MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING

September 8th, 2009

The meeting was not a matter of business as usual. The meeting was open as soon as the airplanes and related goodies for show and tell started rolling into the SKP recreation center. The attendance and visitors created a full room of interest. President Greg Marken spoke to the group for a few moments welcoming the visitors and giving a big thank you to SKP for their support and the use of a great place to hold our meetings. It seemed to be a very enjoyable evening for all. Jim Cook’s flying of his small copter was smooth. It appeared that he’s been spending a lot of stick time in his living room. There were way plenty of goodies to eat. There was no rush in shutting down the meeting. A very enjoyable evening was had by all.

FROM THE PRESIDENT’S HOBBY SHOP

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank Cindy Cook and Tom Cochran for their efforts in putting together last month’s SKP Appreciation Night. We all thank Rachel Fondren for once again being our gracious hostess and a big round of applause to all the RC members that provided static displays and cordially represented our club to the SKP Membership. It appeared to have been a great success with more RC and SKP members in attendance than in previous Appreciation Nights. I have to believe this is the result of renewed enthusiasm within the club as our membership continues to grow.

As an added sign of appreciation, Lawrence Pendeleton suggested we offer RC Club Memberships and flight lessons to interested SKP Members. I think this is a great idea and the membership should take it into consideration at the next meeting.

Respectfully,

Greg Marken

AROUND THE CLUB

L Why did Cindy Cook’s souped-up Slo Stik suddenly become suicidal?

J Thanks to Bill Berson for this web site that shows a very different cloud formation: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html

J Thanks to Bob Kampmann for this video web site of the cardboard airplane that was in the September Model Aviation. Those 4 humming 60s really sound good.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2w3js_1orw

J Thanks again to Bob Kampmann for this web site covering AIRVENTURE 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKU0uQki5Dc

L Tom Cochran had a serious medical issue a while back. I have not heard how he is doing, but best wishes for a speedy and complete recovery from all of us.

J Yet another fascinating web site from Bob Kampmann:

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 newbie, but it should be beneficial for all.

HINTS, KINKS, AND STUFF

J Thanks to long time friend and WW II Corsair pilot Randy Kirk for this web site that has many great pictures of planes from that era. For some reason a number of the last pictures in the series did not come up, but if you like old airplanes this is a good one! Chino’s planes of fame photo gallery:

http://home.comcast.net/~bzee1b/Chino/Chino.html

JUST PLANE FUN

1. The easiest way to find something lost around the house is to buy a replacement.

2. Never take life seriously. No one gets out alive anyway.

3. Gardening Rule: When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.

4. An unbreakable toy is useful for breaking other toys.

5. If quitters never win, and winners never quit, then who is the fool who said, "Quit while you’re ahead?"

6. Get the last word in: Apologize.

7. All of us could take a lesson from the weather. It pays no attention to criticism.

8. Good health is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.

9. Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals dying of nothing.

"How I Discovered Radio Control".

I flew control line models with a small bunch of like-minded fellows (hated girls!  Yuk, icky, etc.).  I guess we were all fairly young...

Anyway we had a chance to go to a ukie meet in the Twin Cities.  We lived in a small town in North Central Minnesota.  It must have been in the early 50's.

We rode the passenger train with one of the guys' stunt model that he wanted to enter in the meet. 

His folks brought along all the rest of his flying equipment in their car, an AMC station wagon.  

We left the train station and got on a city bus, and rode it to a hobby shop we knew about, and the owner told us he knew several fliers who were going to the meet and would be stopping by before they went.  The meet was at a small airport just on the outskirts of Minneapolis.

Jump forward a few years (college, girls, family, etc.) to the next episode.

As time went along and I watched the model airplane magazines, it became apparent to me that maybe there was something to this radio control stuff!

Citizenship came out with a simple and inexpensive transmitter and receiver/actuator.  The plane unit wasn't a servo or anything like that but by means of a rubber band driving a large nylon geared wheel and a connecting "rod" to the rudder, you could control a free flight-type plane in the air.

The 'catch' to the system was you had to wind the rubber band!  It didn't have a throttle function, so once the engine was started and needle valve adjusted, it was launch and pray! 

At any rate, the system worked (for me). 

The control sequence was as follows;  one blip of that single button was right rudder, 2 blips were left, and three blips caused the engine throttle to cycle from high to low and back   as long as you held the button down!!  As you can imagine, I had some anxious moments with this system at launch time (most of the early systems required a hand launch, ala free flight).

Bob Kampmann

FIELD MAINTENANCE

This month our Kommandant of Maintenance is none other than John Fitch. Thanks in advance for your effort, John.

EDITORIAL—Safe Flying NOT!!!!!

The last Sunday in August was a near perfect flying day although there was a light crosswind. There were about 10 pilots, but everyone was flying very actively which kept the air filled with airplanes (frequently as many as 4 at a time). Everyone was enjoying the superb weather and having a good time.

I was sitting in my chair observing the action while my battery recharged. Roy Greene was up flying a new airplane that was pretty fast, but kept flaming out after a few minutes of flight. Gary Austin had his Easy Star up and had had a pretty long flight. Roy flamed out and called for a dead stick landing as we all should in the same circumstance. His plane finally came to rest out by the loading dock and Roy called out loud and clear "ON THE FIELD" as he went to get his plane. About the time Roy got to his plane another pilot placed his electric on the runway and proceeded to takeoff right over Roy. I was about to say something when Gary called "LANDING" and set up his Easy Star for a cross runway landing (those of us with slower, shorter landing airplanes had been doing this all morning). Suddenly from the other end of the flight line we heard "TAKING OFF." Gary was just able to abort his landing and no harm was done.

The entire event lasted less than 15 seconds and I think we were all in shock. Nothing much was said, but people started going home right afterward. We pushed our luck to the limit that day! I have been trying to sort out the causes of the events and fixes for our field procedures to prevent a repeat. Clearly there were 2 unique happenings, so I will treat them separately.

TAKEOFF TOWARD A PILOT ON THE FIELD

I will not believe that any of our people have such a disregard for others that they would deliberately endanger someone. One could say it was carelessness, a senior moment, or brain cramps, but that is a copout. The pilot at fault failed to check that the runway was clear—that is the entire cause of this incident. The corrective action? Each of us must ALWAYS, FOR EVERY TAKEOFF, LANDING, AND TOUCH AND GO, VERIFY THAT THE RUNWAY IS CLEAR.

TAKEOFF INTO A CALLED LANDING

The person who committed this is an experienced, safe pilot. However, he does wear hearing aids, so I believe he DID NOT HEAR THE LANDING CALL. Everyone’s attention was focused on the other end of the field and the near accident there, or someone might have noticed and helped the second errant pilot. The flight line is frequently a noisy place and we have many members that are hearing impaired. I’ll pass the fix for this one on to the club brain trust (the officers) because I don’t have a practical solution. Another problem here is that Roy was still out there retrieving his airplane. If this pilot had been aware of the action at the far end of the runway he would surely have delayed his takeoff.

All the fun at the field is not worth a single accident. ALWAYS STAY ALERT TO THE SURROUNDING ACTION. I admire Gary’s fast, correct response to his problem.

Thank you for your concern in this matter and thanks for bringing it to our attention. 

It is obvious to me by your brief description of the chain of events, that the lack of hearing was not the only sense missing that day. Aside from the pilots in the air (or in distress) having the "RIGHT OF WAY" and announcing their intentions, IT IS THE FULL RESPONSIBILITY OF THE PILOTS ON THE GROUND TO BE FULLY AWARE OF THE ACTIVE PILOTS AND CORRESPONDING TRAFFIC.....

P.S. all traffic should fly a recognized pattern, especially when the pattern is full.

GREG MARKEN

MONTHLY MEETING—October 13 at 7:00 in the SKP Clubhouse

The officers will meet at 6:30 to discuss officer kinds of things. Bill Berson tells me his candidate for the program has been non-responsive, so we may have to entertain ourselves.

Pete Granger

granger@olypen.com