The June Meeting

Chuck Paulson called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. No visitors or guests in attendance.

1.   The minutes from the May 6th meeting were approved.

2.   Al Jones read the Treasurer’s report. Expenses since last month included field maintenance. We received some membership dues. Al advised the balance of the SCRC account and the report was approved. Al had copies of the updated membership roster which he passed out to the meeting attendees.

3.   Old business –

·         Chuck Paulson reported on the progress of the air show committee. Al Jones motioned to set the date of the show for 10th of August. Motion carried. Chuck advised that Roy Long and the Civil Air Patrol will be available to park cars and perform their flag ceremony. A motion was made to appropriate $100 for the skydivers and $140 for the rental of two porta-johns. Motion passed.

·         Chuck reminded us of SCRC’s open Fun Fly on Sunday June 22nd. Members and guests should bring their own food and drink. The club’s barbeque grill will available and we will provide ice. Woody suggested that we rent one porta-john for this event and Chuck motioned to spend $70 for the rental. Motion passed. Setup will start around 10:00 in the morning. Please see “coming events” on the SCRC web site for further details. The members decided to discuss plans for the July 20th SCRC picnic at the next meeting.

·         Sam Stitzer mentioned SCRC’s participation in the Relay for Life event at the Grange Fairgrounds on June 28th. We should be there by 1:00 in the afternoon to set up a static model display. A flying demonstration will take place later in the day. This year, we should have better place to fly. The members who attended last year had a good time and it was a great public relations opportunity. Please contact Sam if you’re interested.

·         Al Jones had nothing new to report from the field search committee. He did receive some input from Mr. David Kelly, a competition IMAC flyer from the Pittsburgh area. In Mr. Kelly’s opinion, we have a great site and should not be so quick to give it up. He believes that a limited-use private airport can be a safe place to fly model aircraft and offers some other advantages. He may be interested in joining our club to make use of the SCRC field when he is in the area.

4.   New Business –

·         Woody Struble made a motion to paint a line to designate the pit area behind the flight line. This was done last year with the help of Curt Buergin.  Motion carried.

5.   Show and Tell –

·         George Gurney brought a miniature helicopter and Alex did an admirable job of flying it amongst the members in attendance.

The meeting was adjourned at 8:00 PM.

Paul Bittengle won the 50-50 drawing, splitting $6.00 with the club.

SCRC Fun Fly

   The forecast called for clouds and heavy thunderstorms, but June 22 dawned bright and clear! I went to the field in the early afternoon and found a small crowd of folks enjoying a good day of flying. A moderate breeze blew straight down the runway, and the thermals were there for the gliders. I flew my Circuit Rider electric glider for a twenty minute flight and landed only because my neck was tired from looking up! I still had power left in the Li-Po battery.

  Al Niessner used his buddy cord to help some youngsters fly his beautiful 4-stroke powered Sig Kadet Senior, and his electric Miss 2. Both planes are good trainers, and the Miss 2 was thermalling along with my glider.

Al and the kids

 

Karl Stashak flew his overpowered trainer through some crazy aerobatics including his now famous inverted tail touch on the runway grass! (This is a trainer?!!) Karl also showed me the “World’s Highest Dead Stick” where he climbed to speck-in-the-sky altitude, then killed the engine, and looped, rolled, and spun during the descent, then landed nearly at his feet! It’s a fun plane to watch!

  Woody Struble flew an autogiro with a wing, which took off fine but had trouble turning and ended up in the wheat field. The belly scoop of his P-51 fell off earlier in the wheat, so Woody got a lot of exercise retrieving things!

  Daryl Allen’s Quickie 500 flew great, but a radio glitch put him down with a broken off nose. Ouch!

   Nathaniel Rice and John Ream made many nice helicopter flights, including some wild aerobatics! Today’s choppers still amaze me with their capabilities! So do their pilots!

   Everyone there had a good time, but attendance was low. Perhaps the dismal weather forecast and high gas prices kept some folks away. Who wants to burn $30 worth of gas only to get rained out? Still, it was a nice event, and we all enjoyed it!

Sentimental Journey 2008

  I rode my motorcycle to Lock Haven on Friday, June 20 to see the Piper Cub Fly-In. They wanted $10 to get in to the field to look at planes, and of course, I didn’t have that much on me, so I parked at the west end of the runway next to the Piper Museum and left the planes come to me! There was a steady stream of Cubs and other vintage planes taking off and landing all afternoon. It looked like our model field with sometimes six or seven planes up at once!

  Besides a bunch of Cubs and their variants, I saw a Stearman PT-17 biplane, a Fleet biplane, a Fairchild 24, and big, beautiful DC-3 twin! They were selling rides in the DC-3, and seemed to be doing a brisk business.  It was fun to watch these historic planes actually flying, rather than sitting somewhere in a museum!

  Sidebar: The lot where I parked was the same lot I used when I worked for Piper in 1972 and 1973. The Piper Museum is the old engineering building and prototype shop. Ahh, memories! Man, I’m gettin’ old!

Sam Stitzer  814‑364‑9530

samstitz@yahoo.com