==== “From the Pits” Irvington Field Activities,
Jan. 24 & 25, 2009 ====
One week ago Frits got an e-mail from Lee Hughes. The Four Star 40
he had been working on was ready for a test flight, and he asked Frits
if he would do the first flight. Well, Frits has NEVER been known
to say no to that sort of request and he agreed to be at the field
that afternoon. Lee showed up with Kelly, LT’s twin brother
and the plane. The Four Star 40 looked very nice! The plane was all
done in pearl MonoKote and Lee had gone crazy with the intricate flame
job. (Something he will NEVER do again, he said!)
Frits took the Four Star off, and — as with most of Lee’s
planes — it was pretty much trimmed right from the start. After
flying for several minutes, Frits switched the ailerons to high rate.
That produced a very crisp roll rate! Then, after coming out of a
turn, something shiny fluttered off the plane! Frits thought it might
be the canopy, and he immediately throttled back and came in for a
landing.
The landing was exceptionally smooth, drawing glowing raves from
Lee and Kelly… It turned out that the left aileron was missing.
Apparently the torque rod had not been glued properly, and it had
worked its way into the aileron’s soft balsa wood. Lee thought
he heard some brief flutter right before the aileron left the plane.
But it all ended well. Lee says he will replace both ailerons.
Russell Ward was at the field on Saturday with his F-22 Raptor. It
was a very gloomy day and I don’t think he even took it out
his truck. The
Raptor must be Russell’s next plane to fly, after the breakup
of his Ugly Stick a week ago Sunday…
On a cold and grey Sunday Andy Anderson showed up with his big toy,
a shiny motorcycle.
It’s a 1981 Honda CB900 Custom he restored about two years ago.
It will be difficult to carry any planes on that thing, Andy!…
Al Ayler sent me some pictures of the progress on his twin-engine
P-38 Lightning.
Looks like he’s in the painting stage.
It’s beginning to look
good! I hope he won’t be scared to fly this one. He has
admitted to being scared to fly his twin-engine Cessna 310, so…
— I’m just saying…
Wayne Miller flew his Pacific Models 40-size Edge-540.
Still waiting for that Gee Bee, Wayne!... Paul Kelly kept it low-key
this weekend and flew his veeeery sloooow Telemaster.
He had a couple of nice, quiet flights…
Roger Hagler flew his DeBolt Champ, a 3-channel model.
He let Frits fly it too…
Henry Waltman showed up with his Fleet biplane. TJ helped with the
assembly, which can be quite a chore.
Henry let Tony and TJ fly the bipe.
Why does it take so many people to fly a North
End plane?... And Henry insisted that Frits fly it too, even though
Frits said that he couldn’t fly anything THAT slow without first
taking a NoDoz
pill. Henry was happy when the Fleet was safely on the ground!...
Jon Koppisch made some points with Henry by bowing down to his elder…
Jon flew several planes.
Ben McGee — who is a very infrequent flier — took his
Tower Hobbies trainer up for a flight. He had also brought a previously
owned warplane, a Hangar 9 P-51 Mustang.
He asked Frits to do the flight. There were some problems getting
the engine started. Ben believes in coming prepared with some really
big tools! But
after some tinkering, the Evolution engine ran very well. And it is
very quiet. The only problem Frits experienced were the grey wings
that disappeared against the grey sky in each turn! After a short
flight that included a couple of rolls, Frits landed the plane safely.
Ben was happy…
Gary Johnson brought his electric foam Swift II flying
wing. I think his son Thomas hand-launched it for
him. Gary flew it in a rather wild and exciting fashion. The wing
finally slammed into the ground, but there was little damage... Andrew
Smith flew his Twist.
He had also brought his electric Swift, one just like Gary’s.
Andrew showed off his inverted flying
skills.
Not too many people flew on Sunday, but there were the usual and
unusual visitors. Starting with the unusual, there was Alvin Reed,
snapping pictures with his new camera. He seems to have figured out
most of its features now. I now regularly steal his pictures from
the Mobile Area RC Model Aviation Forum. (To go to the Forum, select
Forum from the main menu shown on the left of this
report.) Alvin also proudly showed off the Thunder Tiger .46 engine
that he plans to install in his upcoming Great Planes Escapade…
My group of contributing paparazzi was there (minus David Lanzo).
Jeff Foster, Dean Ritola and TJ Rohyans always provide me with some
very nice pictures. You’ll see some here in this report…
Tony Farmer only flew Henry’s Fleet biplane, I believe…
Jon Koppisch flew his very fast Delta Wing pusher… And Paul
Verger flew his Edge-540T…
Someone found the horizontal stab that came off of Russell’s
Ugly Stick last
week. It didn’t take Russell very long to set it on fire
in the fire pit…
Frits took some pictures of the cracks in the runway.
Some are large enough to swallow a cell phone, as you can see here.
Or a large model airplane wheel!
Be aware that when you stand on the pilot stations, the largest cracks
— because of
the cap on the runway — are not visible to the pilot! There
are talks underway to repair the cracks.
Alvin and Russell had a lengthy and mostly one-sided conversation
around the fire.
The talk ranged from the Vicar of Dibbley (a British TV sitcom) to
brutal religious conflicts in England.
And it also alluded to Russell’s alleged new (and secret until-now…)
girlfriend.
Russell took it all in silence…
There was some commotion around one of the pilot
stations. Safety Officer Tony had to explain a couple of safety
issues that included obnoxious behavior, cursing and smoking around
the pilot stations to a person who shall remain unnamed…
Rhonda Johnson, Joyce Walker and Mom Koppisch enjoyed themselves around
the fireplace…
Mariah and Christy made for a pretty picture with Ben’s airplanes…
And Christy and Andrew’s dog Jake posed for a nice photo.
Randy Bodiford flew his small electric foam Cub several
times. It flies well, but when its batteries go low you don’t
get much time to return it to base!
Randy had to walk for it a couple of times… John Walker brought
his 1/4 scale Cub.
It took several people to get it cranked.
And to keep it running. But it ran!
That’s occasional visitor Bill Powell on the left.
Hey, there’s still time to repair that broken scale airplane
or war bird sitting in the corner of your hobby room before our Azalea
City Model Aeronautics’ Spring Scale Fly-in, April 25! Or just
purchase a new plane and be done with it. I hope you can be there!
I missed the flight of Frank Madison’s scale F8F Bearcat, the
“Rare Bear”.
But TJ didn’t.
Nice shots!...
Joe Krebs showed up again with his Fokker DR1-152 triplane.
He had a couple of good
flights. The Fokker and Henry’s Fleet even flew in formation.
Nice picture by Dean.
Squirrelly landings and nose-overs are not unusual with this plane…
Oh, I almost forgot! Some of you may know that I am somewhat partial
to Apple Mac computers. The 25th anniversary of the introduction of
the Macintosh was last Saturday. And with the sale of the very first
Mac, desktop computing was forever changed!
The GUI (Graphic User Interface), the mouse, windows, folders, icons,
the trashcan, pointing & clicking & dragging, plug & play
(not plug & PRAY…), copy & paste, touch pads, track
balls. Guess where all those innovations came from?
Until 1984 (and long after) everyone thought a computer was for business
and couldn’t possibly be FUN! — Just think, from this
very first prototype Apple.
To that most elegant and beautiful machine like the one I use every
day, the iMac
G5. Sorry, I just couldn’t resist. Sniff… This is
making me misty-eyed… I promise that I won’t mention it
again until the year 2034, the Mac’s 50th anniversary…
I’ll end with a very nice sunset picture recently taken by
club member and Tugboat Captain Elton Sullivan, while he was churning
down Lake Charles, Louisiana…
I’ll see you at the field. Fly safe! Always!
==== Upcoming Flying Events =================================
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 to the left of this
report and select Events Calendar.
*tentative* Feb. 14 (Sat) — Fun Fly
— Eglin Aero Modelers. *tentative*
Mar. 6/7 (Fri/Sat) — Swap
Meet & Model Show. Perry, Georgia.
Mar. 14 (Sat) — ACMA Nite Fly. Irvington Field,
Irvington, AL.
Apr. 4/5 (Sat/Sun) — Air
Show. This is a FULL-SCALE event. Tuscaloosa, AL.
Apr. 25 (Sat) — Spring Scale Fly-in. ACMA.
Irvington Field, Irvington, AL.
May 9 (Sat) — Fly-in. Hattiesburg, MS. (I have
no details yet.)
You can check RC event dates on our Website by selecting Events
Calendar from the main menu shown on the left of this report.
If you need a flying field map, go to Alvin’s
Website > main menu > Field Maps.
==== Don’t Fly If You Don’t Have Your 2009 AMA
License! ==============
If you have not renewed your AMA membership, just putting your green
2008 ACMA membership club card up on the frequency board doesn’t
get it! Your 2008 AMA license expired last December 31st. 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.
Then after the March 10 meeting, if you have not paid your 2009 club
dues, you will be dropped from the ACMA membership roster. Restoring
your membership after March 10 means that you will have to pay that
$50 initiation fee a second time, in addition to any dues and late
fees owed…
If you don’t have a valid 2009 AMA insurance license
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 26, thirteen ACMA members still
had not renewed their AMA membership. Which is perfectly okay, of
course, as long as they don’t fly at Irvington field.
==== 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 on 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 have questions or need help with
this 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.
Azalea City Model Aeronautics RC club, Mobile, Alabama,
USA.
Website — http://www.acma-rc.com/index.html
Frits Goes Hollywood - Click For Details
