Issue 4386, February 2013 Next club meeting: February 25 th 2013, 7:00 pm, West Creek Café, Camp Bowie Blvd Presidents Corner: by Ken Knotts Flying season is almost upon us. We start this flying season with a huge bang when 75 SAE teams of college students from around the world converge on Thunderbird Field March 15-17. Tom Blakeney and Oliver Alvarado are heading up the event. If this is your first time to see these young engineers in action, you will be surprised by the ingenuity, craftsmanship and enthusiasm of these college students. We are already prepping the field and there is still a lot to be done. Training for the SAE inspectors will be Saturday, March 2 at Spring Creek BBQ on Camp Bowie West at 1:00 PM. We still need inspectors so if you can help, please sign-up with Tom Blakeney. Flying starts on Saturday morning, March 16 for all 75 teams and ends Sunday around 1:00 PM. This is a big event for the Thunderbirds and will give us more national notoriety, especially when things work very well. Please help keep our field neat so it reflects the quality of the site and of Thunderbirds. Safe flying and make it look smooth. Ken Knotts President, Fort Worth Thunderbirds Vice Presidents Corner No report this month. Will Campbell Vice President, Fort Worth Thunderbirds January Club Meeting Minutes: President: Ken Knotts: Ken called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. He welcomed all the members present and extended a special thank you to Will Campbell and Randy Davis for hosting a wonderful Christmas Party Vice President: Will Campbell: Nothing to report at this time. Treasurer: Gary Alphin: Gary announced that the club was in good standing. Gary also announced that membership is standing at 62% of last year. At the end of 2012 we had 244 members and as of this meeting the club had 158 members. The club can now take Pay-Pal for membership dues and Gary will be able to process your credit card at the field when he is present. There will be a small fee of 3.5% added to your payment for this convenience. As a friendly reminder please renew your club membership as soon as possible. Secretary: Tab Bowland: Nothing to report. A special thanks was given to Gene Hodges for his past duties as secretary. Safety Officer: Jimmy Newton: Jimmy brought up a recent issue of a person flying at the field who was not an A.M.A. member and possibly not a club member. He again, reminded all people who fly at Thunderbird must Page 1
have their A.M.A. card posted on the board. This is for club safety and protection. Newsletter Editor: Woody Lake.: Sorry to report Woody was ill and not present at this meeting. Old Events: The only event held in December was the Christmas Party. Will Campbell did present a question to the group about if they were happy with Spring Creek BBQ, most everyone agreed yes. Old Business: SAE: A report was given by Oliver Alvarado and Tom Blakeney. Oliver stated that the planning was going well and on track, he was still waiting on some permits from the core, but expected to have them soon. He announced that we are still expecting approx. 600 people to be there this year. An announcement was also made about the upcoming inspector s school to be held March 2 at Spring Creek BBQ from 4PM to 5PM. Ken Knotts will be conducting this class and it was asked that all inspectors be present if possible. Tom announced that Terry Thorpe was willing to handle the task of parking, with possible help from the young marines from the joint reserve base. Thanks Terry. Tom and Oliver still need volunteers to help out during this event, if you are able to help please contact them. Finally, remember these students are from all over the world, please be nice and friendly and show them some Texas hospitality. Equipment Purchase: Ken announced the purchase of some new tools, a workbench and shelves for the workshop. Bylaws: Will Campbell gave an update on the bylaws, further discussion after the SAE event Website: Joe Joplin has agreed to be the new Webmaster. The website is currently under construction. Joe made mention that we will be changing servers soon, so please be patient and he will try to get it going as quickly as possible. Also, a special thanks to Brian Alphin for all his past hard work on the website. Joe also mentioned that the forum is now on RC Groups, which is being managed by Gary Rife. Joe also wanted to call attention as to how good of shape that the field was in and wanted to thank all the members of the mowing crew both past and present. (Good job guys) Fun Fly s: No updates from event coordinators New Business: Gene Lord spoke about trailer that was in shop. Suggestion was made to check with Porter s son about taking it back. Bob Hoover was approached by the Boys Scouts out of Aledo to conduct a training day for approx. 16-20 scouts at Thunderbird field, on July 20, 2013. A motion to approve the training on July 20th was made by Randy Martin with second by Gary Rife-passed. It was brought to the attention of the club about the growing number of cigarette butts being thrown onto the grass and on the concrete around the picnic tables. A mention was made to look into ash urns to be placed around the field so that the butts can be disposed of properly. 2013 Club Events: SAE: March 15-17 Heli Event : April 19-21 Sr. Pattern event ( SPA) April 27-28 Warbirds: May 4 th Q-25 Race: May 18 th Rain date June 1 st Old Farts Fly In: June 12th Boy Scout Training: July 20 th Summer Float Fly: August 3 rd Sr. Pattern event ( SPA) October 5-6, This date may be changed to Oct. 12-13 more details to follow on this event. IMAC: October 26-27 Electric Fly In: November 2 nd Winter Float Fly: November 9th Q-25 Race November 16 th Rain date: November 30 Steve Ehlers, asked who in the club would be interested looking into participating in a Classic Pattern Event. Discussion tabled until next meeting. A discussion was brought up about foamies flying in the helicopter area taking away from the helicopter pilots flying time. Solution, helicopter pilots have the right to fly first. Program: Presented by Will Campbell Setting up your servos and tuning Page 2
Show-N-Tell: Ed Furche and Tom Blakeney presented 2 nice ME-262 foam ducted fan fighters. Ed s plane was stock and Tom s plane had a custom paint scheme. Jimmy Newton presented his F-117 Foamy. Plans can be found on RC-foamfighters.com Randy Davis presented an Extra 300 Electric (no Photo Available) Thanks guys for the nice show n tell Raffle Drawings: Ron Kosar Quad Copter Joe Joplin - 3 Hi-Tech servo s Randy Davis Prop Balancer Gary Alphin Hat JC electric plug connectors Bob Hoover Hat Mel Wells Hat Randy Martin unknown prize Tommy unknown prize Weldon Hat Tab Bowlin Secretary, Fort Worth Thunderbirds Treasurers Report: by Gary Alphin Membership renewals and new memberships have slowed considerably. As of 02/1513 we have 164 members up only about 7 members from last month at this time. So I encourage everyone to be good club Stewarts and try and get some of last year s members to renew this is our main source of income to keep the field flying site in good shape. Any new members we can get are always welcome. We 69 Last Year Members have not renewed 4 Last year members whom have communicated they will not renew Gary Alphin Treasurer, Fort Worth Thunderbirds Page 3
WEBSITE. The new website is up and running, although not at full speed. After a false start we have changed servers and are going through a reconstruction period. The Home, Field, and Events pages are functional. Ken is doing the events and will be adding a page for each event soon. Garry Rife has taken over the Forum, which has been moved to RC Groups and can be reached from the Home page. Thanks, Garry. Also thanks to Brian Alphin for running it for 5 years and for his help now. See it at http://www.fwthunderbirds.org/. Joe Jopling Members Projects: First flight of Ed s ME-262. Tom reports it flew very well with minor trim change. Page 4 Woody s B-25 (Construction article in near future)
Maiden flight of Terry s Skyraider. Clockwise from top left: Final, Short Final, Touchdown (almost), and Taxi Back Don t you just love a parade Beware of the Chick Fil-A cows A day at the field. Page 5
Safety Corner Thunderbird Safety This month s article will deal with something other than flying. The topic is transportation to and from the field or more accurately, driving safety. As many of you know I used to drive an 18 wheeler. What you don t know is that I accumulated approximately 1,140,000 miles without an accident. To put that in perspective, most people will not even drive 400,000 miles in their entire lifetime. Having a safe driving record takes effort and constant diligence (and a bit of luck doesn t hurt either). I would like to pass on a game that I used to help accomplished that. I call it What can go wrong now? Basically it s a guessing game where you try and guess what may happen next. Here s an example of the game. The road is clear, dry and it s nighttime; you keep a running dialog in your head like; Slight curve ahead, are there wild game on the side of the road, a pedestrian dressed in dark clothes that make it hard to see them, or maybe a car stopped without its lights on. No great; car coming from the other direction, is he drunk, will he swerve into my lane? Nope..great; Will the car that s passing you cut back into your lane too quickly? Will the car stopped at the next intersection suddenly pull out in front of you? You get the idea, basically expect the unexpected. You d be surprised at how many times you re right. The second item I d like to cover is making sure your load is secure. Don t want anything to happen to your aircraft during transportation. Just ask yourself; If I have to slam on the brakes, will it damage anything I m hauling? If the answer is possibly or yes; re-arrange things or secure them. Placing the heaviest items near the front of the cargo area will minimize the chance of it shifting during braking and sliding into other items. For airplanes, homemade wheel chocks will keep it from rolling. A little effort to prevent dents and dings in your prize bird is well worth it. Have fun and be safe Jimmy Newton Safety Officer THUNDERBIRD 2012 CALENDAR DATE EVENT POINT OF CONTACT March 15-17 April 19-21 April 27-28 SAE Heli Event SPA (Senior Pattern) May 4 th Warbird Fly-in Terry Thorpe/Woody Lake May 18 th June 12 th July 20 th August 3 rd October 12-13 October 26-27 Q-25 Race (Rain Date June 1 st Old Farts Fly-in Boy Scout Training Summer Float Fly Sr. Pattern (SPA) IMAC Event Page 6
November 2 nd November 9 th Electric Fly In Winter Float Fly November 16 th Q-25 Race (Rain date: November 30) www.fwthunderbirds.org President: Ken Knotts Vice President: Will Campbell E-Mail: kenknotts826@gmail.com E-Mail: wcampbell@maseratiusa.c Secretary: Tab Bowland E-Mail: glasstron175@hotmail.com Treasurer: Gary Alphin E-Mail: gary.alphin@gbrx.com Safety Officer: Jimmy Newton E-Mail: jim-newton@att.net Pilot s Log: Woody Lake E-Mail: at6pilot@att.net SUPPORT OUR ADVERTIZERS Page 7
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Membership Application and Renewal Form This form is the approved application form for all existing and new members. There is no initiation fee for new members. Your membership is valid from 1 January to 31 December each year. After July 1 st New Individual and Family memberships are @ 50% of rates shown below: 1. A current Academy of Model Aeronautics (AMA) membership card is required to fly at the flying site. 2. Only an AMA membership card may be placed in the frequency board. 3. All members except Honorary, Junior, Family and Associate are eligible to vote in club business. 4. Family Membership dues are $10 higher than individual. 5. Note: Partial Payments cannot be accepted 6. All members should also purchase the Association Membership Badge at a cost of $ 13.00 Membership Types (Circle Membership Requested) Individual Member ---- $100.00 Membership Badge ----- $13.00 each Total $ The individual member is a single membership. An individual has all rights and privileges. New Members joining after July 1st will pay a minimum of $50.00 for the remainder of the year. Family Member ---- $110.00 Membership Badge ----- $13.00 each Total $ Family membership consists of a primary member, spouse and children. A child is defined as an individual 18 years of age or younger residing in the same household as the primary member. Family members are eligible to participate in all association functions. Only the primary members are eligible to vote and hold an association officer position. Additional Family Member names please list here with phone numbers: Associate Member -- $50.00 Membership Badge ----- $13.00 each Total $ Associate membership is ½ the individual dues rate at $50.00 per calendar year. To be eligible for an associate membership you must reside greater than 50 miles from the flying site at Benbrook Lake. Associate members may not vote. Junior Member---- $10.00 Membership Badge ----- $13.00 each Total $ Membership offered/limited to 16 years of age or less must always be accompanied by a guardian or Parent and never be left at the field alone. Membership has no voting rights. The annual dues are $10 per calendar year. If other family member holds an individual membership then this will be added to that membership. Constitution and Bylaws The association s most current rules and regulations are posted on the web site at www.fwthunderbirds.org. By signing this application, you acknowledge that you will abide by the rules as posted at the flying field and on the association s web site. First Name: Last Name: Street Address: City: State: Zip: Phone Number: AMA Membership # Email Address: Club News letter will be emailed unless stated otherwise Page 10
Emergency Contact Info: Name Ph# Mail completed application and check to: Fort Worth Thunderbirds, Attn: Gary Alphin, Treasurer, 917 Herby Del Trail, Azle, TX 76020 Your signature indicates that you agree to and will abide by the rules and regulations of the Fort Worth Thunderbirds PLEASE SIGN HERE: DATE: Page 11