Past Meeting - Tuesday, September 7th, 2004 at 7:00 PM

‑The August Meeting‑

 The meeting was held on August 3, 2004, and was called to order by Pres. Jim Rhodes at 7:05PM.

There were 21 members and four guests present. Guests were Jim Hopkins, his sons Adam and Jacob, and his father, Fred.

Old Business: 

1. Jim Rhodes went over the "To do" list for the August 15 Air Show and volunteers were recruited to bring the necessary items.  A work party for erecting the safety fence was set for 7:30AM on Saturday, August 14. I asked if anyone could supply a wireless microphone for the P. A. system for the air show. Al Jones agreed to contact rental places to see if we could rent one for a reasonable price.

2. Jim Rhodes reported that he had called Ellis Dunklebarger to check on the status of the new frequency board. The project had not yet been approved by the Boy Scout leaders. Jim gave some information about SCRC to one of their board members. They will meet to decide whether to approve the project.

3. Al Jones presented a new yellow wind sock with the AMA logo for the flying field. (Thanks, Al)

4. Sandy Jaffe presented a plan for making a helicopter training (hovering) area on the west end of the flying field. A forty foot wide area would be mowed next to a fifty foot area of higher grass next to Garbrick Road. A ten foot wide barrier of high grass would be placed between the training area and the main runway.

  A motion was made and approved to implement this plan.

5. Brad Fisher reported that we need to obtain a permit for installing a storage shed at the field. This will cost $25. The shed must be kept at least fifteen feet from all property lines. We decided to delay any purchase until Jon Polay can attend the meeting and bring his list of sizes and prices of sheds to be approved.

6. We resumed a previous discussion regarding the starting of model engines in the parking area. At the next meeting, we will vote on whether to require that all engines be started in the pit area.

New Business: There was no new business discussed.

50-50 Raffle: There was no 50-50 raffle since our secretary, Chuck Paulson (and the raffle tickets) was unable to attend the meeting.

Show and Tell:

  George Gurney showed his Sonic Liner canard model made by Multiplex. It is an all foam model of a Boeing concept of an airliner of the future. It uses two Speed 400 electric motors in a pusher configuration for power. George rigged up a bungee launcher for this ship.

  The meeting was adjourned at 8:10PM.

‑Coming Events‑

   September 17, 18, & 19. The NEAT Fair electric meet in Downsville, NY. This is the biggest gathering of electric flight enthusiasts in the world!

   September 18, and 19. Buzzard Field Fall Fun Fly at their field near Mill Hall. PA. This event is always low-keyed fun flying, and it's only about a half hour away from our field!

‑ SCRC Air Show‑

   Sunday, August 15 was a beautiful day – warm, but not stinkin' hot, and with light winds. Spectators began rolling in to our field around noon. We had some confusing publicity. TV channel 4 said the starting time was noon, the radio said 1:00pm. The normal start time is 2:00pm. We kicked the show off at 1:30.

   A wide variety of aircraft types were flown; trainers, gliders, sport, scale, helicopters (sport AND scale!), and, of course, the famous Flying Stop Sign!

   Our pilots ranged in age from Ben Capozzi at age 13, to Roy Long, still flying well at age 86! Ben was the youngest pilot, but flew the oldest R/C plane design – a Goldberg Falcon 56. That design goes back to the early 1960's, but still makes an excellent trainer. Roy flew one of his original designs, a Piper Cub-like giant with a big gas engine, and very realistic flight characteristics.

  There isn't room here to describe every flight in the show, but they were all well done and appreciated by the audience, and we were crash-free for the whole show!

   A few highlights:

Sailplanes circling high overhead while Ben Combs performed some 3D hovering with his 4 stroke powered U Can Do. Ben later flew his fluorescent green Outlaw Delta, which was fast as lightning.......It was a little bit frightening (you know, the Kung Fu Fighting song!) Actually, it was easily the fastest propeller driven ship I've ever seen! It had to going well over 100 mph!  Definitely a crowd pleaser!

   Jeff Favuzza flew some high speed circles around the field with his Florio Flyer locked into a knife edge attitude! Great!

   Woody Struble's Stop Sign was a big hit, as always. He put it into a 45 degree hover with its tail nearly dragging in the weeds!

    Paul Bittengle's seven foot Mud Duck made history by finally getting airborne, thanks to a healthy new engine!

    George Gurney flew his scaled up Delta Dart electric, then later, his twin motored canard Sonic Liner from a bungee launch.

    Sandy Jaffe wowed the crowd with his Fury Extreme heli, performing his usual repertoire of incredible aerobatics, including inverted hovering, some somersault maneuvers which seemed to defy the laws of physics, and an engine-off autorotation landing! He later flew his NOTAR chopper, which uses a vectored fan instead of a tail rotor, and his Boeing Vertol twin rotor heli done up in New York Airways markings. All were impressive crowd pleasers!

   The list goes on and on! All of you did a super job, and I thank you all for making the show a success! Thanks also to Jon Polay for being my “gofer” making sure each pilot was ready to fly when it was his turn. I had an easy job as announcer. Talking is always easier than flying!

   Our food stand sold out halfway through the show. Thanks to all who helped sell food and drinks, and Chef Charlie Wingert for cooking up some excellent dogs and burgers!

   We got some excellent news coverage by the Centre Daily Times and Channel 10 from Altoona. The CDT had a story with photos in Monday's edition, and Channel 10's news had a two minute segment featuring a short speech from Will Coder, and close-ups of  Al Niessner, Ben Capozzi, Jeff Favuzza, Henry Loewen, Sandy Jaffe, Roy Long (both of them!), Woody Struble, and others, as well as some flight footage of several planes. Good job!

    Thanks again to all who helped in any way to make this event a great success.

   That's all for now.  Don't forget that we will return to indoor meetings in October.

 Sam Stitzer  814‑364‑9530

samstitz@yahoo.com