Hear Ye!

August, 2001
No. 411

From the President,
Warren Barrick

What a day! What weather! What an event!

Our Memorial Fun Fly on June 30th was a huge, hot, wonderful time. We did
not have rain, but oppressive heat and humidity didn't deter the Signal
Seekers from gathering in memory of departed members: Frankie Morris, Ernie
Mc Gauley, Tony De Carlo and Tom Jones.

In our way, we should all be proud of "committing aviation" on this day.
Many members participated and helped to make the day a fabulous success. As
president, I'm grateful for everyone's effort, but I think some deserve
individual plaudits. The logistics of the event, along with the almost
unbearable weather conditions and the success achieved by so many members,
is a tribute to us all. Thank you.

We must begin with Mike Estock who organized and initiated the "set-up" of
the field, helped to make the candy drops successful, and supervised the
clean-up, as well. Ed Moore, Dennis DiBonaventura, Bob O'Brien, Ed Snead and
John Bragitikos were helpful with loads of physical work.

Thanks to the flight instruction group who made it possible for lots of
kids, parents, and even our indomitable Hear Ye editor, Marilyn Ayres, to
have a chance at the buddy-boxes. This aspect of our fly-ins is becoming
increasingly popular as attested to by the many attempts by young and old to
"go up" more than once.

Thanks go to Joe Pasquini, Gerry Keenan, Bud Klopp, John Bragitikos, Jim
Campana, Al Campana, Walt Pierzchala, Steve Trabosh and Ed Snead.

Our culinary services are outstanding!!! We have a group that provided drink
and food in limitless amounts to a hungry, fluid-impoverished mob with
amazing ease. The menu included hoagies, hamburgers, hot dogs and gourmet
Italian sausages of many mouth-watering flavors with herb and cheese
mixtures. I can still "taste them." We also had fried pies for dessert!
Many people contributed to the continuous provision of good food. Most
notable were Jim Campana, John Bragitikos and Nathan Marks who manned the
grill. Thanks also to Tony Szczur who set up the liquid refreshments, Walt
Pierzchala who acquired and delivered the hoagies, John Bragitikos who
visited the Italian market to provide us with those exquisite sausages, Alex
Primas for the desserts, and John Matt for replenishing the water supplies
when things looked dire.

Our "candy bombers" were Rom Boutin and Mike Estock. Using Rom's Senior
Kadet, the guys hit the field every time. The sight of those little legs
churning up the runway for prizes is always a crowd pleaser.
I'm sure you noticed the American flags on display over the impound. They
were Al Campana's idea and provided a nice touch. They'll go up daily from
now on.

The transmitter impound was manned by Pat Taggart and yours truly without a
glitch. Pat also has been our main mower man for most of the season and has
kept the field in excellent condition.

Let's not forget our Route 252 wardens who took hourly stints sitting beside
the road to warn us of overflights and maneuvers too close to the road.
Mario Chiarolanza, Art Rothstein, Steve Trabosh, Bill Sunick and Rick Bruce
all did a fine job for us and our safety.

Our flight demonstrations by invited guests were outstanding. All of the
pilots have national reputations and displayed their prowess in magnificent
style for the Signal Seekers and our audience.
The Malchiones, Dave Senior and Junior, prepped and flew a BVM MIG15
turbine. Dave Jr. - at 18 years of age a third place finisher in team scale
at Top Gun this year - was the pilot, and Dave Sr. was the spotter. The MIG
was powered by a Ram 1000 turbine with 28 pounds of thrust. It also featured
an auto-start. The plane is capable of flying at speeds in excess of 180
Mph.

We are still amazed at the style and grace of Dave's maneuvers as he
performed for us. He is a very talented young man with a bright future. We
are extremely thankful that they shared their abilities with us.

Ray Clapper is from Berks County and a longtime member of the Hamburg area
club. He also performed with the Alpha Squadron in recent years. Ray brought
a 1/4 scale Citabria by Bud Nosen that is "almost 20 years old," powered
with an O.S. Max 120 4 stroke. Ray's exhibition was everything that vintage
barnstorming pilots could accomplish and more. Ray's forte is "close-in
aerobatics" and I'm sure he has ice water in his veins. He certainly needed
it on this sweltering day. Ray was invited by club treasurer Carl Sutton,
and we're glad he came.

Don Szczur of Chantilly, Virginia, a nationally ranked pattern flier as well
as a contestant at the Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas and the Bud Nall
fly-ins in South Carolina, is the son of Tony Szczur, our erstwhile VFSS
beverage manager.
Don learned to fly here at Valley Forge and taught his Dad to fly. His
sister Gwen is a member of our club also and Tony is teaching her to fly.

I am no journalist and by no means an accomplished flyer so I can't really
begin to describe what Don did with his airplane, a gorgeous 46% Extra with
a Zenoah 1000 engine. I can tell you that it was an amazing display of
aircraft virtuosity: rolling circles with 2 rolls per quadrant, exhilarating
vertical ascents, tail slides, hovering, and a hover so near the ground that
the rudder fanned the blades of grass. What an exhibition!!

We thank Don for coming and are certain that we'll read his name as he
ascends the national rankings. What a day!
Since I was on vacation for about ten days, Dennis DiBonaventura and Bob
Dolan handled the club meeting on the 10th of July.

Fly safely within the box!!!

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JULY GENERAL MEETING
By Bob Dolan, Fun Flight Organizer

I don't know about everyone else, but I had a ball at the last meeting and
from watching all of your faces, I think almost everyone else did, too.

As you know, our esteemed leader was vacationing, so our V.P.
(affectionately known as the "round man") did a masterful job of turning the
meeting over to me to explain the rules of the two events to be contested
for the fabulous prizes.
The first event was a balloon bust, and even with all of our expert fliers,
this event was won by Steve Trabosh who has been flying for about two years.
Way to go Steve!!!

The second event was the old reliable "spot crash and go." Now I personally
know that one of our long time "expert" fliers was practicing the whole day
before, and he still didn't hit the spot and obviously didn't win. Guess
what? The winner and still champion was again Steve Trabosh, a virtual
beginner compared (timewise) to some of the other event participants.
Since Steve was our only winner, he won the whole magilla. Maybe at the next
event we older folks can provide some competition.

While watching the faces of both participants and non, I think everyone had
a great time. They were even asking us about next month's plans for the club
meeting.

We want to thank everyone for attending the meeting even though the weather
right before the meeting was treacherous - thunder storms and rain. We are
giving thought to the August meeting and welcome everyone's ideas. Have fun
flying and see you at the next meeting.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CLUB MEETING NOTES
Submitted by Dee Messina, Secretary

July 10, 2001
35 members present at the field
5 new members signed on

Vice-president Dennis DiBonaventura took command of the club meeting for the
vacationing Warren Barrick. No official business was conducted this
evening.

Once again the inventive and masterful Bob Dolan directed two fun fly
events.

The balloon bust was an event where a bunch of older guys with bad eyesight
try to burst a balloon 50 yards away. Most of us can't see 25 yards away.

The next event was the spot landing. Here you have a circle 10 feet in
diameter, about the size of the debris field most planes make trying to hit
this spot. Ten flyers took their shots. When the trash was cleaned up, the
youth and cleverness of 15 year old Steve Trabosh had overcome Dolan's old
age and treachery to win it all.

Point of interest: Hobby Hut hobby shop will give discounts to VFSS
members. See ad in our newsletter.

Comments heard at our fun fly: "Man is it hot!" "Hey, free food!" "Cool
planes!" "That's not a real jet." [Oh, yes, it was.] "We need to join!"
"I'll bet they cost a hundred dollars!" "This is the best fun fly yet!"

Applause to Mike Estock and his crew and to Jim Campana and company for
sweating over that grill all day. It was a great job.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

B.O.G. MEETING VFSS
Submitted by Dee Messina, Secretary

July 24, 2001
14 members present, 1 guest
Meeting at the field

OLD BUSINESS

Item 1: A check for fifty dollars was sent to the MS Society in memory of
Mel Jones' wife.

Item 2: The new club membership list will go to press this month.

Item 3: The fun fly was a huge success. Well done, people!

Item 4: There was much discussion about a club auction vs. flea market.
The BOG voted to suspend any action for either at this time. A committee
will continue to invetigate the popular selection, which was flea market.
Space rental costs seem to be excessive.

NEW BUSINESS

Item 1: A motion was made to the club to buy its own domain name. This
will cost us fifteen dollars. "flyVFSS.org" could be our name. We could
then be linked to other online sites. The motion carried and was passed.

Item 2: We are having some noise and overfly problems with a daypass flyer.
We all need to police this for our club's welfare. Introduce them to
procedures if you see it happen. We also had a daypass flyer who could not
negotiate the field flight pattern!! He was stopped and asked to join our
training program.

Business completed.
Meeting adjourned 7:14 pm.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2 PILOTS SOLO

Dan Morrison, instructed by Dennis Di Bonaventura, and Michael Petragna,
instructed by John Bragitikos, have completed instruction and have soloed.
Congratulations to all!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FLIGHT INSTRUCTIONS

Frank Butta and Pat Taggart have agreed to give flight instructions during
evening hours. If any other instructors are available for evening students,
please contact Joe Pasquini.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CLUB CALENDAR

Saturday & Sunday, August 4th & 5th -
IMAA War birds over Pennsylvania. Buc-Le Aero Sportsman Field in Quakertown

Tuesday, August 14th -
Club Meeting at field featuring Jeff Troy and whatever Dolan has planned.
Bring fun-fly aircraft.

Feedback or comments to: Marilyn Ayres , HearYe editor
Michael Myers, Webmaster

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