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Friday, July 26, 2013

Weed Control Program at the flying field.

 I arrived at the field on Friday morning around 9:30 AM or so only to find Ed Vincent, Steve Stafford, Gary Ivonella and a prospective new member flying on the buddy box system with Ed's competent training and instructions.
 I decided I had best not  bring any planes to fly this morning, but rather to get the weeds sprayed around the field's buildings, parking lots and tables and public areas. I have not sprayed weeds out on the runway itself as of this morning just yet due to the busy flying activity going on with student training, but will be spraying the weeds in the very near future on the runway itself too.
 There is a brand new 2 gallon sprayer in the storage building for anyones use at anytime they see the need to spray some weeds. I have already seen some results in just the few short hours I was there at the field spraying them this morning as to the weeds starting to curl up some. There is an 10 Litre jug of VERRRRYYY expensive ground cover killer weed spray stored in our storage building that was purchased along with the new weed sprayer. Please do not use any more than 1/4 of a cup of weed killer per 2 gallons of water in the sprayer. This weed spray is professional grade strength and that is why the cost is what it is, but this product really works well, and there is absolutely no need at all to mix it any stronger than the specified doseage above. We shouldn't need to spray more than a few times per season with this product, and once we get the weeds sprayed earlier in the growing season from here on out, I don't see the need to spray more than 2 times per season once we get on track now that we have the equipment and spray to do it correctly in the future.
 We'll still need to do some trimming and mowing of the longer dead weed stalks later on after they die back, but that should not be too difficult now that the club has a working mower and weedwacker. Just volunteer anytime you can for everyone's benefit and with everyone's help, like we've had luck with in the past this chore won't be too tough to accomplish with many hands making light work of the chores.
 Hopefully I'll get in some flying on Saturday July 27th or possibly on Sunday the 28th of July too.
 I have my cordless screwdriver charged up and ready to bring to the field on Saturday morning to repair the cover awning framework that has pulled out the screws from the impound building, and will need one person's assistance in fixing that repair then also. It shouldn't take more than 5 or 10 minutes tops to repair the problem, and I am always grateful for any and all help in upkeep and maintenance of everything at the club's facility.
 Ron Prewitt has graciously donated 4 more additional maintenance free type batteries that can be wired into our field's charging power station system now too. That way there is more stored electrical energy on tap for any heavy useage demands and needs, if that need should ever arise. Thanks for the kind donation Ron!!!  Possibly with Kenny McMullen's electrical expertise and advice we can get those batteries wired into the system in the very near future, but in the meanwhile our power station system is still operational and available for everyones needs still too.
 I brought home the combination padlock for the main gate at the field to work it over and try to free it up some due to it giving several members fits in making it work, but I was not able to get it to work reliably anymore however, so I am purchasing a new padlock for our clubs use, so we don't have the difficulty in securing the property correctly.
 If you see any other matters or concerns needing our attention in regards to maintenance and upkeep of the club's facility please feel free to effect the maintenance and repairs yourself if you possibly can, or feel free to contact myself or any of the people involved with the maintenance and we will schedule the time to effect the needed work in a timely manner.
 Once again I want to thank everyone heartily for all of their hard work in keeping our facility a top notch place to fly for everyone's benefit and enjoyment. Without all of our hard work it would not be as nice of a place as it is to fly at. Thank You very much everyone!!!!

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Club Fun-Fly / B&G Club Event

For Saturday, July 13th we had a flying session where we hosted the Fremont Boys & Girls Club at our field. The weather was great and the winds remained low throughout the morning. Pres. Ed Vincent had a busy session training several of the youngsters. After the first couple of training flights we switched from the club's trainer to my LT-40 which proved to be more docile and easier for the kids to fly.

The Peanut Gallery enjoying the show


Ed Vincent with our first trainee Doan who did quite well
Even the Dads get their turn, Toby at the controls.
Maybe he got bit by the R/C bug?


A preflight briefing for Curtis


Curtis at the controls


Amelia doing a great job at R/C flying


Conner showing off his talents of flying R/C

Our member, Mike Ciganek's grandson Mac is a natural pilot
Mac was visiting from Denver
President Ed presenting our $100 check to Sadie, who accepted our
donation for the Fremont County Boys & Girls Club



Some of the youngsters had difficulty with over controlling the planes. It appears that the buddy box setup doesn't take full advantage of the computer radio's expo features. Maybe we can solve the problem before our next training session.

Anyway, a good time was had by all.


Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Salida, CO. Fun Fly 2013

I recieved an email from Marlowe Cassetti regarding the Fun Fly event being held at the Salida, CO. Harriet Alexander airport on June 29th and 30th, and I got in touch with the airport volunteer that had sent out the email to Marlowe, inviting us up for the event to display our RC models and to put on some flight demonstrations. Steve Bush is a very sociable and welcoming person to get to know, and I am certainly glad I got to make his aquaintance this past weekend at the show.
They set us up with a very large area in front of the flight line and next to the free pancake breakfast serving area.....talk about continuous tempatations.....the food and people and hospitality were second to none the entire weekend!!! I only flew one time during the weekend using my Hangar 9 P-51 Mustang and flying in front of such a large crowd of spectators proved to be very overwhelming to say the least, as I had a fellow RC pilot from Salida that was there flying his electric "Octo-copter" and other electric powered large scale airplanes for the crowd during the weekend, come over to assist me during my flight time. I had Chris go ahead and take the transmitter and fly for a bit while I calmed my nerves back down some and then resumed flying my Mustang again for awhile. After several aborted go-around attempts at landing with the crowd in such close proximity to the runway we were using I asked Chris to handle the landing procedure for the sake of everyones safety nearby.
There were several members that attended the Fly In event from the Fremont County Radio Control Club throughout the weekends festivities such as Mark Putzer, Dennis Sporing, Terry Davis, Nick Bellino,Steve Stafford, Marlowe Cassetti and others that may have slipped my memory. We even had the distinct pleasure of getting a visit from "Kiwi" Stephen Cairns, from the Sky Corral RC Club in Pueblo, CO. Tony Brotherton and his dad who both are also Sky-Corral RC Club members flew in for the event in Tony's beautiful Citabria.
Some of the pilots that I am familiar with that flew their planes in for the fun fly event were Dick Baker in his Fouga, Nick Bellino in his Myers L'il Toot, Tony Brotherton and his dad flying in Tony's Citabria Decathlon, Jim Thibadeau with his P-51 Mustang and Jack Collins in his AT-6 Texan, among several other beautiful aircraft that attended the weekends activities. Steve Bush from the Salida airport that invited us up for the show, displayed his very nice Piper Pawnee also.
There were numerous vintage and antique vehicles of all sorts and sizes at the show on the tarmac this past weekend also, and it was a pleasure to get to visit with these very knowledgeable folks that were proudly showing off their vehicles too.
I'm sure I've probably forgotten to mention someone in attendance at the show this past weekend and if so, please forgive my forgetfullness in advance.
I took a few pictures and would like to share them with everyone here for their viewing pleasure.