5. Announcements

Justin Heinly, one of our guests, announced that a group at PSU was starting an R/C club including cars, helicopters, and planes. They requested that SCRC allow them to pay dues and fly at the SCRC airfield. He also said they would demonstrate R/C cars possibly before and at halftime during the Monster Truck show at BJC Friday and Saturday (2/4 and 2/5 at 8pm).

Comments were made that anyone flying at our field would need AMA and club membership. Others commented that it would be nice to extend the hobby to PSU students. Some people also expressed interest in gaining access to PSU facilities.

Jim Rhodes announced the owner of EBY Paving has models and kits, and offered to give them to the club.

George Gurney announced that John Shenk gave him some old engines and he wanted to give the engines to someone interested in them.

6. Program

Will Coder gave an excellent presentation and handout on how to solder successfully. Will advises against using the trigger type soldering guns, and recommends using soldering irons with iron clad tips. Bare copper tips corrode too quickly. For most jobs, solder made of an alloy of 63% tin and 37% lead makes excellent joints. Make sure the materials to be joined are clean, and use a rosin type flux to help the solder to flow into the joint. Use plenty of heat applied to the parts to be joined. If the heat is sufficient, you don’t need much solder to make a strong joint. Will plans to follow up on his talk with a soldering demonstration at the March meeting.

7. Show and Tell – there was no show and tell this meeting.

8. 50/50 Drawing

The 50-50 raffle was again won by Jeff Favuzza, who split $25 with the club, then spent it all at the Bellefonte Burger King!

The meeting was adjourned at 7:55 pm.

Coming Event

Saturday, March 12, 2005

Central Penn Aeromodelers Association Flea Market at the Lebanon Fair Grounds. This is one of the largest R/C flea markets in the country! Doors open at 9:00AM. Contact Darryl at 717-960-8170 for more info, or visit their web site at www.cpaa.us.

     We have had some excellent weather for winter flying in the last few weeks. I went out to the field twice this month, and had a good time! Several other flyers were there, too. Sandy Jaffe was flying his neat little Shogun electric helicopter. That ship is amazing! It has full aerobatic capability, and is only about 18” long! The Li-Poly batteries give long flights with no noticeable drop off in power. And, with electric power, there is no concern about starting or needle valve settings needing to change for the cold weather.

    Woody Struble flew his Ugly Stick on floats, taking off and landing in the snow. The snow was a bit “sticky” that day, and made for a couple long takeoff runs, but nothing stops Woody!

    If you have never flown in the winter, you ought to try it. The cold, dense winter air actually improves your plane’s performance! Wings make more lift, and props have more bite in cold air. If you haven’t flown for a while, make sure your radio batteries are fully charged before you fly! Check your glow plug and electric starter batteries, too.

   I received an E-mail from SCRC member Jeff Combs, who is in the U.S. Air Force, stationed in Uzbekistan. He reads our newsletter on the web from there. It gives him a “touch of home” hearing what’s going on with us here in Centre County. He sent me some photos, including this one of him in the cockpit of a Uzbekistan (Old Soviet) SU-27 alert fighter!  Nice ride, Jeff! We’re proud to have one of our members serving so far from home. We hope you get back soon, and fly some smaller planes at our field!

Sam Stitzer  814‑364‑9530

     samstitz@yahoo.com