October 2009 Newsletter of the Pikes Peak Radio Control Club AMA Club Number 179 Volume 37, Number 10 October 09 Officers: Pres - Jim Terry; VP - Ben Woofter; Secretary - Rob Waggoner; Treasurer - Frank Tuxworth Mailing Address: P.O. Box 25604, Colorado Springs, CO 80936 Web Site: http://www.pprcflyers.net Next Club Meeting: Monday, Oct 5th 2009 7:00 PM at the ELIC (East Library Info Center) Pikes Peak Public Library on Union Airplane Funnies... Submitted by: Y. I. Crash Last Month s Club Meeting Notes (September) Meeting Started: 7:00 pm Meeting Adjourned: 8:01 pm Members Attended: 38 Visitors: 4 Old Business: 1) Mike Evans stated that the shade stand on the east side pits should be completed this month. New Business: 1) Club President Jim Terry, discussed the issue of posting the club roster on the club website. More research will be required before a decision is made. 2) Club Treasurer Frank Tuxworth, discussed the club finances, all outstanding bills for 2009 are paid in full. 3) Frank Tuxworth discussed the club By-laws updates. Club dues may soon start in November instead of October. 4) Frank Tuxworth discussed the updated club registration form. Just one valid contact number will be required on the form. 5) Mike Evans brought up the idea of having a permanent lawn mower kept at the airfield. James Murphy said that he may have one available. You know, I m not too happy about the Air Boss s new parking plan! PPRCC Memorial Day Fun Fly The club will have its annual PPRCC Memorial Day Fun Fly on Saturday, October 10 th 2009. The purpose of the event is to take a moment to remember club members that has past away and the great contributions that they did for the club. Gathering around the flagpole starts at 9:00 am, followed by a few words from the club president, then a few words from the club members. After that, everyone is free to go flying with whatever you bring. But make sure you get there on time; Jim Terry (aka the Cook) will be cooking breakfast! PPRCC Radio Flyer Newsletter 1 October 2009
All About Warbirds Flight testing of the Wildcatfish began in February 1943 and the results were very disappointing. The F4F Wildcat was already an average fighter and adding the floats made the Wildcatfish s flight performance even less than average. During the early days of WWII, the Pacific war was going quite well for the Japanese. They already controlled much of the Far East and had a foothold in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. Much of their great success was partly due to the Rufe, a floatplane version of the Mitsubishi Zero. The Rufe s performance was degraded only slightly with the large center float but it was still a match for the current Allied fighters. F4F-3S Wildcatfish during water trials However, testing went on for another 3-4 months. Even installing an improved engine was not enough to bring up its performance to compete against the Rufe, the Zero or the Oscar. Nakajima Rufe Since the Japanese did not have many airbases to operate from on the Aleutian Islands but had plenty of coastline, the Rufe was an ideal airplane for their invasion of Alaska campaign. By mid 1943 the project was finally dropped, not just because of its poor performance, but because America s war production began to escalate. Initially, the U.S. military thought that with the war being fought in the vast Pacific, a fighter floatplane would be necessary to operate from the hundreds of Pacific islands as the war closed in on Japan. The U.S. Navy realized the success that the Rufe was having operating from the shore bases. Not having too many island airbases of their own, the U.S. Navy decided that they also needed to develop a fighter floatplane of their own. F4F-3S Wildcatfish F4F-3S Wildcatfish The only fighter that the U.S. Navy had available to experiment with, was the Grumman F4F Wildcat. So Grumman took about 100 Wildcats, attached two large pontoons and renamed it the F4F-3S Wildcatfish. Fortunately, U.S. shipyards were building aircraft carriers faster than expected, and the Seabees and Combat Engineers were practically building airstrips on the islands as soon as they were captured. So it was decided that having a dedicated fighter floatplane was not necessary after all. Did You Know? Even though the Japanese Zero was vastly superior over the F4F Wildcat, the Wildcat was built much more rugged and had better than a 7:1 kill ratio over the Zero. PPRCC Radio Flyer Newsletter 2 October 2009
Show & Tell Pueblo Warbirds Event Unfortunately, I couldn t make it to the Warbirds over the Rockies airshow, but I did make it to the Desert Corral s 9th annual warbird event in Pueblo. A few of our club members also attended; Ed Sweeny came along with his squadron of electric warbirds, Rick Paquin brought his World Models GS Zero, James Murphy had his KMP Bearcat, Hanger 9 Corsair and Tigermoth, Daryl Lloyd brought out a pair of P-47 Thunderbolts and a.60 size World Models Zero and I brought my Me-109 and Me-163. Dan Brunson flight demos a MSR micro helicopter. It weighs about 2 ounces Ed and his electric warbird squadron Ben Woofer talks about his new ideas for his CMP P-40 Warhawk The event had a pretty good turn out, about 40 pilots registered and the weather was great, no high winds like last year. It was about 80 degrees both days, but in Pueblo, it seemed like 90 degrees, both days! Keith Davis explains his Yellow Stik complete with a mounted video camera Murphy taxiing out with his F4U Corsair PPRCC Radio Flyer Newsletter 3 October 2009
A few of the highlights during the event was a pilot from Denver did a demonstration flight with his 50 pound A-10 Warthog, equipped with smoke and a pilot that waved as he taxied by, pretty neat. Then of course, the Sky Corral club did their annual recognition of military veterans. They presented awards to two WWII vets and two Vietnam vets; it was a very inspiring presentation. Daryl displays his P-47 Thunderbolt From the Safety Guy By Rick Paquin Rick prepping his Zero for flight It has been brought to my attention that one or two of you out there are trying to fly your planes with the control surfaces going in the wrong direction. Although this is a very exciting first few seconds of the first flight of the day, it is not recommended. For one thing, you crash your plane right off the bat, then you stand there and look at your radio as if it did something wrong. So check your plane out before you fly and if you are having a brain stall that day, ask some one in the pits to have a look. The second item is, do some regular maintenance on your planes. This should and will keep your motors from falling out, the gas tank in the right place and your batteries on your balance point. Keith s pair of German fighters One fun event the club did was that they launched all of the WWI birds at one time. When they were done flying, they launched all of the WWII birds at one time. Surprisingly, there were no mid-airs! Also make sure that your servo screws are tight on the servos. Sometimes they tend to come loose and your servo is on the ground and your plane is still in the air, that's not recommended ether. So check your planes before you fly and have a great day flying. Overall, the Sky Corral club was pretty happy with the event and the pilots from PPRCC had a good time too. I took about 50 pictures and will soon have them posted on the club website. So if you would like to see more of the action that too place, check out the club website! Got an article, picture or story that you want to share with the club? Send it to me at: LKDavis02@msn.com Keith Davis PPRCC Newsletter Editor PPRCC Radio Flyer Newsletter 4 October 2009
Keeping Cool By Mike Evans The weekend of September 12 th saw the completion of the new sun shelter along the east runway pit area. The shelter is of similar design and appearance to the original shelter along the west runway. Cherry Creek Warbirds Event With a last minute notice, the Cherry Creek RC club decided to have its annual one-day warbird event on September 20 th. And since I have never been there, I decided to participate and check the place out. The project has been a work in progress for about six weeks. Club members donated most of the materials and all of the labor. Because of the material donations, the cost to the club was about thirty percent of the cost of materials had they been purchased new. Cherry Creek State Park During the course of construction lots of club members pitched in with a couple of hours of work. The prime movers on the project were Jason Arndt and Kevin Kinzel with material and labor donations. Other very active participants were Glen Pope, Murf Murphy, Rob Waggoner Ben Woofter and the Mad Painter Duane Zinke. Thanks to everyone who worked on the shelter. Keep cool! It was a well-organized event and about 30+ pilots registered to include a large group from the Pueblo club. Cherry Creek s runways are not very long, but they had the surrounding grass well groomed and trimmed, so landing short or over running the runway wasn t too much of a problem. The weather was great, but the winds were changing back and forth all day long, causing pilots to take-off on one end and then landing on the other end. So everyone got to fly and exercise at the same time! Also of note is the installation of a stile (step ladder) over the barbed wired fence along the west runway. It s nice to have but let s hope you don t have to use it. Thanks Jason for making that happen. A Great Job goes out to the sun shelter crew for helping to improve the club s flying field. 1 st, 2 nd and 3 rd place awards were given out to some nice looking planes and the event ended around 2:30 pm because the weather was moving in. In the end, it was a nice one-day event. I got to fly at a different airfield and meet new pilots. However, a few pilots did ask me, Where was Rick Paquin! PPRCC Radio Flyer Newsletter 5 October 2009
Upcoming Events: Oct 5 th 2009 (Monday) PPRCC Meeting Oct 10 th 2009 (Saturday) PPRCC Memorial Day Fun Fly Nov 4 th 2009 (Wednesday) PPRCC Meeting Dec 2 nd 2009 (Wednesday) PPRCC Meeting Jan 1 st 2010 (Friday) PPRCC s Frozen Needle Valve Fly-In PPRCC Radio Flyer Newsletter 6 October 2009