Thanks Brian & Roberto

Thanks for the posts guys - how can it not elevate the profile of the pastime.
Here's my Fleet, finished just in time to put it away for the winter.
Tom

Another blustery Lakeville meet

Grey skies and a chilly wind greeted the hardy souls who made it to Lakeville on Sunday.
We were lucky to get some flights in before the storm arrived, as four inches of rain fell a couple of days later, turning the field into a swamp.



I launched my trusty Senator a few times, as did Ray...and they quickly made their way towards San Pablow Bay.


George was flying his excellent Blackburn Airedale, a real floater with its huge multi tapered wing. It flew well, even in the stiff breeze.











Tom was chasing his Keil Kraft Achilles around, whilst trying out the prototype belly-winder rig that George designed.















We'll be fortunate if we get another MAC outdoor session this year.
Hopefully better flying weather will be had in 2010!

The Fine Art of Flying Rubber

Roberto made this video at yesterday's TOFFF session at Lakeville. More information about the weekly Thursday gathering may be found at the SAM 27 website.

Fleet

My latest project is the Fleet 16B (Finch). Paul gave me this super R/N Models kit (for power RC or rubber.) I cut out some of the wood and it looks like finishing up around 100 grams. It'a simple build but making the radial engine has been time consuming - the model just wouldn't look right without it. I have plenty of time I guess - it will be around 5 months before we get gliding grass.

Tom.

The trick is in the stick and a very secret new product evaluation

Mike L has a complete airforce with only one motor between them . . .





Here's another pic of Dave's owl and Eduardo's A-6 confronting the light fixture

At Lakeville today I put the GB1 Bellywinder through its first field test. I can't disclose too many details, but it performed well and will require some modifications.

September Indoor Meeting

Yesterday's indoor meeting was well-attended with several newcomers and spectators in the crowd.


Mike brought something new, a tiny catapult launched glider. It is sitting on a standard #10 envelope here.


The tiny CLG makes my Little Richard look enormous.


The Little Richard, with a 12 inch wing span, is easy to build and fly. Mine flew right off the board and has been a reliable flyer ever since I built it two years ago. This video shows what happened yesterday when I wound it up too much.


Smacking into an iron beam isn't good for stick and tissue airplanes. This broken wing will be easy to fix, though.


Here is another Little Richard. Mike modified this model by reducing incidence (notice how the trailing edge is raised) and carving a lightweight balsa prop. The CG has been moved back to about 70% of the wing cord. Mike says trimming was more difficult with this arrangement, but performance is greatly improved.


Norman's Pussycat, a Dick Baxter design.


The wing of Norman's modified Cougar is covered with gift wrapping which, when wetted, resulted in a nice mottled pattern.


Tom showed his Deperdussin racer to Marco. This old model from the Nowlen Aero kit was flying well on Sunday.


Refreshments included coffee, cookies, and these delicious Chinese snacks (main ingredients: glutinous rice, sugar). Breakfast of Champions.


Eduardo is one of our newest members. The U.C. Berkeley student brought some of his models, like this A-6, from his native country of Chile. These are definitely carry-on items!


Eduardo says the P-25 class is popular in South America. This example, a good beginner's plane, was designed by Cacho Lastiz.


The transparent P-25 passes under a bright light.


Dave K used an unusual technique to build his new peanut scale Heinkel He 219 Uhu. The wing is conventionally built, but the fuselage and nacelles are built around carved foam forms; the foam is melted away when the wood structure is complete. Dave has posted more information about this project in the discussion forum at Small Flying Arts, here.


Dave is not done trimming the He 219, and he plans to add more scale details, but the small twin is already flying nicely as you can see in this video.


Several years ago, Dick Baxter's Akro design was the subject of a Marin Aero Club group build and contest. Tom decorated his Akro with a Kermit Walker motif, which starts to make sense when Tom explains that Kermit was judging the contest. The strategy didn't hurt, as Tom won that contest.


The pilot looks familiar.


Driving home, I took this picture of wild turkeys on the grounds of St. Vincent's. When I see these birds I'm reminded that Benjamin Franklin proposed making them the USA's national bird. Interesting idea.

Secrets of Free Flight Revealed

Ray shows how to get a 2-minute max flight with his Senator:

Step 1 - Put in the turns.


Step 2 - Fix the front end.


Step 3 - Set the DT. Don't forget!


Step 4 - Fly.

wings over wine country

Scenes from this years Sonoma County airshow.

Thursday perfect

George claimed it was the best ever.

Hardly any wind, hot, a few clouds.

Everyone flew well, but the Benson jumbo Pfaltz was dreamy. A little more rubber, a few more winds and the giant fourbladed in-line prop sliced through the blue sky like a hot knife through butter lifting the figment of George's imagination way up high. Next a timed torpedo release.

And Gale's buttery biplane sliced through the star thistle in a hard but safe landing.

Red. yellow and bluebird.

Thursday 9/3 was a bust because of the steady wind. A few of us enjoyed some short flights and long walks. Certainly not the conditions for Paul's exquisite JA Bluebird. It's built exactly to the plans and is covered and marked in Paul's unique style - (can someone fill me in on the significance of the numbers?

The master Jerry is explaining something to Paul that is over my head.

Paul has enough of this red and yellow tissue to last at least until the Jimmie Allen Centenary.