================ ACMA Irvington Field Activities, Nov. 08, ‘09
================
………………... All photos and videos
by Frits Jetten unless otherwise indicated ………………....
Reminder: There will be a Toys For Tots Fly-in at Fritz Field near
Pensacola, FL, on Saturday, November 28. The “landing fee”
toy donation should be a new toy, valued at $10 or more. Here are
the details.
If you need a better map than the one on the flier, go to our website.
Sunday — I’m slowly catching up!... Last Sunday there
was a pretty good crowd and the weather was nice. But not too many
people flew their planes… Andy Anderson brought his Baby Boomerang,
a turbine jet.
We had not seen it for a couple of months
or so. Flying this one is a shared effort between Andy and Justin.
Andy took
it off. He and Justin then took turns flying it. Justin’s
landing was nice and smooth.
Justin made some low
passes. There was one embarrassing moment when Andy taxied the
jet back to the pits and accidentally pulled the landing
gear up! Oh well, been there and done that!... Alvin gave Henry
Waltman some pointers on using his camera.
Paul Kelly showed up with a nice “new” plane, a Tango.
I had seen one of these several years ago. This one — with its
short wingspan— looked like it could be trouble. Paul took it
off, but flying it scared him, so he let Jon Koppisch fly it. Jon
made some suggestions to Paul as to how to make it do the tango just
a little less wildly...
Guess what else Alvin did? He —surprise! — actually flew!
He brought out this small HobbyZone electric Freedom park
flier. It looked brand-new. He got it all ready to go, and that
caused some concern for Paul
Kelly. Alvin finally hand-launched it, but, as far as I can remember,
it didn’t go very far. Alvin looked puzzled.
We’ll track Alvin’s progress throughout this report…
Frits could be seen sporting the new hat that he got at the Bob Miller
Field fly-in last
week… Johnny Jones flew his Trik Stik, a homebrew plane,
which uses an arrow shaft for a fuselage.
His cell phone rang when he was flying and he answered it, while flying
the Trik Stik.
Frits was pretty impressed!...
Elton Sullivan was at the field, but he had brought no trailer, so
he had no planes to fly. He told me by e-mail that he is working on
a new Spacewalker. It’ll have a Saito 1.25 4-stroke
engine… Elton prominently displayed new decals on his vehicle,
which made Alvin very happy…
Justin Peacock showed up with an Uproar.
He flew it a couple of times…
Oh, I happened to take a peek into the back of Alvin’s truck.
It’s still there, that crumpled-up, comatose Raptor Titan helicopter…
Roger Hagler flew his new plane, a Hyperion.
Well, it’s not really new, but he finally finished it. It’s
an electric kit that Roger converted to nitro.
He uses a .46 engine, I believe.
Seems to fly extremely well, with lots
of power…
In the meantime, Alvin was having something less than a good time
with his new toy.
There were a couple of bad launches, after which the Freedom fluttered
around like a wounded
butterfly. There were some mild crashes. But he never really damaged
it. At one point I thought the Freedom was going to pounce on my
camera…
Frits took Sam Guirges up for a training
flight. Sam was eager to get that Solo Star in the air. Sometimes
he’s a bit too
eager. He’s doing well, flying figure eights, doing loops,
rolls and now half Cuban eights. He had one little incident that bent
the plane’s nose gear back. Sam prefers to do the landings a
little different than most newcomers, mostly ignoring Frits’
advice and throwing caution to the wind. Well, we’ll
see…
Jon showed up with Leigh and Linda. Leigh had made a couple of casserole
dishes of peach cobbler. And there was ice cream, too! It didn’t
take long for it all to disappear.
A couple of guys were quite piggish about the tasty
treat. One became very testy.
I have to admit, it was delicious! Thanks, Leigh!
Not giving up so easily, Alvin was still hard at work with his Freedom.
He was getting more exercise than he’s had in many months.
(Years, maybe?). He was beginning to look frazzled...
Al Ayler brought his 1/3 scale Aeronca
Champ. He had a brief flight with it, even doing a loop.
But there were engine
problems.
Tony Farmer tried his 1/4 scale L-4 Cub for the third
time. Remember those glitches?
Tony and Wayne Boudreaux had checked it over and they had made some
modifications.
But that persistent glitch reappeared.
Wayne and Tony will have to do some more
thinking…
Alvin, still trying to have a good, long flight on his little plane,
was about to throw in the towel.
Or, in other words, trash his Freedom…
TJ Rohyans flew his Lanier Stinger
60. That plane never has had a cowl on it, has it, TJ? Sure would
improve its looks… Paul Kelly also flew Alvin’s old Escapade.
Nothing bad befell it during its
flight…
Russ Green showed up with his new son-in-law and a new combat wing,
a cross between a Phence Post and a Battle
Axe. For now I’ll call it the “Phence
Axe”. It’s powered by a .25 engine and flew very
well. It looks as if Russ will have another plane ready for combat
on Sunday, November
15.
“Son-in-law? What new son-in-law?” I hear you ask. Well,
that would be Mike McLaughlin, who recently married Russ’ daughter,
Dawn. Mike never told me, and when I referred to Dawn as his girlfriend
in a previous pits report, he let me know that she was “not
his girlfriend any more”. She’s now his wife... WELL!
Perhaps YOU received an invitation to their wedding. I did not…
TJ was showing off his camera-carrying plane. It consisted of a modified
kite and a frame to hold a still or video
camera. This should be interesting!… An unusual but handy-looking
airplane holder showed up at the south
end. It belongs to newcomer Jim Jordan, who got it from Howard
Bryars, along with loads of other RC stuff. Howard has totally gotten
out of the hobby.
Mike flew his P-51
Mustang. It is powered by a Saito .80 4-stroke engine, has retracts
and is very
fast! When he was chasing Andy’s jet around, in one turn,
it appeared as if the Boomerang was about to blast through the Mustang!...
After several trips to the pavilion for some adjustments and refinements,
Alvin managed to get one good flight out of that little
Freedom. But he still wasn’t happy.
At the end of the afternoon, he finally had enough of that quirky
plane. Especially after Russell gave him some well-meant advice…
Alvin ended up giving the troublesome little plane to Johnny Jones,
and he vowed to never, never ever, fly these little electric planes
again…
Hey, remember monthly combat at our field Sunday, November 15, at
2:00 PM!… Saturday, November 28 is the Toys
for Tots Fly-in... And at the next ACMA club meeting we will vote
on our new officers, if there are any… John Lee is giving up
his Secretary job for
sure. The other three are still hanging
on…
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
