============== ACMA Irvington Field Activities, Nov. 14 &
15, ‘09 ==============
………………... All photos and videos
by Frits Jetten unless otherwise indicated ………………....
Saturday — John Lee (remember him? He’s our club’s
Secretary) finally came out of hiding and flew a couple of his planes.
One was an Avistar trainer, the other a Telemaster with a Saito .65
engine. After one deadstick landing John managed to find the windsock
pole with the left wing of his
plane. It only made a dent in the leading edge of the
wing.
Max Needels showed up with wife Nikki, son Dale and two planes I
had never seen before. One was a profile Ultimate
Bipe. It seemed to fly very well and was capable of vertical
hovering. The other was a stubby-winged profile plane with a decal
on it that said Craptech
3D. Its name is “Ground
Pounder”. In spite of that it flew very
nicely.
Frits Jetten took up a small electric plane for newcomers Vishal
Goel and his son Karan.
Karan tried to take it off too, but he pulled it up too fast, stalled
it and crashed. But not bad enough to harm it. This appears to be
a tough little plane. He also brought a slightly larger electric
Cessna. Frits was about to make a test flight on it when a small
group of boy scouts showed up.
The six boy scouts of Troop 59 were working on their aviation badges.
Earlier that morning they had seen the Blue Angels perform near Pensacola.
Scout Leader Andy Odle had arranged for a trainer plane. Rob Baker
of HobbyTown USA lent him the small plane, which looked like a SIG
Kadet. But first they needed
to eat. Here’s something you just don’t see much any
more: a youngster READING
A BOOK!
Frits and Max conducted a brief ground school to explain the controls.
And then each got a ten-minute flight, with Max or Frits controlling
the buddy box. They all did very well. A couple of scouts seemed to
really get into it and were catching on quickly.
Karan — who was not part of the scout group — was added
at the end and he got to fly the trainer also. He too did very well.
All the boys were well behaved and made this a nice experience for
all. Before the scouts left, a final group
photo.
Good news! Tony Farmer finally made the fourth flight on his 1/4
scale L-4 Cub and there were no glitches or problems.
Wayne Boudreaux was there, of
course. Tony was pretty happy about the successful
flight. So happy that he even let Alvin Reed take it around a
couple of times.
Well, glad the problem is finally resolved.
Here’s a follow-up on that special advisory group at the Mississippi
Coast R/C Club. Paul Verger told me that the name is now set in concrete.
It’s The “EGG Heads”. They are a special group of
extremely knowledgeable modelers with pointed heads. EGG stands for
Executive Guidance Group. Not sure who’s been chosen to be the
Supreme Leader of the group...
Johnny Jones flew his tricky Trik Stik… Wayne Miller showed
up with his “Neville’s Devil” fun fly plane…
Terry and Thomas Brownlee both flew their two Eagle
2 trainers … Roger Hagler flew his Hyperion. He really seems
to like this little
plane.
Paul Verger flew his Wild Hare RC Extra-260LS.
He flies it exactly like his others, that is many nicely done aerobatic
maneuvers. I have heard Paul say before that his planes MUST be capable
of performing precision aerobatics or they are history!… Paul
explained the benefits of the transmitter tray that he always uses.
But Russell then confused Tony.
So all that good information was obviously useless…
I have been communicating with a scale RC modeler from the arid region
of Castille La Mancha in central Spain. His name is Javier Monreal.
He was trying to contact Jerry Bates, a local RC model
designer. I’m sure some of you know Jerry.
Javier speaks no English, so I have had to resort to my broken Spanish
along with the help of a Spanish translator app on my iPhone. (Yes!
There’s an app for that!) Javier says he can actually understand
my e-mails just fine! Here’s what Javier’s runway looks
like. Absolutamente magnífico!
Sunday — Henry Waltman showed up with a very nice lady
friend. Her name is Julia White, and she watched Henry fly his
Radian sailplane. Henry’s friend from way back, Loyd Patrick,
had also brought his sailplane.
Perhaps he brought two, because I saw a total of three gliders. Loyd
and Henry had a good time flying the gliders way up there.
Sam Guirges got a couple more lessons on his Solo Star trainer. He’s
doing much better on his landing approaches, making five very nice
approaches in a row. One flight, the last one, however, didn’t
turn out so well. The engine quit and Sam had to make a deadstick
landing. Frits didn’t want to take the controls because there
wasn’t much altitude.
Sam had made several deadstick landings before, so Frits wasn’t
too worried. Except he was going north not far east of the runway,
and Half Mile Road was coming up, and there was Jon’s turbine
jet sitting there at the North End, and there were all these people,
and there were all these vehicles parked there…
Sam missed them all, but he hit the chain link fence along the access
road and tore the nose of the plane up a bit. I’m sure he’ll
repair it…
Billy Ray Krebs had his T-34
Mentor.
Dale Herban and wife Brandy brought an Avistar
trainer. Dale had a couple great flights on the buddy box with
Frits. He’s doing very well, quickly catching on and is now
learning some maneuvers like loops and rolls.
Tony Farmer flew his 1/4 scale L-4 Cub again, and all went
well… Jon Koppisch showed up with the nice Boomerang turbine
jet. A big jet that really looks nice in
the air… Jonathan Festa flew his 40% Edge-540, Wes Batson
flew his 42 % Extra-260, and Sam Chest flew his 40% Dietrich Extra-260…
Katarina Katt Connors flew what looked to be a Champ. Not sure, but
that’s what Alvin called it on the Forum…
I’m told that Russell Ward has added another plane to his growing
fleet. This is a Fly Baby, and I don’t know any more details
than that. Not sure where he got it from. Oh, by the way — Russell
flew one of his many
Cubs. I think it was the 40-size one.
Mike McLaughlin showed up with his Great Planes Super Skybolt
biplane… Andrew Smith brought his Gnat and the shiny Royal
40 chrome plane. He also flew his electric foam Swift II flying
wing… Randy Bodiford flew absolutely nothing…
Ken Tow brought all his helicopters, I believe.
Nope! I didn’t see his Airwolf. But there they were, all line
up, from the big one to the little one. He flew all
of them. Even the scale Hughes
MD-500. Ken also flew his electric Star Destroyer spacecraft…
Billy Ray Krebs brought his T-34 Mentor… Frank Rowel showed
up with his hot pink Cermark Sukhoi. Frits loves that color!... Roger
Geil flew his orange/blue Yak-54…
And Roger Hagler had a good time with his Hyperion…
Ramsay Clevenger showed up with his Stryker II, a pretty fast but
hard-to-see electric delta
wing. He asked Frits to fly it and adjust the trims. Frits took
it off. The color scheme was not the best! At times the whole plane
appeared black, and Frits got disoriented a couple of times. But only
briefly. Ramsay then flew it. And so did Jimmy
Kennamer. Jimmy also flew his Escapade…
Remember the Toys
for Tots Fly-in! If you need a better map than the one on the
flier, use
this one… The Eglin Aero Modellers, Niceville, FL, are having
their Turkey Bird Fun-Fly on Saturday, November 21st. I have no flier.
For directions, go to their
website…
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
