The August Meeting

 Tuesday August 5th, 2008

 

Chuck Paulson called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. Doug Phillips and Barry Powers were in attendance as new members. Doug and Barry have been in the hobby for three years. Joshua Crews attended as Al Niessner’s guest. Welcome to all new members and visitors.

 

1.  Our other guests, Lori and John Cowell, are neighbors of the Centre Air Park/SCRC field. Lori owns an embroidery business (Monogram Centre) and can stitch the SCRC logo onto hats and shirts of various colors. Lori presented some embroidered hats and shirts. Members passed Al Jones’ motion to buy 36 hats ($12 each) which will be sold during the August 10th air show. Information for ordering shirts and hats will be posted on the SCRC website.

 

2. The minutes from the July 1st meeting were approved.

 

3. Al Jones read the Treasurer’s report. Expenses since last month included field maintenance and porta-john rentals. Payments totaled $320 and income totaled $113. We received dues from two new members. Al advised the balance of the SCRC account. His report was approved by membership.

 

4.  Old business – Chuck Paulson and Henry Margusity have both approached Bernie of Nittany Line Hobbies. There is still no commitment from Bernie to become involved with the SCRC Air Show – or to donate items for the free raffle. Chuck’s motion to purchase a gift certificate from Bernie was not seconded. Henry made a motion to spend $60 at Nittany Line Hobbies for one or two items for the raffle. Motion carried.

·         Henry and Daryl reported on the current status of donations for raffle items. Thanks to Central Keystone Trains and Hobbies, we have an electric powered land/sea/air vehicle ($80 item) for the raffle. Henry expects more donations from one of his sources. Chuck Paulson reminded us that setup work for the air show is scheduled to begin at 8:00 AM on Saturday the 9th and we had plenty of volunteers in attendance.

·         Chuck reported on the Air Show schedule and confirmed that Roy Long and eight more Civil Air Patrol members will direct traffic and perform their flag ceremony. Henry confirmed that Packer’s food service will be setting up at the field on Sunday morning. Henry will be promoting the event on the morning of August 6th on the 3WZ radio talk show.

·         Al Jones advised that new membership dues, just for the remainder of 2008, now have a 25% discount. Al had nothing new to report on the field search effort.

 

5.      New Business – No new business

 

6.  The meeting was adjourned at 8:05 PM.

 

SCRC Air Show

  “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”. So begins Charles Dickens’ literary classic A Tale of Two Cities, and the same phrase seems to apply to our air show. Best of times? Well, the weather was just beautiful, in spite of a somewhat gloomy forecast. It was sunny, warm, and comfortable, but a little windy (of course!).  We had many pilots making great flights with a large variety of aircraft types. Trainer, sport, scale, glider, helicopter, 3D, the amazing Mud Duck, and the perennial favorite, the flying stop sign all entertained a good crowd of spectators. Nathaniel Rice and Karl Stashak even had background music transforming their flights into aerial ballet (or maybe it was more like break dancing)! My son Mike and his friend Alex Breitkrutz came up from Lancaster, and performed a perfect aerotow of a 100” glider using an electric powered Senior Telemaster. Alex hooked into a monster thermal, and could have stayed up all afternoon, but had to force the glider down so the parachute jumpers could perform. Mike flew his 3D Primo through some amazing maneuvers, dragging the tail on the grass in a hover!  Daryl Allen gave us a taste of nostalgia with his 1970’s vintage Trainermaster, with all period correct parts including a Veco .61 glow engine. The only modern equipment was the radio gear. 

  There is no way I could describe all the flights in the show, but suffice it to say that they were very well done by all!

  The worst of times? Well, we had some rough landings and a few crashes. George Gurney’s neat little Fokker DVII biplane took off in the crosswind and quickly cartwheeled onto the runway, sustaining some damage. Ron Leuth’s ReCyclone, made of recycled shipping foam got blown away by the wind and flopped down with no damage. That soft foam just bounces!

  The hard luck victim of the day was Woody Struble. His gorgeous ¼ scale P-51 made a high speed low pass when the engine quit without warning. Woody scrambled to get the landing gear down, and made it just in time to make a rough, but not too damaging landing. Bob Grove was following Woody with Woody’s ¼ scale Corsair, and it just seemed to sink into the ground, shedding pieces when it hit! Woody also lost his formation plane, which has four planes stuck together in a diamond shape like the Blue Angels. So I guess you could say Woody lost six planes that day! Wow, that’s bad luck!

Later, Bob Grove flew his Edge 540 in a very nice aerobatic routine, but a crosswind-induced cartwheel on landing broke off the nose. More bad luck!

   So the bottom line is that we had a very successful show, but at a price. Our thanks go out to all who helped make it happen: Henry Margusity & the air show committee, Todd Cook for organizing the flights, Chris and Mark Wharton for the killer PA system, Roy Long and the CAP folks for parking cars and doing the opening flag ceremony, all the guys who set up the fence and canopies, the parachute jumpers, and all the pilots who flew in the show and displayed planes. I’m sure I missed someone, but be assured we are grateful to all!

 

9/11/2001 Remembered

   The seventh anniversary of the infamous terrorist attacks is approaching, and I thought I would share a model related memory of that time.

   The NEAT Fair electric model aircraft meet was scheduled to begin on September 14^th, just three days after the attacks. There was debate about canceling the event, but their website said it was still on, so I packed up my planes and supplies, and headed for Peaceful Valley Campground near Downsville, NY. Almost immediately, I sensed that something was different.

I was excited about the meet, but sad at the same time. Soon, on I-80, I noticed truckers rolling by with huge American flags on their cabs flapping in the wind. I and many other motorists were giving them a thumbs up sign as they passed by. Near the New York border, I was listening to a radio station playing classic rock and roll, when they unexpectedly played a touching choral arrangement of Amazing Grace. That’s when I discovered that it was hard to drive while wiping tears from my eyes!

  Upon my arrival at the NEAT Fair, I was greeted by many old friends with more enthusiasm than usual – an enthusiasm perhaps born from the realization that life is often so very fragile and fleeting, and that we might never see each other again.

  I camped out at the field, sleeping in the back of my van. Friday night, I was invited to sit by a campfire with several other guys who were camping there. We stared out at a crystal clear, absolutely black autumn sky dotted with stars, but something was missing – aircraft! There were no high altitude strobe lights or the distant muffled roar of jet engines. The government had grounded ALL aircraft in the wake of the attacks. The only airborne objects that whole weekend were model aircraft and birds!

   Conversations that began with talk of electric motors, batteries, models and such soon drifted to talk of terrorists and war. We were all shaken and more than a little bit scared, but with an overriding attitude of hope for the future. In retrospect, I think the whole event was somewhat therapeutic. It was good to do something normal! If we had stayed home, cowering in fear, the terrorists would have achieved their hateful goal of intimidation.  We weren’t about to let those bastards win! We flew our models and had a good time in spite of the terrible events of just a few days before, driving home the point that Americans will not be defeated by terrorists!

   I’ll go back to Charles Dickens’ “Best of Times – Worst of Times” quotation: Certainly it was the worst of times for America, but for a bunch of R/C modelers nestled in the hills of New York, it might just have been one of our best of times!

  May God bless America!

  

Coming Event

September 20 & 21 – Buzzard Field Fun Fly at their field near Mill Hall. See the flyer on our website for more info and a map. This is always a fun event and it’s free!

Reminder:

The September meeting is the last one we will have at the flying field this year. In October, we will return to the American Legion hall for our meetings.

 

Sam Stitzer  814‑364‑9530

          samstitz@yahoo.com