MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING

Opening meeting: Meeting was called to order by President Greg Marken at 7:04 pm.

Attending: The members attending were Pendleton, Berson, Marken, Bangle, Greene, Anliker, Smith, Granger, Bruce, Crumley, Creedon, Stephens, Kampmann, Olson, Moffett, Benjamin, Henley, J. Beres, Reinach, J. Cook, C. Cook, Calkins, and Berger.

Guests: Brad Hensley and Lance Boyle.

Minutes posted on the web site were approved as read.

Treasurers Report: Bank of America, checking account balance is currently at $ 2.782.76 and the Quimper CD balance is $ 5,108.59. There was a unanimous vote during the Officers meeting to take $ 1,000.00 from the Bank of America checking account and roll it into the Quimper CD account.

New Business: Bill Berson nominated Greg and Jeanie Marken for doing such a fine job producing the club’s current name tags. Bob Kampmann’s support came in with a second to the motion. The members around the table were also in agreement.

General: Conversation concerning the Hood Canal Bridge being closed for at least one and maybe two meetings inspired two club’s reaching out to each other. Over on the Kitsap side of the bridge the Olympic Radio Control Association Club has extended an invitation to the Tri-Area RC Flyers who cannot easily get back to the flying field at Chimacum to join them at their flying field at Port Gamble. The Tri-Area RC Flyers chose to reciprocate by extending a like invite to the Olympic Radio Control Association Club back on this side of the bridge.

Crash of the Month: Lou Creedon was hanging his head low when the question came up, "who is the crash of the month?" There was some self incrimination by Lou when he volunteered…in the Lou sort of way, "three flights and three crashes!"

Special Service Award: Goes to Greg and Jeanie Marken.

Meeting closed at 7:35 pm.

Program: Lawrence Pendleton will share some of his current radio/transmitter modification and repair.

AROUND THE CLUB

J Thanks to Bob Kampmann for this one:

Whether or not you're an airplane nut like me, I'm sure you can appreciate and enjoy alla the good stuff on this site!  Check out the photo of the Thunderbird pilot doing a zero altitude eject!

http://www.idahobushco.com/Videoclips.html

Click here: YouTube - 9-vlek avi

Or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAdIkB5rbgo 

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.

Our last bit of history concluded with the invention of the glow plug by Ray Arden. He also made Arden .09 and .19 engines that featured an aluminum prop nut that broke when the propeller contacted something.

Somehow every boy in the neighborhood managed to acquire an Arden .09 and we set about to teach ourselves to fly U-control. We soon came up with a very basic airplane (box fuselage, sheet tail feathers, and a plank wing) but the landing gear mounting was weak. One of the kids came up with a plywood sandwich for the gear that bolted to the firewall along with the engine. This was a HUGE jump in productivity for all of us as it could be moved from destroyed plane to new (or occasionally repaired) plane along with the engine and the broken prop nut of course. The life span of our planes in those early days was measured in flights. Completing even 1 flight without a crash was cause for celebration! Eventually those of us that stuck with it got better and by the end of a whole summer of flying and crashing I sometimes had a plane that lasted long enough to bother wiping some of the oil off it.

HINTS, KINKS, AND STUFF

J Thanks to Ron Jans, a Wisconsin flying friend:

Last year, the Lafayette Foundation's Vintage Aero Flying Museum finally completed work on its Fokker D.VIII monoplane.  The airframe is a careful reproduction from original Fokker drawings, including the intricate cantilever wing.  There is no external bracing.  For usability and reliability, the Fokker was fitted with a Continental R-670, a Scott tail wheel, and disk brakes.  The airplane is a magnificent creation and one of only a few in the world.  I recently had the opportunity to shoot the first air-to-air photos of the Fokker.  See them here.

J Thanks to neighbor Bob Skoien and several others for this animated assembly of the Space Station:

J We had a bunch of very nice airplanes at the last meeting. I got decent pictures of only a few of them:

JUST PLANE FUN

J Thanks to Bob Kampmann for this treatise on helicopters:

A bunch of spare parts flying in close formation.

Anything that screws its way into the sky flies according to unnatural
principals. 

You never want to sneak up behind an old, high-time helicopter pilot and
clap your hands.  He will instantly dive for cover and most likely whimper
.... then get up and smack the crap out of you. 

There are no old helicopters lying around airports like you see old
airplanes. There is a reason for this. 
Come to think of it, there are not many old, high-time helicopter pilots
hanging around airports either so the first issue is problematic.

You can always tell a helicopter pilot in anything moving: a train, an
airplane, a car or a boat. They never smile, they are always listening to
the machine and they always hear something they think is not right.

Helicopter pilots fly in a mode of intensity, actually more like "spring
loaded", while waiting for pieces of their ship to fall off...

Flying a helicopter at any altitude over 500 feet is considered reckless and
should be avoided. 

Flying a helicopter at any altitude or condition that precludes a landing in
less than 20 seconds is considered outright foolhardy.

Remember in a helicopter you have about 1 second to lower the collective in
an engine failure before the craft becomes unrecoverable. Once you've failed
this maneuver the machine flies about as well as a 20 case Coke machine.

Even a perfectly executed autorotation only gives you a glide ratio slightly
better than that of a brick... 

While hovering, if you start to sink a bit, you pull up on the collective
while twisting the throttle, push with your left foot (more torque) and move
the stick left (more translating tendency) to hold your spot. > If you now
need to stop rising, you do the opposite in that order. Sometimes in wind
you do this many times each second. Don't you think that's a strange way to
fly?

For Helicopters: You never want to feel a sinking feeling in your gut (low
"g"  pushover) while flying a two bladed under slung teetering rotor system.
You are about to do a snap-roll to the right and crash.

For that matter, any remotely aerobatic maneuver should be avoided in a
Huey. 

Don't push your luck... It will run out soon enough anyway. 

If everything is working fine on your helicopter consider yourself
temporarily lucky. Something is about to break. 

Harry Reasoner once wrote the following about helicopter pilots:
"The thing is, helicopters are different from planes. An airplane by its
nature wants to fly, and if not interfered with too strongly by unusual
events or by an incompetent pilot, it will fly. A helicopter does not want
to fly. It is maintained in the air by a variety of forces and controls
working in opposition to each other. Having said all this, I must admit that
flying in a helicopter is one of the most satisfying and exhilarating
experiences I have ever enjoyed:  skimming over the tops of trees at 100
knots is something we should all be able to do, at least once".

And remember the fighter pilot's prayer: "Lord I pray for the eyes of an
eagle, the heart of a lion and to fly with them the balls of a helicopter pilot."

Many years later, I know that it was sometimes anything but fun, but now it
IS something to brag about for those of us who survived the experience. 

The one thing that wasn't on that list is the reason that helicopters can
fly at all. They're so ugly, the earth repels them.

FIELD MAINTENANCE

EDITORIAL—R/C Flyers

My travels around the country have exposed me to a lot of our R/C fraternity. In all the years and all the different places I have come across only 1 person that was a total jerk and 2 or 3 that were bores. All the rest (MANY, MANY) have been true sportsmen and gentlemen in every way. Just like at our field, if the guys learn you need something or have a problem they will move heaven and earth to help you out.

If you really read the minutes you are aware that the ORCA R/C Club has invited our members that live on the wrong side of Hood Canal Bridge to fly with them at their Port Orchard site until the bridge reopens. No conditions and no fees. What you may not know is that our own Dale Olson is president of the ORCAs. Be sure to thank him the next time you see him.

Not to be outdone, our club has extended the same invitation to them. I wish we had thought this thing through a little better and originated the offer, but this whole thing makes me proud to be an R/C flyer—how about you?

I went to the AMA web site and got the ORCA web site:

http://www.flyorca.com/

This is a very nice web site and they do provide a map to their field.

MANY THANKS TO ALL YOU ORCA 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 (JPEG) pictures are also acceptable.

MONTHLY MEETING—May 12 at 7:00 in the SKP Clubhouse

President Greg is taking this meeting off just because the bridge is closed (the wimp). VP Bill still wants the officers to meet at 6:30 just in case they need to vent before the meeting. Lawrence Pendelton will put on a dazzling program about some of his radio mods and (gasp!) repairs.

Pete Granger