============== Irvington Field Activities, Oct. 31/Nov. 01,
‘09 ==============
………..... All photos and videos by Frits Jetten
unless otherwise indicated ………………....
Another fly-in popped up at the last moment! There will be a Toys
For Tots Fly-in at Rae Fritz Field near Pensacola, FL, on Saturday,
Nov. 28. Landing fee: a new toy that costs $10.00 or more, to donate
to the Toys For Tots campaign. Here’s the
flyer. And the directions are on the flyer. For those of you not
familiar with that area, maybe my map will
help…
Just thought I’d mention that club member TJ Rohyans got one
of his photos published in Model Aviation magazine (Page 129). Balsa
USA turned it into a full-page
ad. It’s a nice shot that TJ took at Joe Nall’s. Congratulations,
TJ! (I know, — his last name is misspelled in the ad…)
Saturday, Oct. 31 — Not much going on. David Etheredge flew
his U-Can-Do 3D.
He was the only one flying while I was there…
Jeff Foster, Russell Ward and William Moore were just shooting
the bull. Oh, and I had a close encounter with our close-talker,
William. That
William. I just don’t
know…
Sunday, Nov. 1 — Jonathan Festa, Jon Koppisch, Sam Chest and
Wes and Marie Batson were busy flying their 3D
planes. Marie didn’t
fly. They did some vertical formation
flying. Here’s a video.
Jonathan had no smoke this
time… Al Ayler, Henry Waltman, Frank Madison, Karen NoLastName
and Dean Ritola showed
up. Jim Quint sat around, wiener
in hand…
Jon has added another toy to his collection, a tiny video camera.
It was small!
He taped it to Roger Hagler’s Lazy Bee and later to his own
Yak-55SP profile
plane. That camera seems to work very
well… Did I see that Yak jump off of the workbench to the
ground under power? I thought so. Fortunately there was no one standing
or sitting in front of it. I don’t know what happened…
Dale Herban and wife Brandi showed up. Dale brought his trainer and
the F-22 Raptor, Hangar 9’s advanced trainer. Dale is doing
well, and improving his flying skills. He let Frits fly the Raptor
a couple of times. Dale had repositioned the flaps on the F-22, so
they didn’t act like air brakes. Speed was noticeably faster.
Nice flying plane!
Sam Guirges actually soloed!
Not intentionally, but Frits had let him take off, and he flew around,
practicing rolls and low runway approaches, when… the engine
stopped. He landed hard in the dirt, doing some damage to the nose
gear. Unfazed, Sam repaired it.
Then on the next flight, Sam came in from the south, glided toward
the runway, and managed to find the only surveyor’s stake out
there in the landfill! He hit it with the left wing tip. The engine
mount and firewall were knocked loose. But he made
one soloflight! Congratulations, Sam!
It was getting dark. Later in the evening there were the people who
were still hanging around, discussing something…
. The moon looked beautiful!...
=============== PBRC Annual Fly-in Activities, Nov. 07, ‘09
===============
Friday, Nov. 6 — I stopped by the field and found some magazines
lying around.
Apparently someone had just dropped them off. The wind has its way
with those things. Please put them in the bookcases where they belong.
It also would be nice when people who read magazines would put them
back after reading…
I noticed some county equipment near the trash pile where dumping
was allowed for just this weekend.
Then Russell drove up with a pickup full of stuff.
I helped him unload his junk…
Saturday, Nov. 7 — There was also a fly-in going on near Hattiesburg,
MS, hosted by the Pine
Belt R/C club. I had never been there. A small group had assembled
there early in the
day. Several people from our club decided to attend it. TJ Rohyans
was one of them, and he filed this much-appreciated report. The following
photos in this section were all taken
by TJ. Here is TJ’s account in his own words:
“Here are a few of the images I got yesterday from our trip
to the Pine Belt R/C club's Annual Fly-In. In attendance were myself,
Henry Waltman, Al Ayler, Jonathan
Festa, Jon Koppisch and his wife Leigh and mother Linda, Roger
Hagler and Dean Ritola. The weather couldn't have been more pleasant.
The field was very nice although a little hard to find for some of
us.”
“Jon had a sparkplug come out at a critical moment and he crashed
his large 40% Yak-54.
And I nearly lost my Stinger 60 after losing my concentration on it
and flying through the trees on the far side of the runway.”
Jon was impressed by the turbine powered helicopter that was on display
and that also flew.
“The RC skydiver was a real
treat. It worked flawlessly.
Five jumps total!
(A much better record than someone else’s RC skydiver, Wayne!)…
Overall, we had a good time and the food was good too. I feel it was
worth the drive.”
Thanks for the report and pictures, TJ.
============== MCRCC Annual Fly-in Activities, Nov. 07, ‘09
==============
Saturday, Nov. 7 — The weather was great. I decided to go to
the Mississippi Coast RC Club’s Annual
Fly-in. Their field — Bob Miller Field — is located
a few miles north of Gulfport. I had not been to Bob Miller Field
in years. They
have a nice clubhouse.
There was a small group when I got there around mid-morning.
There was a good variety of aircraft that included scale planes, warbirds,,
aerobatic planes, helicopters, gliders, and electric
foamies.
I ran into Roland Wibbing of the Northshore RC club in Picayune.
You may remember him from our recent Scale Fly-in. He was set up under
a tree in the shade and was busy tinkering with his transmitter. He
had his nice Christen Eagle, an aerobatic Frenzy and one of his scale
Boeing F4B biplanes.
The pilot inside the F4B looked familiar. He was at our scale fly-in.
His stick has been worked on and painted…
There were two ACMA members there. Paul Verger and his Extra.
He got several flights
in. He flies as smoothly at Bob Miller Field as he does ours.
He uses the same flight
desk… And the other ACMA member was Tony Beckham and his
Ultra Stick Lite…
Oh, and they outdid us with their full-scale jet
flyover. The USAF aircraft was a bit more impressive, plus it
flew over about eight
times…
Roland flew his Frenzy.
He then prepared his Christen Eagle for
flight. And then he did some nice flying and touch-‘n’-gos
to impress
me. I was impressed!...
David Felder had a beautiful Curtis
Jenny. Lots of attention to detail.
Nice cowling.
The plane really looked nice in
the air. It’s a really nice looking aircraft.
Jerry Gollott was doing a brisk business selling raffle
tickets. Jerry flew his Ugly
Stick. Richard Ober was also selling tickets.
Richard flies helicopters, combat planes and gliders and probably
everything else.
I saw one big helicopter
crash. A T-Rex, I believe. Damage was not too bad because an hour
later it looked
fine…
Jamie Moran flew a nice Aeroworks Yak-54.
He gets many comments and encouragement when
he flies. He also has a black
biplane. I think it was an Ultimate Biplane… Joey Calhoun
had a nice Yak-55.
He wore a matching orange shirt…
I know some of you remember Bobby
McCarroll. He hasn’t been at our field in a long while.
He said he’s trying to do some more
flying. Hopefully we’ll see him at our Spring Scale Fly-in.
Three gliders
flew. I had never seen a midair between gliders, but I saw one
here! Not bad. Both kept
flying. I think all three were Radians…
There was a crash of a 3D
Mayhem. The wing looked fine… There was combat with four
small electric warbirds.
All were hand-launched.
And they made bomb drops on an aircraft
carrier.
I walked in on a discussion about Irvington Field’s “Senior
Advisory Group” (SAG). Apparently they too suffer from several
expert, all-knowing, helpful, older RC modelers. Paul Verger was talking
about having something similar at Bob
Miller Field. The small committee finally came up with the name
“Egg Heads”… Not sure if they have appointed their
Supreme Egg Head yet…
Unlike what we do, they raffle off all tickets at one sitting. Paul
won a gift card…
After the raffle was over — and no, I didn’t win a thing
— I headed back to Irvington. On the way out I snapped this
picture. It’s a nice flying field with some nice people.
Great food. Plus I was presented with a bright red MCRCC club cap.
Thanks, Tony! I hope you didn’t steal it from anyone…
I had a great time at Bob Miller Field!...
Well, not much was going on at Irvington Field when I got there.
Russell War and Jim Jorden were there, later to be joined by Jeff
Foster. Jim’s Ultra Sport was sitting there, but Jim only
ran the engine. They were wondering where everyone was.
Russell had discovered a treasure in the growing pile of trash south
of the runway. He proudly displayed the Persian rug he had found.
It quickly ended up in front of his easy
chair. As I was leaving, Russell was talking about sprucing up
his little home away from home...
That’s all for now. My brain is throbbing from information overload!…
The Sunday, Nov. 8 report will come later… 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
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