The winter blues are upon us but we have been fortunate to have the very cold days interspersed with some mild and wind free days that have been great for flying. Having said that, as I finalise this HT, in the last week or so we have had 30mm of rain. Next week has a forecast of rain every day from the 4th to 12th of August! Despite the current weather, we did manage two club days. June was postponed until June 14 and July on its scheduled date of July 5.
Club Day – June 14
As mentioned earlier, the June Club Day was postponed due to inclement weather and the fact it was a long weekend and most members had plans for the 3 day break. As it turned out the weather was ideal and we had 11 members attend. Those in attendance were, Alan J, George & Kerry, Kevin S, Mark H, Max W, Meilin H, Mick G, Richard C, Rodney K and Vince B. We had a bit of a “War Games Day”. Representing the Allied forces, Rodney flew his WWII aircraft, this time the P51 Mustang and his P-47 Thunderbolt “Razorback. For the AXIS power (Germany), Vince flew his Messerschmitt Bf109. The sorties were fast and furious and our resident pro photographer, Mark Holman, took some of the best action shots we have ever posted. One Facebook commentator said “Champagne Shots!”. With Mark’s permission, I have again plagiarised the shots from FB.
I managed to grab a couple of short videos of the fighters in flight –
A few others took to the sky, Max, Meilin and Mark. No champagne shots from me but a few random ones around the pits.
President Mick did the catering for the BBQ (thanks Mick).
Club Day – July 5
Perfect weather – not too cold and a bright clear day, with little wind. 15 members attended. Those in attendance were, Alan J, Bob L, Eddie & Royce vdB, George & Kerry, Greg R, Ray & Micha G, Mark H, Max W, Mike L, Peter D, Richard C and Russell W.
If you weren’t there on the day, you missed out on the biggest surprise of the year. Our two new members, Eddie van den Berg and his son Royce, who by the way, turns 7 on August 1, arrived for their first club day. They had two models in hand; one an “Arrows Pioneer“, which had a wingspan of 620mm. Royce was keen as mustard to get flying. Dad thought he would take it off first, but a little mishap saw the model hit the fence and a damaged wing was the result. Max to the rescue and some “cyano” had it repaired. There were a few mumblings around the pits, “will he need some help?”, but no Royce strode up to the flight line and was ready to go. I was a bit worried as he was standing next to the stay posts at the fence and I thought “he’s quite small, he can’t see over the fence posts”. Not to worry, Royce took the model into the air and before you know it, he was well south and beyond the trees that bordered the crops at the southern end of the strip. Remember this is a model that has a wingspan of 620mm and was a long way away! More mumblings around the pits “I can’t even see the model” and “which way is it going, he’ll never get it back”. How wrong we all were, this not quite 7 year old had it under control all the time. He had to have binoculars for eyes! Full throttle most of the time, zipping around the skies, and back for a perfect landing on the strip. Cheers from the spectators as this young lad had the skills at such a young age that if he keeps it up, he’ll be a champion pilot in no time.
On returning to the pits after the flight, out of the mouths of babes was this classic from Royce – “Dad’s not as good a pilot as me and you know why”, to which I asked “why Royce?”. His reply “because he doesn’t get on the simulator as much as I do”. There’s a moral there somewhere.
Not content with the challenges of flying a 620mm model, Eddie and Royce readied their E-Flite scale replica of a “Cirrus SR22T“. Eddie has his own full size Cirrus! Specifications are –
- Wingspan 1.5m
- 60A Spektrum™ Avian™ Brushless Smart ESC (installed)
- Brushless Outrunner Motor (installed)
- Servos (installed)
- Spektrum™ AR637TA 6-Channel Receiver
- 3S 11.1V or 4S 14.8V 2200–3200mAh LiPo Battery
- Weight 1.5-1.8kg depending on battery
Before any flight could get underway, a few tweaks of the Spectrum radio were required. Call in Mark! Mark made the necessary adjustments and off to the flight line again. This time Eddie had the controls. The model had only just lifted off and a section of foam fell away (the battery hatch) from the underside and out popped the flight battery!! A quick circuit of the strip, with the battery swinging precariously underneath the model, and fingers crossed the battery did not fall away, Eddie flew the model around and landed on the strip. Phew!! Goodness knows how the model didn’t come to grief as the swinging battery must have played havoc with the CG! Dad’s no slouch either, bringing the model with a swinging battery, safely back to the strip. Check the flight out below.
A few shots from the day (Mark & George). Bob Lockwood by the way, has volunteered to mow the strip every 2 weeks. The committee welcomes Bob’s volunteering, because without volunteers, the club would struggle to operate. Your committee consists of volunteers and they do their best to provide a functioning and financially stable club, but they can’t do it all on their own, so thank you Bob. Peter Daniel did the catering for the BBQ – thank you Peter!
Membership
Renewals have been completed and thanks to everyone for attending to this early as this saved a lot of time and follow up. Unfortunately we lost two full members (one joined as an Associate and the other as a Social), but on a positive note, we gained 3 new members (Eddie and Royce) as mentioned last month, as well as a welcome returning member in Russell W. We continue to hold a steady number of Full members. The updated member list is here
Clubhouse & Flying Strip
A lot of chatting seemed to be the order of the day, with much of the discussion being around the clubhouse extension, and what to do with the internal restructure of the kitchen area etc. A second filing cabinet has been purchased as this seems to be the best way to keep foodstuffs, crockery etc. vermin proof. The first task is to determine what items will be retained as there has been much accumulated over the years. Some of that includes magazines donated by members. If you are one of those and wish to keep your magazines, please advise a committee member and collect as soon as possible. If you don’t make any contact, the committee will decide what to keep or dispose of. Trophies etc. will be remounted once we have some areas of the clubhouse lined.
Progress is being made on installing pop-up irrigation on the strip. Ron and myself met at the field and we measured the flow and pressure from the 40mm pipe that was used for the sprinklers last year. The table below shows that we should be able to effectively run one or at least two lines to adequately irrigate the strip in the warmer month. We can’t do this until the ground has recovered from the winter rain. We envisage late August or early September. After which we will scarify the surface, seed and roll the strip.
Irrigation_CostsFrom the World Wide Web
I think this guy should have invested in an electric starter –
This guy Ramy RC, has just unveiled the world’s biggest RC Boeing 777X and it’s a thing of beauty in the air.
Well that’s it for another month. I have been promised some member build stories for next month – fingers crossed. Feel free to leave a comment below on what interests you or what doesn’t.
Don’t Forget – Put a Spark in your life and fly electric!
George
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