MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING

Minutes of the 02-12-2008 Tri-Area RC Flyers

President Jim Cook opened the meeting at 7:01pm.

Attending were Marken, Anliker, Bangle, Pendleton, Berson, Fitch, Berger, Greene, Kampmann, Olson, Cook, Becker and Benjamin.

Guests include Peter Shaw, John Barras, and for their third visit, father and son, Jeff and Thomas Beres.

President Cook brought the meeting to order and the guests are introduced.

The previous meeting minutes were approved as submitted.

Treasurer Report: Bank balance $2,505.25, CD balance$4,209.23 for a total of $6,714.48. Expenditures were miscellaneous in nature including maintenance costs for the club lawn mower. Tim Bangle serviced the mower to include a new battery. Membership dues contributed to the growth in the bank balance. Membership stands at just over forty members.

Old Business: Replacing the safety fence at the field. Tim Bangle brought in a sample of the vinyl coated welded wire fencing he had proposed as a replacement material for the existing plastic fence. The cost of the wire fence and an additional dozen or so "T" fence posts estimates out to be around $200. It is understood that the existing installation is a high maintenance issue and it is agreed that replacement is a good idea. It is a unanimous vote to replace the fence. Bill Anliker suggested we wait for Jim Crumley’s return in a month or two because Jim had some ideas about the final installation. It was decided we will wait for Jim’s input and then proceed with the project. Safety concerns were discussed about the existing configuration of the pilot area. The workstations are a little close together for comfort when the pits are full of flyers. It was proposed that we increase the pilot area when the new fence goes in. Another safety idea is to leave a buffer of taller grass around the new fence to help keep stray airplanes from using the wire fence as an arresting system.

Safety Report: None

Crash of the Month: Gary Austin was nominated and voted for unanimously as the recipient after he lost control of his Carl Goldberg Sophisticated Lady, a "T" tail glider/electric conversion.

New Business: Tim Bangle stood in for an absent Grant Smith who sponsored our two newest members Jeff and Thomas Beres. The new team has a project currently underway and is very excited to see her fly. We welcome them and their enthusiasm.

It was brought to the clubs attention that non-members have been witnessed flying unaccompanied at the field. The field rules and bylaws were discussed clearing up some misnomers. The field is private property and no non-member has the right to trespass without the accompaniment of a member in good standing. With that said, even guests have limited access to the field. There are liability issues that we as a club need to protect. Individual members have the right to protect those liabilities and ask questions of people at the field they do not recognize.

The Field Mowing Signup Sheet is posted at the field so please sign up.

Bill Berson has volunteered to present a video and talk about his motor glider at the March Meeting. [I’m not sure how these programs will shake out since Lew Creedon will be doing the March program on his homebuilt canard full size airplane]

Bill Anliker will offer a presentation about his powered parachute at the May Meeting.

THE PREZ SEZ

AROUND THE CLUB

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

>Many thanks to Bob Kampmann for this contribution. There is some really good stuff here!

From the January '08 AMA "Insider"...

Tips & Tricks

Good Cleaner
Here is a concoction I came up with. In an empty spray bottle, add a tablespoon of dish washing detergent, then fill the bottle halfway with regular rubbing alcohol, and top off with hot water. I have found this to work really well for cleaning the oil off of the wings and fuselage after a days worth of flying. Strong cleaner but will not hurt the covering or take the colors off.

New Life to Old Wire Landing Gear
Did you ever have a problem where your wire landing gear seems to get weaker and weaker? A possible solution is to remove the gear from the airframe and remove all the hardware from the gear wire (i.e. the wheels, collars, pants, etc). Preheat your kitchen oven to 450°F. Place the wire on a cookie sheet in the oven for one hour. Turn off the oven and toss the wire into cold water to cool it off quickly. What you have just done is to re-temper the music wire and you should have put new life into that old gear. Note that soldered joints should not be harmed as solder doesn’t melt until about 700°F.

Mixing Epoxy
When mixing epoxy use an old coffee can lid, after the epoxy hardens just flex the lid and the epoxy will pop off.

For New Pilots
Here’s a flying tip for new pilots:
Something to pay attention to when learning to fly is control reversal. Control reversal is when the inputs on the transmitter sticks must be reversed when your airplane is flying toward you, rather than away from you. When flying away from you, there is no problem; just move the stick in the direction you want to turn. Many new pilots become disoriented when their airplane is approaching them. To help with this, move the stick in toward the low wingtip. This will level the wing when your airplane is coming toward you, avoiding a sharp bank and possibly a crash.

Example: Say your airplane is coming toward you, and the right wingtip is low, as if banked to the right. Move the stick to your left, toward the low wingtip. This will bring the airplane’s right wingtip up, and level the wing. I also recommend getting Real Flight G2 if you do not have it. Practice on that before you fly an airplane or helicopter for the first time or if you have been away for an extended period of time. It will save you money and heartaches in the future.

>Thanks to Indiana pal John Richards for this web site. This is a series of videos taken of a passenger in a Blue Angels FA-18 during a "good will" flight. We happened to be on a high speed hookup when we viewed this, so don’t know how it will be on dial up.

http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/ajc/swf/blueangels/blueangels.swf  

FAR FLUNG FLYING

I thought you might be interested in how I transport my planes over long distances (presently nearly 3,000 miles from home). The basic arrangement is similar to what I use at home, but there are some additional considerations:

happens. It is out of sight under the platform.

JUST PLANE FUN

>Thanks to Bob Kampmann—did you have a particular pilot in mind?????

>From the East Valley Aviators newsletter EXHAUST SYSTEMS edited by Leon

Spielbush:

You might be addicted to R/C if:

You read nothing but transmitter and model manuals in the bathroom.

A full-scale airplane passes overhead and you move your thumbs to match its movements.

You accept a crash as an opportunity to start a great new kit.

When you go to Home Depot and the PVC pipe and fittings section gives you ideas for new wing racks.

You keep your old van just to transport airplanes in.

If you spend more money at the local hobby shop in one hour than you make in a month.

You have a "special room" for your airplanes.

You have at least three different heating irons.

EDITORIAL—More like announcements this month

I have another travel related announcement as well. Many of you share things aeronautical with me via e-mail, and I appreciate every one of them. Most end up in the newsletter if I can figure out a way to get them in. However, I confess that I am a DIAL UP DINASAUR. Since we travel about half the year, it is not economical for us to get a high speed internet connection. When we are traveling we are at the mercy of the facilities of the campgrounds we stay at. Some have high speed WiFi which is great, but many are still on dial up. Just this morning I had to delete (without downloading) a 7.8 megabyte item from Nate Moffett—the download would have taken me over an hour! Our newsletter is distributed via e-mail, and if it grew to much more than 500 kilobytes I think I would start getting complaints as many of our members are also on slow systems. The bottom line is that I can’t use or view material that is longer than 5 or 6 hundred kilobytes and will delete without downloading all e-mails that exceed that amount.

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—March 11 at 7:00 in the SKP Clubhouse

Officers will meet at 6:30 to plot against the rest of the membership.

Lew Creedon will be presenting a program on his canard home built airplane. this is a DON'T MISS this event as the airplane had amazing capabilities.

Pete Granger

granger@olypen.com