Hear Ye!

Next Meeting at Field - July 14

Prez Sez
by Al Campana

Summer flying is in full swing now, along with hot, muggy days. Large umbrellas provide shade for those of us afraid of too much sun. Our Fun-Fly went off very well, considering we had to use the rain date which was Sunday. The candy drop was spectacular, every drop by Rom Boutin's "Candy Bomber" right on the money! Of course Mike Estock helped with last-second altitude and course corrections. They make a good team.

Last month we held our first outdoor meeting this year at our field in the Park. The weather cooperated and we enjoyed an interesting talk by Charter Club Member Joe Krush. Joe brought several examples of old-time R/C equipment and gave us a history of our Club and it's several flying sites in the Valley Forge Park. It was a great presentation by one of the original 10 members who founded our Club officially in 1959. It's been said before that we have many interesting people in our Club and Joe is a good example. So much so that it was decided to feature Joe in this month's Pilot Profile. As you will see Joe has led a very interesting life.

June 26 was the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift.

I realize many younger folks will not be familiar with this event but suffice to say it saved a great city from starvation. The Russians blockaded the city and the Americans, British, and French began flying food, fuel, and equipment into the beleaguered city. They started with C-47's but later switched to C-54 Skymaster cargo planes. At it's peak there was a flight into Tempelhof Airport every 3 minutes around the clock! Each aircraft averaged 3 flights a day. The Americans flew the most missions (189,963 flights) followed by the British, (87,606 flights). These airplanes delivered about 4500 tons of supplies every day! Quite an accomplishment by pilots and crewmen that, 3 years earlier, flew bombing missions over Germany. The Airlift lasted 15 months, until the Russians finally relented. For the record, 31 Americans and 39 Britons died flying the Airlift.

Personal Injuries and Accidents

Despite observing safety precautions, model related accidents will happen. Propellors especially are inherently dangerous and can cause serious injuries. Club members must be constantly aware that small children move quickly and generally are not conscious of the danger of a spinning prop.

Two years ago a club member brought a friends' child to the field and unfortunately the child lost part of a finger when he reached for the prop.

To the best of our knowledge, the club member did not inform anyone of this incident, nor did he complete an Accident Report.

Now, as a result of this unfortunate accident, the club member, the AMA, and VFSS have been named as defendents in a lawsuit filed by the guardian of the child.

The net result of this incident is that ALL of us are responsible for making sure all flyers are observing the rules shown in our VFSS Field Safety Management Guide. This Guide is posted on the Field Bulletin Board and is given to all new members when joining the club. The Rules are there for a reason. In many cases it is simply a matter of exercising common sense. Although not named in the suit, the Park is aware of the situation. You'd better believe if another incident like this occurs again we will be in grave danger of losing our flying site. We cannot afford another careless act.

A Reminder
By Warren Barrick

Membership in the Valley Forge Signal Seekers does not provide us the right to have flying guests at the field. VFSS Membership entitles only the cardholder to fly at the field. If you invite flying friends to be your guest in the Park, do them a favor by instructing them in how to obtain a Day Pass at the Park Ranger Headquarters. If you are truly good friends encourage them to join the Club and avoid the hassle. Our Permit from this National Historical Park must be honored, protected, and cherished. Obey the rules!

Club Notes

July 14 - Outdoor Club Meeting at VFSS flying site.
6:30 PM. Bring a chair. Featured speaker will be a member of the Park Staff. RAIN DATE - Thurs., July 16

July 21 - Board of Governors Meeting - VFSS flying site.
6:30 PM. Subs and sodas will be provided RAIN DATE - Thurs., July 23

Area Events

July 9-12 - Lums Pond, DE. Warbirds Over Delaware Site: Lums Pond State Park. From I-95 in DE take Exit 1A 896 S. for 6.2 mi. Turn left on Rt. 71. Field is 1 mi. on left. Event is limited to Giant Scale War- birds, WW1 to present.

July 11 - Hummelstown, PA. Keystone Radio Control, Inc. Annual R/C Flea Market. Site: Hummelstown Fire House, East Main St. Admission: $2.00 Donation - Table rental: $5.00 Info: Jim Nowak (717) 545-1457

July 18 - Cloud Kings R/C Club Annual Fly-In Giant Scale and Ultralight Aircraft, Open R/C flying after Show. Site: Harris Private Airfield, near inter- section of Rt. 896 and US 1. Field opens 10:00 AM.

July 11 - Full Scale Fly-In - Antique and Classic Aircraft. Site: Grimes Airfield, Bethel, PA. Info: Call (717) 933-9566 Museums

Joe Pasquini advises there are 4 Aircraft Museums you may want to checkout if you are driving south or on a trip to Florida:

Marine Corp Air-Ground Museum, Quantico, VA. Located near I-95.
Eighth Air Force Heritage Museum, Savannah, GA. Located just off I-95 Info: (912) 748-8888
Museum of Aviation, Warner-Robins, GA. Info: (912) 926-6870
Kissimmee Airport, Kissimmee, FL. Located just south of Orlando. You can also buy a ride on an AT-6 or a 2-place P-51 Mustang here.

Pilot Profile

Joe Krush

Later, when the U.S. entered the war, Joe enlisted in the Army and was sent to Engineer School at Ft. Belvoir. Eventually Joe was selected to attend Officers Training School. After being commissioned he was later transferred to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), where he was assigned to assist the newly formed United Nations in San Francisco. His last tour of duty took him to the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials in Germany.

Sometime in the 50's, while flying a sailplane in the VF Park, Joe met several other modelers and they began holding meetings in each other's homes. From this nucleus of 10 model airplane flyers began the Valley Forge Signal Seekers Club. Joe designed the Club logo about 1960 and it still the one we use today.

The Club's first flying field was the huge open area called the Parade Ground, directly in front of the Chapel. Joe has served as President, V.P. and Secretary of the Club. He currently holds a "ham" license and also sails an R/C sailboat, tugboat, and submarine.

In the 1980's Joe revived his interest in indoor flying models. He became involved with the Scale Old Timers group (SOTS) and he flies his models at Memorial Hall in Philadelphia and the blimp hanger at Lakehurst, NJ. Joe won the Stout Trophy for "Indoor Cabin" at Westover, Mass. His present goal is a 40 minute flight and his best so far is 32 minutes.

Married in 1942, his wife Beth is also an Illustrator. Between them they have illustrated about 150 children's books. Joe has done illustrations for the Reader's Digest for 32 years and has taught illustration techniques at several local colleges and art schools.

The 2 busts that Joe is holding in the picture are from an antique model named "Miss Euphoria". They are carved from solid balsa and are beautifully finished.

Congratulations
By Art Rothstein

On Saturday, June 13, I had the privilege of attending the "Court of Honor" for one of our members, Jeff Walter. For those of you who may not know what this event is, it is when a Boy Scout achieves the highest rank of "Eagle". Jeff, along with his father Carey and his brother Greg, joined the Valley Forge Signal Seekers a few years ago and have been avid members. Congratulations Jeff, on achieving this great goal. We hope to see Greg join you soon.

SAFETY - As Safety Officer I am usually made aware of safety violations as they happen, that's OK, but remember safety is everyone's concern and any violations should be pointed out to the offender as soon as possible by whom- ever observes the violation, and not necessarily by me. I believe most violations are inadvertant, and that a simple reminder usually corrects the condition. No one wants to hurt themselves or anyone else intentionally.

A suggestion for a condition that I saw happen recently at the field: A pilot with a new plane ground-looped it on take-off. The reason, according to the pilot, was that he forgot to replace the nose weights, so the C.G. was too far back. When you bring a new airplane to the field for it's maiden flight, have someone you trust go over your plane for you. Have them check all the control surface motions, left-right, up-down, throttle open-close, C.G., battery pack, everything. I also suggest that you put pins in the underside of the wing at the C.G. points. This is a permanent position and can be used at any time and they are helpful after making repairs or changes to your aircraft. Remember the first rule of safety: When in doubt - don't.

Composites
By Russ O'Brien

When fiberglass and epoxy are used together, the fiberglass is the major contributer and the epoxy's contribution is low by comparison. The job of epoxy is to hold the fiberglass in place by bonding layers together and for resisting shearing forces between the fiberglass and the sheeting.

Young's Modulus - is a mathematical number which is the result of dividing Stress (load/area) by Strain (elongation/original length). It is a measure of stiffness of the material, and all materials can be compared. By loading a test sample, three out of four of the values in Stress and Strain are known beforehand; all except the Elongation, or stretch of the sample under load. For high strength materials the elongation is miniscule, measured in micro-inches. Since this tiny value shows up in the denominator, it increases the value of the modulus tremendously.

Some Examples:

Material - - - - - Young's Modulus
Steel - - - - - - - - - - 30,000,000
Aluminum - - - - - - - 10-11,000,000
E-glass(typical) - - - - - 11,000,000
Epoxy - - - - - - - - - - 200,000

In a fiberglass/epoxy structure, we have epoxy at 200,000 Modulus helping E-glass which a Modulus of 11 million. The ratio of 11 million to 200 thousand is 55 to 1. That's how much stiffer the fiberglass is than the epoxy. That's also one reason why Burt Rutan's composites "How To" video and the West System (boats) emphasize repeated squeegee operations until no more epoxy comes out. Other important reasons are to assure straight glass fibers, a ripple-free surface, and uniform minimum weight of parts.
Density x Volume = Weight
The density of epoxy is 1.25 (times the weight of water). E-glass density is 2.54, or about twice that of epoxy. It can be seen that it is not wise to pile on excess epoxy, at 1/2 the density of fiberglass, when epoxy only contributes 1/55 of the stiffness. The message is: get rid of excess epoxy; you don't need it and it adds dead weight.

New Members

The following New Members have joined the Club in May and June:

Frederick Copeland - Plymouth Meeting, PA.
Frank Dob II - Phoenixville, PA.
Donald Green - Pottstown, PA.
Peter Reyner - Sinking Springs, PA.
Irv Smith - Thorndale, PA.
Carl Sutton - Collegeville, PA.

Thank you for joining our Club. We wish you success and enjoyment in this great hobby!

Training Update
By Jim Campana

After a rash of newly-christened pilots last month, it got real quiet for the month of June. I had to cancel a few flight-training sessions because of high winds.

I want to remind all instructors about flying in the box. Training a student can be very difficult with a stiff wind blowing. The major concern is when that wind is blowing toward Rt. 252. If you are caught flying over this road, both the student and the instructor may be cited. It happened to me as well as another instructor. Be careful and Happy Flying!

Newsletter Contributions

Please remember this is YOUR newsletter. I would like to see more members contributing articles. Whether it is technical, how-to-do, comments, anything you feel newsworthy to other members, send it to me.

Ni-Cad Shorts
By C. L. "Red" Scholefield

A short develops in a Ni-Cad cell when conductive particles bridge the separator or the separator itself deteriorates to the point where it allows the positive and negative plates to touch. Rarely does the short occur all at once but rather building up a very small con- ductance path termed "soft shorts". In a charged cell the energy in the cell will blow away any short as it tries to develop. You've heard about "zapping" cells. The cell actually zaps itself before the short can develop. Only in cases of severe overcharge at high rates when the cell heats up significantly, can the separator melt down to the point where the plates contact each other (hard short). In this case the energy in the cell then dumps and we have what is referred to as a hot steamer; the electrolyte boils, nylon in the separator melts down and is forced by the steam through the vent. On some occasions the vent is clogged by the molten nylon separator and becomes inoperative causing the cell to rapidly disassemble. So under normal circumstances a cell maintained at some state of charge is much less likely to short than a cell that is completely discharged. It should be noted however that the self discharge increases rapidly in cells where there is a short building (high resistance- soft short) due to separator deterioration and/or cadmium migration.

One other shorting mechanism is a manufacturing defect where the positive or negative collector tab bridges the opposite plate. These usually fall out before the cells are shipped or assembled into batteries.

Feedback or comments to: Al Campana, HearYe editor Michael Myers, Webmaster

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