Next meeting: Tuesday the 15^th of April 2003. Time: 7:30 P.m.

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

A WELCOME TO NEW MEMBERS

New members this month include:
Joseph Geiger Santa Rosa

Bennett McMicking Windsor

Darren Black Healdsburg

Duane "Big D" Hope Petaluma

FIELD HAPPENINGS

Submitted by Phil Leech

I got a call early on a Friday morning recently from Stevo. " Hey Phil, want to go flying?" Art Sutter and I are going to the field about 9am or so and we are thinking about flying for a couple of hours." It didn’t take me long to decide to join them. When we arrived at the field we had four airplanes between us. I had my Kadet (the only plane I have) Stevo had his new Venus and Art had a V-tailed 40 size Predator and a custom Bi-plane. Art flew the Bipe and then I flew the Kadet practicing landings. Wasn’t long though before I crashed into the safety fence tearing off the tail feathers. Art and Steve decided to fly the Predator and Art asked Stevo if he would try the Predator. Stevo was willing and proceeded to put it through its paces. After a successful take-off and a few very fast laps around the pattern, Stevo said, "There’s no control". And sure enough there wasn’t any. The Predator was over the Jungle at full throttle heading for terra firma at about a 45 degree angle. He cut the throttle but the plane had other ideas of its own and went to full throttle. We helplessly watched as the plane disappeared below the treeline. Art and I got in his (what is that thing you drive anyway) 4WD vehicle (this thing was a SUV before they made SUV’s) and made our way down the back road that leads past the Jungle. The County hasn’t done any maintenance on this road for a while and some of the ruts were almost 2 feet deep. Art said, "looks like I better put it in 4WD". So Art got out and changed the front wheel hubs (this SUV is from the stone age). We spent about 20 minutes or so looking for the plane without any luck and Art finally said, "to hell with this I’m losing too much flying time." Back at the field Stevo was adjusting the high and low end on his OS 46 mounted on the Venus. Finally satisfied with the engine he flew the Venus for several minutes before he announced, "Oh, oh dead stick". The engine had quit and Stevo didn’t have much altitude. He attempted a sharp turn to bring it back to the runway only to see the plane stall straight ahead and crash just beyond the Mound. Stevo say’s "If I had just 3 more feet of altitude I could have landed. Of course that’s what we all say isn’t it. Better luck next time Stevo.

What a day. We had three for four in just under 2 hours. Aren’t we havin’ fun?

Spring Fling Air Show and Swap Meet May 17, 2003

They are planning the day around the idea of an Airshow with a number of continuous events. We will have a P/A system with an event announcer (Stevo or Gary Child?) to keep us informed of what’s coming up next. Here’s what they are thinking about for the show. They plan to have a Combat session and a Racing event. We’ve seen Robbie and Steve fly with Phil Heidt and we hope that some of you guys will dust off an old combat plane or racer to join in the fun. There will be Helicopter demos by several of our ace heli pilots and some 3D flying from the airplane guys. There will be some time set aside for Electrics too. There are a number of scale planes that we hope to see in the air too.

Start thinking about what you’d like to fly or how you might participate and give Steve or Robbie a call so they can put together a schedule for the day. There won’t be any fees for flying and we all look forward to a really fun day.

The meeting was called to order at 7:30 pm by president Steve Cole.

There were 27 members present. After new members were introduced, the drawing for the door prize was held with Tom Haddorff walking away with a gallon of fuel.

The secretary's report was approved as published followed by a report from the treasurer.

He also reported that we have 91 paid up members as of this date.

Under old business, the dates for our upcoming events were finalized with the first event coming up on May 17.

Jeff Costa gave us an update on his progress in securing the use of the float pond from the County. They are tough to deal with and things don't look too promising for us.

John Reade reported on conditions at the field. He has cleaned up and reorganized the shed and picked up all the trash. (Note) His job would be a lot easier if everyone picked after themselves before they left the field for the day.

There being no more business to take care of, the raffle was held with the 50/50 drawing won by Jim Dearduff ($58). Steve Cole won a Lazer 3D kit, Sid Maxwell got a charger, and lucky Gil Delagnes took home a brand new straightedge.

For show and tell, Doug Boucher brought in his Sig Senior Kadet, set up for night flying.

When we turned off the overhead lights, it lit up the whole room. And then it started blinking and flashing. It's quite awesome to see up in the dark sky at night. It lights up the field from fifty feet up.

Jeff Costa brought in his recently finished Aeromaster Bipe powered with a Saito .91 up front. Very pretty and flashy color scheme. It flew for the first time last weekend and proved to be quite airworthy though a little tricky on the ground. Jeff is very pleased with it.

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

Respectfully submitted,

Larry Miller, Secretary

Member present were Phil Leech, Tom Haddorff, Stevo Smith, Gary Child, Steve Cole, John Reade, Rob Jensen, Larry Miller, and Guy Nicholas.

Steve updated us on information he received from Jeff Costa on the status of the float pond. It seems the County does not want us to fly there any longer. They want to convert the property into a serene park with no noisy model airplanes to disturb the visitors. A special thanks goes to Jeff for all the effort he put into trying to secure this site for us, albeit in vain.

 Rob is still looking into getting a new frequency pin board for the field. He is also redoing the club application form soon to be completed.

John alerted us to a planned work party for May 10, the weekend prior to our opening day fly-in and BBQ.

Phil, chairman of the finance committee, voiced his concern over the fact that we spent more money than we took in last year. We decided that we would try to cut expenses this year but not at the expense of eliminating things we have done in the past. Food prices should go up slightly in order cover the cost of the food as an example. And maybe not spend so much on prizes for the meetings. The money is there to spend on the members. To quote one of the members present, "We're not a bank".

A discussion was held on organizing the events for the year, such as CDs, cooks, etc.

We also talked again about updating the bylaws.

There being no more business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:30 pm.

Respectfully submitted,

Larry Miller, Secretary

The following is a list of guys that are currently in flight training and haven’t soloed yet.

Let us know if we missed anybody.

Lou Winnard

Ollie Burns

Stuart Dobbie

Bilal Maqsood

Alec Sherrill

Robert Sherrill

Bill Boitano
Jordy Strong

Membership Roster
_{Submitted by sTevo Smith}

On the next couple of pages you will find the 2003 roster. Phil and I spent 3 hours making sure the emails were correct according to info that we had so if you see something that needs correcting, let me know. We also want to thank Tom Haddorff for putting together the roster, theres no telling how many hours he has spent making sure it get done every month. Thanks Tom! If you would like a version that includes email address let me know.

You know, it must be something in the air. Every year around this time I get an urge. I always know its coming, but I’m never quite ready for it. Speed. I need to fly something fast. Now.

I’ve been flying my Quickie 500 with a measly O.S. LA .40 on it. It goes pretty good for what it is. Started out about 97 mph, but I changed the prop, sealed the aileron gaps plus some other top secret sh*t. Now I’m seeing 105 mph level and I think that combo is topped out. Is anyone interested in some simple racing with these? Plane and motor combo’s are cheap! ($100-$125) I’ll gladly help set up anyone’s plane and give you all the top secret sh*t you can handle!

So what next? Well, the International Slope Races in Davenport are coming up May 3&4. I will be taking my open class glider to compete. I’ve been practicing at Goat Rock for a few weekends. Loaded with lead, weighing 9 ½ lbs.,speeds exceed 140+ mph at the start. It bleeds down to about 90 after a couple of laps That’s a pretty good rush. For a more sustained sensation of speed, Dynamic Soaring is the ticket. This has to bee seen to be believed. Basically you are slope flying on a very peaked hill. You drop into the lee (back side) of the hill and do circuits in and out of the swirling boundary layer of air. This produces an amazing rate of acceleration. In three or four laps in a wind speed of 15 mph you can easily top 100 mph, and if you hold on long enough (and your plane stays together) you might equal the world record of 193 mph. I’ve seen a constant 137 mph coming into the wind. Downwind its faster but I have no idea how much. I have video if you’d like to see.

Steve C. And I are working on a couple of 1/12th scale Reno type racers, his is a little further along than mine, but they should be done in a couple of weeks.

Project Pirana, my attempt at a FAI world record has been stagnate for quite some time. I now have a new lap top which will run the

demanding solid modeling software that’s required for the complex design. I’m back

finalizing it and should be cutting metal for the molds in about a month. I’m shooting for 200 mph.

I’ve got it bad, and the only cure is more. Anyone else want to go along for the ride?

Name that Plane
_{Submitted by Red Jensen}

O.k. Two for one on this one. Two questions with two different answers, one prize. Name the plane that has the most examples built? Name the plane that was the first turbo prop airliner. See you at the meeting!

Don’t forget to come to our Spring Fling fly-in, Air show & Swap Meet. It will be Saturday May 17. Bring out your friends and family for a day filled with relaxed flying mixed in with some great flight demos too. There will be combat, racing, extreme helicopter flying, wild 3D aerobatics plus maybe a turbine and a mini full scale aerobatics show! Oh don’t forget the pizza box! This will not be one to miss. Swap tables will be $5, so dig out that unwanted stuff or buy some new. BBQ lunch too. Open to all A.M.A. members, Bring a buddy!

See ya later,

sTevo