Next meeting: Tuesday, February 18th 2003

Time: 7:30 Pm

Veterans Memorial Bldg. (Northwest Room) Across from Fairgrounds

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

Sid Maxwell – Rohnert Park

And a father and son team:

Brian Lee and his son Anthony Sebastopol

Submitted by Phil Leech

Guys at the field were treated to a racing spectacle on Sunday Feb2 as Red Jensen, Steve Cole and Phil Heidt staged two impromptu racing heats. They didn’t have proper pylons to fly around and the planes they flew were different sizes with an assortment of engines but they were close enough in performance to make a pretty good race of it. Not sure if they intended to get anyone interested in racing but I’m sure they have some of us thinking about it. What a great spectator sport! Roland DeConti soloed recently with his Sig Kadet equipped with a CoPilot but he lost the Kadet last week as he made an approach from the North and fell victim to the infamous downdraft that has caught many of us in the past. Time to get your reserve Kadet in the air Roland. Michael Beito and Tommy Blake arrived with a repaired, beefed up PT19. The quarter scale bird sports Robart struts and a Saito 150. Mike Cingari flew the maiden flight with Mike Beito and Tommy taking the sticks for some very realistic flying. Mike Cingari also flew Loren Fong’s scale Bell helicopter in a realistic scale flight that Loren recorded on video.

Doug Boucher regrets not realizing that he was inverted over the field as his Edge 540 piled in with no time to correct. Dave Locatell got a flight with the J-3 Cub that he bought from Doug. Suffered some engine problems but I’m sure he’ll get them straightened out.

Art Sutter has returned from his vacation in Argentina and he bought the J-3 Cub that was built by Gene Novak. You may have seen the Cub on the ceiling at Hangar One. Gene had painted the Cub maybe too many times because it was kind of heavy. Art had some difficulty taxiing the plane and after some computer adjustments to limit rudder throws he attempted a take-off. After a short run Art lifted the Cub into the air but it proved to be a little early as the plane promptly stalled and crashed to the runway. Looks like a little more ground speed was needed because of the weight of the Cub. Good to see Dale Chiaroni at the field with a new Ugly Stick. Dale has been occupied for the past year or so flying full scale airplanes but he has decided that Ugly Sticks are a little more affordable. Stevo flinaly finished his Great Planes Venus 40 and brought it up to the field. Has a little trouble with the engine at first but Red helped him tune it in and took it out for the first flight. Red said it was a great flying plane. Stevo then took it out and agreed. Lands really nice too.

Three new members were introduced: Wayne Fredericks, Sid Maxwell, and J.T. Williams.

The door prize drawing was held with Gil Delagnes winning a gallon of fuel.

Secretary's Report: The minutes were published in the previous newsletter and approved by the attending membership.

Treasurers Report: Tom reported that we have over 60 members paid up at this time. (A reminder; if you haven't paid up by now, your flying privileges will be revoked)

Old business: The president gave the members a rundown of the last board meeting.

New business: Gil is working on getting a new key from the county for the pond since the locks have been changed.

John Reade (chairman of the field maintenance) reported that there has been a lot of debris laying around at the field lately. Please pick up after yourself.

It was reported that Joe Kagan was at home recovering from a triple bypass operation. We all wish him a speedy recovery.

The raffle was next on the agenda with the 50/50 prize being won by Gary Child. Other prize winners were Sid Maxwell, John Reade, Tom Haddorff, Dan Coffman, and Kevin Riecke.

Rob gave a great demo on the care and maintenance of TX and RX batteries.

For show and tell, Steve Cole brought in his Miss Ashley 1/12 scale race plane used for scale warbird racing. Also shown was a 1/12 scale Corsair by Gary Child, a combat plane that he modified for sport flying. Stevo brought in his Great Plains Venus .40 ARF that he has finally finished.

There being no more business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:00 pm.

Members attending: Stevo Smith, Steve Cole, John Reade, Larry Miller, Rob Jensen, Mike Cingari, Phil Leech, Gary Child, and Guy Nicholas.

Old business: The audit committee has finished with the books and reported to the president. No problems were found.

Made a few minor modifications to the flyers that will go out to all members along with a copy of the bylaws. These should be in the mail within the next couple of weeks.

Working on setting up the budget for the upcoming opening day event and picnic.

Gary Child will be making up the flyer for the event as soon as he receives all the pertinent information.

New Business: Members were brought up to date on the plans for the PCAM airshow in August. This year, being the centennial of the Wright brothers first flight, the emphasis will be on the early days of flight.

There being no more business, the meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Larry Miller, Secretary WCF

NOTE:

For the next meeting, Gil Delagnes is going to bring in one of his floatplanes and explain to us all the do's and don'ts of floatplane setup and flying. Also, Doug Boucher is going to bring in his night flyer.

Well, we are off and running and it's looking to be a great year! The last board and general meeting had a good vibe about it. I felt a sense of unison toward a common goal for the club.

All of the general meetings are full of great fun with raffles, show & tells and demos. The board is working on having guest speakers from outside of the club to discuss different aspects of RC flying. So I would encourage more of you to attend.

Just a reminder, Stevo needs new PICS for the web site so if you have a winter project (if you still want to call this winter) please give him a hand. See you at the field!

Pres Cole

Spring is in the air! It seems as though we really didn't have any winter downtime. Judging by the flurry of activity at the field, flying season is definitely here.
I have been working on a couple of 1/12 scale planes for the monthly races held in Sacramento. I should have the first one (Stiletto) ready in a couple of weeks. I've also been playing with a wireless video camera strapped to a slowflyer plane at the shop. Its pretty cool! It runs off of a 9v battery and has a receiver that also runs off of 9v and will plug into a TV, VCR or camcorder. It has TV quality resolution and has been providing some great arial shots of the store and surrounding areas. One of my favorites is looking back at the tail. It’s kinda neat to see all the surfaces working as you fly. I'm gonna try to fly it at some point by just looking through the monitor. Needless to say I'm using a very slow and stable plane. I'll bring the whole set-up to the next meeting for show & tell.
That’s all for now.

Red

Name that plane

Submitted by Rob Jensen

Due to technical difficulties we’ll have to have a regular text name the plane selection this month.

Here's an odd one. Name the first passenger casualty of a crash, and who was the pilot?

Submitted by Sid Maxwell

Intorduction by Stevo

Well you have heard us ask for assistance with content for the newsletter just about every issue and low and behold someone else has taken us up on it. We hope this becomes a habit.

This is from a new member, Sid Maxwell and hopefully will become a regular addition to this rag. Thanks Sid and welcome to the club and the newsletter team.

Timely Tips

Can you imagine in this day and age with all the technology we have that we still have to contend with the

"top that comes on the CA bottle of glue".

If they don't get glued to the bottle itself they get clogged with hardened glue and will not go back on.

You can solve that by soaking the top in Acetone overnight to make it new again, but it will happen again.

What I've found that works for me is: throw the cap away, get a piece of medium fuel tubing about 1 1/4" long, glue a 1/4"piece

of 1/8"wood dowel in one end and just slip it on the glue bottle.

In time it will get hard on the end but just cut off the hard spot and it will be ok again.

Howdy fellow flyers. Guess you already read that I got my Venus 40 done and flying. It is a sweet flyer. Goes exactly where you point it and has very good vertical and lands soooooo smooth. I know I was joking around about how long it took to put together but it really went together well, I’m just slow.

The plane can knife-edge forever. I flew the pattern the whole way knife-edge. Needless to say, I am very happy with the performance.

I had to get some help with tuning the O.S. Max fx 46 from Red but after that it ran like a champ. He also took it up for me the first time to make sure it was all good, and it was. The only problem other than that was the way I had installed the cowl. I tried to get by with balsa rails which broke of course. I flew the other flights without the cowl with no problems. It’s not as nice looking but can fly just as well.

I have since replaced them with some hardwood. I also installed an exterior re-fueler. It works great and is allot easier than pulling fuel lines off and on.

If you are looking for a next step up from a low wing trainer and ready to sharpen your aerobatic skills then this is the plane. It is exactly what I was looking for.

Here are a few sent in by Jeff Costa. He has a beautiful new bi-plane a 60 size Super Aeromaster. He is putting the finishing touches on it and should be ready for flight soon.

Very nice and a unique trim scheme. Looks like work to me. Great job Jeff.

Remember last month when we had the pics of John Reade’s chipmunk that had a little run in with Gary Whit’s heli? Well I have a pic of the heli and you won’t believe it. There doesn’t appear to be a great deal of damage. Looks like the tail boom is bent but other than that I can’t see anything more from the pics. So keep this in mind the next time you are thinking of playing chicken with a heli, they are tougher than they look.

That’s all folks. See ya at the meeting and at the field. Don’t forget, Friday is Valentines Day so if you don’t want to be grounded you better hold off on that new engine until next week or at least buy the flowers and candy first. Don’t worry, we won’t tell.

Happy flying,

sTevo

P.S. Remember to send in those pics or stories, tips, etc.

Also, if you are not getting the email version and are capable of receiving email then please let us know. Every little bit we can save on postage is appreciated and helps the club in general. It’s just the same all you have to do is print it out if you want a hard copy. Every bit helps.