Thunderbolt. Editor s Note. Don. April Club Meeting. Monday, April 2, 7:30 pm Livonia Senior Center 5 Mile & Farmington, Livonia

Transcription

1 Club 2067 F Editor s Note Ribcrackers Model Airplane Club April 2012 We re on the web! Thunderbolt Feeling a little out of sorts putting this issue together because I m in central Florida writing about Spring activity back home. Odd, on the day club members cleaned out the shed, it was cooler here. Not now, its 80 degrees and climbing. When I received the picture of Errol flying on shed day it reminded me of the other picture of him flying in November. What a change! Page 4 shows more of the T-shirt flying day camaraderie. Wallbridge informed the club they were rearranging the lot and unfortunately the shed had to go, so on March 18 members cleaned it out. Such a fine day also had to include some flying. On page 2 Marshall Stern writes about his March MOM winner and the successful maiden flight. Leon Nabozny, our southern correspondent, reports in from Florida on the TICO Warbird Air Show in Titusville that celebrated the 70th anniversary of Doolittle s raid of WWII. He sent some great pictures. A few are shown and I ll publish more in future issues. The repair clinic continued at the March meeting and Marshall relates the latest in repair technique. The clinic will continue at the April meeting. Bob Brooks has been busy this winter building antique models from scratch. See page 5 for the pictures. Nice job, Bob! Scott Cruzen s Simple Hints and Tricks, introduced in the March Thunderbolt, sparked another useful trick when it comes to epoxy glue (see page 6 ). How bout it Ribcrackers? What hints or tricks do you use that are never published? The Thunderbolt needs your ideas. VEEP Scott reminds us that some life experiences are similar to performing a maiden flight with your winter building project. Read his enlightened suggestion on the last page. Don April Club Meeting Monday, April 2, 7:30 pm Livonia Senior Center 5 Mile & Farmington, Livonia

2 Ribcrackers March Meeting Minutes - March 5, 2012 Meeting called to order at 7:29pm Previous meeting minutes were approved as written President This month s Executive Board meeting was held virtually Treasurer The Porta-Pottie contract has been renegotiated in our favor: Instead of getting billed monthly we are now getting billed annually. Porta-Pottie is open for business. Vice-President Not present for the meeting. In Florida Secretary Dues are due at the end of the March meeting. After the March meeting there will be a late of $ Skymasters is hosting a scale aerobatics meet. Check out their website for more information. CARDS Lansing Club and Grand Rapids club are joining forces to put on a War Birds over Lansing. Tentative date is first week in June. Adjourned to continue the repair project on Marshall s wing. A couple of other projects were brought in for consultation. Model of the Month: Marshall Stern brought in a nice Pilatus Porter PC-6 ARF. Powered by an inverted OS 65LA. Good looking plane. Gerald Klose MODEL OF THE MONTH Marshall Stern I won this Pilatus Porter PC-6, by Seagull Models at a club raffle, a replica of the full size used in the movie Air America. The model is unusual for a high wing model. The top is not open so components must be installed from the side. Hidden compartments open for the fuel tank, the throttle servo and the receiver battery pack mounted in the rear of the fuselage. Wing span is 63 inches and specs call for a.46 to a.55 2 stroke. I installed an O.S. Max.65 LA 2 stroke with a 12-5 prop. The elevator is also a bit unusual, it is a 2 piece with control rods going to each side and a special metal holding block inside the fuselage to hold them with a third control rod that goes to the servo. The wood servo tray is removable which makes servo mounting easy. I have used an aftermarket engine mount to hold the larger engine. The plane does require a bit of time to assemble; the wings use a double wing tube and are bolted from the inside of the fuselage at the top. Two aluminum wing struts are attached just rear of the landing gear to complete field assembly.

3 Repair Clinic TICO Warbird Airshow At our March meeting I brought both halves of the wing, damaged and undamaged, as Roger did a trace of the undamaged wing on a thin plastic red sheeting, he said that paper would also work for this activity. He made the trace then cut it very carefully to match the good wing half. Also, traces were made for wing tubes and the opening for the aileron cord. It was then placed it on a 3/16 piece of balsa, and cut to match the plastic. He attempted to fit it to the damaged wing, saw it was a tad oversized and hand cut and sanded the parts with a fine sanding block for fit. Tite Bond was recommended with very thin coats (dabbing) of glue both on the wing and the balsa rib. Too much glue may throw the wing out of balance, glue is designed to use in small amounts. He also reinforced an inner rib with a small piece of the damaged wood that had been removed. Camps were used to make certain the pieces were held tightly for the bonding. One member asked about the leading edge. Roger noted that for a stronger bond you cut the existing leading edge at an angle to create a greater area for gluing the new leading edge stock into place. A straight vertical cut would not give the strength required of the wing half in flight. A cut was made to the existing leading edge at that extreme angle with a very fine toothed hand saw. It is recommended when completed, I place a small piece of dowel in the fuselage and mark exactly where the 1/4 hole should be drilled in the wing for gluing of the new dowel. The repair continues at the April meeting. Leon Nabozny reports from sunny Florida on the TICO war bird air show located in Titusville/Cocoa, Florida. The airfield is in eye sight of the Kennedy Space Center. I met Doolittles' co pilot, Lt.Col Dan Cole, now 85. Of the 80 on the mission he is one of 5 alive. Lots of nice planes, great day. The B 29 shown is the only airworthy one left out of 4400 made! Marshall

4 March Flying VEEP Scott Cruzen and Joe Alessandrini on the flight line Just hanging out A very busy pit area Ralph Hegadorn ready for another flight

5 Winter Building Project Breda Bob Brooks has been busy building two 1/2 A Texaco class airplanes this winter, a Breda designed by Hal Stewart and the Kerswap designed by Gilbert Morris shown here. Both planes are built from scratch. Morris started building model airplanes at the age of 8 in 1933 and soon began building his own designs. His main interest was in duration flying, early efforts were all rubber powered. He bought his first engine in 1939 and from that time on stayed with powered models. In the fall of 1941 Morris designed the Kerswap. He built three models that winter and during the 1942 contest season he lost all three when they flew out of sight! The Kerswap held the world endurance record for many years until a model designed by Joe Dallaire (Joe s Hobby Shop) broke it. The version of the Kerswap that Bob built was redesigned by Tom Hunt for the 1/2 A Texaco class. The new version features a larger wing span, and weighs in at 20 ozs. Bob has a fine old timer to add to his stable. Kerswap

6 Simple Hints and Tricks Just a bit of trivia that was provided at our March meeting. We have all had epoxy resin harden on us in the bottle and tossed it in the garbage and bought fresh. I have 3 bottles of 6 minute Great Planes and 2 bottles of 30 minute Great Planes that have hardened and were unusable. Place the bottle of resin in the microwave for 15 seconds with the cap off so it can breath. Admittedly, I was a bit skeptical, but took a bottle that was rock solid and in 15 seconds it was brand new. I did this with all of them and it liquefied the resins again like they were new. Again, being a bit skeptical, mixing a dab of 6 minute together and it hardened beautifully. IT WORKS! Marshall Errol...a man for all seasons! ber Novem Flying March Flyin g

7 April 2 - Ribcrackers Club Meeting April Weak Signals R/C Expo May Joe Nall UPCOMING LOCAL EVENTS Check out the details of local flying events on page 170 of Model Aviation, March issue. Greg Gordan ready for take off. Maiden Flight Your nerves are stretched to the snapping point, your palms are sweaty and you re fighting a nervous tic in your left eye. You ve been planning this for quite a while and have put in a lot of time, effort, and money into trying to get everything just right, because there s only one first time. You ve gotten all the advice you can from your friends, and tried to separate the good from the bad. You re hoping that everything goes smoothly and you don t make any serious mistakes this time. You want everything to go well because you re hoping for many years of good times and happiness, but you know it just takes one wrong move at the wrong time and you could crash in flames with no hope of recovery. You desperately hope to make a good impression because you don t want to have to endure the snickering and ridicule of your friends if you blow it again. You mop your brow with your handkerchief, tentatively reach out your quivering finger, and push the button The doorbell rings and your date for the evening appears at the door. Now Enjoy your first date! Scott Ribcrackers 2012 Board of Directors Club Positions President Gus Dabringhaus gusd@trudexone.com Vice President Scott Cruzen scruzen@me.com Secretary Matt Jerue Treasurer Dennis Robbins drobbins421@yahoo.com Librarian Ken Hilton Thunderbolt Editor Don Unsworth dunswrth@sbcglobal.net Field Marshall/Safety Officer Alex Alexopoulos Chief Instructor Matt Jerue Minute Recorder Gerald Klose Raffle Coordinator Warren Wells