If you're faced with a forced landing, fly the thing as far into the crash as possible.

- Bob Hoover

December, 2005

November Meeting Notes

The November meeting of the Monroe County R/C Club was called to order at 7:15:55 P.M. (Eastern Standard Time) inside the nice & warm Eye Center building, while a very large wind was howling outside. Twenty-one members were in attendance.

The first order of business was the swap meet on February 27. Bob Watson has the building secured, Bob & Tim Mellott are taking table reservations, flyers are printed & posted on the website, & Brent Hoover is getting our event announced in Model Aviation magazine.

Details were worked out for this year’s Christmas dinner/meeting. A buffet style dinner will begin at 7:00 P.M. on December 14, right after the appetizer frenzy which begins at 6:00. The cost for the buffet is $12.00 per person, which must be paid to Bruce Hoffman by November 30th. Details & information will be emailed or snailmailed to all paid members, giving them at least two weeks to make their arrangements with Bruce. Those who completely miss the information flow or choose to procrastinate can still attend the event but will have to order from Hoosier Bar & Grill’s regular menu. Hoosier is located in Richland Plaza on SR 46, West of 37 & East of Ellettsville. All members, families, & guests are invited and if you need more information you can contact Bruce at 812-876-6219.

Many members have noticed the new MCRCC hats. Mark Sexton has talked the people at Winter’s & Associates into replacing the defective hats we got in our last order with a better hat. They will be available soon.

The old club outhouse, painted last Spring by Mr. Jim Scott, will be the only facility in service until April next year. Our rental unit will be picked up in November & be back next April. Please make sure it is locked when you leave the field.

The club voted to purchase bonding insurance for the club treasury. The cost is $270.00 for five years.

Due to the semi-retirement of Mr. Brent Hoover, Steve Jackson has agreed to take on the Annual Glider Contest on January 1st. It’s been a tradition for many years & Steve is going to keep it alive. Sign in at 9:00 A.M. & fly at 10:00 on New Year’s Day. If you would like to assist Steve or need more information you can call him at 812-876-2333 or email him at sabjack@bluemarble.net.

The club elections were very interesting this year. The results are in and the new (old) officers will take over in January for 2006. Mr. Mark Sexton ran un-apposed for president & won. Imagine that.

The race for vice president was very tight. Bruce Hoffman won his umpteenth term over Mr. Matt Fornefeld by a very small margin.

Mr. Brent Hoover had decided to step down from the secretary/treasurer’s position, after many, many years of dedicated service to the club. After some arm twisting and a few threats, we convinced Delbert Davis to run for the position. He was disappointed that there was no challenger but is happy to begin his political career with MCRCC.

Congratulations to everyone & thanks for making this an interesting election. Your service to the Monroe County R/C Club is appreciated very much!

Steve Shoop announced that his 2006 fly-in will be held on Saturday, May 6th. You can contact Steve at 812-988-0570 or email him at beamer3394@peoplepc.com.

The meeting was closed at 8:05 or so...

Interesting Bits

Haley Ferguson has passed the FCC test and received her technician class amateur radio license. Her call sign is KC9IMS. Congratulations Haley!

You may want to check all of the electrical connections in your model aircraft. There’s been a few incidents lately, according to the LRCCIB (local R/C crash investigation board). Charlie Thompson lost an aircraft at Nebo Memorial Field on a blustery Thursday afternoon. It was found a short time later after it lost it’s battle with a big tree. That same afternoon Haley Ferguson had a mishap with her trainer. A check of the airwaves with the scanner showed a strong signal on channel 47 at Nebo. Randy Byers lost control of his Kadet at Wylie Field on a recent Sunday afternoon. It fought with the ground & lost. Randy reports that a bad battery connection may have been the cause.

If you didn’t notice, this November seemed to be the windiest we’ve had in many years. If you flirted with disaster & won, congratulations!

The interference on channel 47 at Nebo Memorial Field has been traced to a paging system in Wilbur, Indiana. Delbert Davis & Haley Ferguson drove all over Morgan County using our club scanner with a directional “beam” antenna to track it down. Now the question seems to be if the signal is interfering with normal R/C reception on that channel & if it is, what to do about it. It appears that there are pager systems operating on the 72 Mhz. band, between our R/C channels. This one is so close & pumping so much power that it is bleeding over onto channel 47. Delbert is continuing the investigation. He has contacted the AMA about the problem but they offered little assistance. They either wouldn’t or couldn’t answer the questions he asked & seemed to want to blame Haley’s R/C equipment for the problem. Go figure...

It’s swap meet season. Some of us have been carpooling to area events using the community van of Mr. Mark Sexton. We took some of our swap meet flyers to Charlestown & to Anderson for distribution. If you are going to a swap meet somewhere, take some flyers with you to put out on their table. I have some printed & they are available on our club website.

Randy Byers has been working on a Dave Patrick Super Cub for Mark Sexton. It’s very pretty & just about ready to make it’s maiden flight. Look for a picture soon.

Larry Cain built this giant scale trainer from scratch using his Nexstar .40 size trainer as a pattern. Nice job Larry!

Figure 1:

Here's Larry, pictured with his new, scratch-built trainer.

Several of the boys are getting their Winter projects lined up. Robert G. (Bobby) Shireman came home from the Charlestown swap meet with a Magic Extra. Mike Habig brought home a JU-87 Stuka, & Jimmy Vanvleet purchased a Goldburg Extra 300. We were all proud of Mark Sexton because he didn’t buy an airplane.

Ask Mark Sexton when he’s going to take another vacation. He didn’t think anyone was going to notice but someone is always watching...

Watch out! Young Deven Melott has a new low wing sport plane. It’s been assembled, checked out, & has just a couple of adjustments to be made. Deven will be burning holes in the sky with it very soon.

Walter Friesel has a new blue & yellow electric 3-channel aircraft built by his father Michael. Very nice.

For Sale

Figure 2:

For sale, a fine 1991 Chevrolet S-10, with 4-wheel drive and an extended cab.

You’ll have a tough time finding a nicer antique truck, with as much experience as this one. 1991, Chevrolet S-10, 4-wheel drive, extended cab pick-up. Just broken in at 233,000 miles. One owner. Only driven on to work & back on days other than Sunday by a little old, fat, airplane guy. Has been used to haul model airplanes & mowing equipment at times. New tires & brakes, Rhino bed liner, new wiper blades, 2” trailer ball (wired for 4-pin flat plug), working factory air conditioning (converted to new refrigerant), FM/cassette stereo, cruise control, tilt wheel, bucket seats, 4.3 V6 engine, automatic transmission with overdrive, Ziebart rust & paint protection. Gas gauge doesn’t work right, trip meter doesn’t work, could use a valve job, & needs a pinion bearing in the rear end. As is, no warranty! Hey, at least I’m honest... $3500.00 or best offer. Contact Brian Elliott at 765-346-1123 or 765-342-7236, or email belliott@surf-ici.com.

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