|============== Azalea City Model Aeronautics, Mobile, Alabama,
USA ===============|
============= “From the Pits” Field Activities
— June 07, ’09 Armageddon ============
………….....….. All photos and videos
by Frits Jetten unless otherwise indicated …………………..
The last couple of weekends were slow at the field. And HOT! Perhaps
that explains it… Oh, before I forget. Remember this
guy? Yep, that’s David Lanzo. My fellow flight instructor
(at one time). He’s still alive and well, but because of his
work schedule he just can’t be at the field on too many weekends.
It was good to know he’s still alive…
Jonathan Festa brought an attractive lady with him and also his 35%
giant scale Extra-260.
He did some very nice flying.
Smooth maneuvers.
Very graceful at
times. It looked to me he was practicing some IMAC sequences.
(IMAC – International Miniature Aircraft Club)… Mike McLaughlin
flew his P-51 Mustang.
Mike can look pretty intense when he’s flying.
He also took up Frank Madison’s P-47 Thunderbolt.
Frank paid close attention. All went well during its
flight.
Max Needels showed up with wife Nikki and son Dale again. He had
brought his YAK-54. First Joe Krebs did some engine tuning.
And the Yak seemed to fly just
fine. But, there was something about a gnat getting the best of
Max during a dead-stick and he ended up having to retrieve it from
the North part of the field. It became a family excursion.
The Yak was unhurt…
Alvin Reed tested out a small electric helicopter for Gary
Johnson. I think it’s a Blade CP. Cristy had some fun with
the heli’s canopy.
There were some problems so the chopper only briefly hovered…
Russ Green flew his trusty ol’ Kaos
40. And his Phence Post. Or was that the Battle
Axe?... Justin Peacock just got himself an HK-450 electric helicopter.
He called it a T-rex 450 clone. Very inexpensive. The heli only costs
$35.00! (minus electronics…) Justin also had his brand-new T-28
Trojan Navy trainer. It’s an electric.
Nice little plane. But, something went wrong, and the plane broke
up. Justin got some assistance from Jeff Foster and Randy Bodiford
trying to get his Ultmate Bipe going. Randy mostly acted like the
cheering section…
Randy showed up with the Ur-Star that he had bought from Mike Callen
at the last fun fly. Funny
name! Looks like a Four Star 40 to me. Andrew took it up first.
Then Randy flew it. He likes that Ur-Star very
much… Jade Taylor came all the way from the big town of
Tibby, Alabama, to fly his giant scale 42% Ultimate.
That biplane has some kind of power!
Jade had a great
flight. Nice shots by Dean
Ritola.
Andrew Smith flew his Gnat (I think), his electric Lite Machines
LMH-120 Corona helicopter, and his electric foam Swift II flying
wing. I like the way he gently slings it into the air at launch.
Andrew also had a great flight with the Corona.
He never flies it very long, though.
Or so it seems to me… Wayne Miller showed up with his Sopwith
Pup biplane. That old-timer does pretty well, doesn’t
he? I’m talking about the plane, not Wayne…
Lee Carroll showed up with his electric E-Flite Taylorcraft 450
ARF … With him was Paul Verger, who had brought his red
Aeroworks Extra-260.
If you want to see some smooth aerobatic maneuvers, watch Paul perform.
He’s been at it a long time. A long, LONG
time… Wayne Boudreaux brought out his Ultimate Skybolt.
He had smoke
on. Nice trails. Good pilot.
That smoke system puts out some dense
smoke.
Al Ayler flew his J-3 Piper Cub. He was trying to impress Frits with
his “patented” maneuver, the “one-hung-low”,
where you do a touch-‘n’-go on one wheel. But Al can only
do a right one-hung-low.
Which is weird, because he cannot make a normal right turn to land!
Frits asked him to do a left
one-hung-low. Al finally managed one. Sort of, kind of. Now he
needs to practice those right landing approach turns. And find a safer
way to kill that
engine…
Al also flew John Walker’s Cub. Well, he shouldn’t have!
Al did fine until he bounced the Cub pretty hard. It broke the Cub’s
back! John’s
neighbor Jan Temler helped Al get the Cub back to John.
Then Jan and John wasted no time getting it repaired…
Jeff Lee flew his electric Mini Ultra Stick, and a new HK-450 electric
heli, like the one Justin flies.
Newcomer Tony Beckam showed up with a couple of planes. One was a
large Ultra Stick
Lite. I think he said it was powered by a Saito 160. The other
plane — a Dietrich Extra-260 — must have had a problem.
Joe and Mike C. tried to help.
But soon people were swarming all over it! Joe and Mike got assistance
from Al, Jon Koppisch, Scotty Cameron and Wayne Boudreaux. It was
a typical North End SAG
moment. (SAG - Senior Advisory Group). Not sure if the plane’s
problems were fixed, but the plane never flew as long as I was at
the field.
Wayne and Scotty took up the multi-purpose KIA drop plane. They had
dropped filled water bottles earlier. But this time they dropped Charlie
from the plane. Charlie is one of three radio controlled parachute
jumpers. (I hope all three are still around!) The names of the other
two are Dude One and Dude Two. They all have had a rough life!
Scotty took the plane up and Wayne was ready for the drop. All went
well
this time. Charlie floated on down nice
and smooth. But Wayne had trouble controlling Charlie’s
arms which steer the chute.
The landing was great.
Wayne told Frits that the next time he will even unwrap the antenna,
which was still wrapped around Charlie’s feet. Oops!
Maybe that’s why Charlie wasn’t moving his arms. Or maybe
he was just frozen in terror…
At least Charlie didn’t crash & burn! Our nitro planes
and helicopters don’t. Even the gasoline powered ones usually
don’t. But turbine jets — now, that’s another story.
You don’t believe they’ll crash & burn? Here’s
a sequence of events that you should see. Click the six image links
in rapid succession, if possible. Picture
1. Picture 2.
Picture 3. Picture
4. Picture 5.
Picture 6.
I’ll end this report with a nice picture of a Red-tailed Hawk,
which could be seen repeatedly flying back and forth from Half Mile
Road across the pavilion. And he screeched loudly as he went. Here
he is perched on the power pole in the south parking
lot.
I’ll see you at the field. Fly safe!
=========== Keeping those videos for sharing with others ===========================
Several people have asked me about this… The videos that I
take are stored on my computer. The files are large, and that’s
why I always make short videos, usually less than a minute, but always
less than two minutes long. It’s normally too impractical to
share them by e-mail.
But once a video has been posted on YouTube, it’s there “forever”.
You can always go back to it. Just copy that string of characters
in the browser window right above the video, and save it in a text
file on your computer. That string looks like this example > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5QpxUdZFYU
.
By clicking on it later, or, if that doesn’t work, by placing
it back into your Internet browser and hitting the enter key, you
can see it over and over again.
If you want your own copy of videos that features you and your plane,
let me know. I can put them on a DVD for you. They’ll be in
.MOV format. The quality will be much better. The image will be much
sharper, that is. The way I video taped it will remain the same!…
E-mail me > fjetten@aol.com.
========= 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
