District VIII - 2010/08

166 MODEL AVIATION
THERE IS MUCH to report this month, so
I’ll jump right into it.
The Fort Worth Thunderbirds held a
Warbird Fly-In. Terry Thorpe reports that it
had 60 pilots in attendance and the weather
was better than expected.
Here are a couple of pictures.
This electric-powered P-51 was scratch-built
and piloted by Ron Singer.
Jim Dietrick, of Kennedale TX, scratch-built
and piloted this 105-inch wingspan Tiger
Moth.
Pat Wilcox held a world-class F2D event at
JETERO field near Houston. The field
included 36 entrants with at least 10 from
outside the US including two world
champions from Europe.
In fact, Igor Dementiev from Moldava,
who was the 2009 European Champion, won
the event with Mark Rudner and Mike
Wilcox finishing second and third.
Winners (L-R) Mike, Mark, and Igor.
The great supporting cast from JETERO
made the event a true success.
The Austin Radio Control Association held
its 21st Annual Central Texas Jet Rally in
May. Twenty-five pilots had bad weather on
Friday but enjoyed a great Saturday of
flying. Ken White CDed the event again and
had a great supporting cast.
One of the favorite participants was
Commander Sam Snyder, USN/Ret. He
served from 1950 to 1973 and flew most of
America’s carrier-based war aircraft during
his Navy career.
Sam’s own-design, 96-inch-span RQ-16
SYZYGY UAV weighs 22 pounds.
Jack Matlock and I attended the Amarillo
wind-blown ARKS Annual Spring Fun-Fly.
Winds were 15-20 mph at the time of the
pilots’ meeting, and got to 30 mph with
gusts nearing 40 during the fun-fly.
At the event, I announced the
appointment of Cliff Town as the new
associate vice president for the Panhandles
of Texas and Oklahoma, and presented
Making a Difference (MAD) awards to
event CDs Brian Schwarz and David
Reighley, club President Dwayne Brown
who was not present because of illness, and
to Cliff for accepting the position after I
conducted an extensive search.
From the left are David, me, Cliff, and Brian.
We spent the night at the Fly’n D Ranch in
Glen Rose, Texas. It is under development
but will have conducted a major event by the
time this column is printed. The cabin was
brand-new and more than adequate for its
intended purpose.
Ron Wedel, the resort director, gave us a
personal tour with running commentary on
what the final product will look like. It will
be a nice facility upon completion and will
likely host many events. For more
information, you can go to the resort’s Web
site at www.theflyndranch.com.
My wife, Linda, and I attended the Joe Nall
fly-in again and were impressed by the
improved facilities, attendance at the general
membership meeting, and the number of
attendees and aircraft. You have to go to it at
least once just so you can say you did!
Have fun and fly safely. See you on the
flightline.
District VIII
Jim Rice, District VIII Vice President; [email protected]
Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas
Jim Rice
Vice President
118 E. Wright Blvd.,
Universal City TX 78148
Tel.: (210) 213-0299
(evenings)
www.AMA-Dist-8.org
Associate Vice Presidents
Lester L. Barry, Bethany OK;
(405) 789-5373
Pete Boudreaux, Franklin LA;
(337) 836-5478
Jack Hogan, Chandler TX;
(903) 849-4193 (Evenings)
Mark S. Johnston, Albuquerque
NM; (505) 823-0158
Jim D. Marshall, Mission TX;
(956) 585-6446
Douglas E. Powell, Wichita Falls
TX; (940) 691-8348
Randy Ritch, Magnolia TX;
(281) 701-3121
Doug Staines, Belton TX;
(254) 780-3512
Ron Stanfield, Maumelle AR;
(501) 851-1697
Cliff Town, Dumas TX; (806)
935-3063; town_cliff@hot
mail.com
Pat Willcox, Kingwood TX;
(281) 358-1750
Frequency Coordinator
Gene Kent, Tomball TX;
(281) 255-4805
Safety Coordinator
David Oates, Texarkana TX;
(903) 826-7919; davidoates@
sherrodservices.com
AMA Display Coordinator
David Johns, Deer Park TX;
(281) 476-4820
RC Contest Coordinator
Douglas E. Powell, Wichita Falls
TX; (940) 691-8348;
[email protected]
CL/FF Contest Coordinator
Bill Lee, Chandler TX;
(903) 852-5599; [email protected]
District VIII Volunteers
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