District X Report
Arizona / California / Hawaii / Guam / Nevada / Utah
Vice President
Richard Hanson PO Box 3312 Scottsdale, AZ 85271 Voice/Fax: (888) 899-3548 E-mail: [email protected] District X web site: www.ama10.org
Associate Vice Presidents
- Darwin Barrie — Scottsdale, AZ (480) 946-8955
- Don Goeschl — Lancaster, CA (661) 940-6066
- Don Gulihur — Santee, CA (619) 449-8397
- Marc Karpowich — Logan, UT (435) 752-3639
- Dave Pinjuv — Las Vegas, NV (702) 656-1772
Frequency Coordinators
- Eloy Marez — Santa Ana, CA (714) 540-4935
(See last month's column for additional AVPs and coordinators.)
Ray Cannon — Electric B-52
Ray Cannon is pictured above with his electric-powered B-52. Ray was out for taxi tests at the Channel Island Condors' field in Camarillo, California, a few weeks ago.
As with Ray's other ships, the B-52 is a totally original model with lots of innovative details such as scale-like rotating tandem landing gear. This magnificent aircraft spans eight feet and weighs 19 pounds ready to fly.
The airplane is modeled after NASA's "High and Mighty One," used for drops on historic research flights over Edwards Dry Lake. It's powered by eight electric WeMoTec ducted fans using Plettenberg 200/20/6 motors. These motors are driven by two stacks of 20 1700 NiCad cells.
Central Valley Radio Control Club — Scale Glider Aerotow
Associate Vice President (AVP) Bill Malvey, Ladera Ranch, California, sent in this report on the Central Valley Radio Control Club's (CVRC) second annual scale glider aerotow event.
The CVRC in Visalia, California, famous for its 20-plus year history of hosting the Fall Soaring Festival, is setting a new standard in the world of scale glider aerotow events. On June 6–8, 2003, the club held its second annual scale glider aerotow event. Chris Pratt acted as the contest director and delivered an awesome weekend of glider-towing fun. Glider aerotow emulates full-scale glider towing where a powered towplane hauls the glider to altitude then releases it to search for lift.
Several towplanes were on hand and comprised everything from purpose-built tugs to a couple of scale models, awesome in their own right. Most of the tugs are sporting 100 cc engines and can haul even the most massive vintage scale ship to incredible altitudes. This is the ultimate in formation flying since you are literally tied to the towplane. The glider typically releases the towline; however, the tug can also let it go in the case of an emergency, just as the full-scale ones do.
The aerotow event had nearly 40 pilots over the course of the weekend and the lift was simply awesome. Those who go to Visalia for the CVRC Fall Soaring Festival would be dumbfounded by the strength and abundance of the thermals we got to fly. The challenge was to keep your airplane in sight, not to find the lift.
Stan Sadorf of Victorville, California, actually lost his airplane in a thermal. He did all he could—loops, spins, and finally deploying the spoilers fully—and hoped for the best. He thought the airplane was a total loss until a local resident drove up in his restored Studebaker pickup with Stan's aircraft in the back. It had pancaked into a road nearly a mile from the field with relatively little damage. Stan's four-meter Discus will fly again soon. Stan bought a bunch of lottery tickets on his way home!
I lost count of the number of tows that went on, but none of the pilots lost track of the fun they were having. From all of us, our thanks go out to the CVRC and Chris Pratt. I can't wait for next year!
Thanks for a great report, Bill. Sounds like the members of the CVRC have a true new classic on their hands.
Till next time... Keep 'em safe and Keep 'em fly'n.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
