The September Meeting

Tuesday, Sept 05, 2006

   Meeting minutes from the meeting held August 1, 2006 were approved by the club members.

  Treasures report – George Gurney presented the treasurers report. The report was approved by the club members.

    Old Business –

      Airshow Critique - Several points and questions were raised:

 We need more food and drinks. We can use my freezer next year for extra food.

  Should we start at Noon or not? The Centre Daily Times listed our start time as 12 noon. Many people were here then.

 Should we expand the activities for next year? That is a question we will continue to address over the next couple of meetings.

 Thank you notes will be sent out to the people that helped out.

 It was suggested that we have a canopy for people to sit under to cool off.

  Al Niessner will look into the frequency board using the laser cutter at the Mt. Nittany Middle School.

 EAA breakfast. We need 4 people from 6am to 3:30 pm to help with the breakfast, which can be split by two and two. We also need people to do RC airplane demonstrations.

     Al Jones has copies of the new by-laws.

       New Business –

    RC Report magazine has a photo of Gib Sanders, another photo of Gib’s wife Lynn, and a photo of one of Gib’s friends, Carl Benson.

     A write-up on frequency issues at the Valley Forge field that may apply to us will be posted on the internet.

    Announcements –

09/24/2006 CARLISLE AEROMODELERS ELECTRIFLY 2006: PART 2 Bloserville, PA,

 

09/24/2006 MULLIGAN HILL RC FLY-IN New Florence, PA,

 

10/07/2006 FLEA MARKET/auction Mifflintown, PA,

 

10/14/2006 YORK AREA R/C CLUB 21ST ANNUAL FLEA MARKET York, PA.

Leo Lang won the 50-50 raffle.

The Meeting was adjourned at 8:30pm.

Weird Stuff

  My wife and I were recently having a discussion about unusual model plane crashes. I’ve seen quite a few in my 34 years of R/C flying. Probably the most amazing “downing” (you couldn’t call it a crash) I saw was at the old Lock Haven field in the mid 1970’s. The pilot was Harry Collins from Williamsport. He was flying a Goldberg Falcon, or similar shoulder wing trainer design. I don’t remember what went wrong, but the plane dropped behind a row of trees and was right over the railroad that ran parallel to the field. When we went over to look for the plane, we found it hanging from the power lines that ran beside the track! It had one wing tip sitting on each of the two lines, and was completely undamaged! We were afraid to try to get it down for fear of electrocution, so we just stared and laughed for a while. (I took a photo – long since lost) As incredible luck would have it, a maintenance train came along just then. Another stroke of luck – my wife and I knew one of the guys on the work crew. He saw the plane and had a chuckle or two, then he proceeded to push the plane off the wires (using an insulated pole, I think), and Harry caught it as it fell!  What luck!

   Another time, circa 1980, several of us were flying models at Curwensville Dam State Park in the winter. I think the Clearfield club had invited us up there. I was flying a Midwest Strikemaster and had radio glitches, so I decided to land the plane quickly. I got a down elevator glitch which put the plane in the top of one of the tallest trees in the area, and there it hung, about fifty feet up! There was no way any of us could climb up to get it, so I drove to a nearby phone booth and called the local fire company for help. They came out to the park in a truck with lights and siren blazing! A fireman went up a huge ladder, then climbed further into the tree and brought down my plane, virtually unharmed! A voice on the firemen’s radio asked what they were doing, and one guy responded “We’re getting an airplane out of a tree”. The voice on the radio said “WHAT?!!!” Then he told him it was a model plane! We all had a good laugh, and I gave the fire company a donation for their trouble. Even though it was comical, the fireman had risked his life going fifty feet up into a tree!

   I could go on with more stories, but I bet you guys have some of your own to share. Send them to me, and I’ll print them in a future newsletter.

 

I got this email today:

 I was wondering if you could post an ad for me or if you know someone who would like to buy my collection of airplane equipment I have not used in the last couple of yrs and don't expect to in the future, I used to be a member of the club 7 yrs ago.  I have a Royal Air 40T with a Super Tigre 60 engine complete with all servos and Airtronics Vangard 6 channel radio, plus a Futaba 4 channel radio with servos, Airtronics rival sport radio , River Rage boat with OS 40 engine, all my equipment; starter, fuel pump, spare servos, carry box, tools,spare nicad pack, new, glow plugs.  I am looking to sell the whole lot at a reasonable offer.  If you can Help or know of someone who is looking to get started please email or call me at 234-7412.  jhpusa@verizon.net

I live in State College. 

 thank you Jon Priovolos.

 

 That’s all for now.  Let’s all enjoy the fall weather and some good flying before winter sets in!

 

Sam Stitzer  814‑364‑9530

samstitz@yahoo.com