Volume 5 Issue 9 Pages 6 AMA #530 District 11 www.eugenerc.com September 2009 Club Mailing Address: Eugene R/C Aeronauts, PO Box 26344, Eugene, OR. 97402 ERCA News and Information Next CLUB Meeting - September 15, 7:00 pm at EWEB. If you have a building project, bring it with you for "Show and Tell". At the August Meeting - There were 17 members and guests at the meeting. More discussion on fundraising, projects and the upcoming Labor Day Fun Fly. It was decided to spend $50 for a few prizes to have a few contest goals. I mentioned the obituary of Gene Parro and the card I sent the family on behalf of the club. We added a few new members at the meeting and met one who joined by mail (Rick Charles). Rick brought a friend (Darin Thramer) who joined on the spot. Also joined was Mike Lee. Dark fell quickly and pretty much adjourned the meeting for us. Darin managed to squeeze in a dusk flight after the meeting. He's got skills. We also talked about the recent thefts at the clubhouse and agreed to just secure valuables in the west end. The last straw was Doug's bag of pop cans that went missing following the last event. Flying field - The pit area gravel is working out ok. We had a work party Saturday August 29th to finish siding the shed. The mower shed is ready for paint. Web site stats - Since the first of the year. Last months numbers; ERC Home page 5876 Pictures 1971 Newsletters 712 This month numbers; ERC Home page 6943 Pictures 2126 Newsletters 810 Meeting minutes are ONLINE at: http://eugenerc.com/meetings.html 2009 Meeting dates EWEB downtown Eugene: Sept 15 7:00 pm. Community Room Oct 20 7:00 pm. Community Room Nov 3 7:00 pm. Training Center December No meeting. Presidents Corner We had a wonderful day for Labor Day Fun Fly. Light wind and mostly sunny at 74 degrees. Had a good showing with about 20+ flyers/visitors. Al did a good job with the burgers and dogs as usual. We had a few laughs watching Doug trying to end the life of that miserable Old Yeller plane. But I think the damn thing is still flying, so don't get your hopes up. Raffle Update: I've sold my lot of tickets and Jeff's share of 40 need to be sold. Frank, Marty, and Brad may have a dozen each so we may be only half way through the tickets. Need more members to buy tickets to support the club and get a chance to win the Futaba 10C spectrum radio. Many thanks to Brad, Marty, and Doug for helping to complete the shed construction while Jeff is held up with personal issues. We now have the siding and door in place and everything looks great. I hear that Frank is going to help with getting paint for the shed to give it a nice finish. I encourage you guys to get out there and fly while the sun is hanging around. The rain last weekend is nice reminder of what's coming soon... Regards, Khoi Tran ERCA President 2009 Treasurers Corner Treasurer Al Barrington reports - As of August 25th we have 99 members confirmed current with AMA and ERCA. 2 other members are pending verification. Robert Funk and Tim Roome-Trant . New, renewing or prospective members this month: Rick Charles - Prospect, Mike Robinson - Applied and voted in at last meeting Fund Raisers: Raffle for Futaba 10C Transmitter over $500 value, Only $5 a ticket. Drawing when all tickets are sold. BBQ donations: Received $47 at Big Bird Fly-In, food cost was ~$140. Received $11 at the July 15 Fun Fly and July meeting food cost was ~$40. Not sustainable! ERCA member passes away Club member Eugene "Gene" Zoltan Parro died July 15 of cancer at age 85. Parro served as an Army medical photographer in the South Pacific in World War II and was a captain in the Civil Air Patrol. He worked as a carpenter and taught woodworking and industrial technology at Eugene Technical Vocational School, He later taught applied sciences at Lane Community College, retiring in 1984. A celebration of life was held at 3 p.m. Aug. 2. A card was sent to the family on behalf of ERCA. Labor Day Fun Fly See web site for more photos Great to see everyone at the Labor Day Fun Fly. A good time was had by all and the weather was cooperative for a change. I didn't mind taking second place in the Limbo contest surrendering to Doug McWha and "Ol' Yeller's" superior ability to take up turf like a backhoe. I hope the gallon of fuel he won was worth the repairs to this plane and the huge crater in the landing strip. Believe it or not, after all that, "Ol Yeller" still lives. We had quite a few visitors stop by to check us out after hearing about the event from the web site. Keep up the great job. It's working. They were impressed with what they saw and asked about joining the club and attending our meetings. The Labor Day Fun Fly BBQ took in $23 in generous donations which will help offset the food costs of $60. Thanks to Doug McWha for doing the shopping. It was my pleasure to fly the grill for you all. I logged many successful dog and burger landings despite the IFR conditions due to smoke and flames. My thanks to Jim Corbett for the breaks, assistance and moral support. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the next club meeting 7pm, Tuesday September 15th (Not the usual 4th Tuesday), at the downtown EWEB Community Meeting room. There are still a few $5 raffle tickets available for the FUTABA 10C Transmitter outfit valued at over $500. The drawing will be held when all the tickets are sold. Don't miss out. Proceeds go to help fund ERCA projects. Thanks to all who are participating in this fundraiser. Al Barrington Limbo contest The Limbo prize went to Doug McWha, seven passes under the wire. (also a crash on a previous try breaking a prop). Other flyers; Al Barrington 6 passes and a crash, Jim Corbett 5 passes and a 2 crashes (breaking 2 aircraft, Wayne 4 passes and a crash, Craig 4 passes and Khoi 2 passes. Flying raffle drawings went to Doug, Pat, Chris and Brad. 24 members and 8 guests attended, a sunny and almost windless day. Chef Al Barrington served 12 hot dogs and 14 burgers. Jim Corbett WITH THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS September 2009 Every so often, a holiday falls on a weekday and there are a lot of non-weekday faces at the field. When there is not only a holiday but a fun-fly, it really gets crowded. We had that situation on Labor Day and there really was a crowd. The only actual "fun-fly" event was a Limbo. You flew your model under a banner supported by two poles as many times as you were able in a set time. It was won hands- down by Doug McWha flying that disgracefully dilapidated Easy-Sport 40 that has held the title "Club Eyesore" for so many years. It wasn't all clear sailing, though. On an early pass, Doug was too high, dove, still went over the banner, but did contact the ground solidly. He straightened the nose gear, cleaned the dirt out of the engine compartment, put on a new prop and continued. Secretary & Chief Cook Al Barrington stepped out from behind the barbeque grill and was giving Doug a run for his money until he hit the banner right on the nose. The Eagle II is not a fast plane, so the plastic banner simply rolled with the punch and let the model down nose-first without a scratch, but Al declined to continue. Others did not get off so easy. Jim Corbett's electric Stinger hit one of the posts hard and had some nose damage. He continued with a foam profile, hit the post again, and, missing half the horizontal tail, wound up between Pat Willis's huge Giles and my sailplane. Wayne Warmund was doing well with his LT 40 until he, too, got much too close to one of the posts and bashed in the extremity of his left wing. Chris McVey, visiting from Corvallis, showed why helicopters were barred from the Limbo. He flew a small electric ship under the barrier, popped up and over, then took it under again, this time backwards. Looked as though he could have kept that up all day. Brad Werneth had his stable of helicopters out. Pat Willis flew a small, electric chopper that the wind bothered somewhat and Oliver Willis had a very small ship with contra- rotating rotors. I saw only one flight on that one, but there must have been more, because he was later expressing dismay over a flat battery. Don Desimone didn't fly anything, but he served as the designated anchor when Pat started the 3W85 in his Giles 202. Pat declined to fly the Giles in the Limbo event. Craig Canaday was similarly disinclined with his Yak 54. We expected them, to each do one of those hang-on-the-prop things right under the barrier, but, no, they forebore, disappointing us all. I do think I saw Craig do it later with a small, foam, electric biplane. President Khoi Tran's tuned-pipe sort-of- a-Corsair made several fast and clean passes under the Limbo banner, then quit. Engine trouble? Craig Canaday was trying a pass with a Twist - and inverted at that - when his engine quit. He managed to get it rolled upright and the ensuing arrival, undignified though it was, did no damage. Khoi also flew his Ultimate Bipe, a design which is my candidate for World's Ugliest Biplane. Ivan Walker, another wise Limbo shunner got a fair amount of air time with a neat low-winger called a Rambler 45 and Robert Buttler did the same with an Escapade, a similar machine. Jacob Blewett had another Escapade on the field a week or two ago. Seems to fly well and I'm told it's cheap. Darin Thanner, new guy, flew a Sig 4- Star 40 powered by a Saito 50, one of the black-and-gold series I think they called Golden Knight. Look out! When he was a kid, Darin used to fly sailplanes down at Nielson & Cantrell. If he gets back into them and Dwayne Graville gets that monster glider of his back in airworthy shape, you will have three sailplanes to contend with on any given day. WITH THE WEEKDAY WARRIORS continued Notable non-flyer was Delayne Thompson's big Cessna Skylane. Eventually, the cowl was off and he and Chuck Jenkins were poking and prodding the Saito 115, which continued on a course of non- cooperation. Saitos are generally pretty reliable, so my guess is that there is a fault in the fuel system. It runs; just not well enough for a test-flight. Oh, yes. How could I neglect to mention Phil Arnold's Extra 330? This is the blue & yellow bird that sticks out over the back of the pickup truck. Has a 3W150, no sissy little 100. Of course, you look down the flight line and it's so big you don't realize there's an aeroplane there. You think you are looking at a blue & yellow wall. It's a monster - but it is such a nice - flying monster! Phil says it handles very nicely and it looks so steady to me that I wonder if it might not have been a good candidate for the Limbo. Yes, it would fit between the post. Not by a whole lot, that's true, but it would fit. Your columnist qualified for his own column by getting in five flights on the old Aquila sailplane. The first two launches, I'd rather not talk about - really sloppy - but the last three were quite good and all five landings were just fine, thanks. Alas, in between launch and landing there was no lift to be found. Tried twice to piggyback on some vultures, but, by the time I got up, they and the lift were both gone. . C. O'D. Mower Shed progress report After some paint, our mower shed will be complete. Materials costs were underestimated by a few hundred dollars. Even after the generous donations of members' time, effort, tools and materials, the total cost of the shed to the club is currently at $552. Special thanks to Jeff Engel, Marty Wittman, Wayne Wahrmund, Mel Graham, Doug McWha, Brad Werneth, Jim Corbett and anyone else involved in he shed project to make it a success. It is currently in use and appears to have exceeded our expectations. I think all will agree that the quality of building the club received is worth the cost overrun. Remembering what happened to last year's tin shed, I'm convinced it will take much more than the typical breezes we get to upset the new shed. Al Barrington --- That's All Folks --- Eugene R/C Aeronauts Newsletter Editor 1618 Gilham Rd. Eugene, OR. 97401 September 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 - September 15, 7:00 pm at EWEB. Newsletter ONLINE at: http://eugenerc.com/NL/CURRENTNEWSLETTER.pdf September 2009 5