== Announcements ========================================================
ACMA Club Dues — Your club membership renewal
was due January 1st. But if you are late you have some grace time
before you’ll get dropped from the membership roster. You can
pay your dues ($96.00) at the next club meeting, on February 14. After
that date a $5.00 late fee will be added. Then, you have until the
March 13 meeting to pay the $101.00 that you owe. After that, you
will be dropped from the ACMA membership roster.
Catch me at the field and you can give me your club dues (preferably
by check) and I’ll give you a 2012 club card. Unless you have
renewed your 2012 AMA license I cannot take your ACMA dues money.
Club Shirts, Hats — Hats are sold out... Enzo
Finizola has the extra club shirts now, I believe. If you want to
buy one contact him > enzof1@bellsouth.net.
Club Lapel/Hat Pins — Frits Jetten has five
of them left at $4.00 a piece.
I was charging too much. If you paid $4.50 before, let me know and
I’ll give you a 50 cent refund… Contact me > Frits
Jetten.
Flying Event Schedule — The schedule for 2012
is located at the end of this report. Our ACMA event dates were set
at the January club meeting. A new events has been added to the ones
we usually have, a Big Bird & 3D Aerobatics Fly-in in March.
== ACMA Irvington Field Pits Report ==========================================
December 25, 2011, Christmas Day — Another
report from Dane Kinman, in his own words: “Since their time
at the club began, Jimmy Kennamer and Dane Kinman rarely missed a
weekend of flying. This, of course, held true even on Christmas Day
as Jimmy, Dane, and Ramsay Clevenger came out to the field to fly!
They all had their family get-together at Jimmy's house Christmas
morning. Ramsay was as excited as anyone could be when he opened up
his present — a brand new Parkzone F-27
Q Stryker.
He was so excited that he couldn't wait to get to the field and try
it out. The plane flew very well as is now expected from most any
Parkzone product. Dane was pretty excited as well when he opened his
presents. Maybe not as big and flashy as the Stryker, but his new
Align T-Rex 100S and Flyzone micro Albatros D.Va got him plenty
happy. The wind was a bit much for the little T-Rex that morning,
but the micro Albatros flew very well.
Jimmy brought the Twin-Star and Focke Wulf FW-190 out
to fly. Both flew superbly.
Overall, Christmas was a great day for flying at Irvington Field.
Since Dane, Jimmy, and Ramsay were the only three people there on
Christmas morning, they can add another punch to their cards for being
Die-Hards of Irvington Field! A great and happy New Year awaits in
2012!”
Many people now fly electrics of all sorts, including those with
engines aft of the center of gravity. Here’s safety caution
for those who hand-launch pusher planes. Remember that Xeno flying
wing that Roger Geil has
been flying? I took a video of his hand-launch the other day and
after watching it for the second time I realized that his hand got
really close to the spinning prop.
While watching the video again I took three still shots. Then I added
the yellow prop arc ovals.
See for yourself. Pretty
scary! I sent the pictures
and the video to Roger and here’s what he replied: "Frits,
you are so right. The Xeno is inherently dangerous because of the
gripping area. I was bitten by this bird four months ago! Thanks for
the observation."
Brings back painful memories of that little electric pusher jet that
Gary Johnson hand-launched for me back in 2008.
On the third launch the prop got him and sliced
him up…
So, to all you hand-launching people out there: If you throw a pusher
plane, follow through on that throw by either arcing your hand upward
or downward, depending on whether you throw it over or underhanded,
and move your hand away from the plane as quickly as you can. Don't
just pull your hand straight back after you release your grip! That
prop WILL get you! Here’s some advice from Ken Tow who knows
a few things about self-launching flying wings: “I personally
find it easier and safer on flying wings to launch it by holding on
to the wingtip and throwing it side
armed.”
Saturday, December 31 — 'Twas the last weekend
of 2011 and the weather was just great! Here are Tony Pirkle and Justin
Peacock discussing the important events
of 2011... David Etheredge and grandson Hunter Walker were at
the field with their U-Can-Dos.
Hunter's has a nitro engine and David's has a gas
one. David also flew his Electric
Shock.
Tony gave Herb Tipton some flying lessons, the first of the new
year. He also flew his small Ultimate
biplane… David Doss has a new SIG Wonder flying
wing. He cut that foam core himself. Nice job! It's electric...
Ray Murtha flew a couple of his
planes. One was this PT-19...
Jake Magnin tested out a new combat plane. It flew very well. Here's
Jake's
handlaunch… Earl Latham paid his annual visit to the field.
Here he is with Dewey Brown. Latham is the one
on the right. He just comes to pay his dues…
And Dane Kinman flew his tiny biplane, an Albatros D.Va. It has a
wingspan of about 10 in.
The full-scale Albatros D.V was a fighter aircraft used by the Luftstreitkräfte
(Imperial German Air Service) during World War I. Approximately 900
D.V and 1,612 D.Va aircraft were built before production halted in
early 1918. The D.Va continued in operational service until the end
of the war.
Dane and Jimmy Kennamer also did a glider
tow. Dane controlled the tow plane, Jimmy's Mirage. Here’s
the pair’s
takeoff. Unfortunately two problems cropped up. First the towed
glider, a Spirit, would not release from the tow line! And then after
it finally did, Jimmy lost communications with it! Too bad my camera's
battery went out right after Jimmy discovered that his glider had
a mind of its own! But here's most
of it.
Luckily the Spirit landed inside the field perimeter and did not
suffer any damage. But the flight battery ended up missing.
Maybe it got slung out during that wild
tumble... You know I said the weather was beautiful, but I thought
I saw that small, dark cloud begin to gather over Dane and Jimmy’s
heads. You remember — it has followed them around a lot in the
past...
Sure enough… Only minutes after the glider incident a bright
white puff of smoke sizzled from Jimmy's battery charger setup! It
didn't take long at all for Jimmy to snatch the battery loose, but
the wiring harness had already turned to a toasty crisp!…
Tony flew his small Ultimate biplane, under the watchful eye of Justin...
He also showed off this nicely varnished contraption, a cross between
gynecologist’s birthing stirrups and an infinitely adjustable
walker for the elderly.
But Tony insists it's an airplane stand, a Christmas present from
wife Sam. If you say so, Tony... I hope he kept the instructions...
On the way home I took a picture of the last
sunset of 2011.
Sunday, January 1, 2012 — It's the first day
of the new year and an absolutely beautiful day! Al Ayler dressed
for the occasion. And TJ Rohyans wore his party
hat. He should have also worn that sexy skirt that he wore at
the Sailplane Fly-in a couple of months ago. How can we ever
forget THAT? I think a couple of kids who were at that event that
day were traumatized for life…
Phil Hooper brought his super-fast Corplast racing
plane. It's powered by a Rossi .40 engine. It's faster than Jake
Magnin's racer. (Which means it’s faster than Frits’ LA
Racer, and he hates that…) Jake did a couple more flights on
his newest combat plane.
I think he's getting the hang of that handlaunch…
Jon Koppisch flew Henry Waltman's P-51 Mustang.
The takeoff went
well. Henry was pleased, I
think. And here’s the
landing… Someone adorned the gables of the pavilion will
a RC decorations. I
don’t know who put
them up. The north gable got the 3-bladed prop treatment.
Nice!… Randy Bodiford showed up with his electric Stryker.
It is pretty fast, but less than super-fast…
Jon flew an electrically powered glider. I think it is Robert
Sanderson's…
Justin flew his U-Can-Do, doing some 3D
stuff… He also flew Tony Pirkle's nice scale helicopter,
the Bell Jet Ranger.
I think that is a really good-looking
heli! Tony likes it
a lot… Then Tony got his tiny electric Blade mCPx heli out.
It flies really well. Or should I say Tony flies it really
well? He also flew Herb’s T-28
Trojan.
Tony had also brought his small Ultimate biplane and his Yak-54.
He let Mike McLaughlin and Justin Peacock
fly it too… Jack Smith had problems getting his Cessna Skylane
started and ended up leaving it grounded.
So he flew his Piper J-3
Cub. Here’s Jack's
landing.
A couple of years ago a scale modeler from Spain contacted us on
Alvin Reed’s MARCMAF forum. His name is Javier Monreal and he
is a member of the Club Aeromodelismo Alces of Alcazar de San Juan.
He needed help getting in touch with Jerry Bates, a local scale model
builder here in Mobile.
I ended up communicating with Javier by e-mail and I did get him
in touch with Jerry. Javier does not speak English and I had just
started learning Spanish. With the help of my iPhone translator (yep,
there’s an app for that…) we managed to get his problem
taken care of — in Spanish! We have actually stayed in touch,
but communicating only at Christmas time.
Just a few days ago Javier made me a friend request on Facebook and
I saw his profile picture. Here he is with his Taylorcraft.
It’s BIG! And you just HAVE to check out where he and his buddies
fly. How about that runway? To see it select “Nuestra club”
from the main menu on their
homepage… By the way, Jerry told me he’s working on
a 1/3 scale Aeronca L-3 Grasshopper for himself. He hopes to finish
and fly it this summer.
I have been taking digital pictures of our flying activities for
more than fifteen years. My computerized photo collection has been
growing by an average of 2,000 photos per year. As I went through
some of my pictures of last year I decided to put together a couple
of online photo albums that represent the field activities of the
year 2011.
I took all but a couple of dozen of the 300 pictures in these two
albums, and credits must go to Dean Ritola and TJ Rohyans who regularly
contribute their pictures. In my Pits Reports I always put credits
on the pictures, but some credits are missing from some of the pictures
that I used here.
I made an effort to feature every Azalea City Model Aeronautics club
member who came to the field in 2011. If you aren't in these pictures
you either have been hiding from my camera, or you just haven't visited
our flying field!... There is a “Slideshow” button in
the upper left corner of the Picasa Web page, and you can change the
slide display duration at the bottom of the page.
Here are the links to my two online PicasaWeb albums:
ACMA
- The Year 2011 in Review, Part 1 and ACMA
- The Year 2011 in Review, Part 2.
In case you don’t know… You can “steal” any
of those pictures by dragging it to your desktop. That may not work,
as most online photo services have ways to prevent you from doing
that. But you can take a screenshot of it. Or you can ask me to e-mail
the picture(s) to you. PicasaWeb will SELL you any of those pictures
and deliver the printed versions to your door, and that’s why
they are in business. But I would never charge you for any picture.
I can send a picture to you by e-mail and you can print it yourself.
About the videos that I have been taking… I took a few!...
According to the most recent YouTube overview I posted 901 videos
over the years, and 1,027,661 viewers have watched them…
You know that those videos will be on YouTube “forever”.
If you want to find a video that features you, just go to YouTube
and “Search” for your name — first and last name.
In my earliest videos I didn’t use last names, but now I always
do.
Here are some YouTube statistics that show just the past
month. Notice it also lists the Top 10 of my videos. I do receive
many comments about Ken Tow’s Enterprise aircraft! Its first
flight did not fare too
well. The second flight went better, sort
of. The Trekkies love them and offer all sorts of helpful or crude
suggestions to fly it better or why it crashed…
If you want me to remove any YouTube video that I took of you, let
me know and I will delete it. And if you never want to be seen in
one of my videos, tell me that too...
Bonus Feature 1 — The Airbus A400M, also known
as the Atlas, is a multi-national four-engine turboprop military transport
aircraft. It was designed by Airbus Military as a tactical air-lifter
with strategic capabilities. The aircraft’s maiden flight, originally
planned for 2008, took place on December 11, 2009 in Seville, Spain.
And of course someone built and flew a miniature
replica!
Bonus Feature 2 — The Sirocket, UK's first
Single Seat Deregulated (SSDR) twin engine micro-light jet made its
maiden flight on Dec. 11, 2011. This video footage was taken at Damyn's
Hall Airfield. The Sirocket is powered by two JetCat P200SX turbine
engines. Before building your own make sure you have deep
pockets! You have to admit that this
is very cool!
That’s all for now. Fly safe!
And a Happy New Year to you and your family!
== Flying Event Schedule ===================================================
Maps to almost all the flying fields in our area are on our ACMA
website. You can go there by selecting from the main menu
on the left of this report > Field Maps > then Maps to Other
Fields.
Feb. 11, Sat — Swap Meet and Auction — Capitol
City RC, Jackson, MS
Mar. 1- 4, Thu-Sun — Florida Jets —
Lakeland, FL. Here’s the Florida
Jets flyer.
Mar. 16-18, Fri/Sat/Sun — Big Bird & 3D Aerobatics
Fly-in — Azalea City Model Aeronautics, Mobile, AL.
Irvington Field.
Apr. 7, Sat — Spring Fly-in — Pine Belt RC Association,
Purvis, MS. (Just southwest of Hattiesburg.)
Apr. 14, Sat — Spring Fly-in — Mississippi Coast
RC Club , Gulfport, MS. Bob Miller Field.
Apr. 28 — Spring Scale Fly-in — Azalea
City Model Aeronautics, Mobile, AL. Irvington Field.
May 3-4, Fri/Sat/Sun — Mississippi Afterburner —
Jet Rally, Bolton, MS (near Jackson).
May 12, Sat — Koast Air Modelers Society — Spring
Fly-in, Ocean Springs, MS. Ludlow Field.
May 19 — Armageddon Fun Fly — Azalea City Model
Aeronautics, Mobile, AL. Irvington Field.
Jun. 2, Sat — Mid-Mississippi RC — Spring Fling,
Jackson, MS.
?Jun. 9, Sat — Electric Fly-in? — Tentative.
All-electric event. Azalea City Model Aeronautics, Mobile, AL. Irvington
Field.
Jun. 16, Sat — Mississippi Coast RC Club — Spring
Fly-in, Gulfport, MS. Bob Miller Field.
Sep. 15 — Sailplane Fly-in — Azalea
City Model Aeronautics, Mobile, AL. Irvington Field.
Oct. 6, Sat — Koast Air Modelers Society —
Fall Fly-in, Ocean Springs, MS. Ludlow Field.
Oct. 6, Sat — Mid-Mississippi RC — Fall Classic,
Jackson, MS.
Oct. 13 — Fall Scale Fly-in — Azalea
City Model Aeronautics, Mobile, AL. Irvington Field.
Oct. 20, Sat — Fall Fly-in & Model Aircraft Show
— Mississippi Coast RC Club, Gulfport, MS. Bob Miller
Field.
Nov. 3, Sat — Fall Fly-in — Pine Belt RC Association,
Purvis, MS. (Just southwest of Hattiesburg.)
Nov. 17 — The Great Toy Drive Fly-in —
Azalea City Model Aeronautics, Mobile, AL. Irvington Field.
== Mobile Area RC Model Aviation Forum ====================================
Come chat with some of us on Alvin’s Mobile Area RC Model Aviation
Forum (MARCMAF). There’s always something or somebody being
talked about there…
== Advertising Your For Sale Stuff in the Swap Shop/Flea
Market =================
You can advertise your For Sale items in the Mobile Area RC Model
Aviation Forum's Swap Shop/Flea Market. You can even include photos,
which is always helpful when you try to sell RC stuff.
To use this feature, go to the main menu
shown on the left of this report and select Swap Shop.
First-timers must register with a username and password, but that's
free and it is very easy.
Inactive topics will be pruned when 160 days old. Listings will be
displayed for about five months before being pruned. Please edit your
topic to reflect any changes, if the item(s) sold, or if they are
no longer for sale.
In addition, you can send the detailed information to me by e-mail,
preferably with pictures, and I'll forward it to the 108 members of
our club. I have all the members' e-mail addresses, and I don't mind
doing it. E-mail me > fjetten@aol.com.
== If You Have Any Comments About These Pits Reports…
======================
I welcome any comments regarding these Pits Reports - good or bad.
E-mail me > fjetten@aol.com.
Frits
Goes Hollywood - Click For Details
