President's Message
Here we are, again, beginning another season of indoor meetings! What a great summer of flying weather; and there is still more fun to come! September is a very busy month!
We have been invited to a Fly-In at the Flying Eagles' field in Merrimack on Sunday, September 7th. (Yes, this is before the September meeting and I hope we can report on a good time had by all.
The Flying Eagles are also hosting an AMA sanctioned FLOAT Fly-In at the Greenfield State Park on the 13th and 14th of this month. We are hosting a mini-Rhinebeck on the 28th. All of these events will be a lot of fun! Whether you are a seasoned pilot, a Sunday flier, or an "armchair-quarterback", come out and have some fun.
Thanks is the operative word for the following messages. Thanks to Maurice Theriault for volunteering to fill the seat of vice-president for the remainder of the term. Maurice has always been very supportive. However, he would have relinquished the invitation if some other member wanted to step forward. Nominations for office will be made during the October meeting. If you think you would like to give back to the club a little of what it has provided you, then make your feelings or intentions known to the officers.
Thanks to John Hayes, our club Secretary, for recently volunteering to be a flight instructor. John has been a member for many years and has enjoyed our hobby as an accomplished glider pilot and now a screaming-clipped-wing Train-Air 20 dare devil.
Thanks to Dave Muse for sticking by the officers with his continued support as treasurer, maintaining the roster and the dealing with the club finances. A special thanks to Kip Bean; behind the scene, per se, editing and producing the Newsletter. And, yes, don't let me forget Andrzej Rutkowski for helping with the videos and the club clothing. What about our web site? Where would it be if we didn't have Jack McDermott (Yea Olde Web Master) to support it? For that matter where would we be without Ken Ux's maintenance of the field? And finally, thanks to everyone, who has ever helped at a Fun Fly event, lent a hand to a new member and his airplane, or simply picked up a cigarette butt or broken prop to keep our field clean.
Now back to the agenda for our first indoor meeting. In keeping with the idea of mixing model related entertainment with business, we have arranged a special guest for the September meeting. Rollie Boisjoly has graciously agreed to share his evening with us. Rollie is presently working on a beautiful static scale model of the Ford Tri-Motor. I understand this plane is sheeted with hand-fashioned aluminum panels. Come to YOUR first meeting indoors and, by all means, bring a camera if you like. Incidentally, every meeting is open to members to bring in something they are working on.
Come socialize; share your time with us. And, most importantly, have some FUN!
-- Bob Patukonis
This BULLSHEET is published by the Southern New Hampshire R/C Club, Inc., a non-profit club chartered for the promotion of building and flying radio controlled model aircraft. The club operates a flying field in Litchfield, NH and offers free instruction in safe model flying to any member. Academy of Model Aeronautics membership is a requirement.
Meetings are held at 7:30pm on the second Tuesday of each month at the Griffin Memorial School in Litchfield.
PRESIDENT: VICE PRESIDENT: SECRETARY TREASURER BULLSHEET EDITOR
Bob Patukonis John Hayes Dave Muse Kip Bean
FLIGHT INSTRUCTORS
Rich Kelley Darrell Wagner Bob Patukonis Ray Breton John Hayes
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SNHRCC Meeting Minutes Recap
August 12, 1997 at the SNHRCC Flying Field, Litchfield, NH
Officers in attendance: Bob Patukonis, Dave Muse and John Hayes
Bob Patukonis addressed the membership regarding the vacancy made by Tom Loose's resignation. Bob Patukonis will fill the vacancy till the next election.
Secretaries report was read, a motion was made to accept, seconded and passed.
Treasurers report was read, a motion was made to accept, seconded and passed.
Bob Patukonis thanked those who helped to make the Merrimack at Litchfield Day a success.
Business:
September 7th will be the Litchfield at Merrimack day, should be a good day of fun and food.
Our Mini Rhinebeck will be held on Sept. 27th. A motion was made to invite other clubs, motion was seconded and passed. Planes can be any type but must be equipped with a bomb drop.
The Construction Derby was scratched for this year due to lack of interest.
Bob Brodeur suggested we use a different approach next year scheduling a date and by picking our teams before the end of indoor meetings.
Bob Patukonis suggested anyone going to the Flying Eagles Float Fly contact Bob Spear for camping sites.
Rich Kelley offered to help Tom Loose run the Mini- Rhinebeck contest if Tom was still interested in running it.
Bob Patukonis mentioned Safety and asked that everyone be careful.
Drew Davenport asked the club if they would set aside June 28th 1998 for an old time pattern contest. A motion was made, seconded, and passed.
Bill Boucher asked that we formalize the resignation of Tom Loose. A motion was made, seconded, and passed. Tom is no longer President.
John Hayes suggested we fill the Vice Presidents position till the end of the year. Several people were asked with no one accepting the position.
Andrzej Rutkowski took over the video library and the clothing from Bob Patukonis.
Finally at the end of the meeting the Raffle was drawn for the radio, plane, and the engine. With much anticipation, the box was shook vigorously until a single ticket fell out, and the winner was none other than Rich Kelley, whom by the way also sold the most tickets, so, yup, he also took home the other engine for most tickets sold.
-- John Hayes
ADDED NOTES
With the construction going on I think all parking will have to be in the large parking lot on the north side of the building. I don't think they are going to allow parking along the fence as before.
-- John Hayes
Please note the change in my e-mail address on the front page for any computer correspondence. Thanks.
-- Kip Bean
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A Dream of Flight
Father's Day, June 15, 1997, an elaborate computer designed gift certificate for a weekend at an unheard of motel at the beach with a free breakfast at an unheard of diner in the rear of the motel to the left of the marshes. I didn't catch on. Signed, Ima Kidder, proprietor. I still didn't catch on. I tried to smile and appear grateful. A second computer made card on sky blue paper with white clouds in the background:
Off You Go Into The Wild Blue Yonder
You know we think the world of you
But we didn't want to miss
A special day like this
To make you wish come true.
So from all of us to you,
Lots of love and skies of blue
To make your dream of flight come true.
Happy Father's Day
It was signed by son and daughter, Wade and Wende and wife, Joan, along with our dog, Schatze and my wife's pet cockatiel, Percy. Everyone got into the act and I still didn't catch on until someone plopped a cap on my head with the logo, Fighter Pilots USA.
The flight was booked for August 15th and 16th in West Chicago, Illinois at Dupage airport. I tried to stop my hands from shaking, but the accompanying brochure wouldn't stop jumping around. "Someone close that window", I said, "Can't you see how it's blowing this brochure, I can't even read it". There was no window open, I fooled no one.
Words like Marchetti SF260 jumped out at me, A real dogfight at 6000 feet, I will be at the controls. Former guest pilots were quoted as saying it was the greatest experience of their lives ,how nothing had ever come close to the adrenaline rush of that one hour of mock air combat. They didn't know what I was experiencing as I read the literature about Fighter Pilots USA and what was to be a gift from my family that I will never forget.
We arrived on the 14th, after side trips to the Air Force Museum, The Wilbur Wright Museum and the AMA museum, all great things to see,and when I'm less preoccupied as I was then, I plan to go back to see more. I didn't give my wife time to settle in, unpack or stop for a bite to eat before driving out to check out the airfield.
This was to be the grandaddy of them all for me, the Robert Shaw Mig-21 Flyoff. A minimum of 16 guest pilots would fly off against each other in mock battle. The winner was to go to Russia for the Mig fly off. I hoped, but held out no serious belief that I would be the winner. That was just the frosting, I already had the cake.
Briefing was to take place at 1900 hours on the 15th, I was ready at 1500 hours. I couldn't discern eager from anxious throughout the whole time I was there. My wife stayed at the motel and sent me on my way to play with the big boys.
"The last thing you need is to show up at the briefing with your wife in tow", she said. I felt bad, for a second or so about leaving her, but she said, "go, go" and off I went. They sent me back for my wife.
The briefing was conducted by Vincent "Vino" Santillo, Col. USAF (Ret.) a command pilot with over 4800 hours which includes over 1000 hours in the F-16 and Robert "Mouse" Shaw, Lt., Col USAF (Ret.) a command pilot with over 5000 hours fly time including the F-16. Although the briefing was for the guest pilots, their guests were included and inducted into the Fighter Pilots USA family as special guests. Everyone was made to feel welcome and each one of us was presented with a special cap, with the Fighter Pilots logo, guests included. The guest pilot list included participants from Illinois, New Jersey, Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, Germany and of course, New Hampshire. There was a general introduction of the FPUSA fighter pilots corp, an overview of air combat maneuvers, methodology and rules. There was terminology that included, High Yo-Yo, Low Yo-Yo, Tally-Ho, Knock it off and so much more that they told us just to remember to press the microphone button and gun control while shouting, "guns, guns, guns" as we tried to wipe out our opponent. More on that later.
After the briefing and videos, we drew for flight times and for Fighter Pilots USA pilots. I drew the first sortie of the day at 0700. My F-16 fighter pilot was Curt "Dig" Ladich, Capt. USAF (Ret.) with over 4000 hours of flight time, including the F-16. A man with a sense of humor too, which became apparent when he suggested my call-sign after the flight. More on that later.
After a reception following the briefing, we were given our flight suits and helmets along with our name tags, I don't know if that was to make it easier for my pilot "Dig" Ladich to call me by name or for identification purposes later on.
No more on that now or later.
I flew all night, I paced, I dreamt of planes and pilots, of the 4 Star General competition, with me the winner, of course, jetting off to Russia to participate in the supersonic flight in a MACH 2 MIG-21 fighter, the first prize in the Robert Shaw Flyoff. I checked my watch at 0100, 0200, 0300 and finally asked my wife what time she had on her watch. We sat up until 0500. I had my flight suit on at 0530 and she pushed me out the door at 0545. After all it was all of a 3 minute drive to the 61st Fighter Squadron Hangar and surely someone would be there. After all, I was scheduled for the first sortie at 0700 hours. I was the only one there.
Finally everyone started to meander in. Why were they dragging their feet? Why weren't we airborne yet? My watch showed 0615 hours. Where was my pilot, where was Dig? My watch now read 0617 hours. Where were the planes? Where was the coordinator, Lee Abernathy? Sure he was jovial, friendly, accommodating last night, but where was he today? It was getting late. Watch check now at 0619 hours. I shook my wrist, watch must have stopped. "Hey, Lee, good to see you. Good day for flying, right? Say, you got the time? What 0620?"
The planes are now in and Lee has his camera ready as he leads me up to the plane I will be flying and there it is emblazoned for all to see, my name on the side of the plane. My family added this to the already awesome surprise of my being here. How can anything surpass this? More on that later too.
Finally I meet Dig and he starts preparing me for the flight. By 0645 we were going through the parachute episode. He helped me with the shoulders, but the rest he told me to do. So I got the straps between the legs and thought, "Let's go, come on, let's go." But I kept on grinning, something my wife said I continued to do for another five days, until it finally got to her. "Will you stop grinning, people are going to think there's something wrong with you, that lady just tripped going into the restaurant, will you stop grinning!?!"
Anyway, back to the Marchetti. Capt. Ladich, "Dig", explained what I had to do if the plane needed to be ditched. First he'd pull back the canopy, put the nose down and I was to release the seat harness, not my chute and jump for the end of the wing. Yeah, right!
"Dig, if this plane is on fire, been shot down, has engine failure or is falling apart, you land her, because I'm not jumping anywhere."
That settled, we taxied out, brought our speed up to 70 knots for rotation and then we were off into the wild blue yonder. Once in the air, we teamed up with the other plane, the enemy as I now saw him. We flew side by side, maybe 10 to 20 feet apart. It was unbelievable, I felt that I could have reached out and touched the plane or reached in and taken the guy's barf bag, grounding him for sure. I took the stick and began flying. Fighter Pilots USA tells you that you don't have to have a pilot's license or any experience in flying just a desire to soar and conquer. Well I was ready to soar and conquer, right then and there, but we had to practice combat maneuvers first. I figured that with two or three minutes under my belt, I was doing great, I was awesome, I was ready. Next came practicing to shoot each other down a final check for the laser and gun sites for accuracy. How many times had they told us at the briefing and how many times had Dig said, "Remember, when you're ready to squeeze the trigger, make sure you push the mike button on top and say, 'guns, guns, guns.' If you don't and even if you shoot your opponent, the shots don't count. Guns, Guns, Guns, it's important." More on that later.
Then we were ready and set up for the first of three engagements. Whoever said that being up there is like touching the face of god was right, the height, the flight, the magnitude of everything around you just cruising at 220 mph is incredible.
"Darrell,?" Dig was ready but I guess I looked as though I were in some reverie that no one else was privy to, and I was.
"Okay, I'm ready." We start the dogfight by first flying at each other, then we cross paths, the fighter pilots issue a "Fights on!" and we begin. It was up to me to outmaneuver him on his tail at 6 o'clock, aligning my wings with his and shooting him down. Whoever makes the first mistake gives the other guy the advantage and you have to act fast to capitalize on it. I got the edge, squeezed the trigger and forgot to yell, guns guns guns. The next time I got behind him and yelled, guns guns guns, but I missed. He never did get guns on me so the first engagement was a draw.
In the second engagement once again I looked around, above, below and straight ahead at the sky, the ground, the skyline and not the enemy, I had him all lined up, but I couldn't concentrate on shooting, I was enthralled by the beauty of just being up there. I forgot to shoot. I had to have another go at him, I dove for speed at about 300 mph and came straight up and over the top in a loop, my first high yo-yo and then on the downside of the loop and there he was we were on his tail, now shoot the so and so down. Squeeze and shoot, damn, doesn't count forgot guns guns guns. I was just loving the top of the loop and still mesmerized by the exhilaration of it all, guns guns guns was the last thing on my mind. He never did get a position on me, and he never got guns on me.
I might have been a little too exuberant and aggressive because Dig cautioned me about trying that again . He said I didn't have the experience to do what I was doing. I wanted to do negative outside loops, after all I could do it on my R/C models. Uh-uh, no can do in a Marchetti if you're not an experienced pilot. The body just can't take as much negative G forces. At that point I was doing a little over 6G's, the pressure equivalent to about 1200 pounds. I had him at his 6 o'clock, called guns and missed. I didn't get the kill I intended to get.
Certainly not the kind in my dreams. Evidently my opponents Dramamine wasn't as effective as it should have been and we got the message, "knock it off", the signal to abort that engagement.
After regrouping we entered the third engagement. Once again I got the edge and came up behind him, but he outmaneuvered me and disappeared in the clouds. This time I pulled on that stick and we keep going straight up, higher and higher, but I was pulling too many G's and the next thing I heard was Dig saying, "Darrell, Darrell, you okay? Hey, Darrell, you all right? Hey, man, that's the funky chicken."
I had blacked out for a few seconds. We had been kidded about the funky chicken that some novice pilots experience when they pull too many G's. The blood drains out of your head and you feel euphoric for a moment as the blood settles in the broadest part of your back which is now firmly implanted in the seat. Then it happens, the arms and legs seem to have a mind of their own and flail about as though trying to detach from the body. "Knock it off, knock it off" Dig shouted into the radio. A sip of water and a little fresh air and I was fine. Except I didn't know what had happened. Boy, was Dig glad to tell me all about it at the debriefing. I think he really enjoyed it.
Back on the ground it was debriefing time and although I was assured that I did a great job I also got a humility kick start. I was too aggressive, I had lost airspeed from rubber necking while up there, I had started to stall, actually was just on the edge of a stall, I gave up too much on the elevator and the plane didn't respond. Not quite the same when I do it with my Sport-Air or other r/c model. The Marchetti is a slick plane and is subject to all the basic aerodynamics of our model planes, but look who had a death grip on the stick.
The dogfights were scored by USAF Weapons School (TOPGUN) standards and the judgment of members of the pilot corp. I didn't realize that a video was made of the entire flight with three strategically placed cameras. Fortunately, when I did my funky chicken, Dig had the camera on the tail activated, not the one in the cockpit, much to his chagrin. During the debriefing we reviewed the videotape and received a mission critique. I still couldn't stop grinning. the excitement of having been up there, having done it, even if I hadn't won, was still fresh and exhilarating. I had done it, I had actually flown the Marchetti SF260 in aerial combat. I had done it all and capped it off with my personal version of the funky chicken.
That afternoon it started to rain. The Flyoff for the winner had to be postponed until Sunday. I'm still waiting to hear who won. Both flyers did an outstanding job.
That evening we enjoyed a buffet in the hangar and had the awards presentations. We were issued our Fighter Pilots USA wings and patches and were given our tactical call-sign. They prefaced the award of my call-sign by relating how I was so relaxed in the air, I decided to take a little nap, so my award read as follows:
Be it known to all fellow fighter pilots that Darrell "Nite-Nite" Wagner has demonstrated exceptional airmanship and superior leadership as a member of the Fighter Pilots USA squadron; contributed directly to the success of the squadron's efforts during a demanding air combat mission in the SF260 Marchetti fighter trainer; performed amazing feats of aerial combat, testimony to the skill and character of this fighter pilot; his name shall forever be hallowed among those few who have achieved the prestigious status of Four Star General.
I didn't win the trip to Russia and I may never fly a Russian MIG, but I didn't lose. I came out of this experience a winner, I met members of the pilot corp who shared stories, hints and humor with us. Meeting Robert "Mouse" Shaw, author of Fighter Combat: Tactics and Maneuvering was an experience I wouldn't have given up for anything, especially his autographed reminder on the cover page of his book about my great performance as a funky chicken. My consolation prize for my unique in-air performance showed the humor of this gentleman and outstanding fighter pilot, only a few have been afforded the privilege of viewing his signed "portrait".
The camaraderie and special warmth of the fighter pilots and all associated with the Flyoff to the guest pilots and their guests has been a memorable experience, one that I can't imagine ever being equaled. Those moments when I seem to be lost in my own private world? I am. I'm up there again, holding onto that stick, doing high and low yo-yo's, riding on the crest of a high that only someone who has ever dreamed of doing but never thought he could can appreciate. My dream flight will possibly improve with each telling as I gun more an more of the enemy out of the sky making room for only me, where only I can feel the wind, hear not noise, but music and reach out and touch it all. If there is such a thing as reincarnation and I'm given a choice of animate or inanimate, I'm coming back as a Marchetti.
-- Darrell "Nite-Nite" Wagner
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SOON COMING R/C EVENTS
September 7, 1997
Intra Club Fun Fly-In
SNHFE Flying Field, Merrimack
September 13-14, 1997
Float Fly-In / SNH Flying Eagles Greenfield State Park
September 28, 1997
Mini Rhinebeck Contest
SNHRCC Flying Field
Directions to the Flying Eagles Field in Merrimack
From Massachusetts and the Nashua area:
Take the Everett Turnpike to exit 11 in Merrimack. There will be a 50 cent toll.
At the bottom of the ramp turn right onto Greeley Street. Merge into the center lane and at the next intersection go straight through the intersection. There will be a H&R Block office on your right.
At the bottom of the road turn left. Where the road bends left you will notice a dirt road on your right. Carefully turn into the dirt road. Drive under the railroad bridge and the field is on your left.
From Manchester:
Take the Everett Turnpike to exit 11. At the end of the ramp turn right. Go through the next traffic light and pass under the Turnpike. Move into the center lane and follow the instructions above.