Hear Ye!

February, 2001
No. 405

From the President
Warren Barrick

Thanks to all who attended the general membership meeting on January 9th. It was a fine example of what the V.F.S.S. Club is all about and what it represents to model aviation; excellence.

Rob Caso was the featured presenter with his world-class Fiesler-Storch STOL. "Rob", through use of plastic overlays and an overhead projector displayed all the features and flight characteristics of his immaculately produced aircraft. He won second place for scratch built scale aircraft with the Storch at the WRAM Show in the mid 90's. Since he was a teenager "Rob" has been an active contributing member of the V.F.S.S.

Our outgoing Vice President, Paul Davis brought two models that he has completed during this building season, a Sig King Kobra and a Great Planes F-14 Tomcat. Paul's craftmanship is exceptional. Many admirers are being won over in the club. We look forward to seeing them both fly in the Spring.

Third on the list of presenters was our resident muffler "guru" Russ O'Brien. Russ is also a newly elected B.O.G. member. Russ's latest adaption is a
muffler which should almost silence a running engine. Shaped like a tuned pipe, Russ explained
the various changes he made to make it effective including many drilled holes, baffles and "O" rings that will help eat up the decibels. One remark overheard as he finished his presentation was, "that guy is really an engineer"! Way to go Russ!

Our final presenter was Dr. Michael Myers. Michael brought a neat autogyro for us to see. He said the kit was very complete and came with a video. Nice job Mike, can't wait to see it fly.

All four of these guys are just the tip of the multi-talented iceberg which is the V.F.S.S.

Our Raffle made material winners of several members and we all had a good time. Plan to attend our meetings and see what you can learn or win and join in the fun that we all can have. It really is the best model aviation club in the U.S. See our agenda elsewhere in this edition.

Thanks to Ernie McGauley who has been the editor of Hear Ye for more than a year who was forced to retire for reasons of poor health. Hang in there Ernie and fight the good fight, our prayers are with you.

Thanks to Al Campana for agreeing to edit this edition until our new editor, Marilyn Ayres comes on board.

See you at the Awards Banquet

December Club Meeting
by Dee Messina

President Walt Pierzchala opened the meeting and asked for nominations for the Doug Davidson Award and the Technical Achievement Award. The nominees for the Doug Davidson Award were:

Alex Primos
Dennis Dibonaventura
Walt Pierzchala

Nominees for the Technical Achievement Award were:

Frank Morris
Harold Harrison
Robert Flick
Dan Natale

Those present were asked to vote for one nominee for each Award. Ballots were collected and the winner of each Award will be named at our Club Banquet on February 13th.

Joe Weizer advises that the chartered bus to the WRAM Show in New York is filling up. The trip is scheduled for Saturday, February 24 and the bus will leave from the Church parking lot at 8:00AM. The cost is still $35.00 and includes admission and food and snacks for the trip.

Club member Bill Sunick hosted an in-depth presentation of the DH Mosquito airplane. Using an overhead projector Bill revealed the evolution of the design, the time lines leading up to the war years, and the final varients of this unique aircraft. Bill's presentation included drawings and color charts he developed and they were excellent.

This was the final meeting conducted by President Walt Pierzchala. I'm sure the members will join me in thanking him for a job well done!
Club Calendar

Tuesday, February 13th........Awards Banquet
At the Camelot, Conshohocken
$5.00 per person. Open to all
Club members. Come on out and
enjoy the food and comradery.

Saturday, February 24th...........WRAM Show
Chartered bus to White Plains, NY.
$35 includes bus, admission and
lots of snacks. Hosted by our
Tripmaster, Joe Weizer.

Tuesday, March 13th.....Monthly Club Meeting
at the Church. Featured presenter
will be Dave West. Also show us
what you've been working on for
Show-n-Tell.

Safety First!

Number 1 in a series of rules or tips which we all must comply with at the field at all times.

NO ONE can fly when alone. This means that any-one who wants to fly may only do so when some-one else is present. A "spotter" is self explanatory and a good practice.

A non-flier , spectator, tourist, etc. can "fill the bill" as long as there is someone nearby so that you cannot be harmed or harm someone else. The AMA demands this precaution and we must comply! (Rule adopted by B.O. G. 1/17/01)

For Sale
Ryan STA built from a Sig kit, covered with silk and painted. Complete with a K&B .65 and Veco muffler. Never flown, $300. If interested call:
Richard Carpenter (610) 644-4231

Builders Corner
by Gerry Keenan

Hopefully you have the frame together and the servos and radio installed by now. Three things to do now are to check the direction of the servos, eat more chili, and check the throws. On some airplanes like the Sig Four Star you will notice that the throws for the ailerons are different. For example 3/8" up and 5/16" down. The way to do this, rather than connect the rods to the servo at the 3 and 9 o'clock position, is to connect them at the 10:30 and the 1:30 position or at the 7:30 and the 4:30 position depending on the model

Before getting on to the covering, now is a good time to balance the plane. You may have to rebalance it later but get yourself in the ballpark now. One easy way to do this is to screw an eyelet into the fuselage at the CG. A small picture hook works well as you can fill in the hole with filler before covering. Some builders install a blind nut, use a threaded eyelet, and after covering, install a screw and just paint it to match. This way they can check the balance anytime.

Now attach a string to the eyelet and hang it from the ceiling. Check the stab and see if it is level. At this time I mount the engine and install the battery to achieve the correct balance. You may be able to shift the engine and the battery and not have to install any weights.

Make sure the wings are level also (side to side). When you slow the plane down for a landing and it dips to the right or left this could be because it's out of balance latterly (side to side). A plane that does not loop straight may also be out of balance latterly. So take the time now and balance it right so you aren't shooting yourself in the foot later trying to figure out what is wrong.

The best way to start covering is to decide what colors you are going to use. Here's some comments on some of them:
Black - Heats up on sunny days and looks loose, also
hard to see.
White - Good base color but can be hard to see on cloudy days.
Yellow - Good color, easy to see.
Blue - Hard to see on clear days.
Red - Hard to see on cloudy days.
Orange - Good color, easy to see.
Green - Blends into trees on landing.

The best thing to do is to use colors that are going to stand out and orient you to your plane in every situation. Perhaps make the top one color and the bottom another. If, for example, you use olive drab put some bright red in. Use colors that set off each other. Look at the pictures on the box and go for that. Look at the models in R/C magazines. Look at the planes at the field and see what they look like in the air. Remember you have to see your plane in order to fly it.

Next month - more about covering.

The Hotshot

It seems that a young man volunteered for military service during World War II. He had such a high aptitude for aviation that he was sent right to Pensacola Naval Air Station, skipping recruit training.

The very first day at Pensacola he solos and is the best flier on the base. All they could do was give him his gold wings and assign him immediately to an aircraft carrier in the Pacific.

On his first day aboard, he took of and single-handedly shot down 6 Japanese fighter planes. Then climbing up to 20,000 feet, he found 9 more Japanese planes and shot them down as well.

Noting that his fuel was getting low, he descended, circled the carrier and came in for a perfect landing on the deck.

He threw back the canopy, climbed out and jogged over to the captain. Saluting smartly he said, "Well sir, how did I do on my very first day?"

The captain turned around , bowed politely, and replied, "You make one velly, velly selious mistake!"

CPR Training
by Joe Yalove

I was reading the Dave Brown article in the latest AMA magazine (Model Aviation) and came upon his mention of how CPR saved the life of a friend of his at their flying site. Our club is a very large and diverse organization with members from all walks of life. We also have a large portion of our members who have hit the golden 50 marker. Heart attacks are always on peoples minds. It was always thought that cancer was the number 1 killer. This is incorrect: HEART DISEASE IS THE CORRECT ANSWER.

With this in mind I thought a CPR course for the club would be a good project. Everyone should know CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation). I once had to use it to aid a youngster who had stopped breathing. You never forget it. What I have done is contacted the American Red Cross about CPR training. They are ready and able to do it at our convenience. There are several factors which must be covered.

1. The course is almost 4 hours long since they have to train each person before they can be considered certified.

2. There is a charge of $65.00 per individual to cover their costs and materials.

3. We cannot do this on a club general meeting night due to time restrictions. A Saturday at the Church would probably work best.

What we are looking for is to see how much interest is there in such a project. Ten to fifteen members taking the course is better than zero. Of course, the more the better.

We need at least a 5-6 week lead time to arrange this project If you are interested please contact Joe Yalove at (610) 544-3959. Warren suggested we could open this to the Church membership and make it a community project

I feel this is very important and EVERYONE should have the basics of CPR. The life it saves could be your own.

Who Invented the Glow Plug?
by Charlie Reich - Society of Antique Modelers

Shortly after WW II (1945-1946) a person named Ed Chamberlin formulated and developed a potent new model engine fuel called "Liquid Dynamite".

The fuel testing was done using the Bantam .19 engine. During the test Ed and Ben shut the ignition off and to their amazement the engine kept running. Removing the spark plug they realized that the ground electrode had broken off and the center electrode was glowing red hot, which allowed the engine to continue running, using the hot new fuel.

Ben Shereshaw, ever the engineer, experimented and wound small nichrome wire elements to replace the center electrode therein making an early prototype glow plug; however the nichrome material did not prove successful and burned out very quickly.

During this same time period, Ray Arden was also experimenting with the same fuel on his Arden .19. Ed Chamberlin excitedly advised Ray of his and Ben's discovery. Ray experimented further and discovered that an alloy of platinum and iridium wire provided a superior catalyst for methanol and the modern glow plug was officially born.

Ben Shereshaw made a manufacturing agreement with Ray Arden and Ben thereafter produced millions of glow plugs under the brand name of XL for the OK-Herkimer Company in his Miniature Motors factory.

BOG Review

Meeting January 17, 2001
16 Members Present
Meeting Called to Order by President Warren Barrick:

1.) President discussed our Special Use Permit with Park officials. It is in force until the end of 2003.

2.) The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astro-nautics would like to have a group of about 40 people out to our field to observe our pilots and aircraft in action. More on this later.

3.) Proposed budget for 2001 was discussed and a few changes were made.

4.) Various other club duties or assignments were announced by the President including:
Ed Snead - Awards Director
Walt Pierzchala - Sunshine Chairman
Dennis DeBonaventura - Field Maintenance
Jim Campana - Food Chairman
Mike Estock - Fun-Fly Chairman
Tom Greet - Chief Instructor, Sailplanes
Al Campana - Special Projects
Joe Pasquini - Chief Instructor, Fixed Wing
Mel Jones - Chief Instructor, Helicopters
Rudy Forst - Membership Chairman

5.) Fun-Fly dates were set:

Saturday, June 30th - First Event
Saturday, September 15th - Second Event

6.) Safety at the field was discussed: the need to keep spectators behind a defined barrier and prohibiting anyone from flying when no one else is there.

Respectfully submitted,

Dee Messina, Secretary

IN MEMORIAM

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