MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING

There are no minutes because we had a Christmas party instead. See below for a Christmas party report.

CHRISTMAS PARTY

Marg and I arrived a few minutes early, but the party was already going strong. The hall was dominated by a long table covered with white tablecloths and all set up for another of Rachael’s wonderful dinners.

Somehow she manages to serve the food, clear the dirty dishes, and run the kitchen all by herself. This year the menu included shrimp cocktail, salad, green beans, roast potatoes, and prime rib (she does a really good one!). Desert was tiny cream puffs drizzled with chocolate syrup. YUM!

Then it was time to do the gift exchange.

Somehow Gary Austin ended up with all fuel stuff, and I doubt he would even allow an engine into his house! The free crash certificate moved around a lot, as did the vernier caliper that I started out with. In the end we had so much fun it did not matter what we took home.

THE PREZ SEZ

For January, I want to put out the word that some of us are planning to fly indoors in the American Legion Back Room. It's tentatively set for Thursday evenings from 7:00 to 9:00.  Electrics, gliders, rubber powered, helicopters, ornithopters. The Air Hogs Aero Ace is a popular choice to fly there.  It's inexpensive and almost indestructible. Anything that will fly quietly and in that space is invited, or you can just come and watch. A word of caution, though... you might get hooked!

We'd like to have at least 5 fliers there to defray the cost of using the space, which will be $25.00 per session. Jim Tolpin is the contact @ tolpin@olympus.net. 

If any club members are using a flight simulator to sharpen their skills or just to do some indoor flying during stormy weather, please see me at the next meeting.  If there is some interest shown by the membership, we can schedule a show and tell, or pro and con, of the users so those of us who might be interested in purchasing a flight simulator will have an idea of what we're getting into.

See you all at the Clubhouse.

Bob Kampmann

AROUND THE CLUB

>On December 7^th the pit area was still snow covered. I guess the safety fences also make pretty good snow fences.

>December 10^th I noticed the port-a-potty was upright at the north end of the storage shed. Bill Anliker and Jim Crumley anchored the little room to 2 fence posts, and repaired the safety fence along the runway. Many thanks, guys! The snow was gone except for a couple of piles at the south end of the pits.

I had not flown since September 4^th and was desperate, so I took my little Stik 10 electric out to play because it was calm, if overcast. I got the first raindrops before I was through Chimacum. By the time I got to the field there was a light rain and the wind machine was beginning to come on. I strapped on the wings, checked the controls and headed for the runway. There was a pretty good breeze and the rain continued, but I was desperate. I jammed on throttle and the little plane leaped into the air—boy, this isn’t so bad. Then the plane began to bounce all over the place, as the air got very rough. I lasted a few minutes more, then made a forgettable landing, and went home. But I did get a flight in!

HINTS, KINKS, AND STUFF

>From Gary Austin: This year I would like to establish a building show & tell theme for our end of meeting programs.  Now days with all of the RTF and ARF models to choose from, some of us on occasion still enjoy a good old-fashioned scratch or kit build, especially this time of year when the only things flying are tree limbs.

Ye Olde Editor: I know Chuck Dantzler has an Astro Hog about ready. The rest of you folks please give Gary a call when your projects are nearing completion. I’m sure we will all benefit from the "special" show and tell presentations.

>I did not have the right stuff to make adjustable pushrods using the materials that came with my YAK, so I used inner nyrod with studs in each end. All of the pushrods are short, so flexing is not a problem. I used a nylon clevis in one end and a free turning metal clevis in the other end for ease of adjustment.

AIRPLANE STRUCTURES—by Bill Berson

The Triangle

Most aircraft structures today are made from sheet or skin such as 
balsa, plywood, aluminum and composite. Back in the early days of 
flight however, the designs were built with wood sticks and wires 
assembled in various forms.  The pioneers of flight were smart to use 
the sound engineering concepts that bridge builders had developed 
such as the truss. Almost all early planes employed truss structures 
with success. Even today the truss could still be the lightest way to 
build an aircraft, so lets discuss the truss in this article.

The basic unit of a truss is the triangle. It's pretty simple, just 
three sticks in a triangle make perhaps the most important structure 
known to engineers.  A truss is just multiple triangles connected 
together. Some of the first airplane builders tried to build fuselage 
trusses with rectangles and found that rectangles did not work. A 
rectangular form will flex with a load applied, it will 
"parallelogram". The triangle is rigid, so trusses are usually made 
with triangles.

Sometimes a fuselage needs a rectangular cutout for a cockpit or a 
door. In this case, a designer can use small triangles to pass the 
load around the weakened cutout. A solid panel could be another 
alternative.

The Piper Cub has a rectangular steel tube fuselage truss (in cross 
section).  Aeronicas have a triangular steel tube fuselage truss with 
nonstructural wood formers to fill out the shape.  The triangular 
truss is lighter and simpler and has better rigidity in torsion. But 
the Cub type rectangular fuselage is more common because it provides 
room for the pilot. The Bell 47 helicopter has an open triangle 
truss, which is common for helicopter tail booms.

Trusses are strong and light but are not as common as box structures 
for models because of the numerous critical end joint connections. 
And when a truss collapses, it usually goes all at once. The recent 
tower crane crashes in Bellevue are tragic examples of catastrophic 
truss failure.

Bill Berson

JUST PLANE FUN

>Last year I received an urgent work party request for the field I fly at in Mesa, AZ. It seems they needed to shovel a TON of sunshine off the runway. Sounds like my kind of place!

>From Bob Kampmann: A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, "I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger."

SPARKS

My new YAK54 arrived in a sturdy white box complete with a carrying handle—further enhancing the "suitcase" image of the plane. Inside all the bits and pieces were carefully wrapped in clear plastic bags that were taped closed, then very securely taped in place with wide packing tape. It took me over an hour to free the airplane from its prison.

I understand that most ARFs come with wrinkles in the covering, and the YAK was no exception. The fuselage was also bowed top to bottom. I was able to get most of the bow out by flattening the body as I ironed out the wrinkles, and attaching the wing should do the rest of the job as the plane is very lightly built. In the end I created almost as many wrinkles as I removed because the extremely thin covering material had very little adhesive on it.

The wing and horizontal stabilizer are mounted to the fuselage using some sort of self-threading screws that were supposed to go all the way through and engage plywood "donuts" that are used as nuts on the other side. The screws were too short, so I hardened the threads with ca and left the "donuts" off. The same was true of the outrunner ply mount, which was supposed to be installed with 2 screws. Since the kit provided 4 screws, I installed 2 from each side and hardened those threads as well. The servo mounting holes were also hardened.

I was nearly able to get the CG the kit called for by moving the battery almost into the prop arc. I may have to add lead (ugh!) to the nose after the first flight.

Back to the covering woes, I mixed up a 50% Elmer’s white glue and water solution, and worked it under the loose areas with a cotton swab. After the glue was dry I ironed the covering in place with a warm covering iron. It worked great! I have read that only Elmer’s white glue will work as a thermal stickum like this.

Now if we can only get the weather to calm down I could try out this puppy.

EDITORIAL

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—January 9, 7:00 at the SKP Clubhouse

There will be a board meeting at 6:30. That is not much time for the new officers to get on board and also deal with club business, so please try to be on time.

Bob Kampmann is donating this month’s raffle prize. It's a 2-channel sailplane, ready to fly, complete with radio, a 58" wingspan, 12.6 oz., fiberglass fuse, and built up wing.  Also great for the slope, it has a white body, red wing, bungee or high start ready with a tow hook.  Hobby Lobby sold it as a Vicky II.

Pete Granger

granger@olypen.com