SCRC Meeting Notices
Monthly meeting are generally held the first Tuesday of each month with exceptions caused by holidays, etc. During the summer months, the meetings are held at the club's flying site. All other meetings are held at the Central Pa. Institute of Science & Technology, (formerly known as the Centre County VoTech School) in Pleasant Gap. The meetings start promptly at 7:00 p.m.

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Newsletter for the June 2005 Meeting

   At the Central Pa. Institute of Science & Technology

(formerly known as the Centre County Vo-Tech School)

There is considerable renovation going on here so the Room is not known!

Check the sign in the Lobby for the room where the meeting will be held!

Minutes from the April Meeting

-The April Meeting-

    The April 5 meeting was called to order by Pres. Jim Rhodes at 7 pm. There were 18 members present. Our new member at the meeting was Brian Julius. 

   SCRC Secretary, Chuck Paulson was absent, so I took the minutes for this meeting.

1. Minutes - The minutes of the March 1, 2005 meeting were approved as shown on the web site since no written copies were handed out.

 2. Treasurer’s Report

   Treasurer George Gurney reported paying the AMA chartering fee and some other expenses. Several members paid their 2005 dues. The report was approved.

 3. Old Business – there was no old business.

 4. New Business

 Dates for the summer events were selected as follows:

Fun Fly (where we invite other clubs in the area) - June19.

Fun Fly (SCRC members only) - July 17.

SCRC Air Show - August 14.

   Nathaniel Rice suggested that we improve the Air Show sign which we normally place along Route 64. It is faded and difficult to read. He agreed to repaint the sign, and Al Jones offered to assist him.

   George Gurney announced that he has a current list of dues paying members of SCRC, and also has the Certificate of Insurance for the club.

   Al Jones reported that he attended the Toledo Show, where he heard a lecture on liability issues with turbine powered aircraft. The AMA now requires a waiver for turbine pilots. The pilot's flying skill, and the flyability of his aircraft must be certified by two people who are not members of the pilot's home club. The greatest liability risk seems to be that of fire in the event of a crash.

   Al Niessner passed around a nice photo of A. J. Jaffe competing in the recent TSA indoor model airplane contest. The same photo had appeared in the Centre Daily Times.

   Roy Long announced that the Civil Air Patrol is planning to have an R/C model airplane program for their cadets (ages 12 to 20yrs.). This program will be sanctioned by the AMA, and the cadets will get an AMA membership for just $1.00 per year. Groups of four or five cadets will build one plane, then take turns learning to fly it. SCRC's involvement would be to provide a flying site (our club field), and some skilled R/C pilots to serve as instructors. A discussion followed Roy's talk.  The consensus was that this program would be beneficial to SCRC and to model aviation in general. It was agreed that the Cadets using our field should be required to join SCRC. The program is tentatively set to begin in 2006.

   Jim Rhodes had flyers regarding the AMA F3A Aerobatic Team fundraiser, and the Mon Valley Electric Fly to be held on July 26, 2005.

   Woody Struble brought a stack of R/C related books to give away.

George Gurney made a motion to have a portable toilet installed at the field for six months (April through November). The motion passed.

 George also reported that he checked on getting SCRC logos on hats. It will cost $45 for setup, and $6 to $8 per hat.

 5. Program

   Will Coder continued his informative talk on soldering, and demonstrated proper techniques by soldering a pushrod end on a piece of music wire. He recommends using the lowest temperature you can on joints to decrease oxidation. Clean the parts with Scotchbrite to make them shiny. This helps make a true intermetallic bond for a strong joint. Clean the joints with a solvent after soldering to remove flux residue. When soldering gold plated parts (connectors, etc.), you should pre-tin the parts, then wick off the excess solder to prevent gold embrittlement, which could cause joint failure. Will passed out handouts with several pages of useful information.

 6. Show and Tell

   Paul Bittengle brought a Great Lakes biplane model which he built in 1995, and just recently finished. It spans about 48", and weighs 5 1/2 lbs. Power is a Webra 50 engine. It looks good!

   Leo Lang had a Scratch One electric built from plans in Model Aviation Magazine. It uses a Speed 400 motor and a two cell Li-Po battery with a Jeti speed control. It weighs only 11 oz. Covering is Solarlite in red and silver. The wing is ribless, using strips of balsa formed over the spars to form the airfoil shape. Very good workmanship!

   Ben Pipenberg had several very small R/C planes of his own design. One plane spans about 13 inches and uses a radio from the tiny R/C cars sold by Wal-Mart for (non-proportional) rudder and motor control.

  On his way out, Ben flew it around the school lobby, skillfully controlling altitude by pulsing the motor control on and off. He even made the plane stop (and stall) in mid air by hitting the reverse motor button! He had to keep the plane close, since the radio had a very short range (about twenty feet!).

   The second plane has a span of about 8", and weighs just 7 grams. The smallest was about 5" span, and weighs a mere 1.1 grams! It uses an infrared control. All are nicely done and are very innovative.

   Nathaniel Rice showed us his "Cold Heat" soldering iron. He says it works, and you can touch the iron almost immediately after soldering.

 7. 50-50 Raffle

   Will Coder won the raffle and split $16 with the club.

   The meeting was adjourned around 8:25 pm.

Paul Bittengle and his Great Lakes biplane.

  Here’s an item from the AMA National Newsletter:

  From the Capital Area Soaring Association, Rockville MD 

Keep track of your hobby

by Lawrence Hare

Scott Allen, editor

  “I keep a log book for each of my aircraft. It is a small ringed notebook, one per airplane, which I assiduously update after each trip to a flying field. Even so, I could not keep track of all costs, modifications, add-ons, and all the other paraphernalia that I would like to keep track of until I found the Flight Log at: http://www.lammers.ca/FlightLog/.

 I started using it and found it extremely useful. Shawn Lammers, the creator, is constantly updating the program, listening, and helping the users. It is free, although I think he will get an offer eventually, and then it will cost!

   He uses a Microsoft Access database as an engine, and is able to pull together different views of equipment, models, log books, transmitters, etc; to provide a variety of reports. Not the least amongst them, and quite fearful in its purport, is a cost summary. Ouch! The amount I spent over the years is, perhaps, best not known, but easily done by simply not entering dollars.”

    I downloaded Flight Log (took about 15 minutes on my dialup service), but it doesn’t run on my computer. I’ve had some strange things happening lately, so maybe it’s just my machine’s fault. It might run fine on yours.

   I think keeping a log is a good idea. It helps keep track of how much time is on your engines and radio equipment. Recording any glitchy or other strange behavior might help solve problems before they become fatal to your (or someone else’s) aircraft! Recording modifications to your aircraft, such as changing engines, props, servos, etc. will document any improvements in performance. Electric fliers might want to record flight times to see what combination of motor, batteries, and propeller works the best. Glider pilots might want to note where and when the best thermals appear at our flying site. The list goes on and on. Full scale pilots keep log books. Maybe we should too!

   That’s it for now.  

Sam Stitzer  814‑364‑9530

     samstitz@yahoo.com

For Access to past SCRC Newsletters --  click on the month for the desired year.