MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING

Minutes of the 09-09-2008 Tri-Area RC Flyers Monthly Meeting

President Jim Cook opened the meeting at 7:00 pm.

Attending: Marken, Pendleton, Greene, Kampmann, Calkins, McGroin, Fitch, Bruce, Berson, Smith, Bangle, Crumley, Cochran, Granger, Anliker, Cook & Cook.

Guest: Seth Stephens visited for the first time. Seth is a friend, neighbor and RC student of Bill Berson.

The previous meeting minutes were approved as submitted.

Treasurer Report: Larry Berger is out of town and passed along his notes for Bob Kampmann to relay to the club. Renewal of the Olypen website cost the club $180.00. Cash account balance is around $724.00 and the CD is up to $5019 and change.

Safety Report: None

Old Business: None

New Business: Tim Bangle soloed his LT-40 without incident. Tim confessed he still may have to work on his proficiency of some of the required maneuvers to receive his wings. Great job Tim!!!!!!!!

General: Jim Cook put a thank you on the table to the person who tied down the bottom of the fence. Some of our maintenance staff snag the loose parts of the fence with the mower. It was not clear who the fence repairman was but several people confessed to mowing the fence. Bill Berson removed a mouse house from under the hood of the mower. The mouse house was incorporated into the cooling system of the engine and would cause an overheating problem that could lead to engine failure. When this issue arose in the past we simply made a standing rule to leave the hood on the mower open after use. This seemed to stop mouse house construction.

Crash of the Month: After much discussion about who wrecked what and how much damage was sustained, Jim Cook won the Crash Trophy on account of, he loaned out Cindy’s plane to a friend and the friend wrecked it. Jim has already replaced it. Cindy Cook suggested to the attendees that it is time to add a more positive acknowledgement/achievement award on a monthly basis. Cindy stated we need to acknowledge our members that put in extra effort to support our club. We need to recognize and reward good deeds such as unsolicited repairs at the field or the member that inspires flying by being at the field most often. The floor was excited by the possibilities. Bill Berson said his old club had an award for the "Prettiest Plane". Other suggestions were to award the one who flies the most days per month, or makes the most "take off and landings" per month. The debate included the funding of gifts or the purchase of a continuous award like the Crash Trophy. To be continued.

Meeting adjourned at 7:26pm

Program: Bob Kampmann turned the floor over to Peter Bruce for a discussion and video session about his experience constructing and flying full scale home built aircraft.

Respectfully Submitted by Greg Marken

AROUND THE CLUB

>Congratulations to Tim Bangle for soloing. According to Tim, he was practicing takeoffs and landings when he noticed Bill Berson, his instructor, was standing at the back of the pits with a big grin on his face!!!!!! If I had ever pulled something like that on my students they would have murdered me.

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

>A heads up for all: In the process of his training Tim Bangle had some control issues with his JR buddy box. In the end, he found that both the transmitter and the buddy box had to have charged up batteries for the equipment to work reliably. Most other brands do not require power in the buddy box.

A guy in Sweden flying a 6 foot wingspan RC plane through a 2.4 mile long tunnel while piloting it from a moving car:

http://www.vistanews.com/396U8F/080911-RC-Plane

JUST PLANE FUN—A Darwin Award Nominee

You all know about the Darwin Awards - It's an annual
honor given to the person who did the gene pool the
biggest service by killing themselves in the most extraordinarily
stupid way. Last year's winner was the fellow who was
killed by a Coke machine which toppled over on top of
him as he was attempting to tip a free soda out of it.

And this year's nominee is:

The Arizona Highway Patrol came upon a pile of smoldering
metal embedded into the side of a cliff rising above
the road at the apex of a curve. The wreckage resembled
the site of an airplane crash, but it was a car. The
type of car was unidentifiable at the scene. The lab
finally figured out what it was and what had happened.

It seems that a guy had somehow gotten hold of a JATO
unit (Jet Assisted Take Off - actually a solid fuel
rocket) that is used to give heavy military transport
planes an extra "push" for taking off from short airfields.
He had driven his Chevy Impala out into the desert and
found a long, straight stretch of road. Then he attached
the JATO unit to his car, jumped in, got up some speed
and fired off the JATO!

The facts as best as could be determined are that the
operator of the 1967 Impala hit the JATO ignition at
a distance of approximately 3.0 miles from the crash
site. This was established by the prominent scorched
and melted asphalt at that location.

The JATO, if operating properly, would have reached
maximum thrust within 5 seconds, causing the Chevy to
reach speeds well in excess of 350 mph and continuing
at full power for an additional 20-25 seconds.

The driver, soon to be pilot, most likely would have
experienced G-forces usually reserved for dog-fighting
F-14 jocks under full afterburners, basically causing
him to become insignificant for the remainder of the
event. However, the automobile remained on the straight
highway for about 2.5 miles (15-20 seconds) before the
driver applied and completely melted the brakes, blowing
the tires and leaving thick rubber marks on the road
surface, then becoming airborne for an additional 1.4
miles and impacting the cliff face at a height of 125
feet leaving a blackened crater 3 feet deep in the rock.

Most of the driver's remains were not recoverable; however,
small fragments of bone, teeth and hair were extracted
from the crater and fingernail and bone shards were
removed from a piece of debris believed to be a portion
of the steering wheel.

Epilog:

It has been calculated that this moron nearly reached
Mach I, attaining a ground-speed of approximately 420
mph.

DOING THE TANGO

I recently assembled an ARF from Hangar 9 called the TANGO. It looks sort of like my old Hawg Wild that it is intended to replace. I powered the plane with a new OS 55 AX, one of the most user friendly prop turners I have ever encountered. My TANGO came out of the box with all hinges installed, wheels on the landing gear, tank assembled, control horns installed, and bolt on tail feathers. Did I mention the wing is one piece? No gluing except for putting CA in the servo mounting holes to harden the threads and sticking the windshield on!

I lit off the engine for the first time at the field, adjusted the needle valve for a rich run, did a power on range check, checked the idle, and took off. The plane was very sensitive in roll, so I landed it after only a short flight. It turns out the expo was set to cause near neutral to be sensitive (+) instead of the other way around. We could not figure out how to reset it at the field, so home I went. By the way, I did not notice until after I landed that the transmitter antenna was collapsed!

Since correcting the expo settings the plane has been very well behaved, although I am still running the engine very rich and have not tried high rates. It does very nice, nearly axial rolls with rudder input only!

EDITORIAL—Nominating Committee

Grant Smith and I have completed the annual task of obtaining a slate of officers for next year. We expect the candidates will be announced at the October meeting. I have served on this committee several times over the years, and I am proud to tell you that our members are now much more willing to serve than I can ever remember. Yes, we did run into a few that refused to run, but there were usually personal reasons/problems at the root of the refusal.

SPARKS

From the AMA Insider

Someone suggested that the use of a soldering gun was safer than other types because it would not roll off the workbench and burn you. It should also be mentioned over and over that soldering guns have a very strong alternating current magnetic field around the tip. When brought in proximity to electric motors and servos, this magnetic field de-gausses (demagnetizes) the magnets inside the motors and servos and causes permanent damage.

I have seen several people come to the flying field with a new electric-powered airplane that does not have enough power for flight. When asked if they soldered the wires to the motor with a soldering gun, the answer is usually "yes."

Also you should never stick the tip of a soldering gun into the airplane’s radio compartment while soldering pushrods and etc. as it will presently damage the motors inside the servos.

If you must use a soldering gun, you should stay well away from electric motors and servos, meaning at least 24 inches just to be safe

FIELD MAINTENANCE

Chuck Dantzler and John Fitch are doing the chores this month. Be sure to let them know you appreciate their efforts.

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—October 14 at 7:00 in the SKP Clubhouse

Bob Kampmann came through with the following: John Ludwig, the leader of the local 4H rocket group will show some of their equipment and tell us all there is to know, so we can all become "rocket scientists." J If you saw their display at the County fair this year, then you already know how good this group is.

Pete Granger

granger@olypen.com