Volume 5 Issue 11 Pages 4 AMA #530 District 11 www.eugenerc.com November 2009 Club Mailing Address: Eugene R/C Aeronauts, PO Box 26344, Eugene, OR. 97402 ERCA News and Information Next CLUB Meeting – November 3, 7:00 pm at EWEB. Election of officers for 2010. If you have a building project, bring it with you for "Show and Tell". At the October Meeting – There were ?? members and guests at the meeting. The following positions will be elected in November for next years officers; President: Vice President: Treasurer: Field Marshal: The application for Membership of returning member Ed Boock was approved. Pit area covering was discussed. The purchase of a new windsock with ERCA silk screened on it was approved Elevated Pilot Boxes were discussed as well as pit area cover concepts. Flying field - The wet season has arrived, good flying days will be limited, but there will be some. If the runway is wet, please walk with caution. NOTAM Winter Flying Rules are in effect. * * * * * * * * * * * * Attention All Pilots: WINTER FLYING RULES During November, December, January, February Saturday, Sunday & Wednesday NO FLYING before 12:00 Noon. NO ARRIVING before 12:00 Noon. * * * * * * * * * * * * Web site stats - Since the first of the year. Last months numbers; ERC Home page 8425 Pictures 2401 Newsletters 891 This month numbers; ERC Home page 9086 Pictures 2522 Newsletters 978 Meeting minutes are ONLINE at: http://eugenerc.com/meetings.html KUDOS To. Doug and Wayne for keeping the runway mowed, and Doug and Marty for keeping it watered. WITH THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS November 2009 Right here at the start, an abject apology to Dwayne Graville. I made a thoroughgoing dog’s breakfast of his name in last month’s column, calling him “Glavine” I don’t know what I was thinking of. Tom Glavine was a fine pitcher and I liked him, even when he was playing for the enemy (Atlanta), but he hasn’t flown any R/C ships - on this field at least. Before long, the weather is going to make finding grist for this mill rather difficult, but in the two weeks since the last column, there has been some decent flying weather on the weekdays. Still, with only that long to work with, this edition will, of necessity, be short. Dwayne G. repaired an LT 40 wreck that Chuck Jenkins contributed. He brought it out; it flew well; and he was just settling down to have some fun with it when the wing dowel at the leading edge pulled out. The two nylon screws at the trailing edge were not up to the task alone, so down came the LT 40. Dwayne’s working on the repairs now -engine and radio survived - and he’s looking into building a 4-Star kit, probably a 60. The old Sr. Kadet is still in the shop and will emerge with not only ailerons, but with a pair of bombbays and a glider tow rig as well. Robert Buttler’s Ultimate Biplane has seen a lot of flying in the last couple of weeks. The Super Tigre .90 is more than adequate power. Good thing, too, because his Escapade is no more. Robert was swanning about, doing inverted figure eights when a spot of disorientation set in. Dug quite a hole. And at full bore, too. Radios and engines are tough; his survived. Heck of a time for Mr. Buttler to plant his Escapade, because our other Robert, Meador, was in the air on his first solo - with an Escapade. These EPD guys have nerves of steel though. Not only the solo went fine, but a couple of more did as well - and he even got away with a downwind (not a very strong wind) landing. Either Robert M. has a real talent as a flier or Chuck Jenkins is a genius of an instructor, because that solo came after a very short stint as a pupil. Mickey Cohen is now flying a Hohbistar 60 - the Mk.III, no less. This bird has a bi- convex airfoil, symmetrical, I think, and Mickey has an O.S.60 in the engine room. Wayne Wahrmund is now flying a Funtana 40 which he got from Doug Deveraux. It was subjected to some of Doug’s improvements and the wing is 3” longer than normal. To allow for this elongation, Wayne felt he had to go up to a new O.S. 55 for power. Or maybe the horsepower race just got to him. Another new O.S. 55 can he found in Doug McWha’s Easy-Sport, if you can bring yourself to look at that disgrace. Pat Willis and I are figuring that all that extra power will do what all the gods do not seem to have been able to accomplish: Reduce the thing to splinters. Splinters that are not being held together in a sort-of-sirplane shape by packaging tape and Monokote. There’s hope. Already the main landing gear has come loose and has to be held on with rubber bands. Get set for this one. Editor Corbett, far- famed for his bottomless collection of smallish electrics, was out at the field with a Midwest Sweet Stik and the engine was a K&B 40. Both of these go back a year or two. Or twenty. The Sweet Stik was a good flier. Mine had an 0.S. 40FSR and I still have the drawings and the 0.S.. The last I saw them, Jim and Doug were swapping blades on one of the lawn mowers. They have two sets so that they can have a sharpened set on the mower while the other set goes back to Jim’s shop to be honed to a razor’s edge. That’s how your runway gets to be in the good shape it is. WITH THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS continued I set out to sort my balsa strip and music wire. It turned into a major project. I have more pieces of some sizes of wire than most hobby shops. I have at least a few examples of every size of balsa strip known to man and a few with quite unusual crossections. There are pieces of very wide trailing edge stock, but not one of them is long enough to make a trailing edge for a model large enough to need wood of that size. And I have three or four l”x1”s and the same number of 1/32 x 1. Why do I have those? I’ve just started sorting my balsa sheet, but that seems to be going more easily. I should sort my covering material, too, but that’s going to wait until I’ve built the Cavalier Std.. I know where the covering is for the Cavalier! . C. O’D. Presidents Corner By the time you guys read this printing, there are 2 benches joined together near the ground level pilot boxes. These 2 benches serve as temporary Elevated Pilot Box (EPB) for you to try out. Frank, Wayne, and I have stood on the benches and completed flights from that higher elevation. You get a full view of both sides and ends of the runway. You also get better tracking of your plane as it comes in from the west side over the hill/trees. Wayne made several landings smack down the middle of the runway and is loving it. Frank made some great landings too. As for me, the usual perfect warbird landings :) Frank will install 2x4 wood railings for safety and put in some steps. We can put up more EPB from unused benches as more pilots use them. Try it out. I'm confident you'll like the bird's eye view. At the last meeting, we discussed the pit area cover concepts. It appears Wayne can get a kit of high quality materials to put up 18'x40' sections that withstood snow and rain up in Washington for 8 yrs. Brad and Wayne will work out the details of ground prepping costs and present it at the next meeting for a vote. I will contact Mike to get his blessing for our canopy cover. Winter is fast approaching. We can make quick use of the canopy to shelter our planes/electrical support equipment from the rain. We can also put up clear plastic siding once the canopy is up so we can put in our personal propane heater to warm up the pit area. Wayne has seen this all done in Washington. It's a great field improvement concept. See you at the next meeting. Regards, Khoi Tran, ERCA President 200 2009 Meeting dates EWEB downtown Eugene: Nov 3, 7:00 pm. Training Center (No December Meeting) 2010 Meeting dates EWEB downtown Eugene: January 19 7:00 pm. (Unless I hear differently --- That's All Folks --- Eugene R/C Aeronauts Newsletter Editor 1618 Gilham Rd. Eugene, OR. 97401 November 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 Marshal: Marry Wittman - 968-2094 - wittmanm@msn.com Newsletter Editor: Jim Corbett - 344-5022 - james.corbett@comcast.net Next CLUB Meeting – November 3, 7:00 pm at EWEB. Newsletter ONLINE at: http://eugenerc.com/NL/CURRENTNEWSLETTER.pdf November 2009 3