Bullsheet - May 1998

President's Message

Annual Awards Night

The evening of Tuesday, May 12th, the club will be celebrating our Annual Awards Meeting. As usual, this meeting will start at 7:30pm at the Griffin Memorial School. And, of course, we will have pizza and sodas to round out the festivities. Awards will be presented for the winners of the Show and Tell Contest, which was held last month. We have 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes for each of the categories.

A very special award is given out each year to the person who exemplifies what the club has described as the "Modeler of the Year". His peers select this person. The members judge their candidate using their own criteria. The intent is to recognize the member who represents our hobby in totality. So to honor this person, to find out who won the Show and Tell contest, and to just have a good time with your friends, please come to the meeting, and bring your appetite!

Field Safety

It is that time again when we begin (if we haven't already) our migration back to the field and getting airborne once again. Accidents will occur. Whether it is a crashed airplane, a minor cut, or a wound requiring stitches, most of these can be reduced or eliminated with little care. Have you checked those batteries after the winter hibernation? When was the last time you cycled the batteries? Have you checked the R/C connections, control arms and clevises? How many members have first-aid kits? Most of us know what we should do and I don't intend to make this checklist. Let's us all do our part to make this a safe flying year.

Coming Events

Here we are already in the second week of May. We have no events planned in May or July; at least not at this time. Does anyone have any suggestions? We will have to discuss our plans for a Family Day. Let's think of some events for July now so we have time to announce them.

June is firming up. John Hayes has included a run-down on the Glider Contest, which will be held on the 13th of June. So, to the guys with gliders, this is your opportunity to have some fun!

Bob Brodeur and I met with Dennis Cannon, Chairman of the High Hopes Balloon Festival and Mr. Chappell, the owner of the property where the festival is held. Mr. Chappell was very receptive on a R/C Demonstration during the festival weekend. It looks like a go! Because of the nature of the event, we have to be very selective as to who will be part of the flying team.

Finally, we will close out June with the Old-Timers Pattern Contest. Drew Davenport is the CD for this event. I suspect we will have some information at the May Meeting or in the June Newsletter.

See you at the meeting or at the field.

-- Bob Patukonis

April 1998 Meeting Highlights

April 14, 1998 at Griffin Memorial School, Litchfield, NH
Officers in attendance: Bob Patukonis, Kip Bean, Dave Muse and John Hayes

Secretary and Treasurer reports were read by John Hayes and Dave Muse respectively, a motion was made to accept and passed.

Business:

Bob Patukonis gave a quick summary of the club social held at Florence's Restaurant in Merrimack, all who attended had a good time.

Bob Patukonis brought up the damage to the club field by vandals, and asked for help in repairing the damage. A motion was made to spend up to $200 to have a load of loam delivered to the field as a supply to replace damaged and rutted sections of the field, Darrell will manage and arrange for the drop.

Bob Patukonis mentioned the High Hopes Balloon Festival coming up in June. The SNHRCC will be putting on some flying demonstrations to fill in the time between the balloon launchings.

Kip read from the National Newsletter about a fund available for clubs to gain money for sponsoring and publicizing model aircraft events.

A question was put forth about changing the summer meetings from the usual Tuesday nights to Sundays, a show of hands indicated a overwhelming desire to keep the meetings on Tuesday.

SOLO certificates were at last presented to Eric Ford and John Schwartz, congratulations!

Hobby Highlights:

After coffee and donuts we had our annual show and tell, many fine aircraft were displayed. This year besides any pet projects members were building, the membership voted on the Project 98 which was a 1/2A powered plane of the individuals choice. Each year our club members turn out some really fine work and this year again, was no exception

-- John Hayes

Glider Contest - June 13th

Just a reminder, On June 13th there will be a glider contest at the Litchfield flying site. The field has been set aside for gliders only for this day (for the power guys the field will reopen after 2:00pm)

I know a number of you have gliders, this will be a good day (weather permitting) to bring them out and have some fun. This is going to be a club only event. High Starts will be used (no winches at this contest and no electric motors). Contestants will be looking for 10 minute flight times after release from the tow hook. Maximum points to be earned at the 10 minute mark, points will be deducted for being under or over the 10 minute time. Also there will be spot landing points based on a graduated tape. Simple rules = fun event!

Plan on setting aside June 13th to come out to fly, this should be a fun and no pressure contest. If anyone has a glider question contact me and I will help you any way I can, but by all means come out and fly and have fun!! !! !! !

-- John Hayes

Servo Gears

After a severe landing (crash!) the servos need to be checked for damage to their gear train. It is not necessary to open up the case, as a real test is to rotate the servo output arm, with the radio off, driving the motor back through train.

This severe test will show up any weak or damaged gears by ratcheting or even a free wheeling action.

If you decide to replace the gear, make absolutely certain that you remove all the broken teeth. They are sometimes the same color as the silicon grease used to quiet the gear action. Check for teeth stuck into the good gears, and look where the motor pinion is.

Install the output gear in the correct orientation for complete travel.

by Peter Waters, Kraft Midwest

From the AMA National Newsletter

Black Magic

It is hard to explain how well this ''trick" works until you try it. Balsa wood is very soft and has different grains and hardnesses even in the same piece. When balsa edges (leading, trailing, etc.) meet balsa sheeting on the wing, it is easy to sand through the thin sheeting or sand waves into the edges.

Now try this: use a strip of black vinyl electrical tape on the sheeting, approximately 1 8 - 3 16" from the joint. Dust off the area before applying the tape and rub the tape down with your thumb. Sand the edge as needed. You want to see consistent sand marks on the black tape. This means all of the edge surface is at the same height.

Peel the tape off and remove the last 1 32" step left by the tape.

note: always use a sanding bar or block when sanding.

from The Pilot Log, Tom Welsh, Editor
49 Cedar Strect. N. Tonawanda, NY 14120
From the AMA National Newsletter

No.	Title
1	R/C Pilot Program - Ticket to Fly
2	R/C Madness or Do's & Don'ts
3	Flying Radio Control Models
4	Boeing 777 & B-29 Frozen in Time
5	1993 11th Greater SW Fan Fly
6	MonoKote
7	Penn Int. Chemical-Innovation in Adhesive Vol. 1
8	Wipe Out Vol. 1
9	Wring It Out Volume One
10	Wring It Out Volume Two
11	R/C Video magazine Vol.10
12	Satellite City Video Tips #2
13	R/C Hilites
14	Take-A-Tape Series Radio Control Systems
15	One Week To Solo
16	R/C Video Magazine Vol.6
17	Discovering Aeromodeling
18	Byron Videos Sport Aerobatics
19	How To Monocote Vol. III & IV
20	How To Build and Fly a Radio Controlled Airplane
21	Midwest's 1995 New Products In Action
22	Speedy Bee
23	Small Electric Flying Models
24	Building it Right/First Time Vol. 1
25	Building it Right/First Time Vol. 2
26	Ultimate Flight

Again special thanks to all the members who donated the tapes. We are very appreciative.

--Andrzej Rutkowski