Volume 5 Issue 1 Pages 4 AMA #530 District 11 www.eugenerc.com January 2009 Club Mailing Address: Eugene R/C Aeronauts, PO Box 26344, Eugene, OR. 97402 DUES TIME 2009 is HERE, PLEASE pay your AMA and ERCA dues ASAP! ERCA News and Information Next CLUB Meeting – January 27, 7:00 pm at EWEB. If you have a building project, bring it with you for "Show and Tell". At the November Meeting – There were 21 members and guests at the meeting. Al Barrington reported we have 105 members at the end of 2008. A friendly and timely reminder from our Treasurer Al, "It’s dues renewal time!" The February club meeting will be held at Papa’s Pizza on Coburg Road. Please plan to have your membership dues (ERCA & AMA) current before or at this meeting. Winter Flying Hours - During November, December, January, February - Saturday, Sunday & Wednesday flying start time is 12:00 Noon. DO NOT ARRIVE BEFORE NOON Presidents Corner In the coming year to keep the monthly discussion about budget/accounting short and sweet, to allow more time to talk about the cool aspects of our hobby. I'd like to take this opportunity to offer a few words of appreciation for Patrick Willis. He has done a fantastic job as club president for the last 2 years. We struggled financially 2 years ago with start up costs for the new field. I remember being "hit on" by Frank every few months for cash calls to help put the field together. I believe we had only 65 members at the time. Pat promised to bring the membership to 100 by the end of the year. Goal was for the club to gain strength by number, and to have a fresh infusion of capital to recoup the field startup costs. He has succeeded handsomely. We now have a solid membership and a decent cash reserve for unexpected expenses. Thank you Pat. In the coming year, the goals I've set are to protect the cash reserve and improve club services. As everyone knows, cash is king in a sputtering economy. It is important that the club protects its reserves to allow it to maintain its functions. It will be tricky to balance this with ability to maintain quality club services/activities. But I have some ideas that I will present at January meeting with the budget proposal for membership approval. Khoi Tran ERCA President 2009 WITH THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS January 2009 Your columnist is sitting here listening to NOAA Weather Radio, the Weather Bureau’s own radio station, telling him that we had only 58% of the rain we normally have in December, a statement that makes him raise an eyebrow. We did, they say, have “measurable precipitation” on 22 of the 31 days in that month, which sounds more like it. They are also telling me that we are on the same track in January. So why haven’t I seen at least some weekday flying to write about? I suppose I could have missed a decent day, if, indeed, there has been one, but I’ll bet it has been only one. In the latest issue of Flying Models, there is a good quote from Ben Shereshaw. Ben was a very prominent freeflighter and designer in the 30s and 40s. He also was the designer and producer of the Bantam .19 engine that lasted into the early 50s. On one of my trips hack home, I saw him on the local R/C field with the drawings he’d made for a 40-size Pattern ship. This was definitely not a throw-together model - “labor-intensive” would cover it - but, boy, was it pretty! Ben was about 91 at the time and I’ve not heard of his death, so I guess he’s still around at about 95. But, to get back to the quotet Charlie Reich interviewed him some years back for AMA’s biography project and Ben told him that R/C had come about because of automobile running boards. Freeflighters used to stand on the running-board and shout directions to the driver as they chased their models. In the late 30s, auto manufacturers started to put the running boards inside the cars, depriving the modeler of that vital perch, so there just had to be R/C to get the models hack. By the way, did you notice last month that I’m still at odds with your Editor’s editing program? It turned “nav. lights” into “nay lights” and “R/C” into “P/C” in two places and into “R/O’ in another. Someday, I’m going to put in a piece about French aeroplanes and I’ll salt it with circumflex, cedile, and accents both grave and aigu. I can do that because they are all on my typewriter. We’ll just see what happens then! You knew that this was going to happen as soon as I had time on my hands and nothing else to write about: I’m going to gripe about WWI ships which have been modeled too much, but there’s a problem. Not with the griping - I have no problem doing that - but I always like to suggest an alternative which has not been done to death and therein lies the problem. I never want to see another Fokker Dr.I. The alternative, if you must have a triplane, is the Sopwith Tripe, the one that started it all. Much prettier and better proportioned, but the wings are so thin that you’d need to have functional brace wires to keep it together. The SPAD VII OR XIII would be a fine replacement for the plethora of Fokker D.VIIs. Alas, its wing is even thinner that most of the others - look at the pictures of Balsa USA’s model and see how appallingly thick the wings are. The kit makers had no other choice unless it was to make the bracing functional. That would really cut into sales. The same company is bringing out a 1/5-scale kit of their Nieuport 17 and I’m thinking of it as an electric model. Yes, the N.17 has been modeled far too much, but there is a simple solution. Put formers and stringers on the sides and call it a l7bis. You can even call it a 23bis; they were the same except for the engine and the fact that the gun was shifted a bit to the right. Oh yes, and will somebody tell Balsa USA that the parasol Morane they’re kitting is an AI, not an Al - that’s “ay- eye” rather than “ay-one? In fact, that is the company designation; l’Aviation Militaire called it MoS 27C.1 if it had one gun and 29C.1 if it had two. Too many Pups and S.E. 5as. If you are not wedded to “Warbird”, build a Dove which was a Pup with two cockpits and swept wings to keep the CG in WITH THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS continued the right place. And Major Jack Savage invented skywriting with a half-dozen S.E. 5s which had exhaust pipes joining behind the tail and the rudder split into top and bottom sections to accommodate them. If you must build a Fokker D.VII, make it Dutch. They interned a number of them that landed on their territory during the war. The Fokkers were repainted dark green and marked with a big orange dusk like Japan’s Hinomaru. but good Dutch orange instead of red. You can put Belgian or Italian markings on your Nieuports and, indeed, Russian. Mind you though, Nieuports built under license by the Dux company in Moscow sported no less than 14 roundels. This column is being typed a good week early, because the production staff (me) is off for a couple of weeks, seeking sunshine and old aeroplanes. You will remember that was tried last year and I got thoroughly rained on in Sydney and Brisbane while you were enjoying the third-driest February on record in Oregon. This year it’s Tucson and Mesa and if you have beautiful weather while I’m gone, I don’t want to hear about it. But, if you do get flyable days in the two weeks before the next meeting, that’s why it isn’t mentioned in this month’s column. C.O'D. KUDOS Doug McWha - Thanks for your effort as our " Groundskeeper". We all appreciate it! Flight Trainers – I have over heard several comments that indicate you folks are doing a great service for the Club. Pat Willis – The Club thanks you for your service as our President. You will find that past presidents get treated better than current presidents. ERCA CLUB CONTACTS President: Khoi Tran - 685-0086 - kmtranmd@hotmail.com Vice President: Mel Thompson - 746-5699 - met324@comcast.net Sec/Treasurer: Al Barrington - 935-4960 - albarrington@msn.com Groundskeeper: Doug McWha - 741-3326 - flyduke@comcast.net Field Marshals: Marry Wittman - 968-2094 - wittmanm@msn.com Newsletter Editor: Jim Corbett - 344-5022 - james.corbett@comcast.net Next CLUB Meeting – January 27, 7:00 pm at EWEB. --- That's All Folks --- Eugene R/C Aeronauts Newsletter Editor 1618 Gilham Rd. Eugene, OR. 97401 JANUARY 2009 Name Address City, ST Zip ___________________________Renewing Current Member____________________________ INVOICE FOR 2009 MEMBERSHIP - EUGENE R/C AERONAUTS Please fill in the following information and send back with your Dues Remittance Member Name __________________________________________________________________ 2009 AMA Membership No.________________________ I certify that I have paid my 2009 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 current member renewing for 2009 and Mail to: Eugene R/C Aeronauts, PO Box 26344, Eugene, Or. 97402. Or bring this INVOICE and $60.00 to the Meeting, January 27, 7:00 pm at EWEB. Newsletter ONLINE at: http://eugenerc.com/NL/CURRENTNEWSLETTER.pdf January 2009