District XI - 2015/06

Now for the rest of the story, as radio
broadcaster Paul Harvey used to say.
At the District XI meeting at the
North West Model Hobby Expo, a
Spektrum DX9 was raffled off to the
attending members. The winner was
Colton Siebol of the Yakima Valley
Aeromodelers in Washington. He
plans to put this radio to good use this
summer!
This month, I was inspired by my early
days in aeromodeling—which started
in the late 1950s—to look into Control
Line (CL) and Free Flight (FF). So
I hit the road to visit the Northwest
Skyraiders club meeting at the Denny’s
restaurant in Kent, Washington.
This CL club flies at the south end
of the Auburn Municipal Airport.
Michael Potter, the club president,
extended the invitation to me while
at the 2015 Northwest Aviation
Conference & Trade Show. To my
surprise, I recognized several members
from other clubs, and secretary/
treasurer Peter Ferguson was an
International Miniature Aerobatic Club
flying buddy from 20 years ago.
It was nice to run into old friends.
Stop by other clubs’ fields and
meetings to see who’s there and what
they are up to. I’m looking forward to
getting to the Skyraiders flying site to
check out the CL flying.
From CL, I moved into the FF side
of modeling. This is where I first
learned about the four forces that work
on airplanes in flight—thrust, drag,
lift, and gravity. It was the balance of
these—with the help of the fifth force,
my paper route money—that kept my
models flying.
The Willamette Modelers Club held
its last indoor FF meet of the season,
March 28-29, 2015. It was held at the
South Albany High School gym in
Oregon. Bob Stalick was the contest
director with some assistance from
Williamette President Glen Grell and
many volunteer timers.
Peanut and Pistachio Scale,
Ornithopters, Pennyplanes, MiniStick,
Bostonian, and A-6 were some of the
classes being flown. The challenge of
indoor FF is great, but its reward is also
great.
The A-6 event was designed as an
entry class for lightweight duration
flying. The minimum weight is 1.2
grams for a 30-square-inch wing.
Fill the fuel tanks, charge the batteries,
and wind up the rubber motors
because it’s flying season again! Let’s
make it a good one.
See you at the flying field.