MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING

The meeting was called to order by President Benjamin at 7:00PM at the SKP Clubhouse. Attending were: Benjamin, Anliker, Mr. and Mrs. Cook, Fitch, Ryder, Moffett, Ohlson, Hanke, McIntyre, Takata, Henley, Calkins, Granger, Marken, Nodell, Dantzler and Maupin.

The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. The Treasurer’s report showed a bank balance of $5264.73 ($4000 CD and $1264.73) along with $308 in fuel inventory for total assets of $5572.73.

A sign-up sheet for lawn mowing was sent around and those who wanted nametags were told to contact Pete G.

A motion was made and passed that we authorize the purchase of a new lawn mower for an amount not to exceed $1100. Anliker and Hanke were to purchase it.

The forthcoming auction of Wylie’s RC gear was discussed and arrangements for parking, food, security, etc, were discussed.

A nominating committee consisting of Hanke, Anliker and Nodell was appointed.

The Crash Trophy went to Jim Tolpin even though his mishap occurred the previous month. It was felt that since this was the first crash where pyrotechnics occurred, it required special recognition.

The meeting was adjourned.

Submitted by Bill Anliker, Sec./Treas.

AROUND THE CLUB

>I saw a glider guider flying on the Fort Worden parade ground the other day. He had a small, maybe 24-inch span, flying wing that he was hand launching by the wing tip and getting the thing up perhaps 80 feet. Unfortunately, his flying technique kept the plane in fairly tight circles so the flights were only about 30 seconds long. He was pretty good at catching the glider and tossing it again with no lost motion.

>Benjamin, Dantzler, and Granger have been working their way through Wylie’s stuff in preparation for the sale on May 14. He really had a lot of stuff squirreled away!

>On April 30 I found these speed-crazed mowers out at the rather breezy field. Nate and David really did a nice job. This was the third or fourth mowing in the last 2 weeks! Their only complaint was that the riding mower was too sloooow.

>Lew Creedon built this very nice Hadley Page. It was initially powered by two .25 size engines, which flew it quite well at half or less throttle. He has converted the plane to electric power with 4 motors, but is having trouble getting enough thrust to takeoff of our grass field. The next attempt will be made using a high start to catapult the plane to altitude and speed!

>A memorial for Lonnie Phillips was held Saturday May 21 at the Cape George Clubhouse. The Cape George community set the room up for Gloria, Lonnie’s widow, and the group enjoyed a potluck feed. Gloria had a bulletin board with a photomontage covering much of Lonnie’s life and one of his planes was on display. The club was well represented with Dick Benjamin, Bill and Joan Anliker, John and Billee Fitch, and Pete and Marg Granger present.

HINTS, KINKS, AND STUFF

>We now have a brand new riding mower in the storage shed. Many thanks to Bill Anliker and John Fitch for searching the countryside and consummating the deal so promptly. They tell me they have already mowed the field with it!

>It is my sad duty to have to report to the membership that lurking among us are not 1, but 2 nefarious scoundrels—and both of them are officers! They came out of hiding at the Wylie estate sale when I bid the princely sum of $5.00 for a nearly new Sullivan high torque starter that I desperately needed to replace my 30-year-old starter. One of these fiends overbid me $2.00 and even had the nerve to brag about it to me! Naturally I raised my bid to $8.00, being the good sport that I am, but at the close of bidding the other member of this dastardly duo presented me with the bid sheet with a bid of $10.00 on it and offered to let me take the starter for the bid price! Since I was hurting for the item, I had no option but to meet this vastly inflated price even at the hazard of the exchequer’s (wife’s) wrath. The next time you see these villains be sure to watch your treasure carefully as these predators are truly sneaky.

How about it Bill and John, care for a rebuttal in this space next month?

AERONAUTICAL JOKE

Blue water Navy truism: There are more planes in the ocean than submarines in the sky.

MEET THE MEMBERS—Roy Greene

I got started in the hobby in 1957 by looking at the boats and planes carried by Francisco Hobbies in San Francisco, CA. I bought my first RC plane and radio in 1962. The plane was a 56-inch span Cherokee and the radio was a full house Heathkit that I had to assemble myself. I flew at Candlestick Park same as Wylie did. He even shopped at the same hobby shop! I also built and flew some U-Control models.

I moved to the Northwest in 1974 and joined a club in Bremerton that had 17 members. I built many types and sizes of airplanes and gliders, large and small. The club eventually got too big and Wylie suggested I join the Tri-Area club, which had a better field, and I did. I started teaching new pilots in 1978 and have continued that ever since. I also now fly floatplanes with from 56 to 102 inch wingspan.

That is the Roy Greene story.

EDITORIAL--The Wylie Estate Sale

Chuck Dantzler, Dick Benjamin, and I put in about 10 hours sorting and cataloguing Wylie’s modeling estate over a period of several weeks. We found it very difficult to mate transmitters with receivers and wings with bodies. And then there was the loose small hardware, tanks, wheels, spinners, motor mounts and on and on. It was a big job.

In preparation for the big sale Dick recruited club members for various tasks from food buying and prep to car parking. I took care of the advertising and functional aspects. I sent out the inventory list and bid process sheet along with the sale announcement to the Boeing Hawks, Evergreen, Kitsap, MARCS, RAMS, PSRCF, Sequim, Port Angeles, Arlington, ORCAS, SASS, and Monroe.

A group of us showed up at the Wylie home about 4:00 Friday May 13 and started loading. In the end we had plenty of hauling capacity to take all the stuff in one trip. By the time I arrived at the SKP clubhouse on Saturday morning the place was really humming. Roy Greene brought in food for 100 about the time Jim and Cindy Cook arrived to start preparing it. Everyone pitched in and feverishly worked to get the sale items sorted out and presented with their bid sheets. Chuck Dantzler (antique engines) and Greg Marken (unmarked items) are owed special recognition for their yeoman efforts, but everyone worked hard to get it right. By 10:30 all was in readiness and the car parkers were on the job.

Friends of the Cooks showed up just before 11:00 and put in a couple of bids, and our folks started buying grab bags, putting bids in, and looking the merchandise over. Eventually a few more outsiders showed up, but it was soon obvious that the car parkers were not needed. In the end only 1 antique engine was sold, the rest of the stuff brought in a little over $1,700, and we broke even on the food (the dogs were excellent).

A lot of our members turned out for this event and every one of them contributed to getting the show ready and operating the sale. It really made me proud to be a member of such a special group.

On May 18 Dick Benjamin and I paid a visit to Fran Wylie and presented a $1790 check to her. This concludes the Wylie sale except for the antique engines, which we will continue to try to find a motivated buyer for.

ROOKIE REPORT

The weather finally got better May 23 and I headed for the field. Harry Takata was there hoping for an instructor, and I obliged. He got in 3 long flights and I was pleased to see that even with his long layoff he was still able to fly around quite well. The down side was that even though he used to be able to take off OK, he has lost the high speed ground handling skills—but he will soon be taking over that part also.

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 pictures are also acceptable.

MANEUVER OF THE MONTH (MOM)—Takeoff

Now I expect you are thinking that everyone that has soloed knows how to takeoff and you would be partly right. However, I need to tell you a little story to get you to perhaps change your thinking.

When I joined the Boeing Hawks and started learning to fly, our "runway" was dirt with some scrubby grass and weeds that sometimes had shallow ruts. The experienced pilots just banged the throttle full on and leaped into the air. I did not have the skill to do this and slowly advanced throttle and steered until my plane was airborne. Then we hung it all out and put in a paved runway—ah, life was good! We were all in a rush to try this wonderful thing out, but I was among the few that could takeoff!!!!!! The other pilots were ground looping all over the place, and it took a while to figure out what the problem was. Simply put, the techniques that worked on the rough runway did not work on pavement. You will note, however, that slow acceleration and proper ground steering worked on both surfaces.

Now that you are in the proper frame of mind, let’s consider a couple of other factors. We frequently have a cross wind on our runway and sometimes steering is marginal. You can enhance your steering authority if you hold up elevator on tail draggers or down elevator on planes with nose gear. This has to be done with a certain amount of finesse as the airplane accelerates or the actual takeoff may become a candidate for the dreaded Crash of the Month award. The key is to slowly reduce the amount of elevator applied as the airplane gains speed

(and rudder authority). In the end tail draggers will probably need to retain a slight amount of "up" and the tricycle geared planes will have to go from a down elevator situation to enough up elevator to get the plane to rotate and fly off the ground. That is about it for the right hand.

The left hand is probably working more on a proper takeoff than at any other time during the flight. First of all the plane must be positioned in the center of the runway width and aligned with the theoretical centerline. Now the throttle must be advanced slowly and steadily to avoid sudden bursts of engine torque that might whip the plane into a ground loop or worse. This can be a pretty mechanical thing and if done properly does not require much skill. As the plane accelerates steering sensitivity increases and rudder inputs to stay on the runway centerline must become much smaller—and this really requires a light touch on the stick.

Finally, your pride and joy lifts off and the left hand probably goes to sleep when full throttle is achieved—it’s the right hand’s turn to get busy! In my travels I have flown off of all kinds of surfaces including water, dirt, dried mud, weeds, grass, concrete, asphalt, and others like our old cow pie infested field or the old belting runway. There may have been others as well, but the point is that the method described above works well everywhere.

MONTHLY MEETING—Tuesday June 14 in the SKP Clubhouse.

I have not heard if we will have a program this time. I’m sure we will recap the Wylie sale and report on Lonnie Phillip’s memorial gathering. I have nametags for Greg and Gina Marken, Nate Moffett, Dale Olson, and Randy "Thumbs" Calkins to distribute as well.

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.

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Petersen & Granger, LLC

Pete Granger

granger@olypen.com