The Fly Paper

September 1998 issue

You’ve heard the expression "like a kid in a candy store" that was me at KRC! WOW! Randy Hawkins and I went to KRC this past weekend. KRC (Keystone Radio Control) is the largest Electric Fly-In of the year and is held at the Queen City Airport in Allentown, Pa. It’s a two-day event in which several of the major mail order hobby suppliers set up a sales booth and flying is open to all. With over 250 registered pilots, I saw more electric powered airplanes fly in one afternoon than I’ve ever seen before. They also blocked out some time for a flying demonstration. There were 12 Flying stations.

The airplane types ranged from electric slow flyers, pattern planes, 100 mph + pylon racers, quarter scale airplanes, big war birds and even a 12’ wing span B17. They also had home built foam planes that were having combat practice. They had a squadron of 6 T33 foam ducted fan-jets fly around for about 5-6 minutes on speed 400 size motors.

There was an "All Up Last Down" contest in which 25 pilots launched at the same time and flew until the last one landed 2 hours and 17 minutes later. During the day, it was commonplace to see anywhere from 10-20 planes in the air at a time. The flight line and pit area was at least ¼ mile long. The pilots had to contend with an 8-10 mile/hour cross wind all day, but no one seemed to have problems. A lot of these planes flew as good, if not better, than their gas counterparts.

A lot of the model industry giants were there including Joe Beshar, the designer of the Lanier Shrike that I built. He took time out of his day to talk to me and gave me the info I needed to get the Shrike back into the air. I had given up on it last month when it slung a prop blade in flight and launched the motor across the field.

We saw some foam planes, made out of 4x8-foam board used for home insulation, which flew quite well. One plane was even doing severe aerobatic maneuvers. I came away with several ideas to try and thoroughly enjoyed myself at the fly-in.

Randy surprised some folks with his Spectra all decked out with lights for night flying. He packed the 2 meter sailplane, charger, batteries and tools in a hard plastic golf travel case and took it as checked baggage on the Big D (Delta Air Lines). He unpacked it, assembled it and launched just as the sun went down. As he flew it above us, people were coming from all over the field to find out how he set up the power for the lights. Even a reporter for Flying Models came over for a mini-interview. Keep your eyes open for a mention in an upcoming issue of Flying Models.

I guess the only thing I have left to say is that I can’t wait until next year’s KRC event.

It was another beautiful day at Cathy Field! I can’t remember ever seeing as large a turn out as we had for a regularly scheduled club meting. There were 45 signatures on our sign-in sheet and as usual I’m sure that there were a few who missed autographing the sheet. No doubt that part of the reason for the great turnout was to witness the Nite Flight immediately following the meeting. If you missed this one, you really missed a good one! I don’t think that anyone was disappointed with the dazzling show put on by the brave and dedicated club members that lit up their planes for this event! Special thanks to Randy Hawkins and Ernie Schlumberger who built and flew some of the most radically illuminated R/C flying machines of all time. What was even more amazing was that Randy was even letting other pilots fly his planes in this otherwise pitch black evening! When Ernie flipped the switch to light up his bazooka style wing tip mounted landing lights, I’m sure that all of the deer in the field froze in their spot! Craig Merchant deserves an honorable mention for his trainer with strands of Christmas tree lights strung around it. And then there was Darrell Carpenter. Though his Cub was no more than a shadow compared to some of the other planes, his aerobatic demonstration and hot-dogging style left an image to remember.

President Tommy Vinci opened the meeting at 7:30 and proceeded to give a brief summary of the treasurer’s report, as Roy Collins was not able to attend. Expenses were $290 for field maintenance and $85 to Bulldog Johnny. Receipts were $280 in new membership dues. Tommy also reminded us that there is a pile of free firewood to be had for the person who comes out with a chin saw to make the recently downed, airplane eating dead poplar tree go away (somebody please help!). He also brought up a few safety reminders. Yell out a warning if a plane is dangerously heading toward the pits! Don’t ever leave your transmitter setting on the ground unattended while running up your plane, a slight bump could cause it to tip over and bump the throttle up causing some serious damage. He also suggested that there has been a trend in members not flying from the designated flying stations. These spots are at a safe location behind the safety net and have a separation large enough to avoid possible transmitter interference. It also makes it easy to keep track of just who is flying at any given time.

Vice-president Randy Hawkins reminded that FLYPAPERS are being provided electronically (on our web page) to members with an e-mail address. Only the members without Internet access will receive a copy through traditional snail mail. This saves a substantial amount in printing expense, postage, and hassle. He also pointed out that Gene Norman’s aerial shot of the field (taken from his Mini Challenger with a throw away style camera attached) graced the cover of last month’s newsletter. Randy also pointed out the PTC Air show at Falcon Field was coming on Sept 12 and 13. He asked if anyone was interested in setting up a Fayette Flyers booth and got some moderate interest. As it turned out, he was unable to get any response from the show organizers and the booth never materialized.

Secretary Dave Zeigler pointed out that our current Frequency Usage Chart has been updated and is posted on our home page on the Internet. Because of a rather lengthy newsletter last month, it wasn’t mailed out as part of the FLYPAPER. Call Dave if you want to know the least used frequencies in our club if you don’t have access to the Internet. He also reminded everyone of the upcoming Kid’s Freeflight Event on Sept 19.

Dave mentioned that Earl and Chuck Robinson had come over to his house and described that they had spotted a potential flying site for gliders and electrics. They had already had a preliminary discussion with the site owner and a tentative price of $600 a year was established. It is located about 1 mile south of the town of Senoia and is about a 20 acre parcel that has had the topsoil removed and is surrounded by wheat fields. The question of whether or not we were interested in establishing a satellite field to be dedicated to electric planes and gliders was posed to the members in attendance. Enough interest was shown to plan a follow up visit, especially if there was a good possibility of developing it into a full fledged model airport that would accommodate powered planes as well (in case anything were to happen to cause us to loose our current site).

Earl and Dave made an appointment to meet the owner at the site about a week later. While waiting for him to show up, they had time to walk the property and to think it through a little more thoroughly. It appears that the logical runway orientation would have the pilots’ position predominately facing the sun. The land is moderately rolling and doesn’t provide a natural, high, flat location for a runway (though it is completely clear of trees). The vegetation is coarse on the red clay dirt and the lack of topsoil makes it appear that it wouldn’t be easy to get a quality stand of grass growing. The owner never did show up and we left with a diminished feeling toward the viability of truly establishing a high quality club-flying site.

Mike McGowan is once again organizing the Adopt-A-School Program to introduce 5^th graders to aviation through modeling. He has done an exceptional job along with Andy Anderson and several other club members over the years to teach these kids at Peachtree Elementary School building techniques and to demonstrate how airplanes fly. Working with these kids is a satisfying experience and can have some really profound impact on their lives. Mike told the story where on one of his flights (he’s an airline pilot) that a business card was passed up to him it the cockpit. It was from a passenger that was one of the kids that he had inspired into aviation through the Explorer Scout Program about 21 years ago. After a brief discussion he found out that this group of four kids had kept in contact with one another over the years and had all become very successful in the aviation industry. If there is anyone interested in becoming an inspiration to these kids and helping with the monthly Adopt-A-School meetings, contact Mike.

Randy Hawkins passed along another important safety reminder relating to his big broken Telemaster (now repaired and as good as new). At our last electric fun fly it began to sprinkle a little rain while flying. No big deal right? After all we won’t melt. But beware! A little moisture in the radio and you can experience some big troubles, like total loss of control. This happened to not just one of his radios, but both transmitters that got just slightly wet through a brief shower. They both worked fine as soon as they dried out, but the word is, don’t even attempt to fly if you know that your radio has gotten wet.

Everyone welcome our newest member Tom Gould and his wife Tammy and kids Joel (5) and Erin (3) when you see them out at the field. Tom is a professional Fire Fighter in Dekalb County and has just built a good little trainer plane that he has modified from its original wing span of 44" by adding 18" to it for better stability. Sounds like my kind of guy, getting creative from the git-go!

Isn't it fun to go to a Hobby Shop and look at all the stuff that is always somehow not already in your workshop? I find myself making frequent trips for last minute items needed to complete or start the next member of the fleet. [Or repair] A lot of times it's just a trip for a bottle of CA or that ever needed set of push rods that I somehow managed to forget during the last visit when I bought the kit. Often I equate this hobby to working with PVC plastic tubing used in a lawn sprinkler system, you think you have bought every elbow or T-fitting needed to get the water running and ya always come up 1 short you didn't figure on. [Some will understand]

The Local Hobby Shop where ever it may be is always a neat place to bump into others in modeling, share tales and make suggestions, maybe find out about an event. There's always more advice on how to do something than not, it's because those in the discussion have most likely already found out the hard way themselves. The ability to jump in a car and blast down the road for a few miles to keep your project on schedule or buy that needed fuel on a late Saturday [just before closing time], so you can fly on Sunday is always a blessing not often appreciated.

Interesting thought, If you had to mail order every push rod or control horn or bottle of CA or Fuel, would you be getting in the same Flying or Building time? I personally would be lost and I'd never get much built or repaired or flown. Think about it the next time your ready to pick up the phone to call one of the major conglomerates. Remember the guys right down the street just a few minutes away paying into YOUR community's taxes and providing YOUR community with jobs. If they don't have it they can usually get it quickly. The prices local are usually the same as mail order, no shipping charge. [Sometimes the MAJORS sell the stuff for less than a local shop can buy it for.] Remember If the local shops DON'T get our business We won't have them. I don't have time to wait for the delivery truck each day, do you? Think about it.