Appreciation Weekend Recap
The Fourth of July weekend brings thoughts of celebrating our independence, fireworks, cookouts, and spending time with family. The AMA had its own kind of family event—an Appreciation Weekend—Friday through Sunday at the International Aeromodeling Center (IAC) in Muncie, Indiana.
Members took advantage of all-day open flying and free camping. This was a great time to catch up with old friends and make new ones while taking in many different aspects of our hobby. Attendees were entertained by members flying:
- CL
- RC
- FF
- jets
- autogyros
- helicopters
- floats
- Combat with streamers
Several AMA Executive Council members were in attendance, including vice presidents from Districts III and VI and President Dave Mathewson. He said:
"For several years in the early 2000s, AMA hosted Homecoming each June at the IAC. For various reasons, the event was discontinued in 2005.
"After hearing from some of our members who enjoyed not only coming to Muncie to fly, but coming once a year to renew old acquaintances, we thought that it might be time to try again.
"This year's membership appreciation week was structured as a weekend of casual open flying, with no formal planned events or agenda. Our plan is to build on this year's events and hopefully turn the weekend back into an annual tradition."
Members also took advantage of getting to see some of the RC Scale Aerobatics competitors and their aircraft in action as they practiced for the Nats, which was scheduled to start Monday, July 7.
Thanks to those who made it out to spend the July Fourth weekend with their extended AMA family!
— Jay Smith MA Assistant Editor
Over the North Pole Again: A Club Project
What begins blue, turns white, and ends up orange? Or what do a big blue whale, a great white shark, and a huge orange pumpkin have in common? For the Valley R/C Flyers of Fargo, North Dakota, it was a club project.
The Fargo School Board named its most recent school "Carl Ben Eielson Middle School." A native North Dakotan, Eielson was an Arctic explorer and aviator who traversed the North Pole in 1928—a feat that was said could not be done, earning him worldwide fame. He used a Lockheed Vega for that flight and to explore Antarctica.
The Fargo Air Museum approached the Valley R/C Flyers and suggested that the club build a scale model of the Vega to be given to the middle school in commemoration of the famous flight. The club approved the project and began the task of building a 1/4-scale, nonflying Vega. The date was February 2006.
Construction and work phases
Dan Loegering, the initial project leader, started the model in his garage. The original plans were a small three-view on an 8.5 x 11-inch sheet of paper, so large-scale drawings were made.
The airplane began with a large block of blue foam, 4-inch foam sheets, 1x4 pine boards, and 1/2-inch plywood. The fuselage was sawed, filed, and sanded to a rough outline of the model, thus becoming the Big Blue Whale.
After work was done on the wings and horizontal and vertical stabilizers, Dan had to bow out of the project because of other commitments. It sat idle for a while, waiting for a new building site. Dick Vos stepped up, and the project continued.
With all the other parts at the Vos shop, the wings were covered with Japanese tissue using thinned white glue. The wings were coated with epoxy resin, and several primer coats were applied.
The fuselage was filled and sanded, and a coat of epoxy resin was applied. The stabilizers were positioned and epoxied in place. "Hard points" of 1/4-inch plywood were epoxied in place where the landing gear and wing-attachment sites were.
The cockpit area and wing-saddle areas were fashioned, and the entire fuselage received four coats of white primer. Voilà—the Great White Shark!
Lee Garner fabricated the nose area and engine cylinders from pink foam. The nine cylinders were attached, and the whole assembly was filled, primed, and epoxied.
Work continued on the propeller, landing gear and skis, and the process of mounting the wing to the fuselage. Eyebolts were placed on the middle outer wing spar, the center wing section, and the top of the fin for cable attachment for display purposes.
The original aircraft was painted "International Orange," so we bought "Crayola Orange," which produced a Huge Orange Pumpkin on the workbench. The North Dakota Air National Guard was kind enough to supply us with decals and emblems to add the final finishing touches.
The finished Vega spans 10 feet, has a 7-foot fuselage, and weighs more than 43 pounds. It was completed in December 2007 and presented to the Fargo School District in a dedication ceremony on January 22, 2008. Then the airplane was put in flight over an Arctic map in the school atrium.
A special thank you to Dan Loegering and Dick Vos, who put so much time and effort into this project and provided workspace to complete the model. Other Valley R/C Flyers members who participated did a great job and stuck with this project. A plaque with the club logo was presented to the school, with the members' names on it to identify all those involved.
This project will help publicize our hobby and promote model aviation. We hope it will be a source of pride for the school and the student body, as a representation of the school's namesake.
— Don Carlsen District IX
Girl Scout Aviation Day
Sunday, May 18, 2008, the members of the Pontiac Model Aircraft Club (PMAC) in Clarkston, Michigan, hosted a Girl Scout Aviation Day for Junior, Cadet, and Senior troop members. Dale Matteson and Steve Demster were the event directors.
Twelve troops signed up to attend, but with some fair-weather fliers, only 57 girls attended. The flight instructors did a great job of getting flight time for all the girls, even with the high winds and rain showers.
Event activities
- Instructors started each Scout on the simulator and then went to the flightline for some real flying with an RC airplane.
- Each girl built and flew an FPG-9 airplane.
- John Glenn and Mike Foucart served lunch for everyone.
- Joel Kinkaid (airline captain), Steve Demster (flight instructor), Tom Pierce (AMA associate District VII vice president), and Christina Hulsmeyer (Oakland airport air traffic controller) talked to the Scouts about aviation career opportunities.
- The day ended with an air show that several PMAC members put on.
Thanks to all the PMAC members who came out in the cold to make this a great day of fun for the girls and who took the opportunity to share our sport with them.
Pontiac Model Aircraft Club District VII
South Plains Electric Flyers Fun Fly
The South Plains Electric Flyers (SPEF) of Plainview, Texas, has come a long way in its two years as an AMA-chartered club. SPEF was created to fulfill a need for indoor flying in windy West Texas. Royce and Reegan May began calling fellow indoor electric modelers in 2006 to see if anyone was interested in flying together.
The group had its first fun-fly in April 2006 and saw the need for a chartered group. Letters were sent out to potential members in early 2007. The club soon had 35 members, and interest was growing.
The SPEF had its second fun-fly just four months after becoming an AMA club. However, locating a CD for the event was challenging.
Jim Belyeu of Plainview had never flown indoors but was eager to help the club get established. He, and Bob Talkington as backup, agreed to help the SPEF in the second and third years, in spite of his poor health. Jim passed away shortly before the April 2008 event, but not before doing his part to ensure that Reegan May became a CD for the club at the young age of 19.
Facility and events
The SPEF flies in the Ollie Liner Center at the edge of Plainview. The building is a B-29 hangar from the end of World War II. It was originally shipped to Okinawa, Japan, but was never erected. It was shipped back to the US, and the City of Plainview purchased it as an activity center.
The site hosts car shows, arts and crafts shows, 4-H shows, and various other activities. The flying area is only approximately half of the building, which is 302 feet long, 136 feet wide, 15 feet at the roof base, and 25 feet at the peak.
SPEF sponsors an annual AMA-sanctioned, two-day fun-fly event the last weekend in April. Pilots from New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma attend. For the 2007 event, Royce and Reegan built a mobile aircraft carrier for the pilots' entertainment. Balloon popping, combat flying, and open flying are the hallmarks of this event.
The 2008 fun-fly featured SPEF's first F3P (Indoor RC Aerobatics) contest, thanks to the hard work of Dennis Robbins and Mike Robbins. Joe Gross, an experienced F3P pilot, gathered capable SPEF members to judge the event.
The club meets to fly roughly eight times per year. Its creed seems to be "More Members = More Flying," since club funds are needed only for AMA expenses and building rental. The sole mission is to have fun and enjoy flying while promoting the indoor electric hobby.
Anyone who is interested in indoor electric flying will find the SPEF members friendly and willing to help. Contact the club at [email protected] for further information.
You can read more about the SPEF's fun-fly in Jim Rice's July 2008 District VIII column.
— Marilyn May District VIII
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
