Volume 6 Issue 7 Pages 8 AMA #530 District 11 www.eugenerc.com July 2010 Club Mailing Address: Eugene R/C Aeronauts, PO Box 26344, Eugene, OR. 97402 ERCA News and Information Next CLUB Meeting ? July 27, 2010, 7:00 pm at THE FIELD. If you have a building project, bring it with you for "Show and Tell". Show up early and get some flying in before the meeting. At the June Meeting ? There were 21 members and guests in attendance. Field improvements were discussed and the pit cover were discussed. Mike Burgess gave us an update on the field situation. It appears that Mike will make a decision by the summer of next year. What happens then is still unclear, depending a lot on the agreement between Mike and the Feds. Big Bird Fly-In ? July 10 - The Big Bird Fly-In event was a success. We had 18 registered pilots and lots of guests. Thank you Al for feeding the masses. Doug and the maintenance team did a great job of getting the runway to look like a golf course fairway. Check the web site for pictures from the event. Flying field - The runway repair has new grass growing very well. The rollup pit cover is working, expect some more modifications in the future. Pylon Racing ? Our first race was held July 17th. The weather cooperated, a bit windy though. Turnout was good, lots of flying. Marc's HighTech scoring system worked very well. CD Marty selected cut judges and starters that also made the event run smoothly. The Bend club was well represented, I believe we had a flyer from the Portland area as well. And there was the fella from that state on the other side of the river, we need to try and convince him to relocate to our area. Two of our members raced in Bend on June 26th, see pylon section. Upcoming ERCA events - Fun Fly Aug 14th, Labor Day Fun Fly Sep 6th. Meeting minutes are ONLINE at: http://eugenerc.com/meetings.html 2010 Meeting Dates At the flying field: July 27th, 7:00 pm. August 24th, 7:00 pm. (No December meeting) EWEB downtown Eugene: September 28th 7:00 pm. October 26th 7:00 pm. November 23rd 7:00 pm Presidents Corner The Big Bird Fly-In event last weekend was a success. We had 18 registered pilots and lots of guests. Thank you Al for feeding the masses. Doug and the maintenance team did a great job of getting the runway to look like a golf course fairway. Please check the club web site for pics from the event in case you missed it. Remember to check your calender for the Club Fun Fly coming up in August. At the June meeting, Mike Burgess gave us an update on the field situation. It appears that Mike will make a decision by the summer of next year. What happens then is still unclear, depending a lot on the agreement between Mike and the Feds. But most of us are skeptical that we will last much longer if the Feds do settle into the 70 acres. The club officers have initiated a search for the replacement vs secondary field for the near future. We will have an interesting proposal to present at the next club meeting. See you then. Khoi Tran Treasurers Corner Our membership is at 89 now with the addition of two that joined us at the June meeting.ÿ Welcome and happy landings to Don Hansen and Don & Jayne Krenz. Thanks to the generous members at the June meeting for the $16 in donations. That will help offset the average $60 monthly cost of the food and supplies and allows us to continue having the pre-meeting BBQs during the summer. The last check of the bank balance shows $5816.17. The Big Bird Fly-in on July 10th went well.ÿ The weather was great.ÿ Even the late breeze was welcome and didn't seem to bother those larger planes.ÿ We had a nice turn-out with 18 pilots registered and their family/crew.ÿ We also had some people just stop by to observe.ÿ The financial impact on the club for this event was zero.ÿ We virtually broke even between income and expenses. It was my honor to serve you from the BBQ once again.ÿ We seemed to have plenty of burgers, hotdogs and drinks to go around.ÿ Special thanks to those who brought side dishes to round out the meal.ÿ My personal thanks to Don Krenz's wife, Jayne for the help cooking.ÿ The relief from the hot grill was very nice. The club executives met on July 16th at Walker field, south of Creswell to see if it might be suitable for us as a second field.ÿ Our first impressions were that it is a rough grass strip that will need some work.ÿ The width is similar but it is much longer than the Alvadore field.ÿ The distant trees should not be a factor.ÿ It has plenty of space for us to share it with the currently occupying club.ÿ We are currently in talks with the land owner before we move to the negotiation phase.ÿ We'll keep everyone posted.ÿ We hope to have a proposal ready for one of the next meetings for the membership to vote on before we proceed. I'm looking forward to the next meeting on July 27th, at 7pm, at the field.ÿ Come early to get in some flying before the meeting.ÿ I'll be flying the grill.ÿ The club will provide the burgers, dogs and drinks again.ÿ If you can, please bring a potluck side dish or an offering for the food kitty. Happy landings. AL Barrington WITH THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS Ken Springate has had a flock of models out at the field in the past couple of weeks. The pumped O.S .90 in his U-Can-Do gave some trouble. The pump itself, in fact; it didn?t seem to be pumping. Then there was the somewhat beat-up Extra 300. This one is ex-Pat Willis and seems to have a wing longer than normal for Extras. Even more heat-up is his Super Chipmunk which has very wrinkly covering on the left side of the fuselage, a protruding repair doubler on the right, covering lifting off the right aileron, and a lot of covering peeling off the whole left stabilizer. It seems to be on track to give Doug McWha?s EasySport some competition for the Disgrace Trophy. Ken?s also flying a Razzle. This is a framed-up 40-size ship with translucent covering. Another Razzle is in the hands of Gary Moorhead who has taken another guy?s glow-powered ship and converted it to take a 46-size electric motor. Dwayne Graville, besides his Skyraider Pylon - er -low-wing trainer ship, has still been putting time on his electric Slow Stik. The red wings and fuselage stick are now set off by an olive drab set of tail surfaces, which I think are ex-Chuck Jenkins. Dwayne tried a different prop the other day (he?d broken the first one) and really put the Stik through some gyrations. Too much for the motor on that prop and he landed with a thin plume of smoke issuing from the front end. In fact, the motor had gotten so hot that the mounting screws melted through the plastic motor mount and there sat the Slow Stik on the runway with the motor pointing straight down. A lot more down thrust than you?d ever want. Further in the D.G. Saga: He?s acquired Frank Plain?s old Chipmunk. This is the one in the standard T.10 configuration with RAF Training Command colors (or should that he colours?). Marty Whitman made the first flight and said he needed to put in a lot of trim of all sorts, but now it is set for Dwayne. The Rumor Mill turns out to have produced a nugget of truth. Your Editor, Mr. Corbett. does, indeed, have a Pylon job. Contrary fellow that he is, his is the other legal design, an LA Racer. All the rest of the Pylon guys will be spending sleepless nights, tossing, turning, and wondering, ?Does he know something I don?t??. Speaking of Pylon, the meeting at the field on a Tuesday gave some of the weekend fliers a chance to pretend that they were among the elite - the Weekday guys. A demonstration Pylon race was staged during which Craig Canaday and Marty Whitman treated us to the quintessential Pylon Happening - they mid-aired. Besides supplying tail sections for Graville Slow Stiks, Chuck Jenkins has been helping Mickey Cohen trim out his Skyraider and he has also picked up a new student. Don?t know his name, because no card was posted, but he is flying a Chick Foster-built Sig Kadet Sr.. This one has lowered dihedral and barndoor ailerons. If you find yourself in need of an aeroplane, especially a trainer, check with Chick who usually has something lying around. If you are reading this from a piece of paper, lean back in your chair and be sure you are secure. If you are hunched over, squinting at a computer screen, make sure your nose doesn?t get caught between the keys when you collapse. The shocking news is that your columnist has not only been flying R/C, but R/C Power, not Sailplane, and 60-power at that! There have been some (sloppy) loops, some (a bit sloppier) Immelmanns, a couple of rolls that weren?t too bad, and a somewhat off-color Reverse Cuban Eight. Okay, okay, it was an abysmally wretched maneuver, but recognizable as a Reverse Cuban Eight - if you were concentrating -and willing to make allowances. That?s it. A slightly anemic column this month, because it?s being typed a couple of weeks early. I?m off to the far shores of the Atlantic where I will see three air shows on _three successive weekends. If all goes as it should, not a single jet will sully the sky at any of them. Of course, I?ll bring back pictures. C ?OD Pylon Racing June 26 - Racing in Bend - BAM: Racing Update / Club 40 Racing Eight pilots competed in this contest. Wayne Wahrmund, who also attended the first race, and Marty Wittman from the Eugene club came. Ron Grigsby, from the La Pine club, was also able to join us again. Regards, Waldemar Frank, VP Bend Aero Modelers July 17 ? ERCA Club 40 Pylon Racing Our first club-40 pylon Race was a success !!! What a great time we had. The weather cooperated and the sun was out!! If you missed it you missed some exciting racing! Thanks to all that participated in the event and a special thanks to the volunteers that helpedÿ as starter and cut judges. Had to talk some into it but we couldn't have done it without you. Thanks again! The six from our club were Marty Wittman , Wayne Wahrmund, Craig Canaday, Jim Corbertt, Mark Winz, andÿ Alan Wellentin. We also had fliers from The Bend club (BAM) Waldemar Frank, Tony Bassÿ and one from up in McMinnvilleÿ Aircraft Modelers. Eric Suing. See our web page ?Pylon Racing Reports? for the full report and the pictures. Marty Communications from afar July 5, 2010 Projects April 29 - Here are a couple pics of the plane I am building, SIG Citabra. all framed up. I am putting a 61 Magnum in it. - Chick Foster photos June 27 - WELL SHES ALMOST READY TO HAVE HER MAIDEN FLITE JUST A FEW THINGS LEFT TO DO. ? CHICK Tech Talk From Patrick Willis. I have three recent products that deserve some attention: First - my Desert Aircraft DA-85 is an 85cc gas engine that I bought used from a guy on RCUniverse.com. I was worried that it may never arrive, and I was ecstatic that it finally did arrive and appeared to be in the condition that was promised. Unfortunately, I could not get it to run consistently. We tried flushing out the carb and putting it back together, but that did not help. I decided I did not want to mess with it any further and I sent it off to Desert Aircraft for service. I was notified a little over a week later that they had replaced the cylinder, rings, and piston with updated parts and the engine was now ready to be shipped back. My quick calculations had me thinking I might owe them $250 at least, maybe more! While I prayed for $250 to be the bill the nice guy on the line told me that it was going to be free and to expect it in a couple days. When it arrived, I put it in my trusty 40% Giles G202 and attempted to start it. It only took a few flips while choked before it showed signs of life and a couple more produced a running engine. Is it really that easy? Apparently, yes! Just wanted to share a good experience I had with an American company, Desert Aircraft. By the way, the "new" engine runs excellent and weighs less than my 3w85xi, which has found a new home on my old 95" Extra 260. Second - Hobby King / Hobby City / (insert next company name here) has been flooding the market with cheap products that are often times a really good price on a really good product. I bought an electric motor recently that really impressed me, (it was a 750W, I believe, but not certain on that) and their lipo batteries seem to work great. However, what I bought was the four-chargers-in-one unit that they sell for $99. I have been very impressed with how it operates. You can charge just about every type of battery we use (NiMh, NiCd, LiPo, LiIon, Pb), and then some, including the LiFe (A123)'s. It's a very versatile, powerful charger that can replace the last four chargers you have bought, most likely. It also comes with several cords and adaptors that you will likely use. I can't remember the name of the charger, but if you look through their online catalog, you're bound to find it. If you think that's too much for you, try for their more standard single charger unit that now costs somewhere around $20. Third - One last product you may be interested in: The Wike IBEC (Ignition Battery Elimination Circuit) available from TroyBuiltModels.com What is it? Well, if you have a gas engine that uses a spark plug, then you most likely have an electronic ignition module that requires power, meaning an extra battery. That extra battery weighs several ounces, (6-8 oz. I'm hearing from others). So, you can eliminate that battery and it's switch by replacing them with an IBEC. It is a neat little device that plugs into a spare receiver channel and provides the power your electronic ignition system needs. The power is now coming from the receiver battery, which on gas planes is usually one of two giant batteries. In addition, it has an ignition kill feature built into it so you can turn the power to your ignition on or off with a switch on your transmitter. You can tell if the ignition is "hot" if the little red LED (included) is illuminated. I was skeptical and nervous about such a device seeing as we've always been told so much about keep anything radio-related as far away as possible from anything ignition-related. In my set-up, the IBEC wire was routed within an inch of a servo wire. I decided to try it and see if it would pass the range tests... with the engine ON. Well, I tried it, expecting to see glitches. I really tried. I did the range test on my Futaba 10CG past the 90-100 ft they recommend. I went to about 150 ft. The controls were solid, as if I were standing only five feet away. I had to look down and wait for the beep to be sure that I was really in power down mode. No glitching at all. Time to fly. The engine was new and it was very windy, but I still put that new engine and the IBEC through their paces in my 40% Giles 202. Again, no glitches, no problems. And the ignition kill worked perfectly. There was about a 1/2 second delay between the time I flipped the switch and the ignition stopped...well...igniting. That's three good products in a row for me, which has never happened before! -Patrick Willis- Field Repair July 11, 2010 Yes it is easy to notice the pilot and his great looking plane, what is hard to notice is the places on the runway that were repaired June 1st, about six weeks ago. The work party and the watering crew did a great job. EVENTS - Visit EugeneRC.com for this years listings Fun Fly ? ERCA ? Aug 14th August 21 Bend Aero Modeler?s Pylon Race Contests (4 total) ? June 5, Jun 26, Aug 21, and Sep 11 Labor Day Fun Fly ? ERCA ? Sep 6th September 11th & 12 French Field Fly-in and Swap Meet Myrtle Creek, Oregon exit106 I-5 French Field Fly-in and Swap Meet committee presents a two day affair starting Saturday, and ending Sunday afternoon --- That's All Folks -- Eugene R/C Aeronauts Newsletter Editor 1618 Gilham Rd. Eugene, OR. 97401 July 2010 ®FirstLast¯ ®Street¯ ®CityStZip¯ ERCA CLUB CONTACTS President: Khoi Tran - 541-685-0086 - kmtranmd@hotmail.com Vice President: Brad Werneth - 541-285-5935 - brad@werneth.com Sec/Treasurer: Al Barrington - 541-935-4960 - albarrington@msn.com Safety coordinator: Frank Blain - 541-345-7449 - jaibee22@yahoo.com Safety coordinator: Marry Wittman - 541-968-2094 - wittmanm@msn.com Groundskeeper: Doug McWha - 541-741-3326 - flyduke@comcast.net Newsletter Editor: Jim Corbett - 541-344-5022 - james.corbett@comcast.net Next CLUB Meeting ? July 27 ? 7:00 pm at THE FIELD. December 2009 2 July 2010 7