July General Membership Meeting At
The Field on Tuesday, July 8th at 6:30
In This Issue
* From The President
* Training Program
* From The Net
* The Corsair
From the President
June Meeting: The June meeting in the park was "short" on
business but long on refreshments and flying time. Mother
Nature was exceptionally kind and everyone had a great time.
Mike Estock debuted his outstanding 1/5 scale Cessna, we all
were impressed with Mike's craftsmanship and dedication to
scale detail. Excellent job, Mike.
Mike's presentation of his new plane was just one of the
significant things I've been made aware of in the past few
weeks. Let me take the time to tell you about some of these
things which make this a truly great club!
Jack Butler baked a fine assortment of cookies for our June
meeting in the park. A personal touch which was much
appreciated. Thanks Jack.
Assorted delicious pizzas for our June meeting were provided
by Wayne Bogatin. Wayne started with us as a member of the
breakfast club, learning to fly. Fortunately, Wayne became
the owner of Pie in the Sky in Wayne, Penna. This has kept
him away from the field but he is still a member and a truly
concerned supporter of the club. Thanks, Wayne!
An entire family, the Skypalas of Limerick and Phila came to
our June meeting, enjoyed a picnic supper and cheered on
their youngest member Alex as he took lessons from Sam
Andreas. Alex's grandfather; Norman Godshall, his father,
mother and older brother are all part of the V.F.S.S. family.
How about Ed Snead our erstwhile Field Marshall? During the
winter many members of the club purchased new V.F.S.S.
jackets. Ed, on his own, saw to it that each person who
purchased a jacket received a hat with V.F.S.S. and the
persons name embroidered on it. Ed says and I quote "I just
wanted to give something back to the club." Thanks, Ed!
Joe Pasquini, our own goombah, a faithful member of the
breakfast club has realized his wishes and is now a
full-fledged, certified and true-blue V.F.S.S. instructor.
Way to go Joe!
What about Bud Klopp our Tues/Fri AM instructor? Bud is at
the field running his ground school and instructional program
faithfully in all kinds of weather. He even jumps on the
mower when the opportunity presents itself.
Congratulations to Ernie Dana who soloed under Bud Klopp's
tutelage. Way to go Ernie!
This is the stuff and these are the guys who make our hobby
and this club great!
July meeting will be in the park at 6:30 P.M. on July 8th.
Come early, stay late. A park representative will speak to
us at 7:00 P.M. If the weather does not cooperate the July
meeting will be at the church at 8:00 P.M. Usual format.
BOG meets at the field on July 15th at 6:30 P.M.
TRAINING PROGRAM
As of the 15th of June we have enrolled 17 Students
in the Training Program during 1997. All except 4
Students have been assigned to instructors. Those
that have not been assigned, VFSS is either awaiting
paper work or they decided to wait till they return
from vacation.
We do have some good news as ERNEST DANA has SOLOED
on 10 June '97 and has been released from the BUDDY
BOX competently guided by BUD KLOPP. Fantastic job
BUD and Congratulations ERNEST. First Solo of the
97 season.
Our second solo for '97 is RALPH LATSHAW JR. who
soloed on 21 June. RALPH also has R/C boats and
cars which has helped him solo R/C aircraft. SIMON
BUSH was his instructor and soloed him after 4
training sessions which began on May 24 '97.
What a great job by SIMON and congratulations to
RALPH..
Rom Boutin
Charles "Buzz" Kleine - 1997
It is with deep regret that I inform the membership of the
passing of "Buzz" Kleine on June 17th, 1997.
"Buzz" was an active member of V.F.S.S., a charter member of
the breakfast club; he learned to fly by the old format,
before our instruction program became organized. We had many
laughs and almost as many crashes.
He brought to the field an array of aircraft which ranged
from cardboard sport planes to 1/4 scale behemoths. He also
brought a keen sense of humor and wild hats for all
occasions. He provided us with "swampwater" and at one time
was in charge of field maintenance as well as safety officer.
He "spoke" model airplane. Many of us visited his fabulous
garage workshop during the winter and enjoyed "Buzz's"
infinite expertise and also lunchtime snacks from his beloved
"Honey", Laura.
None of us will ever forget his station wagon coming down the
lane with a fully assembled Phaeton biplane attached to the
roof.
He will be sorely missed.
From The Net
Courtesy of Michael Myers
From: "George J. McCouch" <geomac@hop-uky.campus.mci.net>
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 1997 16:24:53 +0000
To: mhmyers@netaxs.com
Subject: Long Time Ago
Hello,
I came across your web page quite by serendipitous accident.
I flew with the Signal Seekers back in the middle 60s. I was using
Galloping Ghost equipment and a Falcon 56 / Fox 15 combo. I am amazed
today that it even flew :).
Back then the club was flying adjacent to Outer Line drive if I remember
right.
I am curious. The club had a very active member at the time named Tom
Knerr. I think he was into very early helicopters when I lost track of
him in the early 70s. Is he still around and flying?
Thank you for having your club on the web. It is amazing what I am
finding here.
George McCouch
WA3DNC
Hopkinsville, KY
The Corsair
By Lew Roosa
Few fighters went through as many interesting design changes
before going fleet operational as the Corsair. The main
problem really started with the planes strong point - that
big Pratt and Whitney R2800 twin row that put out 2000 HP.
By comparison the Wildcats of that period had 1200 HP. The
first production Corsair achieved 415 mph on 26 June 1942.
These numbers got everyone's attention.
To utilize that HP, the engine swung a 13' 4", Ham Std, 3
bladed prop. Deck clearance immediately became a problem. A
sufficiently long landing gear couldn't retract inboard, for
it would run into the wing tanks and oil coolers. It
couldn't retract out because that space was needed for the
wing guns. It couldn't retract aft, for the wing chord
wasn't wide enough. The solution was unique and elegant - an
inverted gull wing. This had several additional benefits.
Pilot visibility down and forward was much improved. The
perpendicular junction of wing to fuselage afforded very
reduced parasitic drag, avoiding extensive wing fillets, and
the lower hinge line reduced between deck overhead clearance
requirements, when the wings were in their folded position.
Just when they had that solved, the navy decided more range
was needed, so in addition to the 126 gal in wing tanks a 237
gal tank was installed aft of the fire wall. It was placed
there to minimize trim problems as fuel was consumed. To fit
in the cockpit had to be moved 32" aft. While the pilot had
better vision down and aft, forward vision during take off
and landing in the 3 point altitude was terrible. Eventually
they changed to a bubble canopy and raised the pilots seat 7
inches, but forward vision never was satisfactory.
Carrier landing tests proved that the plane was anything but
docile. The long heavy nose tended to drop alarmingly when
power was reduced, and the long, bouncy oleos were bad news
on short carrier decks. Even worse, the combination of the
gull configuration and the air swirling clockwise from that
big prop tended to stall port wing, and it would drop
abruptly. To correct the stall, the pilot would shove the
throttle forward to increase flight speed. Unfortunately,
the engine prop in the clockwise direction tended to rotate
the airframe in the counterclockwise direction, dropping the
port wing even further. Some planes actually flipped on
their back - not good when trying to land. Cartwheels were
not uncommon. This problem was finally resolved with a very
simple fix. A 6" spanwise triangular spoiler was added to
the leading edge of the starboard wing, just outboard of the
hinge line. Now both wings stalled, but at least the plane
tended to stay level.
The navy had been spoiled by the beautiful slow flight
characteristics and excellent forward visibility of its
Grumman Wildcats. They finally solved the Corsair fleet
problem by giving most of them to the Marines as the new
Hellcats became available. The Marines of course had nice
long stable airfields to land on, and they used the plane
very effectively as an attack fighter. With it they
destroyed 1600 plus enemy aircraft, with their land based
Corsair's accounting for 1400.
The British Navy received 1977 Corsair, and the New
Zealanders 425. The Brits had been forced to use our
Wildcats for fleet duty (they called it a Martlet) for they
had been a bit remiss in developing their own ship board
fighter. They tried converting Spitfires and Hurricans to
carrier use, but neither was satisfactory. The Spitfire,
renamed the Seafire, was particularly nasty. Not only did it
swerve badly on takeoff, but when landing the plane was so
clean aerodynamically they couldn't slow it down for its
flaps were undersized. To top it off, if the pilot had to
ditch, those underwing radiators were murder. The Hurrican
was even worse with that big under fuselage cooler. After
all this, even the Corsair and its problems were welcome.
Vought had built another Corsair, a biplane, and a Marine
pilot won a Medal of Honor in one during our invasion of
Nicaraqua in the late 20's.
JULY MEETING
The July General Meeting will be held
at the field on Tues, July 8th at 6:30
(Weather Permitting).
In the event of rain we'll meet at the church
at 8:00 that same evening.
B.O.G. Meeting
The V.F.S.S. Board of Governors will meet on
July 15th at 6:30 at the field.
Feedback or comments to:
Sam Andreas, HearYe editor
Michael Myers, Webmaster
Read another Hear Ye! | Back to Valley Forge Signal Seeker's Page
Back to Radio Control Airplanes