Siloam Springs RC Modelers

Happy New year everybody! I hope you are all getting settled in after the holidays. We may have a few more weeks of flying before winter really sets in. It’s been a bit windy recently, but at least it’s been fairly warm.
I got the new gate combination set this evening. If you were at the field today and have paid your 2012 dues, Marvin was passing out membership cards, and the gate combination is on the back. If you haven’t received your membership card yet, or if you have any problems with the combination, please contact one of the club officers: SSRCM Club Officers.

It was supposed to be nicer today than it was on Saturday. I went out Saturday for a short time, and it was at least sunny on Saturday. It was a bit warmer today, but without the sun it actually felt cooler. It was also a bit windier today, which wasn’t supposed to happen either. Sigh…
We had much the same turn-out today as we did Saturday: Dan Stelljes, Denny McGloughlin, Tony Fox, Dave Husher, Bill Bergen and Bob Lavey. Kevin Sisco was out today with a Saito 72-powered Hangar-9 P-51 decorated in the Tuskegee Airman colors. It was a very nice looking plane that also flew nicely. Kevin has another winner.
Dan had his Funtana, and he flew once. With the overcast skies, he couldn’t see it well enough to feel comfortable, so he landed early and spent the rest of the time harassing the rest of us Denny had his Meteor Electric Ducted Fan jet out again this weekend, and he flew it once while I was there. I’m not positive, but I think it’s this one: www.generalhobby.com Denny gets a lot of flight time out of that plane, and he seems to have a ball with it. It looks terrific in the air.
Tony had his biplane again today, as he did Saturday. Dave had his flying wing again, too. Bergen didn’t fly today, but he flew his L-19 Bird Dog on Saturday. I had my Defiant and flew three times. I had switched to a 210Kv Himax motor with a 20.5×14 prop, and it had a lot more power.
I’m hopeful for Wednesday, but they’re already saying partly cloudy and 47 degrees, and I’m confident it won’t be that nice based on the forecasting skills I’ve seen the past week.

Today was supposed to be very much the same as Saturday, a bit warmer but a bit windier. Well, it was windier, but I don’t think it was much warmer. My car said it was 50, and the wind felt about 10mph at most and was mostly around 5mph. The skies were clear all day, and it was really nice for flying, other than the chill of the wind.
Mike and I got to the field about 12:15, and Dan Stelljes was already there. Dan had a Funtana and a U-Can-Do, and he flew once. Mike had a Focus Sport that he’d converted to electric: e-Flite 110 motor, Castle HV 85 ESC, and 8-cell 5000mah Blue lipos. Mike said it weighed 10.25 pounds, and it flew very nicely! After a range-check, the maiden was completely uneventful. The plane took to trim, but it seemed to be flying tail-down a bit, so Mike moved the batteries forward for subsequent flights, and it seemed to help. He’ll need to fly it a bunch more to get a feel for it. He got in 3 4-minute flights, since he’s still breaking in the batteries. Mike also had his electric X-Ray, and he got in a couple of flights on it. I had my StingRay and Abbra, and I got in 3 flights on each.
Mark Labadie and Denny McGloughlin came out about 1pm. Denny had a very nice-looking electric jet that looked like it flew very nicely. He got in a couple flights with it. Mark had his Tiger II and was looking for his December flight (as were most of us). Mark got in a nice flight, although Dan helped Mark Labadie with his landing.
Lots of people showed up after that: Dave Husher, Tony Fox, Marvin Hendrix, and Paul Chmielewski. Dave had his flying wing, and he got in a couple of flights. With the new motor he’s put on it, it seems to be much better flying airplane. Tony had his electric mini-Katana and got in a couple of flights. Marvin had his fuel-powered SNJ and got in his December flight. Paul was working with Tony as I left about 3:30 to get something that looked like an Ultra Sport running. I hope they were successful!
Hopefully we’re in for better weather the second half of December. The first half wasn’t very good

Finally a nice day in November! Okay, it was nice back on the 4th of November when I got my only other flights for the month, but it was extra nice today. It got up to about 60 with clear skies and almost no wind. The wind was very light out of the north when I got to the field about noon, and it settled on very light out of the south by 1pm. I got a shock when I went to open the gate: they’ve plowed the heck out of the field. They plowed right up to the edge of the landing strip, too, so it’s a seriously bad idea to miss the runway now.
I brought out the Defiant and the Abbra today. I’d just gotten the Abbra’s speed control back from Castle after their recall, so I needed to test that out, and I’ve gotten a new transmitter, so I needed to range check both planes real well. I hooked up the Spektrum logger to each plane and did the on-ground range check, and they looked good. For some reason the Defiant had a ton of Faults on the ground (which are when all the receivers lose a packet simultaneously) but no Holds. The Abbra had no Faults and no Holds on the ground. Not sure what was up with that, but in the air the Defiant had a couple of Faults (well within limits) and no Holds. The Abbra continued to have no Faults and no Holds. I didn’t notice any glitches on the Defiant, and I hadn’t changed anything other than the transmitter. Odd, but it seems to be fine. I flew each plane twice, and both did well. I’d copied all the settings from my old transmitter, but both were still off slightly. No biggie.
Dan Stelljes showed up about 1pm with Dave Husher right behind him. Dan had his Saito 125-powered U-Can-Do and flew once before I left. Dave had his flying wing and flew twice. Dave had put a new motor on his wing, and it made a world of difference. It climbed with authority with that new motor. That’s a terrific flying airplane, too.
Denny McGlothlin came out to visit for a while, but he didn’t bring a plane. Mark Labadie and Tony Fox came out, too, and both of them brought planes. Mark had his Thunder Tiger 46-powered Lone Star and flew once with Dan by his side. Mark doesn’t really need Dan any more Mark flew very well and made a terrific landing. Yay! Tony had his Sundowner, which I think is powered by a Saito 72 and flew once. It was nice having some fuel-powered planes out there: I love the smell!
Roger Youmans came out just as I was leaving and flew a t-tailed glider. It looked like a very nice flying plane, and it looked beautiful in the air.
It looks like today was the only decent day for this long weekend. The winds are predicted to pick up Thursday and Friday, and the temperatures are going to drop into the mid 40s Saturday and Sunday. Saturday and Sunday will also have lots of wind and a bit of rain, just in case mid 40s didn’t already feel cold enough. I’m hopeful the weather guys are just flat wrong, but I’m not counting on it. It looks like another weekend for building instead of flying.

We had a great time at the Tulsa Glue Dobbers’ Warbird fly-in. Dennis K, Dave H, and I drove over Sat morning and enjoyed a beautiful fall day in Broken Arrow. 84 degrees, sunny blue skies, white puffy clouds, and light cool winds. Later on some thicker clouds moved in to keep it cool. Dennis brought his PTS P-51 Red Tail Mustang, Trojan T-28, foamie P-51 Gunfighter with custom retracts, and his foamie Corsair. I took my trusty PTS P-51 Yelllow tail, Fokker DVII, foamie P-38 Lightning, and my 25 size electric Corsair (in the livery of VMF 121 in honor of Major Jim McVay’s plane). Dave was our pit crew, trusty spotter and camera man. I flew 2 flights on every plane and really enjoyed the paved runway- I was a bit apprehensive about landing on pavement but it was very easy and smooth, just had a longer roll-out than grass. The guys at the pit ‘safety checked’ every plane, were very encouraging and cheerful and let us jump right in there with the big planes. Dennis had several flights on his big and little P-51s. Dennis and I did some formation (loose) flying with the PTS Mustangs, and I did some 8-10 inch off the ground, high speed low passes! (no fireball!) We also paticipated in the mass electric Corsair frenzy of 5 planes at once, all the same size and color! I did manage a take-off cartwheel with my DVII on the 2nd flight, but only had minor damage. There were some good crashes, but not us!
The Glue Dobbers have a North/South 400 foot paved runway and a grass runway mowed just beyond. A large field opens out to a treeline about 200 yards out. The pit area is quite large (300 member club) and coverd bleachers kept the many spectators cool. They served bar-b-q and cold drinks, had give-aways (I got a sock for my covering iron and a T-shirt- whoo hoo!) and a raffle. They had a great demo with a 1/2 scale J-3 Cub doing Hovers and aerobatics- incredible! The Turbine Raptor F-22 wouldn’t start, but they did fly a Turbine Jet-Cat at 150 mph–what a sound! and of course, LOTS of Warbirds.
They made us feel very welcome. Freddie Farmer, who has visited out field several times and who you may have met, was there to welcome us. He had set up a pop-up tent for us near the center, and Greg Barnes (my brother in law) also set up a tent for us. Overall it was a great day and capped it off at TGI Fridays for dinner! Hope to do it again next year, so get your warbird ARFs and kits orderd and built for next year!! Roger Y

Was it a good day for flying? Wow! It was a great day for flying. Probably the best day we’ve had for many, many weeks. My plan was to get out to the field at 11am, but since there were thunderstorms, and it was actively raining at that time, that got delayed. Bill Bergen was a trooper and went out there at 11am, found nobody, and sent me an email when he got home. I didn’t expect anyone to try going out there, so I didn’t send out an email or update the Flight Log. Sorry about that.
At noon, the rains quit and it began clearing off. I went out to the field about 12:30pm, and it was in the low 70s with no wind. I put together my Abbra, my 40-sized Ultra Stick, and my foamie. I flew the foamie once while I waited for others to arrive, and it didn’t take very long. Bill Bergen came back out about 1:15, and Mark Labadie and Dan Stelljes were not far behind. My wife, Beth, and son, John, came out a bit later to visit. Dan’s wife, Linda Sue, came out with him, so we had several family members out for a day of fun.
I flew the Abbra three times, the foamie twice and the Ultra Stick once. I’d been talking with my friend from Haskell, OK, Steve Ford, about brake settings with our Himax motors and Castle speed controls, so I was doing an experiment to see how effective my brake was. I flew once with the brake on, and Bill and I counted the time for a downline in the ‘square loop with rolls in the verticals’ maneuver. Then I turned off the brake and flew the same maneuver. Both Bill and I counted the same time in the downline (about a 5-count), but we also both agreed that the plane seemed to be flying faster with the brake off. One very telling maneuver was the landing: with the brake on I tried to stall the plane on landing, but with the brake off, I came in very nicely. That could have been just the difference between two different landings, but when I flew the third time with the brake back on, I had to use several clicks of power to bring it in smoothly. All in all, I think I’m getting braking, but I don’t think it’s anything substantial.
Mark had his 60-sized Tiger and had two very nice flights. Like Sunday, he took off, landed, and did lots of flying in between with no coaching. Yay! It’s great to see Mark back on the horse
Bergen had his Bird Dog with him, but he didn’t pull it out of the truck. At least he brought a plane with him this time Next time we’ll make sure he pulls it out and flies it.
Dan had his Funtana, and he flew it once before I left. Dan said he replaced the receiver due to the interference problems he was having on Sunday, and it was rock-solid today. That’s great news.
Later in the afternoon, Jeremy Schrock came out with his Funtana, and Roger Youmans came out with one of his sons and multiple airplanes. I didn’t get to see either of them fly, since Jeremy was charging his flight pack, and Roger got there not long before I left.
I was glad to see so many people out flying on a holiday weekday. Hopefully we’ll have more good weather, and we’ll have more people out flying.