================== “From the Pits” Field Activities,
Sep. 26 & 27, ‘09 ==================
…………………... All photos and
videos by Frits Jetten unless otherwise indicated ……………..….....
Saturday… When I got to the field, Paul Verger had already
come and gone, without flying. The upcoming bands of rain had scared
him off and he went back to Mississippi… Roger Hagler was the
only one flying.
He flew his Extra Little several
times…
Larry Rogers was just leaving after flying one of his helis. He had
dropped off some Century Hawk heli parts for Russell Ward. Looks like
enough parts to almost build another Hawk!... Jeff Foster had just
put up the lawn mower because of the light rain, plus there may have
been mower blade issues…
Jim Jordan showed up with his Ultra Sport. He just wanted to run
the engine to see if he had fixed a muffler leak. It looked like he
had a good job, because the oily exhaust residue was not gray but
clear… Russell had his Avistar with him, but it sat under a
table while I was there. He got tired of doing nothing and rested.
But not until he had fed his furry
little friends. There were three of them.
Every day they entertain Russell…
I thought the Saturday report was going to be short and sweet, but
I was wrong. TJ Rohyans sent me a bunch of pictures from the Montgomery
Warbird flying event that several of our club members had gone to.
Here is a picture of the motley
crew. So here are some of the pictures. Henry Waltman’s
Thunderbolt flew.
And so did Mike Callen’s B-25 bomber. But this B-17 did
not.
Robert Sanderson’s Fokker also
flew. Jon Koppisch must have flown it inverted because Robert
couldn’t bear to watch.
Al Ayler flew his nice Dauntless.
All went well with that
warbird. But he had some difficulty landing the black night
fighter. The Corsair went deadstick and Al made a difficult
landing. There were other nice warplanes at the event. Here’s
another big Corsair.
This is a Helldiver.
And a Zero that TJ said was really
fast.
Oh, by the way. Andy Anderson sent me a couple of pictures and a
video link of Bill Culberson’s MiG-17s. No, these are not RC
models! These are the full-scale
ones. Bill fired up the engine of one recently.
He has donated the other, non-functional, one to Battleship Park on
the Mobile Causeway to be put on display at the park. Bill hopes to
fly the functional MiG-17 himself eventually. That would be awesome!
Sunday… Azalea City Model Aeronautics club President Enzo Finizola
showed up. He and
Frits checked on that soggy portion of the parking area where we seem
to either have an Artesian well or a water line leak. We need to get
that fixed before the scale fly-in at our field in October, because
that’s where the overflow crowd usually parks.
They also talked about the parking lot expansion, brought up at the
last couple of club meetings and which was just approved by the County
officials. Plans are to extend the parking lot toward the north, after
removing 150 ft. of chain link fence from the east side of the asphalt
access road. This should make parking easier for people with trailers.
I smell a work party coming up very soon!
Johnny Jones flew his arrow shaft plane, the Trik
Stik. It had new decals on it. PENCILWIP.COM, that’s Johnny’s
website. Check it out here…
Paul Kelly made a couple of nice flights on his blue
Corsair. He had a great
flight. Jon Koppisch took the controls at one time and dipped
the plane pretty low, causing Paul to choke
up a little. The landing went pretty well. Not sure if Paul landed
that one…
Jon flew his profile Yak-55SP.
It is a very maneuverable 3D
plane… Billy Ray Krebs showed up with his AT-6
Texan. He and Jon had a great
flight… Roger Hagler kept dizzyingly spinning his poor Taylorcraft
around and around… Dewey Brown showed up with his Harley
Davidson. A little later David Doss showed up with his motorcycle.
Neither one brought an airplane…
Roger Geil flew in with his full-scale experimental ultralight aircraft,
the Quicksilver.
He landed kind of hot and took the grass
runway. He stayed a while and flew Paul’s Katana.
Then he took off the experimental airplane again.
Rather steeply.
He came back later, by car, and flew one of his aerobatic
planes. This Yak-54 flies
nice! You need to come out more often, Roger!
As soon as Alvin Reed showed up Russell Ward just HAD TO show him
his new treasure!
It was a box full of Century Hawk helicopter parts he had gotten from
Larry Rogers the day before… Mike Richardson was back again
with his U-Can-Do 3D
plane. It flew
well. He seemed to have a good
time.
Dean Ritola actually flew today! Yep, he got out his Slow Stick and
flew it a couple of flights.
He had some problem with the trim, and thought it “flew funny”.
Well, he let Frits fly it and check it out, but Frits told Dean that
all was well, and that it could be the pilot who was flying
funny… Here’s Alvin’s eating. These two plates
are just the first helping.
Yum yummy…
Robert Sanderson brought a couple of his Coroplast creations. One
was the remains of the Triple Beast, a 3-engine monster.
Today, it was back as the Mega-SPAD 60, or something like that. It
had a new SuperTigre .61 engine on it. Jon Koppisch was the chosen
test pilot today. The handlaunch was great. But the flight was brief!
Well, that grounded THAT
plane! Robert was unfazed. The MegaSPAD will be back
soon.
Frits had flown this plane at least three times successfully in the
past, but Robert always likes to re-engineer things. Sometimes things
are best left the way they are… Robert started working on the
other plane, a delta-winged Coroplast homebrew, but it never
flew today. Neither did the Fokker tri-wing…
Billy Ray Krebs had a couple of planes for
sale. And wouldn’t you know it, the Callens walked off with
them, I’m pretty
sure. Where do they put them?...
Al Ayler flew his 1/3 scale Aeronca Champ.
There was a slight problem with one of the gear struts. Seems a spring
had come out of the gear, leaving the strut to flop
around. Al was a little worried.
The loose strut caused the right gear to fail on landing.
Why didn’t Al do his “lone-hung-low” trick this
time? He should
have. The landing scraped the wing up. But there doesn’t
appear to be any damage.
Prop’s gone, though.
Back to the workbench.
Henry Waltman showed up with his new 2-seater Spacewalker and the
electric Radian sailplane.
He let TJ launch
it. Nice and graceful
launch. And he let TJ fly it too, watching him closely.
TJ did all right…
Scott and Chris Gayle were back with their helicopters.
Today was the day for Chris to do a solo
hover! And he did a couple of them. Very nice, Chris.
Nice looking Raptor he was
flying. Chris felt like a sho’nuf rotor
head.
One hover flight got a bit out of control at the runway, causing
Alvin, who was taking a picture from behind them, to beat a hasty
exit!
He probably had a flashback to several years ago when his own helicopter
chased him down and bruised him up rather good.
Alvin was lucky. He even had a jacket on, if I recall correctly. It
could have been bad…
Tony Farmer has been checking on the ¼ scale Cub that Wayne
Boudreaux has been finishing for him. The olive drab covered plane
is now covered and nearing completion slowly but surely…
Larry Rogers flew one of his helicopters, but again the name of it
has escaped
me. No, not the brand. I know it’s an Align T-Rex
450. But I had forgotten the name he has given it. It’s
the name of a dragon.
Larry and Alvin were discussing mythical creatures at great
length. Larry has given all of his helicopters dragon names, except
the scale ones. Jeff Foster frequently interrupted the conversation…
Larry has a few decals on his vehicle that show off his hobby.
One shows what can happen when you lose control of your helicopter.
(Probably makes Alvin shiver just to see that picture…)
TJ had brought his 40-size Cub and the Lanier Stinger
60. The Cub had s slight problem with one of its struts…
Frank Rowell only flew his Great Planes Escapade.
Wife Julie was nowhere to be seen… Roger Hagler flew his little
Taylorcraft.
He does that always in a
wild and wooly way…
Wayne Miller set up at the South End and flew “Neville’s
Devil” again.
C’mon, Wayne, where’s that nice P-51 Mustang? Or that
nice Gee Bee? Bring one of those and the North End will take you back…
Later in the afternoon it was time for a snack. Oh, yeah. Alvin seemed
to have forgotten about that first pile of food he took in earlier.
He got himself another plate of Robert’s spaghetti and meat
balls. Both Jeff and Alvin enjoyed themselves…
A sign of autumn — a V-shaped flock of white ibises flew overhead…
The windsock has not limbered up since its erection.
I wouldn’t use it for a visual reference…
Foster’s Fish Pond looks as if it’s growing a good crop
of tadpoles.
May have to rename it Foster’s Frog Pond… It took about
30 tries to get a good picture of
one of these. Did you know that a dragonfly, even with all those
legs, is the only insect that cannot walk?...
Our Azalea City Model Aeronautics Annual Fall Scale Fly-in is scheduled
for Saturday Oct. 24 & Sunday 25. Blow the dust off of your scale
planes, helicopters and jets, charge your batteries and plan to be
there!
That’s all for now. I’ll see you at the field. Be safe!
========== Advertising Your For Sale Stuff in the Swap Shop/Flea
Market===========
You know that you can advertise your For Sale items in the Mobile
Area RC Model Aviation Forum’s Swap Shop/Flea Market. You can
even include photos, which is always helpful when you try to sell
RC stuff.
To use this feature, 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.
New rule! - Inactive topics will be pruned when 160 days old. Listings
will be displayed for about five months before being pruned. Please
edit your topic to reflect any changes, if the item(s) sold, or if
they are no longer for sale.
======== 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
