Share the Load
I just finished reading [AMA Executive Director Jim Cherry’s] April column; so true!
I really identified with the last part, as I had just filled a day with repair work at our club
flying field.
Ed, the club president, and I shoveled gravel to fix two big washouts. The two of us
have been doing this sort of thing since we started the Wayne County Radio Control
Club in 1969. Ed is 70; I’m 73. Another member was applying weed killer on 3 acres
with a push spreader; he is 70.
The club has 50 members, and the average age is 55. The younger ones can find time
to play golf, not for field work. Saturday is a club work day, and I’m willing to bet a
turnout of 10 with an average age of 65+.
I’m thinking of a new club rule: you have to put in so many hours of club work or
pay extra dues.
Keep up the good work!
Ralph Woods
via E-mail
Tuskegee Inspiration
I want you to know how much I enjoyed the
article of “A Tuskegee Airman Flies Again” [in
the April issue]; I think it is the most inspiring
article I’ve read in a long time and I have
always had the most admiration for these men.
They stood out above all else then and still do
today.
I look forward to every month’s magazine.
Here in the Northwest flying has not been the
best for me this year, but I’ll be out there this
spring and summer for sure.
Robert Pouriea
via E-mail
YouTube Coupe
I enjoyed working with associate editor Michael
Ramsey on my article, “Balsa USA 1/3 Scale
Ercoupe on Floats,” in the April issue of MA, and I
have gotten lots of positive feedback from readers.
One thing that I omitted from the article was that
readers can see the airplane flying off the water in a
short film online on YouTube at www.youtube.com/
watch?v=ir8QXESmOZY.
The film was made at the big annual float-fly put
on by the SLAM club at Lake Shuswap in British
Columbia in September, 2006. This was the second flight off water, with Dave Collis as
test pilot, and before we replaced the Zenoah G-45 with the G-62, so some porpoising
on takeoff is seen. Later takeoffs, with the larger engine and rerigged floats, were much
smoother.
Oscar Weingart
Riverside, California
Who Knows What You’ll Find?
I am writing this in response to the letter in the April 2007 issue of MA by Don
Martin. I would like to challenge Mr. Martin to do a couple things before he bemoans
the lack of coverage.
The first would be to read the whole of MA cover to cover. I will almost guarantee
that you would find other information in there that he could apply to helicopters. I
regularly find tidbits such as finishing techniques in CL Aerobatics, new applications
for composites in RC Soaring, and lightweight construction methods in FF columns that
can be applied to small field/indoor RC.
If you fly electric helicopters I think you would find some interest in the review of
motors, batteries, and ESCs. Don’t forget the special event coverage of things like the
IRCHA Jamboree and the Futaba XFC (which, may I remind you, is much more than a
lot of the fixed-winged disciplines get, including my own). Add to that coverage in your
Aero Mail
Aero Mail continued on page 160
Official Publication of the Academy of Model Aeronautics
SINCE 1936
April 2007 $4.95
flies
again!
A Tuskegee
Airman
Event coverage:
JR Indoor
Electric Festival
2 006
• Displacement: 3.05 ci. (50cc)
• Output: 5 hp.
• Weight: 2.94 lbs. (1.33 kilos)
DA-50 Engine: $595.00
• Displacement: 6.1 ci. (100cc)
• Output: 9.8 hp.
• Weight: 5.8 lbs. (2.63 kilos)
DA-100 Engine: $1,150.00
• Displacement: 9.15 ci. (150cc)
• Output: 16.5 hp.
• Weight: 7.96 lbs. (3.61 kilos)
DA-150 Engine: $1,495.00
[email protected]
www.desertaircraft.com
Phone: 520-722-0607
Fax: 520-722-5622
1815 South Research Loop
Tucson, AZ 85710
DA Engines–
The Choice of
Champions!
DA-50
DA-100
DA-150
June 2007 7
06sig1.QXD 4/23/07 2:00 PM Page 7
Edition: Model Aviation - 2007/06
Page Numbers: 7