The President then polled the membership to see who had attended the
Weak Signal’s Toledo Hobby Show that past weekend. He also enquired as to what “goodies”
everyone scooped up and hinted at something he would be showing later on in the
meeting during Show & Tell. Several
members mentioned the gorgeous giant Gee Bee racer on display. This monster looked to be about 1/3 scale
with a cavernous fuselage that housed a twin cylinder gas engine normally used
on full scale powered parachutes.
Other members mentioned another type of “MODEL” that was spotted at the
SkyShark R/C booth on Friday and Saturday.
This model seemed to be some sort of chameleon as “she” was sporting an
all black “finish” on Friday and an all white scheme on the Saturday. All in attendance agreed that the “white”
scheme attracted more attention. Hmmm I
didn’t know Monokote was producing a line of “leather” iron on coverings these
days! A hearty round of laughter ensued
until the president finally got everyone under control again.
New members and Guests were asked to identify themselves and the Club
welcomed Charlie Tanner as its’ newest potential member to the club. Charlie bought himself a Nexstar and was recommended
to our club by Karl Gross of Skycraft Hobbies.
Charlie said he is going to practice with the simulator that comes
packaged with this neat .46 size ARF until the Spring Wings Program starts.
David Pengelly, as CD for the Great Rubber Race, gave his report of the
events that took place at the March meeting.
He reported turnout was lower then normal but the overwhelming number of
Flying Tiger members was enough to squeak by the Burlington bunch for a well
deserved victory. David had available
some copies of a very well laid out report, including colour pictures, for
those who wished one. Those that missed
it fear not it is to be published on the club website shortly. One of the side benefits of this low keyed
competition was that David’s grandson had so much fun that he is now totally
turned onto airplanes. The President
thanked David for a well run contest, expressing that all those in attendance
had a great time and were looking forward to the next one in the fall..
The “Prez” then reported on the second
organizational meeting that our club attended concerning the proposed Middle
Zone Fun-Fly. To date five clubs have
committed to this event: Niagara; Stoney
Creek; Flying Tigers; Dundas & the Guelph Gremlins. The Burlington club is showing interest but as of yet has not
committed itself. Nick then asked for
Volunteers to please come and see him after the meeting. We require as many people as we can get to
help out with this event. As of yet task
have not been assigned but things like parking & crowd control, concession
stands, security and just general helpers will be required from each of the
participating clubs. Obviously the more
volunteers we have the short everyone will have to work at there specific task.
On both days the Fly-In will be opened by a full-scale aircraft flyby
and they are looking at noon
time air shows on both days consisting of both full-scale and models. The Dates once again are Sat. & Sun.
August 20/21, 2005. An event logo and
name have been picked and there will be a link to the event’s website on our
club’s site shortly.
This event is being organized as a Public Relations event to enlighten
the general public on our modeling activities.
Plans are under way to invite several local newspapers and TV stations
out for the weekend. Numerous display
teams are being formed to expose the public to the numerous and very diverse
disciplines in R/C Modeling
The floor was then opened to the Committee Chairmen to give updates on
the various events we have coming up. Here
are their thoughts:
Annual
Fun-Fly – Terry
Tupper, CD – Put forth the idea of perhaps since the Zone Fun-Fly was
planed this year so close to our fun-fly that rather then advertising it in
MAAC and to other clubs, we would make it kind of just a Club Fun-Fly with a
Pot-Luck Super. This idea was well
received and is under further discussion with the Executive.
Combat
– Terry
Tupper, CD – The Open Combat contest this year will be run on Saturday June 18th,
2005, the day before
Father’s Day. A reminder was made that
the new Canadian Open Combat Rules would be in effect for this contest. More details to follow.
Wings
Program – Gary
Maker, C.F.I. – Gary asked
for volunteers to help instruct this year.
Several people indicated they would be willing to help. Gary mentioned that the more Instructors they got then
the less time anyone instructor would have to spend instructing. He thanked Jim Daly for being Ground Chief
last season and asked if anyone would be interested in assuming that job. In preparation for the upcoming season he
asked Brian Facey to bring the Buddy Boxes out of Winter Storage and to please
bring them to the next meeting.
Scale
Aerobatics – Ron Mattiuz & Brian Facey, co-CD’s – Nick asked if the contest
had been registered with MAAC and Brian informed all present that the contest
announcement had made the last issue and was sanctioned by MAAC. Mark Saturday July 8th and Sunday
10th 2005 down on your calendar and come out to the field and watch
some exciting Aerobatic Action. Better
yet bring a plane and enter your first contest.
In Basic you can fly anything.
For more information contact either, Brian Facey, Ron Mattiuz, Gary maker or Jim Daly, they can answer most if not all
your questions.
Helicopter – Duane Bouyea, CD –
The Helicopter Extravaganza will be held on Saturday July 2nd, 2995. Last years
event was well attended with lots of flights taking place. Please come out watch and support the club.
Concession
Stand – Darlene
Walton – A new committee has been formed within the club and it is being
ably headed by Darlene Walton. Darlene
will be responsible for the Food Concession Stand at ALL club events. The individual event co-coordinators will
have one less thing to worry about come their big day. All Darlene has asked is that each Director
contact her at least two weeks before the event and inform her of the
following: # of expected people; any special menu requests, (Hotdogs &
Hamburgers will be the norm); donuts in coffee in the morning? Darlene has been un-officially doing this for
several years and is a real pro at it.
Richard Bell informed all that he and his wife would again be assisting
Darlene at most events. The club thanked
Richard for his generosity with his time.
Coffee
Fund – Fred
DeWit – The President asked Fred if the coffee
fund was sustaining itself. Fred
reported that on average it was breaking even.
Next Nick informed everyone that this was the month we paid our annual
field rental and that the payment represented the major outlay of cash the club
incurred each year.
New Business
There was no new business to be reported from the other members of the
executive so Nick opened the floor to the general membership.
A member asked if a Club Membership List would be made available to the
general members and Nick explained that due to the new Privacy Act, we could
not really make that information available without the persons consent. He also informed everyone that there will be
a section on next years membership application where each member can indicate
the specific information they would allow the club to publish. There was some discussion of the possibility
of making this information available on the club web site however there was no
conclusion to the discussion and the topic has been held over for further
dialogue at a later date.
Richard Bell broached the subject of himself and the President
meeting with the director of the Binbrook Conservation Area to discuss the
possibility of obtaining more frequent and different access to the site for
float flying. Richard is to arrange a
meeting and inform Nick of the date and time.
Richard also mentioned that he works with the Sister of the modeler in London who was involved in that tragic accident last fall
and asked the executive if the club would like to send a get well card to him
as while he is finally out of the hospital he still has a long road to recovery
ahead of him. The executive said it
would be taken care of and thanked Richard for his concern.
Bill Fletcher offered his time and the use of his flight simulator
to anyone in the club who wished to come to his house and either just fly it or
receive instruction on perhaps some advanced maneuvers and even the practice
the Basic IMAC sequence if hey were so inclined. Nick thanked Bill for is most generous
offer. Please see Bill at the next
meeting if you are interested or catch him out at the field once the weather
turns nice.
Nick Saraco informed all of the passing of Ex-Founder and Past
President, Brian Graham’s father this past month. Ron Mattiuz, Brian Facey and several other
members of the club attended the services and expressed their condolences to
the family on behalf of the club.
Show and Tell
Several interesting items were brought this evening for Show and Tell.
LD 410 Canard
First off was an interesting aircraft from Laminar Design Inc. The LD 410 is a Canard aircraft designed for
electric power but convertible to glow.
It has a wingspan of 42” and weighs in slightly less than 8 lbs and is
equipped with retracts. Powered by an
Astro 25 brushless motor geared 2.3:1, it is running on 20 NiCad cells for a
total of 24VDC pushing 800 watts through a 10 x 6 three bladed pusher prop. This plane should be available in kit form
come mid July 2005. A little brother
version was also shown in the bare bones.
MicroJet
James Bajkor showed his latest acquisition an
all foam electric delta called the MicroJet.
Intrepid EBO
Not to be outdone by his son, Joe Bajkor
displayed his latest helicopter. This is
a departure for Joe as he had previously converted all his helicopters from
glow to electric. This monster is
powered by a Zenoah G23 gasoline engine.
The engine comes as part of the kit and is equipped with a pull chord to
ease in the starting of the engine. The
chopper is equipped with an extended boom which helps to make it very stable in
a hover. On board power is provided by a
li-po 7.2V battery.
The special collective pitch servo is powered directly from this battery
while a 5.0 v regulator is used to bring the voltage down for use by the rest
of the system.
Wireless
Video
Nick Saraco showed one of his purchases from Toledo. It was a
wireless colour camera and receiver. He
brought in a small colour TV and preceded to hookup a small receiver to
it. The camera is smaller and lighter
then the 9VDC battery used to power it and even has audio. He polled the group to get their opinion on
where on a model he should mount it and it was decided up on the fin or out on
a wingtip would yield the best results.
Blade Runner
David Pengelly treated the member to a flying demonstration of his micro
electric helicopter called the Blade Runner.
This neat little helicopter comes with a lithium battery and the charger
is built into the transmitter. All of
them come on the same frequency, in the 27 mHz band, so you can only fly one in a room at a time
or it might get very interesting to say the least. The Blade Runner is available from Radio
Shack and some hobby stores at a cost of around $100.00
Pranged
Pig:
Nick asked if there was any other business and the members indicated
that there was not. With that the floor
was opened for nominations for the pig. Terry Tupper nominated new member Chris Martin for re-kitting his
Mini-Funtana ARF just hours before the meeting. Chris openly admitted to trashing his plane
while doing rolling harriers. A case of
dumb thumbs resulted in a 2 mistake high maneuver only ˝ a mistake above the
ground and well the rest is history.
Terry also nominated Don Brison for the second month in a row. Don’s transgression this month was a oldie but a goodie.
He forgot to hookup his aileron servos then to make maters worse he
knocked one of the ailerons out of neutral while carrying his plane to the
runway. Well we all know what happened
next…. He took off and the airplane immediately rolled to the left and
proceeded to crash into a soft snow bank.
Fortunately the only thing hurt was Don’s ego. The aircraft escaped with no damage.
A vote was put to the members and it was a close call. In the end Don squeaked by with 17 votes and
Chris lost (?) with only 16. So for the
second month in a row Don has a house guest.
Darlene mentioned that Don had won this prestigious reward so many times
that it now had a permanent spot in their home and that they actually miss it
when it isn’t around.
Final call for 50-50 draw was announced.
A total of $162.00 was collected and the $81 prize went to a well
deserving recipient, Ron
Mattiuz. Ron was extremely happy to finally win after
all these years.
Next meeting is Wednesday May 4th, 2005, 20h00, (8:00 PM). Don’t forget this is our
club’s Annual Show & Tell night so bring out all your Winter Projects.
Meeting adjourned at 21h30.
