Volume 7 Issue 1 Pages 6 AMA #530 District 11 www.eugenerc.com January 2011 Club Mailing Address: Eugene R/C Aeronauts, PO Box 26344, Eugene, OR. 97402 ERCA News and Information Next CLUB Meeting - February 22, 2011, 7:00 pm at Roaring Rapids Pizza Parlor in Glenwood. If you have a building project, bring it with you for "Show and Tell". At the January Meeting - There were 21 members in attendance. The Treasurer / Secretary, AL Barrington, read the treasury report, membership is at 22. Considerable discussion on the topic of Readmission Fee for members who pay dues after the March 31 deadline. By Laws will be reviewed and a proposal will come before the club membership to institute a fee or re- admission fee for late payers In the future we want to encourage online voting for officers. The ballot was in the November newsletter this year and it will be there again next year. New business and ideas brought forward at the club meeting that are not critical will be held until next meeting which provides officers time to study and research topic. Discussion was held on fund raising, raffles and 50/50 Pot, Club Meeting speakers. Discussion held on raffling a $500 gift certificate. Fun Fly Dates were approved: Big Bird July 16th, Fun Fly August 13th, and labor Day Fly September 5th. Marty brought his BONZO for show and tell. It is nearly ready for its first flight. Good build Marty! Meeting minutes are ONLINE at: http://eugenerc.com/meetings.html 2011 Meeting Dates Meeting dates EWEB came up with that were available and closest to our requested dates: TUES, JAN 4 - EWEB TUES, FEB 22 - Pizza meeting WED, MAR 23 - EWEB WED, APR 20 - EWEB TUES, MAY 17 - EWEB - 3rd Tues TUES, JUN 28 - Field - 4th Tues TUES, JUL 26 - Field - 4th Tues TUES, AUG 23 - Field - 4th Tues WED, SEP 21 - EWEB WED, OCT 26 - EWEB WED, NOV 23 - EWEB DEC - No meeting Presidents Corner I have been trying to make it to the field for months now but find that I don't much like the cold, rain or mud. My hats off to all those truly dedicated flyer out there that have been flying in all this nasty stuff for months, good job and maybe someday I will be tough enough to join you. The January meeting was very early in the month and there was also some confusion as to the date, so as a result the turnout was low. For those of you that didn't make it to the meeting we got a lot of good stuff done. We approved the 2011 budget, which is in great shape. We ended 2010 with over $6,000.00 in the bank and 97 members. There is no field improvements scheduled for this year but we did budget to have the road and pit areas graveled. I have started a new process for conducting the meetings with an AGENDA for what we will be discussing at that meeting. I hope this will help the meeting stay on track and keep down on the back and forth. I would like to start having a gust speaker at the meetings to go over RC topics. I hope to have Eugene Toy & Hobby at the March meeting to talk about Electric Aircraft and all the new information on batteries, chargers, and maintaining you electric systems. If anyone would like to speak at an upcoming meeting or has a topic that they would like to hear about then please let me know, this can be about anything to do with RC, from aircraft to radios and servos to field information and rules. Speaking of rules, for those of you on 2.4 GHz, you are still required to go grab a pin and put your AMA card or your club member card in the slot. If there are no 2.4 GHz pins available then you still need to leave a card. This is an AMA rule that all people flying at the field show and display current AMA membership. Club member cards work because you can only get the card after AMA membership has been verified. I'm sorry if this is an inconvenience but if you forget your AMA or club card, even if you are current, you can't fly that day. This rule is required by the clubs AMA insurance. At the next meeting (PIZZA) we will be having a 50/50 pot. You can buy tickets for $1.00 each and at the end of the meeting the winner will get half of the pot and the club will get the other half. Bring money so you can join in on the fun. If anyone wants to help out with the cost of food than you can buy a pizza as a donation. I will be buying one large pizza for the club. We will be selling raffle tickets for a $500.00 gift certificate to Trump's Hobby in Corvallis. Tickets will be $5.00 each, so start buying them now. We will be voting at the Feb. meeting for when to end the raffle; I hope to make it no later than May so the winner can use the funds for this flying season. If this raffle is over by May then we can do a second raffle this year. Hope to see you all at the field, weather permitting for me, and at the February club meeting. Regards, Brad S. Werneth ERCA President 2011 Treasurers Corner Another reminder: The next meeting will be Tuesday, 7pm, on February 22nd, at Roaring Rapids Pizza Co., 4006 Franklin Boulevard, Eugene, OR 97403 (541) 988-9819. For info, directions and menu go to: http://www.rapidpizza.net. The club will get a discount if we preorder a minimum of five large pizzas. The meeting room has been reserved for us and confirmed. We've launched the 2011 new year with our January 4th meeting when we adjusted and approved the budget. We also conducted and discussed many other items of business as outlined in the minutes.. It promises to be a great year with the usual annual events, along with some additional action planned by the Pylon Racers and the Indoor Electric Fliers. Our membership started back at zero with the beginning of the new year. So far, we have 32 members who are current with both AMA and ERCA. All membership renewals must be completed by March 31st to keep from being dropped off the active club roster. I would like to finalize the roster and send it to AMA headquarters along with our club charter renewal as early as possible. To those who have submitted their renewals, thank you and happy landings. AL Barrington Sec/Treas, ERCA Pylon Racing ERCA Club 40 Pylon - 2011 It was suggested that we have an ALL ELECTRIC pylon race after one of our events!.. Lets go for it. An unlimited electric round -d- round.. any and all electrics. If there is an interest then maybe someone will volunteer to head it up for future. I would like to have the first electric after our first Pylon Race.. So, think about it. It could be a lot of fun and participation as well. ERCA 2011 Race Season: * April 30th Warm up * May 14th Race #1 and electric * June 11th Race #2 * July 9th Race #3 * Aug. 27th Race #4 Final Club 40 Pylon - Contact: Marty Wittman WITH THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS Poor old December. It tried, but didn't make it. You will remember that November achieved 73.3% rainy days to frustrate our flying. Well, December managed only 67.7%. Not that we got in any more flying; I have almost nothing to report. I know I missed two flyable days, one to an appointment with a doctor and the other seeing a dentist. There was another doctor's appointment when the weather was marginal and I may have missed something to report that time. too. To balance that, I did get up to the field three times only to find myself all alone, so I was trying. Then there was the day I started from Northeast Eugene under overcast, but brightish skies, ran into sprinkles on gg, and had the wipers on full by the time I got halfway up Alvadore Rd.. went on into the strip, just to see how everything was and found several hundred seagulls covering the fields to the north and south of us under the baleful gaze of a llama who looked as though he really didn't want them there. None of our area seemed to be flooded and the little watercourse that goes under the road was full, but not overflowing. On the one day I did run across someone at the field, what I found was Roger Winz test- running a new engine in a Skyraider racer. The model he was actually flying that day was an electric ducted-fan F-16, whose performance appeared lively enough to satisfy most. Dwayne Graville had another of the EDF F-I6s, but his was, literally, new-in- the-box. It was interesting to see that the fan and tailpipe come as an integral unit. That should make it easy to take that assembly and build it into something other than a boring old F-16. How about a Supermarine Attacker, which had a tail-wheel landing gear? Or the Dassault Ouragan, trike-geared and simple? Ah me, let's face it; whatever jet you build, it will be boring. Dwayne was flying a teeny helicopter with a tail rotor and it looked more like an indoor ship, though most of those are "Mixmasters" with the contra-rotating rotors - like food blenders - aren't they? The breeze that day was minimal, but Dwayne had a hard time bringing the thing back to the starting point and, indeed, deposited it on the other side of the electric fence. There was some discussion about whether the servo was tilting the rotor enough, but in the end we still weren't sure whether the blame rested on the wind, the model, or Dwayne. Mike Robinson had one of the electric "Mixmasters" on the field and it definitely was not an indoor ship. It looked to be about a "30" size and flew well enough. It did, however, seem very teetery (top-heavy?) on any landing that wasn't on a line perpendicular to the earth's surface. In fact, Mike finally did chip one of the rotor blades. Your columnist is no helicopter man, but couldn't this ship use one of those "training gears" - a big "X" of two dowels with a Whiffleball on each end, strapped to the helicopter's skids to give a much wider footprint on the ground? They are still flying at the Springfield Armory. I'm afraid I can't get excited about Vapors and Embers going around and around in a racetrack pattern. Wayne Wahrmund assures me that he did once fly a figure- eight, but the suggestion of aerobatics is met with horrified gasps. Go have a look; it might appeal to you as much as it does not to me, but check the schedule first. There's going to be a change of day, so call Wayne, Doug McWha, or Chuck Jenkins before you head over there. Part of my reading material these days is an aviation- history magazine I picked up in Berlin in July. Okay, I'm wrestling with it - my German is pretty rusty. One article was on the Akafliegs, the Akademischer Fliegergruppen - the student flying clubs that did so much on the development of WITH THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS continued gliding. The second glider built by the Berlin Akaflieg was designed and flown by an Electrical-Engineering student named Kurt Tank. Not quite twenty years later, he was the head of Focke-Wulf's Design dept. when they built the 190. Not sure what you will get next month; I'm going away for a couple of weeks or so. Could he you'll have a vacation from this column - which I'm not sure that anybody reads anyhow. C. O'D. Vice Presidents Corner I just wanted to say a quick hello to those of you who may not know me. This is the beginning of my fourth year as a member of the club and RC flying. I have totally been bitten by the RC bug and am already having trouble finding a place in the garage to store airplanes. Currently, I am working on Venus II pattern plane with an OS 120 4 stroke with a pump. Santa dropped off a .60 U-Can-Do and I plan to install a Saito 100. Some of you may recognize me by my planes, Toledo Special, orange Graduate or yellow Knockabout. I have really enjoyed my experience in the club and have appreciated the help, advice and encouragement I have received from intro-pilots and experienced members. My flying skills are limited but by serving as the vice president I hope I can give back a little to the club. Look forward to seeing you at the field. Mike Farr Indoor Flying Flying Schedule - Thursdays at 1:00 - at the National Guard Armory Gym. NOTE - Wednesday is NOT a Armory fly day until further notice NOTAM - Check in at the National Guard front desk and get your Guest Security Badge. We have an indoor flying place for SMALL ELECTRIC and NON-MOTORIZED aircraft flying. The National Guard Armory in Springfield, on Pierce Parkway, is available most week days (NOT Tuesday or Wednesday) from 1:00 pm - 10 pm on a first come basis. A 60' x 96' space with aprox 20' ceiling. --- That's All Folks - Eugene R/C Aeronauts Newsletter Editor 1618 Gilham Rd. Eugene, OR. 97401 January 2011 ®FirstLast¯ ®Street¯ ®CityStZip¯ ____________________________ Renewing Current Member ____________________________ INVOICE FOR 2011 MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL - EUGENE R/C AERONAUTS Please fill in the following information and send back with your Dues Remittance Member Name __________________________________________ Name Tag Clip ___ Pin ___ 2011 AMA Membership No. ________________________ I certify that I have paid my 2011 AMA Dues. Initial _________ Member Address ________________________________________________________________ Member Phone No. ____________________________ Cell: ____________________________ Member Email Address ___________________________________________________________ Newsletter Via: Email _____ Regular Mail _____ Do not need to receive newsletter _____ Please enclose your check for $ 60.00 as a current member renewing for 2011 and Mail to: Eugene R/C Aeronauts, PO Box 26344, Eugene, Or. 97402. Or bring this INVOICE and $60.00 to the Meeting Next CLUB Meeting - February 22, 2011 - 7:00 pm at Roaring Rapids Pizza. December 2009 2 January 2011 3