used it—and we had no money in the treasury until we decided what the dues should be and a few of us joined. We never met there again as it was just too expensive.

We met in the county library for perhaps 6 months until they decided they too wanted room rental. John Tyner offered his MiniMania hobby shop as a meeting place for free—the price was right! The coffee shop next door allowed us to use some of their chairs (by then meeting attendance had grown from 3 or 4 to sometimes 8 or more). As the membership (and attendance) grew, we crowded ourselves out of John’s small shop. Dick Benjamin offered to investigate using the SKP clubhouse and the rest as they say, is history.

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 (JPEG) pictures are also acceptable.

MONTHLY MEETING—August 11 at 7:00 in the SKP Clubhouse

The officers will meet at 6:45 to solve the world’s problems. The real meeting will follow. It probably will not take much to win the much sought after COTM award as I have not heard of any Bag of Shame events. The program features Chuck Dantzler who will treat us to a lesson on soldering.

Pete Granger

granger@olypen.com