Hear Ye!

The official newsletter of the :
Valley Forge Signal Seekers
Radio Controlled Model Airplane Club
March, 1999
No. 382

In This Issue

Club Banquet
Club Calendar
Gel Cel Batteries
Pilot Profile
Best Crash

Club Banquet

Tuesday night, February 9, our Club held their Annual Awards Banquet at Camelot. Eighty Club members and their guests enjoyed an evening of good food, small talk, lots of laughs, a great TV film of club field activity and finally, several awards.
President Bob Sudermann was unable to attend, having been sent to Puerto Rico on business, so Joe Yalove, Vice President, greeted everyone and turned the proceedings over to the MC, Joe Weizer.
After enjoying a really great dinner, Ron Stroble treated the group to a 13 minute video, most of which he took at the Fall Fun-Fly. Ron filmed several models taking off and in flight and also "interviewed" several club members about the hobby. The video was shown on a huge projection screen and the music that accompanied the video was very timely and added to the overall effect. Ron brought along several copies of the video which he sold at his cost of $5.00. They were all snapped up in a minute, but Ron said members could order more copies. It was a super job Ron, and judging by the applause it was enjoyed by everyone. Thanks!
Joe Weizer then took over and, after loosening up the audience with a couple of jokes, began handing out the Awards.
The Technical Achievement Award was awarded to Mike Estock for his scale rendition of the Cessna 182, faithfully duplicating a full-scale Cessna based at a local airport.
Next came the "Good Guy Awards". These trophies are awarded to those members who volunteer their time to help other club members and also help run and organize various club functions. "Special Awards" are given to those flyers who have "distinguished" themselves in some unfortunate or unlucky manner.
Good Guy Awards went to:
Walt Pierzchala for his PR work among visitors at the field and contacting the media for coverage.
Jim Campana for providing flying instruction and involvement in the Annual Auction.
Tony Szczur for providing the refreshments at our meetings and fun-flys.
Special Awards were given to:
Charlie Swope for having been involved in eight mid- airs and one runway collision over the years.
Tom O'Brien for destroying four trainer aircraft while learning to fly.
Nate Marks for "planting" his airplane, nose-first, on the hood of a Honda.
The final award of the evening was the prestigious Doug Davidson Award. This Award was won by Joe Pasquini for his tireless efforts as an instructor and for his work with a small group of club members involved in demonstrating model airplanes to school children.
Congratulations gentlemen and thank you for adding another dimension to this great hobby!

Club Calendar

Tuesday, March 9 - Monthly meeting at the Church. 8:00 PM.
Our speaker will be Donald "Bud" Klopp. Also bring your latest creation for "Show and Tell".

Saturday, March 13 - Central Penn Aeromodelers Association
presents their 19th Annual Radio Control Flea Mkt.
Lebanon Fairgrounds, Lebanon, Pa. from 9 AM to 3 PM
Admission - $5.00
Further info call: Dick Sickmon,
(717) 243-0608.

Saturday, March 27 - Tri - County Wingsnappers presents 1999 Swap Meet
Hamburg Field House, Hamburg, Pa.
From 9 AM -?
Admission - $4.00. For more information call: Walt Gladney, (610) 6836128.

In Remembrance

John F. "Jack" Butler, 75, died January, 1999.
Jack was a long time member of the Club who
used to fly a large biplane called "Big John".
He was a tall, gregarious gentleman who enjoyed
helping others. He will be missed.

New EAA Chapter
By Al Campana

Several weeks ago I received a letter from Bob Cenci, former President of Pottstown Aircraft Owners and Pilots, Inc. This is the organization where our club has displayed scale aircraft at their Breakfast Fly-In. Bob has been instrumental in establishing a new EAA Chapter and his letter included an incident that I thought our members would find amusing.
"Speaking of Fowler flaps and strong wind...on checking an old log, 7 Dec 73, entry includes......in parentheses (bk.flt). Or backward flight. This was done several times that day. The airplane with the "barn door" (then 45 deg. Fowler flaps) was good ole Cessna 150 #5350Q, 100 HP engine.
With me was CFII Don P. out of Pottstown-Limerick Airport. One known ground witness was a farmer on a tractor who apparently got off the tractor to watch the backward flying airplane above.
To further accommodate him, I advanced the throttle, moved forward right above him, slowly reduced power, and flew backward again. I'd love to know what he was thinking. I was happy with the thought I had done something in an airplane that I never saw a bird do!"

Care of Sealed Lead Acid Starter Battery (Gel Cell)
 By "Red" Scholefield

Charging - Lead acid (gel cells) should be charged with a constant potential charger specifically designed for these batteries. These are sometimes referred to as a CVC charger. You can charge them with a constant current charger but you must terminate the charge when the voltage reaches 14.7 volts. You should not exceed the C/10 charge rate. If you have a 7 AH battery in your field box the maximum constant current charge rate should not exceed 700 ma. It will take about 14 hours to charge from a fully discharged state (voltage less than 12 volts).
A CVC (Constant Voltage Charger) is exactly what the name implies. It is clamped at a certain voltage and puts out all the current it can until the battery reaches the clamp voltage, usually something around 14.5 volts, then the current drops off to maintain it at this voltage. A constant voltage charger is characterized as one having a current capability of supplying a fixed voltage to whatever load is applied. A constant current charge on the other hand will provide whatever voltage is necessary to force a fixed value of current through a load. Constant current chargers have a much higher internal resistance than the load so that any variation on the load will not change the current being supplied. Constant voltage chargers have a very low resistance as compared to the load and will supply whatever current necessary to maintain a given voltage at the load.
Many inexpensive chargers used for sealed lead acid batteries are what are called "taper chargers", and these are set up so the voltage tapers off as the full charge voltage is reached. True constant potential (CVC) chargers can be quite expensive so a compromise is made in the design to control costs.
We have used term "sealed lead battery" in this discussion. These batteries are not truly sealed as cylindrical Ni-Cds are. They have a gelled electrolyte system where there is a modest recombination of the oxygen in overcharge in some designs. All require venting of the oxygen and hydrogen byproducts of charging and discharging. This is why you should never totally seal these in a field box where these gasses can accumulate. Mixtures of oxygen and hydrogen can cause spectacular "events" if a spark is provided, as in an electric fuel pump motor.
Unlike Ni-Cds you can read the remaining capacity with a voltmeter. After the battery has been on rest for a few hours read the voltage (no load). 12.0 volts is essentially discharged while 13.0 is fully charged. This is a fairly linear relationship so a reading of 12.4 volts means you have 40% of the capacity remaining.
The lead acid battery should never be left in a discharged condition or sulphation will result. The sulfuric acid in the electrolyte reacts with the sponge lead active material and forms lead sulphate, a poor conductor. This coupled with the H2O left after you take all the S out of H2SO4 is also a poor conductor so trying to charge requires a lot of voltage to push the current through to convert the active material back to the charged state. Sometimes they just cannot be brought back from the sulphated state.
The good news is that sealed lead acid batteries retain their charge much longer than Ni-Cds. At room temperature it's well over a year. So all you have to do is make an occasional open circuit voltage check to see if you need to charge it.

Pilot Profile


Charlie Swope

Our subject this month is one of the Club's senior members, and Charlie's very low AMA number (5608) will give you a clue as to how long he has been involved building and flying model airplanes.
In 1939 Charlie was introduced to model airplanes by none other than his mother when she built him a Howard DGA-9 model from a Comet kit. Charlie remembers she did a beautiful job but as soon as it was finished it was destroyed by the family cat!
Charlie built several rubber powered models and gliders and later began to get interested in gas models. In 1946 his mother bought him a Vivell 35 engine that she obtained from another modeler whose name was Joe Lang. Charlie never forgot the name and about 8 years ago he struck up a conversation with a fellow club member. After reminiscing about building models as teenagers, Charlie realized he was talking to the same Joe Lang that sold the engine to his mother many years before.
In 1948, while a resident of Brewerytown (Phila.), Charlie was flying control-line airplanes with several friends every Saturday. Again, as luck would have it, he ran across one of his old flying buddies who is also a member of our club and his name is Ed Snead. Small world Charlie!
In 1951 he joined the Army and was sent to Germany but he still found time to build and fly model airplanes. After his discharge Charlie continued flying control-line and competed in several contests. In one contest held in Union, N.J., he was competing in CL scale with the famous Leon Shulman. (Charlie said Leon won.) And at another contest he met and became friendly with Hank Hankinson, founder of Sonictronics.
By this time radio control was being tried by modelers and he became interested. Several flyers got together and formed a club called the "Rudder Clowns" and their first president was Hank. Charlie's first R/C model was a scratch built model called the Southwind 10. It was single channel, rudder only, operated by an escapement. He also built the DeBolt Champion and Rebel airplanes.

Charlie joined the Signal Seekers in 1968 and has been a member of the AMA since 1950. He states that Dan McLain, a past president of our Club, taught him how to fly. A Sky Squire Jr., scratch built from plans in the old American Modeler magazine, was Charlie's first proportional control model and it used a Micro Avionics radio. He also had a 10 channel reed system that he used in a 9 foot sailplane.
Charlie likes to fly Old Timers such as his Buccaneer, Missarpien, and Trenton Terror and also enjoys flying sailplanes.
He has served several times on the Board of Governors and is currently serving a term on the BOG. He also serves as a flight instructor and as Field Marshall.

Reminder

Tuesday night's meeting on March 9th will be the last day you can pay your 1999 dues without a $10.00 penalty. Applications were included in the January issue of the Hear Ye Newsletter and we will have copies at the meeting. Dues are now $35 for the year.

Change of Address - Please notify the Membership Chairman Rudy Forst of any change in your address or area code so your information is current. Rudy's phone number is (215) 855-1400.

Best Crash
From the Net (rec.models.rc.air)

Several years ago our club was doing some work on the road to our field and they had a bulldozer parked out in a field on the other side of the parking lot. My dad and I were all alone at the field one evening racing Sig Kougars. As we made a low, high speed pass over the runway, I took my eye off my plane for just a second to see where he was and at the same time I pulled back slightly to gain some altitude. I didn't realize I also gave it a little aileron and it rolled over the parking lot and hit full speed into the blade of the bulldozer.
The foam wing and balsa fuselage were reduced to dust and splinters, the receiver and servos were totally destroyed and we found 23 pieces of the Enya .40. The crankshaft was found 25 yards away and we never did find the carb.
Other than a little paint transfer, the bulldozer blade was unharmed.
NOW THAT'S A CRASH

Memorable Quotes
From the Net

"there's a backing on the covering?"

"the instructions never said to round off the leading edge"

"heck, this should be easy, I flew P-51's in WWII"
(same as) "I fly real airplanes, I don't need help with a little model."

"oh s***, I don't have it!"

"hey y'all, watch this!"

"I'm leavin' soon so I'll get one more flight in."

"it's almost impossible to midair."

"insurance? I need insurance to fly here?

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

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