==== Wow! That’s A Lot Of Bull! ================================
Someone from another state recently posed a question to our club
members on the Mobile Area RC Aviation Forum. He wanted someone to
go back and recap the highlights of the activities at our field in
2008. I replied that we are a rather active club, and I suggested
that he himself should just go back and read the past Pits Reports
to come up with his own recap.
Sounds easy enough, right? Well, good luck! During 2008 I wrote 47
reports that included approximately 85,000 words (thanks, Microsoft
Word word-count feature!), 2,350 photos and 36 YouTube and PhotoBucket
video links...! (I promise to do better in 2009…)
==== Don’t Fly If You Don’t Have Your 2009 AMA
License! ==============
Just putting your green 2008 ACMA membership club card up on the
board doesn’t get it, if you have not renewed your AMA membership!
Your 2008 AMA license expired on December 31, 2008. Your ACMA club
dues are due now, but payment can be delayed until the February 10
meeting, after which a $5.00 late fee will be added. If you
don’t have a valid 2009 AMA card between Dec. 31 and Feb. 10,
you may not fly at our field during that time!
So — to whom it may concern — please renew your AMA license…
As of January 12, fourteen ACMA members had not renewed their AMA
membership. Which is perfectly okay, of course, as long as they don’t
fly at Irvington field!…
==== “From the Pits” Field Activities, January
10 & 11, 2009 ============
Saturday was pretty bad. I had been watching the weather.
I didn’t even go to the field… But I heard through the
grapevine that there had been some action at the field after all!
I was told by a reliable source that Paul Kelly successfully flew
his new Ugly Stick, a replacement for the one he crashed one week
ago. Russell flew his Ugly Stick a few times during the week too…
But not everything went well. My source also mentioned that someone
had crashed a big, scale Edge-540 and his helicopter, both on the
same day… And Ken Tow crashed his big, electric Laser-200. The
fuse was destroyed from the cockpit back. Ken said that he had been
fighting the motor for a month or so and finally had it running perfectly
“only to be brought down by a crappy receiver”. He says
he’s “gonna let the remains sit for a while before deciding
whether to rebuild it or not. Maybe it’s time for a nice scale
gas war bird.” Go for it, Ken! Or blow the dust off of that
nice B-25J twin-engine Mitchell bomber and fly it…
Sunday’s weather was a bit better, with only some thunderstorms
predicted. It was cloudy and cold, though… The fireplace was
going nicely when I got to the field.
Among the visitors: Henry Waltman, Billy Frost, Roger Hagler, Alvin
Reed, TJ Rohyans , Wayne Boudreaux, Jon Koppisch and his Mom, Joe
Krebs, John Walker, Ben McGee, and the Gary Johnson family. Many people
stayed huddled around the fire.
Rob Baker flew his F-86 pull-start nitro jet and his Venus
40. Rob says the F-86 is not very good at flying inverted or doing
a roll. Landings
can be rough.
Of course the Venus is much better for flying maneuvers...
Frank Madison had brought out his unfinished scale F8F Bearcat. He
and Wayne were tinkering with it. All they did was try to get the
engine to run, I believe…
From his big fleet of RC planes Andrew Smith dug out an old plane
he hasn’t flown in a long time. It was the Gnat.
Flying it was no problem.
He also made a first flight on a new Phence Post, to be his second
combat plane.
It’s powered by an O.S. .25 LA engine. The plane flew well.
It was nice and responsive, according to Andrew.
Newcomer Randy did one of the hand-launches.
He hopes to join our club soon. Later Andrew flew Randy’s small
electric Cub.
Nice flight even though the 3-channel plane was thrown around by the
wind.
Robert Sanderson brought his DOOMED! Funtana flying wing and a couple
of new Coroplast combat wings “for testing”. (Frankly,
flying each of Robert’s flying machines is a test. A test of
the pilot’s nerves, plus a test of Robert’s construction
techniques and the materials that he uses…) With Robert doing
the hand-launches, Frits made a couple of flights on the Funtana flying
wing. But with Robert you just never know!
Because he had pretty much changed and rearranged everything on the
plane, it was like a first flight again!
That was some wild takeoff! The DOOMED! went straight up about 60
ft. and immediately swooped straight down to the grass, clearing it
by about 10 inches. Did I ever mention that those huge aileron surfaces
are touchy as can be? Too bad there is no video! Both flights ended
in dead-stick landings after the engine quit prematurely. Then Robert
got one of those new plastic wings ready.
He strapped one of them on the .40 HOR (“Hell On Rails”).
I had to leave, and had suggested to Andrew that he should fly Robert’s
plane. According to Robert’s enthusiastic report on the Forum,
he — Robert — “gave it a perfect hand-launch”,
and the HOR, with Andrew at the controls, “took off like a bat
out of hell. Andrew handled it like a pro. In a hard turn the wing
would warp and all kind of crazy things would happen. It was screaming
and nothing fell off!” This is what Robert lives for! This little
HOR is going to be Robert’s next combat plane. And combat is
next Sunday, January 18, at 2:00, by the way. Be there!
Billy Toliver showed up with a brand-new Kyosho Messerschmitt Bf-109
war bird. First
Billy tried to take it off a couple of times, but it nosed
over. He finally decided to let Rob take
it off. The plane quickly jumped into the air and appeared to
fly well. The
landing was a bit rough, probably due to nose-heaviness…
Robert had dropped off an old F-16 pusher jet. It’s a .60 or
maybe even a .90 size model, I believe. I failed to take a picture
of it. I remember flying a similar model for Robert years ago. It
crashed when something came loose in flight and the jet started bucking
and yawing wildly. Crashed near the big power lines east of the field.
Not much left… Anyway, Gary is going to try to revive this one.
Gary has become quite a re-builder of crashed planes. He’s working
on TJ‘s Four Star 40, and is about to tackle Tony’s T-34
Mentor. The Four Star 40 is coming right along.
Because this is a rather brief report, (“Oh, is it really?”
I hear you sigh while you’re rolling your eyes…) I’ll
throw in some entomology... Russell was all excited when he found
this creature nestled between a couple pieces of firewood.
It’s an Eyed Click Beetle (Alaus oculatus). This insect, at
two inches long, is one of the largest members of the click beetle
family. Those dots are false eyes, of course. When you put a click
beetle on its back — or when it’s grabbed by an insectivore
— it bends its head and upper body backward and then, with a
snapping motion and an audible click, it straightens out suddenly,
which launches the beetle several inches into
the air. It keeps doing that until it rights itself…
Cool!
Okay, I’ll make up for that last paragraph… Here’s
something to get your pulse rate up a little bit. (Thanks to club
member Don Harlan for sending me this video.) The airplane is an Edge-540.
Kirby Chambliss is flying it. This airplane can fly inverted until
it runs out of gas! No, this is not an RC model. Kirby is sitting
in that airplane! Try to picture yourself in the cockpit while going
through these wild and awesome maneuvers.
Until next time. Fly safe, always!
==== How The Pits Report Is Published ===========================
Every now and then I’m hearing remarks that tell me that some
people — especially new club members — don’t know
how these weekly Pits Report are put together and published. Or who
is involved. And some, after paying me a nice compliment, just want
to know how it’s done. Well, here’s a little background.
For 18 years, as the club’s Newsletter Editor, I used to publish
a monthly paper newsletter — the Azalea City Aviator —
that was sent to all club
members. The newsletters were also posted on the club’s
old Website. But, because only six out of 109 club members are computer-less,
I decided to discontinue the newsletter about a year ago. The reason?
Much information and many photos in the newsletters were duplicated
in the Pits Reports. And doing both took a lot of my time.
So now, any information pertinent to the club (monthly meeting minutes,
upcoming flying event dates, meeting notifications, safety issues,
etc.) is sent to members by e-mail. Members without computers get
a printout of that same information on paper by US Mail. The cost
of printing and mailing 109 newsletters was saved in the process.
So I write the Pits Reports (some call is BS…), and I take
almost all of the pictures that you see in the reports. I usually
have several contributing photographers, and they are always given
credit. Anyone can submit photos for use in the Pits Reports. Your
pictures are always welcome, and I will always give you credit by
putting your name on them, even if you don’t. I make a sincere
effort to use your pictures rather than mine, as long as they conform
to “my standards”...
I always tell my contributing photographers: “Send me your
best FIVE!” (Not your best 50 — please…) Don’t
send me fuzzy photos, people I can’t recognize, a bunch of similar
pictures of the same scene, or a bunch of pictures only of airplanes.
I prefer to put PEOPLE in most of my photos.
I spend much time sorting through the pictures that I take every
weekend.
I try to find the best ones, delete all the not-so-good ones. Out
of an average of 120 pictures that I take each weekend I may trash
up to 80 of them immediately after viewing them on my computer! Then
they need to be “manipulated”. Some may need to be straightened,
some need cropping, and all of them must be resized.
And I cull some more as I refine the report. And now of course there
are those very time-intensive videos to deal
with…
After I complete all the text in the report using Microsoft Word,
and include all picture and video links, I send the finished report
along with a folder of 30 to 60 photo files to Andrew Smith, our Webmaster.
Before Andrew, Alvin Reed was the very capable Web Guru who held that
position for many years. Andrew makes all image and video links work,
using that magical and secret Internet guru language that only Webmasters
use… He then notifies me by e-mail and lets me look at the finished
version of the report for a final proofing. After I tell him that
it looks fine, Andrew makes it available on the club’s Website.
Usually Alvin then notifies Forum members that it’s there.
And I notify all club members by e-mail that it’s on our Website.
Computer-deficient members are left out! They do not get a paper copy
of the Pits Reports... I also send an e-mail message to about 200
non-members who are scattered across the US and the rest of the planet.
The Pits Reports are read — by people whom I know or have met
— in The Netherlands (where I came from), and in Canada, Norway,
Germany, Mexico, Colombia and Cuba… And there you have it…
==== Upcoming Flying Events =================================
Jan. 18 (Sun) — ACMA’s monthly Combat!
Starts at 2:00 PM.
Feb. 7 (Sat) — NFMI - Rich Herrmann Annual RC Swap &
Shop Meet, Pensacola. For details and a flier describing
this event, go to the main menu shown on the left of this report and
select Events Calendar.
Mar. 6/7 (Fri/Sat) — Swap
Meet. Perry, Georgia.
Apr. 4/5 (Sat/Sun) — Air
Show. Full-scale event. Tuscaloosa, AL.
Apr. 25 (Sat) — Spring Scale Fly-in. ACMA.
Irvington Field. Irvington, AL.
May 9 (Sat) — Fly-in. Hattiesburg, MS.
Andrew is still working on making the maps available on our ACMA
Website. In the meantime, if you need a flying field map, go to Alvin’s
Website > main menu > Field Maps.
==== Advertising Your For Sale Stuff in the Swap Shop ==============
You know you can advertise your For Sale items with photos in the
Forum’s Swap Shop. Go to the main menu
shown here to the left of this report and select Swap Shop.
You must register with a username and password first, but that’s
free and it is very easy. If you need help with that just 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
