ACMA weekend activities...By Frits Jetten (contributing editor)

Sunday, December 3, 2000
A mostly cloudy but cool day. Well, go ahead and change that to COLD! There was a moderately gusty wind blowing. There were several cars in the parking lot, but only a couple of planes on the ground when Scott Gayle and I showed up. I wondered where everyone was... After hearing several people talking (Al Ayler's voice really stood out...) I tracked them all down at the south end of the shed, in the sun, and most important, out of the wind! The coffee pot was the only hot thing going...

Justin Peacock flew his "Kadet" trainer several times, while uncle Andy Anderson played with a new .91 ducted fan engine installed on an elaborate test stand which was mounted on sliding rails. A simple fish scale was part of the test rig. The contraption provided a convenient means of adjusting the tuned pipe for peak performance, while the scale was used to measure and indicate maximum thrust. However there were problems starting the engine, and I never heard it come to life...

Al Ayler showed off his large and great-looking 1/4 scale AT-6 "Texan", but that's all it was, show-and-tell... He was probably too cold to take the Texan up, so we just had to sit there and listen to him...

Alvin Reed sat mostly in his vehicle with the heater going, keeping Li'l Belle company. She is the tiny dog that always has her tongue hanging out of the left side of her mouth! At one time she and Al had a yelping contest going!...

Frits Jetten had his "Scat Cat" and flew it only once, doing his patented "loop-'n-gos" very nicely in spite of the gusty wind. He also took an old "Super Sportster" up for Scott Gayle and trimmed it out. This plane has a very old (age unknown...) and tired K&B .61 engine on it, but it came to life after some coaxing and a new glow plug, and ran reasonably well. The ailerons and elevator functions on the Sportster were far too sensitive for Scott, Frits thought, and after the flight they were adjusted so Scott could fly the plane later...

Buddy Steiner had his tiny all-foam pusher 'jet' sitting on one of the picnic tables, all ready to go, but the gusty, strong wind kept it grounded. Instead, Buddy flew his "Epic" sport plane... And so did Roger Geil, who has a model just like it. Neither got confused by trying to fly the other's plane!... And there were no helicopters flying on this windy day...

Wayne Boudreaux showed up without a plane, but brought two boxes of pizza for all to share. They didn't last long! Thanks, Wayne!

After the sun dropped below the tree line it quickly got colder, and even before it had gotten dark everyone had already packed up and left...

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Saturday, December 2, 2000
Rob Baker was loading up the fuselage of his nice 1/4 scale Hawker "Tempest" as I parked my car. He mentioned that he had made a poor landing earlier that messed up his retractable gear (again...) I later found out from a sometimes-reliable witness that Rob had destroyed his "Aguia" ARF even earlier in the afternoon. It appeared the receiver had gotten oil-soaked and had caused the crash...

Bill Culberson was also there, and for the life of me I can't remember what it was that he had with him. He had flown the plane earlier, but before he left he'd told me that he was loading it up as he had "crashed everything else and that was the only flyable plane he had left"... Well, we all know that something like that has never stopped Frits. He's crashed planes until there were none left...

George Kloke appointed Alvin Reed as the test pilot for his newly acquired Cessna "Skylane". It was clear that this plane wanted to climb steeply after taking off, but Alvin expertly trimmed the plane and flew it for some time. George never took the controls on this day, saving that experience for a later date...

Justin Peacock flew his "Kadet" trainer as always, repeatedly doing really tight turns and smooth touch-'n-goes. I wonder where his "Wonder" is?...

John LaFleur, Ray Brown, Charlie Gillespie and a puny-feeling Andy Anderson, who were all just standing around, got talked into laying some carpet by Alvin. The carpet under the south pit shelter was pulled up and sand put down to level low spots. And a new section of carpet was put on top of some really bad-looking carpet, after sand was added. Justin hauled sand with the wheel barrow while Frits showed everyone that one can level it expertly with a rake and eyeballs, rather than using a board. An empowered Alvin — in his capacity as ACMA's Grounds Superintendent — directed all the activities... The job was well-done!...

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Regular readers of this column have surely noticed a break in my Pit reports. Several weeks ago my oldest son Greg was admitted to the hospital. After being there for about nine days we were told that he'd be home in a day or so, but suddenly and unexpectedly he passed away, apparently from a pulmonary embolism (blood clot to the lungs). To those of you who expressed condolences, offered help, or made the time to be at Greg's funeral services, my wife and I want to thank you. It's very much appreciated!...

Some of you knew Greg. He was a member of our ACMA club for about three years, and he and I competed in precision aerobatics (pattern) for a couple of years (he was much better than I was...). Then he got away from rc airplanes for a while and got into scuba diving and off-road biking. About five years ago a boating accident left him a quadraplegic, but after several months he came back to the field in his wheelchair and flew with us again. After he crashed his highly aerobatic pink "Raven" — a crash I had unknowingly caused by not fastening the antenna to his transmitter properly — he got away from rc airplanes, to be picked up in the future. Then he and I raced rc cars for a little over a year (he was much, much better than I was!...) And now, in his hobby room, several cars sit idle... Several planes are waiting to be finished and flown...
And life goes on...

Sunday, November 26, 2000
John Kenna had two planes with him. He flew his trusty Extra 300 and his "Tracer", a great-looking model. But then, all of John's planes are always look better-than-nice... The other John, John LaFleur, flew his favorite model, an Extra 300. As usual, these Johns always fly their planes in a routine manner, with nothing special to report...

Frits Jetten took Harold Dillon's new "Acromaster" up for its first flight. It went well, and Harold flew it too... Frits then took up Harold's newly acquired "Eclipse" pattern plane, but the engine did not seem to come up to speed, and the flight was cut short to try to tweak the engine. Just as Frits was about to touch down, with only inches to go, Harold reached over (...surprise!!!!...) and switched on the air brakes, which made the plane jump up a couple of feet and then land hard, slightly damaging one of the retractable gear...

Al Ayler had his Cub-yellow Stinsen "Reliant" with him and had several good flights with it. The big bird looks good in the air, especially against a blue sky...

All then of a sudden a horse showed up at the south end of the runway! It can usually be seen on the neighbor's property. Somehow it had gotten out onto Half Mile Road, according to a witness. Someone then shooed it into our field, where it grazed happily on Alvin's bright-green winter rye grass... Fortunately Harold and Al both stayed clear and didn't hit this large obstacle...

Mississippians Joe Krebs, brother Billy Krebs and Tom Barrett showed up. Billy and Joe flew their trainer. Joe — who flew rc back when transmitters were the size of large upright freezers — is finally converting over to "Mode 2". Mode 2 is how we've been controlling a rc airplane since they stopped sending pulses to control relays aboard a model... Good thing, since Joe is one of our club's instructors! I didn't notice Tom fly anything. Oh, by the way, Tom has his "Sonic" pylon racer up for sale, .32 Webra engine, et al... He always used to win those races, remember? Now some of us other pylon racers will finally have a chance!...

Scott Cameron, member of the Lower Alabama R/C (LARC) club at Battleship Memorial Park, flew his big, gas-powered "Ultra Stick"... Plenty of power in that one!...

Speaking of power... LARC president Wes Batson brought his "little" Extra 300 with him, the one that has a 102 in. wing span! Powered by a German 3W gasoline engine. He did some really fancy 3D maneuvers! At one point, while "walking" the plane at idle speed and at a 45 degree angle of attack, Wes actually dragged the tail wheel on the runway and kept on flying (err, walking...) Impressive! He promised to bring his BIG one (47%, I believe) as soon as he feels comfortable with its engine reliability and performance...

Charles Dortch flew his "Scat Cat" a couple of times without any problems, and without much tinkering on the ground, although he needed to borrow Frits' starting equipment once...

Frits was back into the swing of things by doing his usual crazy "loop-'n-gos" with his "Scat Cat"... The oil Tom had put on the Cat's wheels several weeks ago is slowly disappearing, as the Cat now squeals louder and louder when the wheels engage the runway, just the way Frits likes it... Frits took up a couple of new students. One was Monty Johnson, who brought out an "Avistar" ARF to replace his ill-fated HobbyTown Combo trainer that crashed several weeks ago after only about two minutes of flight... No problems this time, and Monty appears to be a quick learner. Girlfriend Jamie may also get into it... Monty's friend Dusty Miller (...I have plants growing in my yard named after him...) was there and mentioned that he'll soon come out with his first plane to learn to fly...

Frits also let Scott Gayle have a flight on Harold's trainer, after Harold suggested it. Scott was one of my son Greg's best friends, and he came out to the field to get some refresher lessons. He's doing great and hopes to join our club soon...

Evon Smith was there, but I don't remember if he flew anything... Evon did sell his .40-size "Leading Edge" flying scimitar wing to Frits. This is the one that Tom used to own and then sold to Frits. Then Frits crashed it at Battleship Park by slamming it onto the roof of that crew boat that used to sit in the reeds by the water (the tall reeds reached out and grabbed the plane during a very low pass and threw it down, REALLY!...) Evon took the remains and fixed it back up nicely, flew it on several occasions and now Frits has it back!... Now where's that Webra .50?...

Roger Geil, one of the "chopper boys", had a couple of helicopters out. One of them, a Hawk that Roger has had for some time, had been converted to a scale rescue chopper. I think Roger said he found the canopy at a Toys-R-Us store! Looked great on the ground and in the air!...

Chopper boy Marty Jones brought his yellow helicopter, and he had a nice flight, after he'd let Alvin Reed — the "Chopper Guru" — check it out. At least I assume so, as at first I saw the chopper behaving at a skill level not quite reached by Marty! Then I watched the chopper start hovering near that grazing horse, pushing it away from the runway. It finally could be seen galloping farther down the field! I know Alvin must have gotten a real kick out of that!...

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Sunday, November 5, 2000
Because of the bad weather I didn't go to the field on this day, but I'm sure there were some people there. And later in the afternoon when I decided to go anyway to take a look, something came up where I couldn't go...

To the best of Alvins' memory:
The Mississippi three-sum of Tom B., Joe K., and Buddy S. showed back up at the field to catch up on their flying after they had all been on separate safaris to all points of the USA.

Al Ayler brought out a very large and beautiful AT-6 Texan which as I understood it, was an old Byron kit started by someone else and was finished by Al. It was very Yellow and all decked out with retracts, flaps, landing lights, and a big engine. Some taxi work was all that was done today with the first flight in the near future.

Alvin and Rod Gilbert got in some flights with Rods' scratch built/hobbled-together electric powered airplane. It flew OK, but flights with the current batt. pac only lasted about two minutes.

Can't say for sure what Alvins' secret project is, but you all may see something that looks sort of like a very large 8-ball rolling around the field soon.

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