THE
MASTHEAD PLANE
Today we think of Sikorsky
primarily as a designer of helicopters, but in the 1930’s Sikorsky was one of
the major players in the design of commercial flying boats. The S-42 was bought by Pan American Airways
initially to serve its Caribbean routes and the San Francisco to Hawaii route. Powered by four P&W 750 h.p. radial
engines, the flying boat could carry thirty-two passengers and five crew
members 1,200 miles. The wingspan was
114 feet, while the body was a little short of 68 feet.
With fixed wing floats, the only
problematic part of this design for the modeler is the external bracing for the
parasol wing and the wing floats, as well as effectively controlling four
engines. Of course, for the proponents
of electric power, the latter is not a problem!
SAFETY
TABLES
Thanks to Bobby Harmon and
Ray Piper, we now have three safety tables at the field, and material
for five more. There was a budget
overrun of $16. Those tables take more
screws than we had planned on!
THE
BIG DIG
The Rouge containment tunnel
construction will begin in the near future.
The tunnel will be 130 feet underground, through bedrock. It will go east of Spinoza, under
Lessinger. Maybe we could convince the
moles to move into more spacious quarters?
AMA
1204
PROPWASH
VOL
XXX, No. 2 February, 2007
Arden McConnell president 313-274-3185
Mike Cuba vice-president 734-522-7638
Tim Kirsten secretary 313-565-6093
Terry Kozlowski treasurer 734-354-1928
Dennis Gazdecki safety 734-442-3402
Bobby Harmon field 313-541-4204
Al Zerber membership 734-427-4872
Kathy Kendzior at-large 313-274-1402
Ray Piper at-large 313-532-7286
Mike Cuba editor 734-522-7638
Charlie Thomas swap
shop 313-565-2973
Bob Mayhew
archivist 313-291-6855
Stephanie Thomas webmaster 313-565-2973
website http://detroitaeromodelers.org
RAFFLE WINNERS
Stan Spiewak won the door prize, a gift certificate from Nankin Hardware & Hobby. We did not draw for the raffle prize, which is an E-Flite Blade CX helicopter.
INDOOR
FLYING
Indoor flying has resumed at
Jefferson Elementary school. It’s open
from 5 to 9 p.m. the second and fourth Fridays of the month.
FEBRUARY
SHOW AND TELL
Bobby Harmon brought his P-51B, in Red-Tail
livery. The ARF comes from VQ models,
includes offset struts, metal mechanical retracts, and dummy drop tanks. Bobby repainted the pilot to more
realistically represent a Tuskegee airman.
The plane spans 58 inches, is designed for a .40 sized engine, and
costs$200. Bobby powers his version with
an OS .70.
Chris Tucker brought his Corsair, acquired, not
built! It’s a Byron model, with an 83
inch wing. It’s mostly fiberglass, with
epoxy paint. The plane came with Robart
retracts, a G-62 engine, a 22/10 prop, and weighs 25 pounds. It features working trim tabs. The outer wing panels are finished in
Coverite. Curtis is using a DX-7 radio
with a 6 volt 4200 mAh battery pack..
The canopy will be servo operated, and the split flaps are scale. Chris bought the plane on RC universe.
Curtis Wade
brought in a Skymaster F-18F, ARF painted in the mold for the Diamondback
squadron. The JetCat Titan turbine
generates 34 pounds of thrust. The plane
weighs 32 pounds dry, 38 with fuel, more than a gallon of fuel. It features Robart retracts with Skymaster
oleos and struts.
SUMMER
FUN FLYS & FIELD CLEANUP
Charlie Thomas will CD for
us this summer. The events are
scheduled for the third Sunday of the month at 5 p.m., starting in May. We will give out raffle prize tickets for
prizes this time. Thank you, Charlie!
The field cleanup is scheduled
for immediately before the May fun fly.
Field Marshall Bobby Harmon will give us details for the
schedule.
ANNUAL
(?) AUDIT
Ray Piper, Ted Allen,
and Ron Wazilewski will audit the books immediately before the next
meeting.
SUPPORT
YOUR LOCAL
HOBBY
SHOPS!
NANKIN
HARDWARE & HOBBY
35101
Ford Rd. 734-722-5700
RIDER'S
HOBBY SHOP OF LIVONIA
30991
Five Mile Rd. 734-425-9720
RIDER’S
HOBBY SHOP OF TAYLOR
22789
Northline 734-287-7405
ELECTRODYNAMICS
31091
Schoolcraft 734-422-5420
PROP
SHOP
23326
Van Dyke 810-757-7160
JOE'S
HOBBY CENTER
Grand
River & Drake Rd 248-477-6266
MEMBERSHIP
It’s time to re-up your
membership in DAM! New members are $75,
renewing members are $50, family members under age 18 are $12, and life members
(ten years minimum in the club, age 65 or more) are $37.50. Please check your current roster to make sure
we have the correct address and phone number for you. If you want your email included in the
roster, add that to your renewal form.
As of the January meeting, we have 40 members signed up.
APRIL
STATIC DISPLAY CONTEST
The April Static Display Contest
is on for this year. There will be a
total of $190 in prizes given out. There
will be three categories: Sport, Military Scale and Civilian Scale. Both scale categories are stand-off
scale. You may win only one prize per
category, and the plane must be either kit-built, plans-built, or scratch-built
by the person entering the plane!
ARF’s, ARC’s, recovered ARF’s, rebuilt ARF crash victims, and any other
category that includes the words “Almost Ready To...” are NOT
eligible. Al Zerber will be the
final arbiter of dog-dom. The only other
rule is that your plane should not have been a previous winner of our contest.
Three prizes will be awarded in
each category, $25, $15, and $10. There
will be one Novice award of $15, and Best of Show will receive $25.
ROUGE
APPRECIATION DAY
The Rouge Appreciation Day is
scheduled for June 2nd this year.
Friends of Rouge Park have asked for our participation, just as last
year. Maybe this year it won’t monsoon!
FIELD
REPORT
Field Marshall Bobby Harmon
was given this year’s contract from our current cutter. He will select a cutter for the coming
season.
AMA
TRAINING PROGRAM
The AMA has a program now where a
registered instructor can train a new flyer for a period of ninety days under
the insurance umbrella of the AMA. The
instructor must register with the AMA, at $5 per year, and the student may not
fly at AMA-sanctioned events.
Charlie Thomas suggested
doing an instructor program with buddy boxes at the fun flys and/or trainer
nights. Dennis Gazdecki offered
to donate two trainers with radios. Stephanie
Thomas will organize the instructors and times.
YOUTH
ACTIVITY
The TAG program through AMA is
designed to attract youth members. It
consists of a teaching program that visits local schools to teach a group of
students to build and fly R/C. Equipment
would be donated by AMA, which the club could keep. The concept was discussed at the February
meeting, but will not be pursued, due to lack of interest from the current
active instructors.
Club
meetings are at the Redford Community Center,
12121
Hemingway, in Redford
2/23 indoor flying 5:00
p.m.
2/25 Ribcrackers swap 9:00
a.m.
3/9 indoor flying 5:00
p.m.
3/13 business meeting 7:00
p.m.
3/23 indoor flying 5:00
p.m.
PROPWASH
31425 Myrna, Livonia, Mi. 48154
