Kansas City Radio Control Association AMA Charter No. 390 CONTACTS September 2015 Volume LXI, Issue IX www.kcradiocontrol.com The Official Newsletter of KCRC NMAD Donations to Wounded Warrior Project Tops $2,600 The RC Clubs of Jackson County hosted National Model Aviation Day on August 15, 2015 at Charles Reed III Flying Field, a fund raising event for the Wounded Warrior Project. The Kansas City Radio Control Association (www.kcradiocontrol.com), 49 th Jumbo Squadron, RC Sport Flyers, and KC Heli came together to raise money for this worthy cause. This money, along with monies collected from clubs across the country, the Academy of Model Aeronautics (www.modelaircraft.org) will be presenting to the Wounded Warrior Project later this year. Last year the Academy Clubs raised $100,000 for the W o u n d e d W a r r i o r P r o j e c t (www.woundedwarriorproject.org). The RC Clubs of Jackson County contributed $2,000.00 of the $100,000 last year. This year I am proud to announce that our event raised over $2,600.00. This could not have happened without all the wonderful help and donations from the public and the 39 registered pilots that participated. Thank you! Our last event of the year is the annual Warbird Fun Fly. Susan Calvin is again organizing and will be the Contest Director for the event. Susan always does a wonderful job with our events. So make sure you come out and support Susan and the club at this always-fun event. This year there will be awards for Spot Landing, Formation Flight, and Scale Judging, along with trophies for People s Choice, Most War Torn, Biggest Warbird and Smallest Warbird. IN THIS ISSUE President s Article......................... Page 1 Officers and Solo Pilot......................Page 2 Minutes of the August Club Mtg............ Page 3 Susan Calvin s Safety Article................. Page 4 NMAD Photos....................... Page 5 & 6 Seen at the Field.......................... Page 7 Officers of Participating Clubs at NMAD Event Free T-Shirts Provided by Randy Cameron, AMA District VI VP NMAD Scene Don t miss the September Club Meeting Wednesday the 19 th at the EAA Hanger Lee s Summit Airport Craig s article is continued on Page 2 NMAD Scale Helicopters
CONTACTS PAGE 2 Craig s Article Continued from Page 1 At the end of the day we will be having a catered dinner for all registered pilots. So come out to the field and fly your warbirds. As a reminder our next club meeting will move back to the EAA hanger at Lees Summit Airport. We will hold our annual officer elections, so if you are interested in serving as a club officer please attend the meeting and throw your hat in to the ring. Greig White, President Don t Forget: Warbird Fun Fly September 12, 2015 Your 2015 Officers Craig White, President kcrcpilot@gmail.com Duane Hulen, Vice-Pres. 516-4526 drhulen@sbcglobal.net Tom Safley, Treasurer (816) 220-0749 tomsharsafley@sbcglobal.net John Midgorden, Secretary (816) 769-2199 jomidgorden@me.com Your Board Members Susan Calvin (816) 478-8330 Scalvin47@earthlink.net Gary Fisher (816) 413-7655 garyfisher@earthlink.net Member Darrell Kunard successfully earned his RC Wings during this Summer s Tuesday evening training sessions. Here he is with his trainer that he now is flying up a storm with. During the training sessions he also flew a number of other aircraft, including Marvin Lackamp s Kadet and Ron Dulinsky s Telemaster. Congratulations Darrell well done! ATTENTION: September Club Meeting Your Editor has learned that Douglas Avenue to the Lee s Summit Airport is blocked at Colbern Road and will be blocked for several weeks for repairs. This means you will need to use Lee s Summit Road to get to the Airport. Fleming Park Liaison & AMA District VI Representative Jim Cianciolo 645-3558 kcrcpilot@comcast.net Newsletter editor John Midgorden (816) 769-2199 jomidgorden@me.com 2015 Membership stands at 65
CONTACTS PAGE 3 MINUTES OF THE AUGUST CLUB MEETING The August 19 th KCRC club meeting, held at the Charlie Reed Memorial Field, was preceded by the usual hotdog/polish sausage dinner provided by Marvin Lackamp and Duane Hulen. Officers present were President Craig White, Vice-President Duane Hulen and Secretary John Midgorden. Treasurer Tom Safley was out-of-town. There were twentyeight members present including three new members, Jeff and Tyler Thomason and Keith Bramblett. OFFICER REPORTS President Craig White welcomed the new members and each gave a short statement of their interest and involvement in RC. The July meeting minutes were approved. Secretary John Midgorden shared the current membership total stands at 65. Vice-President Duane Hulen talked about the summer training nights. Although the weather had not been ideal a couple of evenings, there were several new pilots that kept the several instructors busy. Duane announced that the training nights will cease at the end of August due to the shorter days leaving little time to fly. He indicated that the instructors would still be available at other times and encouraged those interested to call for help. He thanked all those who participated and helped with this activity. Treasurer Tom Safely was out of town so Craig gave a report on the results of the donations given to the Wounded Warrior Project at the National Model Aviation Day the past Saturday. The concession sales totaled $375 with the food costs to the Club amounting to $150. The total contributions from the pilots and spectators totaled $1,846. If the net profit of the concession sales is added to donations the total available for the Wounded Warrior Project would be $2,069. A motion was made and passed for the Club to donate the cost of the food which would make KCRC s total donation to the WWP $2,219 (this is more than the $2,000 given in 2014). Susan was asked how many pilots attended the NMAD? She has the info but didn t bring it to the meeting. She will report on this later. Park Liaison Jim Cianciolo reminded everyone that Parks will not accept volunteer hours unless they have the person s volunteer application on file. Old Business Susan Calvin shared that the Warbird Event was not listed in Model Aviation magazine due to a slip up in communications. It will be in the next issue, just before the Warbird Event. Susan passed around a list of tasks and asked for volunteers. The trophies have been ordered and she encouraged members to email friends about the event. New Business Announcement: There is an airshow this weekend at KC Municipal airport that will highlight the Blue Angels. Susan indicated that KCRC has been invited to have a static display at the National Airline Museum at the KC Municipal airport on the 26 th of September. KCRC members wishing to participate and bring airplanes need to let Susan know. Fred Hulen brought a large block of foam for anyone still cutting wing cores. Darwin Ulledahl indicated he might know someone who would be interested. Craig mentioned that this is the meeting for club officer nominations. He announced that all current officers agreed to run again but that other nominations are in order. The election is scheduled at the September meeting (which will be back at the EAA Hanger). Jim Cianciolo suggested we have a board meeting before next meeting to set dates for next year. He also brought up the need to share with the Sport Flyers Club in future get-togethers. Duane Hulen indicated that he would like for KCRC to sponsor a quickie race next year. There seemed to be general support for a race event and enough volunteers to run it. Motion to adjourn was enthusiastically agreed to. Duane and Fred Hulen and John Midgorden flew their lighted gliders after the meeting. Respectively submitted, John Midgorden, Secretary Welcome to our newest Club Members: Jeff & Tyler Thomason and Keith Bramblett
CONTACTS PAGE 4 MORE ON SAFETY Now that I ve written about the history and make-up of the NTSB, and its investigative structure, it s time to start looking at actual aircraft accident investigations. Most airplane accidents are relatively minor, involving things like aborted takeoffs that end up in the weeds somewhere off the runway, or bad landings that end up in a tree or ditch. Other, more severe accidents may involve serious injury and destruction of the aircraft, but no fatalities. Then there are the more severe accidents that involve air carrier aircraft and/or fatalities. That s where the NTSB go team makes it money. Generally the NTSB allows the FAA to handle the less severe accidents that are non-fatal. But all fatal, and air carrier accidents belong to the NTSB. Fatal and air carrier accidents are routinely messy affairs. Wreckage and people may be scattered over a large area. Or the wreckage may be concentrated in a confined area and buried deep in the ground. Such scenes are not for the squeamish, or those reluctant to deal with environmental extremes. (For some strange reason pilots often pick the worst terrain in which to crash their planes). An example of this occurred for me while I was still in my youth. I used to hang around the old Independence airport and one day one of the local pilots took me into a hangar and showed me the wreckage of a Tri-Pacer that was stuffed in a 4 x 4 trailer. The plane had buried itself in a river bank and had to be dug out with a backhoe. He handed me a radio case from the instrument panel and asked what I saw. I said it looked like the case was packed with mud from the river bank. I was then informed that it wasn t mud, but the remains of the pilot. Needless to say I was surprised and impressed with the violence and severity associated with some aircraft accidents. (That may have been the beginning of my interest in accident investigation). Then there is the issue of non-ntsb personnel contaminating the accident site. Generally this involves first responders and other well meaning people who are trying to find and help injured survivors. Without realizing it, they may walk over and destroy evidence that is import to accident investigation and reconstruction. Naturally NTSB investigators are aware of such things and able to work around them. Upon arrival at the accident site investigators begin a systematic process of investigation. (Sherlock Holmes would be proud of these professionals). The process usually begins with mapping the wreckage and the surrounding terrain, taking photos and doing an inventory of the aircraft structure. Sometimes it s what is missing that becomes important in the investigation process. The investigation of some of the Electra Susan Calvin, Safety Officer accidents in the late 50 s and early 60 s is an example of this and I will discuss this in a subsequent article. At the same time, members of the go-team do the gruesome task of documenting the location and orientation of bodies, and assessing the type and severity of injuries precedent to pathological examination. There is an example of this process that dates back to the propliner days and I ll address this in a subsequent article. There is both a macro and micro aspect to the investigation process. From the macro aspect there is the mapping of the larger pieces of wreckage, the general path of wreckage distribution, the size of the wreckage distribution, the type, severity and direction of damage to surrounding terrain, buildings and other structures. Damage to trees, marks on rock formations or structures, and other damage can tell a lot about the flight path and even the attitude of the airplane just prior to impact. After the initial assessment the micro aspect of accident analysis begins. This involves a detailed look at all damage as well as close inspection of all aircraft systems. Such things as burn patterns, scratches that cross over a fracture verses scratches that don t, circuit breakers that are tripped, cockpit controls/switches that are not positioned properly, things that are not normal parts of the plane (think bird strikes or mid air collisions), unusual discolorations around rivets, missing or deformed rivets/ fasteners, lack of fluid spillage from various tanks/ reservoirs, abnormal indications on flight/systems instruments, even damage to flight control surfaces that are inconsistent with cockpit flight controls are some of the many things that may be part of this process. The list of things in this category sometimes seems endless. And one item may lead to several others. As you can imagine, this is a complex process. Concurrent with this is the identification and interview of witnesses. This can be a very trying task due to the aeronautical ignorance of the non-aviator public. People usually mean well, but they are notoriously unreliable in their assessment of what they saw. Crash investigators have to be very patient during interviews, and some knowledge of psychology helps here to separate fact from embellishment. I m out of space for now, but I ll continue next month with some specific accident data. See you then. Don t Forget: Warbird Fun Fly September 12, 2015
CONTACTS PAGE 5 Susan Calvin at the Silent Auction Table and the Five Service Flags Start Up Stations and Models Ready to Go $2,600 for Wounded Warrior Project!!! Thanks to 39 Pilots & Spectators!!! Cub Scouts Raise the Colors for the Day! Scale Helicopters of RC Heli Club Midgorden Explaining RC to Spectator Friends
CONTACTS PAGE 6 In addition to the NMAD T-Shirts (shown on Page 1) our District AMA VP, Randy Cameron, provided KCRC with the great BANNER, shown here, which decorated the fence in front of the bleachers. A BIG Thanks to Randy! Here are more views of the Day Zachary Packingham flew this amazing three-bladed drone. Jachary s Company, Fortris Airframes, sells an amazing number of drone frames, etc (http://www.fortisairframes.com)
CONTACTS PAGE 7 Seen at the Field Dan Olsen and Rascal John Sincox and Fokker E-3 Carey and Ryken w/yak Jimmy C. with Aresti Duane Hulen the Hot Dog Man Barb Carey & Marvin Lackamp Joe Breault and Corsair Midgorden s PT-26B Cornell Darwin and Dan at U-control Circle
CONTACTS PAGE 8 Miss America Racing Mustang CLUB MEETING September 19 th 7:00 P.M. Club Meeting in the EAA Hanger at the Lee s Summit Airport Don Ronnebaum and P-51 Miss America ELECTION OF OFFICERS At the September Club Meeting Officers for 2015 2016 will be Elected CONTACTS KCRC 17804 E. 29th Street S Independence, MO 64057 September 2015 Volume LXI, Issue IX MAIL TO: