State College Radio Control Club Tuesday, January 8th 2008 Meeting Minutes

 

The Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM. No visitors, guests or new members were in attendance.

 

1.   The minutes from the December 4th meeting were approved.

 

2.   George Gurney read the Treasurer’s report which was approved by membership. $200 was used to purchase door prizes for the banquet. Club dues for 2008 and payment for the winter banquet were accepted.

 

3.   Old business –

 

·         Chuck asked for any updates on old business. Curt clarified the entrée selection for the banquet. We will have our choice of stuffed chicken breast or prime rib and the price is set at $19.00 per plate. This means that each person can have some of each entrée and the $19.00 includes the gratuity. A motion to set the standard price at $19.00 was passed. Curt read the list of banquet attendees and reminded us that cocktail hour is at 6:00 and dinner is at 7:00 on the 19th of January. Payment must be made to be to Al Jones by the 10th of January.

 

·         Paul Bittengle made some good progress on the field search effort. He informed us of two different land owners who are eager to talk to our field search committee. One site is on farmland behind the Nittany Valley Feed and Hardware store on Route 64. The other Farmer has two possible sites and his land is near Route 64 in Hublersburg.

 

  1. New Business –

 

·         Curt had a bunch of slightly used AA alkaline cells that he was giving away to the members in attendance.

 

·         No other new business or announcements.   

 

5.   Program – No program

 

6.   Show and Tell –

 

·         George Gurney showed his new dragonfly-shaped R/C ornithopter. It is battery powered and charged by the transmitter. I saw one of these fly last summer. That one flew great but George wasn’t so lucky within the confines of our meeting room!

 

·         Nathaniel Rice showed pictures of an event that he attended in August at AMA headquarters in Muncie, Indiana. 712 pilots registered for this helicopter jamboree and Nathaniel was there to fly - and to record a whole bunch of digital images. He also had some great pictures of models, engines and memorabilia from the AMA museum.

 

·         Al Niessner showed a graph of a performance curve as plotted by his micro e-logger. This small device (which can be installed onboard) captures performance data that can later be transferred to a PC. The program will plot the amps, volts and thrust over the runtime of the motor. Al is working on a ducted fan model that uses the Lynx XF Fanjet. Can’t wait to see it fly! Here are some links to the equipment that Al has been working with:

http://www.hobby-lobby.com/brushless-eth.htm

http://www.hobby-lobby.com/ductfan.htm

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXMBS3&P=7

 

·         Also, Al would like to share the following article on thrust to horsepower conversion:

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/propulsion/q0195.shtml

 

 

The meeting was adjourned at 8:00 PM and Peter Caddick won the 50-50 drawing, splitting $21.00 with the club.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

Daryl Allen, Secretary