Frits Goes Hollywood - Click For Details

---

============== “From the Pits” Field Activities, Oct. 24, ‘09 ==============
==================== Annual Fall Scale Fly-in Day 1 ===================

…………... All photos and videos by Frits Jetten unless otherwise indicated …………....

Day 1, Saturday — I should first mention the ACMA club members who contributed time and effort to help make this scale fly-in a success. JC Day and Wayne Boudreaux manned the registration/raffle desk. Enzo Finizola and Alvin Reed took care of food procurement and had the kitchen under control, including the cooking. Russell Ward collected the money for the food concession. And the flags were flying. Thanks to all, including those I may have forgotten to mention…

Tony Farmer was the Organizer of the event. And a special thanks to Rob Baker, the owner of the HobbyTown USA stores in Mobile and Daphne. Rob donated two nice airplane kits to the raffle. One was a Thunder Tiger Rare Bear, the other a ParkZone P-51D Mustang…

Jonathan Festa donated the Carl Goldberg Laser 200 ARF kit that he won at the Armageddon Fun Fly earlier this year… And Fred Fife had dropped off some wood and assorted RC accessories to be raffled off also. Also $300 worth of HobbyTown USA gift cards, purchased by our club, was raffled off.

Early in the morning, a small group of pilots from the Northshore R/C club showed up. Phil Koury, Frank Ford and his son Corey, came from Picayune, MS; Roland Wibbing from Carriere, MS; and Will Argeanton and John Perkins from Slidell, AL…

Jeff Williams and Thomas Prine came from Hattiesburg, MS. They are from the Pinebelt R/C club there… And Ed Wilkinson and Larry Peavy traveled from Foley, AL. You’ll see photos of all these visitors scattered throughout this report.

And speaking of photos, I got several dozen from FIVE contributing photographers! Thanks a bunch to Will Argeanton, TJ Rohyans, Jeff Foster, Dean Ritola and Bill White. Bill is a professional photographer and took over 400 pictures! His studio is in Ocean Springs, MS. And of course Frits took his share of photos. Only about 275…

Oh, Alvin Reed always provides me with pictures too, but he never sends them to me. Oops, wrong picture! Sorry! Here he is with his camera. I just steal the pictures I want from the ones he posts on his Mobile Area RC Model Aviation Forum… Here’s something you don’t see often. Henry Waltman parting with a dollar to buy a raffle ticket…

The pilots I mentioned are the out-of-towners who signed the register, and who are not ACMA club members. There were others. I saw Thomas LeMaster from the Singing River R/C club in Pascagoula, MS, but he didn’t fly. And I briefly spoke with Nathan Rishie of the Ocean Springs, MS, Koast Air Modeling Society. He and some buddies were just visiting too… I saw a gentleman with a shirt showing the logo of the Pensacola Aeromodelers Giant Flyers, a club in Pensacola, FL, but I never got to talk to him.

The four guys from the Northshore R/C club showed up early with 14 airplanes packed into their vehicles! That broke an earlier record of 11, if I recall correctly. And, as always, they actually flew them, and flew them often during the entire day. They are active, dedicated scale modelers and it’s always great to have them at our fly-ins. Only Will didn’t fly this time — his fleet was pretty much destroyed by hurricane Katrina — but there’s hope for next year!

Ed Wilkinson and Larry Peavy also flew often throughout the day. They brought several airplanes. Later in the afternoon Larry flew the not-so-scale Golden Eagle Talon. He can do some cool stuff with that one… Wayne Miller flew his Sopwith Pup. And was that his Messerschmitt Me-109 sitting there?... Michael McLaughlin brought his Super Skybolt…

Henry Waltman asked Michael to fly Henry’s P-51 Mustang. Michael and Joe Krebs’ Mustang were going to take off together. Well, things didn’t go as planned. Fortunately the damage was mild… Joe completed his flight just fine… This is what the crowd looked like around midday. You’ll have to scroll to see all of this panorama.

Phil had brought his trusty OV-10 Bronco. And another twin-engine plane, a Canadian Islander. It seemed to fly great. He also flew his nice WACO YMF-5 biplane powered by an OS 160 twin 4-stroke… There were a several other twin-engine planes. But some were just on display… Jim Quint appeared to be reminiscing about the bad ol’ days when these bombers saw a lot of action…

Roland had his Top Flite T-34 with OS 91 2-stroke. He also had two bipes, both of them F4B4s. One is a model A, the other a model B. You tell me which is which…

Al Ayler had a trailer full of planes, and he set up several. His SBD Dauntless. Nice warbird. Shows up nicely with its bright yellow wings. After the successful landing he was beside himself. Here is his little dance. Yay! — Oh, yeah! — Yeah, baby! — I LOVE RC!... He also assembled the beautiful twin-engine P-38 Lightning. But he had some problems starting the engines. He had plenty of help.

Frank Ford and his son Corey brought a very nice 37% Yak-54 giant scale plane. It looked impressive! It was Corey’s, who’s only 14 years old. And his flying was impressive too. Looks as if he’ll have a great future in either 3D flying or IMAC competition (IMAC – International Miniature Aircraft Club.)

Corey expressed a desire to improve his precision aerobatic skills, and planned on competing in IMAC. He asked Paul Verger for advice. Paul should know something about that. He’s been competing in precision aerobatics on the national scene for more years than he cares to admit. We’re talking way back! And it shows in Paul’s extremely smooth flying style. Good luck, Corey, and come back to fly with us anytime!

A group of Girl Scouts showed up. No, not to sell cookies! Girl Scout Katelyn Swenson came to one of our recent club meetings with her parents and made a nice presentation to request the field trip. Max Needels and Frits split the group up and toured them around. The scouts were working on their aviation badges, so they came to see some models in action.

Al was helpful with his demonstration of the controls and retractable gear on his Lightning. And explained all about his Dauntless dive bomber. Some of the girls seemed very interested and attentive. Others had more fun playing the card game UNO. But they were all well behaved and I hope they get their badges. Then a group picture with Mr. Ayler. And one with Mr. Needels. Thanks for coordinating this little field trip, Max!

There were no turbine jets present at all on this day! There was a conflicting flying event going on in Pensacola, and our jet jockeys were there. And there were only two scale helicopter, as far as I know. Ken Tow brought his Airwolf and the Hughes MD-500. He tempted fate by flying over Jeff Foster’s Fish Pond… Enzo Finizola played wth his large RC Army tank.

Dewey Brown also had a Mustang, here being guided by Al. Dewey made a couple of nice flights. One landing was a bit bumpy but it all turned out well… Tommy Shields showed up with several planes. One was the Cessna. He had a good flight… Mike and Ed Callen flew their PT-19, here pushed to the runway by Tommy. Mike let Tommy have a go at it too. But later, on another flight, Mike landed quite hard and separated the wing. But I know the damage is light.

Jeff Williams brought several nice planes. He flew most of them, I believe. I didn’t see the Cristen Eagle in flight… Paul Verger and Lee Carroll flew… Around noon the cooks had the food ready. And everything was delicious! Everyone seemed to enjoy the beans, burgers and hotdogs…

Tal Fowler landed his ultra-light 2-seater early in the morning. He visited for a while… There was quite a diversity of pilot figures in the many airplanes. One looked very military. One looked comical. This one looked flashy in his bright red shirt. This one looked doubly nice. Not to be outdone, her twin sister made it clear that there was a little nip in the air…

Tony Farmer showed up with his new L-4 Cub, along with Wayne Boudreaux, who built and detailed most of this airplane. And a nice plane it turned out to be! His wife René didn’t know Tony had put her name on the cowl. She was delightfully surprised. Then it was time to take that L-4 off.

I know Tony was nervous. He could be seen praying earlier in the morning. But Wayne was there for encouragement. Tony’s takeoff was uneventful. But then some problems developed. A glitch of some sort. Michael McLaughlin was called upon for help. He ended up bringing it down safely. What happened?...

Jim and Annette Quint had a good time talking to Jeff Williams and Joe Krebs. He and Al Ayler had a discussion about size… A large fullscale aircraft made a low flyby as if we had requested it for our fly-in! According to Phil — who, I found out is a walking aviation encyclopedia — it’s a military version of the Lockheed Electra, a submarine hunter. The Navy calls it the P-3 Orion…

Early in the day someone wanted to know how fast the wind was blowing. Frits was quick to whip out his iPhone, because, well, of course there’s an app for that! It’s called GetWind! Sure enough, the iPhone responds to wind, but this application should probably be placed under the large category of “Useless Apps”. It’s not accurate at all.

Carl Broughton showed up with his nice Pitts Special. He had some bad luck befall him right from the start. His Pitts Special biplane stalled on takeoff and crashed. Here’s a stop-action movie of the crash by Jeff Foster. Too bad. Carl has had this Pitts for quite some time. The crash left a gaping hole. But I’m sure Carl will rebuild the bipe.

Here’s a nicely detailed cockpit dash. And more pilot figures. This one has really blue eyes. Here’s one who likes to wear lipstick. No comment on this one. And here’s a pilot slumped over at the sticks. Interesting names those two have…

Tony was the raffle winner of a large box of assorted wood. He should probably keep it, or give it to Wayne, in case that new Cub has to be, uhmmm, rebuilt… In spite of Frits’ crash record, Phil let Frits fly his Pawney. It flew fine, but Frits thinks those wing struts on top of the wings just looked wrong.

Frits also flew Phil’s electric MiG-29, a small and highly maneuverable foam jet. Flying this little jet made Frits’ knees weak. The landing was fine. Then Frits hand-launched the MiG for Phil. And he did it in a most graceful way, I should add. Then Phil showed Frits how it’s really done.

Later in the evening all the raffle prizes were gone, and the crowds started to disappear. I’m sorry I didn’t get the name of the young man who won the Rare Bear. Thomas Prine of Hattiesburg won the Mustang kit. And our own Ken Tow won the Laser 200. And Mike and Ed Callen did well, winning several gift cards!

There are three flying events competing for your attendance this upcoming Saturday. The Northwest Florida Modelers, Inc. club has a twin-engine event. Here’s their flyer. The Pinebelt R/C Club of Hattiesburg. MS, has a fly-in in Hattiesburg, MS. Here are the details. And then there’s the annual Fall Fly-in in Gulfport, hosted by the Mississippi Coast R/C Club. I received no flyer from them, but here’s a map to their flying field, Bob Miller Field.

Now stay tuned for the 2nd part of this report, because Sunday was the day the turbine jets ruled! Here’s an exciting preview. The report should be out in a day or so.

Until then, fly safe!

============== “From the Pits” Field Activities, Oct. 25, ‘09 ==============
==================== Annual Fall Scale Fly-in Day 2 ===================

…………... All photos and videos by Frits Jetten unless otherwise indicated …………....

Sunday — This report will cover Day 2 of the Azalea City Model Aeronautics Fall Scale Fly-in. This one is much shorter, I promise! But first I want to thank our club’s Webmaster Andrew Smith. Andrew is the one who takes my reports, and all those pictures and video links, and fixes them so you can see them on our website. Last weekend’s 2-part Scale Fly-in report included 177 images and 28 videos. That’s a record! Thanks, Andrew! (... And he never complains…)

Sunday — Some guys from across Mobile Bay showed up early. They were Jeff Daly, Mike Redys and Wayne Wilson from Niceville, FL. Jeff is a member of the Eglin Aero Modellers. He brought three aircraft that were pretty varied in looks and performance. Two were jets, and one was a flying lawnmower. Yep, a lawnmower! (Hey, I know, but it was a SCALE mower…)

The F-16 Falcon had an OS 1.08 nitro engine and a tuned pipe. It flew very well and it was pretty fast. Jeff also had a second jet, a Bob Violett Super Bandit, this one powered by a turbine engine. This is a sleek jet with awesome performance, as Jeff will later demonstrate!

Tony Farmer brought his L-4 Cub again. This time he let Jon Koppisch do a test flight. You remember what happened yesterday? I wondered if the glitch, if that’s what it was, had been eliminated? Here’s the Cub’s takeoff. So the problem was still there. Again the Cub’s landing was without a problem. There were several discussions about what could be wrong and what should be done; one of them appeared pretty agitated.

Jon Koppisch brought his turbine powered Boomerang. It’s not as fast as the other jets, but to me the speed seems to suit the aircraft. Here’s Jon’s takeoff. Jon did a couple of inverted passes. And some nice 4-point rolls. He landed it very smoothly…

Paul Verger and Lee Carroll were back. Paul gave his Aeroworks Extra a workout. He seems to favor that one. And Lee flew his E-Flite Taylorcraft 450 ARF… Ray Miller flew his Messerschmitt Me-109. At least I think that was Wayne’s… There were a couple of yellow Cubs too. I think both Jon and Joe flew their larger 1/3 scale ones.

Paul Kelly showed up with several planes. One was a Lancair. That flight went without complications. The other was a Corsair. There was a slight problem with the Corsair and it ended up getting its nose crunched… This was definitely NOT a good day for Corsairs. Andrew Smith brought his nitro powered and electric ones. Andrew's big Corsair collapsed its landing gear on landing. The hand-launch of the electric Corsair, by Randy Bodiford, was great. But the landing was not.

Ray Murtha bas back, this time with his PT-19. He complained about engine problems. It just wouldn’t run right, and had not run right for a long time. He asked Wayne Boudreaux for some help, and soon, Wayne had torn the carburetor apart. And, after he put it back together, that engine “ran better than it ever had”, according to Ray. That Wayne knows his stuff, doesn’t he?

Rob Baker and family showed up. He brought a couple of his jets. The Flash still had a problem with its gear not retracting, so Rob flew it with the gear down. Jeff and Rob did a dual takeoff… Then a little later Bill Culberson showed up with his big Tiger jet and a Russian MiG. That Tiger is a large, good-looking jet!

The lawnmower was something else! It looked just fine sitting there. But it looked strange running down the runway all by itself. Here’s the takeoff. It looked very wrong in the air! We have never had anything this weird!... Here’s a scan of the North End.

Tony and Enzo Finizola were in the kitchen preparing some hamburgers, hotdogs and slabs of ribs. Enzo was cooking a roast. Having to smell all that can sure make you hungry! Tony really, really smoked up the place! And it wasn’t long before everyone got in the chow line…

The Bakers ate together like a family. That’s Wife Kari, and then daughters Claire, Audrey and friend Hannah… Across from them sat the three guys from Niceville, and they seemed to enjoy the food… Paul ate every scrap of that Boston butt on his plate… Sam Guirges shared mealtime with his wife Stephanie. And Christy Johnson really got into that barbeque sauce…

Speaking of smoke. Jonathan has a great smoke system on his Edge 540. It puts out some dense, white smoke. And when there’s almost no wind, well, he can make half the field disappear!... Al Ayler flew his large, 1/3 scale Aeronca Champ… And Henry Waltman flew his Spacewalker… Roger Geil paid us a visit with his full-scale experimental Quicksilver. He still has found no way to stuff a model plane in that cockpit…

Here are some pilot figures that I spotted today. This is a replica of Joe Krebs, obviously in his younger days. And how about this likeness of Ray Murtha? And this is the pilot figure in Tony’s new Cub. Alvin claims that he helped paint the pilot, and he offered proof. But, I’m not sure… Nice pilot, in any case.

Jeff, Bill and Rob did a triple takeoff! That was very nice! The Super Bandit looked great and was screaming. Bill’s big Tiger was not quite as fast as Jeff’s Bandit. Rob made a smooth landing, while Jeff’s Super Bandit kept zipping around. Bill also made a nice landing, and then it was time for Jeff to land. He was off a little. Those guys put on a really nice show!

Bill also had that nice, big MiG. He was running the engine just as Roger was taking off his ultralight. Bill flew the MiG late into the afternoon. He even flew the last flight at dusk with the running lights on, but I couldn’t get a good picture or video of it. There was one smaller jet that sat idle. Not sure whose it was. It looked like an F-86 Sabre, but I could be wrong…

Later in the afternoon things got more relaxed and the non-scale stuff came out. Like Ken Tow and his Star Destroyer. It’s always a crowd pleaser… Frits took Sam up for some flying lessons on the Solo Star trainer. Sam is doing well and keeps Frits on his toes. A solo flight may not be far off…

Henry got out his Radian motor-assisted sailplane. You saw the launch video earlier. He and several others flew it, including TJ Rohyans and club President Enzo. Henry finally brought it in — a bit off course — and plopped it down right next to the Sabre jet. He couldn’t have planned it better!

Rob had brought a very small P-51 Mustang. That little plane was just amazing! Rob let several people fly. Both Jeff Lee and Frits flew that tiny warbird. It looks like one of the big ones in this picture. It was easy to control and the tiny battery lasted quite a long time. It is not very expensive and available at your local HobbyTown USA hobby store.

I noticed people just keep handing Gary Johnson damaged planes to rebuild. He’s been fixing them non-stop for many weeks. Well, you can imagine how busy Gary’s been — what with Robert Sanderson, TJ and Paul Kelly flying — I’m just saying. And you can’t blame Frits. He hasn’t crashed anything in months!… Gary sure is getting plenty of experience patching, sanding, gluing and MonoKoting…

I hope I didn’t forget anyone or anything. Information overload, I know! Hey, I tried to keep it short… Here’s a picture Elton Sullivan sent me from his tugboat. It’s of a sunset in Galveston Bay. Too bad Elton couldn’t make the fly-in…

Reminder: There are three flying events this coming Saturday. The Northwest Florida Modelers, Inc. club has a twin-engine event. Here’s their flyer… The Pinebelt R/C Club has a fly-in in Hattiesburg, MS. Here are the details…

And then there’s the annual Fall Fly-in in Gulfport, hosted by the Mississippi Coast R/C Club. I received no flyer, but here’s a map to their flying field, Bob Miller Field. If I remember right, a $5.00 registration usually includes a fried chicken meal. You just can’t beat that!

That’s all for now. I’ll see you at the field. Be safe!

========== Advertising Your For Sale Stuff in the Swap Shop/Flea Market===========

You know that 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.

New rule! - 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.

======== 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 Website > http://www.acma-rc.com/index.html