WRCS - October 2005

Warringah Radio Control

Society Incorporated
(Incorporated under the Association Incorporation Act 1984)

Newsletter - October 2005

Dennis Grech with Messerschmitt ME-262.

MEETINGSMEETINGSMEETINGS
The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, 11th October 2005 at Tennis Cove, Eastern Valley Way, starting at 7.30 pm.
The next meeting after that will be on Tuesday, 8th November 2005

FROM THE SECRETARY’S DESK Selfish. Its a fact of all areas of life. Those who do not bother to be involved, in whatever, are the first to bitch when ever some decision impacts on them. I recently observed and heard the reaction of a pilot who had to taxi a few extra metres to the new ingress rather than the taxiway opposite the exit gate. The "its ridiculous" exclamation followed the stalling of the engine at the new point of entry in changing from the old way of returning to the pits.
If he bothered to be at the meetings he would have known the reasons for introducing the separated taxi ways. But of course he doesn’t bother and probably doesn’t read this newsletter either! But all of us as responsible members act responsibly and too bad if that inconveniences you, my good friend, when you stall your model taxiing to a complying entry!
Roadworks: For the reasons discussed at the meeting and which we don’t want to elaborate on here, the road at the start of the parking lot at the end of the field needs some sandstone hardfill in order that Stuart Weir will have some solid stuff to shove around with his bobcat. It would be great if the large quantity of sandstone rocks all along the side of the track from the main gate could find their way to the section of road at the end of the wire fence which is all humps and hollows.
MAAA Cards: MAS has been asked to investigate the absence of flying status on some members MAAA cards.
Heli Day: Andrew Moss was thanked for his successful running of the Heli Day. We hope planning for 2006 is on the way.

WRCS
CHRISTMAS PARTY
4 pm on SATURDAY 10th December
(dinner served at 6pm,bring along your ticket to hand it in!!)
We again are catered for by McGoo’s Spit Roast with lots of yummy food.

Adults $22;
Children 5-12 $10;
under 5 FREE

See Stefy Grech or Brian Porman at the field most Saturdays or send cheque (made out to WRCS) and a stamped self address envelope to:
Stefanie Grech
42 Fuller Street
Collaroy Plateau 2097

plus Lucky Door prize

Raffle tickets are $5 each. Prizes is a Sportsman Aviation 46 size ARF “MAD DOG” 69 inch wing span, 47 inches long wing area 595 sq in wing loading 17-19 ozs per sq ft .
It is described on the box: “ Graceful Aerobatics; Impressive size;Classic looks “
Tickets from Brian Porman

SHEPPARTON 2005

Pics courtesy Garry Welsh

THE TRANS-TASMAN EVENT:
These models took Garry's fancy, and I can't blame him.

Des Rim displays Garry's fleet and Pegasus is loaded up.

THE WRCS TEAM AT SHEPPARTON

ON A NEGATIVE NOTE:

	The life and death of Grant Furzer's Tupolev "Bear", this is possibly the very last pic of The Bear before ... well you know ... R.I.P.
We will have a full report next month
... no captions please!!	pics courtesy of Doug Radford

AND HERE'S SOME MORE

Pics courtesy Doug Radford

Liberator from Tony Farnam, Model Engines

	Left: DH Comet also from Tony Farnam, Below left: Tiger 1/3rd scale but didn’t fly, from Model Engines stable. Below right: Garry Welsh and some of his airforce

THE MUDDY STATE FIELD

(Garry took these on the way home): The runway seems well grassed ... but the pits area seems to be "The Pits"

WRCS FROM SPACE
We found these pictures of our flying field on Google Earth, aren't they out of this world?

Greetings Aero-naughtical folks!

Well, this has been a month or so of very little! I have spent most of in Scotland where the weather has been generally wet and windy, the terrain rugged and, when I found a flat, dry and calm field, the locals were a bit off putting for flying - do you want to push these out of the way? So I have done no flying despite charging up all the batteries one evening in the assumption that the wind would drop – it didn’t.
I never got to the UK Nats this year, I haven’t been to a single air show!

While exploring Scotland I had to “do” Loch Ness and saw an excellent presentation finally refuting for all time the monster rumours but the surprise was on the shores of the Loch where I found this memorial. All that scanning found no monsters but did find the wreck.
And on a model note again I found this neat idea for connecting two separate elevators to one servo – well I like it anyway, very adjustable.
So that’s the news. I shall be leaving the UK in the middle of Oct and, with luck, will be travelling through Connecticut on the way home so should meet some of you there and then back to Good Old Oz and some summer flying.

A bientot,
Mike

Doug Radford is an observant reader of the Mag, he noticed that the gross weight of the Pfalz D.XII was printed as being substantially less than the empty weight. Quite correctly he observed that he would have liked to fly that aircraft!
The Editor corrected his facts in time for the WebPage article.

There is controversy as to the accuracy of the report (in fact you are likely to hear 2 different versions), but Peter Papas claims that his observer at the recent Jets over Sydney (at Temora) event actually fell asleep during his flight.
Col Simpson strenuously denies that he was the observer (but not the falling asleep bit).
During another flight Peter had a mishap that altered his jet's flight characteristics.

Kerry Smith tells one for those of you who have ever found yourselves in a sticky situation …. It is all about an ex-member whose son had to build a wooden boat for a school project. After working till late with his son, the father managed to send him to school with all the pieces needed to assemble the boat at school. In class, the hapless student took all lesson carefully gluing his masterpiece together with thin CA. Then when the teacher told the students to start packing up he found that his pride and joy had been glued to the brand new desk.
They had to get a handyman in with a hammer and chisel to remove the boat from the brand new desk. Needless to say the teacher was not impressed and the father is in for the cost of a new desk AND will have to help the son with a new boat. Unfortunately, the school has banned the use of CA.

EXTRACTED FROM THE M.A.S. NEWSLETTER Attention is drawn to the M.A.A.A. Manual of Procedures which is on the M.A.A.A. web site. It basically states that mobile phones should be kept well away from radio transmitters.
Some members have an opinion that this policy is an overkill as it appears that their transmitter is not affected by a mobile phone. It is interesting that a major radio manufacturer recommends that mobile phones should not be taken near radio transmitters as the signal from them exceeds the design specification of their equipment. To ensure that radio transmitters are not interfered with by mobile phones members should be aware of and comply with the M.A.A.A. Policy. If your radio has been close to a mobile phone that was switched on check very carefully that it functions correctly before take off. There are reliable reports of information in the memory being changed.
Recently the BMFA (the UK equivalent of the M.A.A.A.) recently posted a warning on their web site which noted that investigations of an expensive gas turbine powered helicopter revealed that the synthesised transmitter used to control the model was interfered with by a mobile phone. The transmitter?s manufacturer?s instructions were found to contain a warning that mobile phones were not to be used within the direct vicinity of the transmitter. Subsequent trials revealed that the incident was repeatable with that transmitter although the exact cause is not known at the time of writing.
Please follow the M.A.A.A. Policy MOP045 and keep mobile phones well away from transmitters.

M.A.S. reports of instances where transmitters have been set to the wrong model, this usually results in a crash. The results can be much more serious.
An example is given of a member who recently decided to run his model in his garage. He set the throttle to low and started the model. The model started at full throttle and leapt towards him. In the ensuing mayhem he was badly lacerated and had his thumb so severely damaged that it was later amputated. He had selected the wrong model in the transmitter menu. The model that he selected had throttle reversed to the model that he thought he had selected.
Suggestions:
Make sure that when you set up a model the throttle is ALWAYS the same for each and every model. That way if you do select the wrong model at least the throttle will be correct and you have minimised the possibility of being injured by the engine.
Check your control throw before each and every take off. With the many switches and setting on the modern transmitter it is very easy to bump a switch or select the wrong setting.
Ensure that any control switches that you do not actually use are either inhibited or set up to make no change

IMPORTANT NOTICE!!
ONLY PRE-TESTED AND CERTIFIED MODELS WILL BE PERMITTED TO FLY AT ANY SCALE DAYS!!

CAPTION COMPETITION

“Gee, I wish I had kept up practicing touching my toes” - Doug Radford

All further entries must be received by the next issue, judging will take place at the November Meeting on 8 Nov.

MEET THE GRECH FAMILY W*R*A*M*S

The Club has quite a number of supporting wives, but unfortunately, we do not have enough teams of husband and wife Warringah Radio Aero Modellers, such as the long standing jewel of Dorothy and John Doherty. But another Gem has emerged over the past few years with the emergence of the membership of Stefy [yes, that is the correct spelling] and Dennis Grech, of Collaroy Plateau.
Dennis’s parents migrated from Malta in 1951, when the Dad was 15. Dennis recounts his dad’s stories of the frightening noise of the Stuka dive bombing attacks on the island during WWII. These olden day stories ( jees, olden days to me was the Depression and WWI!) spiked Dens’ interest in planes but it didn’t result in any modelling activity at that time.
In fact meeting and marrying Stefy became the centre of his attention, pushing any idea of aeromodelling to the back burner. This translated into them buying and being kept flat out remodelling their Plateau home and establishing the garden, as most of us oldies have, and so recreation was limited. Especially as Stefy had two jobs and Dennis as a consulting Electrical Engineer was forever in some must finish by a certain date project.

Stefy & Dennis Grech at Lake Vaillacito, Colorado, resting up before tackling stage 2 of their American odyssey.

Stefy’s parents also migrated, but from Italy. So here we have a match ‘made in Australia’. Stefy’s professional job of designing/producing Electrical CAD plans for equipment and building design involved many kilometres travel to the south west of Sydney, which was so time consuming that she changed to contracting this type of work from home.
At the beginning of their marriage, Stefy had no interest in model planes - only a model husband! Like other wives she is yet to attain that goal! The model husband is a work in progress. With the house remodelling behind them, Den, with time on his hands, happened to find WRCS on the Internet and convinced Stefy to go and have a look, its only a few K’s away . Such is how life’s paths are decided.
In the beginning Stefy, dutifully accompanied Den each Saturday but after a year or so was convinced by other members to have a go at flying. Which she duly did. At the same time another young lady member, Lynette Austen was also convinced to do the same.
Both Ladies progressed at the same time to obtain their Bronze Wings both showing outstanding ability according to their various Instructors.

As members who know him will attest, Den is a very enthusiastic person and no one told him that your first ever model build ought not be a scratch built twin engined job. But he jumped in and produced plans from the 3 views and decided a couple of .25 Thunder tigers would be suitable power plants in lieu of jets.
As may be seen his superbly finished and detailed ME262 was a credit to him. In fact during construction he won the Hebbard encouragement award at his first scale day.

The Three Amigos at the Grand Canyon

Concurrently he built a trainer and a Stock Fun Fly in order to learn to fly. Despite a few ‘non arrivals’ and ‘unexpected arrivals’ the plane is still steaming about the sky with the Ferrari name. He and Stefy also put together a hers Trainer and so they both progressed to bronze wings pilot status.
A ginger haired elderly contract pilot (aka Fuzz ) has done most of the ME 262 take off and landings, made a little tricky because of the very high wing loading. But at the Gloucester week end, Den, after a couple of flights, demonstrated the ME’s flat spin ability into a bog, but with minimal damage, much to the bemusement of a herd of cattle. The 25’s were deemed to be marginal for a relatively heavy model so two 36’s were bolted in.
Den’s current project is a 76 inch Stuka being built as one of three matching planes. This followed a visit to Bomber Field in Monaville Texas, in September, 2003.

There up to eight, 100 inch Ziroli Stukas took to the air at once, causing Den to remark to Brian Porman and Grant Fuzz Furzer we have to do that . Thus the Three Amigos were born! BP and Fuzz are building the other two three quarter Ziroli Stukas, albeit slowly..
Den was at Bomber Field with Brian, Grant and new member Dave Hollander. Grant particularly wanted to see B B Weber’s 6.5 metre span, four Laser 170 powered, Tupolov Bear take to the air
Den was mesmerised by the diversity and size of the several hundred large models present.
Brian’s wife Noeline had put together a trip for the three couples plus Grant to take in the Reno Air Races, in Nevada and Bomber Field, near Houston, Texas. Also interspersed with trips to Bryce and Zion National Parks, Las Vegas, Area 51, the Four Corners, the Grand Canyon, Planes of Fame Air Museum, the Painted Desert, Santa Fe in New Mexico, cabins at Lake Vaillacito in Colorado.

Stefy was quite taken with the little sports car style of the ME109

Stefy has been well tutored as her take offs and landings are as smooth as silk

Returning to Albuquerque, New Mexico the Grech’s, now confident in driving on the wrong side, flew to Florida to visit and do the gold pass tour at Cape Canaveral. Disneyland of course. Up to the Smithsonian and over to Graceland capped off a memorable holiday, for them as they were about 8 months shy of having another life changing event occur. In July 2004, along came little Lauren. So working from home became very opportune.
You will get to know Stefy real soon, if you don’t already, because she will be selling Xmas party Tickets over the last months of this year. Den of course will be holding on to/looking for/chasing Lauren .

Lauren is part of the Saturday flying and Den and Stefy take turns in minding her whilst the other takes to the air.
Meanwhile in Den’s workshop serious Stuka Work has been delayed by the allied air raids but his wings are well advanced!

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