Member of the Month. Upcoming Activities... The Johnstown R/C Club. AMA Charter # 718

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1 Newsletter Editor The Johnstown R/C Club Roger A. Luther August, 2011 Newsletter AMA Charter # 718 Johnstown R/C Club s Forty-Ninth Year Upcoming Activities... Join us online at: Member of the Month No-Fly Day: The Saddle Club's Horse Show is on Sunday, July 17th. We are requested to not fly gas or glow planes until after 6 pm. Electric only until then, and only on our side. Thanks! Sunday, July 31 st 5:30 pm Family Picnic at the Field. July Tuesday, August 2 nd August Club Meeting, 8:30 pm. Richland Municipal Building. Flying at the field first. Friday, August 12 th : 11 am, Flying Demo and picnic for Arbutus Park Retirement Community Residents. If you can make it, bring out a plane to the field and fly for them! (Free Picnic Lunch!) Sunday, August 28 th.. August Family Picnic at the Field... 5 pm. Member of the Month Neil Woffingden Neil Woffingden has been yet another long time active member of our Johnstown RC Club. Neil is a retired professor of Biology from UPJ, having served there for many years. Neil and his wife Myrna live out on Scalp Level hill, not too far from the Silver Drive-In. Neil is a builder and a flyer and is very good at both activities. Neil and Myrna have been the hosts of our successful annual In-Door Fly-Ins for many years. Neil and Myrna at the 2011 Club Banquet

2 Neil and his wife were recently recognized at our March Banquet for their outstanding work organizing and hosting the annual InDoor Fly-In, which has grown to be so successful. shot, but with a golf ball attached to the long string so that when you shoot the golf ball up toward your plane, if it's a good shot, the ball swings around the plane or the limb it's resting on, and you can sometimes pull it down without having to climb the tree! How about that for a great idea! We appreciate all the years of service you have given our club Neil! Father's Day Outing... Father's Day this year turned out to be a wonderful day for flying. We had a great turnout with probably 20 flyers, and many more guests present for the Hot Dog Supper. Neil at the controls Neil is a very inventive guy and a couple years ago came up with a unique way to assist in getting a plane down from a tree. We had a visit from an old friend, Jane Walker, shown above with Kenny Reesey. Jane's late husband Don served as our club president for many years. Jane lives in Virginia and was visiting the area so stopped by to say hello to some of our members she remembers from years gone by. We added Jane to the newsletter list to keep her informed about the clubs activities. We had lots of different planes in the air, with no major mishaps. In the above picture, Neil shows off the "Sling Shot" plane retreival system he developed. It consists of a normal sling

3 Above, the guys line up for the traditional group picture on Father's Day It was a beautiful day and very well attended. One of our youngest members, Lee Heider, received his "pilot's certificate" after wowing the crowd with some great flying. President Sam above, presents Lee with his certificate after several successful flights with his Hanger 9 Alpha. Our flying field was in great shape due to Don Hoffman's dedicated efforts, and the cooperation of mother nature. We had great food, lots of good flying, and wonderful conversation about everything under the sun! Jim's Tauras... Jim Patterson recently brought out a new plane to fly at our field. It's an older design, and a "pattern" type plane. He had one years ago, and couldn't pass up this vintage plane. He put it through its paces and it really flew well.

4 Nick Ziroli's New Plane Nick Ziroli, who is a friend of Roger, plus an AMA Hall of Fame member, has flown at our field quite a number of times, has a new plane in development. It's a 9 foot wingspan British Spitfire, shown above. bring along his three helies. He flew with Roger, Paul, and Mark on Tuesday June 21 s t and tried out his 500, 600, and 700 sized electric helicopters. He's pretty darn good too! It turns out that he is a member of the Jacksonville RC Club, where Roger has flown quite a few times a few years back when he visited down there at his daughters home. Roger was actually a member of that club for two years. We enjoyed having "Wrench" visit our field, and he bought two Johnstown RC T-shirts plus a club logo hat to take back south. He got the nickname "Wrench" because he is a pretty handy mechanic and has his own machine shop. Most of his life he has worked as a mechanic, and he also buys and repairs vintage motorcycles for a hobby. Below is a picture of Richard Tyler (Wrench) with his T-rex 700. Thunder at the Field... Richard Tyler We were pleased to have a guest from Jacksonville Florida fly with us at our field during the week of "Thunder in the Valley". Rick Tyler, better known as "Wrench", was visiting his inlaws and also taking part in the Thunder activities. Rick has come up from Florida every year except one, for the Thunder in the Valley motorcycle event.. Many times he biked up, but this year, after contacting Roger by way of visiting our website, he trailered his bike, so he could Rick flew with us several other times during his visit to Johnstown during Thunder in the Valley, and sent us this . To The Johnstown RC Club.... I would like to thank the club for making my short stay in PA. a great time, being able to come out and fly my helio's at your field was a wonderful experience and meeting several of your members was also great, the fellowship and friendliness showed that your club is a fantastic one to belong to, I hope to be able to visit again if and when I get the chance to come up to PA. Thanks Rick Tyler---Jax. Fla.

5 July Meeting Recap... Tuesday, July 5 t h was a hot and dry day so a number of us flew at the field prior to the July meeting. We had a few spectators to watch as Bruce, Ken, Travis, Zane, Roger, and Sam flew their planes. The meeting was poorly attended by recent standards due to vacations and the holiday weekend.. We only had 13 members present. No major business was undertaken, but Sam reported on the June family picnic and conditions at our field, which are really good. Roger reported that the Arbutus Park Retirement Community has requested another RC demo on Friday, August 12 t h at 11 am. We want a group of our members to be prepared to fly their planes for them. They will provide a picnic lunch for the Arbutus residents as well as our flying members. Plan to be there for some good fun! Ken reported that six of our members are scheduled to venture out to the "Weak Signals" RC Club in Toledo, Ohio for the Half-A-Texaco oldtimers contest during the first week of August. This year, Ken, Scott, Paul, Mark, Jim, and Ed will make the trip. We wish them luck with those funny looking old time airplanes! Ken and Ed at the Weak Signals Club in 09 The members voted to have Bruce Thomas build two additional plane stands for our field at a cost of $58 each for the materials. Bruce did a fine job in building the first two stands and they are getting regular use at the field by both some "old" flyers, plus some of the younger guys as well. Valley Brook Club Update Valley Brook RC Club's new Tent Canopy It's been almost exactly one year since the former Mulligan Hill RC Club lost their field. Their membership, under the leadership of Duane "Shorty" Carney, who is also a member of our club, worked hard to obtain a new flying field. Through the fall and winter months they talked with representitives of the Conemaugh Power Plant (GenOn). The management of the plant was very receptive and provided the land for the new field on the upper portion of the ash disposal area. That area has been filled in during the past 30 years or so, and then backfilled with soil. The new field is 900 x 125 feet wide, and almost level. The power plant provided thousands of dollars of contractor equipment, gravel, and geo-textile to construct and improve existing access roads, plus a wonderful parking area. The entry point is on the north side of the ash disposal area at Buttermilk Falls. You get to this area by going up the "Clay Pike", turning east, then south a bit on Valley Brook Road. You enter the flying field thru a gate at the Buttermilk Falls picnic area. Members are currently working on gradually improving the field by filling in low spots and keeping it mowed and trimmed. The parking area is complete along with the new 12 x 30 ft. red and white tent canopy. An open house will be scheduled soon, and our members are welcome to come down and check out the new field. Just contact one of the Valley Brook Club members.