Newsletter of the Oakville Model (Milton) Flying Club www.omfc.org January 2019 In This Issue January meeting Highlights Frozen Finger Fly Percy Ford-Smith & Searcher Meeting and Events Calendar The last flight of a piece of history Happy New Year Don t forget the Swap Meet Sunday, Feb.3 at the Meeting Hall Feb.4 - Guest Speaker- John Marett (rescheduled - again - from last month) Tips & Techniques for building rubber powered free flight planes Our next club meeting is: Monday, February 4th at 7:30 pm Unit 13, 785 Pacific Rd. Oakville
OMFC Fliteline - Page 2 January meeting Highlights The meeting was brought to order by our President Terry Sears, at 7:30 p.m. Including a few stragglers who came in a little later, there were 20 members present. He informed the members that Andy Sulkowski was in Hospital and had been since Christmas. Our thoughts are with him, but his wife had requested no visitors at this time. Terry also noted that we were scheduled to have a guest speaker - John Marett - but because he was coming from Barrie and the weather was worse there, he decided to postpone and will instead come to next months meeting, with 16 kits in hand for purchasing. Harvey Slaght, who ran the Frozen Finger Fly this January 1st gave a report on the day. It was the first time in a long time that someone other than Jim Eichenberg had run this event, and as was Jim s tradition, a bottle of Bailey s Irish Cream had already been acquired by him for the event. Cheers Jim! Harvey noted there were 33 people in attendance and only one flyer! See later on in the issue for photos of the day (Thanks to Harvey who did a great job). Harvey also noted that in an effort to save money at the regular club meetings he was trying something different for the coffee service. He made and brought the coffee and with the small cost charged, it offsets the expenses so it becomes revenue neutral. As we are now, more than ever, cognizant of our age and afflictions that can appear without warning, it was suggested that when a plane goes down in the jungle that no one goes alone to look for it. In the event something happens and you are alone, it could be some time before you might be found. Rodger noted that this has happened in the past, so we all need to be aware so as not to make a serious situation worse. Walkie talkies have been used in the past for keeping in contact. Denis wondered if it might not be a bad idea for the club to acquire a defibrillator kit (approx. $1500) and keep it in the shed. It was also suggested that keeping a disposable set of coveralls at the field might be a good idea - can get pretty messy and thorny down there. Yours truly then reported on the membership situation. Approximately 55 members have renewed to this point. I also pointed out that going forward I encourage members to renew their MAAC directly on the MAAC website by credit card. Any member s MAAC status can easily be verified on the MAAC validation webpage, so sending copies of cards or renewal receipts is not necessary - just let me know it is done and I can confirm and then process your club membership. Not only does this make my job easier, but it means it will be Active much faster, as it could take up to a month from the time you mail a form, processing by the club, and then sending the MAAC form on to MAAC for processing. It is also now possible to fill out (don t forget to sign) the club renewal form and scan and email to me for processing with your payment by Interact e-transfer through your bank. Of course for those that do not use online technology you can still send the form and a cheque by mail. It was noted that going forward renewals would be considered late and subject to the late fee. This led to a discussion on the apparent decline in membership over the years and what we can do about it. Rodger suggested we again try what had been done when he was on the executive, that is calling members who had not yet renewed and finding out why not and if there was something that
OMFC Fliteline - Page 3...continued from page 2 could be done to encourage them to do so again for the upcoming year. According to our By-Laws you would be considered a new member if you have not been a member of the club during the previous two membership years and would be subject to the initiation fee again, so it makes sense not to let your membership lapse. As well, according to our Standing Resolutions, if the club were ever to dissolve, the formula to disperse any remaining club funds is based on the number of years of membership - and since the only record we have to show how long someone has been a member is the club membership number given when you join (the first two digits of the four digits is the year of joining), if you stop and start again a few years later you may lose benefit of previous years in the calculation. Denis will bring in a list of his videos and then we can decide which ones we as a group might want to see and then it can be shown to the club at a future meeting, or perhaps you may want to buy one of your own! For details see https://www.daveplattmodels.com/ Videos/index.htm Denis has a collection of Scale modeling s Black Art - The Video Series, by Dave Platt, perhaps the World's best-known designer/builder of fabulous RC Scale models. He shares his 50+ years of experience with all of us in this video series. Dave invites you into his own workshop to see a brand new original scale model emerge from nothing to another award-winning masterpiece. The talk of a Geotextile landing strip was again brought up. It has been talked about before, but usually due to the cost (~$15k) was never seriously considered. There are many advantages for using this surface, especially for small wheeled planes. Something to do a little more research on...a site to visit that sells this is...https://www.usfabricsinc.com/products/rcaircraftgeotextile with some good info and photos. The chase the ACE contest was again postponed, but should return next meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 8:20 p.m.
OMFC Fliteline - Page 4 Pilot Kim Vasiliadis and crewman Yuri Zhigalov were the only ones apparently up to the challenge. It was more than a little muddy after everyone paced back and forth so much to keep warm and feed the fire!
OMFC Fliteline - Page 5 The preparation The starters signal The take-off Such a state of awed admiration (wonderment)!
OMFC Fliteline - Page 6 The safe, albeit wet landing Told you I could do it! The deserving winner of the distinction of first flight of the New Year Kim with his brother And finally the worshipping of the traditional burning wing (and other plane parts) in hopes of another year filled with much flying success!
OMFC Fliteline - Page 7 SEARCHER (By Percy Ford-Smith) The model you see in the Frozen Finger Fly is an A2 sailplane with a wingspan of 78" and it's called a Searcher. I built it in 1958 at the age of 14. I joined the Dundas Model Aircraft Club (DMAC) the year before (MAAC # 2603) and at that time, every new member had to build an A1 glider called the Golden Wings. Golden Wings is a 36" wingspan model that was chosen because it was inexpensive and demonstrated the fundamentals of becoming a modeler, and once finished you could compete on a level basis. DMAC was unique in many ways, namely all building of models was performed at the club - not at home. All models were scratch built and power models were all diesel. The club house was constructed from wood salvaged from an old barn and built by the members and winter heat was provided by a kerosene heater. The fuel was obtained by members taking 10-gallon cans in a wagon and walking 2kms to the gas station and back. All models were free-flight. We dyed our own paper for covering and everyone either walked or rode a bicycle to the club. Flying took place in open spaces and occasionally in farmers fields in the Dundas area. No electric tools were ever used. I found the plans for Searcher in an issue of 'Flying Models'. There were full size drawings for 10 wing ribs and 5 stabilizer ribs in addition to a rudder, wing tip and wing tongue profiles. The wing, fuselage and stabilizer drawings had to be scaled up Visit http://www.flytandem.com/dmac/index.htm
OMFC Fliteline - Page 8 and drawn to full size from the magazine. To make the ribs, one would trace the rib profile on a sheet of 1/8" plywood two times to make 2 templates. Next, we would cut the templates using a "Fret Saw" by hand, then sand it to fit the profile. Once the sanding was completed, two holes were drilled towards each end of the templates. One of the templates would be set on a balsa sheet and kept in place with 2 thumbtacks as you cut around the template. After repeating this for as many ribs that were required, two pieces of piano wire were inserted through one template, then through all the balsa ribs using the thumbtack holes and then the other template. Once completed, this rib block would be set in a vice in order to rest the piano wire on the vice jaws, and gently squeeze the block. Sanding now took place so all the balsa ribs took on the same profile as the templates. Filing a notch for the spars came next. Covering was with dope and paper and lead was melted to fit the pylon profile to balance the plane. The model was towed up like a kite on a string that had a curtain ring on the end. By releasing the tension on the string, the model was released. On my Searcher, I made the tow hook from 3 layers of 1/16" plywood with the inner core piece cut away to allow for an aluminum slide. This slide was connected through an internal tube and thread to the rudder. The effect being, when you towed the plane up, the rudder was centered, and when you released, the plane would circle to port. The idea is to launch your plane into a thermal in hopes that it would stay up. In the event of a strong thermal, a clock de-thermalizer timer was attached to the trailing edge of the stabilizer. When the preset time had elapsed, the stabilizer Is that really Percy? trailing edge would pitch up 35 degrees, thus stopping all forward flight and the plane would descend. On Labour Day of 1960, I moved to New Hampshire and took my models with me. All the local modelers were involved with control line, so I put modeling on the back burner. When I came back to Canada (1967), I got involved with skydiving for 10 years, then sailing for 42 years and then finally back to modeling after a 42-year hiatus. Thirteen years ago, I joined Oakville Model Flying Club and my interests are now centered around powered, scale radio-controlled flight. All this time I kept the Searcher in storage. This past June, I had a renovation done on my house and
came across my models. I came to the realization that my kids and my grandkids had no interest in free-flight models. No other organization was interested in them, so I decided to take them to the New Year's Day Frozen Finger Fly and burn them. At the last minute, I decided to assemble the Searcher and see if it could still fly. To my delight, it flew about 40 feet into a 10km wind just as stable and graceful as it had always been. It was bitter sweet seeing it get engulfed in the flames, but it's time had come and an era had passed. It had a life of 60 years and it's memory is etched in my mind forever. OMFC Fliteline - Page 9 All that dope certainly caused it to burn with vigor!
OMFC Fliteline - Page 10 OMFC 2018 Executive President: Terry Sears searst7281@gmail.com Vice-President: Denis Loo denis.loo@omfc.org Past President: Field Manager: Social Director: Vacant Bill Funnell Harvey Slaght Fliteline Editor: Steve Goldring flitelineeditor@omfc.org Secretary/Treasurer: Steve Goldring sec-treas@omfc.org 20 Mineola Road E., U32 Mississauga, Ont. L5G 4N9 Telephone: 416-346-0401 Chief Flying Instructor: Brian Anderson Webmaster: Bert Armstrong bert@virtuhost.com Municipalities Liaison: Mike McDermott Date OMFC Meeting Dates for 2019 Agenda February 4 (Monday) Guest - John Marett (tips & tech. rubber free flight) March 4 (Monday) - April 1 (Monday) Indoor free flight Contest May 6 (Monday) - OMFC Event Dates for 2019 Date Event Event Contact Feb. 03 (Sunday) Swap Meet (Union Hall) Terry Sears May 14 (Tuesday) Flight (& Grnd.) School (OMFC Field) Brian Anderson Jun. 01 (Saturday) Electric Fun Fly (OMFC Field) Denis Loo Jun. 08 (Saturday) Milton Street Market (Milton) Bill Funnell Jun. 23 (Sunday) Airshow (OMFC Field) Mike McDermott Jul. 27/28(Sat. & Sun.) Precision Aero. Contest (OMFC Field) Bert Armstrong Aug. 24 (Saturday) Family Fun Fly (OMFC Field) Terry Sears Aug. 25 (Sunday) Fam. Fun Fly RAIN DAY (OMFC Field)