============ “From the Pits” Field Activities, April
05, ‘09 ===========
…….... All photos and videos by Frits Jetten unless otherwise
indicated …….....
I just have to show you this video first. If you haven’t seen
it it’s a must-see! It’s of US Airways Flight 1549 that
ended up in the Hudson River. This is a computer animated video, synchronized
to the pilot’s and air traffic controller’s dialog in
real time. It shows that there just wasn’t much time to waste
in making a decision as to where to put the plane down!
Last week I went out to the flying field early Friday morning to
check up on yet another gate locking problem. The forum was in an
uproar about it, because a couple of the forum members wanted to come
out and fly on Friday. It appeared that one of the other lock owners
had cut a piece of chain off and then hooked his lock in a way that
left our lock hanging, prevented club members from entering the landfill.
I straightened the locks out and I am working with the County to prevent
this in the future. This is how I left the
locks.
Five things to remember: 1. The last person leaving the field locks
the gate. 2. No guest, visitor, or non-member is to be left alone
to lock up! 3. Do not wrap chain around the center, skinny post, as
it can be completely removed. 4. Do not exclude any lock from the
chain. 5. Be sure all three locks are accessible from the OUTSIDE
of the gate.
There was a small group on Friday afternoon. Todd Culpepper flew
his Dura-Plane, one of those planes that’s supposedly “indestructible”…
David Etheredge was flying his electric Shock and the U-Can-Do
3D plane. This is David…
Roger Hagler showed up with his Mini Funtana, a highly maneuverable
little plane powered by a .15 engine.
This one responds nicely even on low
rates. He let Frits fly it…
Not sure how many remember Manny Ruiz, who left a couple of years
ago for a stint in Iraq.
He got some flying lessons from me, if I recall. Manny is in town
for a month or so… Jade Taylor showed up with his giant scale
46% Ultimate Bipe 10-300x.
It’s a Hangar 9 model.
This is a true monster of a biplane!
Jade had a fine time flying this giant…
Johnny Turner Align brought his T-Rex 600 Nitro helicopter, but I
wasn’t at the field long enough to watch him fly…
I did get to watch Tony Brown and his Align T-Rex 750 Nitro Pro helicopter.
It’s powered by a .91 engine, I believe he said. If you have
never seen Tony in action, you missed some heart-stopping, wild flying!
Tony hates flying up high, as you can see. He says he can do all that
with this small, fully 3D capable, electric Align T-Rex 250 too…
Richard Bosco brought his an Align T-Rex 600 Nitro, powered by a .50
engine.
The two also had a couple of electrically powered foam
jets. Richard took off the gray one first.
This jet was fast!
Then he took off the other one, but quickly turned over the controls
to Tony.
And Tony did remarkably well, considering that this was his second
flight on a RC airplane! He had only flown a small electric once.
This speedy jet didn’t seem to intimidate him at
all. And he never ran into any problems.
Richard and Tony were back on Saturday. Richard flew his T-Rex 600,
but he ran into a self-induced glitch that put the T-Rex in the ground.
Richard had zigged when he should have zagged.
I’m sure this one will be rebuilt…
Tony again put on a wild and wooly show of his T-Rex 750… And
if you always believed that full-scale helicopters are unable to perform
maneuvers, look at this Red
Bull helicopter.
I hope everyone noticed the new signs posted on and around the hot
dog cooker. Anyone is welcome to eat, but you are asked to contribute
to help pay for the food. The food is not supplied by the club, and
it’s not free. Usually one or two, sometimes more, people bring
the food. Most everyone likes the availability of that food every
weekend. If you do, either bring food or pay when you eat. That’s
about a $6.00 plate you’ve got there, isn’t it, Alvin?
After that heavy meal he was all tuckered
out.
Robert Sanderson was anxious to show Frits his newest design, the
Double Trouble speed
wing. Based on an electric Stryker delta wing design, this one
has two Webra .55 engines on it! Robert intends to enter this one
in the SPAD-Fest speed trials, and hopes he will be in the Guinness
Book of World Records. The lateral balance looks to be off with those
mufflers both poking to the right, Robert! Robert displayed the contents
of his van of tricks.
He showed off five more fuselages and a couple of wings for some upcoming
Coroplast planes.
Never a dull moment with him…
Paul Verger flew one of his Extras. Not sure if this is the Aeroworks
Extra-260 or the Extra-300.
I forgot if the red one is the 300 or the 200.
Russell Ward did some more work on the new
sink. He still needs to anchor it down, and is waiting for Frits
to deliver some 2X4s… Larry Rogers flew his Airstar International
“Mongoose” gasser.
It’s powered by a Zenoah G26 engine. Nice stable hoverin.
Very orange, Larry!
Alvin Reed flew his Thunder Tiger Raptor helicopter.
He did some nice, smooth flying and some autos.
Here’s his loop-the-moon maneuver.
He did get heckled a bit by Richard and Tony…
Alvin let Justin Peacock fly his Raptor also. Yep, Justin is back
in the hobby again! He recently went on inactive status. You didn’t
think it would last, now did
you?
Frits asked Justin to land the Raptor in a nice, dense patch of clover.
He was going to mail that to Field Marshal Jeff Foster. Frits wanted
to show Jeff that he (Jeff) is doing an outstanding job growing clover.
Frits thinks it’s pretty and wants to suggest that we mix in
some red flowering clover with it…
Henry Waltman blew the dust off a plane he must have accidentally
run across in his airplane storage area. It’s a CAP-21 I don’t
think I have ever seen. Or I did, but it’s been so long I can’t
remember! He had problems with the engine, and he had called on the
big guns of engine knowledge, Jon Koppisch, Wayne Boudreaux and Joe
Krebs. Lots of action, discussion and commotion.
But the engine only ran briefly, and I never found out what the problems
were.
Drew Moss showed up with wife Sara and her mother (if I recall correctly).
Drew has been flying his Alpha 40 trainer all by himself for a week
now and is making good progress.
He was getting encouragement and flying hints from Jade and Keith
Rush (in the hood)… Carl Broughton flew his newest aerobatics
plane, a Jerry Bates Sport-240.
Very colorful!
Jon took it up on its first flight, but then Carl flew it also.
That Sport has some nice cockpit detail.
I have to retract a mistake in the last Pits Report. (Oh, I hear
some of you say. Was that your first one?...) I had incorrectly identified
Frank Madison’s scale war bird as a Bearcat.
But it was a P-47 Thunderbolt.
Okay, so I got one wrong, Frank... But thanks for pointing out errors
in my Pits Reports. I welcome them, and perhaps it will encourage
me to do better next time…
Frits actually brought a plane to fly! I was a Lanier
Shrike. He had given it, still in a box, to Danny Fredricks. Some
of you remember Danny. A couple of weeks ago Danny brought it to him,
all finished, and told him: “ Now go test it out.” So
Frits, trying to remember what was involved to get one running, did
just that (Thanks, Alvin, for that intentionally unflattering picture...)
With some help from Justin tweaking the Webra .50 engine, he got the
Shrike in the air. Of course this flight brought back some very sad
memories for Frits.
Memories of another time, of another Shrike. He remembered THAT 40-size
Shrike with a .61 Y.S. rear-exhaust, piped
engine! Frits had to fight back tears as images of the fastest
plane he had ever owned flashed through his mind. There was that large
debris field.
And it all could fit in one Wall-Mart
bag… But Frits landed the Shrike perfectly and immediately
called Danny to let him know that it was not destroyed. Frits said
he could hear the heavy sigh of relief on the other end of the line.
(That Apple iPhone Frits borrowed from Al sure sounded clear, Frits
noticed…)
Rob Baker flew three small planes today.
One was the electric L-39 Albatros. Very nice and very
fast. He also flew the Sky Raider electric jet, launching it from
ramp with a long bungee
cord. All three launches and flights went
well. Here’s one of them.
And check out this landing with a twist.
On the second launch Rob turned the controls over to Andrew…
Rob also flew his Mini Ultra Stick, another electric.
He let Frits fly it… Roger Hagler, flew his Lazy Bee on
Sunday. He’s no stranger to mini
planes.
Andrew Smith brought his Ugly Stick, the Phence Post combat plane,
and his Spirit sail plane. But only the Stick flew on
this day… Ken Tow showed up with his electric foam Swift
II flying wing. There was a slight problem with the first launch.
But nothing broke. And second launch didn’t fare any better.
Ken also brought a new all-foam aircraft. Or would you call this a
spacecraft? It
was a copy of the star ship Enterprise, of Star Trek fame. But would
it fly?
It appeared to be a bit tail-heavy.
It’ll be back, I’m sure…
Devin Wieniewitz got a brief lecture on cameras from Dean
Ritola. That Canon D80 has provided many a picture for these reports.
Thanks, Dean! Devin
flew his small biplane a couple of times.
Not sure if that’s a Pitts.
He also briefly flew his Align T-Rex 450. Its flight ended prematurely.
Well, there’s nothing parts can’t fix…
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.
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.
======== ACMA’s Upcoming 12th Annual Armageddon Fun
Fly =========
The popular annual ACMA Armageddon Fun Fly will
be here before you know it! Rob Baker — owner of HobbyTown USA
in Mobile and Daphne — will again be the organizer of this event.
He’ll soon set a date. Rob always supports our events and he
usually donates THREE airplane kits for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners.
And we appreciates everything Rob does for our events.
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 you crash it beyond
repair. In that case you can substitute another plane.
You’ll perform in simple 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 optional and separate event around
noon, but you can use a different plane for that. Armageddon is an
all-day fun event with a lot of action! Plan to come to this one!
Better yet, participate in it!
========= 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
