Monthly meeting are generally held the first Tuesday of each month with exceptions caused by holidays, etc. During the summer months, June through September, the meetings are held at the club's flying site. All other meetings are held at an indoor facility. Check the notice for the current month to find the location and time.
The monthly meeting notices are maintained on this page. Past meeting notices can be found by clicking here.
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Call to Order |
Member's Rapt Attention |
NEWSLETTERS OF THE STATE COLLEGE RADIO CONTROL CLUB
Next Meeting - Tuesday, December 1, 2009 at 7:00 PM
It will be at the Old Fort American Legion, Centre Hall, PA.
From the traffic light at the intersection of Rts. 144 and 45 at Centre Hall, go 130 yards East (toward Millheim) on Rt. 45. The American Legion will be on your right (south side of 45). Drive around the back of the building and park. Looking at the building from the rear, enter via the back door on the right. Look for the meeting in the room up the stairs or in the large banquet room down the stairs
Minutes from the November Meeting
Notice!
The December
meeting will be at the Old
My Announcement
Fellow
SCRC members: This will be my final newsletter as your editor. I’m throwing in
the towel after 15 years on the job.
Back in September, I became the Penns Valley
News Bureau Manager for the Centre County Gazette (formerly the Bellefonte
Gazette) newspaper. In this job I am doing a lot of writing, and must cover
numerous events in this area which will cause me to miss some model flying events
and SCRC meetings. I feel that the new demands on my time will compromise my
ability to be a good newsletter editor, so maybe it’s time to quit and allow
someone new to take the controls.
My status will change from editor to that of
contributor. I will still submit articles about R/C events that I attend, or
planes I am building (when I have the time). Since our flying field is located
in
By the way, there is a full page of photos
and a short write-up about our members flying two weeks ago during the Indian
Summer weather in the November 20 issue of the Gazette.
It is with some sadness that I resign my
position. It’s been fun, and I’ll miss it – sometimes! I want to thank everyone
for your support, your compliments, and your tolerance of me humiliating you
with the annual “Crash & Burn” awards at our Winter Banquets. Some of you
seem to actually thrive on my poking fun at you! I wish my successor the best
of luck, and I will help him in any way I can, and I hope you will, too. Thank
you all so much!
Indoor Flying Update
Here is a note from President Ron Leuth regarding indoor R/C flying:
You may be aware that the SCRC club has been
looking into expanding our flight times into the winter months, with the
addition of indoor flying. George Mock has worked very close with the community
center in Spring Mills to get access to the Gym in the
Here are some videos from the Gym
located on our Club Site on RCGroups.com http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showpost.php?p=12252061&postcount=1
There was a scheduling snafu for our
first indoor fly that was also going to be on the tail end of our Dec 1st
meeting. To avoid missing out on future flying, Joe and I have formally placed
indoor flying dates on the OLV Calendar for the 3rd Saturday or Sunday for the
next several months.
These dates can
be altered to match our meeting dates or appended to. This would offer us 2
indoor events a month if we want. If there is enough interest we could also
look at expanding the time range to 6-9 or day time events, we just need your
feedback.
<NOTE> All of these dates can be cancelled without incurring
charges.
I will be trying
to get some activities together for the indoor such as the Hoop to fly through
with the Vapor / Embers, as well as a Limbo set up for all planes. If anyone
already has any materials for these or any other idea for indoor challenges,
please contact me at rdlueth@gmail.com
Thanks Everyone, we hope to see everyone at the Dec 1st Meeting.
Ron Lueth
President SCRC
A.J. & Sandy Jaffe’s stable of gorgeous helis.
That’s all for now. See you in December.
Sam Stitzer 814‑364‑9530
Last Meeting - Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 7:00 PM
The meeting this month will be in the Activities Center at Our Lady of victory Catholic School
The school is located at 800 Westerly Parkway in State College
There are 3 main buildings. The school, Church and activities center. See the aerial view from the link below. The activity center is the building located behind the church. We are meeting in room 101 in the activity building.
for an aerial pictureEnter the activity center main door (see the entrance marked with a [1] on the aerial picture. Take a right in the hall to the end. Take the elevator (press '1') to the lower floor (basement). Left out of the elevator to meeting room 101. Signs will placed on the doors.
Click here for a MapQuest map
Minutes from the October Meeting
Please Notice!
Our meeting
is at Our Lady of
Keystone Indoor Electric Fly
On Sunday, October 17, I drove down to the
Generations Sports Dome near Muncy to attend the Keystone Indoor Electric Fly. This Fun
Fly has become a major event, attracting flyers from many states in the
northeast. The site is incredible! The dome is the largest fully air supported
sports dome in the country. The flying area consists of 135,000 square feet,
with a ceiling height of perhaps 100 feet (I’m guessing), with no supporting
structure to get in the way! When I entered the dome, I saw perhaps 20 or so
planes in the air at once, all flying with plenty of room. Aircraft types ran the
gamut from 3D foamies to scale models to helicopters,
and anything else you can think of!
The technology displayed was amazing. There
was a P-51 Mustang with about an 8 inch wingspan with six channels of radio in
it, including flaps and retract gear! It flew great as the pilot did a flyby
and extended and retracted the gear! Some planes were as small as five inch
span. The largest planes were about 48 inch span. There was a good looking and
flying B-17 bomber, and a six motor B-36. A crowd favorite was a trio of twin
motor cargo planes, similar to a C-130 that flew in formation and dropped
little men with parachutes out the cargo doors.
One of my favorites was a Fokker D-8 with a
dummy rotary engine that rotated with the prop in scale fashion. Its flight was
quite realistic and impressive.
At
The slow flyers were just that – slow. It
was like watching a video in slow motion! They used drag plates to slow them
down so they would hardly even speed up in a vertical dive. One demo pilot used
a variable pitch prop which enabled him to dive straight down, then stop and go
back up tail first! Amazing!
There was an eight foot long aircraft
carrier there with pilots of tiny helicopters performing spot landings on the
deck. A few fell overboard!
The row of vendors reminded me of the old KRC
Electric Fly’s. Kits, radios, and any supplies you needed were there for
sale.
I saw a couple mid-air collisions, but most
of the models were so light that they fell to the artificial turf floor with
minimal damage. One man’s wing got chewed up by a prop, but I saw him flying
again about ½ hour later after a quick repair. Gotta
love that CA glue!
My thanks go out to the Muncy Indoor Flyers
for all their work making this event a huge success. One of the chief
organizers is former SCRC member Ron Angle. He sends his regards to all our
members and invited us to come and fly at the dome anytime.
Thanks,
Ron! I guess I better get to work building an indoor model!
I’m
sending Al Niessner some photos I took for him to put on our website. Here’s
one.
Can you believe this is R/C? That’s a quarter in
front of the plane!
That’s all for now.
Sam Stitzer
814‑364‑9530
Past Meeting - Tuesday, October 6, 2009 at 7:00 PM
It will be in Room 308, Hammond Building on the Penn State Campus
Click Here for a map showing the room location and parking areas
Minutes from the September Meeting
Buzzard Field Fun Fly
On September 19, I loaded my pickup with airplanes, and hitched up my
teardrop camper trailer, and headed down to Buzzard Field near Mill Hall for
some flying and camping. I arrived at about
Coming Event
October 3 and 4: Wings of Williamsport
Fall Fun fly. This is another nice fall event. Their field is off route 220
between
Speaking of the Wings of Williamsport, here
is a link to some cool airborne videos by one of their members. There’s one
that shows the Geisinger Life Flight helicopter passing by to the right and
well BELOW the flying model! Check it out!
http://wingsofwilliamsport.org/(S(bwx3etquelf5rsawbqhtrc55))/AerialVideos.aspx
That’s it for now.
Sam Stitzer 814‑364‑9530
Past Meeting - Tuesday, September 1, 2009 at 7:00 PM
It will be at the SCRC Flying Field
In case of inclement weather
the meeting will move indoors to the airport office
Minutes from the August Meeting
Notice:
The
September meeting will be held at the flying field. In October, we will
return to room 308
August 23 Air Show
It was a warm, humid summer day. The breeze
blowing made it comfortable, but of course, was a crosswind on our runway. At
We
showed a great variety of aircraft flown by many club members – some by the
usual suspects, and several by some air show newcomers. It’s good to get some
younger pilots involved. We old guys won’t last forever!
Todd Cook did an excellent job of arranging
the flights to provide variety, and he included several multi-aircraft flights
to make it even more interesting. We started with three Soarstars at once, then
three 3D planes being wrung out simultaneously. This is a first for SCRC. The
3D stuff is catching on, and we’re lucky to have pilots that are skilled enough
to push these planes to their limit, which they did to the crowd’s delight!
Later we watched four electric sailplanes
climbing like homesick angels, and then riding thermals. George Gurney’s
Sagitta went to “speck in the sky” altitude for a while, but returned safely,
thanks to a good pair of spoilers on the wings!
A real crowd pleaser act was AJ Jaffe and
Nathaniel Rice flying small electric helicopters to music. They spun up the
rotors, and then both choppers jumped into the air together, and launched into
their incredible aerobatics. I heard a collective “Oooh” from the spectators
when they took off! The choppers resembled a couple of angry mosquitoes doing
their close-in gyrations. Great flying, guys! It sure is nice having world
class chopper pilots among our membership!
Sandy Jaffe flew his amazing NOTAR chopper in
a very scale-like manner, but had to abort the flight when his engine lost
power. We had several “low power” incidents, including one that put Karl
Stashak’s beautiful Edge 540 into the corn. Maybe it was the hot, humid
weather, or maybe Murphy’s Law just caught up to us!
Murphy got Woody Struble when he went to
start his flying stop sign and the engine and firewall just fell off! Better on
the ground than in the air, I guess, although falling off in the air would have
been more spectacular! Woody had his crowning moment with a nice flight on his
Nieuport 28 WWI biplane. Have you ever landed a narrow track top heavy biplane
in a crosswind? Woody greased the Nieuport in for a near perfect landing,
making it look sooo easy!
We had a visit from former SCRC member
Malcolm Morrison, who arrived in his Kolb Ultralight. It looks a bit like an
oversize model. Malcolm sits in the nose with a pusher engine (Rotax) above the
wing. He said the wind gave him a bumpy ride in. He took off later, waving to
the crowd as he climbed out and away. Thanks, Malcolm!
Al Niessner demonstrated the buddy box
training system with student Ed Crow. After the show he helped a few spectators
get their first taste of actually flying an R/C model – successfully! This has
got to be the best recruiting tool ever for our hobby!
Well, I could go on and on, but you would get
tired of reading. Many thanks go out to all who helped make this another very
successful show. Todd Cook, Al Niessner, the air show committee, the Civil Air
Patrol (Roy Long), Mark and Chris Wharton (GREAT sound system!), and, as always,
all of you that flew in the show have our collective gratitude for a job WELL
DONE! It just keeps getting better!
That’s
it for now.
Sam Stitzer
814‑364‑9530
Past Meeting - Tuesday, August 4, 2009 at 7:00 PM
It will be at the SCRC Flying Field
In case of inclement weather
the meeting will move indoors to the airport office
Notice:
The August
and September meetings will be held at the flying field. We’ll move inside
the airport office if it’s rainy. Come early and do a little evening flying. We
have lots of daylight in summer evenings, and the sun isn’t in your face when you
fly!
Coming Event
The
Wings of Williamsport R/C Club’s 7th annual “Wings over Piper” event will take
place August 7th through the 9th. There are always amazing giant scale models
to see, great flying and many vendors. For more information, visit: http://www.wingsoverpiper.com/
I got a 3D plane!
I had my 60th birthday earlier
this month (yeah, I’m OLD!), and my sons got me a Primo 15 kit and a brushless
outrunner motor and speed control. The Primo is made by Swaneyshouse, and is a
smaller version of the Mojo 3D model, which my sons both have. It’s a profile
fuselage design with a 34” wingspan, and HUGE control surfaces! With a micro
radio and lipo battery of about 1500mah, it should weigh just 20 ounces, and
have about a 2 to 1 thrust to weight ratio. Translation: It’ll go straight up –
fast!
I have the whole thing framed up and ready
to cover. This task took all of about four hours! The parts are CNC router cut,
and fit perfectly. The balsa is very light, and very little plywood is used –
just the motor mount and landing gear supports. The profile fuselage is ¼”
thick, and has a carbon tube running almost its entire length to stiffen it up.
The servos (4) all mount on the underside of
the wing, and the receiver, ESC, and battery will be strapped to the sides of
the profile fuselage. Not the prettiest setup, but it works well, and
everything is easily accessible. All in all, it is a well engineered design,
and has a proven record of great flight characteristics.
The designers of the Primo are Paul Swanson
and Mark Shope. Some of you might remember Mark Shope. He was an SCRC member
several years ago. He was making and selling CNC router-cut kits that he
designed back then.
Now if I can just get this thing done and
ready for the air show next month!
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The Primo 15 fuselage… |
And the wing. |
That’s
it for now. We still need pilots for the air show. Sign up at the meeting.
Sam Stitzer 814‑364‑9530
Past Meeting - Tuesday, July 7, 2009 at 7:00 PM
It will be at the SCRC Flying Field
In case of inclement weather
the meeting will move indoors to the airport office
Notice:
The
July, August, and September meetings will be held at the flying field.
We’ll move inside the airport office if it’s rainy. Come early and do a little
evening flying. We have lots of daylight in summer evenings, and the sun isn’t
in your face when you fly!
June 28th Fun Fly
The day dawned clear, but quickly clouded
up. I loaded up my planes and hitched up my little homebuilt teardrop camper
trailer, and drove to the flying field. Several guys were flying when I
arrived, but soon It began to spit rain. Shortly thereafter, the rain stopped, and
flying resumed.. We had a good group of our members
there, plus several visiting pilots with some really cool planes! A man named
Ken Frye brought a Pitts Python biplane of about ¼ scale with a five horsepower
gas engine. It was beautiful, and flew as well as it looked. Another pilot flew
a giant Ugly Stick with a gassie, and it was an equally good flier. Those big
planes are impressive!
Al Niessner brought a normal size Ugly Stick
with a brushless electric motor on the nose. It was a good flier too! George
Gurney and Gib Sanders both flew their twin rotor autogyros.
These things are amazing! They virtually hover in a light breeze, and land with
almost no rollout!
Nathaniel
Rice flew his big gas chopper, and then later flew a tiny Gaui electric
chopper. This thing is less than two feet long, but is fully aerobatic –
Amazing!
Karl
Stashak was there, flying crazy, as always! He attempted a full throttle touch
and go with his overpowered trainer! It thumped the ground, stopping the
engine, and then bounced up and went another 300 feet or so before landing! The
prop didn’t even break!
I flew my electric glider for a very
enjoyable 24 minute flight. The landing gear collapsed on landing (it always
does that!). While I was walking to get it, my son Mike hovered his new 3D
electric in front of it with the propwash catching the glider’s wings and
rocking it back and forth! He’s such a showoff!
The highlight of the day came late in the
afternoon when Daryl Allen was flying his Tango. He pulled the nose up over the
runway, and the engine literally jumped out of the plane!! I heard voices and
laughter, and looked over just in time to see Daryl bringing it in for a pretty
good belly flop landing! The engine mount had failed, but otherwise – no
damage! His prop didn’t break either!
So the bottom line is this: Even with some rain
showers and minor mishaps, we had a good event and a good time. And that’s what
our hobby is all about!
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The Pitts Python
biplane – a beauty! |
That’s a biiiig Stick! |
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Daryl Allen holding
his runaway engine! |
Nice Matt Chapman CAP
and pilot. |
That’s
it for now. Let’s go flying!
Sam Stitzer
814‑364‑9530
Past Meeting - Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 7:00 PM
In case of inclement weather
the meeting will move indoors to the airport office
