District XI — Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington
Chuck Bower — Vice President
- Email: [email protected]
- Address: 6075 S. Coles Rd., Langley, WA 98260
- Tel.: (360) 632-9211
- Website: www.amadistrict-xi.org
Thank you for the opportunity to continue to serve the Academy of Model Aeronautics and District XI. The challenges in the coming years will be exciting, frustrating, and rewarding. Hmmm, that sounds like the last airplane I built—the excitement of opening the box and planning the build, studying the plans, checking the parts, then the frustration of it taking longer to build than you expect, and finally the reward of taking it to the flying field to show off your handiwork!
As interim vice president, I’ve learned that this job is about communication—lots of emails, keeping up with what’s happening in the district, nationwide phone calls, and meetings, both local and with the Executive Council members. At the end of the day I realize how lucky I am to talk this much modeling!
2015 North West Model Hobby Expo
The 2015 North West Model Hobby Expo will be February 6, 7, and 8 at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe, Washington. The NW Model Hobby Expo is in its 38th year of gathering modelers together in the Northwest in February.
It’s a reason to get together with friends and talk modeling. There’s nothing like walking the swap meet with an old friend looking at all the deals on something you might need. You can check out:
- Scale Static Display
- Boat pond
- Indoor flying area
- Car track
District XI will have a booth again this year, so come by and chat. Find out about the drawing that will be held at the district meeting Saturday afternoon. Many of the district associate vice presidents will be in and out of the booth to talk, so come by to say hi.
Indoor flying
The indoor flying season here in District XI is a great way to keep those flying skills sharp when it’s cold and windy outside. Keith Dubendorf has organized indoor flying on Whidbey Island at the church he attends. Two nights a month we gather to fly fixed-wing aircraft and all kinds of multirotors and even air swimmers and blimps.
University of Washington senior design advisor
In the right place at the right time, I was asked to be an advisor to the University of Washington Aeronautical Engineering senior class airplane design program a few years ago.
Approximately 30 students have two quarters (about 26 weeks) to design an aircraft that researches a current problem in aviation. They produce a computer-drawn design, run computational tests, build a wind-tunnel model and make several hundred wind-tunnel runs to validate the design, and finally build a flying model. It’s an ambitious undertaking for that time frame.
One of my favorites was a 2011 project: a strut-braced, high-aspect-ratio-wing, 737-type design.
See you at the 2015 North West Model Hobby Expo.
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
