=== March 10 Deadline For Paying ACMA Dues Before Being Dropped
===
It’s getting down to the wire! After the March 10 meeting,
if you have not paid your 2009 club dues PLUS the $5.00 late charge,
you will be dropped from the Azalea City Model Aeronautics membership
roster. Restoring your membership after March 10 means that you will
have to pay that $50 initiation fee a second time, and you will have
to be voted on again.
If you intend to remain an ACMA member in good standing, please renew
your AMA license (required before we can accept your club dues) and
renew your club dues, OR request to be placed on INACTIVE STATUS.
The latter option will save you $50 when you rejoin our club in the
future…
If you wish to go on INACTIVE STATUS, simply send me an e-mail message
with a brief reason. No gory details necessary… > fjetten@aol.com.
======== “From the Pits” Field Activities, Feb.
15, 2009 ==============
……...…. All photos by Frits Jetten unless otherwise
indicated ……………….….
I decided to visit the field on Friday. It was a nice afternoon,
but I only saw Dan Dyess and his Twist
60. Dan was cleaning it up. He never flies on the weekends…
On Saturday I missed Ben McGee’s crash by about 30 minutes.
He had the trainer sitting on the bench, slightly broken
up. Ben says it’ll be repaired… Lee Hughes made a
nice showing of his pretty Four Star 40, but it was a no go. The wind
was too gusty for Lee…
Elton Sullivan was off of his tug boat and back
in town. During the weekend he brought out his SunDowner, Four
Star 60, Somethin’ Extra, Pulse, Edge-540, and the Kaos 40.
The Sundowner looks great.
That baby is HOT!
The Kaos and Edge look fine, too.
The Four Star and the Pulse completed Elton’s fleet.
I think he flew them all! Frits had a ball flying the Somethin’
Extra… Paul Verger flew his Extra-300…
Roger Geil showed up with his brightly covered Yak-54.
I like that color scheme. That Chinese engine sure has the power!
I need to say something about the videos that I include in these
reports. They are not made with a quality video camcorder, but with
the same Kodak digital camera that I take all my still pictures with.
And for that reason, the videos are very shaky. My still camera doesn’t
have an image stabilization feature like all camcorders do. And after
the Quicktime movie file is converted into its final format by YouTube
or PhotoBucket, the quality has suffered also.
Add to that the inability of my camera to maintain focus while zooming
in or out, thus blurring the image, plus the noise of the focusing
motor — that annoying rrr-rrrr-rrrrr sound — and it doesn’t
make for a very professional movie. The result is a blurry, shaky
video. But it’s the best I can do right now for what it is —
a quick video that we will have forgotten by the time the next Pits
Report rolls around!
Now back to the field activities… Jon had shown up with a LARGE
Piper Cub! He
never completed the assembly, or maybe he had problems, because the
Cub never took to the air. Hopefully we’ll see it airborne next
week… Henry Waltman brought his scale P-47 Thunderbolt.
Jon flew it for Henry.
A nice flight that ended with a smooth landing.
David Doss flew his Cessna several times, making up for lost
time… David Etheredge and grandson Hunter Walker showed
up with a U-Can-Do and the new Carl Goldberg Eagle 2 trainer ARF that
came from the recent estate sale. The Eagle 2 is Hunter’s now.
David had a nice flight on the U-Can-Do.
But its main gear slipped into a crack in the runway during the landing
and was ripped off.
Three planes have lost their gear in during the past two weekends...
Raymond Murtha brought his Banshee and Super
Decathlon. Interesting word, “Banshee” — a female
spirit in Gaelic folklore whose appearance or wailing warns a family
that one of them will soon die. Yikes! It gives me the creeps.
Ray had a couple of great flights with this plane…
Kevin Pickett came out again with his Hangar 9 CAP-232 "Breitling".
He had a couple of great flights with it…
Alvin Reed was ready to fly his new Great Planes Escapade, assisted
by Russell Ward.
The first flight went well while it lasted.
It was brief because of a dead-stick, making Alvin have to land long.
Way back there, where Frits normally lands.
But Alvin tweaked on the Thunder Tiger engine and flew it a couple
more times. He thinks he likes this plane…
Some of you remember Dale Teasley from the old field. His dad Glen
is getting back into the hobby. Glen showed up with a Four
Star 40. After gluing one of the wing mounts, Frits took him up.
Glen hasn’t forgotten…
That last unflattering picture should give Frits a strong incentive
to push himself away from the dinner table sooner, don’t you
agree?…
Tony Farmer not only showed up with his Hangar 9 Cub 40, but with
his entire family (minus the women folk!) Tony’s brother Glenn,
their dad Melvin, uncle Lloyd, a couple of nephews, and some friends
all showed up. After all, this was going to be Melvin’s first
flight of the Cub that he got from Frank Poole. It’s a Super
Cub done in a “Red Cross” theme, and powered by a Saito
150 4-stroke engine.
Melvin was not aware of the lengthy assembly process one has to go
through with a Cub.
But he finally got it done!
After some problems getting the engine to start, the Cub made its
maiden flight with Tony at the controls.
It wanted to roll left and dive, but after some major trimming it
flew very well, Tony said.
And the engine sounded very good.
Then Melvin took the controls. He had flown before, many years ago.
And he didn’t do too badly, only scaring Frits and others at
the North End once, while making a low pass over the north
pits. Tony quickly took it over, almost getting blinded by the
sun, and finally landed it. And it was a nice landing.
Well, mostly. See for yourself.
But we can call the flight mostly successful.
Tony found time to fly his own Cub later.
Billy Frost showed up with his Russian URAL motorcycle, an electric
Ultra Stick stuffed in its sidecar.
It’s the only plane he brought.
The Stick is very quiet.
The bike not
so much… Speaking of motorcycles. Have you seen this unusual
one? It’s the Harley Camper. I suppose calling it a Hog Pen
would not be considered classy…
Speaking of Harleys. Did you know club member Tim McLeod is the owner
of the Mobile Bay Harley-Davidson, Inc. dealerships in Mobile and
Daphne?
Russ Green flew his Kaos 40 and his foam wing Phence Post combat
plane… Gary Johnson is making steady progress on the T-34
Mentor that Tony had flown into the power
lines. And Gary has finished repairs on TJ Rohyan’s Four
Star 40 that crashed several weeks ago… Bill Powell drove up
in his bright orange street
rod… One of ACMA’s past club Presidents Michael Moore
visited with his two sons Bradley and Zachary.
Then the moment many of us had been waiting for.
Al Ayler finally brought his twin-engine project out of hiding. The
big P-38 Lightning.
It was beautifully done!
There was a lot of tweaking and adjusting going on, with plenty of
assistance from some of his fellow North
Enders. Both engines were fired
up. Henry was very proud of his understudy, Al.
But the Lightning’s first flight did not happen last Sunday.
We’ll be patient until next weekend, Al!... Oh,— thank
you for asking — Al is all well now after that fall-from-his-deer-stand
incident…
Jeff Lee unloaded a Revolver, a Wild Hare and a Coroplast combat
plane. Not sure if he flew the Revolver.
At least I didn’t see it in the air. I think the Hare remained
grounded also…
Jade Taylor was back with his Extra-260.
He put a couple of flights on it… Billy Toliver flew his small
electric all-foam P-38 Lightning and an Escapade. He also had a small
electric biplane. This is Billy’s friend Billy…
Roger Hagler flew his Dazzler on Saturday.
And on Sunday he brought his little, 1/12 scale P-51 Mustang, with
the name "Val-Halla” on its nose.
That Mustang clears the runway quickly!...
Robert Sanderson showed up with a sail plane, outfitted with a .25
engine. The added
engine is by Robert’s choice, not the intent of the original
designer! Robert referred to this plane as his Combat Glider. EVERY
new plane Robert brings out is destined to enter combat!
Being under contract as Robert’s test pilot, Frits made the
first flight. Robert did the hand-launch. The plane didn’t take
much trimming to fly pretty
well.
But Frits didn’t dare do any tight turns or loops because of
the wing connector, a small metal rod. After first Robert and then
Mike abused the glider a couple of flights the dihedral was noticeably
more pronounced!
Of course Robert had to challenge this new plane as he does every
one of them. He got a ribbon, stretched it across the runway and told
Mike to fly under it! Mike made a couple of passes, and then, with
the ribbon lowered to a couple of feet, he snagged the ribbon…
Mike flew his Ultra Sport 40 and the Great Planes Lancair.
The Ultra Sport, powered by a Webra .50 engine, was pretty fast, and
Mike did some nice passes, including a couple of inverted ones. Knife-edge
looked good.
He’s getting braver!...
Mike also tested out his newly acquired powerless sail plane, the
Gentle Lady. First he did a couple of tentative hand-launches.
And the plane glided nicely.
Then Elton mentioned that he had a high-start in his trailer. Well,
that was perfect and Mike went for it! After stretching the bungee
out, Mike did several high-start launches. Notice Elton’s superb
form, even with his aching
back. Very graceful! The Gentle Lady did remarkably well, staying
aloft a pretty good while for such a cool day with limited thermals.
Sad news. I don’t know if you know Mike Hess, who was getting
into jets with a turbine powered Boomerang last year. Well, I heard
that the jet crashed at a field across the Bay this past weekend.
And it was a bad crash…
On a brighter note, Jon reported on the Forum that Rob Baker had
flown his new F-18 turbine jet at that same field across Mobile Bay.
On the Forum Jon showed a really scary action photo showing the F-18
coming straight at
him! Well, turned out he had doctored up the original
picture! He had Frits believing it for a while... Rob’s
newest jet had a great flight. It is big and beautiful!
Can’t wait to see it in the air at our field.
Wayne Miller brought a nice scale P-51 Mustang.
The nose art says “You Beautiful Doll”. Jon took the Mustang
up for Wayne.
It flew very well.
And Jon made a smooth
landing. Wayne also brought one of Nick Neville’s designs,
which Wayne calls “Neville’s
Devil”. It’s a fun-fly plane like the one Nick used
in our Armageddon Fun Fly to almost always beat the competition.
Speaking of that event — Armageddon, our popular annual fun
fly competition event — should be coming up a month or so after
our club’s Spring Scale Fly-in, scheduled for
April 25th.
Get that plane ready!
I got two e-mails, mostly in Spanish, two weeks apart, from my two
Colombian sailor friends who are in the Colombian Navy Coast Guard.
Their ship was built by a shipyard here in Mobile. The ship and its
crew were in Mobile for Mobile’s Tri-centennial celebration
in July of 2002. I invited both men to my home. We also toured the
Battleship USS
Alabama. And during an open house of all the parade ships, I got
a private tour of their ship, the Antioquia.
Both came to our field and hung out with some of our club
members. I even gave both some flights on the club
trainer. Before they returned to Colombia I gave Jhon Jairo Puello,
the one on the left, a Four Star 40 kit, still in the box, a transmitter,
starter and all the stuff to get him going in the hobby. And we’ve
stayed in touch through the years. In his e-mail, Jhon said that he
has flown the plane several times and it is still intact. But it is
now put up, because, he said “I want my kids to fly it before
I destroy it.”
John Byron Baena, the one on the right in the photo, sent me some
pictures of him and his wife and three young sons. He was the Chief
Engineer the last time we met, but has now been promoted to a Sergeant
Major and is also Assistant Director of a Navy ground school in Cartagena,
Colombia. They said hello, and they do read these Pits Reports! ¡Era
bueno oír de usted otra vez, mis amigos!
I’ll see you at the field. Fly safe! Always!
======== Upcoming Flying Events ===============================
Feb. 14 (Sat) — Fun Fly — Eglin Aero
Modellers, Fort Walton Beach, FL.
Mar. 6/7 (Fri/Sat) — Swap
Meet & Model Show. Perry, Georgia.
Mar. 7 (Sat) — Annual Swap Meet, Capital City
Radio Control club, Jackson, MS.
Mar. 14 (Sat) — ACMA Fish Fly & Nite Fry-in.
Irvington Field, Irvington, AL.
Apr. 4/5 (Sat/Sun) — Air
Show. This is a FULL-SCALE event. Tuscaloosa, AL.
Apr. 18 (Sat) — 3D Competition Fly-in —
Eglin Aero Modellers, Fort Walton Beach, FL. (Not sure of title)
Apr. 25 (Sat) — Spring Scale Fly-in. ACMA.
Irvington Field, Irvington, AL.
May 9 (Sat) — Fly-in. Hattiesburg, MS. (I have
no details yet.)
May 16 (Sat) — Warbirds Fly-in — Eglin
Aero Modelers, Fort Walton Beach, FL.
You can check for more details about these events on our Website
by selecting Events Calendar from the main
menu shown on the left of this report.
If you need a flying field map, go to Alvin’s
Website > main menu > Field Maps.
======== Advertising Your For Sale Stuff in the Swap Shop
===========
You know you can advertise your For Sale items with photos in the
Forum’s Swap Shop. Go to the main menu shown on the left of
this report and select Swap Shop. You must register with a username
and password first, but that’s free and it is very easy. If
you have questions or need help with this just e-mail me > fjetten@aol.com
======== 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.
Frits Goes Hollywood - Click For Details
