EUGENE RC AERONAUTS Volume 3, Issue 12 www.eugenerc.com December 2007 Club Mailing Address: Eugene R/C Aeronauts, PO Box 50034, Eugene, OR. 97405 No December Meeting DUES TIME 2008 is coming, PLEASE pay your AMA and ERCA dues EARLY! Consider this list for your 2008 RC goals: 1. Pay AMA Dues 2. Pay ERCA Dues 3. Buy NEW Tx and Rx bats. (Give list to Santa) You will get this Newsletter for a couple months, then if you are not a current member it will stop arriving. CLUB AUCTIONS – We will be holding a club auction at some of the meetings. If you have anything to sell or give away bring it to one of these meetings. You can set a minimum sell price, be realistic or you will pack it back home. 10% of the selling price goes to the club. The auctioneer will set the rules. This would be a good time to dispose of those items that have been accumulating dust and help the club treasury. Attention RC Pilots: WINTER FLYING RULES During November, December, January, February Saturday, Sunday & Wednesday NO FLYING before 12:00 Noon. CARL HENSON FIELD – Just as a reminder, we will be holding our club meetings for the month of June, July and August at the field. We encourage everyone to come early and fly. We plan on having BBQ’s at the field meetings and will keep you informed. A couple of items for all members – Please make sure that you once you enter Mike Burgess’s drive to our club that your speed is less than 10 MPH. Simply drive slow enough that you are not seeing dust. Field trash – No trash period – this includes cigarette butts. If you see trash pick it up. Also, every now and then you may find that another member has left the field and forget to pack up a tool, glow plug starter or whatever. If you find anything at the field and you know it’s not yours please put it in the clubhouse FOUND basket. The person that left it and returns to find it will be grateful. FUN FLY’S OR OTHER EVENTS – We have brought this up at several meetings. If you would like to participate, why not take the lead and set one up. Any member can do this and we encourage new members to step forward and become active. NEWSLETTER NEEDS INPUT – As your new newsletter editor, I will be relying on INPUT from the Officers and Members. I work Tuesday nights and can not attend meetings, so I will have to rely on others to be my “eyes and ears” at the meetings and flying field. My approach will be to keep the Printed and Mailed version small enough to only need ONE stamp. The EMAILed version can be as elaborate as we want. I am requesting that members send me photos and a short write-up on any projects they are working on, or new aircraft. If you can’t email it to me, mail me a photo and a note. Also if you have any TIPS or EXPERIANCES you would like to share, I would be glad to pass those along. My thanks to Bill for the great job he did on the newsletter last year! PLEASE IF you have an EMAIL account, PLEASE request your Newsletter via EMAIL. STAMPS and PAPER cost the Club (YOU) money. Jim Corbett – Newsletter Editor WHATS NEW Whats New at: http://www.eugenerc.com/ New "Khoi's Corner" page up and coming! For more info, click here: http://www.eugenerc.com/khoi.php Proposed at Novembers meeting was a new segment named simply, "Khoi's Corner" in effort to spur a higher member turnout at the meetings. Khoi will be bringing his and others' building techniques from his workshop to the meeting that will help the new members, and hopefully bring interest to the ol' timers of the hobby. He will be inviting members in who in which he feels has something to really add to the community of builders here at ERCA. As I know many of you can't always make the meetings, or just want a refresher course of something you saw or learned, I will be providing a full coverage of many of the building tips offered at the meeting. This idea is still in the workshop but I think it will greatly help many of our members. Stay tuned! Kevink@eugenerc.com TIPS & TECHNIQUES Plastic Screw Holding – Works for Flat, Phillips and Allen head screws. Light a candle and dip the tool tip in the melted wax, let it cool a bit then place the waxed tip in the screw. It will stay on the tool until you get it where you want it to go… Retrieving dropped screws – or other items – Place a waded up piece of tape (sticky side out) on the end of a screw driver, ruler or other object and press against the dropped item. You do not need a plastic magnet to retrieve those plastic parts…. Got a TIP to share, PLEASE pass it along… WITH THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS - November 2007 The Gray Pathetic Northleft is, as I type, treating us to a third consecutive day of rain. The fog, too, has been a regular visitor to the field and has hung around into the afternoon. It disperses only when it is sure there’s enough wind to plague us. Despite all that, there have been a number of flyable days which nobody seems to have taken advantage of. I have been to the strip on a Tuesday, a Wednesday, and a Thursday and have had it all to myself. In two cases, the wind was almost nil and it wasn’t too bad on the third day, either. Am I getting there at the wrong time? The Wednesday, at 12:45, had seen the fog depart and more than just a hint of sun to be seen. Having the field to myself gave me the opportunity to throw hand-launched gliders out on the runway where the footing is better, resulting in stronger launches. I converted my He-Man HLG to a configuration optimized for sidearm throws instead of overhand which conversion requires a complete rearrangement of the tail assembly and a new fuselage to accommodate the rearrangement. I was getting the feel for how steeply I could launch and just where the release point should be in relation to the wind when my He-Man met an untimely end. It is quite shocking how badly a model will behave when it has been given a good sidearm toss right after the fin has fallen off at the launch site. The noseweight survived, as did the stabilizer, and, of course, the fin which hadn’t taken part in the crash at all. Add another to the list of Winter projects, because things looked promising. One of the few I have caught at the field is John Byrne. John had a foam (I think) electric Piper Super Cub. A medium-size ship with flexible, plastic wing struts which clip on to the wing but are held with a screw to the fuselage. They are, presumably, functional. And they do work. Somehow, John got the ship into a full-bore vertical dive and recovered by means of a 90 degree pullout at an altitude of about three feet. It all stayed together - and the elevator must be pretty effective, too. John was taking off very nicely from the ‘electric runway”, but I couldn’t talk him into trying a landing on it. One thing concerns me about John’s Cub. The transmitter says it’s on 27.195 mc. That’s okay; the 27 meg channels are still kosher and probably as safe as any channels now that all the inane chatter from the CB radios has apparently been transferred to cellphones. We have no pins for 27 meg.. This ship flies quite well and could become popular. Are they all on 27.199? The transmitter is also marked “channel 9’, but where did that come from? Channel 05 is 50.90mc. in the Ham band. And I think I may have seen another guy taking one out of a car as I was leaving one day. Jim Corbett was not only taking off from the wooden runway; he was landing on it. He had a small, electric, swept-wing bipe called a Wildfly. Not all the landings stayed on the runway, but I did see one that managed to stop before the runway ran out. The battery installation on this bird is not what could be called elegant; the battery is just strapped to the top of the cowl. It is, however, practical. Very easy to get at for charging and even sliding back and forth to make subtle changes in the balance, depending on how wild Jim wants to fly. Having mentioned cellphones as I did above somewhere, I will now impart another piece of cellphone news. You are aware, no doubt, that Doug McWha was the only one on the field classy enough to have a phone that played Mozart when it rang. Well, that phone was a couple of years old and, thus, near-prehistoric by electronic standards, so Doug traded it in for the newest thing. The new one not only does phone conversations, but also lets you send e-mail (which the recipient won’t receive) and lets others send e-mail to you (which you won’t receive). It also takes pictures which will go astray if you transmit them to another person and allows you to plug the phone into your computer (which then tells you it doesn’t know you and will you please go away). I got all this information from overhearing bits and pieces of conversations at the field between Doug and Jim, so I may not have all the details exactly right. It does, though, sound all quite modern. And Doug has stuck with the classics; this new phone plays Rossini. I hope none of you was passionately enamored of Daylight Saving Time, because I moved the clock in the trailer back one hour. That’s what comes of me being all alone at the field, having busted my glider and with nothing else to do. Come January, Jim Corbett will be your new newsletter editor - unless he flees to the Corvallis club and asks for asylum. This column, which is produced on one of Johannes Gutenberg’s original presses, then has to be rolled up and put into the little cylinder attached to the pigeon’s leg. The pigeon then has to get all the way over to Bills house in darkest West Eugene, a trip that involves a trans-Willamette over-water flight. As of January, the poor bird has only to go up a few blocks and turn left. Should simplify things no end. C. O’D. FOR SALE This is a Radio Controlled, Electric Powered, Ready-to-Fly Rascal. Needs: Charger to charge the 8 cell (7.2v) NiCad battery packs Purchase costs exceeded $340 Make an offer. james.corbett@comcast.net 344-5022 Gripes & Grumbles Door key disappearing. Wish people would LEAVE WITH their TRASH. KUDOS DougM - Thanks for the SHORT GREEN! ChuckJ - For the electrical expertise keeping the lawn mowers SPARKING! FrankB - First Class table builder! C O'D - For providing great color in black & white. BillH - Newsletter and getting some young ones interested. PatW - He kept us growing and improving. All the INTRO PILOTS - We need each of you to continue to add members. AND the Members that do not leave trash behind! Photo Gallery Pictures - Click HERE to VIEW 877 KB PDF Please send me a photo and short write-up of any projects they are working on, or new aircraft. If you can’t email it to me, send me a photo and a note. 2007 in Review Pictures - Click HERE to VIEW 3.09 MB PDF 2007 in Review continued January 23, 2007 Discussion on graveling a larger parking area. An auction to be held at the field in June with a meeting / barbecue. Gary and Rex said they would like to put on a Pattern Flyer / Sportsman Primer. The club decided to conduct the event on Saturday, May 12th. February 28, 2007 Big Bird fly-in will be on March 31St weather permitting. Club voted to purchase another load of sand for $200.00. The sand will be spread on the runway. March 27, 2007 Frequency pins needed for 2.4 ghz radio transmitters. “Spread spectrum”. Pat said we need four more intro pilots. Pat nominated Frank Blain and Khoi Tran. We still need two more intro pilots to bring the total number of intro pilots to ten. April 24, 2007 Bill said Dale Williams and Larry Nielson have been added to the intro pilot roster. This reaches the club’s goal of having ten intro pilots. A banner was purchased for $62.50 from Signs Now that says Eugene R/C Aeronauts. A new box has been placed under the radio rack to be used for “lost and found” items at the field. May 22, 2007 Pat suggested that ERCA may have to think about imposing a cap on the number of club members because of lack of room for parking and flying and club resources in general. Pat also mentioned the that the club may want to think about opening up a second field. John Bowhan made a motion to build six more field flight-tables. $350 was approved for the material cost. Bill said that fire season starts June 1st. All smoking will be inside vehicles until the end of fire season. Al Peacock suggested that a sign should be made informing smokers of the smoking rules. June 26, 2007 Pat said that the club seems to think that a membership cap was not a good idea. Doug made a motion to revisit the issue when the club reaches 120 members. Frank made a motion, and club approved, to put two loads of gravel on our part of the road. After much spirited discussion about flying boundaries, the club agreed that the boundaries are: the south edge of the runway to an easterly direction of infinity. The westerly boundaries are as follows: the south edge of the runway, which then makes a southerly L shape to infinity. The heli pad area and toward the direction of the west end of the runway is forbidden for fly over by glow-powered, fixed-wing aircraft. July 24, 2007 John Bowhan reported to the club that he researched the AMA style tables. Material cost for each table is $50.00 Club approved construction of six tables at a cost of $320.00 frank Blain offered the use of his garage workshop for construction of said AMA style tables. September 25, 2007 Five AMA style flight benches were constructed by Frank Blaine/ John Bowhan. Three more are in the works. Doug McWha procured some conveyor belt material which will be laid down in the pits to help control mud problem during rainy season. Some people are smoking outside of their vehicles; Pat reminded the club that all smoking must be inside of vehicles until the end of October. October 23, 2007 Club agreed that club dues must be paid up front in one payment for renewing members. New members can make three separate payments of one-third of the balance due, but must be paid in full by the March ERCA meeting. Nominations of ERCA officers: President: Pat Willis, Khoi Tran Vice President: Scott Fellman, Mel Thompson, Khoi Tran Secretary/Treasurer: Al Barrington Field Marshals: Frank Blain, John Bowhan, Jim Corbett, Bill Hollingsworth, Khoi Tran, Alan Wellentin Newsletter Editor: Jim Corbett November 27, 2007 Election of ERCA officers: President: Pat Willis, Vice President: Mel Thompson Secretary/Treasurer: Al Barrington Field Marshals: Frank Blain, John Bowhan, Jim Corbett, Bill Hollingsworth, Khoi Tran, Alan Wellentin Newsletter Editor: Jim Corbett Support your LOCAL Hobby Shop They support US! Club Contacts: President – Pat Willis – 543-8999 - p-willis@msn.com Vice President - Mel Thompson - 746-5699 - met324@comcast.net Sec/Treasurer – Al Barrington - 935-4960 - albarrington@msn.com Groundskeeper – Doug McWha - 741-3326 – flyd@clipper.net Field Marshal - John Bowhan - jbowhan@epud.net - 607-5752 Frank Blain, Jim Corbett, Bill Hollingsworth, Khoi Tran, Alan Wellentin Newsletter Editor - Jim Corbett - 344-5022 - james.corbett@comcast.net Looking to 2008 Some thoughts from those you elected for 2008 President: Pat Willis – 2007 was a fantastic year for the ERCA. 2008 promises to be an even better year for our club. Our treasury is becoming more stable as our membership grows and our field is now nicely established and the runway's surface is similar to that of a golf course, (thanks Doug!!). Vice President: Mel Thompson – ERCA is OUR club and is what WE make it! Get involved and ensure its health! Secretary/Treasurer: Al Barrington – I'm looking forward to another great year of "bean counting" for the club. Field Marshals: Frank Blain - John Bowhan - Jim Corbett - SAFTEY is my foremost concern, inconsiderate actions are next on my list. Bill Hollingsworth - Looking forward to a safe and fun flying season! Khoi Tran - Alan Wellentin – I would offer some stick time on a heli to anyone that is interested. I usually have a transmitter with me to do some buddy boxing. Newsletter Editor: Jim Corbett I would like to ask the club members to contribute items for the newsletter. Photos, Tips, Gripes, Kudos, Bargins ect… Also upcoming events of other clubs or anything that might be of interest to one of our members. Is there and CARTOONIST in the group? We could use some tasteful humor in these pages. If you have a RC related item you would like to sell, let me know. Officers Corners President's Corner Thoughts from the Pres: 2007 was a fantastic year for the ERCA. The legacy left by the departing officers, (who toughed it out during the loss of the prior two fields) made my job much easier than it would have otherwise been. I certainly take no credit for the booming success. It belongs to the usual 10 or so folks that were/are doing about 95% of the work to keep our flying site the top-notch facility it is. Please, tell these folks "THANK YOU" the next time you see them. More importantly, however, is consider what you can do for the club besides just paying your dues. Just showing up to the meetings on a regular basis is a HUGE step in the right direction. Our meetings started out strong at the beginning of the year and ended up weak at the end. This decline is something that I will take credit/blame for. The manner in which the meetings are conducted is my responsibility. Please let me know how I can make them better!! 2008 promises to be an even better year for our club. Our treasury is becoming more stable as our membership grows and our field is now nicely established and the runway's surface is similar to that of a golf course, (thanks Doug!!). Technology is also continually getting better as well. In case you missed the last newsletter, I talked a little about making the switch to 2.4 GHz. I elected to upgrade my Futaba 9CAPS by installing an XPS module. The receiver has one small "nub" antenna coming out of it, and that's it. It's very small and yet it is full-range. I've tested it in my helicopter, (Align T-Rex 600 Nitro) and my 29% Giles G202 and I have had no glitches, hits, fail-safes, etc. Basically, it has worked great for me. Please feel free to inquire further if you're thinking about making the switch. The club has adopted a "No AMA card, no flying" rule. If someone does not have an AMA card with them, they simply don't fly. This applies to guests and other non-members with no exceptions. It applies to club members; however, if someone is on the most recent roster as having been verified as being covered by the AMA, we can make an exception. The members who have been at the meetings have adopted sanctions for those folks that do not obey the rules regarding AMA coverage. Please don't fly or let anyone else fly without AMA coverage. It is against the club's rules and we are all responsible for enforcing it. If someone does not have a card and is not on the roster as a verified AMA member, they don't fly, period. I welcome your feedback folks. Let me know if you have ideas, comments, etc. I'm going to close with a big THANK YOU to all of you for allowing me the opportunity to serve you last year and another big THANK YOU for the privilege to serve you again in 2008. Patrick Willis ERCA President Vice President's Corner Welcome to ERCA 2008. I'm honored to be selected as your new Vice President. I've been a member of ERCA for only two years now. I started in the hobby in the early 1990's building planes but never following through on the flying end of it. President Pat heard I had aircraft languishing in my attic and drug me and my planes out to the field. I'm sure it took a couple years off his life but he got me up and flying on my own. I'm very glad he did as I have met many great people here. I am always impressed with our member's willingness to stop and help, even at the expense of their own flying time. I thank you all. So now it's time for me to pay some back. As a new member of the leadership team you have elected, I look forward to supporting the direction you choose for the club. Happy New Year. Mel Secretary/Treasurer's Corner It looks like we'll be ending 2007 with 104 good members whom we hope will all renew both AMA and ERCA. Our bank account is still in the black with a current balance of $3,412.04. That will be great to start the new year with. 2007 was a great year. We met or exceeded many goals for the year on time and on budget. Thanks to our dedicated membership, we succeeded in making many improvements to the flying field, increased our membership and took part in many community events. The club officers will be meeting soon to discuss our 2008 budget. Please be thinking about ideas for 2008 projects and fundraisers. Season's Greetings and Happy Holidays. Gripes & Grumbles Door key disappearing. Wish people would LEAVE WITH their TRASH. KUDOS DougM - Thanks for the SHORT GREEN! ChuckJ - For the electrical expertise keeping the lawn mowers SPARKING! FrankB - First Class table builder! C O'D - For providing great color in black & white. BillH - Newsletter and getting some young ones interested. All the INTRO PILOTS - We need each of you to continue to add members. PatW - He does something, not quite sure what ... : - ) AND the Members that do not leave trash behind! --- Thats All Folks --- Eugene R/C Aeronauts PO Box 50034 Eugene, OR. 97405 DEC 2007 Name Address City, ST ZIP ___________________________Renewing Current Member_____________________________ INVOICE FOR 2008 MEMBERSHIP - EUGENE RC AERONAUTS Please ?ll out the following information and send back with your 2008 Dues Remittance Member Name ___________________________________________________________ 2008 AMA Membership No.________________________ I certify that I have paid my current 2008 AMA Dues. Initial _________ Member Address _______________________________________________________________ Member Phone No. __________________________ Member Email Address __________________________________________________________ Newsletter Preference: ____ Email ____ Regular Mail ____ Do not need to receive newsletter Please enclose your check for $ 60.00 as a renewing current member for 2008 and Mail to: Eugene RC Aeronauts, PO Box 50034, Eugene, Or. 97405. Or bring this INVOICE and $60.00 to the January Meeting. ERCA Home Page Newsletter Page