============ “From the Pits” Field Activities,
Mar. 15, ‘09 =============
…….... All photos and videos by Frits Jetten unless otherwise
indicated …….....
The SPRING BREAK NITE- FRY was this past Saturday,
March 14, and in spite of the bad weather attendance was better than
I expected. Robert Sanderson was the organizer of the event. He also
was busy in the kitchen until the night flying started. Alvin Reed
was pressed into service as the head cook after Tony Farmer bailed
out. Russell Ward (on left) was his kitchen assistant.
The hushpuppies (from Alvin’s own secret recipe, he claims)
and the snapper turned out exceptionally well.
They kept me going back for more... Billy Toliver and family showed
up in force. Robert talked Billy into eating one teaspoon of the supposedly
hottest pepper sauce in the universe.
Up until now everyone else had refused to do it. The person who could
do it would get a gift card to HobbyTown USA, Robert said.
Billy was game.
After sniffing, pouring and smelling the stuff, he took the spoonful
down, cheered on by his family.
Robert gave him the gift
card. It took less than ten seconds for Billy — his face
flushed — to clear a path to the water fountain. Then he started
sucking on lemons. As far as I know, he stayed fairly coherent and
later made it home alright...
The night fly went on as scheduled, in the dark — in the rain.
Russell got a fire going...
Robert flew his Paleo powered glider.
But first Frits had to check the trims during a very wet test flight.
The plane was rather difficult to see at
times! Robert stuck some light sticks to the glider, all of the
same color.
Then Robert flew the plane.
Mike Callen brought his wife Stephanie and a Slow Stick outfitted
with only three LEDs.
Each tiny LED had its own battery and switch built
in. He had a couple of great flights with
it. Stephanie watched.
One of the flights ended up far down in the rainy lower
forty.
On one flight Jon Koppisch was flying Mike’s Slow
Stick. Robert got wild and started encouraging people to throw
things at it. It started with light-stick balls, like the one shown
here by Christy
Johnson. Christy’s brother Thomas and Robert hit the plane
several times with them. But then Robert really got crazy and started
throwing a plastic chair at the plane!
Let’s just say that it was good for Mike’s plane that
Robert’s aim was off. Thomas was awarded a HobbyTown gift card
for trying to bring Mike’s Stick down.
Jeff Lee also brought a Slow Stick night
plane. This one had a couple of nice, bright strings of LEDs on
it. It was much easier to see than Mike’s... Robert’s
Paleo finally crashed and hit the mud.
Not sure what happened, but not even all of the tapes, tie straps
and glues in Robert’s standard repair kit could fix the glider.
It was out for the night...
The Night Fry/Fly turned out to be a nice, eventful party with everyone
having a good
time. Too good, maybe?
Tuckered out good, perhaps?
The food was great! Thanks to everyone who contributed and volunteered
their time to help make this event a success.
Robert is already planning for the next one, of
course. I think he said April 4th...
Oh, and I may have heard this wrong, but I THOUGHT I heard someone
say that he found Russell on Sunday in the same position they left
him in the night before...
With Combat Organizer Andrew Smith out of town, Mike McLaughlin volunteered
to run the combat event. Since Mike was also a participant, Frits
helped out by controlling the timer and the horn. Mike entered his
Battle Axe, as did Russ
Green. Robert Sanderson entered his HOR 40 (Hell On Rails). Jeff
Lee wanted to fly his Coroplast combat plane, but something went wrong
in an earlier test flight and he had to withdraw. Jon Koppisch flew
a Quickie 500 type plane.
Rob Baker entered a skinny red Coroplast plane. Jade Taylor, who
had never flown combat before, entered his Twist.
And newcomer and club prospect Tim Humbert — with Eddie Sternberger
— got talked into flying his Coroplast plane in combat, although
he had never experienced it, as far as I know. They had problems with
the plane’s engine at first, but they kept trying anyway! That’s
the spirit!
Lots of frantic flying, several cuts, and a couple of in-flight touches,
but only one midair strong enough to bring a plane down.
The collision was between Mike’s and Russ’ Battle Axes
in round 1. Not too much damage, I believe. Jon Koppish had his share
of engine problems, but he finally got them resolved and even got
a cut...
During one round, Mike was the only one with a streamer, so he flew
low to the ground.
While chasing Mike’s Axe Jade’s Twist did a Split-S and
managed to pancake into the ground. The impact knocked off the main
gear, broke the fuselage and did away with one third of the Twist’s
elevator.
But with the help of Robert and his vast array of glues and tapes,
the Twist’s fuse was quickly put back together.
The elevator was left as it was. Frits made a brief test flight on
it, just to see if the missing elevator part would cause a problem.
It did not, and the Twist flew just fine! Jade mentioned something
about not having the landing gear, but we showed him that you can
actually launch a plane by hand. Jade was back the next round! He
says HE LOOOOVES COMBAT and wants to do it more than once a month...
A couple of planes ended up in some standing water. Rob’s was
one of them.
His daughter Audrey waded out and retrieved the watery lawn
dart... And Mike’s Battle Axe got a glitch and landed way
out in the northeast part of the field.
No major damage, as far as we could tell.
This happened after Mike landed the plane earlier in a big puddle
near the south taxi strip, which pretty much submerged the fuselage.
Perhaps the receiver got wet?
I wonder if Mike will come up with a nice Combat Report. I can never
recall too many details of a combat event because things happen so
fast and are so erratic... The overall winner of the three combat
rounds was Mike with five cuts. First -time combat flier Jade got
a respectable three cuts, and even newcomer Tim got one cut. Congratulations,
Mike! The next combat event will be Sunday, April 19.
Paul Verger has a new addition to his fleet, an Aeroworks Extra-260.
It flies maneuvers very well, of course, as this is a requirement
of all of Paul’s planes... Roger Geil brought out his newly
acquired ModelTech Formula
3D. This plane performs that 3D stuff very nicely, according to
Roger. Frits
— not easily impressed — liked what he saw...
Russ flew his Kaos 40 a couple of times.
You may not know that Russ also flies in control line combat contests!
I think he goes to the NATS each year to compete.
Carl Broughton flew his Astro
Hog. We had not seen Carl for some
time... Jade Taylor tried to get his F-20 Tiger Shark going, but
the Webra .55 engine was not cooperating...
Mike McLaughlin had also brought his Four Star 40 and he flew it fast
and furiously...
Dewey Brown — a very infrequent flier — showed up with
his CAP-232 “Alitalia”.
I didn’t see his flight, but Dean Ritola did...
Al flew the SIG Senorita that Les Stinson had brought to the field.
He tried to get Les to fly it, but Les refused.
For now, anyway...
Frits finally got to fly Gary Johnson’s small, electric F-18
Hornet. All
controls appeared okay, but after the first taxi run, when Frits tried
to gently pull the jet up, it bounced up and down and then glided
back into the grass. The nose cone, made of very thin plastic, was
crushed and crumpled a little.
The second time, with the elevator trim set a little more positive,
the jet took off fine. But the power seemed marginal to Frits. He
took off to the north and made a large circle, and turned south to
line up with the runway.
But then the Hornet suddenly took a nosedive and headed for the runway,
straight down, at full power! Frits quickly cut the power, recovered
and managed to save the jet from disaster. The Hornet will fly again.
The rejuvenated runway got an inspection from ACMA club President
Enzo Finizola and a small group that included Jon, Joe Krebs, Roger
Hagler, William Moore, Wayne Boudreaux, frits, Al, and Henry
Waltman. They discussed the center stripe, which used to be yellow,
but which got blackened in the process of repairing the runway. At
least they were all happy that they didn’t have to worry about
their planes’ wheels being ripped off any more. Well, perhaps
not for another year or so. I’m sure that crack monster is still
living there — somewhere...
Here’s a bonus video I know you will enjoy. Two different people
sent it to me, just a couple of days apart. One is a guy who used
to work for me in the computer group I was part of before I retired.
He thought a crash of the aircraft in the video could be “a
serious matter.” The other person is James Milton, better known
to some of us as “Bear”. Enjoy this video.
I believe Bear lives in Huntsville, but he plans to come to our upcoming
Scale Spring Fly-in, scheduled for April
25. I hope you’ll get your scale planes ready for this event.
Plan to be there!
I’ll see you at the field. Fly safe!
========= Azalea City Model Aeronautics - Upcoming Flying
Events ====
From now on only ACMA events will be listed in these Pits Reports.
Details about them and other clubs’ events are always available
on our ACMA Website > Events Calendar. Or select
from main menu on the left side of this report.
Mar. 15 (Sun) — ACMA’s Monthly Combat.
Starts promptly at 2:00 PM.
Apr. 25 (Sat) — ACMA’s Spring
Scale Fly-in.
ACMA’s Annual Armageddon Fun Fly will be coming
soon!
If you need a flying field map — either to Irvington Field
or to another club’s field — go to our ACMA Website and
select Field Maps. Or select from main menu
on the left side of this report.
========= Advertising Your For Sale Stuff in the Swap Shop
===========
You know you can advertise your For Sale items with photos in the
Mobile Area RC Aviation Forum’s Swap Shop.
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.
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.
Azalea City Model Aeronautics Website > http://www.acma-rc.com/index.html
Frits Goes Hollywood - Click For Details
