Volume 5 Issue 6 Pages 8 AMA #530 District 11 www.eugenerc.com June 2009 Club Mailing Address: Eugene R/C Aeronauts, PO Box 26344, Eugene, OR. 97402 ERCA News and Information Next CLUB Meeting - June 23, 7:00 pm at the flying field. If you have a building project, bring it with you for "Show and Tell". At the May Meeting - I did not get a report.. So can't pass along anything. Flying field - The field is in great shape, one of the mowers needed both belts replaced. One mowing we had all three mowers on the field - it only took 26 minutes to mow the runway. The pit area still has some wrinkles in the matting, please walk cautiously. Wandering propane tank - It seems that the propane tank for the BBQ has wandered off. Lets hope it wanders back before the meeting and BBQ at the field. Training sessions - Good weather has been keeping som of our Intro Pilots busy. One day Chuck Jenkins had four folks taking turns on the buddy box. Summer events - There are several scheduled for our field. Also ERCA is putting on a BIG BIRD FLY at the Oakridge airport. Many other clubs events this summer will keep RC modelers busy. Keep an eye on the Events listed in the newsletter and on the web site. Web site stats - Since the first of the year. The most popular pages viewed: ERC Home page 3515 Weather 1659 Pictures 1425 Movies 396 Notams 284 Newsletters 258 Ocorners 246 Meeting minutes are ONLINE at: http://eugenerc.com/meetings.html 2009 Meeting dates At the flying field: June 23, July 28, Aug 25 7:00 pm. Presidents Corner Well guys, summer has finally arrived. Hope you guys have completed your winter projects in time for great flying weather. The field is in great shape and that dreaded cross wind has been fairly mild. The only annoying problem is the allergy season in full bloom. So don't forget to load up with Claritin, Nasonex, Optivar before heading to the field to fight off the pollens. Oakridge Big Bird Fly-In update: I received the permit from the airport manager so we're good to go. Brad Werneth and Frank Blain volunteered to be CD's for the event. Please contact them to help out with our following needs: -- Portable aviation-band VHF radio, tuned to the Airport CTAF, 122.90 MHz --10'x10' folding canopies, need 2 more -- 8 foot long folding tables, need 3 -- extra large coolers, need 2 -- Direction signs for the event Tip of the month: I recently learned how to do silver soldering with a mapp gas blow torch. I needed to make a long extension for my socket head allen wrench to get through that long cowl and reach the socket head screws. I used a brass coupling and cut off a section from allen wrench to attach to a long screwdriver with its tip cut off. The next step is to use silver soldering to weld the coupling to the 2 ends. Key here is to use high temperature solder, having 56% silver that you can buy from Jerry's in tools section for 10 bucks. It comes in a small coil of solder and tube of flux. Prepare the 2 ends to be soldered with dremel sanding wheel to remove any coating and coat them with generous amount of flux. Use mapp gas torch, butane/propane not hot enough, to heat up the metal ends to red hot color, then touch silver solder to the metal and it should flow nicely into the joint and fill up any gaps. Voila, a strong soldered joint within seconds. Try it on landing gear struts, etc. Remember, next meeting is at the field on Tuesday June 23 at 7pm. Arrive early to put in some flying time before the meeting. It's our first meeting/BBQ at the field so show up and hang out with the guys. Regards, Khoi Tran ERCA President 2009 KUDOS Doug, Wayne, Marty and Jim have been keeping the field green & short and mowers working. Jeff Engel is progressing on the construction of the mower shed. Treasurers Corner Treasurer Al Barrington reports - As of April 20, 80 members have paid their 2009 dues. WITH THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS June 2009 The all-too-brief Oregon Season of Good Flying Weather may be upon us. I've been out to the field on some very nice days that featured real blue skies, real sun, and light (or, at least, light-ish) winds. Come out to the field and make the most of it because it won't last long. Dave Simmington has a new ship. You'll remember Frank Blain's Reactor, a monster with a DL 50 for power. Dave's is a Reactor, but a little brother to Frank's. It has a Saito 82 4-stroke up front and more translucent areas in the covering. Does good knife-edges, according to Dave who is pleased with it. Marty Whitman is flying an Extra 330 which he has newly rebuilt and he has installed a gas-burner to haul it along. I may have this wrong, hut I think the engine is an SEE 40. The model itself has a tangled history, though it appears to have started life as one of Pat Willis's ships (it has his badge number on the fin.), then was flown for a time by Kevin Kline before Marty acquired it. It lost the landing gear in what appeared to be a perfectly normal touchdown, but the damage was minimal. Speaking of models with complicated histories, I must report that Dale Williams is flying one like that. Dale's is an Ultrasport which was flown quite a hit at Short Mountain by John Doyle, but which my have been built originally by Jim Smith. Anyhow, it flies well. Chick Foster was flying a large Sig Rascal on a day when I was trying to get a couple of FF ships ready for a contest, so I did not get any details and now he has a Sig Clipped- Wing Cub in the air. Again, I was fettling Freeflight ships and got no details. Doug McWha's F-23, Raptor, goes like blazes, but, again, I was down in my FF ghetto and just saw it going by. Now down there with me was new member Tom Kopriva who is also a freeflighter. On this day, however, he had a sidearm--launched rudder- only R/C glider. After some previous wrestling with it, Tom had the launch down pat, then discovered that it definitely needs more positive incidence in the wing. Not as easy as it sounds. With this bird; you have to unglue the wing to change incidence. Tom claims to be a nervous R/C-er who tends to throw in full right or full left at any point even approaching a panic situation. That can be coped with. After all, when I started flying R/C, 51 years ago, right about now, all I HAD was full right and full left; there wasn't any of this sissy proportional stuff. Some of you may remember about 30 years ago when we had a big Balsa Crisis, because they were talking the stuff to use for insulation in enormous tankers for carrying liquid natural gas. We weathered that storm, though balsa prices went up a lot and stayed there. Now, I'm told, we have another problem on the horizon, if not right in our laps. They are using our precious balsa for the blades on electricity-generating windmills. These contraptions are, of course, hip, politically-correct, and terribly, terribly, ecological - but they're using our wood! There have already been some glitches in the balsa supply locally. Jim Trump got a shipment from Sig (of all people) that was of such low quality that he sent it back and I was talking to a kit manufacturer who did the same. The news is a bit thin this month, because I was away for two weeks. I went to an airshow, an air museum, and an auto museum in France and two air museums and another. auto museum in Germany. The airshow had a few disappointments. The Caudron C.460 was the only foreign airplane to win the Thompson Trophy and they have built a replica of it down in California. It was supposed to make it to La Fert‚ Alais, hut was a no-show. A new-built FW.190 was there, but was towed from the takeoff line with engine trouble. The Hawk 75 (P-36) from England did not show up to fly formation with the Morane 406 to commemorate the Battle of France and it was too windy to fly the pre-WWI birds to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Louis Bleriot's cross-channel flight. On the other hand, The Breguet xiv looked very good as did the Fi. 136, the Storch. As I said, it was windy, and the Storch showed that it could all but stand still in the air. I had to chuckle a little. WITH THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS continued There was a Ju.52/3m in the air at the same time and, with his flaps down, he was very nearly as slow as the Storch. Up-staged him, I'd say. The Me.163 was a sight. You know, the rocket-powered, tailless interceptor from WWII? This one was full-size, hut all-wood and a glider. He was towed up by a sharp-looking Do.27 and came back down doing aerobatics. I was surprised to see how low he could get before entering his downwind leg for landing. The thing must be very light. Surely, some of the pictures I took will be worth looking at. The cars? I saw two museums full of the most beautiful automobiles on Earth. And some funny-looking ones, too, I'll grant - like the Goliath Pioneer whose wooden body was covered in imitation leather. To offset that comical little three-wheeler, there were three Bugatti Royales, including the one built without headlights because the buyer never drove at night. Took pictures in the car museums, too, and I'm sure some will be worth seeing. Model Airplane News is the oldest model mag in the world, dating from 1929, but the French Le Model R‚duit d'Avion is the second-oldest and Flugmodel und Technik from Germany is the third. I will have the latest issues of each at the meeting, if anybody is interested. C.O'D. For Sale YS 110FZS New in the box 110 YSFZS new and improved design with the fuel regulator on the pushrod tubes. New design crancase. Stronger with more boost for even more power. Sells for $379.97 at central hobbies plus shipping. Will sell for $300.00 cash. Chuck Jenkins @ 285-6822 email cjajkoko@yahoo.com For Sale Lancair Great planes electric Lancair 43in span with 4 hitechs55 servos complete and ready just add receiver never flown $150. Cessna 180 Hobbico Cessna select super detailed Cessna 180 complete with 5 channel radio very good flyer 48in span. $150. ZERO Brand new in box and is a CMP highly detailed 55in span japanese ZERO. Also selling a brand new Hitec Laser 6 radio system new in box for $100. All prices are B/O but be fair. Pictures can be provided. Mark Cross - tel 541-741-0180 email mchartmann@yahoo.co Projects June 6 Jeff Engel Pics Showtime Project Progress It might be ready for Oakridge!. June 7 Pat Willis photos Extra 260 Finished The new plane flew, and flew very nicely. It started out a little too tail-heavy for my taste, so I moved one of the batteries a little bit and was able to get the balance just about right. However, on the fourth flight, I got a little delay in the control response and decided to bring it in and try and find the problem June 17 - Mark Cross photos Monocoupe 90a Here are some pictures of my electric conversion 76in span Kangke Monocoupe 90a. I hope to have the large outrunner and batteries from Hong Kong for it soon so I can fly it. Current motor is to light. See the Projects page on the web site for more info Events July 2009 Eugene R/C Aeronauts present ... Big Bird Fly-In at the Oakridge Airport Saturday, July 18, 2009 Time: 9am to 6pm weather permitting Link to the event details http://www.eugenerc.com/Flyers/BigBirdFlyIn2009.pdf Helicopter Event Snohomish Club Snohomish, Washington July 24, 25, 26 Swap and Fly July 25th, Myrtle Creek Modelers - On July 25th our club will have our annual Swap and Fly, there will be space for overnight RV parking from Friday to Saturday for the Swap and Fly. Myrtle Creek Modelers AMA Club West Coast Spad event July 25 and 26 A reminder about the first Spad Over The West Coast event in Mcminnville Oregon July 25 and 26. If you are a spadder or know a spadder, please pass this information on to them. Also if you could please print a brochure and take it to your next club meeting to inform other possible interested pilots. Link to the event details http://www.teamrc.org/sotwc.html August 2009 ERCA Fun Fly is tentatively set for August 15th, 2009. September 2009 ERCA Labor Day Fly on September 7th, 2009. Know of any upcoming RC events? Please pass that info to your newsletter editor. Wandering propane tank. It seems that the propane tank for the BBQ has wandered off. Lets hope it wanders back before the meeting and BBQ at the field. --- That's All Folks --- Eugene R/C Aeronauts Newsletter Editor 1618 Gilham Rd. Eugene, OR. 97401 June 2009 Name Street CitySTZip 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 - June 23, 7:00 pm at the flying field. Newsletter ONLINE at: http://eugenerc.com/NL/CURRENTNEWSLETTER.pdf June 2009 7