The Christmas Party

Nancy Patnode and her husband were not able to attend, since she was recovering from surgery. Bob Kampmann will call her just before the January meeting to see if she can attend, to present her with our Friend/Supporter of the Club plaque.

Rachel did her "as usual" superb job of preparing and serving a sumptuous dinner, with the help of a group of volunteers from SKP.

She and Bill Anliker were thanked for their continuing and in-depth support of the Club, and were presented with their Friend/Supporter of the Club plaques.

Sandy and Roger Short were present and were given an envelope containing the annual field rental monies.  They were delighted to be invited to the dinner and said so!

We all had a grand time playing "switch the presents", and since we had some left over (huge Hershey's bars of various flavors), Greg Marken and I agreed to distribute them to the kitchen staff, who were all groaning (but delighted) at the sight of the candy!

THE PREZ SEZ—HELP WANTED

Perhaps you could post a "webmaster wanted" in the newsletter next time?  Just a suggestion of course...

Bruce's reply is below my message.

Bob

----- Original Message -----

Sent: Friday, November 23, 2007 9:40 AM

Subject: District XI website

Hello, Bruce.

I was just scrolling through the above and found some of the info. at the bottom of the page to be out of date, among other things.

Could you please forward this to the webmaster (I figured it would be better coming from you!) so that we can have current info. (such as the annual Hobby Expo) for our members?

I know that the guys and gals in my club, Tri-Area R/C Fliers, look forward to the show as the kickoff of the flying season.

Thanks in advance for your support and attention to this!

Bob Kampmann

AMA #373

President, Tri-Area R/C Fliers

Chimacum, WA 

AROUND THE CLUB

>Thanks, Pete, for the news letter. We have been without our e-mail for some time and just got it set up again. We are in our motor home on the way down to AZ. We will be returning in April. If I remember right you also spend time there. Have a great winter. See you in the spring.

Keith Allred

http://home.comcast.net/~bzee1a/

>From Bob Kampmann:

I've heard some grumblings about AMA dues not being prorated at the latter stages of the year, and I wasn't aware of the "Dues special" that AMA offers, until I found this link.

https://www.modelaircraft.org/joinrenew.aspx

It's an introduction to AMA, one time only offer, for new members.

$19.95, 3 month, full insurance coverage, and if the 'newbie' decides to continue, can be applied to the balance of a year's dues. 

NEIGHBOR RELATIONS—Bill Anliker

Last week I paid a visit to our neighbors across the valley in the Yellow house.  Bob Kampmann and I had talked about this and I suggested we give them one of the Xmas swags that I have been giving to the Sayers who are our closest neighbors. We found that the property had been sold to two ladies from Seattle. I met one of the owners and told her this was a welcoming gift from her neighbors across the valley and told her about our club.  She was most gracious and very appreciative of our effort. When I told her that we had gotten off on the wrong foot with the previous owner she said that several other people had a similar experience. She said that noise from our field was not a problem as it was no louder than the highway noise. I gave her a copy of the letter we sent to the previous owner which enumerated our efforts to avoid problems with him.  I also gave her my and Bob's phone numbers and e-mail addresses with the request that they contact us if they have any concerns, questions, etc.

I told her we would teach her to fly, but she declined.  She said they had a plane crash in her field not long ago and she brought the wreckage over to our field as she thought there may be some parts that were usable. Now we know what happened to Gary Austin's sailplane.

If we put a plane down on their property we should ask permission to get it and I'm sure there will be no problems. These are good people and I recommend that we give them the Xmas gift every year.

Bill Anliker

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 newbys, but it should be beneficial for all.

HINTS, KINKS, AND STUFF

>From John Morris, who was in the Duncan Balsa Bugs with me a zillion years ago: Subject: Vintage (1943) film showing model flying

Old time free flight and early Flights by the Good brothers and their R/C plane/ Great old black and with film.

JUST PLANE FUN

Two British traffic patrol officers from North Berwick were involved
in an unusual incident while checking for speeding motorists on the A1
Great North Road. One of the officers used a hand-held radar device to
check the speed of a vehicle approaching over the crest of a hill, and
was surprised when the speed was recorded at over 300 mph. Their radar
suddenly stopped working and the officers were not able to reset it.

Just then a deafening roar over the treetops revealed that the radar
had in fact latched on to a NATO Tornado fighter jet, which was engaged
in a low-flying exercise over the Border district, approaching from
the North Sea.

Back at police headquarters the chief constable fired off a stiff
complaint to the RAF Liaison office.

Back came the reply in true laconic RAF style:

"Thank you for your message, which allows us to complete the file on
this incident. You may be interested to know that the tactical
computer in the Tornado had detected the presence of, and subsequently
locked onto, your hostile radar equipment and automatically sent a
jamming signal back to it. Furthermore, an air-to-ground missile
aboard the fully armed aircraft had also automatically locked onto
your equipment. Fortunately the pilot flying the Tornado recognized
the situation for what it was, quickly responded to the missile
systems alert status, and was able to override the automated defense
system before the missile was launched and your hostile radar
installation was destroyed.

Good Day..."

EDITORIAL—The Frequency Controversy

There have been several reports of interference at the field starting with Pete Bruce nearly a year ago. His solution is the most elegant—he switched to a new Spread Spectrum system, something that may be out of financial reach for many of our members. Recently Tim Bangle lost his trainer while Jim Crumley was flying it. There have been a lot of e-mails exchanged among the officers and Tim trying to decide what to do. The interference seems to be in the 20 series channels, and by now the frequency board at the field should be "Red Flagged" on the offending frequency slots.

I have never gotten hit in all my travels, but have lost planes due to equipment failures like the battery coming unplugged! The various frequency control systems are effective, but external interference is always possible. The club frequency checker has identified an area wide problem in channel 25 (if I remember correctly). It is possible that we have a problem with the frequency monitor, so an independent verification of this situation is desirable.

If you are flying on the offending frequencies, the only prudent thing to do is switch to a "good" frequency. All you need to do is change crystals in your receivers and transmitters—no retuning required. Be sure to range check your equipment after making the changes! Tony Stillman has an excellent range check procedure in the December 2007 R/C Report magazine.

Now some folks say that the new crystals should be only a few (2 or 3) channels away from the existing setup; others say that the transmitter frequency should be in the same frequency group (high or low) as it was to begin with. I once switched a Hi-tech RCD transmitter from channel 40 to 35 after conferring with the Hi-tech people. They were totally unconcerned about the frequency change and stated that no retuning was needed.

As with all things in this life, the choices are yours along with the grief if you don’t make the right choice!

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.

>GLIDER GUIDER ALERT

Cularis Glider--as reviewed in the November issue of Quietflyer Magazine--in fact, the exact model that was reviewed. Only flown for the review and once afterwards. Perfect condition, ready to fly; and it really does fly quite well just as I stated in the review. List price as setup with recommended brushless motor, Lipo battery, 6 upgraded servos etc would be just under $700. I'll take $350. Reason for sale: so I can buy more toys...my hanger is pretty full at the moment!  Contact me at jtolpin@waypoint.com or 385-5247 for more info, photos etc.  Jim Tolpin

MONTHLY MEETING—January 8 at 7:00 in the SKP Clubhouse

Officers will meet at 6:30 unless otherwise notified. With all the bad weather I’ll be surprised if we even have a candidate for crash of the month! Our new program chairman, VP, and president pro tem Bob Kaufmann would sure like to get some ideas and volunteers for club programs. Bob has a lot on his plate until Jim Cook comes back in the spring, so try to help him out.

Pete Granger

granger@olypen.com