ACMA weekend activities...By Frits Jetten (contributing editor)

Saturday, March 6, 2004

Scotty Cameron, assisted by Wayne Boudreaux, flew a new Sport 300-P, a modified model by local model designer Jerry Bateslink... Mike Moore came out with his two nephews, Michael & Justin Vanosdol. Mike flew his SIG Kadet Senorita, young Michael flew a Tiger 2, and even younger Justin flew the Avistar trainer with uncle Mike on the trainer box. After a hard landing there was only one small problem with the Avistarphoto...

John LaFleur flew his 35% 3D airplane, the Edge 540... Jimmy and Trey Davis came all the way from Jackson, Alabama, and 16-year old Trey flew his 3D CAP-232. One deadstick put him down near the North fence, but there was no damage, I believe. A small entourage helped Trey retrieve the planephoto... And 3D wannabe John MacArthur did some nice and sometimes wild 3D stuff with his 35% Carden Aircraft Edge 540photo, a nice looking and nice flying airplanephoto. Check out John's special and unique 3D stancephoto. John also flew his small, all-foam "Miss Piggy" (a name I gave it...) the electric PiGi-3D... Roger Geil flew his Extra 300L and did his 3D thing, in a more subdued manner than John Mac...

Alvin Reed finally got his heli back into the air! Scott Gayle, Evon Smith and Robert Harrison had taken Alvin's crashed chopper and rebuilt it. It looked nice and ready to go. Alvin's first hover flight drew a small crowdphoto. Yes, he could still get it up after a year of sulking over the crashphoto! Now he's still tweaking and tinkering with it... Scott Gayle had his chopper out with a nicely painted striped canopy but I didn't see him fly it... Robert Harrison flew his Raptor 30 helicopter a couple of times at the South end of the pits area...

Frits Jetten had his hands full with three students and their trainer planes, Gene Guy and his HobbiStarphoto, Tim McLeod and his NexSTARphoto, and Dean Ritola and his Avistarphoto. All three are progressing well... Fred Hemphill showed up with a small "Stucka" something or 'nother, a small plane that looked sort of like a Senorita, except smallerphoto...

Alan Pritchett got in a flight or two on his Raptor 40 heli... David Rushing flew a Raptor heli and his newest 3D plane, the Texas Hurricanephoto... Evon Smith flew his Raptor helicopterphoto. He also showed off a bigger one with a nicely painted canopy. Son Evon the Fourth showed off his little rechargeable Defender, an all-foam twin motor electricphoto...

Sunday, March 7, 2004

Al Ayler brought his 1/4 scale Stinson Reliant but apparently he required some expert mechanic help from Ray Brown before he could become airbornephoto... Scott Godbee flew his Century Falcon 46 helicopter and Ultimate Bipe... Homer Anderson worked on his newly acquired Ultimate Bipe with some help from Duane Jones and Charlie Gillespie. Hope to see it in the air soonphoto... William Moore dumped some of his airplane goodies out on a table and had a sale of sorts going on. Everything "half price or lessphoto"...

Carl Broughton had a close call when he landed his Astro Hog! The Hog touched down and then rolled toward him. Carl actually jumped straight up while the plane taxied underneath him! Fortunately he came down after the Hog had cleared Carl's landing spot! Carl would not reenact the incident for Frits to take a picturephoto... Don Koval and son flew their SoloStar trainer plane, a J-3 Cub and an Ultra Stick 40... The new grill got another workout when Alvin cooked eggs and sausages again. John MacArthur tried to keep the flames downphoto...

Alvin tinkered more on his helicopter and flew it around some, getting a bit farther and higher, still trimming it... David Rushing flew his Raptor helicopter and his Texas Hurricane again... Edward Johnson flew an Aero Works 330 Profile plane (is it John's, David's or his?) and cracked it up a bit after banging it in for a landingphoto. After almost every decent landing Edward likes to jump up and down and holler loudly. Sometimes — when things go poorly — he yells at the airplane and the pilot figure in the cockpit. We do need to keep an eye on Edward...

Andrew Smith tried to get his V-tail racer in the air, but a messed up tail wheel kept him pirouetting on the ground. So he flew his Ugly Stick instead... Steve Thomas has a new previously owned PT-19 Trainer. Al Ayler helped him with it and test flew it firstphoto. Then Steve got to fly it too... Henry Waltman spent 45 minutes assembling his Fleet biplane. He got some help from David Hughesphoto. Henry then let Al Ayler fly it. Not sure if Henry even flew it...

Wayne Miller flew his nice Super Chipmunk around a couple of times. I meant to get a picture of it, but Wayne left before I could catch him... Tim McLeod and his NexSTAR trainer, and Dean Ritola and his Avistar trainer were back and both again got three training flights in with Frits on the buddy box... Newcomers Bill Long and son Travis showed up with their first airplane, a SIG Senorita, done in white and transparent red. They each got a flight on it. Both have actually flown some and it was quite evident...

Tal Fowler had to resort to flying his backup chopper because he's still awaiting parts for the Fury heli he recently crashedphoto... John MacArthur got his Miss Piggy Pigi-3D out late in the evening and tried to do 3D stuff for Frits to take pictures ofphoto. He did very nicely, but Frits was slow on the (digital) trigger a couple of times and missed John's truly great torque rolls and tail standsphoto... Alvin was impressed. He was watching while munching on some leftover pizza. Whatever happened to his diet? He was doing so wellphoto...[just one little piece...not a whole family size pizza pie]

David Lanzo flew his Pizzaz fun fly plane. Much later in the afternoon, when it was already getting pretty dark, he got out his Century Hawk Sport helicopter and hovered it around a bitphoto. He also let Scott Godbee fly it some and then offered the transmitter to Frits. Well, Frits took the offer and briefly hovered David's Hawk, making him miss his own Hawk heli even morephoto...

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Previous Weekend Report Follows

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Sunday, February 29, 2004

I couldn't make it Saturday (a beautiful flying day!) because of a fishy commitment which took me out of town for most of the day. I visited a koi farm in Florida, a very unique and interesting experience, as I got to wade around in a 30 ft. diameter holding tank with one quarter of a million dollars worth of fancy koi fish and pick out the ones I likedphoto! No - they were not for me, unfortunately, but for Koi & Lilies, a local pond supply store on Schillinger Roadphoto...

From what my spies told me, not too much unusual activity went on on Saturday anyway... I know I'm getting old, but I thought my reading and comprehension were still okay. I must have misread the weather report AGAIN, as I thought it said that it would be sunny and around 72°. A good thing I decided to throw an extra jacket in my car because it never got sunny nor warm today! It was very gray, cold, with gusty winds and at times I could feel a light mist...

When I got to the field there was not much going on. I found Buddy Steiner working on what looked like a starter that came out of the riding lawnmower. I guess Billy Frost and Ray Brown couldn't do anything with itphoto. Then David Lanzo joined the groupphoto. A little later Homer Anderson joined themphoto. Then newest club member David Ritola had to put in his two cents worthphoto. With all that brain power (?) it eventually got fixed and Homer took a test ride on the mower, cutting some of the tall rye grass and cloverphoto... Buddy (I'm pretty sure he was the one who showed everybody how to fix that mower), got to fly his little Extra 300, which is pretty fast and snappyphoto...

Frits met with a couple of new people interested in getting started in this hobby and he explained the ins and outs of joining the Academy of Model Aeronautics to get the insurance coverage and what it takes to join our Azalea City Model Aeronautics club. Both promised to be back the following weekend... Don and Rick Koval were trying to get a Piper J-3 Cub started and eventually flew it and their SoloStar trainer plane... David decided not to fly his helicopter on this very gray day but got some time on his Pizzaz fun-fly airplanephoto...

Jon Koppish (also new in the club) brought out one of his Raptor helicopters. It was the first time I had seen him with a heli, and it quickly became obvious that Jon is not new to choppers eitherphoto. I have seen him do the extreme 3D thing with his big aerobatic airplanes. And he mentioned that the day before he had joined Rob Baker and Bill Culberson and their turbine jets across Mobile Bay with his own Kangaroo turbine powered jet...

Frits helped out Dean Ritola with his new Avistar trainer. It had already been checked out and flown. I know David Lanzo had helped him and perhaps others have too, and for that Frits is thankful, as he's the only flight instructor in a club that has 95 members... This was my first time with Dean. He did pretty well, but Frits had to save the plane at least a couple of times! One time Dean actually put the blame on Frits after an inexplicable fast dive toward Mother Earth, but after Frits denied any involvement (after all, the trainer switch on Frits' transmitter was in the train position), Dean decided to blame it on the wind! He got a couple of good flights in until he had trouble seeing it against the dark sky. Frits landed it and Dean was done for the dayphoto...

If you have no life, are truly bored, or just have nothing else to do, visit a truly unique Web site - Alvin Beez Waxedlink. Keep your small children away from the computer monitor or they may be traumatized forever...

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