== Are You Still Having Problems Viewing The Pits Report? ========
Please let me or Andrew know of ANY problems you are experiencing
with the new Website and its features! Last week there was a problem
that made all the pictures look HUMONGEOUS. It was caused by me and
I was able to quickly resolve it. (Well, maybe not quickly enough
for some people…) My apologies for that fiasco!
Some things Andrew or I cannot do anything about. Like if you have
plenty of time to take a bathroom break while a picture slowly loads
onto your screen… Or when your computer is brought to its knees
when you try to watch a video… If that happens, well, it’s
high time to ask Santa for high-speed Internet access and/or a new
computer! There are a few shopping days left!… It is almost
impossible to take care of all your computer problems because there
are so many different Windows computers with different operating systems
and browser programs.
Sometimes a simple fix can bring things into better view, like changing
your screen pixel resolution. This happened to at least two club members.
If the pages on the new site are too large to fit your screen, and
you are constantly having to scroll right or left or up and down to
bring things into view, now that is something YOU will have to take care off.
It’s not something a Webmaster — even as good as he is
— can do anything about! If you don’t know what pixels
are or need help with setting that resolution, ask a club PC techie.
There are many “experts”… (Jon, Alvin, Al or Andrew
to name a few. I would help you if I were using a PC. But as a Mac
user, I don’t worry with stuff like that. My resolution is always
set automatically for optimum size…)
If we don’t know about your problems, we can’t fix them,
so please let us know. I welcome any comments regarding the Pits Report
or the new Website — good or bad. E-mail me > fjetten@aol.com,
or e-mail Andrew > andrew@acma-rc.com.
== Azalea City Model Aeronautics Has a New President ============
In case you didn’t know… At the last ACMA club meeting
we voted in new officers for 2009. We had the usual crowd.
The same ones who show up every December meeting.
Well, only ONE officer is new! 2008 President Andy Anderson turned
his duties over to incoming 2009 President Enzo
Finizola. Andy has been President for more than a half-dozen years.
The rest of the officers are still hanging in there! Tony Farmer will
continue his job as Vice President/Safety Officer. Allen Pippin will
stay on as Treasurer and John Lee remains as Secretary.
Our club’s new Webmaster is Andrew Smith, who took over from
Alvin Reed. Alvin
has done a great job maintaining the club’s Website and his
own, Alvin’s RC Online, for a number of years. He will continue
to be Administrator of the Mobile Area RC Model Aviation Forum, which
is accessible from his site and the clubs’.
A couple of other non-voted-on positions are also unchanged. Jeff
Foster will continue to function as Field Marshall, and I will stay
on as Newsletter Editor, Flight Instructor and New Member Contact,
three positions I’ve held for the past 19 years. No volunteer
instructors rushed forward during this meeting either…
== Reminder: Upcoming Events ================================
Feb. 7 (Sat) – NFMI-Rich Herrmann Annual RC Swap &
Shop Meet, Pensacola. For details and a flier describing
this event, go to ACMA
Website > main menu > Events Calendar.
Go to the day of the event and click on it. Details will show in a
popup window. If you need a field map, go to Alvin’s
Website > main menu > Field Maps. Andrew
is still working on making the maps available on our ACMA Website.
== “From the Pits” - ACMA Field Activities, Dec.
13 - Christmas Party ==
This was the weekend of the Christmas Part and Night Fly event. There
was also a Toys For Tots Fly-in going on in the Pensacola area. TJ
Rohyans was one who went. He sent me some pictures. I wonder if the
event was well-attended?
It was kind of cool that morning. Apparently there were helicopters.
And giant scale 3D planes.
When I got to the field Andy Anderson, his Dad, “Mr. Anderson”,
Alvin Reed, and Tony Farmer were already busy at work getting the
food prepared and cooked.
Andy was frying a turkey.
Alvin was preparing the next bird to go into the pot.
To me he seemed to fondle those naked turkeys just a little longer
than I thought was necessary…
Many others helped too, of course. Tony’s wife René,
Russell Ward and others were scampering around getting things ready.
There was plenty of turkey to go around after Andy got through frying
them.
Paul Verger — he’s one of AMA’s District 5 Associate
VPs — showed up with nothing to fly. He sat around the new fireplace,
waiting for the food to get ready.
And he had brought a healthy appetite!... David Conway had brought
his electric NexSTAR-E trainer. He was ready to make a flight on it,
but the motor would not come on. So he assembled his newest project,
an ElectriFly Edge-540T.
Nice-looking aerobatics
plane. Frits flew it and it flew great! Frits said he’d
try it on high rates the next time, but not this time as it was getting
a little too dark for another flight, according to Frits...
David Etheredge and grandson Hunter glued and taped some chemical
light sticks on David’s large scale Edge
540. They had Frits fooled into believing David was going to fly
it later in the dark. David never intended to turn this great-flying
plane into a night flier! Robert Sanderson had put them up to it,
David admitted… Lee Hughes and son LT were tinkering with a
Tribute 60 3D plane, but I never saw it in the air.
I may have missed the flight. There was just SO much going on!...
Paul Kelly flew his Ugly
Stick. He had a good flight followed by a bad landing…
Everyone seemed to enjoy the food.
There was a nice variety, so everyone could find something to their
liking. Food was
everywhere. Rod Gilbert
sampled a bit of everything…
Frits had spotted a full-scale experimental aircraft that had appeared
on the horizon. At about the same time he got a call on his cell phone.
A deep voice asked: “This is Santa, am I cleared to land?”
Surprised, Frits said: “Sam? Sam Who?” “Not Sam
— Santa!” the voice boomed, “Santa
Claus!” “Oh! Well, sure! Of course!” Frits told
him. I mean, what else could he say?
The runway was clear, so he waved him on in. In the cockpit you could
see Santa in his bright red suit! He first made a low pass, throwing
out what looked like small balls as he swooped past the surprised
crowd. They had no idea that he was stopping by for a visit. “It’s
Santa! It’s Santa Claus!” I could hear the adults and
kids shouting with plenty of glee in their voices.
Santa made his final approach and came in for a landing. It was a
slightly low and bumpy one, hitting the overrun at the South end of
the runway!
Maybe the plane was a touch heavy, what with all the toys he was carrying.
It’s also possible that Santa needs to back away from the dinner
table sooner, and give up the fruitcake and eggnog… Or maybe
go back to his sleigh and reindeer… Santa put on the brake and
the plane rolled out to the North
End. It turned onto the taxiway, and then twirled around and came
to a stop near the pits.
Santa climbed out of the cockpit. He had quite a bit of trouble getting
his large belly out, but he finally managed. A small and excited crowd
rushed toward him.
Frits asked Santa if his landing gear was okay after hitting the ground
so hard. “Oh, yeah!” Santa said nonchalantly. “I
just couldn’t see that landing spot for my darn belly! Hohoho!…”
Then Santa got his bag of goodies out and started handing out trinkets
and ornaments.
Tony, René and Makenzie Farmer wanted a picture with him.
Amber Smith just couldn’t wait to get Andrew and herself in
a picture with Santa.
After tossing some more trinkets to the crowd, Santa climbed back
into his plane. I noticed that he had some trouble stuffing his big
belly into the small cockpit... Then he took off, presumably to find
a larger aircraft, as this one definitely lacks the cargo space to
hold toys for all those millions of kids.
He turned to make another pass across the runway.
Then he turned South. You could hear Santa holler as the ultralight
slowly climbed out of
sight… (Thanks for the surprise, Roger Geil!)
Larry Rogers and wife Belinda had a good time at the party. Here
they are talking with John Kelly, a RC helicopter pilot who helped
Larry set up some of his machines…
Roger Hagler flew his Lazy Bee. No, not in the dark!... Gary Johnson
brought his electric foam FA-28 Blue Angels, and Rhonda’s electric
Swift II flying wing.
The jet never flew this weekend. It’s the one that tore up Gary’s
finger a couple of weekends ago. The finger is getting better —
thank you for asking…
Mike McLaughlin was flying his Ultra
Sport 40. Nice, fast plane. Mike can do some cool stuff with this
one!... Then TJ Rohyans decided to chase him around a bit with
his Four Star 40… Weeellll, they got too close to each other!
I didn’t see it, but I heard the midair! It didn’t sound
good. TJ’s plane was pretty much destroyed!
Mike’s Ultra Sport was history.
It had been such a good flying plane.
And so had TJ’s Four
Star… Ray Murtha, our club’s most recent club member,
flew his Extra
300. Here he’s on the left, with David Etheredge on the
right… Frits
put another flight on Robert Sanderson’s DOOMED! combat
wing. No problem — in spite of Robert having reworked and
modified this very touchy plane, it survived another
flight!
Robert had also brought his "Triple Beast", a 142 in. wingspan
homebrew Coroplast plane designed to fly with THREE engines.
A chill ran up Frits’ back when he saw it. Frits had flown it
twice before, when it had one Webra ,50 Webra and two Webra .55 engines
on it. Oh yeah, Frits remembers it well! This time Robert plans to
install a .61 engine with tuned pipe in the center position, flanked
by one Webra .55 engine on each wing, but this time they’ll
be mounted closer to the fuselage. Stay tuned for the upcoming test
flight…!
It was getting colder and the new fireplace was beginning to get
a workout. Later
in the evening, after it got pretty dark, Andrew got his night planes
ready. It was cloudy, which held back some of the moon’s brightness.
Andrew had brought a couple of electrics, the Slow Stick and the foam
Swift II flying wing.
He also had the Firefly, his original trainer.
The latter had more than 60 LED lights installed, almost all of them
mounted inside the wings and tail surfaces! It looked good in flight,
but this video does not show it off too
well. He asked Amber to try flying the Slow Stick, but she didn’t
go for it. The other
two planes were really bright, especially the Swift.
Andrew self-launched this
one. He did a great job keeping up with it in the dark…
Andrew also flew Rhonda’s Swift , which had small light ropes
on the leading edges of the wing. It was not as visible as Andrew’s,
but Andrew didn’t seem to have any problem flying it…
Johnny Turner put chemical light sticks on the landing gear and some
flashing lights on the wings of his small “Urgent FedEx”
combat Cub. Here’s
his takeoff.
And his landing.
He flew two flights successfully. Good, because I’m sure Johnny
will be flying this little Cub in combat next Sunday…
Thomas Johnson could be seen trash diving for the airplane pieces
left over after Mike and TJ’s midair collision. He found most
of TJ’s Four Star 40, even in the dark!
Rob Baker showed up late, because he had to work, but he got his
stuff out and flew his lit-up mini Ultra Stick a couple of times…
And Rod — a very infrequent flier — had brought his Rascal
night plane, outlined in light
ropes. He had problems taking it off, until Rod decided to let
Robert hand-launch it for him. Rod ended up having a great
flight.
The Christmas Party and Night Fly was a great success, I thought.
I had a nice time, and so did everyone else who participated. The
new fireplace worked out very
well! The food was great and plentiful. We’ll have to do
it again. And if it were up to Robert, he’ll do another Night
Fly toward the end of the year, he told me. We’ll see!
Until next time. Fly safe, always!
== Advertising Your For Sale Stuff in the Swap Shop =============
You advertise your For Sale items and add photos in the Swap
Shop yourself. Go to ACMA
Website > main menu > Swap Shop. You must
register first. It’s free. It is easy, but if you really do
need help with that, let me know and I will tell you how to do it,
step by step. Just e-mail me > fjetten@aol.com.
By the way, anyone can view what’s going on in the Swap Shop
or the whole Forum, for that matter. You don’t have to be a
Forum member. But to post new topics or reply to posts in the Forum,
you must register (and that’s free).
== ACMA Photo Album =======================================
Many of the pictures that appear in these reports can be viewed in
an album on our club Website. Photos submitted to me by my small but
growing group of contributing photographers are also there. TJ Rohyans,
Jeff Foster, Dean Ritola, David Lanzo, Roger Hagler, Elton Sullivan,
Rhonda Johnson and others have sent me pictures in the past and I
appreciate that! To see them, go to ACMA
Website > main menu > Photo Album.
By the way, anyone can order paper prints of the pictures that are
displayed in the club’s photo album from PhotoBucket. You can
have them sent to your doorstep, or you can have them printed at a
nearby Target store for you to pick up in an hour or so! You can have
them put on mugs, postcards, and calendars, etc. (No, I’m not
employed by PhotoBucket! There are many similar Internet photo processing
services, like Kodak, Shutterfly and others.)
== Pits Report Related Questions? =============================
I have already been asked a couple of questions about how to put
your own family photos and videos on YouTube or PhotoBucket, so you
can easily share them with your family and friends anywhere in the
world. And it costs nothing! If you need help with that, e-mail me
> fjetten@aol.com.
Frits Goes Hollywood - Click For Details
