Next meeting: Tuesday, January 21^st 2003

Time: 7:30 PM

Veterans Memorial Bldg. (North Room) Across from Fairgrounds

Get there early for your free door prize raffle ticket!

President: Steve Cole (707) 566-8838

Vice President: Red Jensen (707) 585-3170

Secretary: Larry Miller (707) 577-0496

Treasurer: Tom Haddorff (707) 526-7058

Member @ Large John Reade (707) 545-9831

2003 DUES ARE DUE! Tom Haddorff tells us that our coffers need attention and quite a few of you haven’t ponied up as of yet! You have only until January 31 to keep current on your dues for 2003, after that you’re grounded from flying at the field & that ain’t a good thang. No exceptions, so lets get those checks in the mail! PRONTO!

P.S.

Happy New Year to all from the Wine Country Flyers.

New members this month include:

Matt Tremeroli – Sebastopol

J. T. Williams – Santa Rosa

And a father and son team:

Thomas Low & son Jacob - Sebastopol

Submitted by Phil Leech

Roland DeConti has soloed with his Sig Kadet! It was the 126^th flight for the bird and it has been a long time coming. Roland has been working at it for over a year now and you can’t imagine a happier guy. And he made it with his original trainer…after a few nominal crashes of course. Roland has composed a "thank you letter" (at end of this article) to all of the guys that had a hand in helping him learn with Tom Haddorff being the one that deserves most of the credit.

There is more to the story though. Mike Cingari had watched Roland struggle for control of his Kadet and wondered if a product that he had seen advertised would be any help. The device that he had in mind is called a "Co-Pilot" that is installed in the RC plane and is actuated from the transmitter by using either the landing gear retract or the flaps switch . Once the plane is in the air and the switch is on the device senses the horizon by differentiating between the temperature of the earth vs the sky. After the horizon has been located the device can control the aircraft and maintain a level normal flight attitude all within one second. Roland had Robbie order one for him and he placed it in the plane. At the field Mike Cingari set it up and got it operational. Mike then flew the plane and was satisfied that it did in fact work. Handing the transmitter to Roland he told him, "It’s your airplane" .Roland is not sure if it was the Co-Pilot or if it was his new found confidence but he proceeded to make his first unassisted landing. He was so excited that he went on to repeat the performance four more times! The CoPilot sounds like one sophisticated piece of equipment doesn’t it? The most surprising thing is that it cost only $120! Maybe we can get Mike Cingari to go through all of the ins and outs of how this thing works at one of our upcoming meetings.

At any rate…Hats off to Roland and welcome to the select group of RC Model Pilots.

Here’s what Roland had to say about it:

"Saturday, January 4, 2003 is a red letter day in my attempt to solo a RC Model. Mike Cingari set up my Kadet to fly with the aid of an AutoPilot. I did a few basic maneuvers and Mike handed me the transmitter and said, "land it". Thinking Tom Haddorff was standing behind to take over if I had problems, I brought the plane down like a veteran flyer. I looked behind me and there was no one there. Just to show off a little I made another 3 or 4 takeoffs and landings. The plane is still in one piece!

I couldn’t have done it without the help I got from Rob, Mike, Steve, Tom and a number of fliers – there were quite a few. A special thanks to tom Haddorff for his patience and determination – he wouldn’t let me quit. I was ready to throw in the towel – but after 126 flights I finally made it.. Thanks to all, I appreciate all the help I have received."

Roland DeConti

The Christmas Party was held at Cattlemen’s Restaurant located in Montgomery Village, Santa Rosa on Saturday December 14 with 45 members and guests attending. It was a great evening full of warm feeling and friendship that will be remembered by all that were there. There were cocktails and hors d’oeuvres during the hour preceding the dinner and we all had our choice of menu with prime rib and steaks being the popular choice for most. A nice touch this year was the provision of white and red wine at each table that everyone appreciated.

Doug Boucher presided over presentation of plaque awards to all of the outgoing officers and a special mention to Jill Child for her over the top BBQ at the "Learn to Fly Day" event. Doug and Jeff Costa drew numbers for $50 gift certificates that were won by Ben Ostlind, Tom Haddorff, Bob Sweeden and Ryan Muehlbauer. They did not leave out the ladies as there were also some gift certificates for some department stores with Stevo’s wife, DeeDee winning one. There were a few others as well. It was a special evening for Ryan as it was also his 15^th birthday that we all celebrated with him and his Mom and Dad. There were also some additional gifts for our ladies in the form of gift wrapped tree ornaments which were received well.

The final feature of the evening was the "passing the gavel" ceremony with Kevin Riecke passing the presidential gavel to Steve Cole. A few of the guys and gals retired to the Cattlemen’s Bar for a nightcap but the rest of us headed for home after another memorable evening with our flying friends.

Stevo says "I took some pictures but they came out blurring. Don’t know if it was my camera or the Corona’s. Anyway no pics."

Here’s a letter from Jeff Costa voicing his appreciation for the event.

Submitted by Jeff Costa

I am submitting this letter to express what a great time my wife and I had at the club Christmas dinner banquet at Cattleman’s Restaurant. I think Doug Boucher deserves everybody’s thanks for an event that was well planned, organized, and carried out. To any members who were not able to attend, you missed a really great evening. Changing the venue back to Cattleman’s was a great idea. The atmosphere and seating arrangement was far better than it was at the previous two club dinners. It was good to hear so much laughter throughout the evening. Doug brought gifts for all the women. Even the wives and girlfriends that were not able to attend received a gift. Raffle prizes went to the guys and the gals. A special recognition plaque was given to Phil Leech who has given countless hours of his time unselfishly helping the club. Phil participated in every work party, attended every meeting and has also, along with Stevo Smith, taken over the responsibilities for getting out the monthly newsletter. I personally was

just thrilled to see his efforts get recognized. Also getting special mention was Jill Child, Gary Child’s wife. She coordinated and assisted with every barbecue that the club had at the field this year. Without a doubt some of the best we have ever had. Gary is one lucky guy. Plaques were also given to Kevin Reike, Larry Childs, Tom Haddorf, and Phil Leech for supporting the club as officers this past year. Considering everything the club endured, they have earned our thanks. I am looking forward to the upcoming year with an optimistic attitude that it will be a great one. I want to wish Steve Cole, our incoming President and the rest of the club officers for 2003 the best of luck. I want to wish a Happy New Year to all and thank everyone who attended our Christmas dinner. And thanks again to Doug for organizing such a terrific event.

The meeting was again held at Gary Childs' office. The meeting was called to order by President Steve Cole. Members present were Tom Haddorff, Rob Jensen, Gary Childs, Stevo Smith, Phil Leech, Larry Miller, and John Reade. It was decided that all future board meetings will be held at this location on the first Tuesday of each month. Those members not on the board wishing to attend the meetings should contact a board member ahead of time so that they can be put on the evenings' agenda.

The first order of business was an audit of the books for the past year. Tom did a fantastic job with his presentation. This will be available at the next general meeting for those interested to review.

The appointment of committee chairmen was next with the following results:

Phil Leech

Larry Frank

Stevo Smith and Phil Leech

Doug Boucher

John Reade

Mike Cingari and Guy Nicholas

Prizes for the meetings will be secured by Gary Child.

The demonstrations and show-&-tell for the meetings will be coordinated by the Program Committee. (The demonstration at the next general meeting will be by Rob Jensen on the care and maintenance of radio batteries).

Refreshments for the general meetings will also be coordinated by the Program Committee. (Phil Leech will take care of it this month).The proposed calendar of events is as follows:

June Learn to Fly Day

July Fun Fly August PCAM Show

September Neil Taylor BBQ December Christmas Party

Rob updated the board on the proposed Airshow he has planned for later on in the year.

There being no more business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:20 PM.

The next scheduled board meeting will be February 4th at Gary's office, 7:30 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Larry Miller, Secretary

Submitted by Steve Cole

Welcome everyone to 2003!
Hats off to Kevin, Larry and the rest of the board members for making 2002 a great year!!!
Rob and myself will give it our best to keep the ball rolling for 2003. We have a great board to back us up. We have some new ideas along with some old ones that I think will make it fun for everyone. Fun flys, pylon racing, etc....
To better improve our club, I would like to see more participation from you. If you have any suggestions or can help with various task, please let us know.
Remember we do this because we love to fly!
See you all at the field.
Steve Cole

This month at our general meeting I will be discussing the basics of battery (Ni-cad & Nimh) use and care relating primarily to the use in our radio systems. We will cover all the general do's and don'ts concerning these. Please bring in your batteries if you have specific questions.

Tips from Red;

Remember that you have to be present to win so come on and join in on the fun.

Formerly

Submitted by sTevo

What a great holiday season! Can’t believe it is already past. What did you get from Santa? I got a Great Planes Magnetic Building Board complete with all the fixings. Looks to be a real help in framing a kit up. Took most of a day to put all of the little parts together so if you have been wanting one of these, be prepared to spend some time putting it together. Otherwise I think it will be a great help in building kits. Remember kits? They are those boxes of balsa and parts that supposedly go together to make a plane or whatever picture is on the box.

With the proliferation of ARF’s I’m sure it won’t be long before kits are known as BIY’s or Build It Yourself. Kinda like calling Coke, Classic Coke to me but what they hay. It’s all good, right?

If you have a new plane, chopper or something that you think would be of interest to your fellow pilots, ARF or BIY, bring it on into the meeting for show & tell. It is always interesting to see what different people bring in and talk about. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, heck I am going to bring in my Venus 40 ARF hopefully to the next meeting.

If it flies, or helps you fly, bring it in. Even if it’s a new tool or a new building technique, bring it on. It’s open to all that come to the meeting, even if it’s your first visit, so don’t be shy.

With the addition of this article I realized somewhat of a clash with the names Builders Corner and Reds Corner, too many Corners, so Red go get another corner. NOOOO, just kidding. What I started out to do with Builders Corner was to provide an open forum for all of our pilots to share their projects and or share their particular building techniques & tricks they may have picked up over the years or recently learned. This can be either with pictures or a short article (it can be longer too just didn’t want to scare anybody) or preferably a combination of the two.

What I’m trying to say is I need some input. I will do what I can to get the ball rolling and include some different projects as I possible but this is your space. I know that you have something in your own hangar that is either in the works or completed and flying already.

It may be that you built a specific aircraft that someone else wants to build and you know of a few tricks to build it better, faster, lighter, you get the point, it’s a sharing thang. So come on and get out your cameras, dust of that keyboard and start hunting and pecking out a brief description of what you’ve got. It will be appreciated by all.

Don’t worry about making it perfect as we will check it for spelling and all that stuff. If you don’t have a way to send in pictures digitally, I have a scanner so you can mail them to me. Send only extra copies, as I cannot guarantee I will be able to return them. My mailing address is

Steve Smith

1462 Townview Ave

Santa Rosa, CA. 95405

Speaking of which, look what John Reade just sent me in the email.

Hard to believe this has a happy ending but sounds like John with a little help from his buddy Julio, is no worse for wear. I have had the pleasure of flying this plane and it is a real joy to fly, well it was in one piece then. Spins like an arrow but lands like feather with flaps.

Hope to see this bad boy in the air real soon. Thanks for the submittal John and we feel your pain. See ya on the flight line.

I want to know what happened to the heli? Hope it survived and is fixable also.

Hey, mid-airs happen and we have been pretty fortunate in that area so far.

All can contribute to the safety of the field and the hobby by being aware of other aircraft in the air. One way that has been suggested is perhaps flying with a spotter if possible. May not have prevented this incident but who knows, couldn’t hurt. The main thing is no one was hurt and everyone’s still friends.

Well my Venus 40 is almost done. It has been a real pleasure to work on as the instructions are very clear and detailed. Great pictures included in the step by step manual. I will have some pictures of the finished product next newsletter and should have it ready for the next meeting.

I will attempt to start having links to the website for pictures that cannot fit into the newsletter. I am still working on this and you should see some progress by the end of the month to the website. If you have any suggestions on things you would like to see changed or updated drop me a line.

Greg Penning has just about completed his 33% Aeroworks Extra. I had some pics but due to some technical difficulties I was unable to provide them at this time.

Remember to try and come up with something to share in the newsletter or website for next month. Maybe we will have some kind of contest on the most interesting article or something. Got any Ideas, send em to me.

Take care for now and see ya at the meeting.

Best regards,

sTevo