MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING

The meeting was called to order at the SKP Clubhouse at 7:00PM by President Granger. In attendance were: Granger, Anliker, Benjamin, McIntyre, Nodell, Fitch, Lemons, Gilanders, Crumley, Wylie and Allred, with guests of Mr. and Mrs. Jim Cook.

The minutes of last month’s meeting were approved as read. The Treasurer’s report showed assets of $4053.68, comprised of $3619.68 in the bank account and $434 worth of fuel (31 gal.). An audit of the Treasurer’s books from the inception of the club until 11/1/04 was presented by John Fitch and accepted.

Keith Allred was presented with the prestigious Qualified Pilot Certificate.

Lawn Mower A motion to abandon plans to buy a new lawn mower was passed due to uncertainty about the future of the flying field in lieu of the fact that the property is being offered for sale. Roy Greene has offered to work on the red mower and Bill Anliker and Jim Crumley are repairing the Cub Cadet. Thanks were due to Pete Hanke who hauled his own mower from home and mowed during the month.

Field Search Several possibilities for alternate flying fields were discussed; however it seemed prudent to wait and see if the area is going to be sold before dealing on another site. It was felt that the present owner of our field is probably our best bet for another site in the event the present one is sold.

Name Tags Anyone who wants a name tag should contact President Granger with $5 in his hand. Tags won’t be ordered until after the first of the year.

Expenditure Authorization The Treasurer was authorized to make the year-end expenditures necessary for field rent, gift certificate for the property owner, gift for our nearest neighbor and AMA dues and insurance.

Christmas Party This will be held at 6:00PM on the 14^th of December and will be catered at the cost of $10.50/plate to be paid in advance to Dick B. There will be a white elephant gift exchange as in the past, with value not to exceed $10. Gifts should be marked for gender if appropriate. Benjamin graciously donated a new GMS 61 engine for a raffle prize.

Election of Officers After much contentious electioneering, the following slate of officers were voted in for 2005: President - Dick Benjamin, Vice President – Pete Hanke, Sec/Treas – Bill Anliker, Director – Jack Lemons and Safety Officer - Dave Henley.

Crash of the Month Trophy Randy Calkins received the trophy by fessing up to a minor mishap, probably to divert attention from a real crash which he is keeping secret.

The meeting was adjourned and we all enjoyed Mrs. Granger’s cookies.

Submitted by: Bill Anliker, Sec/Treas.

AROUND THE CLUB

We lost Wylie just before Thanksgiving. I thought it would be appropriate to share the comments I received from our group—all unsolicited.

>I am saddened to report that Wylie passed away this morning....He will be missed by all of us!!!!  Dick Benjamin

>We lost Wylie Tuesday November 23.  He fought a losing battle with cancer, but always maintained an upbeat spirit.  He touched us all for the better and we will sorely miss him.  Pete Granger

HINTS, KINKS, AND STUFF

>Product Report: I recently bought a Great Planes nylon spinner with an aluminum back plate. I really liked the lightening holes that had been machined in the back plate, but when I tried to install the prop I realized that there were no indexing features to align the prop with the back plate so the spinner attach screws would engage the tapped holes in the back plate. I’m not using mine and I recommend that you not buy this product. It looks like grief waiting to happen.

This is the replacement for my old Hawg Wild. The original had 340 flights and I did my first ever flat spins on its last 2 flights. The new version has a box body and bolt on wings. The control surfaces all have +/- 45 degree movement on high rates, and half that on low rates with a whole lot of exponential to hopefully make it more controllable. My desire is to have a more compact traveling plane that is truly 3 D capable. More after the initial flights. Curse this weather!!!!!

December 1 was an OK day, so I took HWII out to play for the first time. It was nearly perfect, requiring only 2 clicks of up elevator to fly just the way I like. The roll rate is awesome and it even knife edges with some aileron input. My only company was David Henley with his Tiger Moth, but it gave me a chance to catch up on all his travels.

>The other day I was assembling my new electric Tribute, a 3D capable park flyer. It is all foam sheet about ¼" thick. By accident or design the wings have a little dihedral and are slipped through a tight slot in the profile fuselage body. Then comes the usual alignment process, but I could not figure out how to get the body perpendicular to the wing because of the dihedral. Finally I brought in a couple of ornamental concrete blocks to use as wing rests. I cut up the airplane box and put the pieces over the blocks for protection. Finally, I put a weight on the inverted wing, which took out the dihedral and pushed the blocks together forcing the pieces into right angles with each other. Not only that, but the whole assembly was held rock steady as I applied foam safe super glue!

Regular membership $45

Family membership $55

According to our Bylaws: "All dues are due and payable the first (1^st) of January. Delinquent members who have not paid their dues by the fifteenth (15^th) of February will be dropped from the membership."

Dues can be made payable to TriArea RC Flyers and sent to Bill Anliker, 1364 Schwartz Rd., Nordland WA 98358

We have four videos that can be loaned out:

"Perfect Airframe Alignment"

"Crasher One –R/C bloopers"

"Learn to Fly 3D"

"Model Sport Video Magazine"

We also have three copies of the Granger/Petersen RC Flight Manual.

(Three copies of this are still out and should be returned for use by the members)

All these items can be checked out from the Sec/Treas.

AERONAUTICAL JOKE

Airline announcement: "Weather at our destination is 50 degrees with some broken clouds, but we'll try to have them fixed before we arrive.
Thank you, and remember, nobody loves you, or your money,
more than Southwest Airlines."

MEET THE MEMBERS—Pete Hanke

Have always been a northwest family but have definitely straddled the mountains throughout the years.  Started out on Saltspring Island in Canada.  Dad then moved the family to Sunnyside, WA where we farmed for twenty years in the Yakima valley.   Grew up running D8 cats and 95H John Deere combines.

Loved to farm but that was not to be.  Went to college, got to cowboy in Hawaii and Montana, worked on John Wayne's yacht for a year and eventually settled here in Port Townsend in 1983.  Worked as a carpenter and landscaper.  Then went into a sport fishing charter business that eventually became a dive charter business that grew into the passenger ferry service between Port Townsend and the San Juan islands.  That was twenty years ago.  Along the way; I got married, had two great kids and somewhere in there built a house that we still live in today.  It has been a great life.

The modeling (mostly plastic) came on as a kid.  At one time I had 137 models on display in my bedroom.  Took up some serious wall space.  Watched my mom suck the entire rigging off the Cutty Sark with one shot of the vacuum.  Also, I had a COX Corsair and AT6 on control line but had a hard time getting any real flight time off of gravel roads.

Didn't pick up RC airplanes until meeting Wylie five years ago at the hobby shop.  He kept telling me that the club was growing fast and I had better get an application in before it was filled up.  Finally picked up a Tower trainer and was very fortunate to have a great teacher in Pete Granger who got me flying in no time.  I love the sport and have never looked back.   Today I have seven planes, all gas and that seems to keep me pretty busy. 

EDITORIAL

The Christmas Party

Twas the night before Wednesday and all through the hall Merry Christmas rang out to one and to all.

We had 26 pilots and family turn out for this one. After a short socializing period, we sat down, had a moment of silence remembering Wylie, and started dinner. Shrimp cocktail and salad was soon followed by prime rib, green beans, and potatoes. But wait! We were hardly finished stuffing ourselves when cheesecake with strawberries and whipped cream jumped in front of us. Rachel really did a great job and she also took care of all the serving and table clearing. We really felt like royalty!

Bill Anliker read a Thank You card he had received from our neighbors just to the north of the field access road:

Was that nice or what?

Just before raffle ticket sales were closed, John Fitch sent wife Billie up for more tickets "because she’s been really lucky lately." Sure enough John won the MDS 61—with one of Billie’s tickets! Bill Anliker has been trying to get rid of the last club sweatshirt for nearly 2 years, and he and I had agreed that it would go as the second prize of the raffle. Bill’s ticket was drawn! Bill managed to avoid taking the shirt home with some fast and fancy footwork, and Jack Lemons ended up with it.

The gift exchange was a lot of fun and went smoothly. Most folks clung to their initial gift, but a few intrepid souls did some "trading." I think Roy Greene and his wife swapped back and forth at least twice. As we broke up John Fitch went around collecting a tip for Rachel. It sure looked like her holiday got a lot brighter!

Roy Green took a bunch of pictures during the party. They are available in our web site picture section along with David Henley’s repaired Corsair.

>This month is the end of my abbreviated term as president. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the officers and board members for their support during the sudden change of regimes. Everyone did all that was asked and then some more!

I was greatly honored to fill in for Wylie these last few months, and I wish my conscience would allow me to run for the office on my own. However, as I have expressed to most of you, we need a full time president and I will continue to be gone part of the time as long as I can. I remain willing to serve in any capacity that does not need a full time presence.

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.

>FREE—I have a slightly used Hawg Wild (Tower Hobbies Extra Special—comparable to their Fun 51) that needs a good home. Requires a 40-size engine, 5 servos, and a few odds and ends to get it flight-ready. The first one that contacts me gets it. Pete Granger 379-3185

MANEUVER OF THE MONTH (MOM)—The Split S

Imagine that your airplane is traveling horizontally from right to left. Suddenly it rolls inverted and does half of a loop. Now it is flying horizontally from left to right at a slightly lower elevation. The airplane has described the upper half of the letter "S" and now we know where the name came from. Who dreams this stuff up, anyway? This MOM is identical to last month’s Immelmann turn except the motions are in reverse order.

Put your airplane two mistakes high in horizontal cruise. Do half of a roll (putting the plane inverted) and pull up elevator. Ease off the elevator trying to hit neutral as the plane gets back to horizontal. That’s all there is to it and I think every trainer in the club can do this one! Just one word of caution—the airplane’s speed can really build up fast if you are at full throttle and perform a large half loop. You will be able to hear the engine wind up as the prop unloads, but that is not the danger. The increased speed can induce dreaded flutter (I managed to make an aileron flutter on my Kaos a while back by doing this very thing). There should be no problem if you don’t try to see how fast your plane can go.

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

Pete Granger

granger@olypen.com