MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING

The meeting was called to order by President Benjamin at 7:00PM at the SKP clubhouse. Attending were: Benjamin, Anliker, Dantzler, Cook, Takata, Creedon, Granger, Greene, Hanke, Olson, Oaks, Calkins, Fitch, Nodell, G. Smith and Moffett. Guests attending were Ron Greening and Bob Reinach.

The minutes of the last meeting were approved as read and the Treasurer’s report indicated total assets of $4547.27; comprised of $707.27 in the checking account, $840 in fuel inventory and $3000 in a CD. Our new fuel supply is in and the supplier has raised the price 1$/gal., thus increasing our price to $15 / gal.

Show and Tell night will be next meeting. There will be a brief Board meeting at 6:00 and no general meeting. Members should have their exhibits set up before 7:00 when it will be open to the public. We will need to have cookies and coffee available for our guests.

The Fun Fly will be held on 8/20, beginning at 9:00AM. So far the planned events will be Loop, Land and Draw, Climb and Glide, Timed Loops and Dead- Stick Spot Landing. We will provide hamburgers, hot dogs and soft drinks.

There will be a work party on the 14^th to clean up the area and make necessary repairs.

Our guest Bob Reinach graciously donated a model to the club. Cookies , provided by the Granger and Takata households, were greatly appreciated.

The prestigious Crash-of-the-Month Trophy went to Grant Smith in spite of pathetic attempts at obfuscation and prevarication; much to the relief of Calkins, Benjamin and Granger.

The meeting was adjourned and we entertained by an account of Lew Creedon’s visit to England and his aircraft pictures.

Submitted by Bill Anliker, Sec./Treas

AROUND THE CLUB

>June 27 was another drismal day, but there was no wind, so I grabbed my Ace All Star biplane and headed for the field. Sure enough, there was no wind (and nobody) at the field. On the first flight the engine was a bit lean and I put it down after getting the trims reset. On the next flight the engine was perfect and airplane responses were good, so I decided to try an outside loop from the top. Well, that biplane refused to tuck under at the bottom, so it was going straight down at full throttle and I decided to pull out with up elevator—no problem as I still had ample altitude. That was when the top wing decided to become an IFO (independent flying object) and turned that biplane into a lawn dart. I did not even have time to throttle back before I heard a WHOOMP! as the plane went in. Meanwhile the IFO continued to flutter down to a gentle landing in the tall grass. The delinquent wing landed about 10 feet from where the tail stuck up above the grass. The engine had gone into the mud so deep that I had to rock the fuselage around like you do to get a fence post out! There was no debris field and the damage was surprisingly light, but the engine sure was loaded with mud.

HINTS, KINKS, AND STUFF

http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=HydroFoam

My system is very slow and the download took forever. If you are hooked into a faster system you will appreciate this one a lot more.

>Nate Moffett sends: This is a new generation Russian fighter, the SU-35. India bought this aircraft and won all competition at the world air show. The unusual "stall" is called the COBRA and this is the only aircraft that can do this at high speed....more than once, that is! There are two videos on this same link (takes about 6-1/2 min).

AERONAUTICAL JOKE

>The chief of staff of the US Air Force decided that he would personally
intervene in the recruiting crisis affecting all of our armed services. He
directed that a nearby Air Force base be opened and all eligible
young men and women be invited. As he and his staff were standing near a
brand new F- 15 Fighter, a pair of twin brothers who looked like they had
just stepped off a Marine Corps recruiting poster walked up to them.

The chief of staff walked up to them, stuck out his hand and introduced
himself. He looked at the first young man and asked, "Son, what skills can
you bring to the Air Force?" The young man looks at him and says, "I'm a
pilot!" The general gets all excited, turns to his aide and says, "Get him
in today, all the paper work done, everything, do it!" The aide hustles the
young man off.

The general looks at the second young man and asked, "What skills to you
bring to the Air Force?" The young man says, "I chop wood!" "Son," the
general replies, "we don't need wood choppers in the Air Force, what do you
know how to do?" "I chop wood!"

"Young man," huffs the general, "you are not listening to me, we don't need
wood choppers, this is the 20th century!" "Well," the young man says, "you
hired my brother!" "Of course we did," says the general, "he's a pilot!" The
young man rolls his eyes and says, "Dang it, I have to chop it before he can
pile it!"


>An Air Force aircraft was attempting a night landing at an auxiliary field.
Pilot: "Requesting landing instruction."
Controller: "Aircraft requesting landing instruction, say again call-sign."
Pilot:" Guess who?"

At this time the airfield runway lights turn off.

Controller:" Guess where."

ROOKIE REPORT

>I arrived at the field just after Harry Takata (and we had not discussed flying) June 25, so got in another 3 flights with Harry doing all the takeoffs. One or both of us was having an off day, so the flying was not as good as the last time.

MEET THE MEMBERS—Jim Cook

One sunny day in 1995 my wife, Cindy and I quit our jobs, hopped in our RV and hit the road. We traveled coast-to-coast, border-to-border in this great land. Along the way we bought an Olympic 650 sailplane. I taught myself to fly it. I don’t recommend that action to anyone. (Can produce heaps of commotion and frighten small animals.)

I love to slope soar. It’s a real kick to toss a motorless model off the side of a hill and watch it go up. Nesting birds in the area sometimes come up and squawk at my model. When this happens I roll to inverted and then they usually leave me alone. I have flown many sites from Los Banos, CA to Point of the Mountain, Utah to Morningside Park in New Hampshire. All of them have wonderful flying and beautiful scenery.

When no windy slope is available we pull out an electric thingy of some sort. Most of my electric models are made of foam so the earth isn’t damaged when I smack it.

After 10 years on the road we decided to try living like normal people. So we sold our motorhome, purchased a home in Port Ludlow and joined the Tri-Area Flyers R/C Flyers. Life is good.

EDITORIAL

I thought I would talk a little about Funfly events instead of standing on a shaky soapbox and thumping a podium. The following are events selected at the July meeting:

Pilot takes off, does a loop, and lands.  His raw score is the time in seconds for the flight.  Pilot then draws a card.  Aces are 1, face cards are 10, and numbered cards are face value.  The flight score is multiplied by the card number for the final score.  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.

A spot will be marked in the center of the runway. Pilots will takeoff, position their planes, kill the engine/motor, and glide to a landing on the airplane wheels. The shortest measured distance to the spot wins. Landing gear is required for this event and the plane must come to a stop on its wheels.

Do as many loops as possible in a TBD second period. The loops must be normal inside loops with a more or less vertical orientation.

The contest will be held August 20^th and will start about 9:00am. There are no entry fees and the club is furnishing hot dogs, hamburgers, and pop after the conclusion of all events. The first place winner of each event will receive a gallon of 15% fuel.

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.

This plane, finished to resemble Ernst Udet’s plane in the spring of 1916, has just 7 flights on it, has never crashed or even broken a prop. It flies like a trainer, lands gently, and performs the maneuvers that the real plane was capable of including the Emmelmann. I flew it with my OS91FS. The plane is complete and undamaged, but you will need 5 servos and the rest of the radio gear, motor mounts, and a suitable engine. I’m asking less than the cost of the materials at $150.00 which includes some scale documentation and a book. I need the workshop space.

The upper flying wires do not have to be disconnected—ever. The lower flying wires are disconnected by a fishing line snap at just 4 places when the wing is removed. The drooping ailerons are not connected to servos in this picture. The real Eindecker used wing warping instead of ailerons.

Pete Granger 379-3185

MANEUVER OF THE MONTH (MOM)—Competitive Crashing Part 2

Last month we discussed basic competitive crashing, and we will continue in the same vein this month. First, though, I want to thank the anonymous person that released me from those nasty restraints so I could (heh, heh) continue this series. We will explore the many maneuvers that can provide crashes ranging from adequate to spectacular. Since the literature on this subject is so sparse, I guess you could say we are breaking new ground here. Thus, I have chosen to address some of the more common maneuvers in alphabetical order instead of trying to sort by, showiest, largest debris field, or other criteria that most folks would dispute anyway.

The Auger—In order to perform this crash you must be able to do a spin with your plane. The idea is to hold the spin all the way to the ground. You say nobody is dumb enough to do that? Au contraire—I watched Russ Petersen’s son do this maneuver into the Arizona brush on a perfect flying day. The debris field was disappointing, but the airplane and ancillary equipment were thoroughly destroyed.

Dive for Glory—This is kind of an entry-level maneuver, but it really is not as easy as you might think. The trick is to get the airplane very close to vertical on the impact site, making sure the spinner or nose is the first part to arrive. Throttle position is not critical; indeed, I believe some of our glider guiders have been able to do this one.

Flip Flop—This is probably the most difficult crash to do properly. The idea is to touch down at high speed and have the landing gear "trip" over an obstruction so that the model goes end over end with frequent ground contact. If perfectly executed the resulting debris field is awesome. I believe our club crash video has several of these, so they may only be done in front of TV cameras.

Oops—This is the high-speed inverted pass down the runway gone wrong, and is one of the showiest of all crashes. Debris field and destruction of equipment are usually very satisfactory.

Pancake—The only way to do a real pancake is to flat spin all the way to impact even though there are many that maintain pulling out a few inches too low should also be included here. I will grant the low pull out people that their version usually results in more scattered wreckage, however.

Splish Splash—Water or gooey mud is essential for this maneuver, but the pilot is allowed great latitude for impact velocity and attitude. The main thing is to produce the highest possible fountain of water or mud. My crash into the hog wallow would qualify for this, but I must admit that I was unable to produce much of a splash because the water had been extensively thickened with…er…sludge.

Tail Digger—No, that is not a mistake. This is not necessarily a very competitive effort, but it really thrills the spectators. The idea is to go into a hover over the runway, then kill the engine (some engines will do this for you). The trick to this is to maintain the tail first attitude all the way to impact.

The Strainer—It is imperative that your plane flies all the way through the straining medium so that bits and pieces of airframe spew out the far side of the impact site. Trees and bushes are the usual strainer materials, but I managed to fly my first electric model most of the way through a baseball backstop!

The Wounded Duck—This may be the most competitive approach of all, but is very attitude dependant, as you want to touch down on a wingtip and nose or spinner at the same time. Structural damage is acute and a very satisfying debris field is common.

I will continue next month with Part 3. If you have some competitive crash ideas, please share them with me and I will pass them on.

MONTHLY MEETING—Tuesday August 9 in the SKP Clubhouse

I’m not sure I will still be your newsletter editor by the time you get this. Last meeting the program was centered on ways to eliminate me before I gave the club a bad name with all this crashing and bashing. Tar and feathers was right up there with boiling in oil (too expensive) and not being allowed to ever crash again (I found that one to be especially cruel). The August meeting is always devoted to a Show and Tell event for our SKP hosts and the club members bring cookies to share. We will start setup about 6:30 and "open the doors" at 7:00. Do bring some airplanes and do a short write-up telling about each one. We will be inviting the SKPs to pick their favorite airplane this time.

MEMBER BUSINESS ADVERTISEMENTS

The Board has approved allowing club members to place small ads in the newsletter at no charge. The ads will be included in the newsletter so long as the newsletter editor receives a monthly request for each one.

A professionally written manual to introduce all aspects of the RC hobby from getting started through intermediate aerobatics. Download order forms, order on line, or view the Table of Contents at www.thercflightmanual.com

Petersen & Granger, LLC

As always, your comments, jokes, pictures, life story, etc are solicited and welcomed.

Pete Granger

granger@olypen.com