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: Kevin Riecke (415) 898-1174

Vice President: Larry Childs (707) 794-8487

Secretary: Phil Leech (707) 538-8557

Treasurer: Tom Haddorff (707) 526-7058

Newsletter Editors: Phil Leech (707) 538-8557 leechstudios@sonic.net

Stevo Smith (707) 523-4703 stevocs@yahoo.com

Hey, Guys! This coming Saturday is our annual Christmas Party and you don’t want to miss a great evening with your buddies and their gals too! If you haven’t sent in your check for a reservation don’t sweat it! We’ll take your cash at the door! The room that Doug has reserved for us will seat up to 70 and right now it looks like we will have room for you and yours so make a note now to join all of us for a memorable evening with all your flying buds. Cocktails at 7:30 and Dinner at 8:30. There will be door prizes for all the ladies and lots of gift certificates for the guys! You don’t want to miss the "Passing of the Gavel Ceremony" as we honor last years Club Officers and welcome in the new guys for 2003! See ya there!

November 19, 2002

The meeting was called to order at 7:30 PM by President Kevin Riecke with 20 members present.

The Door Prize, two gallons of fuel was won by Phil Leech. That’s lots of flying Phil.

No new members or guests were present.

Tom Haddorff told us that he has sent out the bills for 2003 dues that are based on work that has been performed over the past year by individual members. Normal dues are $80/year and that may be reduced by as much as half to $40/year for service rendered to the club. Think about that for next year! At near year end we have 117 members.

Steve Cole told us that the fabric canopy covers have been removed and stored for the winter. Recent wind caused one of the canopies with frame attached to be blown across the runway.

Gil Delagnes has been watching after our best interests at PCAM and announced that we will be able to fly at next years Air Show. The show is scheduled for August 23 & 24, 2003. This time the FAA is supposed to be dialed in OK but we must file a plan indicating what we plan to do and when we plan to do it. Gil is on the program and things look good this time.

Elections for 2003 were conducted by Kevin Riecke with the following officers being duly elected by unanimous affirmation.

President Steve Cole

Vice President Red Jensen

Treasurer Tom Haddorff

Secretary Larry Miller

Member at Large John Reade

Congratulations guys, we’re looking forward to a banner year!

(Board Members will be decided next month by the officers.)

Doug Boucher reviewed the menu and schedule for the Christmas Party with Cocktails at 7:30 and Dinner at 8:30.

The Half Cash ($47) was won by Lou Winnard. Pays to go to these meetings doesn’t it Lou?

There weren’t as many raffle prizes this night but they were higher quality with Doug Boucher walking off with a JR Flight Pack! Followed by Kevin Riecke for a combo fuel container with attached pump. Joe Olson won a gallon of fuel, Stevo managed a Video Tape and Robbie Jensen finished the table with a 3mm Hex Driver!

Kevin Riecke brought a Top Flight FW 190 D9 that he is constructing. Kevin pointed out that the kit is a "Sport Scale" plane not a true "Scale" model. Some concessions have been made to improve fly-ability and ground handling. Kevin plans to install a YS91 engine with a slimline Pitts style muffler and he will incorporate Century Jet retracts. This project may not be true scale but Kevin has done a lot of research on the Dora D9 and gave us a rundown of its history in the Luftwaffe in WW2.

Steve Cole told us that he and Robbie Jensen are partners in purchasing a 90% complete KR2 Homebuilt kit plane. The KR2 is a low wing monoplane of wood/foam and fiberglass construction. It is powered by a 75 HP Continental engine that should produce speeds in the 200MPH+ range. The wingspan is 20’ and the fuselage length is 14’ These guys are really pumped about their new project. We’re sure we will be hearing a lot about it as work on it progresses.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:45PM with refreshments at the rear of the room. Robbie and Steve had photos of their new KR2 to share with everyone.

The meeting was held at the offices of Gary Child, Mortgage Broker at 1101 College Ave. Suite #240. The meeting was called to order at 7:30 PM with Tom Haddorff, Gary Child, Steve Cole, Doug Boucher, Stevo Smith, Larry Miller, Larry Childs, Larry Frank, Art Sutter, Kevin Riecke and Phil Leech present.

There was a mid-air collision on Saturday November 23 between a helicopter (Loren Fong) and an airplane (Art Sutter) and there was an extended discussion to determine what can be done to avoid mid-airs in the future. Larry Childs told us that mid-airs were quite common at his previous club Bayside Modelers. The large number of mid-airs at Bayside was attributed to the volume of aircraft in the air on a given weekend. We don’t have near the same volume of flights and maybe that’s why mid-airs are fairly rare at our field. The pros and cons of trying to separate helis and planes was again discussed with no apparent agreement. The use of spotters was reviewed but it didn’t seem necessary if only a few aircraft were flying (although our recent mid-air had only the two involved in the crash flying at the time). Steve Cole felt that these were safety issues and he plans to appoint (or ask for volunteers) for the Safety Committee for 2003 next month to help resolve what direction to take.

On the subject of Club Participation it was suggested by Larry Frank that a questionnaire be sent out to the membership asking which Committees each member would be interested in serving on for 2003.

The Website was mentioned because it was felt that many members don’t know the proper passwords to gain access to the "members only" section. Stevo has acquired a DSL line and is working on updating the Website. Plans are to publish the passwords in the email sent out with the newsletter each month.

Larry Frank is working on a new form for information about the club that will be separate from the application for membership. The idea being that we give out general information to many more people than actually want to make an application for membership. Especially at events like the PCAM show.

Doug Boucher announced that he would like to head up another Fly-in event for Spring 2003. This reminded us all that we will be needing to start planning for new board members as well as new committee members and of course the various events that we will sponsor for 2003. Since Steve Cole will be assuming new duties as President he acknowledged that we will need a new Chairman for Flight Training.

The next scheduled Board Meeting is for January 7, 2003 at Gary’s Office.

Meeting was adjourned at 9:25 PM.

New Engine….Have you guys seen the new Evolution 46 two stroke engine. It has shown up at the field recently. It sports a three blade prop and comes with an integral flywheel that smoothes out the idle. High end and low end adjustments have been made "idiot proof" and are designed to simplify engine adjustment for the novice but will be appreciated by most of us. Best of all is the price…$79.95..affordable and reliable too.

Fog Flying…Saturday Nov 16 was a day plagued with early morning fog that didn’t lift until early-mid afternoon. It didn’t stop Tom Haddorff from giving it a try even though his plane disappeared only to reappear several times. Scary.

Mid-Air…Doesn’t happen too often but when it does it isn’t pretty. Art Sutter’s trainer and Loren Fong’s Heli were the only two aircraft flying on Saturday, Nov 23 but they did connect with one another near the "mound". Art’s trainer is history but he did save the new Evolution 46 and the flight pack. Loren’s heli appears to be unscathed. Neither flyer was using a "spotter" and maybe that’s the lesson for us all here.

Tiger Moth…. Brian Blackburn arrived at the field on Nov 30 sporting a new, never been flown Tiger Moth powered by an OS 46. Brian didn’t want to risk flying it so he asked Phil Heidt to do the honors. Phil had some reservations about the servo throws but gave it a shot anyway. The Tiger Moth flew just fine and Phil turned it over to Brian after giving it a thorough wringing out. That little yellow biplane sure looked great and I’m sure it made Brian’s day!

1/3 scale Sukhoi…Art Sutter showed up on Saturday Dec 7 with a brand new Sukhoi powered by a Zenoah 80 twin turning a 24 x 10 prop. Each aileron had two digital servos (at $125 a pop) two servos for the rudder and two more for the elevators. The engine is fitted with a spring starter and a Pitts type muffler. Art wasn’t happy with the ground handling and was happy to turn it over to Steve Cole who took it off and flew it ‘til it suffered its first dead stick landing. Steve successfully brought it down and then took off again to give us a complete aerobatic routine that was highlighted by the on board smoke system. What a show! Hope to see this rig at Airshow 2003!

J-3 Cub…Bob Sweeden flew his pristine Great Planes Cub powered by a Saito 80. Bob is a seasoned flyer and it was a real treat to see him put the Cub through its paces. Bob told me that he flies on "Mode I" and that most all of us fly on "Mode II. Asked what the difference is Bob explained that the rudder and aileron are the same for both Modes but that the elevator and throttle are reversed. Bob learned to fly on Mode I back when they flew with reed type radios and he has never tried to "unlearn" the process. It all works fine and I guess that it is popular in Europe but don’t ask Bob to fly your Mode II airplane……thank you very much.

Lawn Boy Mower….Roland DeConti has donated a Lawn Boy Mower to the Club. Its an older mower but Roland spent $50 on it getting it up to snuff. He even sent 5 gallons of gas along with it! Won’t need it ‘til next spring but we’re sure it will be appreciated then. Thanks Roland!

Hansen Float Site… Chuck Green will be spending the next several months in Hawaii…back in the Spring. He called just before he left to tell us that all is not perfect with the key access to the gate at Hansen Gravel Co. He hopes to get it straightened out when he returns. Doubt that anyone will be doing a whole lot of water flying over the winter anyway. Chuck has been doing a little scouting for an alternate flying site off Hwy 12 on land that the City of Santa Rosa owns. He has been told that another club, The Redwood Modelers, already has a site nearby and that one club is enough. Maybe we need to talk to somebody at Redwood Modelers?

Hey! There aren’t any Ads! Don’t any of you guys have something you would like to sell? Just give Stevo (Steve Smith @ 523-4573 E-mail stevocs@yahoo.com) or Phil (Phil Leech @ 538-8557 E-mail leechstudios @sonic.net) a call and we’ll get your ad published free in the next newsletter. Get goin’!

Howdy and Happy Holidays.

Hope this article finds you well and in a Holiday party mood.

This month’s article is going to be a little short due to a heavy workload on my part. My apologies. Next month we will be back with some new planes and hopefully some useful tips.

On a personal note: Well I finally bought my first ARF a Great Planes Vision 40. I purchased it about a month ago from Hanger One Hobbies but I think there is a problem with it. The instructions said it should take anywhere from 10 to 12 hours to be ready to fly. Do you know that thing is still in the box, I know I have had it sitting on the bench for at least a month now and it is no more ready to fly as when I first brought it home. I even put the epoxy, engine and radio next to it and still nothing. Looks to me like Great Planes has got some explaining to do.

Seriously, it promises to be a great pattern type plane so I can learn to fly with a little more purpose. It will be powered by an O.S. 46fx and have a Hitec Supreme 8 channel receiver on a JR radio. Cost was about 169.00 for the plane so not bad for a pattern/sport plane.

Looks very well built and should go together easily. Read some reviews online and it looks to be just what I was looking for. I will let y’all know when I get it in the air (better yet, when I have it back on the ground in one piece).

That’s it for now. Told you it would be short….

Until next year,

Cleared for landing.

STevo

Just a note:

Everyone who has email and would like to receive the newsletter by such should let me know if you make any changes to your address. Otherwise I have no way of knowing that it has changed other than when it gets kicked back to me as undeliverable.

Late Addition:

This is not in the printed version due to publishing deadlines.

I wanted to thank a special member of the club, my fellow editor and writer of the newsletter Phil Leech. He has filled up most of the newsletter each month since we started with up-to-date happenings and meeting notes that is, in my opinion, a pretty good read. He is tireless in his abilities to help the club in any way he can. Hats off to Phil and thanks for all the hard work. Look forward to working and flying with you again next year.

If anyone would like to participate with helping out this year, let us know with a call or email. We will do our best to let the committee heads know and put your willingness to good use. You can also save on your dues by doing so. Remember that this club belongs to us all. Here’s to an exciting and happy New Year!