Newsletter September 2015

Transcription

1 RC BEES of Santa Cruz County, Inc. Newsletter September 2015 Next Meeting Thursday, September 17th, 2015, at the EAA building, Aviation Way, Watsonville Airport, 7:30 PM. Treasurer s Report Regrettably, there will be no treasurer s report this month. The father of our treasurer, Gary Gonzales, died very recently, and Gary is out of town as a result. We send our sincere condolences to Gary at this difficult time. We can report that Bill Boone s material donated by his wife to the club with the proceeds going to the AMA Scholarship fund has all been sold for a total of $527, with $85 still to be paid for by members. August Meeting Editor: Alan Brown, 388 Aptos Ridge Circle, Watsonville, CA Phone: (831) alangwenbrown@charter.net. Web site: The main upcoming event for the club is our participation in the annual Watsonville Fly-In, which this year is limited to one day, Saturday September 6 th, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. We will have an all-day static display and a limited flying display between two hangars at 2 p.m. We are fortunate in that a major company specializing in multicopters, Multirotor Superstore is located on Hangar Way in Watsonville very close to the airport, and they will have a stand and give a presentation at 1 p.m. in the same location. The August 20th meeting was called to order by President Steve Boracca at 7:35 pm. with 11 members present and one guest, Raymond Ruckle, from Felton, who also attended the July meeting. The minutes and treasurer s report were accepted as presented, with one change noted. The rental of the fork-lift was in fact $156 with the remaining $97.07 being spent on food and other capital items. Dan Morris, who has taken on the treasurer s job in Gary s temporary absence, reported that the treasury balance stood at $10, Thank you, Dan, for taking on this task. Alan Brown reported that he would be having a luncheon meeting with Jay Ketelsen, the vice Principal of Operations at the Monterey Bay Academy to discuss the interface with Watsonville airport with respect to recent FAA rulings. (That meeting was held on August 27 th, and the Academy has since been forwarded our letter exchange with the Watsonville Airport, which was very cordial). Dan Morris reported that the next fun-fly would be after the October meeting, on Sunday, October 18 th. It will be a standard type of fun-fly with spot landings, triple loops, etc. Alan Brown passed on to him an appropriate article from Model Airplane News which might be helpful. One of the most interesting tasks would be to have a paper cup full of water attached to a small balsa board which could be rubber-banded to the top of an airplane. The airplane would then take off, complete a lap,

2 and land. The plane with the most water left in the cup would be the winner! Steve Boracca commented that, in view of John Kent s recent accident at the field, it may be appropriate for future membership renewal forms to include an emergency telephone number. All agreed, and that will go into effect this coming year. Show and Tell Steve Boracca brought along three model airplanes which had been sold to him by a non-rc Bees member for $75, for resale at the club. George Ribeiro snapped up a pristine-looking Graupner Kadett for $100, Richard took a Hobbico Nexstar for $20 and a Radian knock-off remained unsold. However, a tidy profit for the club, and two bargains for our members. Here are the Graupner Kadett and the Nexstar (photos by Laurie Trescott). And now to Benno Kolland s adventures! Benno has been very active in the model rocketry field, and showed us two of his latest models. He has recently been to a national competition, getting up to over 6,000 feet altitude and a calculated Mach (Benno has his personal account of the event further into the newsletter. Well done, Benno!). Not to be outdone, ex-member Steve Adams brought along a number of old model airplanes as giveaways, and George took one of them. A very interesting old collection, probably of some value for the electronics, but some in need of Tender Loving Care. Unfortunately, I don t know where they finished up, perhaps in Steve Boracca s workshop. Contact Steve if you are interested. Here they are at the top of the next column (again photo by Laurie). Alan Brown has been working on a Voisin Canard which Bill Boone started, as a memorial to Bill. Here it is in an almost-completed state the only full-sized airplane he knows with a forward rudder.

3 And with that, the meeting was closed at 8:55 p.m. Watsonville Airport Fly-In The club had a fine static exhibition at the Fly-In on September 5 th, and also did some limited flight demonstrations between two of the hangars. Here are a few pictures from the event. Several folks commented that this was probably one of our best static shows, with a great deal of spectator interest. The next picture shows Nickolai s D.H. Vampire and John Williams Deuces Wild, and in the rear Allen Ginzburg s Graupner Kadett. My apologies for not getting every airplane identified. Unfortunately, this is the closest I have to an overall view of our display area, but it gives a pretty good impression of the numbers of very nice airplanes we had there. Behind this group is an amazingly well restored WW II Jeep also by Don Edwards. He has already sold one to a collector in England Don has more construction hobbies than anyone I know! Jacob s two large aerobatics airplanes are in the middle of the picture. Now that Jacob is off to university, Steve has them up for sale at very good prices. Contact him if you re interested. Here are Nickolai De Malvinsky and Zane Martinez Sukhoi Su-34 s with Don Edwards s P-51 behind, and Alan Brown s Swedish Heinkel floatplane to the right. Don s airplane is also for sale. Call him at A late sneak-in to the planes at this side of the display was Bob McReynolds Super Viper, brand new, never been flown, but Bob really impressed the visitors with some EDF motor runs, as did Nickolai with his Sukhoi.

4 Moving over to the other side of the canopy, we see Dan Morris s scratch-built foam Grumman F-7F behind John Williams Piper Comanche (I think!). Just beyond that is Don Jocius biplane complete with patriotic wing-walker. On to the table-top stuff with a couple of old control-line models by Don Jocius check out Snoopy! Then to the multirotors. These, I think, are by Benno Kolland and Steve Boracca Again my apologies for not identifying the other nice airplanes seen below same group, different view while the next group belongs to Allen Ginzburg. And no, Allen does not have a three-foot diameter head! And just in front of them are Alan Brown s Voisin Canard and Beachey biplane, together with part of John Williams Grumman Widgeon..

5 Our last model on display is by Don Wilden, for many years a member of the RC Bees, now alas, working too hard to keep up his membership. This model, Gulliver (yes, it s gull-winged), which is his own design, and beautifully made, is for sale. Call him at On to the afternoon demos. After the MultiRotor Superstore display, our Max Trescott took the microphone to introduce our short flying display. Also in the picture is his wife Laurie holding a demonstration trainer. This was followed by the flying display. The picture shows Benno flying a multirotor, while being checked out by some of the other participants, Allen Ginzberg, Don Jocius, and Dan Morris. Laurie Trescott is also there to help out.. although drones and RC planes will work, too. So when I heard about a new travel scholarship from the National Association for Rocketry to travel to NARAM 57 (their annual summer week of competition launches, presentations, and sport launches) I applied and won one of the awards. That gave me $800 towards a week-long trip to Tucson, Arizona and paid for my plane ticket, hotel, and lots of good Mexican food. Part of the travel award required entry into at least two competitions, so I entered - an egg loft" contest to fly an egg to the greatest height possible using an E motor - a water loft contest to lift 16 ounces of water as high as possible - a judged R&D presentation using an enhanced version of my county and state science fair project - a presentation which shared the story AB467, a California bill to improve model rocket opportunities for STEM By the end of the week, I had flown a newly built rocket to 6034 feet, a new personal best. I came in 2nd in the egg loft and 2nd in the water loft. The best part though, was the R&D competition. Being judged by other model rocket experts on my engineering project entitled Separation Anxiety: A Plan for Safer Rocket Deployment was great and I really appreciated the enthusiasm everyone had for the sport. My project was judged first place for 18 and under, and the $1,000 cash award is now in a new savings account. I also replaced a model rocket that went nose down (no parachute deployment) into the desert so completely that two hours of searching couldn t find a single trace :-(. These two photos by Jay Friedland. A lot of hard work by many of our club members, and a very successful day. Summer = Doing what I love By Benno Kolland If you know me, you know that I spend every minute I can flying mostly model rockets, What a great story, Benno. We re all very proud of you. And that ends the newsletter on a high note!