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

- Bob Hoover

July, 2005

June Meeting Notes

The June 8 meeting of the Monroe County R/C Club was called to order at 7:05:30 (Eastern Standard Time), under partly cloudy skies, at the club flying site on Wylie Road. Thirty-four people were in attendance & two of those people came to join the club. Both were voted in, so please welcome Bob Miller & Jeremy Barbarick. Bob has been training with Jay Strosnider in Bedford & Jeremy has been doing very well with his training here in Bloomington. Jeremy is also related to long-time MCRCC member Bob Watson, but we won’t hold that against him.

Mr. Jim Scott was praised for a nice job of fixing up the exterior of the old club outhouse. Thanks Jim! Mr. Tim Mellott has purchased a bottle of waterless hand sanitizer for the rented outhouse after he was mistakenly singled out in last month’s newsletter. It was Lane Jorgensen that was going to do the dirty deed but your old newsletter editor gets his facts mixed up from time to time. Lane agreed to get the next bottle for Tim when this one runs low. Thanks Tim!

Bob Watson gave some details about the discount deal that is in the works with Batteries Plus in Bloomington. Your president, Mark Sexton, is trying to get the paperwork taken care of.

Mr. Jim Scott gave a report on the Cub Fly that was held June 4. Seventeen pilots signed up for the event & Mark Sexton organized lunch. A good time was had by all & $73.00 will be put into the pot for the club fun-fly on June 18.

Figure 1:

Here are some members who attended the Monroe County R/C Club’s annual Cub-Fly.

[June 4, 2005]

The fun-fly entry fee will be $5.00 & will include lunch again, as well as a ticket for the prize drawing. Tickets will also be awarded for the top spots in each event. Tickets can also be purchased by those who plan to fly badly or just like the thrill of the drawing. The pilot’s meeting will be at 9:30 & event flying will run from 10:00 until 2:00. The prize drawing will be shortly after 2:00, after the event winners have been awarded their tickets.

Dennis Friesel gave another report on the Top Gun competition in Flordia. He & Tim Sparks participated & Tim is now famous with his picture appearing in one of the national modeling magazines. I believe it was R/C Report.

Matt Fornefeld gave a report on the plans for this year’s annual club air show. The show is August 7 with a rain date of August 14. Volunteers will be needed for various duties & can sign up at the July club meeting, where flyers will be available for distribution. Tony Bezzy & Brent Hoover will be checking on the raffle prize. A $100.00 limit was imposed for the prize expenditure.

There was some discussion about non-paid dues of members still using the field. Paid-up & un-paid corporate / business sponsors were also mentioned. There was also some discussion about Micro Fasteners being the place to get cheap screws.

It seems that there has been a shortage of intro pilots available for Tuesday training nights at times. Our AMA insurance coverage says that a non-AMA member student must be instructed by an AMA licensed intro pilot, until he or she becomes an AMA member. After they become a member of the AMA, any club instructor can take them up.

Something was also brought up about our not-for-profit status. My notes weren’t very good toward the end of the meeting. It must have been getting late or the mosquitoes were distracting me.

Mark gave a report on our mowing expenses so far this year. Michael Sexton is using a new mowing machine & it doesn’t cut quite as short as the old one did. That problem will be investigated.

Bryce Himebaugh & Steve Jackson offered some items for sale & the meeting was closed at 7:41, so we could check them out.

Interesting Bits

Previous member Michael Hinz is back in the Central Indiana area & has rejoined the club after moving back to Greenwood from South Bend. Michael’s e-mail is mhinz@hotmail.com. Welcome back Michael.

Jason Breeden was voted into the club by a majority of members present at the field on June 19. Jason lives near Bloomington & has a couple of aircraft that he got through E-bay. Jason’s e-mail is ogre@ogreworks.com. He is training with a Kadet Senior ARF. Welcome Jason & good luck with your training.

Haley Ferguson, Damon's sister, is getting close to her solo flight. She has several landings on the buddy box & a couple of good "dead stick" landings. If she sticks with it, it won't be long untill she earns a solo certificate.

Young Deven (Rocket Man) Mellott has moved his interest from rockets to aircraft. His goal is to become the youngest solo pilot at the Monroe County R/C Club field. He has been training on Tuesday evenings & doing a fine job. He is still on the buddy box but has one perfect landing to his credit so far.

Birthdays in June (that I knew about). Damon Ferguson, Randy Byers, Vargha Manshadi, & Joe Rogers. Happy Birthday Old Guys, & Damon!!!

Where is that article I was going to get about your pylon races, Dennis Friesel & Tim Sparks?

Tuesday Trainer Nights

If you are learning to fly, or have been flying for years & wish to learn some new skills or brush up on some old ones, Tuesday Trainer Nights at the Monroe County R/C Club field are for you. The instructors & intro pilots have set time aside to help you so come out & keep them busy. If you don’t show up, they will be forced to play with their own creations, which isn’t so bad, but the main reason they come out on Tuesday evenings is to help you with yours. You don’t have to be a flight instructor to help out. Some may need help with construction or repair & some may need help with radio set-up & programming. Others may be working on safely starting & tuning their aircraft.

From the student side, there may be one instructor available or there may be several. It’s a good time to ask questions & get different outlooks & opinions as well as work on your flying skills.

From the instructor side, there may be no students & there may be several. If there are several, you may have your work cut out for you. If there are none, you can work on your own skills & enjoy some Tuesday evening flying.

Thanks to the dedicated people who have been helping out up to now. Bill Black, Mark Sexton, Lane Jorgenson, Delbert Davis, & Brian Elliott. Matt Fornefeld has also been out once with his trainer, available to help. There’s plenty of room for more students & instructors. Come out & enjoy the long Summer Tuesday evenings with us at the field.

Think Before You Leap

Every time you go to the flight line to take off, go through your check list before you pull onto the runway. Did you check your batteries? Did you fill your fuel tank? Did you check for proper control operation? Up, down, left aileron, right aileron, left rudder, right rudder, flap position, etc. Did you check the windsock & take note of which pattern the other pilots, already in the air, are flying? Did you get permission from everyone else in the pilot area to enter the runway? There’s a lot of things to think about before you embark on every flight of your model aircraft. There’s one more thing I want you to think about every time you go out to fly. Just take a second or two before you start your take-off roll to think about which way you are going & which control inputs will take your aircraft away from the people.

If you are taking off from left to right, a left control input will take the aircraft away from the flight line, pit area & spectator area. The same is true while landing. If you are taking off or landing right to left, a right control input will take the aircraft away from the people area. This is all assuming that the aircraft is not inverted & that the transmitter is sending commands that are being accepted by the receiver. In the event that you totally loose control of any aircraft, don’t keep it to yourself. Things happen that are beyond our control at times & the most important thing to do is communicate the situation to others. Do not be embarrassed to loudly declare an emergency or holler for some help. You may also want to consider a PCM receiver. They have a failsafe function that can be programmed to shut down your engine if the receiver looses signal from the transmitter. If you already have a PCM receiver, be sure that the failsafe function is set to kill your engine, not just slow it down. Safety on the flight line is more important than any model...

Bending Tempered Steel Wire Landing Gear

By Mike Habig (adapted from original work by Robart Manufacturing)

  1. Heat to RED HOT.
  2. Bend While hot.
  3. Quench in water.
  4. Reheat to blue hot.
  5. Air cool (no quench).

For Sale

Dennis Taylor (dtaylor69@sbcglobal.net) has this pop-up camper trailer for sale. It has been gutted , painted, & is ready to haul your model aircraft. The heave top has been replaced with a snap-on bed cover. Dennis is asking $300.00 or best offer. Call him at 765-342-0611.

Figure 2:

Dennis’s modified pop-up camper trailer.

Bryce Himebaugh (bhimebau@cs.indiana.edu) has a new YS-63 for sale. You may have seen it at the June club meeting.

Steve Jackson (sabjack@bluemarble.net) has an OS40-FP for sale that was also seen at the June club meeting.

Lou Tores 812-325-7995 (louiedajew1138@aol.com) has a TorqueMaster starter ($10.00) & 1/2 gallon of 15% Cool Power fuel ($7.00).

Exciting Fun-Fly

The Monroe County R/C Club’s annual Fun-Fly was held on June 18. CD Jim Scott brought along his girlfriend Vanessa, who did a wonderful job of signing up the participants and passing out the detailed event schedule. She seems very good at page publishing & should be strongly considered as a replacement for your fat, aging newsletter editor, who is not nearly as good looking as she is.

I don’t have an official report but somewhere around twenty pilots signed up & paid their $5.00 entry fee. I don’t know how many events were flown by which pilots but the flight line stayed pretty busy until the accident. There was a quartering wind from the North East which was pushing some of the aircraft back toward the zero line. Bill Black got disqualified during his loop event when his aircraft got back beyond the zero line & over the pit area. He landed safely But Charlie Thompson got blown back during his spot landing attempt & clipped Lane Jorgensen with the wing of his Eagle Trainer. Lane wasn’t seriously injured but the paramedics were summoned, just in case, to check him out. He got his ear bunged up & had a cut on his head but was very lucky. It could have been much worse.

After the excitement, a brief pilot’s meeting was held. It was decided to continue with the fun-fly because Lane would have wanted it that way & because we had all those hotdogs looking for hungry pilots.

There was no further competition for the best crash event. Tony Bezzy had lost a Cub due to a transmitter failure, Mr. Scott had landed out in the corn field due to brain failure, Delbert Davis crashed his Kadet Seniorita when aliens took control of his ailerons, Charlie crashed into Lane, & Lane’s plane crashed due to the pilot being knocked to the ground without his transmitter.

The flying continued as Vanessa went from the registration table to the picnic table & served the hungry competitors hotdogs, chips & pop that were provided by Mark Sexton.

As Mark wrapped up his longest flight attempt, the combat participants tried to cut some free-falling ribbons. Lane even came back out to the field to check on us.

Figure 3:

Here are some members who attended the Monroe County R/C Club’s annual Fun-Fly.

[June 18, 2005]

After the 2:00 cut-off time, the numbers were tallied, the tickets stuffed into the box, & the winners drawn. Mark Sexton won the 3rd place money & Nathan Cross won the 2nd place money. Mark Sexton had the lucky ticket that won the big money for 1st place. I don’t know who won which event & I don’t know how much money was awarded to the winners. That’s just the kind of reporter I am. Maybe Mr. Scott will submit an “Official Report” next month or have one at the club meeting on July 13.

Nebo Pizza Nite

There is a tradition that on the longest Thursday of the year, we fly at Nebo Memorial Field until dark. That’s pretty late in the evening, so since fat boys gotta eat, we order pizza from Tiny’s Pizza in Martinsville & have it delivered right to the flying field.

Mrs. Tina Rogers provided the best rootbeer floats on the planet while we waited for the pizza to be delivered. Thank you Tina, they were great!

As in previous years, we consumed over $100.00 worth of pizza. The bill didn’t hurt much this year because Mr. Mark Sexton decided to donate his winnings from the Monroe County R/C club’s fun-fly to pay for the pizza! Thank you very much Mark!!! It sure was good...

Event Calendar

Note: The Dawn Patrol fly-in that was scheduled for August 28 at the Monroe County R/C Club Field has been cancelled by Bob Shireman. He stated that there were too many conflicts on that date & that it would be best to just cancel the event.

Note: Does anybody have any info on the Terre Haute air show?