FIFI Visits Johnstown... Upcoming Activities... The Johnstown R/C Club

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1 Newsletter Editor The Johnstown R/C Club Roger A. Luther July 2018 Newsletter AMA Charter # Johnstown RC Clubs 56th Year Upcoming Activities... Join us online at: FIFI Visits Johnstown... Sunday, June 24 th : June Family Picnic, 5pm at the field. Bring your wife, girlfriend, family, and a dish to pass. Enjoy flying and some great grub! Tuesday, July 3 rd : Regular Club meeting, 8:30 pm at the Richland Twp. Municipal Building. Flying first at the field, weather permitting. Wednesday, July 4 th : Enjoy the 4 th with your family, God Bless America, land of the Free! It's a good day to fly as well! Sunday, July 29 th : July Family Picnic at the field, 5pm. Hope you can make this one! Bring a dish to pass! FIFI, One of only 2 flying B-29's The Air Power History Tour visited our own Johnstown Cambria County Airport during the period June 6 to June 10 t h. A number of our club members went up to visit and get a tour, and a couple even got flights on some vintage WWII airplanes. Tuesday, August 7 th : Regular Club meeting, 8:30 pm Flying first weather permitting. George Wacker and Roger Luther were up on Thursday and both got to fly, although on different planes. George sprung for a flight on a P-51 two seater WWII fighter plane and what a flight it was, about 30 minutes worth. Roger later took a 30 minute flight on the Twin Beech C-45 Expediter. This aircraft was used as a trainer for multi-engine pilots and also as transport for VIP's and later some reconnaissance work.

2 Twin Beech C-45 Expediter Roger with the C-45 Expediter Pilot George Wacker exiting the P-51 George had a wonderful ride on a P-51 Red Tail which was flown by the Tuskegee Airmen during Roger standing beside the P-51 A view of the cockpit of the B-29 (FIFI) There was a long line almost all day long waiting to go up a ladder and into the B-29 to view the cockpit area. The B-29 has four 2000 HP engines and flew at a 30,000 foot ceiling at a crusing speed of 250 mph.

3 The visit was sponsored by the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) AirPower History Tour. The CAF has become the world's largest flying museum. They have over 170 World War II airplanes which are assigned to various unit locations across the U.S. And supported by 12,000 volunteer members. Nearly all their aircraft are kept in flying condition, enabling folks to experience firsthand the sight and sound of vintage military aircraft in flight. The CAF is dedicated to honoring American military aviation through flight, exhibition, education, and remembrance. found her at the U.S. Navy Proving Ground at China Lake, CA, where she was intended to be used as a missile target! The airplane was rescued and restored and has been flown for over 40 years since being restored, traveling coast to coast each year attracting large crowds at every tour stop. The only other air worthy B-29 is DOC which was only recently restored to flying condition. Those two B-29's appeared together last year at Oskosh. A "head on" shot of FIFI at the Johnstown Airport during it's visit June George Wacker stands in front of the A-6 Texan which didn't make an appearance until Saturday. The highlight of course was FIFI the restored B-29 Superfortress, which was first flown in 1942 and began active service in 1944 toward the end of WWII. The B-29 is best known as the aircraft whose missions over Japan helped bring about the end of WWII. The most famous one was the Enola Gay, which was used to deliver the first Atom Bomb in August of The war in the Pacific ended only after a second atom bomb was dropped a few days later. The B29 was designed as a replacement for the older B-17's and B-24's and had a much longer range and was able to carry greater bomb loads. It was also used during the Korean War in the early 1950's and was a staple in the U.S. Air Force until later in that decade. FIFI was aquired by the CAF in the early 1970's when a group of CAF members A closeup of one of the 2000 HP super charged engines which powered the B-29. The plane was pressurized to 30,000 feet and had crawl tube so the men could go aft to the tail area of the airplane in flight. The actual bomb bay areas were not pressurized so when they opened the doors, the plane could still be tight.

4 Our Field is OK... Ken's Back... In spite of the heavy rains during May and early June our field is in pretty fair shape, even though it's been soggy almost continuously since we started flying this past spring. Don, Sam, and others have stepped up to mow, rake, and kept it in good shape. Above, Ken Shilling rakes up the heavy grass after we mowed both sides of the fence area. As you all know, our Vice President Ken Reesey has been in and out of the hospital the last two months and is now home and recovering nicely. He has to stay on oxygen full time now but has ventured out to our flying field several times since his last hospital stay. This picture was taken on Saturday, June 16 t h and he enjoyed being back with the guys at the field. From left to right, Roger, Ken Shilling, Rick Oxford, and Jack Feathers gathered on a nice sunny evening in early June to fly and talk RC business. The field was just mowed that day and was in pretty good shape, just a little soggy if you had to venture out to pick up your plane. Things have started to "dry out" a bit now and we can mow more regularly. He had his plane in the van, but I had to leave before he got it out to fly, so I'm not certain he did fly. He gets short of breath easily and has to take it easy for awhile to get his strength back. Here's hoping he can get back to regular flying real soon. We had a very nice turnout on this day with at least 8 club members present to fly as shown in the picture on the next page. Those present included Neil, Bruce, Al, Chris, Frank Ken Shilling, Fred, Ken Reesey and your editor, Roger Luther who took the picture. It was a beautiful calm June morning!

5 Ball Parks, along with many other salads and desserts including some Rhubarb Pie. Quite a few flew their planes and no accidents were reported. Somerset Fly-In... The gang on Saturday, June 16 t h! June Meeting Recap... Father's Day has become a regular time for the Annual Somerset Fly-In, and several club members went up to the Somerset Airport to view the planes and activities. There were a good many full scale planes that came there for the "All you could Eat Breakfast", and a group from Chantilly VA brought some large scale RC airplanes and did a very impressive demo of 3-D flying, plus an F-16 jet demo. F-16 Fighting Falcon RC Model Jet Neil Woffinden with his new balsa P-38 Lightning. We had rather light turnout for our June meeting but took in two new club members. Gary Gardner, from the Upper Yoder area of Johnstown joined, and also Jon Ragland from the Central City area signed up at the June meeting. We welcome them both to the club and both guys have had previous RC experience. Give them a welcome when you see them at the field. Sunday Picnic... We had a nice group of flyers out for Sunday evening, June 17 t h. Diane Smith did the cooking duties since our regular hot dogger Ken is on limited duty. We had some These guys did some impressive 3D flying and had all three of these planes up at the same time. Mark your calendar's for next year and don't miss it. A very nice show!

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