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Saturday, November 4, 2000 The jet age has finally arrived at Irvington Field! Roger and Charles Weinacker now have a real turbine jet engine! The Weinackers already have a couple of jets, both of the ducted fan variety. But today they brought out this new German turbine engine and all its auxiliary gadgets strapped to a ShopMate table, which functions as a test stand. A CO2 fire extinguisher stood nearby - standard and mandatory safety equipment when you're dealing with this stuff! Roger and Charles fired the turbine up several times and ran it up and down. At one point the exhaust pressure almost blew Alvin Reed down, as he was "testing" the engine's thrust by walking behind it - definitely NOT a smart thing to do!  More tests are needed before the equipment will be installed in a jet. Stay tuned!...John Kenna had his "Staudacher" with him this time, and after a couple of routine flights had to abort a takeoff when his transmitter failed! John said he thought he smelled something burning, as if the electronics had gotten a bit too hot... Good thing it happened there on the ground!... Good thing it wasn't his $1,000 fancy Futaba Zap radio!... Nobody but Frits really knew that with only one solo flight under his belt beginner Carl Sanderson took off and flew and landed by himself a couple of times. But then he got everyone's attention when he lost orientation and flew his "Avistar" trainer behind himself, bounced it lightly into the pavilion roof, continued behind the pavilion over the parking lot (Frits was running toward Carl to offer help at this time...), then flew parallel to the fence and trees over the access road for a while, scraped one wing over one of the electrical power lines, and then managed to fly it back toward the front to finish the circle! Carl was shaken a bit, but he continued the flight. After landing he apologized to those who were there, but as could be expected, he got no sympathy, especially not from Al Ayler!...  Carl has now joined a small group on people who have the infamous distinction of having ventured into that "forbidden flying zone" behind the pavilion and beyond... Unique markings on the right wing of the Avistar from his brush with the power line will always remind Carl of this scary flight...Frits Jetten flew his "Scat Cat" a few times, doing several "loop-'n-go" maneuvers without any mishaps... To Frits delight those skinny, plastic racing wheels are beginning to squeal a bit more during contact with the runway as the Marvel Mystery Oil that Tom Barrett had put on them several weeks ago is slowly wearing off... Justin Peacock finally had his SIG "Wonder" going and he asked Frits to fly it and trim it. Justin hand-launched it, and the Wonder flew fine, but the engine was sagging a bit toward the end of the flight... A second flight was much better. Justin took control of the model and then made a nice landing in the grass... He has yet to let anyone else hand-launch the flying wing for him so he can take it off... That's coming soon... With Frits standing by on the buddy box, Charles Gillespie got a couple of flights in with his trainer plane... Having repaired it, Andy Anderson fired up his F-15 "Regal Eagle" ducted fan jet. During the climb the engine ran a bit rough, but then recovered, and Andy did several high-speed passes. One was clocked by Roger Weinacker's radar gun at 132 MPH... Roger Geil flew his "Raptor" helicopter close toward dusk... He usually flies his ultra-light aircraft earlier in the afternoon and can be seen flying around the field while we fly... Johnny Turner flew his Lite Machines LMH-110 helicopter. He has replaced the mechanical gyro which comes as a standard item with a piezoelectric one. He told Frits that it made the small chopper fly a bit smoother. Johnny let Alvin Reed fly the tiny chopper for a while... Frits hasn't flown Andy's LMH chopper in a couple of weeks now after whacking the heli into the asphalt runway and breaking the receiver... Radio South should have it repaired as you read this, and Frits will probably be abusing the poor chopper again this weekend... Alvin has been spending less time watering the grass as he now uses automatic timers on both hoses! He just watches the sprinklers work and moves them around occasionally... Sunday, October 29, 2000 Harold Dillon had his SIG "Astro Hog" and also brought his blue "Ultimate" biplane. Frits was so tied up that he didn't get to fly it. Harold taking another chance finally gave in to Al Ayler's begging and let Al fly it some... Andy Anderson had his new pylon racer, a bright fluorescent "Viper". He asked Frits to fly it because he said it "flew funny". Well Frits couldn't find the "funny" flying part, but that's probably because he's used to flying his own planes funny all the time... At least that's what many people have said... John Kenna and John LaFleur both flew their Extra 300s and their routines were almost flawless and very nicely done, respectively, so there's just not much more you can say about that... Mike Payne had a new Hangar 9 "Tiger Stick", his second. It's his fifth plane, and he hasn't soloed yet! But he already knows what it feels like to experience a midair collision! That is what killed Mike's last plane after Jeff Foster (a supposedly much more experienced pilot...) plowed into Mike's poor ol' trainer... And on top of that, it was Frits' trainer, on loan to Mike... Oh, well... Frits took Mike's Stick off, checked it out, trimmed it up and then took Mike up. Then later, because Frits was tied up with others, Harold took Mike up for a second flight... Upon landing the horizontal stab broke off! Mike and Harold determined this to be the result of Harold accidentally stepping on the stab during engine runup BEFORE taking off!... *©Yikes§ͺ!!!  This could have been another crash if it had come off in flight! The next time you look at Mike, see if you don't see a dark cloud hovering over him... I think I have seen it there...Justin Peacock flew his trainer. He's still waiting on parts for the Webra engine on his SIG "Wonder". Justin's "Shuttle" helicopter is also still waiting for parts... Fred Hemphill put several flights on his "AUK" high-wing sport plane, taking off in less than ten feet each time... Beginner Monty Johnson and girlfriend Jamie from Lucedale, MS had a brandnew HobbyTown Combo Trainer, ready for its first flight. Frits checked everything out, tightened all the screws, asked all the right questions, and then took it up for a trim flight. That went very well, so they fueled the plane up again, hooked up the buddy box, and took off. But something went wrong just after Monty had taken control of the plane for only 15 seconds! Frits took control back, but the airplane banked left and wouldn't come out of it! It spiraled into the ground... The transmitter battery indicator was in the red... Bad battery? Monty said he'd charged it all night long... The plane suffered a lot of damage to the fuselage... And the needle valve assembly had broken off of the engine's carburetor. A sad Frits could still hear Al's laughter and heckling remarks ringing in his ears as he returned with the plane's remains...Charles Gillespie showed up with his trainer plane, but because the lack of instructors and the problems Frits had with the newcomer's plane that crashed, he packed up without getting a training flight in... Sorry, Charlie... Choppers... Let's see, did we have choppers?... Oh yes, Roger Geil flew his "Raptor", and Evon hovered his Century "Hawk". At least I think that's what Evon had. Most of these chopper guys (the "Big Boys") have more than two helicopters now so it's tough for this reporter to keep up with who flies what when... Plus this reporter ("Chopper Man") is a relatively new helicopter pilot himself. That's what Andy (the "Jet Man") has named me by the way "Chopper Man"...  Frits had Andy's LMH-100 helicopter with him, of course! He had gotten a new "crutch" in, the plywood structure everything else is mounted on. The old one was oil-soaked and partly broken. Frits had completely rebuilt the little chopper and even painted the canopy pink and yellow! He did get a couple of test flights in and got the trims almost back in the ball park. And there was still this pesky fuel leak Frits hadn't found yet... And then it just got too dark to see... Alvin Reed is continuing to water the grass which is now several inches tall in places! The tall stuff is winter rye grass, and you can even see the Bermuda grass beginning to show. The five old pilot stations are now a solid bright green! You should know that Alvin's out there tending to the field just about EVERY DAY! I hope everyone appreciates the great job Alvin has been doing...  He does fine, fine work, that Field Superintendent of ours!...Saturday, October 28, 2000 The Jay Holmes Memorial Fly-In was being held in Navarre, Florida, and I decided to go there for a few hours. Plus I had a couple of bad receivers and a glow driver that wouldn't charge and I wanted to drop them off at Radio South in Pensacola. I wasn't sure they'd be open on Saturday, so I took a chance. Well, they are NOT open on Saturday (but will be soon...) Fortunately Tony and O. J. Stillman were at the fly-in and they were nice enough to take my stuff... Several modelers from the Lower Alabama R/C club and Azalea City Model Aeronautics were there. Henry Waltman had his P-47 "Thunderbolt" and his Fleet biplane on the tarmac. I never saw the P-47 fly, but Henry flew the biplane several times... Al Ayler had his Stinson "Reliant" and "Spitfire" with him. The Spitfire had something wrong with its right aileron, so it didn't make it into the air. But Al flew his Reliant several times. It impressed several people, and most importantly the judges, as Al was awarded the "Best Civilian Aircraft" award! Congratulations to Al... Wayne Boudreaux had brought his 1/4-scale Piper J-3 "Cub", the one with an animated Woody (of the Toy Story movie) at the controls... He and Scott Cameron also flew "the KIA plane" that Wayne built for Scott. I call it that because I can't ever remember what Scott and Wayne told me the model's name was. But it has large KIA decals on it... Russ Petersen, who has been flying as a guest at our Irvington field, was the only electrified pilot at the Fly-In. He flew his DeHavilland DH-86 biplane a couple of times. Several people commented on how quiet Russ' "engine" was... Bruce Lund flew his beautiful "Ercoupe" and his PT-26 Canadian Trainer, and Malcolm Brown and son Keith flew their 1/4-scale model (Taylor Craft, Citabria?... The model's name has escaped me once again...) Roger Hagler brought his Morris Hobbies "Spinsation". He and Frits probably put on the wildest show of all with that highly hyperactive model. Just "stir the sticks", as Roger calls it!... Tony Stillman put on several impressive shows, putting his large, 42% Giles G-300 through its paces. Tony flew the 112 in. wingspan, 3W-140 powered model with great authority, using smoke during one of his demo flights... I tried to talk Ron Van Putte from Niceville, Fla., out of a "Tony Stillman for AMA District V Vice President" cap but he didn't have any more... Later on in the day I went to Irvington Field. Andy Anderson had just flown his F-15 "Regal Eagle" and nephew Justin Peacock reported that the landing was a bit rough and that the landing gear had suffered a bit... Justin flew his (...Andy's...) trainer and had the kind of takeoff Andy would not have been proud of! Somehow the plane landed in the dirt beyond the runway... What happened, Justin? You used to be able to grease those landings... Charles Gillespie got some help from Robert Sanderson during a couple of flights... Speaking of Robert - he brought his revived Cutlass, the tiny 'bullet' with that Webra .32 engine on it! Well, Robert hand-launched the Cutlass and Frits took it off, but the engine was not up to par. The engine RPM actually smoothed out during inverted flight, so Frits flew it that way for a while... Then the engine quit, and the little plane 'glided' down like a rock and hit hard in a cloud of red dust! Oh well the ever-optimistic Robert says it'll fly again! And I believe him!... Roger Geil flew his "Raptor" helicopter with no problems... Mike Moore, nephew Michael Vanosdol and Ed Luker flew Ed's "AeroStar" trainer... The plane landed hard in the dirt once, but I don't know it that was Mike or Ed's doing... Wayne Miller asked Frits to fly his second Hangar 9 "Advance 40" on its first flight, and there were no problems. Wayne then flew the plane and he seemed to do okay... Harold Dillon had two planes with him, but he only flew his SIG "Astro Hog". He didn't even ask Frits to help him this time... Manny Ruiz had a couple of planes with him... Frits took both off on their first flights, and then Manny flew them without the help of a buddy box... Alvin Reed was completely tuckered out after doing his field maintenance. He had moved top soil around and moved sprinklers from here to there. He could be seen napping, lying prone on one of the benches... He is really doing a great job, and rye grass can be seen sprouting - no, shooting - up all around the new runway... Careful where you step! Some of the freshly watered areas may swallow your shoes!...  Sunday, October 22, 2000 I was not able to make it to the field on Saturday at all, so I was ready to go there earlier than usual today! When I arrived, there were several people already there... Buddy Steiner had his little all-foam "Mirage" pusher 'jet' with him and he was ready to fly it. It had come with an electric motor, and Buddy had flown it several times before, but he thought it could use some more power. So he had replaced the motor with a more-powerful .049 engine! No throttle control this one would run wide open as long as fuel was being provided! And it took off from the runway just great, rotating after only about 20 ft. Buddy flew it for a good while until he ran out of fuel, and he landed it okay... Tom Barrett flew his SIG "Somethin' Extra", doing his "somethin' wild" routine at close range... And Roger Hagler did his own wild thing with his Morris Hobbies "Spinsation", at one point almost making the crazy thing spin upward  ... A previous Spinsation model Roger had before this one could actually do just that!...Harold Dillon had brought three planes; an "Astro Hog" and two "Ultimate" bipes. Frits Jetten and Harold flew the bipe that used to belong to Fred Hemphill, and during the second flight Harold thought the bipe flew "funny". Frits took it over and agreed, so he brought it down. Well, one of the cabanes that connect the upper and lower wings together had separated from the upper wing! Good thing Frits didn't do one of those wild snapping maneuvers after it broke... (Come to think of it, Frits had just done one of those on the previous flight... Hmmmm...) Jeff Foster had brought out his colorful SIG "Four Star 40". No helicopter this time. Jeff also talked about joining the pylon racing group soon. He's working on a racer now. Great! We need more! Andy Anderson got ready to take up his ducted fan 'jet', the F-15 "Regal Eagle", but the plane wandered off during the taxi run, rolled off of the runway, and ended up in the ditch next to the south end of the runway near the taxi lane. It looked bad from where I was standing, but Andy got the still-running jet out of the ditch, bent the nose gear a bit, and made another run! This time the jet rotated and climbed, but I didn't think the power was peaked out. However, the engine picking up some RPM in the air. Then suddenly the engine quit, and Andy was left with a short approach to the runway. He banked steeply to the left to set up for a runway landing, but the descent rate was too great. He didn't quite make the north end of the runway, and the jet went in hard in the dirt... Looked bad, but by dark, Andy had most of it pieced together again! He said that the little excursion into the ditch had probably jammed the clunks forward in the two fuel tanks, causing the engine to quit. It'll fly again... Another member who doesn't fly often but looks as if he's ready to start racing is Bill Culberson, who showed up with a "Doddger" Quickie 500 racer. It's really FAST, and the bright pink fluorescent color shows up great against the blue sky. Rob Baker told me it's even faster than Tom Barrett's racer... Don't tell Tom those are fighting words!... Charles Dortch flew his powerful "Giant Hots" a couple of times, and Carl Broughton flew his "Astro Hog"... Charles pulled the Hots straight up during takeoff, showing off the power that big Webra "Bully" engine has... Justin Peacock flew his trusty ol' trainer in a wild sort of way, repeatedly doing touch-'n-gos until dark. Still no progress on the "Wonder" and "Shuttle", I guess... Beginner Mike Payne has been coming along fine, and actually got a chance at taking off his trainer today, with Frits standing by on the buddy box. But he fish-tailed badly. The main gear was just bent up too much for a smooth taxi run. So Frits went ahead and got the plane up. Mike was flying nicely when it happened! Whack! Mike's trainer mid-aired with Jeff's Four Star. The trainer lost one half of the wing, and as Frits desperately tried to fly it down, it spiraled into the ground hard... Jeff's plane didn't look too damaged at first. One half of the horizontal stabilizer was missing, and it looked as if Jeff had control over it. But then the plane went into a death spiral and hit the ground... Mike was stunned. "Oh well, these things happen", Frits told him. He should know he's had seven of them!... Roger Geil flew his "Epic" sport plane, and almost got in trouble went he 'lost it' and he ended up flying the plane behind him. He brought it back around okay... Then later Roger flew his Century "Hawk" chopper, repainted in a bright-red fluorescent color. Roger wanted it to be visible, and is it ever! All was well for a while until the chopper suddenly moved erratically and crashed, according to Roger and a couple of eyewitnesses. He thought he'd been "hit" electronically. Oh well!... Roger said he had not crashed in 400 flights, so he didn't think that was too bad!... Evon Smith had two planes with him. He flew his Extra-300, but he didn't put the scimitar flying wing into the air. It stayed in his vehicle. Frits, who used to own that wing, a fine-flying fast model, still misses it... Frits had Andy Anderson's Lite Machines LMH-100 chopper with him, but only to do some maintenance. He had flown the little chopper on Wednesday, but the brass drive gear that drives the main rotor gear had worn to the point that power was lost. The chopper would not lift off of the ground after a couple of flights. &*’ §Ά! Another part had to be ordered... During the past three months of hovering & crashing and crashing some more, Frits has racked up close to $45 of repair bills on this almost-indestructable chopper... Some of the "big boy" chopper guys that's what they call themselves probably cringe as they think about how much they have spent keeping their "real" choppers flying... Charles Gillespie took advice from Ray Brown and Frits and brought his 60-size trainer out. He got help from ACMA's newest instructor Buddy Steiner on a couple of flights... After last week's almost disastrous flight, Rob Baker had repaired the broken aileron of his large Hawker "Tempest 2" scale model. He took it up, and it looked great during the climb as the gear slowly retracted. He had a great flight until the engine started making a strange sound, surging repeatedly... Rob slowly glided it in, gear still up. Someone said: "He'd better get that gear down!" "Don't worry", I said, "Rob always waits till the last moment". But as the big plane got close to touching down it became clear that the gear wasn't coming out, and it belly-landed in the dirt just beyond the asphalt runway. Too bad! There was some damage to the bottom, and the engine had come completely loose... But that shouldn't be too hard to fix... Fred Hemphill flew his scratch-built, high-wing "AUK" close to the vest as usual, doing touch-'n-gos, figure-eights and loops and rolls. Fred really only needs a flying field that's about 30 ft. by 50 ft.!... New ACMA member Kevin Pickett's family and friends came out to watch Kevin fly his "Super Stick". He had a couple of nice flights... And an "old" member we haven't seen for some time was back. Manny Ruiz showed up with a couple of .60-size trainers, both ready for their first flights. Frits took them both up (no, not at the same time...) and let Manny fly them after trimming them out... Manny also had a helicopter with him (I forget the name, it's not a common model...) and he wanted Jeff test it out, but Jeff declined... Manny also has a four-engine B-17 bomber model... Surprising all of us, Alvin Reed did some impromptu cooking, grilling hamburgers and hot dogs. It didn't take long for them to disappear... And Alvin flew nothing that I can remember. He spent most of the afternoon spreading topsoil in low spots and around the taxi lanes, something he started a week earlier. Sprinklers were running, and he hand-watered around the pilot stations. The rye grass carpet was getting thicker and greener, as Alvin had promised... He even finished mowing the foot-high grass at the south end of the runway where the U-control circle used to be (...go ahead and say it: "Frits' favorite emergency landing spot"...) The field is beginning to look great! We still need some yellow lines and Xes painted on the asphalt. And Alvin would like to have some sod brought in for the area around the pilot stations... Wednesday, October 25, 2000 After almost losing my Lanier "Shrike" a couple of weeks ago due to what I thought was a bad servo, I had replaced the two aileron servos this morning and was ready to check the Shrike out today. I also took my "Scat Cat"... No helicopter today parts are still on order... When I got to the field, Ray Brown told me that a County survey team had just left. They had done some surveying and had driven a stake with a pink flag into the dirt close to pilot station no. 1... Hopefully that means that the County will soon bring in some dirt and level some low-lying areas between the new runway and the pavilion... Rod Gilbert actually spent less than 45 minutes tinkering before flying, and flew his "Super Stick" without any mishaps... Visitor Russ Petersen flew a different plane today, an electrified Piper J-3 "Cub". He flew it several times and had some nice and lengthy flights. Last Sunday he had flown his DeHavilland DH-82 biplane, a .40-size ARF converted to electric. That one flew very nicely also. It too got some nice, long flights... New ACMA member Kevin Pickett flew his "Super Stick" a couple of times. Fortunately Kevin's and Rod's Sticks were not in the air at the same time. It could have caused some confusion!... Roger Hagler was there with his tiny .15-size House of Balsa "Super Decathlon". He had a time getting the squirelly thing to take off properly, and flipped it into the mud a couple of times (Alvin was busily watering everything again...) Then Roger asked Frits to handlaunch it and that worked out okay... Later Roger let Alvin take it off and fly it. Alvin had a fine takeoff and during his flight nothing bad happened! Then Roger let Frits try it. No problem - Frits had flown it before... Well, this flight turned out to be a disaster!...  Frits took it off too quickly and the small plane stalled, snapped and, after landing upside down on the runway, skidded to a stop. This caused the needle valve to break off of the engine's carburetor, ending Roger's flying for the day... (Frits hates that Alvin had to see this little incident...)Frits flew his Scat Cat a couple of times, doing his "loop-'n-gos" repeatedly... That new muffler really sounds nice. The $60 Nelson "tuned silencer" boosts engine RPM, that's for sure!... Then Frits decided to fly the Shrike. With Roger holding the plane, he started the engine, but the control surfaces and throttle all glitched erratically. After some troubleshooting and using the process of elimination the problem appeared to be in one of the receiver's circuit boards... Hmmmm... Perhaps that encounter with the chain link fence a couple of months ago...??? I left for home, leaving Alvin with his cold chicken liver dinner  tending to both sprinklers... |
