=============== ACMA Irvington Field Activities, Nov. 21 –
Dec. 6, ‘09 ===============
………………... All photos and videos
by Frits Jetten unless otherwise indicated ………………....
Reminder — ACMA Club Meeting Tuesday, Dec. 8…
Sunday, Nov. 22 — I got to the field a little late, and I had
missed some of the action, I found out! One of Frits’ students,
Sam Guirges, had crashed his SoloStar
trainer. He did that with the assistance of our newest official
club instructor, Max Needles. Max tried to explain what happened.
Yeah, I know, Max…
Frits has been there and done that!... Several times… Welcome
to the world of instructing!
Another crash happened when Jon Koppisch, flying Frank Madison’s
Pitts Special biplane, turned over the controls to Frank. Something
happened — or something that needed to happen didn’t —
and the plane went
in. It was not a pretty
sight. Frank looked a
bit rattled. The engine was caked with
dirt. Consulting with engine expert Joe Krebs didn’t
help…
Henry was back with his lady friend, Julia.
He didn’t stray too far from her… Robert Sanderson is
back at it again. He came out with a new Coroplast airplane with a
rather long fuselage!
Not sure what he named this one, but it’s supposed to do many
things… Now I don’t remember which plane the prop came
loose from, but when it slung off the running engine it securely nailed
Henry’s Cub to terra
firma! Luckily no one was hurt…
Jim Jordan is slowly getting his Cessna ready for
flight. Ken Tow and Russell Ward assisted Jim with the tuning
of the engine. Soon, Frits or Max will start instructing Jim…
Another new student, Juan Figueroa, started a couple of weeks
ago. He’s got a nice-looking Carl Goldberg Protégé,
a plane I had never seen before.
Because Juan’s Futaba AM transmitter battery showed to be iffy,
Frits changed the transmitter and receiver to one of his Futaba Conquest
FM radios. Frits took the plane up and gave Juan his first few lessons.
Juan is doing extremely well, and has six flights behind him now.
Juan, who is from Puerto Rico and who works for a local aviation
firm, is now helping Frits with his Spanish. Well, there are plenty
of iPhone apps for that — Frits has several of them —
but there’s nothing like talking to a real person who speaks
it fluently. In return, Frits is helping Juan with his English…
Speaking of Spanish, Frits’ new acquaintance in Spain has a
very nice, large Cub. This is Javier Monreal of the Castilla la Mancha
region, south of Madrid, Spain.
Javier recently purchased a set of plans for a de Havilland DH-89A
Dragon Rapide biplane from Mobile RC model designer Jerry
Bates. He was inquiring about them on the Mobile Area RC Model
Aviation Forum.
I called Jerry to help him out, as Javier does not speak English.
Several days later Javier received his plans and said they are “fenomenal!”
He says he’s going to scale up the twin-engine Dragon Rapide
to 197 in. wingspan.
That’s a whopping 16.4 ft.!
Saturday, Nov. 28 — This was the weekend of the annual Toys
for Tots Fly-in at Fritz Field near Pensacola, FL. Several of our
Azalea City Model Aeronautics club members decided to attend it. Henry,
Tony, Jon, and Mike are shown here with AMA District 5’s Vice
President Tony Stillman and Ray Fritz, whom the field is named
after…
Jon flew his Boomerang turbine
jet. Alvin had to fool around, of course, heating his sweet potatoes
up on the Boomerangs’ hot
exhaust… Henry flew his Spacewalker.
Back at Irvington Field, Katt Connors had shown up with her Edge-540
aerobatic aircraft.
She really likes this
one. It seems to fly very
nicely… Elton Sullivan, away from his tugboat for few days,
brought out his CAP-232 profile fun–fly
plane… Frank Rowell flew his Strega racer…
Billy Frost showed up with no airplanes at all. He brought his Suzuki
motorcycle instead.
Sunday, Nov. 29 — Larry Rogers has finally broken in that Mongoose.
He was flying the brightly painted heli all over the place, rather
than hovering it close to the vest as he has done for the past couple
of gallons…
Elton grilled some chicken, enough to feed an Army…
Joe Krebs and Jim Quint enjoyed some of the
food.
Joe got some preferential treatment from his brother Billy Ray. Joe
was about to fly his Cub, and requested a chair at his pilot station.
So Billy Ray got him a
chair. Joe was content…
Billy Ray flew his de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver.
He let Jon fly it also…
Russ Green flew an airplane you don’t see him fly very often.
It was his Ultimate
biplane…
Ray Murtha, sporting a modern version of an old American Legion head
garb, flew his Laser
… Henry and Julia were back. You couldn’t pry them apart
with a 24X10 carbon fiber prop…
But finally Henry did get away from Julia and he flew his SIG Kadet
“Senior Citizen”, assisted by Jon
Koppisch. Henry didn’t seem to care that Jon flew the Citizen
rather precariously…
Tony Farmer flew his Cub again. The bugs seemed to have been exterminated
from the L-4, and it flew
just fine. Both he and Wayne Boudreaux, the builder, were pleased,
Tony looks more relaxed
now… Mike McLaughlin showed up with his Super
Decathlon. No smoke this time. Mike got a call from wife Dawn
and — trying to impress Frits, I’m sure — answered
it while flying the Decathlon…
Jimmy Kennamer and Ramsay Clevenger showed up with some of their
planes. Ramsay had a newly acquired nitro Tiger Stick ARF and
an electric Typhoon 2 foamy with him. Jimmy had brought his Mirage.
Ramsay asked Frits to trim out the foamy Typhoon for him. So Frits
did. Then Ramsay flew it.
He did okay for a while, but then, the little plane nosedived into
the dirt and broke off its nose. Then Ramsay asked Frits to trim out
the Tiger
Stick. Well, Frits did, and he got it trimmed out perfectly. Ramsay
took the controls and all was well. On a second flight, Ramsay took
it off himself and started flying it.
Frits watched as Ramsay flew the Stick and it crossed his mind that
perhaps the plane would not survive the rest of the afternoon…
Well, turns out he was right… The Tiger Stick went in hard,
really hard.
Too bad! Like almost all Sticks, this one flew so very
well! It sadly ended up in one of the trash barrels after only
two brief flights…
Max and Nikki Needels’ son Dale had a great time with some
dogs someone had delivered to the field. The abandoned mother Lab
and three puppies took right up with Dale.
At the end of the evening, Mike and Dawn took the dogs with
them. They kept them a couple of days and then took them to ARF,
Mobile’s Animal
Rescue Foundation. They'll get all their shots, be spayed/neutered,
micro-chipped, and then placed up for adoption.
I know several people wanted to take the animals but couldn’t.
And many hated to just leave them at the field. Well, thanks to Mike
and Dawn the four will hopefully find a new owner soon. Here is the
web page for the mother dog, now named Molly.
The pups (Sparky, Scrappy, and Stewie) should be up for adoption in
a week or two.
Saturday, Dec. 5 — Saturday looked promising, but it was a
bit cold. When I drove up to the field, the sky looked absolutely
perfect. But…
the only two people there were Russell Ward and Jonathan Festa…
Russell had just flown his Avistar trainer, or so he claimed. It was
probably true, because there was oil residue on the right side f the
fuselage…
Harold Dillon drove up and chatted for a while, then returned to his
warm home.
Jonathan Festa was about to take off his new F/A-18 Hornet for the
very first time. Nice-looking model!
It was a foam jet, electric, with a single ducted
fan motor. It uses dual electronic speed controllers and a battery
pack the size of a small — $250! — loaf of French
bread! The takeoff was quick.
The elevator proved a bit too
sensitive. Good thing Jonathan didn’t take off on high
rates! The landing was a bit humpy, but the jet came down in one
piece.
That was all the excitement for Saturday, except for a full-scale
Cub that flew over the
field (yawn…)
Sunday, Dec. 6 — It was cloudy and a little cold, but a few
club members braved the weather and came to the field. When I got
there the TV had a football game on and Robert Sanderson was cooking
some leftovers. Gumbo, grilled chicken, sausage and potato salad…
Roger Hagler flew his little Fokker
D-VII. He only put a couple of flights on it and then he left
for a much warmer place — home!... Tony Farmer showed up with
his Piper L-4 Cub. He, Mike McLaughlin
and Frits took turns flying
it. The plane feels pretty solid in the air and seems to have
shed whatever ailed it before.
The pilot figure is much happier now too, because Tony gave him a
throttle control and a control stick to hold
onto.
Justin Peacock was trying to get his new electric Electro Stick going,
but he had some problems with the electronics. Ken Tow tried to help
him out. Well,
the end result was that Ken bought the Stick from Justin, fixed the
problem and not long after he was flying it. Ken also flew his Mini
Ultra Stick… Max Needels flew his Craptech Ground
Pounder…
Jonathan Festa was back with his new F/A-18 Hornet electric ducted
fan jet. He had put the armament and drop tank on it, and it looked
pretty mean!
The takeoff was not a good one, as the steering failed and caused
the jet to run into the rough grass runway east of the asphalt
one. The retracts were torn out of their mounts, and there was
some cosmetic damage.
Several pilots found that the grille makes for a nice hand
warmer… Mike flew a modified Four
Star 40. It’s actually pretty hard to recognize this one
as a Four Star…
Ray Murtha assembled his Extra-300.
He had a great flight…
Frank Madison dropped off more tables at the North
End. We’ll see how these will hold up to wet weather…
Here’s a bonus video, the Beriev Be-200, an awesome, large
amphibious Russian
aircraft… That’s all I have for now. I’ll see
you at the field. Fly 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
