Siloam Springs RC Modelers

We had another great turn-out for the Spring Fun Fly this year. The photos are posted on the SSRCM web site: www.siloamspringsmodelers.org.

I got to the field about 9:00am, and Mark, Dave Husher, Barry Garner, and Marvin Hendrix were in the process of settting up.

Denny Elder, Bob Lamar, and Jason Van Nostrand from the Benton County Flying Tigers were also there very early. They were among a large group of flyers who came over from the Rogers club, and they brought several diverse airplanes to the event. Denny had his G-62-powered Great Planes Yak, and flew at least once. Bob had his twin electric Deuces Wild powered with a pair of eFlight 32s. Bob had outfitted the plane with mechanical retracts, and he had a slick nose wheel door setup. Jason had a very nice full-bodied electric helicopter and an eFlight 450-sized Taylorcraft. Unfortunately, the helicopter developed a serious vibration on its first flight and had to be grounded the rest of the day. Jason flew the Taylorcraft numerous times, and really wrung it out. It was a great flying plane, and Jason’s flying was fun to watch.

More members of the Rogers club came later in the morning. Gary Angel had an OS Hyper 51-powered Trex 600, and he really flew that helicopter hard! He always was in complete control of it and really seemed to know what he was doing. It was interesting to talk with him and find out that he’d only been flying helicopters since June, 2008 and that he didn’t use a simulator. Yikes! Dusty Duckworth came out with a couple of YAKs. The larger one was a Maxford USA ARF powered by a Saito 150. Dusty flew that a couple of times, and it looked solid in the air. Dusty also brought an electric Quique Somenzini YAK that he flew once. Dusty wasn’t happy about something, and he landed after a short time in the air.

Not surprisingly, we had a large number of SSRCM flyers at the event. Dave Husher got the first flight of the day with his electric Pulse XT. Dave’s been flying that plane for quite a while, and he flew it several times during the event. Jeremy Schrock wasn’t far behind with the 2nd flight of the day with his Funtana X. Jeremy also flew many times during the day. Jeremy’s brother Arley brought out his Gee Bee Dreamer and his Harmon Rocket, and he appeared to be in the air all day. Abe Schrock was also out with his Twin Star, but he had some bad luck and crashed far out in the field. Abe said he lost an engine and could not recover. Hopefully it’s repairable. We had a couple of other mishaps during the day also: Roger Youmans lost his 40-sized Ultra Stick while he was flying with Sherri Hyde on the buddy-box, and Dan Stelljes ripped the landing gear out of his Saito 150-powered Ultimate biplane. Roger’s plane was a total loss, but Dan’s should be good as new before long.

There were at least four members of the Anderson, MO club that came down from Bella Vista: Larry Ellsworth, Fred Cearley, and Larry and Hank, whose last names I didn’t write down. Larry Ellsworth was the only one of the crowd who actually flew, and he flew a lot. He had a trainer and a PT-40 that he’d built with no dihedral. Larry got the 3rd flight of the day with his trainer, and he flew both of his planes several times. He also found time to help Fred Cearley with his plane. Fred taxied the plane quite a bit but was not having much luck. Larry got it lined up and in the air for him. What the other three Bella vista guys lacked in flight time, they made up for in enthusiasm. I had a ball talking with all of them.

There were also members of the Ozark Flyers who came over for the event. As usual, several of them stopped at Kathy’s Corner for breakfast, but they still got to the field between 9:30 and 10am. Jerry Shrum brought a Quadra 40-powered Decathlon that was very nice. Tim Wood and Craig Everhart came over also, and Tim had a 3W-100 powered Wild Hare Edge that he flew several times. Craig had a wounded finger, so he wasn’t able to fly this year. Jason Reddish had his huge YAK again this year, and he put on quite a show.

Throughout the morning, more flyers showed up, and we had lots of spectators this year; many more than I remember from previous years.

Many other SSRCM club members brought planes, and most flew. Mark Labadie had his 40-sized Ultra Stick, but he didn’t fly. Marvin Hendrix brought out his old faithful SNJ and flew at least once. Tony Fox had his 40- sized Cub, and he flew a lot! Every time I looked up, he was doing touch-and-goes or tooling around the sky. Roger Youmans was out early, and he had several planes with him: his Fokker D-7, his P-51, his electric Corsair, his electric P-38, and his Ultra Stick. Roger was nearly constantly in the air with one of those planes, and I saw him flying the 40-sized Ultra Stick with Sherri Hyde on the buddy box. Sherri Hyde and her husband Matt came out and brought their famous banana pudding. Sherri also brought her trainer in the hope of flying it for the first time. A ground inspection and range check showed that she has some kind of problem that prevents control beyond five feet. She, Barry, and Marvin looked at it for a while, and the consensus was a receiver problem. Hopefully she can get that corrected soon.
Barry Garner was also out early with his Saito 100-powered Seagull Models YAK. Barry was out early to help get set up, and he also worked on Friday evening mowing the field, so it would be ready for the event.

Marvin Hendrix was also out early helping set up, and he flew his 25-sized SNJ. Mike Lavey came out with his grandson, Blake, and flew his OS 50-powered OMP Fusion several times. Bill Bergen was also out early, and he flew his homemade electric. Evidently, Bill saw an opening when there wasn’t much activity in the sky, but by the time he got in the air, there were five other flyers up. Yikes! Being the smart guy he is, Bill came down after a fairly short flight.

There was a bunch of flying between 10 and noon, when Beth Lavey and Rebecca Bergen called everybody for lunch. Beth and Rebecca did a great job of cooking: they had a ton of burgers and hot dogs ready at noon, but even though they continued cooking, they could not keep up! They started with 42 burgers and 30 hot dogs, and they put the last of them on the grill at 12:30. Fearing they would run out, they sent me to the store to get more. We wound up not needing the extras, and we even had a few of each left over. That’s way more food than we’ve ever cooked before.

Flying slowed during lunch, but it picked up again once everyone had their stomachs full. There really wasn’t much of a slowdown in flying during the afternoon like there has been some years: there were many planes in the sky at all times throughout the afternoon, which made it all the more enjoyable.

At 3pm the drawing was held from the tickets given to the pilots for each flight. Mike Lavey’s grandson, Blake, picked the winner’s names from a hat.

Fastenall of Siloam Springs donated a precision screwdriver set, which was won by Dusty Duckworth.

TH Rogers of Siloam Springs donated a 25’ tape measure which was won by Gary Angel.

Radio Shack of Siloam Springs donated a $10 gift certificate and a mini-tool set, which were won by Bill Bergen.

Sears of Siloam Springs donated a double hex key set, which was won by Roger Youmans.

Fagan’s True Value Hardware of Siloam Springs donated a heavy-duty padlock, which was won by Tony Fox.

HobbyTown USA of Bentonville donated a NexStar ARF Trainer, which was won by Roger Youmans.

Xtreme RC Hobbies of Johnson, AR donated a spare NexStar wing, which was given to Roger Youmans along with the ARF. Xtreme also donated three $25 gift certificates, which were won by Jason Van Nostrand, Tim Wood, and Jerry Shrum.

The Grand Prize of $100 cash was donated by the Siloam Springs Modelers, and that was won by Tim Wood.

Congratulations to all the winners!

The sky threatened to rain this year, but it mostly held off and was nice flying weather. We had a great turn-out of SSRCM club members and members from several other local clubs. We also had many more spectators than in previous years, which is almost certainly because of Dave Husher’s work to get notices in the local newspaper for so many weeks in advance.