Annual Awards Banquet - Feb 13
The Club banquet will be held on February 13th at 7:00 PM at the Camelot at 422 Mill street in Bridgeport. The winners of this years Doug Davison and Special Achievement awards will be announced at the banquet. There will be free food and refreshments for all club members and their spouse or significant other. This gathering replaces the February meeting. This is going to be fun - make it a point to attend!
The Annual Bus Trip To W.R.A.M. Show Is On Feb 24 - Money Due!!
The Annual bus trip to the W.R.A.M. Show will be held on February 24th. The pickup point for the trip will be in front of the King of Prussia Plaza Theatre at 8:30am. The cost for attending the show is $30 which includes transportation, meals and admission. The deadline for getting your money to Joe will be the January general meeting.
There are still a number of reserved spots that have not been paid for. The absolute deadline if the February Meeting & Banquet. Failure to pay ASAP could result in the lack of a bus!!
Anyone unable to make the General meeting who wishes to attend the WRAM show should contact Joe Weizer to make other arrangements.
B. O. G. REVIEW
By Sam Andreas, Secretary
The first meeting of the 1996 board of governors was called to order at 7:05 PM on January 16th. In attendance were: The President, Secretary and 12 Board members. Also present were: Ed Snead and Rom Bouton. Topics and issues discussed at the meeting were as follows:
1- A draft of the 1996 budget was analyzed and discussed in depth. The budget was accepted unanimously with only one change, that being an increase of $250. 00 allocated towards obtaining guest speakers for general meetings. The final budget for 1996 totals $10,350. 00.
2- The Indoor Funfly usually held in April will not be held this year. The reason for dropping this event was last years poor attendance.
3- The Seminar For New Fliers, which Chuck Karr was scheduled to conduct at the January meeting, will instead be held at the March general meeting on 3/12. In addition to the Seminar, the basic theme of the meeting will be scale building with several scale models present.
4- The basic theme of the April meeting will be Helicopters with several models present.
5- It was decided to hold the May general meeting at the flying field. The meeting will begin, weather permitting, at 6:30 PM on May 14th. There will be guest speakers and the new park Superintendent will be invited as will the park rangers.
6- There will be no B. O. G. Meeting in February.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:00 PM. The next scheduled meeting of the B. O. G. will be on March 19th.
Club Raffle News
By Joseph Pasquini, Raffle Chairman
At our December meeting the prizes won consisted of several accessories such as: a nicad starter battery with charger, a power panel and radio battery charger just to name a few. Some of the December raffle winners were Dan Cooper, Russ O'Brien and Joe Weizer. We managed to sell alot of raffle tickets so there will be some great prizes for the next general meeting. For those of you (particularly new members) who don't know how the funds for the raffle are handled, I would like to offer the following information.
First the club subsidizes the raffle fund - last year $500. 00 was allocated for initial purchases and to supplement raffle earnings throughout the year. At the January 1995 meeting we spent $150. 00 leaving $350. 00 for the balance of 1995. To start of 1996 we have $155. 00 to start with plus $40. 00 from the 1996 budget. This leaves $460. 00 for the rest of the year. At the general meetings, as you have probably noted, there are always two members present at the raffle table and each member tallies the days earnings at the end of the raffle to avoid mistakes. The earnings are used to procure items for the next raffle. A receipt for each purchase is given to the club treasurer.
In closing, I would like to thank everyone for their support and ticket purchases and don't forget there will be alot of great prizes available for the March meeting. We've already obtained a . 60 Engine and a P51 Sport Scale kit plus many other prizes.
News From The President
by Warren Barrick
What a start to a new year!! The Blizzard of 1996 is no way to welcome new leadership to the club. Alex Patson, V.P., Sam Andreas, Secretary, Walt Pierzchala, Treasurer, and myself hope that we can have as much impact on VFSS.
My personal goal is to insure that we all maintain the great amount of fun that we have with our terrific hobby. I want to have an immediate impact on our membership meetings. I want them to be entertaining and informative to the extent that ALL members come out and participate. Everything else should fall into place when we are all entertained and participating.
We are definitely going to continue our raffle - if more attend, it is built so that it will enlarge itself. We will always have free refreshments and with all of the enormous talents in the club, Show 'N' Tell.
Our February meeting is the Annual Awards Banquet. It is free for every member and his/her guest. There will be some surprises and the food has always been great at the Camelot on Mill St. in Bridgeport, PA.
March's meeting, going with our new format, will focus on scale aircraft. We are planning to have some nationally known scale modelers and their aircraft. If you have any scale ambitions or aircraft, come to this meeting. If you don't, come anyway and learn something about this fascinating area of our hobby. Bring a friend or two!
Our April meeting will take the same approach with helicopters. So whether you're a "rotorhead" or not, come out to learn and enjoy. Bring friends.
May's meeting will be held at an earlier hour in the park. More details on this will be forthcoming.
What would you like to have at club meetings? We are open to suggestions. Elsewhere in the Hear Ye is a very brief questionnaire regarding this subject. We'd like to have everyone fill it out and submit it to the Raffle Chairman, Joe Pasquini at the February and March meetings. There will be prizes for those contributors whose ideas are implemented by the B.O.G.
From The Net. . .
compiled by Price Dempler
From: Delta@opus-networx. com
Date: 11 Jan 1996 21:22:04 GMT-0400
To: mhmyers@netaxs. com
Subject: Article from the Trinidad Model plane club
CHOOSING YOUR NEXT AIRPLANE
By Colin Chariandy (from the net)
It is often said you are what you eat , and for good reasons it is rarely said to the thin and slender. The statement is easily adapted to model aircraft (you are what you fly?) and perhaps even more easily verified. Choosing your next airplane (what you fly) may determine whether you become the next Hanno Pretner or Joe Crasher.
Unfortunately, when asked what airplane should I get, a simple question, an easy answer is never available. This is because several variables come into play in choosing the right airplane for you. Fortunately, the road to that critical choice is not very narrow and is growing wider every year with the introduction of more high quality kits. Many airplanes may be right for you if you ask yourself some simple questions and consider the design of some of the airplanes you may have in mind.
Evaluate your flying style: Your next airplane should represent a finite step between your current level and the next easily attainable level. Avoid selecting an airplane youíll destroy or require unnecessary training on. You will frustrate yourself and your instructor. If you have been flying a trainer (for about one hundred flights), you can easily graduate to a low wing sport trainer or low wing sport type with a little instruction. If you already fly low wing aircraft, your next airplane will depend on the style of flying you intend to pursue. Aerobatics, Scale, Sport, or Fun Fly. Few airplanes will do them all (well) so you must decide which you prefer.
Key design elements: Whatever style you intend to pursue, the aircraft will respond and behave in a manner dependant on its basic layout and design. Beyond the trainer stage symmetrical airfoils are preferred. Semi-symmetrical and flat bottomed airfoils have unpleasant inverted characteristics that may result in sudden stalls or uncommanded snaps. Blunt airfoils are typically slower and allow more gentle stalls. Tapered wings (wing having smaller tips than centers) handle wind and gusty con ditions better than straight wings. Excessive taper however, could produce tip stalling tendencies. Sweep (the degree to which the wing along it' s length is angled back) is often confu sed with taper although the two are not related. Swept wings on models serve almost no purpose and should be avoided. Wing loading or weight can dictate whether your airplane flies like a butterfly or rock. Wing loadings (weight of model / wing area ) of 17 to 28 ounces/square foot per form well for sport and aerobatic aircraft. Lower wing loadings allow aircraft to float but makes penetrating rough air more difficult. Higher wing loadings result in faster approaches and landings. Wing loading should never be overlooked and every effort should be made to maintain a loading that will compliment your style of flying.
Power-to-weight ratio can often mean the difference between frustration and joy. Simply put, install as much engine as the desired wing loading will allow. Looks are important: It's important to consider how the airplane looks to you. If you're not happy with how it looks you won't put much effort into reaching it's full potential. I' m looking forward to some great second airplanes and having my socks blown off by the more advanced pilots!
From: warnm66@sky. net (Mike Warnstaff)
Date: Wed, 24 Jan 1996 20:36:35 -0600 (CST)
To: mhmyers@netaxs. com
Subject: Your Web Page
Michael, I can remember not too many months ago that when you tried to locate any R/C on the net, it came back blank! Not the case today, and it's nice to connect with other enthusiast across the country and world for that matter. I enjoyed your home page and especially your photos and even read your latest Valley Forge Signal Seekers Newsletter. I'm located in the Overland Park, Kansas (suburb of Kansas City) and belong to the Shawnee Mission R/C Club (past president - almost burnt me out)! I gave up the presidency for helping the new entries into R/C get their wings.
Working as one of the instructors for our club, we "pinned" wings on close to 10 new pilots this last summer. Sure makes it easier for them to enjoy the sport than re-kitting their airplane on their first outting! I fly almost everything - 1/4 scale, . 60 size, scale and fun . . . strictly for enjoyment and really enjoying building almost as much as flying. I'm a "stick and tissue" fellow that started building model airplanes in the 40's and migrated through the time to probably the most enjoyable building/flying time of my life. Didn't mean to ramble on, but wanted to give a "profile" of who was writing. I will check in you homepage from time to time, but wanted you to know how much I enjoyed the obvious work you have put into it . . . It shows!
R/C'r to R/C'r Mike Warnstaff