District IV - 2011/04

April 2011 149
ON JULY 31, 2010, the Charlotte
Aeromodelers opened the club’s air field, the
McCracken Aerodrome, for its First Annual
All Helicopter Day. It was a day of
helicopters of all types and sizes.
The day started with a break in the hot and
humid weather for a perfect day of flying.
With 17 registered pilots and 45 guests (not
counting the crackerjack club volunteers), the
day was filled with skillful flying, food,
prizes, and a whole bunch of hospitality for
everyone.
AMA District IV Associate Vice
President (AVP) Bill Hamby joined in the
flying activities and award presentations.
Sponsors provided a variety of raffle prizes
and a nice pilots’ prize. Additional awards
were given for Best Sport, Best Scale, and
People’s Choice.
The Charlotte Aeromodelers moved to the
new airfield just one year ago and are
enjoying a lot of flying activities as well as a
number of community events. Check out the
club’s Web site at www.charlotteaero
modelers.org for pictures of the new facility.
Blue skies to
you from John
Metcalf,
president of the
Charlotte
Aeromodelers.
Left: John Metcalf
and AVP Bill
Hamby.
Below: AVP Bill
Hamby and Tom
West who won
People’s Choice.
Bill Hamby with Robert Wood who took the
Best Sport award.
The Third Annual Carolina Speed Rally
was held on June 26 and was again a
resounding success. With 14 pilots coming
from New York, Florida, and all points in
between, they piloted 23 airplanes and two
helicopters past the radar gun to see how fast
they could go.
The Carolina Speed Rally is a unique
event held for the racer, sport pilot, and speed
freak who likes to run his or her aircraft as
fast as it will go. We are all together and have
a witness to verify how fast we are going,
with equipment that honestly and consistently
tells us how fast our models are.
The results and pictures from this year and
previous two year’s rallies can be reviewed at
the Caldwell Aeromodeler’s Web site at
www.caldwellaeromodelers.com or you can
go to RCU and search the Carolina Speed
Rally under Extreme Speed Prop Planes.
Caldwell Aeromodelers has used this
event as part of its community-outreach
program in order to achieve Gold Leader
Club status by contributing the registration
fees to the local Hospice group. With a low
registration fee, most pilots are happy to
register multiple airplanes.
The way the rally works is the pilot makes
two passes down the runway from each
direction with a radar operator using a Stalker
Pro radar gun. This year we had two guns on
hand that repeatedly saw the same speeds
within one tenth or less of a mile per hour.
Many thanks to Lee Parker and Bob Tillman
for the use and operation of the radar gun. We
couldn’t do it without those guys!
The speeds are recorded with the fastest
ones from each direction being averaged
together for an average top speed. We issue a
certificate of speed based on this data. This
year we also issued a sticker to the Speed
Club thanks to Callie’s Graphics. The stickers
start at 125 mph and go to 200 mph in 25
mph increments and seemed to be a big hit
with the pilots.
We saw speeds starting as low as 40 mph
out of a park flyer to 211 mph from a Q-40
racer. The fast passes always generate
reactions from spectators, which encourages
pilots to get greedier on the next pass. One of
the helicopters hit 85 and set the bar for
future helicopter speed freaks.
We appreciate the support of Full Throttle
Jets, Jett Engineering and Eddie’s Planes
Trains & Automobiles to make this a
memorable event. To our knowledge, this is
the only event of its kind in the USA. By the
response this year from the pilots and club
members, the Carolina Speed Rally will be
around for a while. Come join us next year if
you can!
District IV
Bliss Teague, District IV Vice President; [email protected]
Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia
Bliss Teague
Vice President
625 5th Ave. SW,
Hickory NC 28602
Tel.: (828) 324-2164
Fax: (828) 267-0956
[email protected]
www.amadistrictiv.org
Associate Vice
Presidents
Josh Bunn, Zebulon NC; (919)
291-6374; josh@qualityplusauto
motive.com
Randy Elliott, Radford VA; Home:
(540) 239-0645; Office: (540) 994-
2316; [email protected]
Ron King, Gainesville VA; (703)
765-1608; [email protected]
John Kirchstein, Newark DE;
(302) 731-2831;
[email protected]
Richard (Rick) Moreland,
Edgewater MD; (301) 261-7366;
[email protected]
Steve Moulton, Chesapeake VA;
(757) 421-4545; moultons@mind
spring.com; District Webmaster
Contest Coordinators:
RC: Andy Kane, 305 Natick Ct.,
Silver Spring MD 20905; (301)
785-3022; [email protected]
FF and CL: John Tate, 10
Hanbury Ave., Portsmouth VA
23702; [email protected]
Brad Booth, Frequency and
Safety Coordinator: 8416 Racine
Road, Pleasant Garden NC 27313;
(336) 685-0088;
[email protected]
D i s t r i c t I V V o l u n t e e r s