Page 1 of 9 Genesee Valley Aero Modelers Editor: Glenn Crocker 21 Highview Trail Pittsford, NY 14534 The Prez Sez... I think all of us had someone who gave us our first glimpse of flight and of airplanes in particular. That person who inspired us with their obvious love for the subject. The person might not have been an expert, but their excitement was always there whenever the subject of airplanes came up. I m sure all of you can remember the person who played this role in your life. For me, that person was my Dad, Elmer Wright. My dad passed away several years ago, but I still think about him often. He was a tall and quiet man but strong in his own way. He spent most of his life as a husband, a father and worked as the manager of a grocery store. He took on leadership roles in the church and community where he lived. He was never afraid of a challenge and was always willing to learn something new. In his younger days, he was a model builder and flyer. He built and flew both free flight and control line models. He had stopped flying by the time I came along. The only evidence of his flying left I can remember was an old control line plane that hung in our basement for years. When I was old enough, my Dad helped me build some models of my own. Several times he helped me rebuild one particular control line model that kept landing at the wrong time. Dad loved airplanes all of his life. I think his secret desire was to get his pilot s license but he never said so. He never owned or even got to fly an RC plane. There was either no time or not enough money, but I know he would have loved it. Some of my fondest memories are of us going to air shows together, both full size and RC. I remember in particular, an RC field south of Syracuse off of route 20. We had a lot of fun watching those guys fly, and quite often my Dad would get to talk with someone he had flown models with years before. I now wish I had learned to fly RC sooner, I started flying shortly after he died. It would have been a lot of fun to share this great hobby with him. But, every time I fly, build or just work on one of my planes my Dad is still with me and so is his love of airplanes that is now my love too. Happy Landings, Max 2002 Mowing Volunteers
Page 2 of 9 I would like to thank the mowing volunteers for their efforts this season. The field has been kept in excellent condition. We had several comments from the participants in the Interclub Picnic on what good shape the field was in. At The Field By Glenn Crocker The Shelters are down and things are put away for the winter. I don t think we will be getting any Indian summer this year. We seem to be going directly from summer to winter. Charlie is still holding out hope for some more float flying before we bring the boat home. Tom is saying the heck with it and is heading for Florida. Is Florida really ready for this? We had a group of 41 for this years Ladies Night Out. The food and service was excellent and every one had a good time. As you can see from the photographs, Tom Brown was observed wearing his one and only tie. Albert Valone was there. We thought he would have his latest electric creation under his coat but he was clean when we frisked him. We also had to keep Charlie and Tom at different ends of the room so they would not be disruptive. This year everyone apparently behaved themselves at the field and we did not have any awards to present. This will have to be remedied next year. We will be having a swap meet after our November meeting so clean out your workshop so you can restock it with someone else s stuff. Plan to buy sell or trade. The program for our December meeting will be a video of the Skymasters RC Michigan 2000 Float fly. Moonport Modeler Alert This is a warning to all members of the Moonport Modelers RC Club. The Titusville Terror (Tom Brown) is on his way to Florida. We worked with him all summer but as you can see from the photos all we were able to accomplish was to get him to tie his necktie. You guys are on your own. Calendar of Events Jan. 1 st Nineteenth annual Frozen Finger Fly. Flying will start around 10AM and continue until our brains are as frozen as our hands. We will then adjourn to the Country Skillet and drive them nuts. Dues Are Due It is that time of year again. Dues are due by 12/31/02. I will begin collecting at the November meeting. Seniors: $45.00 Juniors: $1.00 The Fuel Fool Rides Again
Page 3 of 9 I will be taking fuel orders again this year. I plan to take orders at the December and January meeting and place the fuel order prior to 2/15/03. The fuel is Red Max Fuel. The prices appear to be the same as our last order. 10% $10.68 / gal. 15% $11.61 / gal. If you need higher nitro or different blends they can accommodate these needs. Lubrication is 19% with 2% Castor. The lubrication can be increased to 20% without additional cost. The Castor % can be increased as well. You Might Be An RC Modeler If... You have built two right wings for a single wing plane. You have switched your retracts up while you taxi your plane out for take off. You have more than one scar on your "cranking" hand. You are shopping for land to build your dream home on, and would rather have flat, open pasture land than rolling wooded hills. You will go flying when it's 104, but won't cut the grass for your wife 'cause "it's too hot out there". You see your wife ironing while wearing a thin nighty and it reminds you of the monocote job you need to finish. You smash your thumb with a hammer while doing a project for your wife and the only thing you worry about is will it be healed by the weekend. http://www.wellz.netinetrc/newsletter/jan_2000.html 10/22/2002 Deer Hunting Notice Deer season (gun season) begins 11/18 and runs to 12/10. This is our perennial request to stop flying during this time. People Deer hunt in the woods next to our field. The way the weather is developing this year this may be non-issue. We don t disturb the deer with our planes. This request is primarily for our safety. Thanks for your cooperation.
Page 4 of 9 HEAR YE HEAR YE HEAR YE GVAM SWAP MEET 11/14 Engine Repair We received information on an Engine Repair facility for Saito and OS engines that is opening in Florida. They claim over 15 years experience and a high customer satisfaction rate. Labor on Saito singles is a flat rate of $18.00 and twins will be a flat rate of $35.00. Opening Special: Replace bearings on Saito singles $35.00. Includes bearings and labor. Add $6.95 for shipping and handling. You can ship engine or engines to the address below. Call or e-mail with any questions. Include the service you want as well as a phone number and return address. Seco Enterprises 301 Sabal Ridge Circle, Suite A Palm Beach Gardens, Florida 33418 Phone: 561-625-9671 E-mail: jsseco@aol.com Mark, Dave and his wife, Mark s wife and John. You can dress him up and you can even take him out. Joan is holding his lead.
Page 5 of 9 The back of Charlie s head, Abe, Carl and Tom. Eric & Gail, Jim and Diane and Max & his wife Dick & Peg Parshall, Chet, Albert Valone and Jay Pruiett Ned and Ed with their immediate supervisors, Michael Parker and his Mom Anne. The Motley Crew at Canadice Lake (2002). Dicks Senior at the field. The tail behind the stand belongs to a small diesel powered plane.
Page 6 of 9 Eric and Stuff at the field in 2001. Dave Cook getting prepared for some flying. Joe Prato s Cub. He has been flying the paint off of it this summer. Carl Burns taking life easy. THE DAY THE AIRPLANE GODS GOT ANGRY... By Robert Osorio, The Flying Penguin The stories are true, only the names have been changed to protect the inept. As to whether you believe in the Airplane Gods... well, take this as a lesson. It's my fault, I was slack at my duties. I haven't organized any ritual orgies lately. We haven't sacrificed any Ugly Sticks on the helicopter landing pad altar in months. The Sacred Bottle of Holy Glow Fuel was drained for the fun fly last week. The coke machine had been desecrated by vandals and the bulletin board was in a shambles. The Airplane Gods had a bug up their ass again. I should've seen the signs. You see, I'm the designated Director Of Deity Appeasement (DODA) at my flying field. I drew the short straw this year, and it's my turn in the fire. It's not an easy job. The Airplane Gods are a cantankerous bunch and prone to turning the fates against unwary pilots on a mere whim (especially those who are sacrilegious enough to bring cell phones to the flying field). Besides, it's hard to get people to follow the scriptures. People are actually reluctant to sacrifice their Ugly Sticks nowadays! It's getting harder and harder to find virgins who've appeared on R/C magazine covers to perform ritual procreation with the club lawn man (one of the better perks of the job - we have no problems getting people to volunteer for mowing the lawn - kind of
Page 7 of 9 embarrassing though, as you have to perform on the lawn mower, while it's moving, with everyone watching...). I've been busy at work lately and all that and... yeah, I know, there's no excuse... So there I stood in the middle of the flying field along with several other pilots, a dozen onlookers, and a milling crowd of hungry looking hobby store owners circling the area like vultures. We're staring at a vast sea of ruin and devastation. It looks just like a scene from the end of a Schwarzenegger Film (any of Arnold's films - they all end the same way, with burning wreckage strewn for miles). Actually, more like my parent's living room when I was seven, now that I come to think about it. I used to like to build six-foot tall rocket ships out of Lego blocks and then start hurling "C" batteries at 'em (meteor storm). Even had little pieces of paper with happy faces drawn on them that I stuck in the cockpit. That was half the fun, digging through the wreckage to see where the bodies were (yeah, I know I was a sick kid, but at least I never blew up frogs with firecrackers like my peers...). Anyway, my trusty and faithful five year-old Ultra Sport 40, veteran of hundreds flights, is sitting in the middle of the field sticking up out of the ground like some sort of post-modernistic art sculpture. "Les Lawndart Artifique" I think I'll call it. The thing came in nose first, full throttle, at easily over a hundred knots. Three of us have been digging for the last half hour using 18-8 props as shovels trying to find the damn engine. "Hey Bob, you sure there was an engine on this thing?" one of the diggers asks me. The ground is kind of a soft loam around here, especially with the summer rains. I kid you not, but this thing had screwed itself into the ground so deep, only the last inch of the tuned pipe was visible. The wings had just folded in on themselves, as most of the fuse buried itself into the muck in some sort of macabre impersonation of an artillery shell. I was seriously considering going around the corner to the hardware store to look for a shovel. We eventually found the engine - a foot down no less. The prize sat there at the bottom of our excavation, a dull glint of sunlight reflecting off the small bit of aluminum crankcase we had exposed. I'm certain the feeling we all shared at that moment, when we heard the sound of an improvised digging tool scrape against aluminum, was identical to that felt by gold miners when they strike the mother load. At a replacement cost of 250 bucks, I had indeed struck pay dirt - God I hope the crank ain't bent... I'm a fond believer in the "stick it all in a trash bag and look at it in a month" philosophy of crash recovery, but we'd had to demolish so much of the surviving front half of the plane just to dig out the engine, that the most use this plane would ever come to would be as kindling fuel. Hell, the wings practically exploded on impact. "Dumb Thumbs" I'd called it at the time. Sure, I've done inverted passes hundreds of times, and never before had I confused my elevator directions. Had to be dumb thumbs. Happens to all of us sooner or later (couldn't have had anything to do with those eight beers I had for lunch). I should've known better, though. That was only the first crash of the day... A friend's Sig Fazer lies on the ground, it's back broken, Styrofoam innards gleaming
Page 8 of 9 white in the noon sun. It hadn't really hit all that hard. He'd been doing low altitude wing-overs and just let it get too low it seems. He'd seen it coming though - knew he couldn't pull out in time, so he'd chopped the throttle and just let it settle to the ground, yanking back on the stick with all he had. Those big wings usually act as pretty good speed brakes in a maneuver like that. It should've just bounced, maybe bent the gear at worst. Nope. The same ground that only moments before had been so soft that it had practically swallowed my entire Ultra Sport whole, now had a consistency resembling nothing less than the hardest of concrete. The fuse broke right behind the wing and, to add insult to injury, the muffler had broken off and smashed a hole in the left wing panel. That's when I could've stopped it all. If only I'd recognized the signs... The P-40 was a tad heavy. I liked it that way - it flew really scale. Usually the OS 90 four stoke was a reliable performer - never given me a lick of trouble. Trouble finally came calling in the form of a dead-stick immediately after takeoff, just after having turned with the wind, and still groping for altitude. The plane was a great performer, very aerobatic, unlimited vertical climb. Just like a full-scale P-40 though, with a dead engine it does a great impersonation of a falling brick. I didn't have anywhere near enough altitude to bring it back into the wind in time, so I got it turned around as far as I could, and shot for a cross-wind landing. I'm a good pilot, and the worst I expected was some minor landing gear damage (no retracts), maybe a ding or two. Got it leveled out, down into the grass. It was damn near a perfect dead stick landing. The guys were starting to applaud... Then it bounced, dropped a wing, and cart wheeled across the parking lot. Looked like that crash they used to show during the opening credits of the Six Million Dollar Man. It didn't even hit all that hard, but it snapped the fuse clean through in two places. The wreck looked just like that famous film clip of a Corsair they always show on World War II documentaries. You know the one: it crashes into the superstructure of an aircraft carrier, and breaks clean in half just behind the cockpit. Looked just like that. That's when I began to suspect that the Airplane Gods were angry... Some guy's Byron F-16 Falcon lies in ruins at the end of the runway. On it's third flight the Airplane Gods reached down and stripped a brand new ball link off an elevator pushrod. It did a slow, elegant, graceful right roll immediately after rotating and pan caked into the runway inverted, sliding to an undignified stop in the grass. Its belly in the air, engine still screaming like the howl of a wounded beast, a tattered debris field was splayed out behind it. The poor sod stands there, jaw on the ground, devastated. He gets an ugly look on his face, the kind any seasoned flyer recognizes immediately. We all head him off before he can get to the plane and stomp it into the ground. That's when I knew - The Airplane Gods were angry. We got our act together pretty quickly after that. Several people turned around and clubbed some guy who had just setup his Ugly Stick on a table. We dragged the plane over to the helipad and started going at it with prop wrenches and hobby
Page 9 of 9 knives. When we were done, the plane was a gutted carcass and we had twelve ounces of Holy Glow Fuel to add to the Sacred Bottle. Things got kind of ugly then. Some guys started attacking anything that even looked like an Ugly Stick - somebody even ripped apart a Kadet Senior. The following morning the bulletin board was replaced, the graffiti was scrubbed off the coke machine, and the Sacred Glow Fuel Bottle was full to capacity again. The God's are quiet now, but we keep ourselves in line, lest we earn their wrath again. We haven't had any crashes since that day, the frequencies are clear, and the wind continues to blow right down the runway at ten knots. The skies are always clear on weekends and no one's burned out a glow plug in months. I just have one problem, and I hope you folks can help me. Do any of you know where I can find a virgin that's appeared on an R/C magazine cover? You see, it's my turn to mow the lawn next month... " Courtesy of Flying Penguin of S. Florida, Robert Osorid, Editors G.V.A.M. Newsletter c/o Glenn Crocker, Editor 21 Highview Trail Pittsford, NY 14534