Daily Archives: January 26, 2018

10 posts

President’s Corner for Jan/Feb 2018

What a great start to 2018!

With the rest of the country seemingly falling into another Ice age, we have had some of the best flying weather of the year. Mornings are cool, but most of us are still wearing shorts! The rain we received Early in January not only removed most of the fire danger in Southern California, it also brought some (much) needed moisture to our main runway. Pease pass on thanks to Randy for arranging to have the roller delivered to the field, and also to Jim, Dennis, and Dick for their willingness to drive it around for 2 days to get the runway smooth and tight. My only wish is that we could keep it like this year round… We will keep our ears open for further opportunities to roll following rains.

One thing that came to light following the rain was member lack of concern when it comes to locking the gate if you are the last one out. Right after the rain stopped a member went to have a look at the field. When he arrived the gate was wide open, and a non-member was walking het 75 lb. plus dog ON the runway! She was actually complaining at how muddy the field was while her dog was sinking 4-5 inches into our flying surface. If we were unable to roll the next day, it would have been a nightmare! Randy has stopped by numerous evenings in the last month, and nearly every time the gate has been open without a member on site. Not only does this leave us open to dumping, destruction, and vandalism, it also violates our lease agreement with the city which requires us to lock the site in order to prevent unauthorized use. PLEASE folks, LOCK THE GATE if you are the last one out! If there are non-members on site, simply ask them to leave, if there are empty vehicles in the parking lot – Lock the gate and let them figure it out.

While on the subject of the gate, I would like to segue into a conversation about keys to the gate. Over the last few years we have passed out greater than 1500 keys. Our club averages 400 – 425 members a year… where are all of these keys going? I still have the same key I received in 2003, and it works great! We have NOT changed the lock in that time – especially not every year. Please – if you don’t need a key, don’t ask for a key. If you need a key, we are going to pass the cost on to you, $3.00 each. We are not making anything on keys – that is our cost. I just cannot justify continuing to spend $1500.00 a year on keys that are getting lost or thrown away. If you need to purchase a key, Randy Wynant, Dennis LaBerge, and myself have keys.

Those that joined us at the holiday banquet on the 13th can attest what a great event it was! We filled the house and had a fine evening. It is strange to see most of you without sunglasses and floppy hats! It was nice to see the spouses that put up with us having a good time. Thanks Steve Belknap for the outstanding pictures. For a look at who was there, go to the gallery section of the website. Thank you to our banquet committee, Randy and Quan – for making it happen, and thanks to Butch for answering our call out in September when we were looking for a venue. The Harbor House was fantastic, the food was amazing, and the servers were polite and skilled.  A lot of neat prizes went out, congrats to the raffle winners! I haven’t seen any of the prize planes at the field yet, and am interested to see them fly. If you bring one let me know!

The membership grace period has ended. As of 20 January we have 242 paid members. George finished mailing the unclaimed member badges yesterday, so starting this Saturday, 27 Jan – you will need to  present a 2018 badge to fly at our site. This includes participation in member only events like our monthly fun-fly, and hot dog lunch. No Pay, No Play…  Please wear your badges on your person, or on your gear and don’t get upset if someone asks to see a badge. In December, Jim and I saw people at the rotorplex with badges from 2015 and 2016 that conveniently “didn’t know” that theirs had expired. Please help us educate them. Guest privileges are to be extended to new folks (with AMA) only, and do not apply to prior members.  Finally, if you plan to fly this year, and have not joined the club for 2018 yet – WHY NOT! The price today will be the same all year round.

A big shout out to Steve Belknap, Raphi Houri, and Quan Nguyen for countless hours put in to re-vamp and update our website! Steve is back loading our articles, but if you have anything you would like him to publish or ad, please contact him directly. If anyone is looking to sell some gear, please try our “for sale by members” tab so we can make sure that is working properly.

I will close with some usual stuff… Please LOUDLY call your take-offs and landings! It is still the responsibility of the person stepping onto the field to call out their intention and LOOK and ensure there is not a plane inbound towards you prior to stepping on the runway. Just because you didn’t hear someone call landing or taking off will not make it hurt any less – and contrary to popular belief, the opposite sex is not attracted to stitches on your face… The best way to avoid mid-air collisions is to follow the same general flight patter as everyone else. Fly at the edge of the runway into the wind, and 2-300 feet out from the runway with the wind. Leave the area directly over the runway for taking off and landing. Before taking flight, take a look at the others in the air and judge whether it is best for you to fly with them, or wait a few minutes. A high speed jet in the air with someone hovering at the edge of the runway is a recipe for disaster.

Our monthly event on the 27th will be Altitude quest. If you can take-off and land by yourself, you have a chance to take home prizes! The fun fly will start at 10:00 am and end roughly around noon, to be followed up by our first club meeting of the year, and a hot dog lunch served by your BOD. See you there!

Brad

Brad & Big A-10.  Click the pic to see more pics and a video.  Another, better video here by Rob Jahnke.

January’s Event – Altitude Quest

This month’s Club Event:
Saturday Jan 27th, 10:00am

Altitude Quest!

One of our easiest games to play,

Simply spin the game spinner to get an altitude target,
then take off and try to fly your plane
as close to that altitude as possible.

 We use the JollyLogic Altimeter One device
to see how close you get!
$150 in Prizes awarded, 1st through 5th place.

 Monthly Meeting, and Hot Dog Lunch served afterward.

Electroglide Report for Jan 2018

By Jeff Struthers

It was a cool and windy start for the Electroglide Contest for 2018. Lindbergh Field was reporting a temperature of 61 degrees, but the WNW wind of 16 mph made it seem colder. Nine pilots braved the conditions and it proved to be a fun time.

First launch had us pushing into a strong headwind that limited gaining a high altitude. If we applied a soft hand on the controls, our aircraft would remain in place, held aloft by wind lift. Flight times were still short. I got lucky with a flight time of 4:52, Scott Vance had a time of 4:18 and Roger Ball had 3:52 aloft. I picked up a 20-point landing and Stephen Treger got a 10-point landing. Because of ground turbulence caused by the wind, extra point landings were hard. Sometimes just making to our runway was difficult.

Second launch found some of us figuring out how to fly in the wind and find a few updrafts. Alex Sutton had a nice flight lasting 6:59 and scoring an extra 10-points on landing. Scott Vance also did well with a 5:56 time and a 20-point landing. Dennis LaBerge came in third with a 4:36 and a 20-point landing. Ken Dresser and myself had 10-point landings.

The third launch proved to be a tough one. Roger Ball’s Radian aircraft lost its rudder due to a mid-air and the rest of us faced a stronger wind with no updrafts. The longest flight was recorded by Dennis at 3:26. I was next at 3:20 and Scott came down at 3:05. I managed to get a 30-point landing, Scott picked up a 20-point and Stephen and Ken each got a 10-point landing.

On the fourth and final launch we had an improvement with the weather. Flight times jumped with Scott coming back down at 6:35. Alex had a 5:22 and I had 5:00 minutes aloft. Ken had a great landing worth 30-points, Stephen and Elias Treger both had 20-point landings. Elias doing that with a wheeled glider, pretty cool. Alex and Dennis both had 10-point landings.

Winner for the day? Scott Vance and I tied for first place with 161 points each. Young Alex Sutton came in second with 135 points. Dennis LaBerge was third at 109 points.

It was impressive to watch how well everyone flew their airplanes in those windy turbulent conditions. Look at the contest pictures taken by Frank Sutton and notice our wind sock in the picture labeled “Up and Away2”.

Some practice time in the air and a light touch on the control sticks are all that is required to have some fun, competitive flying.

Come out and join us for the next Electroglide on February 17th at 10:00 a.m.

Until then,

Jeff

 

Very close landing

BOD Minutes for Jan 2018

SEFSD BOD Meeting by Ken Dresser

Call to order

Brad, Randy, Quan, Ken, Carl, Tony, Jim & Dennis

Today runway it’s rolled today

3 Guys to help roll the runway

Drivers for the roller

Jim, Dennis LaBerge, Dick Beeman, Carl

Ken has attending list ticket only and need to pay list

Charge for gate keys for 3 dollars each as of today.

224 paid members

Jim store and handle trailer and equipment

4 Saturday club event with meeting and lunch

Altitude quest 27 Jan 10 a.m.

AMA wants us to host event UAS4 stem

Next Meeting Schedule for February 9 6:30 pm at Brad

Meeting adjourned at 910pm

Safety Report for Jan/Feb 2018

Happy new year!

This year is going to be great with lots of flying ahead. I would like to start off, one of our members was cut pretty badly on his finger while landing his popwing. A gust brought it close to him and when he beached to stop it he was cut. Fortunately other members had firs aid kits on hand to help. I hope you keep one in your flight gear. Lastly mixed use space is being infringed upon between the rotorplex and the west end of the run way. Take offs and landings are the most critical time for a fixed wing aircraft. And don’t have the maneuverability during these time to dodge a midair. Please allow the space for fixed wing. And stay in the mixed area pattern. 

Thank you,

Tony Blackhurst. 

2018 Freeze Fly

By Jim Bonnardel

And sadly,  Steve Mangnelli and I met in the air… 

Randy Wynant took this photo of the FREEZE FLY

Freeze Fly Midair with myself and Steve Manganelli.  Sadly, Steve’s plane got the worst of it, and it was a far more valuable plane than mine. He was moving at a good speed and went right through my wing.  We never found the Aileron, or the parts to fill the hole in the foam wing!  Steve’s was also a total, there were even busted servo cases.  Mine landed just as it sits in the photo.  – Jim

 

Randy’s Sea Fury Make-Over into a Reno Racer

By Randy Wynant

Here’s the link to the Reno 2012 Races…..great article going over what the NTSB found out about the Galloping Ghost Race Crash……as well as other interesting info.

http://www.enginehistory.org/Reno/Reno2012/Reno2012Pub.shtml

Here’s the story:

I was looking to get a smaller warbird that I can just put in the car and go…..no assembly.  Trying to keep up with OB ( Brad and Chris ) on the weekends…..well I came across the FlightlineRC Hawker Sea Fury and for 2 bills ordered her up.


Started looking up the plane online and the first thing I saw was this!! 

O.M.G. that is AWESOME!!  Then Started watching some vids, and pretty much LOST MY MIND!


SO,  I started my warbird Project turning my Sea Fury ( pretty much the UGLIEST plane I ever bought )  into a Reno Racer…….

While looking up this bird, I did come across some RC planes that had the same/similar graphics, but didn’t seem quite right, and they hadn’t been made in 4 or 5 years.  So I’ll cut to the chase…..in order are the steps I took to paint this plane.  Thank you to Bob Stinson for his input on paint as well as Michael at MotionRC.

3-4-5 are of the Real Reno Racer……..

The pics are step by step……so if you have any questions, feel free to stop by and ask at the field.  

Dancing Planes

From Randy Wynant

Shane and OB ( Other Brad, Skinny Brad ) found each other…….no real damage but it was funny…..

Caption Contest

1 more with a bomb on the deck…..

There you go……Ground control to tower,  Tower: go ahead GC…..GC: Yeah, what do you want us to do about this here bomb on the deck?  Tower, what do you say we get them fly boys outta them 2 sardine cans, and THEN we can talk about that silly bomb!!  Over……( Caption compliments of OB Brad )