============== “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
Frits Goes Hollywood - Click For Details
