General Interest

SILENT ELECTRIC FLYERS OF SAN DIEGO

Another Great District X Fly Field Visit – Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego!

While spending the weekend in the San Diego area, my first stop was the Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego (SEFSD) at their Mission Bay Model Aircraft Park near SeaWorld. Club Secretary John Casilio took the time to show me around the field and share some of the history of the club and flying site.  I also learned about Steve Manganelli, who helped found the club around 1995. Today, the club has approximately 300 members, a 500-foot runway, and operates with a 200-foot flying ceiling. One of the first things that stood out to me was just how active this flying field was.  The Pilot benches and pit area were nearly full, with members preparing airplanes, flying, and simply enjoying time together at the field. There was also a tremendous variety of electric aircraft.  Walking through the pits, I saw everything from smaller sport and aerobatic airplanes to warbirds, twins, scale aircraft, and some very impressive electric jets.

The pictures really tell the story.  There were airplanes everywhere! The location itself also makes this a pretty unique flying field.  You’re flying in the Mission Bay area surrounded by palm trees and beautiful San Diego scenery, with SeaWorld visible nearby.   I also learned something interesting about the history of the property.  From approximately 1952 to 1959, the site was used as a Class I landfill before eventually being covered and, years later, becoming the model aircraft flying site members enjoy today.

More than anything, I enjoyed walking around, meeting members, talking airplanes, and seeing another healthy and active model aviation community. That’s one of my favorite parts about traveling throughout District X.  Every flying field is different, and you really don’t understand what makes a club special until you get out there and spend some time with people who call it home.

A huge thank-you to Jon Casilio and everyone at the Silent Electric Flyers of San Diego for welcoming me and allowing me to spend some time at your field. It was a great first stop during an incredible San Diego weekend!

Safe Flying and Safe Landings!

JR Schiager

AMA District X Vice President

By Steve Manganelli

The outcome of the conclusion of our “Legal Situation” suggests the need to emphasize the hazards associated with unintended motor starts both on and off the flying field. Okay, if I intend to run the motor someplace other than on the runway, I know to restrain the plane, right? Not only that, but stay behind the prop arc and ensure no others are in the prop arc prior to doing so, right again? So how do we prevent something that we don’t intend to happen in the first place? By controlling the adverse consequences of the occurrence with some general precautions. 

First a little historical perspective, before Electric Propulsion became prevalent over Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) and microprocessors went into everything, all connected servos moved to the position commanded by the transmitter stick position as soon as the receiver and transmitter were turned on (assuming they were on the same frequency and brand). There was no linking or binding back then. If you turned the Rx on first, the servos would jitter randomly or just move about 10 degrees and then stop. In the ICE days (Ice Age?) one of the servos would be connected to the carburetor butterfly valve and its position did not instantaneously command the engine running/prop turning. If you wanted the engine to run, you had to put in fuel, attach a glow plug battery and either flip the prop by hand or force an electric starter motor into it; in other words have strong and deliberate intent to run the engine and restrain the model one way or the other. You generally move the throttle stick to idle position before doing this. There was virtually no way to have an unintended start of an ICE.

As we evolved to E-power things changed. Our early “ESC”s were just relays connected to servo amplifiers. The motor would start (full throttle) when the pulse threshold was reached and the relay closed. We tended to use an “arming plug” in series with the motor circuit as a safety measure. There was no BEC back then, the separate Rx battery would energize all the aircraft functions (servos) and you could listen for the relay clicking to know when the motor would turn on. When satisfied, install the arming plug (if applicable) and/or the motor battery and you’re ready to fly.  However, even if there was no arming plug, we considered this configuration “armed” as in an armed bomb! You made the final connection behind the prop and you made sure spectators were clear of the prop arc when you carried your model to the runway. Our first brush commutation variable speed ESCs would still start on command and we respected these even more as there was an audible signal  as a prelude to operation.

Jump to the present : we have microprocessor controlled ESCs that are designed not to arm unless a low throttle pulse is detected.  Our receivers are designed to either do nothing or a specific (programmable) thing if there is no signal from its bound Transmitter. It’s very easy to consider your power system completely benign until you want it to operate. I often find myself with elbows spread trying to un-mate XT-60 connectors with one forearm inevitably in the prop arc…Here are my personal recommendations for control of unintended motor starts:

• Heed the directions that come with your model regarding throttle/ESC adjustments and set it up with the prop removed from the aircraft. Why? Because there is a good chance the motor will be running on your home workbench while you make adjustments to ESC and radio settings. Bring it to the field configured and ready to fly.
• The field work benches are for aircraft final assembly and battery installation. Install battery from behind the prop and stay behind it as you carry it to the runway. Avoid placing others in line with the prop arc as well.
• Control the Transmitter as the model is carried to the runway. Knocking over the transmitter with the model and possibly advancing the throttle is a hazard to be avoided. As long as we are holding on tight to the airplane, no accident, right?
• Regarding retrieving your small model after landing or placing it on the runway : Carry the transmitter in your left hand with your left thumb pinching the throttle stick to low. As long as I have this feeling, I know I’m not brushing the TX against my belt or other articles of clothing and unintentionally starting the motor. I’ve been doing this for years and it has become a habit. If your thumb is anywhere else but pinching the left stick down, it will feel “wrong”.

So there you have it: my recommendations to control unintended motor starts. This kind of safety precaution doesn’t lend itself to sound bit admonitions; it’s more of a cultural thing evolved from respect for hazard and potential consequences.

Recently someone sent me link to the June 2026 Issue of the TPG Newsletter.  Of particular interest was the article on the history and anniversary of the TPG Gliderport, page 19.  Click the cover page of the June N/L issue below to find all the outstanding TPG back issues.  

Test Pilot needed

My name is Dwight Filley and I have several modified kit aircraft that I would like to test, but I can’t because my vision is too poor.

I would like to offer an hourly payment to one of the pilots who is qualified to fly the V 1200.

If you’d like to give it a try, please contact me:
Filleydwight@gmail.com

I will prepare the aircraft and preflight it. The flights are about 2 1/2 minutes long and there are about three or four flights per session.

Please contact me at Filleydwight@gmail.com.

Thank you, Dwight.

The credit for all these great pics below goes to Frank Sutton.

T28 Racing

ELectroglide

Bomb Drop

Click the pic for a great article.

The USA F5B team, represented by SEFSD members Lenny Keer & Artie Means packed up our gliders for the June Eurotour competition in Anthisnes, Belgium.

The Eurotour is a 5 race series, spread across Europe. As F5B is a class dominated by the Swiss & Germans, we unfortunately travel a long way to (hopefully) learn from the best.

The CRPAL (in French, ‘Club Royal Petite Aviation Liégeoise’) hosted a great event with 5 rounds of competition. Beautiful grass field, great flying conditions, and plenty of Belgian beer for the after-competition dinner.

The event was won by Heiko Greiner (GER) and followed by the World Champions Thomas Waeckerlin & Marco Cantoni in 2^nd & 3^rd (SUI). Lenny & I finished up 12^th & 14^th

Back stateside, we have our next team practice at the SEFSD field on August 16^th. For September, we have an event at ‘Lenny’s sod farm’ outside Denver on Sept 5-6

Come down on the 16^th to see the planes or even fly a few laps. We now have a ‘loaner’ plane (slightly tuned down) ready to go for anyone that wants to try their hands at a 10s, 200+ amp, 180mph glider……    It’s available for the 16^th or really any afternoon when the field isn’t crowded, just fire me a txt or email and we can coordinate.

-Artie

Please tell Frank what a great job he is doing with the pictures.  Click below:

Propchella

Propchella Video

Electroglide

Click the image below:

Winners  (click the pic for more pics)

By Steve Manganelli

June 12^th, 2026 marked the 4^th year SEFSD hosted Dr. John Huang’s University of California San Diego’s (UCSD), capstone design class competition for now graduated Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering students. Early in the academic quarter, (7) teams of 4 to 6 students were provided a proscribed electric R/C model power system consisting of 3S1800 Lipos, an appropriate ESC and small outrunner motor. They were provided receivers, economical servos and transmitters that are reused year to year. The rest of the aircraft design/development is up to them! The aim for the competition is carrying a combination of in-flight deployed low density cargo (cardboard box) and high density cargo (tire weights) around the pattern. The day students were provided equipment and fabrication actually began, I provided a lecture entitled “Prafalls of R/C Model Design” in attempt to curtail the foibles of models brought to previous competitions. Foibles happened anyway!

The most important elements of the competition were my SEFSD volunteer test pilots without whom none of the flying (and crashing) would have taken place. Many thanks to SEFSD member and Weedwacker Officer Keith Miller, our own Dennis LaBerge and most gracious George Harper whom took  time off work to support the effort. Thanks much gents. Each pilot bet their fortunes on the success of one or two of the teams.  I also want to give a shout out to our diligent photographer Frank Sutton whom camped out at the East end of the runway all by his lonesome and to UCSD’s lab manager Paul Arcoleo whom supported the on-campus fabrication efforts and proctored the competition on the field.

Three of the teams had their models “ready” a week and a half before the competition and arranged for me to test fly them in advance.  I spent at least an hour recommending and then implementing remedial repairs before any of them were ready to fly. Everything from horrible hinge lines, backwards controls, aft C.G. , excessive control throws needed to be mitigated. Eventually they all flew, one of them the ultimate winner of the competition proving planning is good. One technically is still flying as it’s flexible tailbooms did not allow enough downforce to climb and we only achieved enough altitude to plow into one of the palm tress adjoining the sidewalk! Hats off to them for building a complete new airplane in just a week and half. The other (4) teams made their first flights at the competition.

Two deltas made up the most interesting models. One student leader assured me his design could fly on 2/3rds throttle and his team should win the competition due to the enormous size of the low density payload. However, it had neither a rudder nor steerable nose gear so it did a lot of ground loops in my piloting hands! After spending most of the competition time trying to fit a rudder and Nosewheel Steering, they opted to change pilots and Keith Miller got it into air and almost made it around the pattern! The other delta also lacked ground steering and the nose gear did not fare well in our loose dirt surface. Our intention was to try one more ROG and then hand launch it, but the nose/motor mount collapsed on that last ROG attempt then the whistle blew ending the competition at the proscribed time. While the ill prepared teams made remedial repairs, the prepared teams added more and more payload for higher scores. Simple and robust usually wins!  Certificates were handed out for best this and best that along with the highest payload value ending another year of SEFSD supporting our academic Aerospace Engineering community. The after-picture shows Dennis’s hat, 2^nd from right and Keith Miller, tall hat in about the middle. Dr. Huang is at right.

Group Before

Group Awards

High AR Delta

Huge Box Delta

Palm Tree Group

By John Casillio

On May 30^th, volunteers from the club contributed their time, tools and effort to address some of the worsening condition of the carpets in the pits. Overtime the carpet wears, dirt blows under and piles up in the seams, and some of the fraying/thinning edged get folded over to create areas that can develop into tripping hazards. Club members worked together to flatten out the areas of the carpets that were potential tripping hazards and replaced a few sections of very worn carpeting.

Due to the number of volunteers it only took an hour, and the board has since ordered stakes to take the now flat carpets and secure the seams. This should lead to a safer pit area with less tripping hazards. I chose the words: “less tripping hazards” careful. We’re still standing on carpets laid on generally natural terrain – no amount of work will eliminate that within the bounds of our temporary use parks permit. Continue to walk carefully in the pit areas and wear proper footwear for your own safety [and the safety of the planes near where you’re walking!].

A huge thank you to the volunteers who showed up to help, you didn’t have to but you did and you made a difference. Thank you to the volunteers who responded to the survey and volunteered to help on the alternative days. The board selected the days with the most responses on availability and you’re willingness to help is noted and appreciated.

Thanks to Frank Sutton for documenting with photos and bringing Alex along to work a shovel as well.

Please pass along any feedback, suggestions, or concerns regarding this event to John Casilio: jfcasilio@gmail.com.

If there’s an area of carpet you feel still needs to be addressed or is a safety concern please let the safety officer [Steve Neu] and myself know as soon as possible.

UCSD Competition

by Steve Manganelli

On Friday, June 12th starting at 7:30 A.M., SEFSD will be hosting the University of Calfornia, San Diego’s graduating Aerospace Engineering Students in their capstone design class. The field will be closed to sport flying until approximately 12:00 P.M. Seven teams of (4) to (6) students have been working since Winter Quarter, 2025 to design and fabricate an R/C model capable of carrying cargo in a proscribed manner. Points will be awarded from just flying the pattern with a high density cargo and again with a low density cargo which has to be dropped from the aircraft in flight. Of course the models have to be proven to fly before any missions can be attempted. Dennis LaBerge and I will be sharing the flying the flying chores between the teams. Before anyone worries about dropping things, the student designs must use a power system consisting of 3S1800 lipos and an appropriately small motor. The largest thing dropped last year was about the size and weight of a shoe box!

The first year of competition, there were (6) teams participating in flyoff and only 1 or 2 flew successfully. I observed the same model airplane building mistakes on most of the models; some were correctable on the field, some weren’t. This was as frustrating to the students as it was for conscripted pilots Dennis LaBerge and myself. To counter this on subsequent years, I took over Professor John Huang’s class for a day, created and gave a lecture to the students at school entitled “Pratfalls of R/C Modeling” which covered basic R/C modeling tenants like servo/surface geometry and linkage, warps, control throw and direction, decalage, hinge integrity, landing gear placement and weight and balance effect on general configuration. I know I made a difference as the flyoff after my first lecture, (6) out of (7) flew successfully. This year’s lecture was given on April 28th, coincident with the students obtaining their servos, motor and battery to commence fabrication. I happen to know that (5) teams have chosen a conventional aircraft configuration and (2) have designed something unconventional; that’s always fun! 

If you’re free on Friday, June 12th, come out and watch SEFSD support our academic community of newly minted Aerospace Engineers.  Last year, Larry Kosta contacted KUSI News and being a slow news day, they put the event on TV news! Can’t say if it will happen again, but it might!

Thanks to those who volunteered to help with carpet maintenance in the pits. Based on the poll the board of directors selected Saturday May 30^th (Sunday May 31^st as the weather alternative) starting at 3pm to address the carpets in the pit areas which have accumulated dirt in many of the seams between the sections that create ridges and uneven surfaces. These area add tripping hazards in the pits. Here’s some additional information/the plan. See you on Saturday.

• If possible I’d like to keep the flying field open, there’s usually quite a few less people by the afternoon, so I think we’ll be ok. I’ll ask flier’s to bear with us moving a little bit on those around on those days so we can keep flying open but still get work done. Worst case we ask you to switch tables or stand on the other side of the table for a few minutes.
• If that becomes impractical or unsafe we’ll temporarily suspend flying for the absolute minimum timeframe.
• It’s not too late to sign up to volunteer, please use the google form so I can keep track of emails and/or phone numbers in case there’s last minute communication updates needed.

• https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdzjcHnHUjfjMxpG7wv3Uo6uRHoffYMIL_f-JvvaK3GdTYImg/viewform

• Bring a shovel – short handled flat shovel is probably best, but any shovel will do.
• It’s not full summer yet, but it’s getting hotter in the afternoons. Please dress in appropriate work clothes, bring water and sun screen/hat, don’t over-excrete yourself and get hurt or heat stroke.
• We’ll work in teams to lift the carpet seams, flatten out, remove or add dirt as needed to level out dirt under the carpets.
• In the future the board of directors will stake down the carpet seams to help further alleviate the tripping hazards. Flattening the carpets now will make that effort more effective.
• I’ll ask some individuals directly who volunteered extra tools to bring them.

Please reach out with any questions or concerns and thanks for being willing to help the club.

John Casilio

(610) 360-5547

jfcasilio@gmail.com

Great new pics from Frank Sutton.

Dart Drop

T28 Racing

Electroglide

Frank Sutton

Alex was on duty at San Diego International Airport (SAN) today (01MAY2026) to see Southwest Airlines’ (SWA) newest Boeing 737 MAX 8 land and he got a couple of awesome photos! This airliner flew passengers for the first time just two days ago on 29APR2026. The “Independence One” (Tail Number N1776R) is painted to honor the USA’s upcoming 250th Independence Day on 04JUL2026! Independence One will remain at SAN overnight and is departing for San Francisco International Airport (SFO) tomorrow afternoon. What a beautiful and patriotic airliner! Alex was fortunate to be at work to see it land and get this photo! Hobie

Please check out our Classified Section.  Some great bargains.  Just click on the pics.

Many vintage planes and related items:

Nexa G36 Sport

By Steve Manganelli

Another Design/Build/Fly competition is in the history book and SEFSD’s Mission Bay Park Field was the site of all test flights! Safety Officer Steve Neu is San Diego State University’s Aztec AeroDesign Club’s Test Pilot and I am their Design Mentor. The DBF Flyoff was held in Wichita KS April 16^th through 19^th with 98 Teams from around the world competing and SDSU ultimately placing 46^th.

DBF is a unique competition for undergraduate Aerospace Engineering Students as the missions change each year preventing any iterative designs. This year’s missions were a simulated cargo and passenger carrying aircraft that also had to tow a banner with the schools logo. The scoring formula was complex involving number of cargo increments (hockey pucks), passengers (rubber ducks) and the size of the banner. The number of circuits of the 2000’ oval course attained in 5 minutes and the size of batteries (fuel) also figured in. There was also a ground mission where speed to change the aircraft configuration from passenger/cargo carrying to banner towing was measured. Many schools including SDSU opted for the minimum allowed combination of 1 cargo element and 3 passengers believing a faster ground mission and more laps from a faster, smaller aircraft was advantageous. The team from Slovenia that ultimately won, had a very fast airplane, used the minimum cargo and carried a very large banner, approximately 50” X 250”.

SDSU DBF began when the new rules were announced last September. The team led by Carla Leon was divided into Systems, Aerodynamics, Structures, Manufacturing, Propulsion much like a full scale aerospace company. Absorbing all the rules into a conceptual design led to a low-wing tail dragger with a span of 55” which was constrained by rule. The Propulsion team selected 6S3400 and 6S4500 batteries, a Neumotors (what else?) 4619 and an APC 11X10E prop. Structures opted for a commercially built carbon fiber tube for a no-risk spar and the airfoil, carefully selected by the Aerodynamics Team was hot wired foam, fiberglassed and vacuum bagged. The fuselage pod is carbon fiber cloth and epoxy wet-layup made in 3D printed molds, courtesy of the Manufacturing Team.

The prototype “Huitzilin” (Aztec for hummingbird) made it’s maiden voyage at SEFSD Field. The need for ¼ lb of lead in the tail led to some quick fuselage reshaping and the 2^nd and 3^rd much lighter iterations were flown in early April. Reliable deployment of the banner was a constant albatross hanging around the team’s neck. Unlike full scale banner towers that catch the banner on the ground with a flying hook, the DBF aircraft has to takeoff carrying the banner, then deploy it to ground visible configuration, then release it before landing. We had trouble with all three facets in practice : at the competition we deployed, but the banner failed to unfurl to a visible configuration, giving us a 0 for that mission and pushed us down to 46^th place.

Something new this year was Live Streaming of the entire contest by NASA. You can now see a replay of the entire contest here : 2026 AIAA Design/Build/Fly – YouTube SDSU flew at 3:16:00 on Day 2 and 1:03:30 and 8:27:00 on Day 3. Watching that banner whipping around was heart breaking. Many of the students will be returning next year and already full of ideas on how to do better. SEFSD will be there to support them and our San Diego academic community.