Buzz Kleine Memorial Fun-Fly
The Spring Fun-Fly, known officially as the "Buzz Kleine Memorial Fun-Fly", was held on Saturday, June 12th. The weather held up despite the threatening clouds, and our members responded by bringing more than 70 model airplanes to the field. Most notable were Al Primas's Tiger Moth and Bob Dolan's Stuka. Both planes flew well. Jim Campana flew his Extra 260 with smoke and Rom Boutin's Candy Bomber flew 4 missions, "delivering" candy attached attached to red and green streamers.
Joe Weizer's "Witch" was in a cranky mood,
suffering through several engine-out "crash"
landings. She finally got in a flying mood and performed
her magical flight. Joe's American Flag model also
flew and Matt Meier flew a beautiful scale helicopter.
Around noon Jim Campana fired up his gas grill and with
the help of Nathan Marks, started cooking over 150
hamburgers and hot dogs for club members! There were
also 50 hoagies available. Historically, club members
bring not only their airplanes to the Fun-Fly, but
also big appetites. All of the hamburgers and hot
dogs were devoured, as were all of the hoagies!!
Mike Estock did an excellent job overseeing the setting up of the canopy, sound system, rope fence, and all the other items that make for a successful meet. Thanks also to those early birds that gave Mike a hand setting up. There are always a lot of people involved behind the scenes. Warren Barrick was our MC on the microphone and also manned the transmitter impound area with the help of Ed Snead. Ron Strobel was seen with his professional TV camera taping various members with their planes. Ron did a beautiful job putting together a tape of last year's Fun-Fly and I'm looking forward to seeing this year's.
All in all, it was a popular get-together and everyone seemed to have a good time. Our next Fun-Fly is scheduled for September 25, 1999. Incidentally, this year is our 40th Anniversary, the Club having been chartered in 1959. Maybe the Board of Governors will come up with something extra special for the next Fun-Fly.
Club Notes
Tuesday, July 13............. Club Meeting at the Field.
7:00 PM. Don't
forget to
bring a chair.
Our speaker
will be Gene
Gifford, Club
member and
former 747
"driver".
Should be a
facinating
evening!
Saturday, July 17.............Cloud Kings R/C Club
presents an
"Air Show"
Celebrating
their 25th
Anniversary!
Attractions
include Alpha
Squadron &
Ultralight
Aircraft.
Located off
Pennsgrove Rd
near intersection
of US 1
and Rt. 896.
For more info,
Brian Swarts(610)255-4998
Open flying
after show and
VFSS members
welcome!
Saturday - Sunday, August 7 & 8........................
Buc-Le AeroSportsmen
Presents "Warbirds
Over
Pennsylvania"
4th Annual
Warbirds Fly-In
at the Club
Field - Quakertown,
PA.
Located on Heller
Rd. off
Pumping Station
Rd. More
info call: (215)
256-4450(Ev)
Club Website: http://members
.aol.com/chasbrust
Instructor's Corner
By Jim Campana
We finally had our first soloed pilots of the year. Gerry Keenan led the way by successfully completing his checkout flight with Rom Boutin on May 17. Gerry started flying in December with Ed Moore, who helped him log a dozen flights. Joe Pasquini also helped him with an additional 25 flights. Gerry attributes his quick learning cycle to Ed, Joe and Dennis DiBonaventura, who assisted him in the construction of his Sig LT-40. He also had help from his GP Flight Simulator. Gerry has almost finished his next aircraft, a Sig 4 Star 40.
Tom O'Brien began his instruction with Bob Sudermann in April 98. I asked him how many times he came to the field to fly before he soloed. He said "about a hundred times." Along the way Tom had help from the entire instructor team including Rom, who soloed him on May 22. He still makes it out to the field several times a week.
Lastly, I want to welcome Bob Fritch to the instructor team. He responded to my request last fall for new instructors. Thanks, Bob.
Kit Review
By Warren Barrick
Warning......Beware of Balsa USA's Citabria Aerobatic Pro Kit. Balsa USA has been advertising for several months that many of their kits have been "all new, completely redesigned." I purchased a Citabria Aerobatic Pro Kit as a summer building project. So far I have only been able to frame up the wing and have spent the last two weeks correcting the mistakes built in by following the new "completely redesigned plans and construction manual."
First mistake, a dihedral gauge template is provided on the plans for the wing. It is 90 degrees. The plan says it is 85 degrees. I built it to 85 degrees and had to backtrack and correct it to 88.5 degrees. Big, big difference.
Second error, shims are shown on the plan to be 1/4 or 5/16 in the same location on different wings. This will lead to building two different wings as the shims fix the front spar in position. I used 5/16 shims.
Third error, aileron servo locations are different on each wing plan. I selected the location nearest the front spars.
Fourth error, lite ply doublers which are critical on the cabane strut mounts are shown on the plans but not mentioned in the manual. They must support blind nuts used to connect the cabane to the wing.
I phoned Balsa USA with these complaints. I asked to speak to someone in the technical department. The person I spoke to said he "was going to make note of these mistakes but he didn't revise that kit, someone else did." I hate to think what this kit was before it was "completely redesigned." I haven't started the fuselage and empennage yet. Stay tuned and beware of this kit!
Signal "Shorts"
Recently I received an interesting email from Rom Boutin concerning our flying field. The message said:
"I guess that some of the Club Members have been
asked, at one time or another, what is the length and
width of our flying field? Well John Powell agreed
to bring out his measuring wheel and on Sunday, June
6, John interrupted his glider flying and as a helper,
I joined him and the following measurements were obtained......
The western end width of the field measured 178 ft.
The eastern end width of the field measured 158 ft.
The northern length (far side) measured 452 ft.
Due to activity on the southern side a measurement was
not taken.
Give or take a few feet that gives us approximately
7600 sq. ft. of takeoff and landing space........
Think that's enough????"
Well Rom, to answer your question.....no, sometimes it isn't. My stuff has seen the high weeds several times. Last year I had the opportunity to fly my AT-6 off a grass runway 1800 ft long and by golly I think I used half of it coming in for a landing! Hey, do you think the Park would notice if we "added" another 500 feet??
B.O.G. Review
The Board of Governors met on June 15, 1999 at the Club
Flying Field. Meeting was called to order 6:57PM by
Walt Pierzchala, President.
Among the items discussed or voted:
1.) Forty year Club Anniversary coming up. Discussion
over purchasing item such as cups, shirts, field box
decals, etc. for members to buy.
2.) The next Fun-Fly was scheduled for September 25.
3.) A motion was made and carried to purchase a new
lawn tractor to replace our old tractor.
4.) Safety. A discussion concerning safety consumed
much of the meeting time. How can we improve on it?
Expect this to be a topic in future meetings.
5.) Club meeting for July will be at the field and will
feature a former 747 pilot as our speaker. The club
meeting for August, also at the field, will feature
a Park Historian as our speaker.
Meeting adjourned at 8:05 PM.
Respectfully submitted;
Dee Messina, Secretary
Field Marshall's Corner
By Ed Moore
Hooray, the new John Deere tractor has arrived. As Chief Field Marshall I will take the responsibility of lawn care. Walt Pierzchala will handle the maintenance with Mike Estock handling the warranty issues.
Another duty of the Chief Field Marshall is to select
field marshalls to assist him in his duties. These
individuals will in effect comprise our Safety Committee
as well as assisting me in the day-to-day duties of
field management. I have appointed the following club
members to serve as Field Marshalls:
Rom Boutin, Dennis DiBonaventura, Mike Estock, Art Rothstein,
Ed Snead, Charlie Swope and Tris Colket.
Ultimately it is all of our members responsibility to maintain safety at our field. Please give these men your cooperation and assistance to make our club the safest in all R/C.
Feedback or comments to:
Al Campana , HearYe editor
Michael Myers, Webmaster
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