============ “From the Pits” Field Activities, Mar.
22, ‘09 ============
…….... All photos and videos by Frits Jetten unless otherwise
indicated …….....
I hope you are planning to come to our upcoming Spring Scale
Fly-in, next month, scheduled for April
25. Get your scale planes ready now for this event! Any scale
allowed, including ,ilitary, civilian, helicopters and jets.
Johnny Jones was back in town.
He had a good ol’ time with his electric E-Flite CAP-232. It’s
a very maneuverable 3D
plane… Paul Kelly showed up with his Lazy Bee 60 and a Slow
Poke. He did fine with the Poke.
But the Lazy Bee proved a bit of a handful for Paul, who planted it
after losing control of it in the gusty wind.
But there was only little damage, I believe.
Paul also flew his big U-Can-Do…
David Doss has one of those popular Great Planes Escapades..
Andrew Smith upgraded his Phence Post combat plane by changing out
the smaller engine with a a Webra
.32. He’s determined to outpace Mike McLaughlin in the next
combat
event. And he will probably do it, because he’s MUCH faster
now! Andrew also flew his electric E-Flite Mini Edge-540…
Roger Geil brought his Yak-54.
He can hang that plane nicely!
Here’s his landing.
Frits Jetten helped newcomer Drew Moss and his Alpha
trainer. Drew has flown a park flier before, so after a trim flight,
Drew was flying around and looked as if he knew what he was doing.
The Alpha is an excellent beginner’s plane… Frits also
test-flew an electric T-28 Trojan for another newcomer, Chris Staten,
who showed up with his girlfriend Michelle.
The little Navy trainer flew surprisingly fast and handled very well…
Raymond Murtha showed up with his Banshee and his Sopwith
Pup. He says he’s getting more of his planes out of storage,
so we should see some different ones soon…
Kevin Spragg visited with his two sons, Chris and Sidney. And Chris
brought his girlfriend Amber…
Mike McLaughlin didn’t make it to the field this past weekend,
but he did some full-scale flying. Here’s a picture that he
took of Irvington
Field… Terry Brownlee showed up with his Four Star 40 and
an Eagle 2 trainer. He flew both of them… Jade Taylor finally
got the pesky Webra .55 engine going on his F-20 Tiger
Shark… Ken Tow flew his newest, a Great Planes Escapade…
Tommy Shields showed up with a Hangar 9 P-51 Mustang, and a P-40
Warhawk. He asked Frits to take up the Mustang.
That flight went well. Tommy soon took the controls.
He ended up making a nice landing. Ed Callen watched closely.
Tommy took the P-51 up a second time and made another smooth landing.
He also flew the Warhawk.
He did very well with that one too, considering the stiff cross-wind.
The wind was coming mostly out of the east.
Good job, Tommy!
Robert Sanderson brought only two of the many planes in his fleet.
The “Fear This!”, a Coroplast plane displaying a skull.
While he was flying it, Robert got a call. It didn’t stop him
from flying…
He also brought the little HOR (Hell On Rails), this time sporting
a new, swept-back yellow wing. Swept waaay
back! Someone referred to it as a F-86 Super Saber, but we know
what they look like. Nothing like this! We’ll call this one
the HOR-86. Robert asked Johnny Turner to do the initial flight, snubbing
Frits, his usual test pilot…
Robert’s hand-launch was nice, and the HOR climbed out fast.
The first turn to line up with the runway was coming up, and Frits
sort of knew what was going to happen. Not sure if Johnny even had
a chance to trim the plane! Sure enough, the HOR-86 started yawing
and then dove down and spun into the runway!
The impact was hard! It left a little crater in the newly patched
asphalt.
Well, the plastic parts all survived.
The metal ones did not! The aluminum channel that was the fuselage
was all bent out
of shape. The engine’s guts were showing.
That engine was pretty much destroyed.
The electronics? We don’t know yet. We’ll find that out
during a next first flight, I’m sure! Robert’s airplane
designs have always been a challenge to fly. Now you know that too,
don’t you, Johnny?…
During the week Elton Sullivan flew his Somethin’
Extra. On Saturday he showed off his newest plane, the Extra
300SP. Very nice! Elton likes to eat!
And on Sunday Elton put his yellow Four Star 60 in the air.
He let Frits fly it too.
Frits likes to fly Four Stars of all sizes… Johnny Turner flew
his Avenger combat wing, but one hand-launch didn’t go well.
The small plane flew into the asphalt, breaking off the needle valve….
TJ Rohyans actually came to the field with something to fly, his
Somethin’
Extra. But after one flight the plane landed hard and knocked
its main gear off.
No other damage as far as I know… Wayne Boudreaux dusted off
an old biplane he hasn’t flown in over two years, the Super
Skybolt. The takeoff was a bit off but that was caused by the
crosswind.
He had a smoke system going, seen here in this shot by TJ
Rohyans. Jon also flew the Skybolt.
It looked very nice against that blue
sky. Nice photo by Dean.
Nice flying by Wayne and Jon.
There were several Cubs. Al Ayler flew his "Off
Color" Cub. I call it that because Al’s “Cub
yellow” covering is lighter than the usual Cub yellow that everyone
else has. I believe Joe Krebs had his Cub out also. And Jon Koppisch
flew his very large
one. John Walker ran the engine on his Cub, but it didn’t
become airborne.
If it did, I missed it… Al also set up his twin-engine Cessna
310, but I don’t think it ever flew.
Jim Quint offered some of his foolishness mixed in with technical
expertise…
We had one of our law enforcement Sheriff’s Deputies, Joey,
pay us a visit.
Rob Baker showed up with his F-4 Flash turbine
jet. He had a little problem with his steering during the first
takeoff attempt, but that was easily fixed. Immediately after takeoff
Rob rolled, to help get the gear
up. But the gear never retracted. Soon the jet was zipping across
the sky. The
landing was harsh, and the gear collapsed.
But they’re designed to break away clean.
I’m sure the jet will be back soon.
Roger Hagler flew two of his small planes. One was the yellow Lazy
Bee, the other was the EXTRA Little, which is powered by a .15 engine…
Dewey Brown — becoming a more frequent flier! — flew his
CAP-232 Alitalia again. And his Cub.
Roger Hagler gave him some assistance.
He had also set up his old Senior
Falcon…
There were several visitors on Sunday.
And a nice variety of airplanes…
Scott Cameron showed up with his big “Kia
Dog.” This plane is designed to drop many things, like RC
parachutists, bombs and candy. Or pull a banner. I hope he’ll
use it at our next flying event, the ACMA Spring Scale Fly-in, scheduled
for April 25th.
Sam Chest flew his giant scale Dietrich Extra-260.
He’s steadily improving his 3D
skills… Gary Johnson brought just about all his electric
jets this weekend.
Frits was ready to fly the thrust-vectoring one. That’s the
one that has the motor mounted on the elevator, causing some wild
thrust-vectoring and tight maneuvers! But the batteries were not up
to par and the flight was postponed until next
week…
On Sunday Roger Geil landed his full-scale experimental ultra-light
aircraft, the Quicksilver CT-400, at our field. He had floats on it
this
time. The clearance between the runway and the main float was
tight! Roger
stayed a while and held a brief seminar on his amphibious
plane. Then he headed south…
Paul Verger showed up with his Aeroworks Extra-300, and had several
nice flights…
Henry Waltman showed up with his Fleet.
Henry, Jon and Al had a great time flying this old biplane.
That ol’ plane just keeps on flying!
Did you know Henry loves ice cream? And so does Jeff Foster, of
course.
Azalea City Model Aeronautics club President Enzo Finizola showed
up with a double sink, still in a box.
He spent an hour or so assembling it. Looks nice. I think Russell
Ward is supposed to anchor it to something soon.
Let’s do it before hurricane season, Russell!... Alvin Reed
was the last one to fly this past weekend.
He made a late evening flight with his Escapade, assisted by his ever-present
shadow, Russell…
When I left the field, the sky behind me turned totally orange…
The very popular annual ACMA Armageddon Fun Fly
will be here before you know it! This will be the 12th one! Rob Baker
— owner of HobbyTown USA in Mobile and Daphne — will be
the organizer of the event. He’ll soon set a date. This will
be the 12th annual Fun Fly! Get a plane ready now. Nothing fancy!
It needs to be a plane you’re not too fond of, but one that
can perform in a variety of competition events, fast and slow.
The same plane must be used for all events, unless it is crashed.
In that case you can substitute another plane. You’ll perform
in events like: Aircraft Carrier Landing - a precision
landing event; 3 Loops, 3 Rolls, 1 Touch-‘n’-go,
3 times - a timed event; Egg Drop - a precision
“bomb” drop; and Limbo - flying under
a stretched ribbon, with extra points if you can do it inverted or
knife-edge!
On Armageddon day combat is a separate and optional event around
noon, but you can use a different plane for that event. Armageddon
is an all-day fun event with a lot of action! Plan to make that one!
Better yet, participate in it!
I’ll see you at the field. Fly safe!
======= Upcoming Flying Events - Azalea City Model Aeronautics
======
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.
Apr. 18 (Sat) — ACMA The Colonel’s Night Fry
& 100th Birthday Party.
Apr.19 (Sun) — ACMA’s Monthly Combat.
Starts promptly at 2:00 PM.
Apr. 25 (Sat) — ACMA’s Spring Scale Fly-in.
Details here.
(May or June) ACMA’s Annual Armageddon Fun Fly
will be coming soon!
If you need a map to a flying field — 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
