AMA News District VI November 2018

Written by Gary Himes District VI News AMA News As seen in the November 2018 issue of Model Aviation

As I am writing this, I just returned from Barnstormers Over Champaign in Illinois. I had a great time. Thanks for the hospitality! This time of the year is always somewhat sad for me because the summer flying season is rapidly coming to an end! The daylight hours are getting shorter and the chance to go flying after work or dinner is nonexistent. Don’t get me wrong—I do fly year-around, but I think summer is the best. The upside of November and December is the chance to gather with friends and family during the holiday season. Last month, I discussed Camp AMA. This is your last reminder that I am currently looking for the next candidate between the ages of 13 and 19 to send to camp in 2019. If you know of an interested teen, please have him or her submit to me a quarter-page write-up stating why he or she would like to attend camp. The deadline is December 1, 2018. The following was summitted by Edward Scherer III from the Rock Valley R/C Flyers Club located in Rockford, Illinois. We have a wonderful relationship with the owner of our club field, the Rockford Park District. It has given us organization and control of the field for many years, based on our safety record, the field rules we enforce, the AMA Safety Code, and our own additional rules. The facility is on the outskirts of Rockford and does not have electric or water supplied to the field, which we found prohibitively expensive to have installed. Two of our club members, Dave Miller and Craig Molander, have experience with solar power systems and provided the free labor to design and install a 12-volt/110-volt system to accommodate club members who charge on-site and provide lights in our recently constructed hangar. Several solar panels were mounted on the roof and connected to a bank of batteries and inverters for the power. It supplies enough wattage to power several charging stations and small- to medium-size power tools. They are also installing a water system, powered by an on-demand electric pump, for washing hands and utensils for picnics. Not for consumption, the water will be gathered from the downspouts of the gutters of the building. It’s nothing fancy, but it works well. The following was summitted by Bob Belluomini from Rosewood RC Flyers (www.rosewoodrc.com) in southern Indiana. This year’s event was huge a success with 71 pilots in attendance at the Rosewood RC Flyers’ 2018 EDF Jet Jam, held June 14-17. This event is the largest EDF-only event held in the country. Pilots traveled from the bordering states of the Indiana site as well as Arizona, Alabama, Colorado, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, New York, Tennessee, Texas, and Germany. We ran four flight stations with two air bosses and flew from dawn to dusk. This facility was built for jet operations and features an 800 x 50-foot runway with no obstructions. The field was raised above the surrounding fields during grading. The shelters have concrete floors and 110-watt power. Models ranged from the small, powered 64 mm foam aircraft to large BVM jets, the largest being a scratch-built 124-inch DC-10. There was also a T-1 Jayhawk flown on 14S power, a 128 mm DS-98, a yellow F-22, and a Skymaster A-10 flown with custom-made ducted fans. The Motion RC marketing team was on-site this year and the company’s pre-event videos really bolstered the attendance. Motion donated four EDF models that were given away at 1 p.m. each day of the gathering. Video of the event can be found on the Motion RC YouTube page. Thank you, James, Ryan, and Mike. The awards dinner was held Saturday at the field so pilots could get back to flying because we had sunlight well past 9:15 each evening. If you enjoyed this month’s submissions and would like to see an event from your own club included, email me a short write-up with the word “magazine” in the subject line, and attach a few high-quality digital pictures! Gary Himes Vice President [email protected] 5204 N. Smalley Ave., Kansas City MO 64119 Tel.: (816) 550-1205