Daily Archives: February 27, 2015

6 posts

Brad’s Corner for Feb/Mar 2015

Old Site Posts President's Corner

Brad PaulFolks, I am going to touch a few nagging Issues that have come to mind the last couple of months. Some were mentioned at last month’s meeting, but since about 25% of us attend the meetings, I figure we can reach everyone with the newsletter.  I am going to try to not step on Quan’s toes, but as we are ALL responsible for safety…

 

Field etiquette: As noted on many occasions, please loudly announce your intentions to take off/land/conduct a low pass/ or walk onto the field.  Whispering to yourself does not qualify. Even if you announce that you are crossing, YOU are still required to look and see if someone is landing or taking off before stepping past the fence. I witnessed 3 near misses this month that could have been catastrophic. If you need to cross the field to retrieve an aircraft, please cross from the gate closest to your aircraft. I won’t name any names, but one member routinely steps onto the field at gate 4 to slowly walk diagonally to retrieve a jet in front of gate 1, then walks slowly back to gate 4 while people low on electrons are screaming “landing!”.

 

Low/high speed passes MUST be kept between the field centerline and the grass. QUIT FLYING OVER THE FENCE! The guys who break this rule most are some of the more experienced flyers at our site, so lame excuses are not cutting it. If you accidentally end up over the fence loudly shout “heads up” so others know your aircraft is in an unsafe location.

 

There are a few ( not many ) occasions when there is no wind. When this happens, please stick with the prevailing landing/take off pattern which is right to left. This avoids confusion and landing in the face of people trying to take to the air. No practicing pylon racing over the field flying opposite the pattern. We are generally under a gentlemen’s agreement about mid-air crashes – but that can change if one pilot is obviously displaying extremely poor judgment…

 

Another note to new members – I am at the field on non-raining weekends with gate keys and badge clips. Please show me your membership badge when you ask for a key. Please keep control of your key. We have somehow given out nearly 600 keys in the last 18 months.

 

Finally,
If you destroy a plane- and its remnants are too large to fit in the trash can, please take it with you. Do not leave it for the ranger lady to haul away for you.

 

Brad

Meeting Minutes for 2/13/15

Meeting Minutes Old Site Posts

 
New Business:
 
ByLaws – Change the 7 to 9 board members. Visitors to a board meeting, but  may be asked to leave during private business. Change “Chairman of the board” to just “The Board”. Also talked about dissolution of the club and some verbiage around that. Bob talked about change of bylaws to give us more latitude.
 
Ray – Resigning his position. (If a club member leaves, an election shall be held. Nominations will need to be held).
 
PA systems mic’s burned down in the fire. Jim is working with Pyle.
 
Gold leader club – Tim is going to go through the process.
 
Steve Nelson – He mentioned this may be a good time to talk to the ATC @SAN. Tim and Jim will meet with Steve.
 
Checklist for pilot certification. Discussed and will get a copy over to Isabel to circulate. New members will have 30 days to achieve certification.
 
?Alliant – Discussion around the subject. Talked about insurance and waiting on a response from the Alliant group. Not funded at this time. We are currently waiting on ownership of the event.
 
Calendar
 
2nd – weekend Special Event
 
3rd – weekend Electroglide
 
4th – weekend Club event
 
There will be 4 multi rotor events this year. There will be give aways.
 
First event is 2nd Saturday of March (FPV Racing). The 3rd Saturday is Electro Glide. Poker Fly the 4th.
 
4th Saturday in April – Foamy Frenzy
 
Other events will be forthcoming and calendar is being published. Anyone wants to schedule further events can contact the board.
 
Talked about people crossing the runway and what to do.
 
Discussed goals of the board for next year.
 
Safety – The field is getting busy busy. Discuss limited amount of people in the air at the same time. Talked about the field boundary.
 
Currently 280 Members.
 
Paul shared numerous correspondence that we’ve received from the AMA, bank statements, etc. Paul shared the budget and the board reviewed and approved.

Callie Graphics

General Interest Old Site Posts

The second example is Hobby King’s new DC-3, a real classic airplane.  Online I found a circa 1960 Pan American Airlines color scheme.  Once again Callie had files for most of the markings, so resizing them was straightforward.  However, this project had one complication, the windows inside the stripe on the fuselage side.  However, she is so well known globally that HobbyKing sent her a sample plane for measurements.  This is the result:

 

Callie 2

 

The third subject was a scale MD500E helicopter, built on a Blade 450X helicopter.  Based on a picture and some measurements, she supplied the lettering and badge icon.

 

Callie 3

 

Callie maintains a website that contains much more detail than I’ve presented here.  For one, she displays forty different schemes for P-47’s. Be aware that even this is just the tip of the iceberg.  I’ve shown samples of her work here that display scale aircraft markings,  She can also supply abstract or graphic patterns.  In addition to printed products, she has many solid colors of vinyl for bright, eye-catching schemes. She is ready to work with customers to mix & match, resize or develop custom work for your needs.   

 

Be sure to visit her website if this interests you, at http://www.callie-graphics.com.  I corresponded with her via email, and always received prompt replies.

“Most Astonishing Airshow I’ve Never Heard of”

General Interest Old Site Posts

 

Four of us, Don Rice (pilot), Frank Gagliardi, Jerry Neuberger, myself Ron Peterka (all builders) and got set up and prepared for a test flight.  There were already a couple of hundred folks around working on the set up, or just curious locals.  Unfortunately, the model decided to be a problem! ONe engine flooded on the first start try.  A new plug and time finally had it running.  Then on the first take-off attempt, about 3/4 of the way down the runway, the nose wheel broke and came off the model leaving it to drop on its nose turret and plow 10 feet of dirt along the edge of the runway, all the while two of the engines which hadn’t touched the ground continued to idle till we got to the airplane.

This might have caused some to cancel, but with the help of a Yuma modeler, we were able to repair the nose gear and replace the steering cables.  Attempt two was aborted by a throttle servo deciding it was retiring, and prompted a mad dash to a local model shop for a replacement.  With all four engines under control we finally got our test flight in around 5:00 PM.

 

On Saturday the B-29 flight was the main event of the airshow and every eye was on the model as it flew.  A couple of very low (4 ft altitude ) passes drew applause from the large crowd.  The model has great ‘presence’ in the air and when Don dropped the gear and entered a long final a lot of people held their breath.  A perfect touch down and safe rollout made it a perfect day.

 

After the scheduled airshow flights were ended all the models, about 30 of them, were lined up on the runway for the spectators to get close to and talk to the pilots.  There was huge crowd around the B-29 and the most asked question was : What is the covering?  Answer: Air conditioning duct tape applied in a couple of hundred pieces.  The other modelers had taken their models back to the pits and we still had spectators asking questions until we finally told them we had to get started preparing the model to return home that afternoon.

 

Russ Verbael, of the Yuma Aeromodelers bid us a safe ride home and thanked us again. There is no way that club could have made us feel more welcome.

 

Please see the pictures here.  Scroll up the page.