Act now to renew your membership in our great club.
Yearly Archives: 2022
165 posts
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all SEFSD members. “Christmas is the season of joy, of gift-giving, and of families united.” “Peace on earth will come to stay when we live Christmas every day.” “He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.” “Like snowflakes, my Christmas memories gather and dance—each beautiful, unique, and gone too soon. “
This has been a great year for our club. We did a lot this year in all the fun we have had. I am looking forward to the T-28 races and our Electric Glide which follows the T-28 races the following weekend in our upcoming year. Our monthly meetings have had a great turnout with members coming down to the field this past year. I do look forward to the upcoming year and the fun will continue. Thanks to Jim B, we will have a calendar with all the events happening in year 2023.
I would also like to remind everyone to renew your membership and most of all, don’t forget to get your tickets for the Banquet on Jan 13, 2023.
This will be a fun event that we have planned for our members, so be sure to get your tickets for they will sell out fast! As it stands now, we have 55 tickets sold, so only 45 tickets remain, so better get them quick! Remember our event at the Air and Space Museum starts at 6:00pm. With your purchase of the ticket, you can enter the Museum anytime during the day and stay inside when the museum closes. You just won’t be able to enter where we will have our party. That opens at 6pm. Also, when you sign in, make sure you get your photo taken by Frank at the Spirit of Saint Louis. Our Catering will be done by Lisa Bender, and I think we all know how that is going to taste. If you missed last year’s banquet, well all I can say is, don’t miss out on this years, you won’t be disappointed.
We have a lot to give away this year for both our wonderful better halves and for us pilots. We have some really nice aircraft to give away. Your ticket puts you in the running for a gift. Our wives will have their own set of tickets and, thanks to Steve Manganelli’s wonderful wife, she has put together a great selection of goodies! I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at our banquet on January 13, 2023. Event starts at 6pm.
As a note to just remind everyone about a few items at the field. We need to remember to lock the bathroom after every use. I know some like to leave it unlock but let’s not do that. Our last lock was lost including the hasp bar as well. We also need to lock the gate when we are the last to leave the field. This past year someone was locked in at the field and they literally cut the bar by the lock and were able to open and leave. If you are the last one to leave, and you see someone else, please just go over to them and let them know that if they choose to stay, they will be locked in. So just a friendly reminder to be courteous and advise them of the situation when you leave.
I also have another item to talk about and that is calling out your intentions. Taking off, Low flyby and Landings. If you’re in the middle of the pits you just might hear someone at the west end calling, “take off”. However, if you’re at the east end and someone is at the west end saying take off, it is very difficult to hear. So please, gasp extra air and yell it out in a loud voice call out your intentions. Thank You members
And last, I have a few Inspiring Christmas quotes for you all:
“My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?”
“Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.”
“I love the excitement, the childlike spirit of innocence, and just about everything that goes along with Christmas.”
“It’s true, Christmas can feel like a lot of work, particularly for mothers. But when you look back on all the Christmases in your life, you’ll find you’ve created family traditions and lasting memories. Those memories, good and bad, are really what help to keep a family together over the long haul.”
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Jovi
By Steve Manganelli
Well, never mind my November column reminiscing about the past year as your President: we have one more Newsletter to go! Short and sweet says Mr. Editor, the kind Mr. Belknap. Let me start off by thanking Larry Kosta for taking the action to divest the Club trailer. It is one thing to advise on how it should be done, but there are some complicated logistics tasks involved and Larry stepped up to the plate to do so. We should have the anticipated funds to offset some of the costs of the Winter Banquet which brings up my next topic.
Have you renewed your Club membership and purchased your tickets to the Grand Event, yet? Quan Nguyen did a great job enabling the Club Renewal along with the opportunity to purchase tickets to the banquet. We’ve prepaid the Aerospace Museum and capped attendance at 100 guests. Since we have just over 300 members eligible and assuming every member could bring one guest, that’s 600 people eligible, so buy your tickets early (if you haven’t already) to ensure you don’t miss out! Jovi has already spilled the beans on the fabulous raffle aircraft and I can say the non-modeler guest prize array is shaping up nicely, thanks to Michelle Manganelli. The join/renew link was activated on December 1. If you’re currently a member through December 31, your new badge with the new Gate/Potty combination will be printed and first available early in the year when we have “Badge Day”, likely the weekend of the 7th and 8th of January. Badge Day saves the club some $ on mailing; those not picked up on Badge Day will be mailed shortly thereafter. The combination will be changed to the number on the new badges on January 14th . New members will be mailed a 2023 badge when they join up.
Our really last flying event of the year was a T-28 race that took place last weekend, the 10th of December. Ten of us braved 65 degree temps, clear skies and virtually 0 wind to conquer the pylons, tough duty! The impetus for this event was a set of medals identified as “December” and “2022”, ergo we had to have another race to use them up. However, race master Mr. Neu forgot to bring them, but he did remember his airplane which he expertly piloted to 1st place in Gold class. Silver winner was Alex Sutton and Bronze to relative newcomer Artie Means, well done Artie! Steve did remember the prizes for the goodie raffle and the medals will be awarded next time he sees the awardees.
Glen Merrit of the Weedwackers announced he was taking over race master duties at their field next year and we are all invited to join in their races. He will follow our format exactly and his races will be scheduled on a Saturday other than the 2nd of the month so us racers can double up! Watch for E-mail blasts announcing the dates.
Let’s go back to the subject of the Club Trailer. Paying to store things we’re probably never going to use again is waste of resources, but storing a few things we are likely to use is a different story. I have custody of a Gas powered back pack blower and a cordless back pack weed sprayer that belong to the Club. If field maintenance requires these things, let me know and I’ll arrange to get them out for you. One final thing retrieved before the trailer goes to it’s new owner is a dry erase board having (to me anyway) a touching message pictured below. A little sleuthing suggested that “Sunday 5/16” must have been 2010, our last Mid-Winter Electrics, or “MWE Spring Fling” as I believed we called it toward the end. It’s a bit bittersweet that MWE didn’t go on, but at least I will “See you next year!” as your Treasurer.
SEFSD donated forty blankets to St. Paul’s Senior Services. This winter, forty more older adults in need will receive a high quality blanket for the holidays. For many of them, it is the ONLY gift they get this season. Our club is proud that this is the third year we have donated blankets to this cause. Many of the recipients say they cherish their blanket and it keeps them warm on cold nights.
A Forty Size (Test Bed) Standard Electric RC Airplane
By Carl Murphy
Introduction
This article begins where all the rest of the articles, tests of as specified by the manufacturer and flown only a few flights, ended. Real world flying, where parts fail, break, wear out, fly off or don’t match the specifications. Not shiny new hopes with failures censored out, and, what it costs, the net cost per hour of flight. Follow along and try these easily available combinations for yourself. And why I have been declared a bad example where ever I fly by Radio Control.
Before ever starting make sure the airframe is set up right, with components that last, then begin the tuning of the propulsion. The setup of of the airframe follows.
By propulsion we are describing the whole package, motor, propeller carrier, propeller, motor-controller (to include any internal programming) and battery. They have to match a specific RC airframe, location and flying style. Ten motors were flown, seven direct drive outrunners, three geared inrunners, varying the input voltage from 3S LiPos through 5S and matching the propellers. Several more motors, some defective, some obsolete, were rejected after bench tests.
Some combinations were later flown in more suitable airframes, see the parallel Fun Cub and the economic comparison of outrunners verses inrunners articles.
If you read a vast majority of magazines articles and their Internet equals, with the exception of competition machines, matching propulsion to the airframe is a neglected art. You get an entirely false interpretation that the author chose, and demonstrated, the best, on the first try. It becomes a form of censorship by omission not comparing equipment. And the tests don’t go long enough to demonstrate stuff wearing out. I haven’t even decided on the center of gravity or control surface throws at three flights, they are publishing everything is great at that much/little experience? Which has led to the current acceptance that cheap equipment is just as good a real, no risking a quality/efficiency comparison. Although many can set a motor-controller for braking the propeller to a stop when in-flight with the motor off, as for setting the motor-controller timing, it’s which-craft (zu Deutsch Wechseleri) to most.
We had 10 pilots show up for the last T28 race of 2022. Weather was clear and cool with light winds—just about a perfect day for flying!
In the preliminary rounds there were several very tight races that could have gone either way. After the dust settled the results for the preliminary rounds were totaled and the flight groups for the final rounds were set. The results were as follows:
Bronze:
1) Artie
2) Alfred
3) Fritz
Silver:
1) Alex
2) Glen
3) Larry
4) Bob
Gold:
1) SteveN
2) Otto
3) SteveM
I would like to that all the helpers throughout the year that have made the events run smoothly with special thanks to Jovi and Jim for officiating the races.
A note on next years T28 racing schedule. As Glen announced at our last race, we will be working with the WeedWackers club in Santee to coordinate racing
Steve Neu
Turns out the Ukrainians are using these 1970s Tu141 photo drones packed with new electronics and explosives to hit targets in Russia. Picture was from the museum in Kiev after the WC. I was doing my “Dr Strangelove” moment:)
From IFLYAMA
Frank shot some great pics on December 4th.
T28 Racing Pics from December
Mid Winter Electrics Pics from 1996 to 2008
This awesome drawing was made by Seth M. Mad drawing skills, I want to see more. . .
Click below for a pretty cool website:
Happy Thanksgiving SEFSD members. I would like to say Thank You to the BOD for this past year. Steve Manganelli was a great President for our Club. He kept us all informed with all events and how the club was running and what we have planned as a club for the city of San Diego. Thank You Steve! Here’s the good news, Steve is going to be our Treasure for 2023. Stepping in for President is going to be Brad Bender. I want to welcome Brad back to the BOD and we all look forward as you guide us through 2023! Thank you, Quan, being our VP for 2022 and he is going to continue as VP for 2023. Allen, for his contribution in being our treasure (I hope Allen returns and comes to our banquet.) and Quan for stepping in, to take over the treasure for the last few months. Ken Dresser for being our secretary when he was able to contribute. Coming in for next year for secretary with be Eric Shapiro, thank you Eric to returning to the BOD! Our Safety officer, Steve Neu, who kept us safe and for the T-28 races each month, and those races are fun, I do believe we’ll have a couple T-28’s at the banquet to give away….
Yes, I will be back as Chairman to guide us though the 2023, and I look forward to the fun we will have next year.
Our members at Large for 2022 were Carl Cox with his contributions at the BOD meetings, Carl will be returning for 2023, Jeff Struthers, wow what I can I say about Jeff. Jeff contributions this year and the many years before are greatly appreciated and we are sorry to say that Jeff is stepping down for the upcoming year. However, Jeff will continue to host the Electroglide for 2023 which is a great event if you have not yet participated in. Jeff Thank You and we hope to see you soon on the BOD once again! Larry Kosta for our logo and shirts, hats, stickers, magnetic logo. Thank You Larry, and we look forward to your continuing contribution to the club. Hello Nick for joining as a member at large for the upcoming year. Thank you for joining us!
We have many non-BOD members who have contributed in more ways than one can really Thank. Jim Bonnardel, who took the task of being our Contest Director for the past year, great news is that, Jim will continue to do our monthly events for 2023. Next year you will see all events on the calendar on our website, this way you can schedule your life around flying…. lol Dennis Laberge, keeping our field in great shape, helping newcomers in flying. Always stepping up no matter what the task is, Dennis will be there, Thank You Dennis! Mark Davis, bringing all that food and drinks, for our Monthly meetings, I tell you is not easy task to do, I have done it. Thank You Mark.
The last Thank You, goes out to each club member who are the ones who make our club, in coming out during the week or the weekends. Joining our events, everyone contributes in many ways. We have two moms who come out and have contribute to the club, Laura Thompson with her son Ty and Spring with her son Neil, matter of fact, both Ty and Neil are in the same class at Bishop…..
It is that time for renew of membership and starting Dec 1 or 2nd, when Quan gets the renew button setup, you can renew for 2022 and most importantly, get your banquet tickets. Event will be held at the Air and Space Museum in Balboa Park. Cost: Yes, we upped our dues for next year to $60.00. Within this past year the cost of supporting our field has gone up. Banquet tickets also increased in priced to $55.00 per person. With the purchase of the banquet ticket, you can enter the Air and Space Museum anytime during the day and stay inside the building once it closes. Our Banquet starts at, we’ll check in at about 5:45 and then get your picture taken by Frank Sutton, (Thank You Frank for your contribution with all the photos and videos you have created). The event starts at 6:00pm, dinner is around 6:30 – 7:00 pm, and then it’s, give away prizes! Here is a list of prizes……
- Skynectic SXtarling 1230mm PNP
- Freewing Vulcan 4S
- Flightline P-51D Mustang 850mm
- Flightline Spitfire Mk.IX 1200mm
- Freewing Rebel V2 70mm
- FMS 800mm T-28 Trojan V2
- FMS 64mm EDF F-16 PNP
- FMS 64mm EDF F-18 PNP
- Gliders, work in process
And our Grand Prize:
AVIOS (PNF) King Twin 1700 Sports/Scale Executive Turboprop Airplane!!!
I cannot forget our better half’s that allow us to go fly our airplanes, that we will have some real nice items for our wives in which Steve Manganelli wife, who greatly is taking on this task. Thank You so much for your contribution! I have also created a video this past year (Who Started the Fire) and I look forward to sharing it all with you at the banquet. 100 tickets will be sold, so get yours as soon as you renew and don’t wait too long, for they will sell out!
As a last item to discuss is Thanksgiving: It’s so easy to get caught up in our busy lives. These Thanksgiving quotes will help you feel appreciative anytime you need them.
- Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year because it reminds us to give thanks and to count our blessings after each flight. Suddenly, so many things become so little when we realize how blessed and lucky we are to bring our planes home in one piece.
- I love Thanksgiving because it is a holiday centered around food, family, and airplanes, three things that are of utmost importance to me.
- Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for those perfect landings.
- Give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current airplane.
Happy Thanksgiving and be safe this coming Holiday Season!
Happy Flying!
Jovi
By Steve Manganelli
As the Newsletter year and my tenure as your President comes to a close, this needs be my “Thank You” edition. I’ve enjoyed R/C modeling virtually my whole adult life, but at the end of the day, the people I’ve shared it with and the places it has taken me, become more memorable than any particular model. I like to think the popularity of our Club is not just because we have the most central City location, least expensive dues and certainly the best Summer weather in San Diego, but that we all like hanging out with each other, sharing each other’s triumphs and commiserating with each other’s follies. We like learning things from each other between flights and getting first hand advice for our next model by searching the flightline for attractive models. In this context, I thank my fellow BOD members whose energy and enthusiasm sets the tone for the Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego, and makes the Club what it is.
The glue that keeps us together is this newsletter, the Club Calendar and a series of E-mail blasts that reminds us of events. All of those tools are the purview of our editor, Mr. Steve Belknap. Thank you for your service, kind Steve! Thanks to Jovi Murek for chairing the BOD to keep us on the straight and narrow, for procuring great raffle prizes for the banquet (hint : we have some awesome raffle prizes for the Winter Banquet, you won’t want to miss it!) and scoring/officiating T-28 Racing and the Monthly Fun Contests. Jovi also pitched in as Hot Dog lead when Mark Davis was unavailable. Thanks to Quan Nguyen for paying our bills, keeping our books straight as replacement treasurer and being in charge of club events as Vice President. Beyond simply paying our bills, he arranged and negotiated our expenses such as the outhouse rental, water truck and Dust Down procurement. I’m going to try to fill Quan’s shoes next year, but it’s going to be tough!
Thanks go out to Steve Neu for keeping us safe, hosting BOD meetings at his home and running the T-28 Racing Series. I have it on good authority that the prizes from the post-race raffle come from his Neumotors business and the club may or may not get a bill; it’s wholesale if we do! I Next want to thank Jeff Struthers whom provided valuable input to the Board of Directors and along with his Misses, conducted Electroglide throughout the year. Even better, Jeff is standing up to do it again next year; thank you kindly, Jeff! I want to recognize Larry Kosta whom along with BOD issue insights, used his business to provide a variety of graphic arts items to the Club at no cost. These include the Lindberg Field warning addendum to the main sign board, the “SEFSD Property” sign and stencil for the new chairs, numerous paper stickers with our new logo and the and Electroglide medal inserts. Larry’s professional graphic artist “Felix” is the one responsible for our new logo. Next, thanks to Carl Cox for reasoned input to BOD decisions and pylon judging for T-28 Racing. Lastly, thanks to Alan Issacs and Ken Dresser for doing what they could when available. Non-BOD members whom made great contributions to SEFSD include Dennis Laberge, Frank Sutton, Mark Davis, Randy Wyant and Jim Bonnardel. Dennis for his selfless field maintenance activities, Mark for his incredible home-made salsa and the rest of the hot dog roasts, Randy for surveilling our field for nefarious homeless encampments and lost airplanes, Frank for his expert photography and graphic arts and Jim for running the Club Fun Contests all year and maintaining the tables. Yes, it’s all those efforts that make us what we are and I appreciate it!
Military scale at the last Club Members Meeting in October was a hoot! It took all year, but master of ceremonies Jim Bonnardel finally found a scoring rubric that us rocket scientists could handle using only half our brains : every other method tried seemed to need all our brains which apparently could not be mustered for these contests…”Ever watch a dog show on TV” says Jim? You just walk up and down the flightline, put the medal on your favorite airplane and declare it the winner! Quan and I had a lot of fun watching the show and coming to agreement on the winner, er “Best In Show” which I recall was a twin bomb dropper guided by Bob Simpson. The lack of paperwork to be second guessed was a bonus!
In closing please support our new President, Mr. Brad Bender, new Member at Large Nick Anton and new Secretary Eric Shapiro and the rest of the 2023 BOD (details contained in the November BOD Meeting Minutes elsewhere in this issue) and of course, see you at the Winter Banquet on January 13th where there is at least one surprise awaiting one well deserving somebody, just saying.
Frank Sutton created the video below to let you know what you missed at last year’s Holiday Banquet.
Tickets will be available soon. We’ll let you know when you can get them.
Bill Allen has been a club member since the 90s and loves delta wing jets. He’s made the coolest jets from some of the most mundane materials. His early jets were made from Dow Blue Foam and the recent jets are now made from $1 Foam Poster Board. Below are some of his creations from the last 20+ years:
Blue Foam A4, 2004
How some of them were launched in 2001. Piggy backed on my Sig Kadet Sr. (Big Red).
Late 90s Skyray delta pushers.
The US Time Trials to select the F3E Pylon Team for the 2023 World Championships just completed in Tarvares Florida. Bruce Brown (the fast one) and Otto Dieffenbach (the slow one) of the San Diego Silent Electric Flyers both qualified for the US team. Claire Dieffenbach served as team Cheerleader. The World’s will be held in the Netherlands next August.
Brody Freeman with his dad caller Gary Freeman Jr. will be our Junior representative. Trey Witte, President of the NMPRA, rounds out the team. Otto
This will be a brief description of my JR Models ARF Cessna Skymaster build. Although the kit was made in the mid-90s, in the Czech Republic, I only built it in 2021. I bought it from Fred Harris many years ago at one of our club swap meets, along with the JR Models Mosquito I built and wrote about previously.
I took no pictures during the build so I’ll supplement with pictures from the finished plane.
First, I present the highly detailed and thoroughly informative instructions. Yup, that’s it, all you get. Much creativity was needed putting this plane together. Although the instructions were minimal, the fiberglass work and wing builds were exceptional. The equipment placements shown are a mere suggestion which I mostly ignored.
The main fiberglass parts of the kit are shown on the drawing near the title box. You can see a fuselage with stub wings and two tail booms with rudders. The wings and horizontal stab are prebuilt out of balsa and covered. A hardware package was included. Formed windows and landing gear were also supplied.
Wingspan: 49″
Length: 36″
Weight w/LiPo: 3lb 11oz
Wings
This plane was designed to be powered by two Speed 400 brushed motors. That would only give the plane about 100 Watts of total power. I wanted to use more like 300-400 Watts of brushless motors. The wings did not have any kind of spar, just ribs and balsa sheeting. This required more substantial wing joiners than the short pieces of brass tube supplied. I used much longer carbon tubes. To get them further into the wing structure, I needed make holes in two more of the ribs. I sawed teeth on the end of the carbon tube and used it like a hole saw to drill through the ribs. Slow going but it worked. The longer joiners also made it possible to have the wings removable. Tape was wrapped around the carbon joiners in a couple places since they were too small for the holes in the fuselage.
The wing servos were a simple job to install. Hinge tape was used to attach the ailerons.
Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
Date and Meeting : 09 November, 2022, 6:30 P.M, Home of Steve Neu
Via Zoom : Editor – Belknap, Member at Large- Kosta, Member at Large- Elect – Anton
In Person : Chairman of the Board – Murek, President-Manganelli, Vice President- Nguyen, Member at Large- Cox, President-Elect- Bender
Not Present : Secretary – Dresser, Member at Large – Struthers
Called to Order by Manganelli at 6:42 P.M.
Old Business ;
- Membership renewals : 308 as of 11-1-2022 compared with 337 at the same time last year. 2022 Membership is closed, renewals and new 2023 memberships to begin Dec. 1, 2022.
- Banquet expense as compared to membership dues. BOD Decision September 15th : Incease Dues to $60 starting 2023, Banquet Fee to be $55 for January 13, 2023.
- Raising altitude limit via AMA/FAA sanctioned Safety Risk Management (SRM) Panel. SEFSD is in the queue, we will be appraised approximately Fall, 2023 when we get close to the to the top of the list. In the meantime we must maintain positive relations with Air Traffic Management (ATM) by abiding by the terms of our current agreement!
- Twenty five gallons of Liquid Dust Down was consumed October 20th. May be (2) 5 Gallon pails OH in Club Trailer.
- Club Logo Apparel : Webstore active, many apparel Items available, Company Owner is Laura Nunez; I got my side panel cap! You?
- Mission Bay Park Permit Review and Commercial Use Guidance Meeting. Commercial Use guidance received (Just Say No!) and Permit/Documentation review completed successfully on 7-19-22 including follow up Insurance Documentation a few days later, Thanks Quan!
- Failed Boom Box. BOD Decision August 10th : Authorization provided to procure replacement Boom Box for about $108 plus tax and shipping; not executed to date. Club owned boom box in custody of Steve Neu used for October’s Members Meeting/Fun Contest.
- RC Off-Road Cars on the field/Parking Lot. Conditionally approved only for “flying” members on a non-interference, non-dust nuisance creating basis.
- Received an E-mail from Justin Coe, Chollas Park Flyers President requesting our support. Their Open House November 5th was well attended including SEFSD members Nguyen, Bender, Manganelli, Neu, Harper, Murek. Thanks Justin for the hamburgers!
We had a good turnout of 9 pilots for the second to last T28 race for the year. Many regulars attended along with a some new racers. Things started out with SteveM and Alex trading places numerous times in the first round followed by Brad and SteveN having a similar battle for the checkered flag in the second heat. There were a few touch and go midair love taps but no major damage. The one more serious solo crash happened when Artie’s T28 decided to dive into the ground near pylon one in the second round. A few new parts and it will be back in the mix next time.
The results of the 3 preliminary rounds set the order for the final bronze, silver and gold races with the results as follows:
Bronze:
1st) Jeff
2nd) Fritz
Silver:
1st)Alex
2nd)Quan
3rd)SteveM
Gold:
1st) SteveN
2nd) Brad
3rd) Glen
We are planning for one more T28 “bonus” race on Dec 10th at 10AM. It turns out we have a set of medals and we need to use them. If you have not already got a T28 check out the FMS web site or Discount Hobbies to find stock. There is more info on the planes and racing format here: https://www.sefsd.org/club-contests/t28-racing/t28-rules-information/
New T28 pilots needing a race number please email me to get one assigned. sneu@mac.com
Allies vs Axis
Pics From the Old Days! 1993 to 2011
T28 Racing for Nov 2022
Hello members and do we have a few things going on right now. First, it is time for our change of guards, referring to our Board of Directors. We invite any club members who would like to join our BOD. We are accepting names for our upcoming election this November 12th, I believe, this should be following Veterans Day which is on Friday. We have the following positions if you would like to run for, they are President, Vice-President, Secretary, Treasure, and Safety. We also invite you as a “Member at Large” which you too would be joining our BOD meetings. Food for thought, remember, this is YOUR club and if you would like to have a say in what it does, then join our BOD. Thanks, you all!
Next on the list,
Renewal and Banquet……December marks that it’s our time to renew (membership had to go up $10.00 to $60.00 due to cost of living which has gone up on us too) your membership for 2023, and it might be time to renew AMA, before (unless you have a two year, four year or life time) you can renew your membership with SEFSD for 2023 and at the same time, get your banquet tickets!!!!! This will be an exciting banquet at the Air and Space Museum in Balboa Park. Your $55.00 gets you the following: Entrance into the Air and Space Museum any time during the day and when it closes, you get to stay inside and continue to look all around. At around 5:30 to 6:00pm we will start checking folks in and get your picture taken right at the “Spirit of St. Louis.” Photos will be taken by Frank. We will have drinks, just like last year, you buy your own drinks. Food will once again be taken care of by Lisa, Brad’s wonderful wife. We will have more of a menu later next month. And yes, the club will have prizes, consisting of airplanes, chargers, and a few other goodies too. Oh, how can I forget about Hats!!!!! Ok, do not worry, I will not want to do that again……This year, Steve’s wife will gather the gifts for our better halves, giving Lisa a break on women’s prizes Oh just one special note, The banquet is only for members of 2022. If you happen to join as a new member before December, meaning remaining October and November, you get to come. Join as a new member in December of 22 or 2023, you will not be eligible for 2022.
This will be our last Club meeting of the year, so make sure you come this weekend, we got Warbirds this weekend. And I am sure Jim has something up his sleeve……We will want to thank Mark for handing our Hot Dogs and in preparing and getting them cooked up for us! Thanks Mark! Thank You Steve, for keeping our members up to date about the club and being our President for 2022, A Job well Done!
How about our runway!!!! Thanks to Quan (current VP, Steve M (current President) for placing down the “Dust Down” and Dennis for rolling the runway. What a job that all three have done and Dennis, as always spending his time of over 7 hours rolling! Thank you, Gentlemen!
Thank You Larry, I see the club’s Swag being worn by a lot of members and it is exciting to see. I heard of some Tee shirts that will have our logo, so stay tuned for more news on that!
I am sorry that I have had no time to work on the DC-3 and my wife is telling me to get it done. Guess I better get it off the kitchen table………It does look like I will have a week off from Christmas to the New Year, perfect for me to build and perhaps get the wings close to sheeting. What can I say, but really, Work is fun! But in the meantime, I look forward to seeing you all out this weekend at the field for we will have a fun filled day!
Thank You,
Jovi
We are down with Dustdown, finally! The much anticipated process of solidifying the topmost later of our dirt to a respectable runway surface was finally completed last Friday. The real selfless sacrifice goes to Dennis Laberge who spent 7 hours on the roller getting the field just right after Quan and myself orchestrated the water truck disgorging! Thanks so much Dennis, your work is exemplary! For the record, Quan and I hucked (5) 5 gallons of Dustdown to the top of the water truck and poured it into the first 2,000 gallons of water and the 2nd 2,000 gallons completes the mix. Proper spreading is an art perfected by Quan and duly instructed to <Ms. Water Truck Driver, neighbor of George Sullivan>. One pass only, so you have to go slow, else you would make ruts on a subsequent pass; the remaining water with the dust down shared between the parking lot and edge of the runway/pit area applied with a “water cannon”.
Other than a lot of mosquitos and moving around a few chairs, Quan and I had it pretty easy compared with what Dennis endured. If you see Dennis on the field, you might want to thank him!
Any thoughts or differences of opinion as to how the Club should be run? You still have time to self nominate. Nominations and the nominal composition of the 2023 BOD will be announced following November’s T-28 race which will be the last Club event of the year. Those continuing on the BOD are willing to shuffle around a bit to accommodate newbies. The “Member at Large” is a good place to get one’s feet wet. All you have to do is attend the BOD meetings on the nominally 2nd Wednesday of the month participate in discussion and vote on the outcomes. The secretary position requires attending BOD meetings and taking minutes, not too hard either. Please think about it. Any questions about roles and responsibilities, please shoot me an E-mail.
OCTOBER’s Club Event:
WARBIRD DAY!
The LAST CLUB EVENT OF 2022!!
October 22nd 2022 10:00 am
Our tribute to warbirds of all types.
There will be a chance to participate in an “Axis Vs. Allies” Attack of our field!
Prizes and medals for defending our honor!
All warbirds for open flying before the runway attack.
3~4cell battery types for Axis Vs. Allies event pls.
Participation earns raffle tickets, all raffle tickets are eligible!
Meeting and FINAL BBQ of the year to follow.
The wait for my dream Spitfire is over.
After having and flying my 80” Phoenix Model P47 for a few months (my biggest warbird at the time), in May 2021, I decided to try something bigger, I ordered a 1:4.75 scale Spitfire (95”). It is also Phoenix Model and distributed by Tower Hobby. Unfortunately, it was on back order and estimated to be shipped in a couple of months. But they have been changing the shipping status month after month, and it is still on back order now.
While waiting for the Spitty to come, I spent time to collect all the electronics and power components for it. I also bought an 80” Black Horse Spitfire from MotionRC (it is still in boxes, a backup plan if I don’t ever get the 1:4.75 scale one).
Then, in mid-September this year, as I almost gave up waiting for the 95” Spitty, and was about to start on the Black Horse. I found on RCGroups, someone in Riverside who had 5 flights on a 95” Spitty ready to fly for sale. I was so excited and, after exchanging texts and messages, the wait is over! I went to Temecula and brought my dream Spitty home.
The plane was equipped with all Hitec HS-645MGs which are analog servos. I changed them to digital D-645MWs except for the rudder, I used JX PDI-6221MG for more torque and less expense.
I also custom made 9 pins quick connectors for the wings and fuselage (picture below).
Here are the specification and setup of the Spitty:
Length: 86” (2184mm)
Wingspan: 95” (2413 mm)
Motor : Rimfire 65cc
ESC: Castle Phoenix Edge HV160A
Propeller: Xoar 23x14x2
Spinner: Falcon 6”
(I will change them to Biela 24x10x3 and also Falcon 6” spinner for more scale)
Battery: 2x 6S 5000MAh 55C in series (12S)
2x 2S 2200MAh LiFE for receiver
1x 2S 1000MAh for retracts
Servo: 6x Hitec D-645MW (2 Aileron, 2 Elevator, 2 Flap) and 1x JX PDI-6221MG for Rudder.
Radio: Tx: FrSky X10S Express (2.4GHz) + R9M 2019 ACCESS module (900MHz)
RX: Archer SR10 Pro (2.4GHz) + R9 Stab OTA (900MHz) in redundancy
(In case the main RX browns out, the long range R9 will take over)
I went over and double checked everything. Then came the exciting and also scary Sunday! The maiden day!!!
Compared to the weight and location of the batteries (8000MAh) from the previous owner, I use much lighter batteries, but it was still nose heavy (picture below, thanks to Fredrick and Brad!). I decided to maiden it with nose heavy since the weight of the nose was reduced quite significant compared to the original setup from the first owner.
Thanks to Fredrick Lorenz for helping as a wingman in my maiden flight, and also so sorry to folks down the runway, as the Spitty created a big cloud of dust when I tested the power before takeoff.
When the plane lifted off the ground, as expected, up elevator trim was needed, also right aileron. After less than a couple laps of adjusting, it flew straight. Although, I had too much throw for elevator and ailerons so I had to adjust my thumbs movement during the maiden flight.
After the maiden flight, I moved the batteries further back and achieved the CG marked by manufacture, and reduced the throws. The Spitty seems to be happy with that. It almost flies inverted without down elevator.
Thanks to Lewis Dotson for perfectly captured both of my flight videos! Links of videos below.
Also pictures from Tom Gluggio, Pete Kwei and help from other friends!
Happy flying!
Brian Zhuang
Maiden flight: https://youtu.be/LbpRA-AB4gw
Flight #6: https://youtu.be/UQSIbAmVGgw
Spitfire landing: https://youtu.be/6Tv2MEfOHlk
P47 landing: https://youtu.be/DOhqsAPyBTc
The plane is from HSD Jets, and runs on four 90mm fans. I fly with 4 batteries of 6S x 5000mah. The length is 118 inches, and scale is 1:23. For comparison, attached is a photo of me standing next to the fuselage.
This plane is easy to control in the air, but difficult on the ground. The nosewheel has very little steering authority, and there are brakes on only two of the 18 wheels. So that’s pretty close to not having brakes. I first flew it up at Hemet, and even there I over-ran the end of the runway.
Then I took it up to the “Best in the West” jet rally. This takes place on a 3300ft runway, so I was able to complete many flights with no problems. It was super popular there, even though it is not particularly large or expensive by BITW standards. The first BITW flight was captured in this video:
I ended up winning two trophies at BITW, “Best EDF” and “Best Civilian Jet” (photo attached). I would like to bring it to SEFSD sometime, but I think it requires some modification to do that. Thrust reversing on two nacelles would do the trick, but I’m not sure I will get around to it any time soon.
Mostly I just flew docile flights, although after a few I got a little braver and did several banked passes (45-degree-ish partial knife-edge) along the flight line. And on the final flight, I managed to sneak in a barrel roll.
Thanks to Bob Stinson for helping me schlep it up to Hemet for the first flight, thanks to Victor Shamulus for the video, and thanks to Andy Davis at HSDJETSUSA who fedex’d a replacement servo to me the week of the event, which enabled me to fly it at Best in the West.
Thanks,
-Mark
