Pits Report 11/8


ACMA weekend activities...By Frits Jetten (contributing editor) Frits Goes Hollywood - Click For Details Click On For Picture For Video For Web Link == REMINDER: UPCOMING FLYING EVENTS ================= Nov. 20-23 (Thu/Fri/Sat/Sun) - Pensacola Jets - Navarre, FL. Dec. 13 (Sat) - ACMA Christmas Party and Night Fly-in. More details on these and other events at the end of this report. =================================================== RC STUFF FOR SALE has been moved to the end of this report. =================================================== First a serious SAFETY ISSUE! This past weekend could have been bad for our pavilion and/or one of our club members. I was told by Elton Sullivan that Russell Ward found the shed reeking of propane gas from one of the grill bottles. Luckily the refrigerator compressor cycling didn't set it off, or anyone smoking nearby. Please make sure that ALL burner valves on the grill are shut off completely after cooking is done, AND the valve on the propane bottle is turned off. =================================================== ACMA Field Activities - November 8 - St. Elmo EAA Fly-in Just like last year, RC modelers in our club were invited to participate in the EAA full-scale Fly-in and Open House at St. Elmo Airport. We were promise one hour to fly RC models. And it went very well this time. During that 1-hour flying window there were no full-scale planes to worry about, as was the case last year. Rob Baker brought his F-4 Flash jet. Jon Koppisch had his Rascal. Here's the double takeoff. Both zipped along and had great flights. Jon made only one flight, which could have ended in disaster. Rob flew twice. He greased both landings. I think the full-scale pilots and visitors enjoyed the jets. Henry Waltman showed up with his Fleet biplane, but it fell off the work table during assembly! So unfortunately the Fleet remained grounded... Mike McLaughlin flew Wayne Boudreaux's Cub. It was a change of pace, for sure, Mike told me later. But he had a good flight and landing. Mike and girlfriend Dawn flew to the airport in grand style in a full-scale Cessna 172. While there, he took up Justin Peacock... Turnout by RC pilots was less than last year, when Al Ayler, Joe Krebs and Carl Broughton also participated. There also seemed to be fewer full-scale planes and a smaller crowd. At least while I was there. There were several colorful experimental ultralights around. One was the Bay Guard... Before leaving the small airport, Roger talked me into going with him to find the hangar where a full-scale Mustang was being built. Seemed like an ambitious project! The Mustang will be powered by this Chevy engine. Hopefully we'll see it in the air next year. ACMA Field Activities - November 16 - Includes Combat It was the third Sunday of the month, so that meant it was Combat Day! The vultures were out, which is pretty normal at our field on combat days!... Robert Sanderson showed up with his combat glider. Yes, glider! Johnny Turner brought his FedEx Urgent Cub, Russ Green had his Battle Axe ready, Mike McLaughlin had his Irish Axe, and Andrew Smith planned to do it with his Air Core Battle Tank. Combat General Andrew Smith filed the following combat report, his first one: "Combat, Sunday, November 16. After a few months hiatus due to the unfortunate passing of our good friend and combat director Don Koval, combat resumed this month. Well, sort of anyway. Andrew was the new director with Tim as the time keeper. There were five registered pilots: Mike McLaughlin, Russ Green, Johnny Turner, Andrew Smith, and Robert Sanderson. Unfortunately Robert never made it into the air due to engine problems. Round 1: The first round started off well. At least for about 30 seconds, and then Russ and Mike both lost their streamers to the wind. Andrew made a cut on Johnny's streamer and then promptly lost his own to the wind as well. The round ended early due to the lack of streamers... Round 2: The second round fared a little better after having shortened the streamers. Johnny got a cut on Andrew and there was a midair between Mike and Russ. Both planes were out of commission for the rest of the day. Luckily both pilots had backups. Russ had another flying wing ready. And Mike pressed his trusty Four Star Foh into combat service. But not until he called and filed a thorough telephone report to girlfriend Dawn immediately after the crash. Round 3: The third round started with further shortened streamers which seemed to help the breakage issue. In the end, however, only Mike was left with a streamer. Mike, knowing everyone was after him, dove for the deck and began weaving in and out on the pipes with Johnny, Andrew and Russ hot on his tail. He managed to survive the entire round that way... Final Results: This month ended in a 4-way tie, which all pilots agreed was fine due to all the streamer "mishaps." Congrats to... well everyone! Next month will feature "New and Improved" streamers! December combat will be Sunday, the 21st." Nice report, Andrew! Russell managed to get in some flights with his Ugly Stick during the week. That's what he said, but no photo evidence of that exists... Tim McLeod showed up with sons Aaron and Alex. Both Aaron and Alex flew Aaron's Katana V2 70 profile plane. Tim flew his giant scale Edge-540... And David Doss and Paul Kelly were back with a trainer and a nice pattern plane that used to belong to Paul Verger, the CyClone. Paul flew a couple of solo flights on the trainer... Someone apparently got mad at his park flier. I found this smashed transmitter in one of the trash barrels. Henry Waltman brought a couple of planes out, his Cub and the Marquart MC-6 Charger. The Charger is a nice biplane that Henry has had for many years. Here's a nice shot by Dean Ritola. Henry flew his Cub also. He let TJ fly the Cub and actually insisted that Frits fly it too. Frits likes faster planes much better, but he flew it anyway and impressed Henry when he did a couple of loops. A roll turned out pretty ugly, however, and Henry quickly suggested that Frits return the transmitter to TJ... Andrew Smith flew his electric Lite Machines LMH-120 Corona heli. He prefers this little electric heli to the Century Hawk nitro heli he has. Andrew also flew his electric Swift II and the Ugly Stick. He even flew it to the moon! The Swift, a foam flying wing, seems to be very maneuverable. Andrew does a self-launch, and he does it quite smoothly. He spent some time with one of the vultures that was still hanging around for any scraps... Mike McLaughlin flew his scale Lancair. And the Four Star Foh, chasing around Andrew's Ugly Stick and Justin's high-wing plane. They put on a nice little show, as usual. Nice formation passes and touch-'n'-gos. Lee Hughes asked Frits to take up a new plane, a Revolver. No problems with the takeoff, the flight or the landing. Power seems to be a little lacking, and Lee will try a different prop. He'll also increase the low rate control sensitivity some... Roger Hagler put his yellow Lazy Bee through its paces, as usual . He also flew his small P-51 Mustang... Frank Rowell flew one of his planes that I had not seen in a while, the Voyager... Wayne Miller flew his Gee Bee Y. Johnny Turner flew his Align T-Rex 600 Nitro helicopter. Seems like he's adding some more daring maneuvers to his repertoire of tricks. Nice autorotations, too. He also flew a small P-40 Warhawk... Johnny Jones had rebuilt his electric Align T-Rex 450 helicopter, and he was ready to fly it again. After a tentative hover, Johnny took it farther up when things went wrong. Appears that his rotor control went out. The heli banged in and bent some stuff. Back to the work bench. You should have gone to that Renaissance Faire like you originally planned, Johnny!... Alvin finally got his main rotor blades for his Titan heli and could be seen hovering it. But only briefly... Frits got to fly another one of Gary Johnson's small electric jets. This one looked like a handful! It's a canard jet with pusher motor. Frits loves oddball planes, especially canards, and he has flown several. First thing Frits noticed was that the elevator was reversed, a common mistake. Being up front, the elevator must operate opposite of when it's mounted aft! After Gary hand launched it the jet went about forty feet, went in and broke apart. The launch was perfect, but there just was not enough lift. Gary will rebuild it. He always does! Perhaps the CG needs to be shifted aft a teeny bit. Power seems to be adequate... Frits put a first flight on Gary and Thomas' new trainer, which was built from scratch. Gary had rebuilt his electric FA-28 Blue Angels jet, a small foam model that is capable of "thrust-vectoring," by a motor that's mounted on the elevator. Frits had actually flown it once, but after one circuit he got it in too steep of an attitude, stalled it, crashed it and broke it to pieces. This time, he asked Gary to reduce the elevator control. That did the trick, as it was easier to control. The roll rate is about four per second! Too bad the motor bearing started to make noise just before Frits floated it down gently on the grass. Gary and Thomas were happy this time! Gary mentioned that soon they'll have an electric Swift II flying wing ready. It's just like Andrew's. Here's the shiniest plane you have probably ever laid your eyes on. A P-38 Lightning. Nice, don't you think? I don't know where it is located. Photos were provided by Ernie Rivers. (Remember him?)... That's it for now. Fly SAFE! == UPCOMING EVENTS ================================ Details and fliers describing the following events can be found on the Gulf Coast Area RC Event Calendar. For directions and maps to flying fields go to field maps -- CALENDAR of EVENTS ------------------------------ Nov. 20-23 (Thu/Fri/Sat/Sun) - Pensacola Jets - Holley Field, Navarre, FL. Here's the Jets flier. Dec. 13 (Sat) - Azalea City Model Aeronautics Christmas Party and Night Fly-in. Dec. 13 (Sat) - Toys for Tots Fly-in - Pensacola, Fritz Field. Here's the Tots flier. Feb. 7 (Sat) - Rich Herrmann Swap & Shop Meet, Pensacola. Annual flea market event will be at the same park where they were last year except this year they are in the gym and should have much more elbow room. (More details as I get them...) == RC STUFF FOR SALE ================================ If I'm asked by e-mail, I'll be happy to post For Sale items here. Send detailed descriptions and a phone number to fjetten@aol.com. For Sale. For you hams out there, Jim Downey is selling some ham gear and a couple of RC planes. Here is more information... Mike Killingsworth, member of the Koast Air Modeling Society in Ocean Springs, MS, has a P-51 Mustang for sale. More details here... R. D. Stacy, also a member of the KAMS, has TWO Goldberg Tiger 120s he wants to sell. Click here for details... E-Flite electric Blade CP Pro helicopter. Contact Tom Wells at 251-656-3158 or wellsts@mchsi.com. MARCMAF FORUM If you feel chatty, come join us on the Mobile Area RC Model Aviation Forum .