President Seth Stephens opened the meeting for business at 7:00 pm.

The members attending were: Greene, Bruce, Daley, Anliker, Crumley, Henley, Granger, Fitch, Johnson, Kennedy, Jeff Beres, Berson, Stephens and Pendleton.

There were no guests present.

The minutes posted on the web site were approved as submitted.

Treasurer Bill Berson gave this report: Bank of America checking account balance is $ 2,560.77. The Quimper CD earned an interest of $ 127.98 which brought the CD balance to $ 6,916.42. Bill said that Bank of America will be charging $15.00 per month for the checking account. There is consideration in finding a different bank for that account.

Safety report: Safety Officer Roy Greene said that he did not have anything to report. Seth Stephens brought to the attention of the club the importance of remembering to extend out the antenna from one’s transmitter before takeoff. Seth bumped the nose of his airplane really hard ‘cause it came straight down. That little ship couldn’t seem to get any instruction from Seth’s transmitter.

Old Business: Seth said that there is still a need for volunteers on maintenance detail at the flying field for Oct/Nov/Dec. He also added that there is still no new news on the subject of the FAA and the AMA.

New Business: Pete Granger will contact Rachael for the Christmas Party.

And….

General: Seth Stephens talked about election of New Officer’s for 2012. He says that we’ll be following the rules this time. Jeff Beres and Seth Stephens have become the nominating committee for the slate of possible officers.

Pete Granger suggested an alternative to the show and tell evening. For those who are residing at SKP to have the possibility of flying on a simulator the night of the meeting and then be able to do a real hands on at the flying field via a buddy box.

Jeff Beres suggested that we have a sweepstakes drawing at the end of each year for a really good prize.

Service Award: None.

Business meeting closed at 7:30 pm.

Program: Roy Greene brought his new electric "Foamy" A-10 Warthog. Seth Stephens gave a talk about the A-10. He said that after the Vietnam War the military was looking for a good support aircraft and Fairchild came up with the answer. Seth had some very interesting info for those present. Seth was in the US Air Force and had some opportunity to work with the A-10, namely, armament systems.

AROUND THE CLUB

J Roy Greene sent me pictures of a biplane ride he and Jim Cook took just before Jim moved to Hawaii.

THE CHRISTMAS PARTY—December 13 at 6:00

I talked to Rachael and she is willing to do the Christmas party.  She is offering us the choice of Roast pork or chicken for $10 or prime rib for $15.  The prices were off the top of her head; she will let me know if there is a change.  Note that everyone gets the same meat--the club must choose--probably at the November meeting.

The arrangements (money handling, signup, etc) will have to be handled by someone besides me as we expect to head South immediately after Thanksgiving.  Also, I sure would like for someone to take a few pictures and send them to me with some notes on the event.

NEW MEMBERS

I hope to obtain a brief bio and a picture of our new members to enhance their introduction to the membership. This is voluntary on the part of the newbie, but it should be beneficial for all.

HINTS, KINKS, AND STUFF

J From Don Schmaltz a sometime Canadian visitor comes a photo album that more or less records the history of a Canadian airline with lots of neat airplane shots.

J J J J Yes, we have 4(!) offerings from Bob Kampmann this month:

J This is a collection of mostly black and white pictures from 1949 air races including some of the neat little home-built racers.

http://www.airrace.com/1949%20NAR%20.htm

J Boeing unveiled its hydrogen-powered Phantom Eye unmanned airborne system during a ceremony in St. Louis on July 12. The   demonstrator, which will stay aloft at 65,000 feet for up to four days, is powered by two 2-liter, four-cylinder engines that provide 150 horsepower each. It has a 150-foot wingspan, will cruise at approximately 150 knots and can carry up to a 450-pound payload. Eventually some company will build one that only has to come down for an engine overhaul!

http://www.boeing.com/Features/2010/07/bds_feat_phantom_eye_07_12_10.htm

J Electric Airplane Has 4 Seats, Two Fuselages, One Big Motor

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2011/08/pipistrel-taurus-g4-electric/

J The video is slow to download, but it features a better than factory new Grumman Tigercat. When you have the time, scan through some of the other videos... there's some footage of a Northrop flying wing, and others.

http://vimeo.com/1419498

COMPETITIVE CRASHING

I wrote a 3 part treatise on Competitive Crashing in 2005 and will publish a modified version starting with this issue:

PART 1

Initially you may feel that this subject is a bit goofy, and it certainly is not the norm for our newsletter, but bear with me for a bit. Many, if not most R/C flying clubs, recognize the skills of their most talented crashers on a monthly basis. Trophies or other forms of recognition are awarded to these intrepid pilots who are frequently selected by popular vote of local enthusiasts. It is rare for any other flying accomplishment to be given this level of award, but for some strange reason little has been written on this important and very competitive aspect of the hobby. We shall forthwith attempt to fill this shameful void.

Advice given to RAF pilots during WWII:" When a prang (crash) seems inevitable, endeavor to strike the softest, cheapest object in the vicinity as slowly and gently as possible." Clearly, these British heroes were not into competitive crashing! Today’s airmen have different goals as demonstrated by the vast quantity of humorous material concerning full size airplane "accidents." One can learn much from these writings, but I have not seen a scientific analysis of what constitutes a crash that is truly competitive; in fact, it is my belief that most pilots just "wing it" when they crash. Some even claim that they did not crash, saying, "It was just a hard landing."

We will explore the three elements that together constitute the crash equation. One could differentiate landings according to "hardness," which is the common expression for impact velocity. Another aspect we will have to study is landing attitude. The aircraft landing gear is intended to absorb normal landing stresses, but if the attitude of the landing plane is not such that the landing gear arrives on terra so firma first, bad things may happen. Location is another attribute of crashing that must be addressed as it can lead to true wilderness experiences or worse. I’m sure you now understand that crashing is not the simple maneuver you once thought it was. Even so, there are those that just destroy their planes with no elegance whatsoever. They are the target audience for this compendium.

Let us begin with landing hardness. If hardness is addressed, the plane may actually escape undamaged! I once lost control of a rather hot plane and it went straight in. However, I had throttled the engine back to idle, which slowed the plane considerably. As luck would have it the impact site (location) was a clump of tall, thick weeds, which cushioned the "landing" and allowed the plane to be retrieved undamaged—not even a broken prop!!!! High impact velocity provides the greatest landing hardness, generates the largest debris field, and is absolutely essential if you want to make a lasting impression with your crash (es).

Better pilots than I have told me that they often stay in a flat spin all the way to the ground without damage. Now I have never witnessed such a feat, but the model does have the proper attitude so the landing gear impacts first and the rate of descent is low so hardness is not severe. A more or less vertical attitude is much more common for crashes. Landing "hardness" becomes critical in such a circumstance—the slower the impact velocity, the less damage will be realized. Location may be extremely important if folks insist on landing with a bad attitude.

The absolute worst location to have a crash is into people (it really annoys them) and this kind of crash is sure to bring on the most expensive ambulance chasers in the area, adding to the agony of aircraft damage/destruction. Crashes into real or personal property may be nearly as expensive and could offend a fellow flyer, especially if you use his brand new Astro-Giant SUV as an impact site. …and then there is pucker brush—foliage so thick progress is attained only by slithering snakelike through the mass, often many feet off of the ground. Once you get to your pride and joy, how do you get it out? My experience has been that retrieval under these conditions gives a whole new meaning to hangar rash. There are worse locations even than pucker brush. I once lost control of a single channel plane flying on a Galloping Ghost system only to have it crash in a nearby hog wallow. Truly that was a poor choice of location.

Many flying fields feature airplane-eating trees, which provide a new dimension for crashing. One of our local clubs had only a single tree, but it was very aggressive and captured many airplanes in its day. This club developed a rather unique retrieval system based on a bow and arrow with string attached.

Other location hazards involve surface hardness. Let us suppose that you are endeavoring to do a near vertical crash, but you want to minimize the damage. "Hardness" as discussed above is an important factor, but if the location is soft gooey mud damage is reduced and a spectacular splash may result. A crash like this would garner high points in any judging while producing little damage. However, there are those crash aficionados who insist that equipment damage should be the only measure of excellence. Full point equipment damage is rarely achieved unless the impact location is very hard such as concrete or asphalt. A few have managed to re-kit their entire outfit, even the fuel tank, but this kind of talent is very scarce. One of our former club members was an overachiever and managed to accomplish maximum points on our turf runway during a full throttle inverted pass. He was such a modest fellow that he refused to appear to accept his richly deserved reward.

This has pretty much covered the basic elements of a competitive crash. Next month I will attempt to describe some of the techniques that folks employ in their crashes—such stuff as DIVE FOR GLORY and THE AUGER, for example.

Remember, any clod can crash, but only skill, practice, and planning will attain real respectability. I hope this treatise has given you some ideas for improving your crashes, and don’t forget to take a large garbage bag to the field every flying session!

Crash Scoring

Maximum debris field dimension in feet plus maximum depth in inches plus a maximum of 10 points for crash technique (showmanship) as agreed to by witnesses.

JUST PLANE FUN

J Thanks to Tom Eagan for this tale:

We need volunteers for November and December.

FOR SALE OR TRADE

If you want to list an item, just send me the details including your name, phone number, and asking price or trade-for item. Low pixel count digital (JPEG) pictures are also acceptable.

MONTHLY MEETING—November 8 at 7:00 in the SKP Clubhouse

This is the most important meeting of the year—the nomination and election of officers. Please be willing to step up and shoulder some responsibility for YOUR club by agreeing to run for an office, and voting for the best candidate nominated. We do not accept nominations unless the nominee agrees to run.

Pete Granger

granger@olypen.com