MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING

Minutes of the 8-14-07 Tri-Area Flyers

President Kampmann opened the meeting at 7:00 pm. Attending were Cooks, Berger, Marken, Austin, Granger, Calkins, Bruce, Greene, Carter, Anliker, Kampmann, Berson and guests Lawrence Pendleton (second visit) and Tim Bangle (third visit).

Treasurer report: $2340.63 Bank; $4209.25 CD for $6549.86 total.

Old business: 

Much discussion about use of the SKP meeting room when Dick Benjamin is not present.

Greene suggested club meetings at the flying field.  (See newsletter for meeting location update).

Discussion about roster, treasurer will assume roster duty.

Officers will meet at 6:00pm next month to update bylaws.

Discussion of field mower list and if the list could be included in the newsletter.

New field sign installed.

Safety report: Grant Smith spoke of need for improved cardholder for Spectrum radio owners.

New business:

Granger bought a timer.

Kampmann described a free DVD. 

Tim Bangle was approved as a new member and Tim thanked members for hosting his friends from Japan at the Fun-Fly.

Crash of the Month:

Jim Cook won with Cindy's Patricia 10 motor glider because of a stuck wheel cover.

Meeting adjourned at 7:40pm.

Program: Austin donated an E-flite Edge 540. It was raffled and Tim Bangle won.

The $95 raffle income will go to the fun-fly fund. 

Submitted be Bill Berson 

THE PREZ SEZ

After what happened at the Tuesday meeting w/ Rachel, Cindy Cook and I had a phone conversation.

Cindy phoned Tri-Area Community Center to inquire as to room availability in the future, and it appears that we can use one of the rooms for meetings.  Of course there's a fee, I believe $20.00 per evening was mentioned.

Also Cindy is going to phone the Elk's Club and check into our having our Holiday Banquet there.  Details to be forthcoming... 

I believe it's essential to not let this "hang in the air" any longer than possible, and because we have no assurance that an SKP lessee/club member will be in attendance at future meetings, I don't see that we have any other choice.

If any of you have ideas/suggestions, please let me know, but as of now this seems like the only and best option open to us.

AROUND THE CLUB

>From Nate Moffett: After you see this, you will go back and watch it again because you KNOW it couldn't have happened - even though you just saw it!!!!

http://www.sonnyradio.com/F15.wmv

>I have checked our weather station several times recently and it is always "unavailable." I guess this condition will persist until school starts.

>Prez Bob asked me to let you know about a free DVD called Inside Spectrum that Horizon Hobbies is offering. You can get a copy by calling 1-800-338-4639. It is also supposed to have some super flying besides the radio stuff.

>Gary Austin tells me that he put 2 copies of the field maintenance list in the storage shed.

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.

Tri-Area RC Flyers

Field Maintenance

Sign-Up Sheet

2007/2008

HINTS, KINKS, AND STUFF

>ONE ANGEL LEFT by Jack Morris

I have known Randy Kirk for probably 30 years—starting back when we were both active mountain climbers. Randy was always proud to have been a Marine aviator during the war. He was also very happy to have been a Corsair pilot. We both read a lot of WWII history and have traded books on the subject back and forth. I once loaned him a book about the Guadalcanal "Cactus Airforce" which really excited him, as he had known some of the pilots in the book. Recently he loaned me an autographed copy of ONE ANGEL LEFT, written by one of the pilots in his squadron, VMF 218.

Jack Morris was shot down over Rabaul during his fourth combat mission. Somehow he managed to escape his out of control Corsair and parachuted into a tree. He was blind, had a torn nose, a damaged arm, and some metal in his shoulder. He dropped to the ground (fortunately only a few feet), and lay there trying to recover. The sight in one eye returned and he squeezed the metal bit out of his shoulder. He had to bandage his other eye to prevent further damage, and that bandage also covered his nose injury. Finally he salvaged his parachute and removed everything that looked useful, even including his one-man life raft. Most of the rest of the book is devoted to his trek through the jungle while avoiding the 80,000 man Japanese garrison, his rescue over a week later, and his recovery from his wounds.

This book is a fascinating fast read, but it may be hard to find a copy as it had only one printing and was probably not widely distributed.

JUST PLANE FUN

Atlanta Air Traffic Control: "Tower to Saudi Air 911 -- You are cleared to land eastbound on runway 9R."

Saudi Air: "Thank you Atlanta ATC. Acknowledge cleared to land on infidel's runway 9R - Allah be Praised.

Atlanta ATC: "Tower to Iran Air 711 --You are cleared to land westbound on runway 9R."

Iran Air: "Thank you Atlanta ATC. We are cleared to land on infidel's runway 9R. - Allah is Great.

Pause:

Static.

Saudi Air: " ATLANTA ATC – ATLANTA ATC"

Atlanta ATC: "Go ahead Saudi Air 911?"

Saudi Air: "YOU HAVE CLEARED BOTH OUR AIRCRAFT FOR THE SAME RUNWAY GOING IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS. WE ARE ON A COLLISION COURSE. INSTRUCTIONS, PLEASE.

Atlanta ATC: Well bless your hearts and praise Jesus. Y'all be careful now and tell Allah "hey" for us –

SPARKS

I got in 4 flights a couple of days later, and found that the plane handeled a light breeze with no problem, could fly low and slow with good control, and best of all, it would do any maneuver asked of it (although the snap rolls were not very "snappy"). Aileron rolls on high rate were awesome—I had never seen a plane roll that fast!

The lessons I learned from this trial are: 1. Keep working with a problem plane as long as it holds together, and 2. Think twice (or more) before putting servos in the tail of an airplane. I think I will put FINI to this series until I have time to do another airplane—this time I think I want to do something that will require about 25 amps. It is still in the thinking stage, and may not happen for a while.

Any of you Sparkies out there have something you would like to share?

EDITORIAL—A Place to Meet

Our club’s first meeting was held at the Tri-Area Community Center, but we decided it was too expensive. President Wylie arranged meeting space at the county library and that worked well for a while. Then they decided we were having regular meetings (DUH), so we would have to start paying. That is when we moved to Mini Mania hobby shop. The shop was small and meeting attendance was started to crowd us out of the shop. Then Dick Benjamin set us up with the SKP gang, and we have enjoyed their hospitality since. We have never had to pay for a meeting place since our organizational meeting!

I believe, given the diverse group of people we are, that we can find a satisfactory Free meeting place once again. It would be nice to remain in the Tri-Area, but we are not chained to that locale. Perhaps we can find meeting space in a fire station, or at the airport. There are other opportunities as well—all we have to do is use our imaginations.

While the above remains true in spite of follow-on developments, it appears that Cindy Cook has solved the meeting place problem at least for the short term. I don’t have the details, but let us hope that her arrangement will enable us to remain at the SKP Clubhouse indefinitely.

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—September 11 at 7:00 in the SKP Clubhouse

There will be an officer’s meeting at 6:00 to review the Bylaws, and other business.

In spite of all the meeting location discussion above, we WILL be meeting at the regular time and place—7:00 at the SKP Clubhouse. Come to the meeting and learn the REST OF THE STORY.

Pete Granger

granger@olypen.com