District XI—Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington
Mike Mosbrooker
Vice President
Early this year, Bob Benjamin generously donated his 9-foot Aeronca K to the National Model Aviation Museum in Muncie, Indiana. Bob is a longtime scale modeler, author, and member of the AMA Model Aviation Hall of Fame. This model was designed in 1999 and built during 1999–2001.
While beautifully detailed, the airplane is traditional in design and construction, keeping with established standards and practices for RC scale model airplanes—except for one thing. Power is developed by a geared Astro Cobalt 60 brushed electric motor driven by a 28-cell NiMH battery pack; each cell had a 3,000 mAh capacity.
We take such things for granted today, except that NiMH batteries are pretty much a thing of the past. I still have several NiCd and NiMH packs—they make good weights in the shop. But of greatest significance, this airplane was the first electric-powered model to compete in class F4C (RC Scale) at the World Championship in Canada in 2002. This was not a special class for electric power. It was flown by Robert A. Benjamin of Team USA to a third-place finish.
Prior to the 2002 World Championship, the model competed at:
- the AMA Nationals (Expert, Master, and FAI RC Scale)
- the US Scale Masters Championships
- the US International Scale Team Elimination Trials
- Top Gun
It always placed in the top ten. The model has been featured in magazine articles in several countries and appeared on the covers of both French and US aeromodeling magazines.
If you have not had the opportunity to visit the National Model Aviation Museum, you owe it to yourself to make the visit a priority. What is displayed is awesome, and when you think of the effort required to establish and maintain such a collection, you will quickly realize what a treasure is included as part of your AMA membership.
Gene LaFond reports that the 2013 US Scale Masters was held at the Woodland/Davis Aeromodelers flying site near Sacramento, California, September 10–13. Eight members of the Wenatchee Red Apple Flyers participated. The Wenatchee crew wore red shirts made by a local hobby shop, Go-Bent Bikes & RC Hobbies, owned by my good friend Jim Baxter. They called themselves Team Red.
Jeff Lovett did an excellent job as contest director. Jeff eliminated the Figure 8 because of midair concerns and time constraints and gave all entrants a 10 on the maneuver without having to fly it. It was a bit different, but it worked for all. They had more than 60 contestants, so getting in two flights (Friday and Saturday) made for long days.
Special awards and top-10 finishers in various categories from District XI included:
- Randy Smithhisler
- Mike Brewer
- Ward Emigh
- Duane Kaasa
- Mike Ingram
- T. Doug Stewart
- Del Herring
- Chester Moore
- Virgil Johnson
There were several others from the district, and anyone who even made it to the event is top notch in my book!
Please join me in welcoming our newest associate vice president, Del Herring, from Wenatchee, Washington.
Stay warm—spring is coming?
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
