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September 2002 Edition

August Meeting

    The August meeting was called to order at 7:00 by president Mark Sexton. Twenty-three people were in attendance. Two visitors, Dale Musgrave & Scott Recker, were both voted into the club.

Our Secretary/Treasurer, Mr. Brent Hoover was absent so VP Bruce Hoffman filled in for him. Ya know, he wasn’t at the air show or the picnic either. Where has he gone with all the money?

There was a long discussion about the air show and the committees that will need to be formed to work on next year’s show.

Some discussion of the upcoming club picnic was followed by more talk about food. There may be plans in the works for a “Pizza Night” at Pizza Hut West in Bloomington. They will donate a portion of the “take” to our Christmas fund raising for charity.

Jan Bond, of Bond Consulting, has purchased an advertising slot on the wall of our shelter on Wylie Road. Thanks Jan!

The Bloomington Airport’s “Airport Awareness Day” has been changed from September 28 to September 14. That will create a conflict with Richard Anderson’s Gyro fly-in at McDaniel Field in Martinsville. We still need several people to work the Airport Awareness Day on Saturday the 14th.

It was decided that the September club meeting will be back indoors at the Eye Center because of a sunlight shortage during the late evening hours of September in Indiana.

The meeting was closed at 7:34 pm.

Air Show Report

    There was a record crowd present for the 18th Annual Monroe County R/C Club Air Show on Sunday, August 11. There was a threat of rain in the weather forecast but Mother Nature cooperated with us again this year. The field was groomed & the pilots were practiced. A slight Southerly cross wind didn’t hamper the flying too much but there was a “bean patrol” after the first candy drop.

Thanks to all the pilots who brought out their equipment & participated. Thanks also to the people who brought out aircraft for static display. The big “Thank You” goes to the people behind the scenes who put the show together & really make it happen. There are a ton of things that have to be taken care of to make the show a success. Advertising, concessions, parking, port-a pot rental, mowing, vendor donations, raffle ticket sales people, and act scheduling & execution. Here’s a small list of some of the fine folks that were working for the show that you didn’t see flying. Marty Bassett, along with his wife & grandson, were manning the food & drink / raffle ticket tent, with assistance from Mark’s wife & father, Tina & Bud Sexton. Tony Bezzy & wife were out working the crowd, selling raffle tickets. While all this was going on, several members were sweating out in the field parking cars. Steve Jackson, Andrew Shireman, Joe Huggins, Darrell Sisson, & Tim Ringler were a few. Bruce Hoffman (our announcer) was working on the show line-up while Randy Byers was getting all the pilots lined up & ready to fly. Joe Jackson & the Hoosier Hills Air Show Team were roping off the candy drop area & getting the PA system up & running. It takes a lot of teamwork to put on an air show. It wouldn’t be the same without all the nice prizes that were donated by area businesses. Pizza Hut West, Blimpies, Subway, Papa John’s, Ponderosa, Monroe County Pizza Department, Arby’s, Luca Pizza, & John’s Food Market were some of the area merchants that donated to our cause. Charlie Thompson also worked out a sweet deal with Nathan Carter, of Stick & Rudder Hobby, on the ARF trainer plane that was the grand prize in the raffle. That prize was won by David Dale of Cloverdale, IN. The numbers are not all in yet, but we figure that after expenses, we should have brought in around $400.00. Good work by everybody involved! Committees are now forming for next year’s show, so get on one & get involved now!

Interesting Bits

    Brent Hoover went to the “nationals” in Muncie. One of his tasks was to purchase a new wind sock to replace our old tattered & torn sock before the air show. He just happened to run into life club member Joe Huggins while making the purchase & Joe volunteered to pay for the new sock! Thanks Joe! Thanks also to Bob Shireman, who took a ladder down to the field & got the new sock installed, just a couple of days before the show!

Bob Watson is the latest member to gain fame in the newspaper. He was featured, in an article on model aviation, in the Bloomington paper, just in time to get us some good PR for the air show!

Score another 3 points for Nebo. Dave Poland made a “dead stick” landing with his Goldgurg Extra. After some repairs & a little engine tuning, he went back up again. After only a couple of laps, the old, tired, engine laid down again while inverted, going the wrong direction. That was the end of old Dave’s flying for that Thursday night. At almost dark, John Travers brought out his new 60 size Ultra Stick with an OS 120 4-stroke. John had a few good passes before he had a radio failure. There wasn’t much left to repair after it went in, inverted, about 6 feet in front of my van that was parked in the pit area. Hope John has his AMA dues paid up if he plans to use that radio again!

Notice that the date has been changed for the Airport Awareness Day at the Bloomington airport. It’s now scheduled for September 14. We need several members to turn out with model aircraft for our display. We will answer questions and do some demo flying if conditions permit. Contact Bob Watson or Bruce Hoffman if you can help out. We’ll go over the details at the September meeting on 9/11, at the Eye Center.

Picnic Report..

The annual Monroe County R/C Club Picnic was held at the club field on Sunday, August 25. A good crowd was on hand there was so much good food that even the fat boys couldn’t keep up the pace. Thanks to everybody who attended & brought all the good food and to Mark for bringing his grill. There was plenty of flying & it looked as if everyone had a good time. Several of the wives left before we could get them on the buddy box for a flight but we’ll try again next year.

Pictures…

I haven’t received any pictures from this year’s air show yet but here’s a few I got from Tim Mellott that he took at “Pam’s Place” Airport back in July.

Rotor Report…

    Our resident helicopter expert, Dave Towensend, sent me the following report of his participation at the “nationals” in Muncie. Thanks for the report Dave!

Well I’m back from the event. Three hundred ninety-eight pilots were the count as I remember...5 day event, at the AMA HQ. I gave a seminar on gyros Sat, there were seminars on engines and setups, and all sorts of things....every manufacturer was there, including JR, Futaba, Ricks RC Helis, Century Hobbies, Helis International, Modelsport, Great Lakes RC, Raves Custom Canopies, and tons more of vendors. I competed in the drag races and auto contest in the open class. Took 4th in the drags but not even close on the auto contest. In the auto contest, you had to land the nose of your heli as close to a nail as possible, 3 attempts, each measured and the person with shortest distance won. I was around a total of 10 inches or so, if I remember, from my 3 attempts, the winner was under 2 inches! One heli crashed and over revved , the clutch burnt through the clutch bell, igniting the fuel, and burnt the heli to scrap. Sadly, on Sunday, the last day of the event, I did my, "I'll do one more flight before packing up" thing. You can guess the result. I got the tail a little to close to the ground and broke the tail blades clean off. It was a lot of fun! By the way, I picked up a sponsorship from Modelsport Blades. I now get free ride on blades. I’m working on a fuel sponsorship now. A guy from Wildcat wants me to run his stuff but I’m not sure yet. I haven’t even tried it to see if I like it...

Event Calendar

 

September 6-8 Gathering of Corsairs at Mount Comfort Airport, Indianapolis (www.corsairgathering.com)

September 6 Deric Rush Band at The Pointe on Lake Monroe (7—10 pm)

September 6 First night of league bowling (Martinsville 7:00 pm)

September 7-8 IMAA Fly-in at Edinburgh (Atterbury)

September 11 Monthly Club Meeting (back at the Eye Center)

September 13—15 Gyronuts Fly-in (Martinsville’s McDaniel Field)

September 14 Airport Awareness Day at Bloomington Airport

September 14 Fly-in for diabetes (Greenwood)

September 21-22 IMAA Fly-in at Harrison Ohio

September 21-22 Seymour Fly-in

October 12 Nebo Memorial Air Show (Martinsville Fall Foliage Festival)