NEWS & VIEWS

Recent Newsworthy items and Editorial Views.

WINTER FLYING:

RADIO AERO MODELERS Meeting in Mexico.

Tim, Trey, Darryl, and Garret attended a meeting of this Oswego County club at the home of Dan & Lena Brosnan. We may have lost our flying site in Caughdenoy and are checking out new spots to fly. Darryl Sanford has been a member of this club forever and invited us up to a meeting. We discussed the possibility of running our Fun Fly there in July and they seemed very receptive. They also invited us to their annual cookout on June the 8th. They have a very nice field although it is a little distant and lacks the paved runway that has so spoiled us at Caughdenoy. Darryl showed a pair of big and BIGGER Extra-Sukhoi style aerobatic ARF's. He also passed around a 2500 watt, yes 2500 that's over 3 HP, Hacker brushless motor that he intends to fly the BIGGER one with.

I also want to commend the club on their hospitality especially Mrs. Brosnan who created the BEST Cheese Danish I have ever tasted. Well done Lena!!

Meeting at VanBuren Town Park

Sloping Sort Of: 5/15/08

We had our first Flying Meeting of the year at VanBuren Town Park. The weather was perfect and the terrain was different but picturesque. The park is located NorthEast of the intersection of Canton St and Connors Rd just south of Baldwinsville. We entered the park from Connors Rd. The parking area we used is on a sort of ridge so we were often looking down on our planes in flight but everyone seemed to adapt to the unusual perspective. There were seven of us in attendance with a variety of aircraft. Most of the discussion surrounded where we would fly in the future with considerable interest in the Fulton club and the field in Cicero. Tim will be e-mailing the location of the next meeting and I will be posting it on the home-page of this site.

FLYING @ OVM FULTON

A Little Windy 6/11/08

Tonight we flew at the Oswego Valley Modeler's site just north of Fulton. Tim, Trey, Mark, Chris & Garret all enjoyed a lovely evening. Tim 'Flew' his Wild Wing and Tufflight Stingray. Trey flew his MicroTrainer grossly overpowered with a brushless motor and also a nifty Park Zone T28 Trojan. Chris was also flying a T28 and they were dog fighting with Mark's beautiful Alpha Models Lavochkin LA-7 Russian warbird. Garret brought a zippy Combat Wings EX2 and a Multiplex Magister all decked out in US Coast Guard markings. Both flew really well. We are going to try to fly, as a group, every other week so next we will be at Van Buren town park on 6/25. Directions: GAW

More Fulton Flying

Aerial Photography

On Sunday morning,6/22, I met Trey and Chris at the OVM site in Fulton. They had a number of planes but the neatest thing that happened was Aerial Video. Trey has this little $99 video camera he got at WalMart and mounted in his T28. Trey chased Chris's T28 all over the sky trying to get Air to Air video. I haven't seen it yet but if it worked out it might make for some great footage or is it "Digitage".

GOOD NEWS for those of you who, like me, use the 1100 mah A123 cells from the Black & Decker. WalMart has them again and at the reduced price of $18 a pack, that's $9 a cell. They also have a deal where if you buy one of the VPX tools, and they have a nice little srewdriver, you can send in a form, the reciept and the UPC label and get a FREE pack! GAW.

VanBuren Town Park 7/2/08

Tim Conquers the Wild Wing

Tim and I (Garret) spent the day building batteries from A123 cells and flying them at the Van Buren Baseball field. First Tim stopped over to my place and I showed him how I build flight packs from 1100 mah. A123 calls removed from Black & Decker VPX packs. I love these cells, they are SAFE, allow very high discharge rates and recharge in less than 15 minutes. Tim bought some at Wall Mart for $17.89 a pair, $9 per cell. We built a 3 cell pack with a balancing connector and it came out quite nicely. We also did a little repair work on the leads of his Ginsel Charger. The wire on it is about 8 gauge and I had to break out my 350 watt monster iron to solder them. Then it was off to Vanburen where by standing on a bench and launching into the wind Tim was able to get a good flight out of the Wild Wing over level ground. Congratulations Tim. I also got a couple of good flights each on the Combat Wing and the USCG Multiplex Magister. All together a great day.

Back to Twin Trees

The NEAT Fair 2008

We are moving our meetings back to Twin Trees on Avery Av. in Syracuse starting Tuesday, 9/16. Tim and I (Garret) just got back from the NEAT Fair this weekend. The weather promised to be lousy but by the time we reached Peaceful Valley Campground the sky's cleared to a uniform gray and the rain held off until almost dark. There were more people than ever and lots of beautifully crafted planes along with the usual collection of 'Outside the Box' creations. The Vendors seemed a little thin but most of the major ones were there and there were deals as always. The thing I enjoy most about the NEAT Fair is spending time with old friends and seeing all those you have missed since last year.

Flying in the COLD

Clay Town Park South

Tim, Garret, Trey & Mark

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