Hear Ye!

The Official Newsletter of the :
Valley Forge Signal Seekers
Radio Controlled Model Airplane Club

An AMA Gold Leader Club

December, 2005
No. 462

FROM THE PRESIDENT
By Bob Sudermann

Vince Judd, Perry Lawrence, Larry Scaggs and I had the pleasure of
participating in Shady Grove Elementary Schools Science Night. Simon Bush
and his wife chaired the evening. Between the four of us we had a pretty
good display: an Electric Foamy, 60 size trainer, P51 Mustang, Park Flyer,
Extra 300L and a Glider. Perry brought along a RC Simulator, which was a
big, hit. We also had running on a laptop the VFSS Fun fly CD that Perry
and Steve put together. The students ranged from kindergarten through
sixth grade. One young man proceeded to explain to Vince just how an
airplane flies, and he had it right, down to high and low pressure created
by the shape of the wing and how it takes longer for the air to get over the
top versus the bottom. It was a great evening.

The Board Meeting in December will be held to elect the officers for 2006.
The President is the only officer who must be a member of the BOG.
Secretary, Treasurer and Vice President can be nominated from the general
membership. Those BOG members just elected for 2006-2007 and those
remaining for 2006 are eligible to participate and need to attend.

At the December general meeting we will take nominations for the annual
awards. These include the Doug Davidson Award and the Technical Achievement
Award. The Doug Davidson Award is presented to the member who best portrays
an all-around Good Guy, willing to help anyone with advice, tools or even
spare parts, as the need arises. The Technical Achievement Award is for a
member who gives unique or special effort during the past year. This can
range from a perfect scale replica of a given ship, trying something new and
different no one else is doing, or even a single component of a craft which
is out of the norm. We will also take suggestions (nominations) for any
other awards you may think of. In the past we have had things like, 'Best
Destruction of an ARF' and 'Exceeding the Envelope' Award. So put on your
thinking cap and let's come up with some good ones this year.

Safety Topic:

When starting any engine, the aircraft must be pointed toward the flight
line and the craft must be restrained while moving from the pit area to the
flight line. Keep all spectators behind the general line of aircraft in the
pits, and other club members should not stand in a parallel path of the
propeller while the engine is being started.

Remember - Fly Safe and I'll see you at the Field.

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

SAD PATCH
Submitted by Warren Barrick

From The Flightline, Phil Cole, editor
Bayside R/C Club, Inc., Freemont, California

Sec note: Mike the pres had the fun idea of taking notes on all the mishaps
he saw during 2 months, complete with names and dates. Too many to capture
in any detail here, so only highlights of some adventures follow.

Mike Hoffman / Peter K. - Late in day, bad sun, Mike lost the plane, handed
transmitter to Peter. Peter never even found the plane in the air. Did
however find the plane on the ground.

Dave Neves - flying with 2 students - had to take the plane down below the
power line level. Wanted to gain altitude before coming back, gained
altitude right into the power lines. Spiraled in, destroyed plane.

Frank flying with Mikhail - tail came off Avistar (previously, elevator had
come off - take it easy, guys)

Mike told about Frank ripping the landing gear out of his Funtana 2 weeks in
a row (12/13). On 11/23, saw his PC-9 crash after 4 or 5 flights when he did
a flat spin at ? throttle, wouldn't recover (the plane, that is) and went
in.

Doug was flying Robbie Eaton on the buddy box, had to take the plane, and
while looping out of trouble, the wings folded completely together. Then
the plane wouldn't fly. Post mortem showed poor fit and weak glue joint at
wing root ribs.

Peter - doing inverted figure 8's, got down low over the runway, thought up
was down, or down was up - plane went down.

Bill - with his EZ P-40, climbing out, hit retracts, had no ailerons, hard
to fly, crashed. Thinks perhaps the retract stuff pulled out the aileron
servo wires.

Ron Bourquin crashed his T-34.

Alan - Twinstar - put the hom back on wrongly, had no ailerons, hard to fly,
crashed.

Alan - P-38 profile - crashed on the first flight. Sad to see. But then
crashed on the second flight. And then on the third also.

Steve Bailey - Tiger Sport 40 - lost in the sun, got confused, rolled in.

Jorge - Stuka - balled it up in a cartwheel at the end of the runway.

From Mike - 12/13 - Barren crashed his Sig Cap 232 - no details. Dave
Marshall tore his gear out. Cliff rashed his Zagi - on the other side of
Grimmer.

John Daskaloff- crashed his jet foamie.

Mike - Nick's T-34 was having trouble, Mike took the radio, Mike was having
trouble, plane went in. Mike is blaming it on a loose aileron servo
connection.

Mike - chasing Grant's T-34 around the field, found him, caught him, hit
him - midair.

Greg Boehm midaired with Mitch Duh - Fast acrobatic hit Greg's trainer -
flew around for a little while with parts hanging on it, but went in.

And the Winner - Frank - 'cause his name came up too many times to ignore.

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

COMMENTS FROM THE TOWER

"Request Runway 27 Right."
"Unable."
"Approach, do you know the wind at six thousand is 270 at fifty?"
"Yeah, I do, and if we could jack the airport up to fifty-five hundred, you
could have that runway. Expect 14 Right."
- - - - -
"Climb like your life depends on it . because it does."
- - - - -
"Air force Four-Five, it appears your engine has .oh, disregard . I see
you've already ejected."

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

HINTS & TIPS FROM THE
AMA NATIONAL NEWSLETTER

Cut-off wheel sets, from Fred Huber

Sears sells a diamond cut-off wheel set that fits Dremel and Black & Decker
"Wizard" moto-tools. These wheels eliminate the frustration when dealing
with fragile "sand" wheels you buy 20 at a time and break each time you use
them. The package comes with two wheels and the mandrel and is inexpensive.
No more fragments of cut-off wheel flying around the shop (but you should
still wear safety glasses)!

Fixing longerons, from Gerald Sullivan

We have all broken a longeron or small spar on a model from time to time. A
neat way to fix them is to first poke a couple of holes in the tissue to
allow CyA to penetrate. Then, use a needle and thread to poke through the
paper in line with the break and get the thread just behind the break. Have
a helper hold the model and gently pull the thread to bring the break back
in line. A drop of CyA will penetrate and fix the break. A great advantage
is you can pull the thread at an angle and tighten both panels of tissue at
once. On heavier longerons, two threads can be used by actually poking a
small needle through the longeron on each side of the break.

from Brainbuster Newsletter
Brainbuster Free Flight Club
Ambram Van Dover, editor
Newport News VA

- - - - -

Adding weight

Des Moines Modelaires, Ankeny IA
Ray Pick, editor

Ever have the need to add a little extra weight to the front or tail of your
airplane? Instead of purchasing expensive stick-on weights, try the
following.

Go to your local tire-repair shop and ask if you can have some used tire
weights (the weights they put on tire rims). They come in different sizes
and have a clip that you can bend and use it to screw the weight to your
airplane. The best thing is, they're free. Most places are glad to get rid
of them. They have to throw them away anyway. I went to Tires-Plus and they
gave me several pounds just for the asking!

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

NOTE FROM THE SECRETARY

Please come to the December club meeting. We need to nominate members for
the Doug Davidson and Technical Achievement Awards.

Steve Kolet

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

CLUB CALENDAR

Tuesday, December 6 -
BOG Meeting at the Church, 7:00 PM.
Election of the 2006 Officers.

Tuesday, December 13 -
General Membership Meeting at the Church, 8:00 PM.
Awards Nominations - Doug Davidson / Technical Achievement

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


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