Old News Items Worth Saving

Tom thought the members might enjoy the pictures on this link. pictures of a gear up landing of a B-1B bomber. Enjoy.

Photo gallery with pictures from the event Airplanes of the World 2006 photo's

From Lee Harris:

Well, Airplanes of the World II is in the books. I want to first and foremost thank the Lord for holding back the rains today for our event. I also want to personally THANK EVERYONE WHO HELPED MAKE THIS FLY IN A SUCCESS! There are too many to name personally but I will at least name the different duties.

There were many members who chiped in with field setup, transmitter impound, parking, raffle tickets, food (selling and preparing), publicity, pictures, training flights (lending trainers, instructing and ground crew), shirts selling, simulators, signs (setup and tear down), show cleanup (especially show cleanup), demo flights, tables and PA system. I also want to thank anyone who help out with the fly in that didn't fall into any of the above mentioned categories. I would also like to thank our sponsors: Hobby Works, Wingtote, Hobby City and Great Planes.

We had 20 registered pilots and over 60 people that got stick time on the buddy box. We had a pilot who came out from Delaware and local flyers from around the DC metro area. I estimate that there were more 300 plus people in attendance based on the fact that we had over 60 people sign up just for the buddy box training alone. The Gazette came out and took great pictures of Gary's 1/4 Scale Fokker D VII so I look forward to seeing the write up in the Gazette.

I look forward to June 23, 2007, the fourth Saturday in June for Airplanes of the World III.

Thanks again to all

It was a good day at the Air and Space museum for "Be A Pilot Day". It was a little warm in the sun, but very tolerable in the shade. There was plenty of FREE bottled water and food (breakfast and lunch, thank you) for the "volunteers". The Smithsonian had arranged to bring in about 30 propeller planes of various types, 4 or 5 helis, a couple of jets, gliders, ultra-lites, a para-sail, and a hot air ballon.

For prop planes, there were 3 Avions, a 4 seater version of Burt Ruttan's "Long easy", a Piper cub, one ampibious plane, a couple of bipes (ask Mike T, he sat in one of them), some acrobatic 'experimentals', a Curtis P-40, and another warbird from the years between WWI and WWII the designation of which I can not now recall and various other general aviation aircraft.

Nothing sounds like a radial engine up close, it's a deafing roar, but smooth, it just sounds good. The Allison V-12 in the P-40 was a very close second, a wee bit louder, a little more staccato in tone, but still delicious. Just the sound of these engines was dripping with power.

For jets, there was a single engine "Albatross" done up in a russian type scheme, black with red Stars. The Navy was kind enough to fly in an F-18 Hornet.

The pilots of many of the planes were willing to let anyone sit in the aircraft and most all of them happily answered any questions about thier aircraft

We were set up back off the taxiway in a grassy area behind the planes and hang gliders. We had an O.K. turnout as far as spectators, but I think we would have had more traffic if we were at the edge of the taxi way. The important part of the day was to talk up "Airplanes of the World" for this weekend and hand out flyers which we certainly did. We may have even found a few new members.

At the end of the day, many of us waited around for the chance to see and hear the P-40 take off from Dulles. Either the pilot was staying put for a while or he used a different runway. We watched as almost all the other planes from the event departed, but did not get to see the P-40 as it left.

I have completed the new frequency pin board and it will be installed in a few days. The new pin board will combines the frequency pin and an AMA card slot system into one easy to use frequency board.

Once the new board is installed you will need to place you current AMA card into the frequency slot and then take the frequency pin as before.

You are still required to wear your club membership card on your person. DO NOT use your club membership card in the card slot. The slot is for your current AMA card only.

This system has been devised so that all members can see that everyone flying has a current AMA membership. I worked really hard on this pin board so please use the system properly and place your current AMA card into the slot, NOT your membership card!

Dave wanted me to post this for everyone in the club.

Some good Lipo safety discussion from the pattern list today. Take a few minutes to read this- from his description, this fellow would be considered a person with above average experience with electics/lipos but even so he had a lipo fire in his house.

Maybe this is a good time to share these videos - if you haven't seen them they are well worth watching. Look on the left side of the bottom of the main page. Lipos fires 1,2 & 3

My equipment and charging routines are now 100% improved.

Day light savings time is here and once again flight training will be taking place every Tuesday afternoon/evening until the time changes again.

I would like to wish all the students new and old good luck this year and please think SAFTEY at all times. Please take a few moments and review the flight training section for the items you will need to bring with you on training days.

One last thing... if your radio does not have a built in timer please purchase an inexpensive timer so we can time your flights and figure out how much run time you are getting on a tank of fuel.

It looks like the club clean up day was very productive this year. We now have a nice block paved area in front of the shelter and a fresh coat of paint on everything that didn't move. We also have some new gravel at the field entrance.

On Sunday we had the club picnic, what a great day! I had a wonderful time holding down the club bench with my son Collin. I think Collin is the newest official member of the "peanut gallery". He can't talk yet, but he knows a plane crash when he see's one..."BONK".

Here is the link to the gallery pictures.

The Boy Scouts from Troop 443 out of Burtonsville Maryland and some members of pack 1349 braved the cold weather on Saturday to get in a little flight training. Some hot coffee and a few dozen doughnuts helped the instructors keep warm. The planes where acting up a bit in the cold weather but everyone got in couple of flights and had a great time.

I would like to thank everyone that came out to help and donate planes for the day. Pictures have been posted in the Gallery

On October 15th we had the club picnic. Attendance was a little low, maybe do to the windy conditions. As always Earl showed up with a boatload of food and drink, Keith and his lovely wife Ute (I hope I spelled it correctly)did the cooking and Gary provided some great "atmosphere" with the beans.

A few brave soles took to the sky's while the rest of us left our planes in our cars and kept the benches from blowing away or chased after our children.

The taxi races Kirk organized proved interesting to say the least. The event started with the guys that fly without wheels (combat guys) dominating the first round. During the final rounds the pressure was on the wheeled pilots to make a showing. Lee Decided to taxi with spoilerons deployed on his Funtana. Not to be out smarted Earl taped rocks to his trainer and posted a blistering run. After a protest Earl proved his trainer could fly with the rocks taped to his plane.

In the end everyone had a great time. Off the top of my head, Earl grabbed First place, Second Place went to Lee, and Third place went to Rodger.

Next year I hope more of our members can attend.

    

From the President and Combat Master...

We had nearly perfect weather here on Saturday. We got in 5 rounds of B and 5 of SSC. Due to some family issues and not feeling well, some of our regulars didn't make it, but we still had 6 pilots in Open B and 5 in SSC. It was plenty for some spirited flying, and the nice weather meant the action was right down in the weeds. Sometimes a bit too close to the weeds. (edit kelly) and the dirt.

I don't have the score sheets handy, so the standings are from memory, someone correct me if I get it wrong

It might not show in the rankings there, but Bill was probably "most improved", flying a lot better and a lot more consistantly than in the past. Kelly is also coming along, espeically in SSC class. (And he's learning many of my SSC tricks and tactics. Y'all have been warned). It was good to see Chris back in the action, and while he was obviously a bit rusty, he had a pretty good showing. The scores were really close for the most part.

We are thinking of adding 1 more contest this year, maybe 2nd weekend in November. Maybe SSC only, 6+ rounds in one day. But we aren't sure yet.

Kirk Montague Adams

We are happy to announce that Tim Corrigan has agreed to take over the newsletter. Tim will be producing the newsletter in electronic format, so going forward the newsletter will be posted on this website. We are also going to try to mass e-mail it.

We also need to get a list of anyone who can't take the newsletter electronically. If the e-mail address you use to receive mail is not able to take attachments, or you know a club member who does not have internet access please let us know so no one gets left out.

Finally thank you to Earl for picking up the newsletter after Joe passed away and doing it for several months on top of taking care of the membership rolls and all the other stuff you do for the club.

You can mail newsletter content directly to Tim or to the web site @ and we will forward it to him.

The planes have been gathered up and the scores are in for our mid summer combat meet. Joe W. beat yours truly again in the Open B class... Joe was flying his Open A plane with a short wing span and was able to grab up at least 3 more ribbons then myself, way to go Joe! Kirk Finished first in Open B and SSC, With Joe in Second place in Open B, and Earl in Second place in SSC. Kelly picked up third in both classes.

I grabbed these pictures off of Benders web site, he has all the pictures from the contest posted in his gallery, thank' Sergei!

What a show! I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the volunteers that came out and help make this, are largest show, a great success! A special thank you to everyone that donated the hardware needed to make this show work (tables, computers, generators, PA systems) you name it and our great club members showed up with it!

We also had several great vendors show up and donate time and raffle prizes.

Hobby City
Hobby Works/Wing Totes
J and R Hobby Hardware
Doug's Hobby Shop

Thank you guy's for making this show work!

We had fliers from as far away as New Jersey, Virginia, and Pennsylvania show up to fly at this years Scale fly-in. We have a few more pictures in the gallery .