The January Meeting

The Meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM on January 8.

 1. The minutes from the December 4^th 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. Final details were firmed up.

 ·         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.

 New Business –

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

 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.

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SCRC Winter Banquet

 

  We had our annual Winter Banquet on January 19 at the Old Fort American Legion Hall. The Legion prepared a great spread of chicken breast, prime rib, potatoes, veggies, salad, and desserts! It was not a good night to start your New Year’s resolution diet! The food was excellent, and it was nice to socialize with folks who didn’t smell like sweat and glow fuel!

  SCRC President Chuck Paulson gave a welcoming speech and some thank you’s after the meal, then I gave out a few “Crash and Burn” awards to several members for amazing and/or stupid feats involving R/C aircraft.

Awarding door prizes followed. As Ralphie in the movie “A Christmas Story” would say, this was a moment of “unbridled avarice”! Well, not really, but we did get some nice stuff, including a couple airplane kits and a little helicopter!   I got two big bottles of CA glue, so now I have no excuse for not getting to work finishing the Uproar model I started last July!

 The final entertainment was an excellent slide show by Nathaniel Rice showing many photos from the last three years of SCRC flying events.

  Our heartfelt thanks go out to all who helped organize this event. A lot of work was done to make this a successful and fun time for all who attended!

 

 

Saint George and the Dragon…..uuh, I mean George Gurney and his R/C dragonfly.

 

That’s all for now.

 

Sam Stitzer  814‑364‑9530

samstitz@yahoo.com