Author: Mike Mosbrooker
Edition: Model Aviation - 2012/11
Page Numbers: 146

District XI—Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington

Vice President

In Memoriam: Rick Allison

AMA and District XI recently lost a longtime modeler, Pattern champion, past National Society of Radio Controlled Aerobatics president, associate vice president, and AMA contributor, Rick Allison. Rick did much to further the sport of model aviation, especially Pattern competition, and our general enjoyment of the sport. Rick will be remembered with a brick in the AMA Walk of Fame and AMA’s Distinguished Service Award, among other tributes.

Scholarship Recipient

AMA and the district are proud to announce that one of the 2012 scholarship award winners was Gordon Sabin of Federal Way, Washington, who was awarded a $5,500 scholarship. Congratulations, Gordon! He will be studying mechanical engineering at Brigham Young University by the time you read this.

Safety Reminder

I was present at a recent warbirds event when a couple of incidents occurred that easily could have been catastrophic.

One competitor had several aircraft in the startup area ready to fly in various classes of competition. Airplane one (electric) was flown and returned to the startup area. Airplane two (also electric) was then brought to the takeoff line and the throttle was advanced. Aircraft one’s motor(s) started unexpectedly and it took off toward the pits and spectators, striking a fence fortunately. What happened? Its power system had not been shut down — neither the battery was disconnected nor an arming switch used. The main problem was that an electric airplane not intended to fly was left powered up. Be careful — this could happen to you.

If that wasn’t enough, another experienced modeler was going to tweak the carburetor on a 35cc gas engine. While some engines have exposed needle valves clear of the propeller arc, this was not one of them; the individual reached through the propeller arc to make the adjustment and suffered cuts requiring stitches. Pilots need to keep their minds on the tasks at hand and, when possible, make adjustments at home where there are fewer distractions.

TCMAA Float-Fly Report

Royce Tivel reports that each year the Thurston County Miniature Aircraft Association (TCMAA) holds a float-fly at Lake Isabella in Shelton, Washington. This year’s event was held on Saturday, July 21. Earlier in the week there were dramatic thunderstorms and heavy rain, so everyone kept fingers crossed for a good flying day — and we got one.

Although there were some clouds and occasional gusts of wind, flying conditions were good with plenty of sunshine. Members of the Lake Nahwatzel RC Float Flyers club joined the TCMAA pilots for a great day of flying and socializing. There were 17 pilots flying a mix of gas- and electric-powered aircraft.

Among the beautiful aircraft flown were:

  • Thom Martin’s E-flite DHC-2 Beaver
  • Gordon Osberg’s twin-engine Deuces Wild
  • Multiple pilots flying the E-flite Pulse XT
  • Dick Robb’s Balsa USA Phaeton 90
  • Mark Anderson’s realistic World Models 1/3-scale Cub
  • The tiny UMX Carbon Cub (distributed by Horizon Hobby), featuring E-flite’s AS3X stabilization technology

There were a few problem flights during the day. Some aircraft had to be retrieved by boat; one downed model was delivered by friendly water-skiers. Gordon Osberg retrieved his airplane using expert casts with a fishing pole rigged with a tennis ball at the end of the line — good luck trying that!

All pilots look forward to the next float-fly to be hosted later this year by the Nahwatzel club.

Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.