Weekend Flying - Pulling Off A Hat Trick

In sports parlance the expression "Hat Trick" refers to doing something good three times. In hockey it means a player scoring three goals in one game. This weekend we had three good days of flying ... Friday evening indoor flying, great flying weather all day Saturday and most of the day Sunday.

Our first scheduled indoor flying session was attended by five club members. Not a lot but we got some good flying in. I didn't spend a lot of time there since I was in between filling a prescription which I had to get home to my wife. But I was able to get in a very long flight on my Playmate and another flight on my Night Vapor. Bob Crawford put on a good show of 3D flying with his plane and Cloyce flew his Playmate. After I left I understand Cloyce flew a helicopter.

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Saturday turned out to be a great day and the flying was well attended. Somehow there was a rash of dead-stick landings. Kenny had one with his Edge and I had two with my Big Stick. All landings had happy endings. I re-tuned my Saito 65 and no more problems. Steve Anderson had an Alpha 60 "trainer" that is a real hot rod. He had to retire from flying early since his flight battery was not fully charged.

Dennis & Kenny talking over Kenny's Edge. On the far flight-stand
is Garry's Electro Stick and in the near stand is my Big Stick 

Kenny bringing his Edge for a landing with Dennis observing.

Cloyce, Gary and Dennis also got in some flying. Sorry, no pictures.

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Sunday was a good day, but when I arrived the wind had kicked up, gusting to 12 knots at times. I brought my OS 55AX powered Drastik and I got in several flights. It flew well since I repaired it from a "crash landing" this summer. It is of the Ultra Stick type of design and I'm quite pleased with its flying qualities and the performance of the 55AX.

My Drastik in the foreground and Mark Sullivan with his Uproar that sported a video camera
mounted on top of his plane. Behind Mark is Dennis' Four Star. Kenny and Dennis are next to Mark's
trailer. We all had fun fooling around with the camera system. 

The camera system plays back through Mark's Samsung smart phone via a WiFi link. Pretty neat. Although he didn't bring a plane, Kenny flew the Uproar while Mark kibitzed. As I mentioned, we did a Hat Trick!

A Tribute to Bill Worthen, Sr.

Pictured is a Great Planes Big Stick 40 from the estate of Bill Worthen Sr. I took this photo yesterday at the field after I had several flights (my first on this plane) and it was a joy to fly. The Saito 65 four stroke engine although "long in the tooth" ran quite well and powered the Stick nicely. The Saito brand was certainly Bill's favorite engines. This combination of airplane and engine will make a great sport flyer addition to my hanger.

On the wing is Bill's club hat that I proudly wore to honor him.

I was the only one at the field because I arrived late in the afternoon. I took advantage of the beautiful weather and light winds. Someone, who was flying earlier Saturday, left a T-handle hex wrench on one of the flight stands. Contact me to claim your wrench.

Found hex wrench

Emergency Landing at Fremont County Airport

So the County Sheriff truck pulls up to us and orders "no planes in the air". What was happening was a drama of an aircraft unable to fully lower his landing gear and they were making preparations for a belly landing. We watched as he skidded to a stop on the runway. The pilot leaped out of his plane and ran back towards the emergency vehicles. I took a photo of the scene soon after the "landing".

The plane, looked like a Cessna, is at the far left of the picture. Emergency vehicles are at the center and left. A large flat bed trailer was brought in later and they hoisted it onto the trailer. Pretty exciting.

Friday Flying Report

There were several at the field this morning. We were thankful that the high winds which have been the norm for the past few days were now calm. Dennis flew his 4 Star, Gary and Larry brought trainers. I was going to maiden my Big Stick 40, but I discovered an aileron servo problem. Then after the wind kicked up and blew it off the flight stand and broke the wing tip its fate was sealed for today. I did try to help Larry get in some stick time on his trainer, but his engine was not running reliably and I had to dead-stick it in after a couple of laps. Maybe I'll try flying again this weekend if the wind cooperates.

Bill Worthen's RC sale

I was given the honor of looking over all of the items and aircraft that Bill Worthen had, as per his final wishes, and I got the Hog-Bipe that was the very last RC plane that he ever flew before his untimely passing.
 I promise to cherish that beautiful airplane in his great memory and I am certain there will be lots of knee knocking and shaking hands and twitching fingers when I ever finally get up the nerve to fly it again in his memory. It is an absolutely gorgeous plane, as were all of his aircraft that Bill owned and built.
 I also purchased this .60 sized Great Planes Escapade that Bill had just recently purchased as an ARF and he has a few flights with it too. I can't wait to get it converted over to my 2.4 Ghz Spektrum radio setup and get it up flying in the very near future.
 And the last but definitely not least one that I bought was a .40 sized Super Sportster that like every other plane Bill owned and flew, also has a Saito 4 stroke engine on it too. Ive been at the field at various times when all 3 of these fine aircraft have flown in Bill's very capable and skilled hands. Naturally I also got the remaining Saito 4 stroke engines that Bill had for spare engines too.

There are other aircraft and RC related items up for sale yet still....Please contact Bill Worthen Jr. for further information and a time to go see what is for sale from Bill Sr's RC plane hobby.

Civil Air Patrol Meeting

Thursday Evening President Ed Vincent gave a lecture and demonstration of R/C aircraft to the members of the Civil Air Patrol. We met in their new building adjacent to our meeting location at the Fremont County Airport. This was the second of a series of meetings that Ed had with the CAP. Ed brought his Spitfire and Seniorita to demonstrate both a scale warbird and trainer. I tagged along to assist Ed.

Ed Vincent showing the cadets his Spitfire

After his session indoors, we took his Seniorita outside and Ed fired up the engine to demonstrate the operation of a nitro engine. The cadets were very impressed with the sight and sound of the engine and the smell of the glow fueled exhaust. We returned inside and concluded with a question and answer session. The cadets had a lot of questions and were very interested in the topic of R/C model aviation.

The next step is the CAP group will be obtaining an aircraft through the CAP educational program. They will construct the plane to familiarize them with the building process. They will also be applying to the AMA to obtained a club AMA charter.

Calendar of Events Scheduling Time

I recieved an email from the individual that puts together the yearly Calendar of Events for the entire region surrounding our club this past week, and he is asking that all the various clubs try to put together at the very least a tentative schedule of the club's events for the upcoming 2014 flying season. He will then take all the clubs information and links and compile it into the regional calendar to be sent out to all the area clubs for use in planning their events to a firmer date and time. We need to start considering what events we want to schedule tentatively and firmly for next year to include in our response back to him ASAP. Contact myself or Marlowe Cassetti with any ideas and dates for our club events for 2014.
 On a different note I apoligize for not being in attendance and assisting with many of the club activities and field maintenance duties in the recent past, but work travels have and will take me out of the area for extended periods of time in the foreseeable future as they have in the past now too. I appreciate everyones involvement in the club's  activities and field maintenance, and if possible with the onset of winter coming on I may get a bit more time to devote to those activities, but I was informed of a couple of out of state winter jobs that are going to happen and keep us busy this coming winter from my employer.
Thanks again everyone, and please let us know ASAP about the scheduling we need to start taking care of for next year.

Regards,

Mark J. Sullivan

EAA Fly-In at Fremont County Airport

This year saw a great event from the opening EAA pancake breakfast at 7:00AM to the closing at 1:00PM. Our club was well represented and we had a static display of many of our planes and a table where we handed out magazines and information sheets about our club with our web site. I noted a number of interested parties and we may pick up some new members from having our display. We had conversations with the Civil Air Patrol members and I believe that will develop into more activity between our two groups. Also we made contact with the veterans home and they want to bring out the vets when we are having a flying session.

A number of the Sky Corral club members came out for this event. This year the event organizers were unable to provide us with an area to demonstrate R/C flying which was unfortunate because folks came by our table asking when we were going to fly as we did last year.

Hawker Sea Fury

The show started off with an arrival of this Sea Fury making a low level pass over the runway in excess of 300 mph and then landing. It is a monster of an airplane. And the folks loved to walk around it.

The Renegade Demonstration Team lined up 

The Renegades laying down smoke 

The highlight of the show was the acrobatic performance of Don Nelson flying his Russian Sukhoi Su-26. It was something to behold.

Don Nelson in his Sukhoi Su-26

A great time was had by all.