January - River District Eagles

JANUARY 2013
RIVER DISTRICT R/C EAGLES
MEETING MINUTES
JANUARY 2013
Club Officers
President: Gary Wilkerson: wilkepg@comcast.net
Vice President: Jack DeLisle; jackdelisle@live.com
NO MEETING SCHEDULED
Treasurer: Bill Holmes: wpholmes@sbcglobal.net
RIVER DISTRIC R/C EAGLES
FINANCIAL REPORT ENDING
JANUARY 24, 2013
Secretary: Bill Berto: bertobill@att.net
Editor: Al Harbour 1840 Ash St., St. Clair 48079
E-mail Address: aharbour18@comcast.net
Club E-mail Address: eagles1185@yahoo.com
Club web site: http://riverdistricteagles.com
Club Meeting
First Wednesday of each month at the Marysville Library,
1175 Delaware Blvd. @ 7:00 p.m.
Please try to attend the meetings if you can. We need your
input and suggestions. Besides, it’s a great way to stay in
touch with what is going on in your club.
Instructors
Jack DeLisle:
Bud Joachim:
Dave Waldecker:
Gary Wilkerson:
j-j@att.net
(810) 329-3810
(810) 765-3041
wilkepg@comcast.net
Upcoming Dates
FEBRUARY:
NO CLUB MEETING SCHEDULED
20th Breakfast at Big Boy
BEGINNING BALANCE:
CHECKING
$ 1,027.55
REVENUE:
DUES –
Leusby, Bennett, Neil, Young,
Kilby, Eck, Sweet
$ 340.00
50/50
.00
TOTAL
EXPENSES:
WEBSITE
FIELD MAINTENANCE
OFFICE SUPPLIES
R/C CAR TRACK
$ 340.00
$ 100.00
$ 22.50
$ 18.31
$
.00
TOTAL:
$ 140.81
ENDING BALANCE:
CHECK BOOK
$ 1,226.74
NIGHTIME VISITORS
AT EAGLES FIELD
Thanks to Bill Holmes and Bill Berto for
supplying the night camera photos of what
goes on at our field during the nighttime
hours. Really, quite impressive! Thanks to
both Bills for taking the time to set up the
cameras, setting out some bait food and
capturing these photos.
Wiley Coyote shows up with a rabbit in his mouth
Bill Berto ready to do some winter flying!
And the deer seem to play all night!
The Prez getting ready to test a new electric…Looks
Cold to me!
And it does fly…see photo below
Oh! And Mr. Hawk wants to join in the fun
THE HEARTY FIND
TIME TO DO SOME
SNOW FLYING
Gary’s electric flying straight and stable!
Gotta get these skis attached ……. Again!
Ooops! Got to get those snow landings down better!
A nice turnout to enjoy about 8 inches of fresh snow!
ADULT TRUTHS
By Gary Wilkerson
. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3
consecutive times and still not know
what time it is.
Some Propbusters join Eagles to start the 2013 season on
New Year’s Day
I’ll Start off this by
showing you some
photos I took a couple of days ago.
Dave Rhodes is a
Florida Sun Dancer
and he has an interesting array of tools
and the one that
caught my eye was a cordless hand drill that
he had turned into an
engine starter.
I could make the
picture bigger so you
could make out the
brand but I’ll just tell
you that it’s a Ryobi.
Dave tells me that
it’s speedier then hand
starting and does the job starting his “wet”
engines.
The drill is powered with Lithium Ion cells
and the label says 18 volts so it’s has a lot of
get up and go. Dave also said the older NiCad powered drills don’t work as well as the
Lithium Ion?
I went surfing and
found this at Home
Depot for $99. The
drill, charger,
bag ,Lithium Ion battery and saw. If you
get tired of the plane you could use the saw
and get rid of it.
I was setting up my
Reactor and a fellow
flyer asked me what
that was ( shown in the
photo )? I told him it
was my servo reverser and explained that I
was to cheap to buy the electronic version.
Besides being free, my reverser does almost
the same thing and allows me to use a Y connection to the two elevator servos. I had
originally used the mixing function on the
transmitter and wasn’t happy with the tracking of one elevator half to the other. Most
likely my fault.
In any event my solution was to use the
method shown in the photo. I had used that a
few times when programming wasn’t an option and it works for me. For a “pro” flyer it
probably wouldn't be accurate enough?
It’s a little hard to
see but I have stuck
little squares of Velcro® on the side of
the fuselage. The purpose?
The Electro Stick is
powered by a 4 cell
by 2300 mah battery
and, as you can see, it’s a tight fit.
Till I put in the Velcro® I was trying to hold
the strips back with one hand and putting in
the battery with the other and it was clumsy
and frustrating.
Now I just give the strip part a twist and
put it against the square and it’s out of the
way.
I put in a
hint and a
couple of
kinks and
now for the
etc I have
this.
Our President Gary informs me that our
flying field is good to go for 2013 and beyond.
To me, that is about a nice a present an
R/C Eagle could get.
Looking forward to 2013 I wouldn’t be surprised that I was tasked to make up a flyer /
bulletin to recruit some field maintenance
people from our growing membership list so
let this be a hint to go along with those earlier
ones because we will have Al Harbour get
one mailed.
Jack DeLisle
Hi Al and RDRC Eagles,
Something for the news letter. I have
been getting into electrics quite a bit
now and have recently put together a
new aircraft. It is a B-25J Mitchel
bomber. This aircraft has scale retracts
with scale operating gear doors, bomb
bay doors that I can drop
simulated ordnance or parachutist,
flaps, nav and landing lights, and lastly,
electric brakes. The brakes work really
well. There are also 12-50 cal machine
guns on this aircraft. The kit delivered
was 450 bucks less radio from Banana
Hobby. I purchased a Spectrum DX-8
and utilize all 8 Channels. The flight
characteristics are very scale. It requires
about 100' of runway to get air born and
flies very well but heavy like the real
plane. To date I have put 5 flights on the
plane and still getting getting used to
it. The plane looks really good on a low
level pass. The wingspan is 80", twin
650kv motors, twin 60amp esc's and
powered by a single 5200mah, 4 cell
battery. Flight time is about 7 minutes
give or take as I keep it at 6. The full
size aircraft is based in Florida and
resembles the model plane exactly. The
build was in 6 pieces. The horizontal
stab, two vertical stabilizers, aft fuselage
to front, wing section 2 pieces. All the
servos were pre-installed as were the
landing gear and doors. I had to install
the bomb bay doors and rig them
correctly to close properly. All the servos
are digital metal gear. To say the least I
am very satisfied with this plane and will
be taking it to the electric fly-in in
Phoenix this March. It's a really big deal
here and is four days long. Thanks for
sending the news letter and save every
copy. The two pictures, my model and
the full size.
Forgot to mention that the props are
counter rotating for straight takeoffs.
Tim Toutant, Past President, RDRCE
“Smoke On”
Tim Toutant’s new (and beautiful) 80” wingspan B-25
The real McCoy….located in Florida
Dear members,
In December I had the pleasure of meeting Larry of
Larry’s Performance RC hobby shop. I asked if he
would consider donating a Starfire Stratus trainer
airplane, a discount for our members and maybe some
advice on making our track better. For this we would
provide free advertisement in the form of one of his
business cards in the newsletter and advertisement at
the car track.
To this he replied that while he has seen me in the store
he has not seen or heard of River District Eagles but
would like to revisit this proposal in the late spring to
summer, my guess is that he will be looking for how
much business we bring in to how much help he will be
willing to give.
My thought was that with the emergence of the car
track, Larry’s RC carries parts for most cars (that I know
of) and a store discount couldn’t hurt either.
So in your travels please remember to visit Larry’s
Performance RC if you’re nearby and ware something
with our club logo on it (Shameless plug for hat sales).
Bill Holmes
Retail Store Hours:
*Monday: 10:00AM - 5:00PM
*(CLOSED During Summer)
Tuesday - Friday: 10:00AM - 8:00PM
Saturday: 10:00AM - 4:00PM
Sunday: 11:00AM - 4:00PM
PASTIME HOBBIES
710 Huron Street, Port Huron, MI 48060
Hours: Monday – Saturday 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
(810)-982-2874
Toll Free: 1-(888)-475-0640
PROP SHOP HOBBIES
23326 Van Dyke, Warren MI 48089
(586)-757-7160
AMSOILS
For your Pre-Mix 2-Cycle oils and all AMSOIL oil
products, call Archie Kammer, your
Independent AMSOIL oil dealer
H-(810)-329-3276 C-(810)-300-2214
Classified ads are free and will be removed after 3
months unless notified by the owner the items are
still available. Please notify the editor either by
telephone or by e-mail if the items are no longer
available. Thank you.
Al Harbour, editor (810) 326-0536
aharbour18@comcast.net
FOR SALE
Hats – Hats – Hats
Larry’s Performance R/C’s located at 11970 Hall Rd
Sterling Heights, MI 48313
586-997-4840
The River District Eagles has a new batch of
hats for sale. You’ve seen those fancy caps the
members wear at the field and wondered where
to get one. Well, the secret is out! See Bud
Joachim at the next meeting and he will gladly
present you with a brand new cap (choice of
black, green, or dark red bills) all for the low,
low price of $13.00! Hurry, supplies are limited
and sales are on a first come, first served basis.
RIVER DISTRICT
R/C EAGLES
Remote Control Model Aviation Club
St.Clair County, Michigan
CHARTER MEMBER No. 1185
ACADEMY OF MODEL AERONAUTICS
A GOLD LEADER CLUB
Web site : riverdistricteagles.com
2013 MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
Membership period from January 1, to December 31
Memberships approved after September 1, are valid through the next year Date ____/_____/____
Name_________________________________________________
Spouse’s name________________________________________
Address______________________________________________
City:_______________________State_____ZIP______________
Phone Number__(
AMA License Number
For information on joining
the AMA visit their website:
http:/’www.modelaircraft.org
)________________________________
E- mail Address________________________________________
The above information will be posted in the members only section of the clubs website unless you would
prefer to have only your city and phone number posted. ( ) Full
( ) Partial
Would you prefer to receive the monthly newsletter by:
( ) e-mail ( ) US Mail The annual charge for mailing via USPS is $10.00
Previous R/C flight experience
( ) Instructor, ( ) Pilot, ( ) Beginner- Instruction is provided free by the club.
In order to belong to THE RIVER DISTRICT R.C. EAGLES inc, you must agree to abide by the Club’s
Constitution, Rules and Fees. In addition, the privilege of flying solo requires that you have a valid
Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) Card/License, and have certified “pilot” status, by a River
District R/ C Eagles instructor. Be sure to include your AMA number in box above.
Those applying for membership to use the car / truck track: Must have membership in the AMA.
Applicant’s Signature_________________________________________
Annual Dues
Open Members...$60.00
Junior……...….…No fee
Members using the
Race course only
Dues………..…. .$10.00
( ) JUNIOR MEMBER
19 years old or younger,
Please list date of birth
for junior members only
___/___/___
Checks can be made out to the River District Eagles and mailed along with this form
to the Treasurer:
Bill Holmes
567 Montana, Marysville, Mi 48040
Also, an officer may except your application
or present it at a club meeting.