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Flying High With Electric Power!
The Ampeer ON-LINE!
Fly the Future - Fly Electric! |
Site Table of Contents
| President: | Vice-President: | Secretary/Treasurer: |
| Ken Myers | Richard Utkan | Rick Sawicki |
| 1911 Bradshaw Ct. | 240 Cabinet | 5089 Ledgewood Ct. W. |
| Commerce Twp., MI 48390 | Milford, MI 48381 | Commerce Twp., MI 48382 |
| (248) 669-8124 | (248) 685-1705 | 248.685.7056 |
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| Board of Directors: | Board of Directors: | Ampeer Editor |
| David Stacer | Arthur Deane | Ken Myers |
| 16575 Brookland Blvd. | 21690 Bedford Dr. | 1911 Bradshaw Ct. |
| Northville, MI 48167 | Northville, MI 48167 | Commerce Twp., MI 48390 |
| 248.924.2324 | 248.348.2058 | 248.669.8124 |
| Mailed Ampeer printed subscriptions are no longer available.
The Ampeer is FREE on-line in Acrobat .pdf format and HTML with active links! | ||
| The Next EFO Flying Meeting:
Date: Sat., Aug 2 Time: 10:00 a.m.
Place: Midwest RC Society 7 Mi. Rd. field | ||
| What's In This Issue? | ||||
| 30th Annual Mid-America Electric Flies 2014, a report by Ken Myers on this fun gathering. | Upcoming Flint, Pontiac, WOW, National Model Aviation Day (Ultimate Soccer Arenas), and Lansing Meets | |||
The 30th Annual!!! By Friday, July 11, Rich Sievert and his Midwest RC Society mowing crew had the field grass cut and the field looking good. Again, this year, it has been one of the wettest weeks ever in southeastern Michigan. Even though the weather was marginal all week, the field was in great shape! Many thanks go to Rich and the Midwest mowing crew. We really appreciated your hard work. We also thank the Midwest RC Society for allowing us to allow us to use this very nice flying field. Many EFO and Midwest members were out early on Friday and helped with the field set up. It is really true that many hands do make light work. Their hard work was very, very much appreciated. Keith Shaw came out about one to do the final set up of the large sunshades for transmitter impound and to provide additional shade for the pilots. By mid-morning on Friday, we were ready for our guest fliers, and they started appearing and flying. Actually, some folks camped at the field starting Thursday evening. Friday afternoon is always fun with relaxed flying and "catching up" with our many friends. With some truly good flying weather, some great planes took to the air through the afternoon and well into the evening. Unfortunately, swarms of mosquitos drove the folks inside. While this is officially a two-day meet, many, many folks got in some flying on Friday and Friday evening.  Friday Evening: Keith Shaw checked over Jim Young's new MiG-17 before its very successful maiden. More information on this award winning EDF can be found in Jim's build thread on RC Groups. Friday's weather was perfect. It was one of the very best weather days at the Mid-Am in years! The winds were light. There was sunshine all day, the humidity remained low and the temperature very moderate for Michigan in July. Saturday was almost a repeat of Friday's weather, but with a bit higher temperature and humidity and a sometimes gusty south wind. Sunday was kind of a wash. It started with rain, which let up about 10 o'clock and then there were very high winds with gusts. Unfortunately, no one can guarantee two great days of flying weather at a meet. This year, our forty registered pilots came from all over Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kansas and Ontario, Canada. For some reason, this year proved even more fun than last year in catching up with our "old friends" and making new friends. That is what this meet is really about. Okay, the really "cool" planes are a very nice bonus. A lot of folks captured the images used to illustrate this article. I am sincerely indebted to Denny Sumner, James Maughan, Mark Rittinger, Robert Throne, John Kauk, Bret Becker, Pete Foss and C.J. Wysocki for their great photos. Simple plaque awards are usually presented after each day of flying. Because of the predicted poor weather conditions for Sunday, all of the awards were presented on Saturday. The plaques recognize some of the great planes and pilots flying at the Mid-Am. To receive an award the model must fly at the event. 
Don Belfort with his Luscombe Denny Sumner photo Don Belfort, of West Chester, OH, flew a very nice, large scale Luscombe Silvaire 7E. It received Saturday's Best Scale Award. It looks great and flies very realistically! 
John Kauk photo Jim Young, of Brighton, MI, brought a self-designed, great flying MiG-17 and won the Best Ducted Fan Award with it. It is very, very impressive in flight. Jim hopes to have a kit available soon.
Denny Sumner photo Denny Sumner of Canton, MI, won the Best Sport Plane award for his New Era III built from an original kit. It flies very nicely and is one of his favorite sport planes to bring to the field all of the time. 
Robert Throne with his beautiful Turner Special Robert Throne photo Robert Throne of Ypsilanti, MI flew a beautifully finished T&J Models Turner Special. It is a great flying plane and Robert won the Most Beautiful Award for it on Saturday. 
C.J. Wysocki photo Jim Ryan, of Cincinnati, OH, had a great flying OH-6 LOACH scale helicopter. It uses T-Rex 600 mechanics and a scale body. Jim love's flying this one all the time and was selected as CD's Choice by Ken. Presented on Saturday this year! 
Dennis Sumner photo Martin Irving of Kingston, Ontario, Canada brought a beautiful Nieuport. It is absolutely the most scale flying model airplane that I have ever seen. For his fantastic effort, Martin was presented with Sunday's Best Scale award. 
Denny Sumner photo Dennis Sumner of Canton, MI brought and flew his beautiful 1/8 Scale Bellanca Cruisemaster. It was selected as the Most Beautiful for Sunday's award. 
Bret Becker photo Bret Becker came up from Fairborn, OH and brought his Electrolyte EDF. It flies great and was selected for the Best Mini-Electric for Sunday's award. 
Mark Rittinger photo Mark Rittinger of Roseville, MI flew his very fast twin, the Howler. It does indeed howl as it screams across the sky. Mark was presented with Sunday's award for Best Multi-motor. 
Pete Foss photo Pete Foss had a very unique Batwing plane. Yes, da-dah da-dah, da-dah, da-dah, Batman! It flew in a very interesting manner, looked 'way cool' in the sky and was just plain/plane (pun) fun to watch. Pete was given Keith Shaw's CD's Choice Award. Once the awards were presented and the pilots' raffle held, it was time for the Annual Steak Sandwich and potluck dinner. Dave Hares and Pam Sockow prepared the steaks and onions. Pam had already worked the Midwest concession stand and then helped out with the potluck. Thanks to you both very, very much! The pilots, friends and families provided other great foods to go with the steak sandwiches. As usual, Don Belfort, Flying Models electric flight columnist, from West Chester, OH, brought his "traditional" Mid-Am cake. This year's cake noted the 30 birthday of the Mid-Am. The cake tradition has been going on for almost as long as the Mid-America Electric Flies.  Unfortunately, after sitting in Ken's car during the day, the Happy slid to the side. Fortunately, it was absolutely delicious and every speck disappeared into the dinners. During and after the potluck is a wonderful time to be at this meet. This is the time when folks continue to get in more flights as well as set around and "catch up", talk planes, family, and politics and just relax. It is simply a marvelous time to be at the Mid-Am. Unfortunately, this year's after party was cut a bit short when rain moved in about 7:30 p.m. Aw shucks. The weather was quite poor. The day started with rain and when it finally cleared, the wind was up and quite gusty. This did not prevent our campers, Greg and Lori Cardillo and Pete and Carolynn Foss from flying. There were also a few folks who returned to face the wind and unbelievably, three more folks came, signed up and flew! The highlight of the day was the flying and spot landing of a pair of Ultra-Micro Champs owned by Roger Wilfong and Bill Brown. These light little planes were a hoot to watch in the wind as they flew backwards and tried to spot land on a plastic runway. They'd break, be CA'ed together and return to the fray. Way too funny. It was a great way to spend a crappy day. As we sat around talking, Joe Hass pointed out how important it was for us to contact the FAA about their proposed regulations regarding the National Airspace and what constitutes the type of flying we do as a hobby. We would like to thank our sponsors for providing some ÒgoodiesÓ for our participating pilots. At the field, and with very welcome pilot raffle donations, we had T&J Models and Mark Rittinger. Other very welcome donations came from Servo City. Keith and I thank all of our sponsors very much. We know that the registered pilots who received items from our sponsors are very grateful as well.
Keith Shaw handled the flight line beautifully on Saturday as the flight line coordinator. He also put on the noon demonstration flights with Chris True. Keith and I cannot even begin to thank all of the folks enough from the EFO, Ann Arbor Falcons and Midwest RC Society who helped to make this meet the success it is. It is pretty easy to go to a "meet" and enjoy the facilities and forget that it takes a lot of dedicated and hard working folks to pull it all together. The physical field needs to be in the best possible condition, the special parking needs set up, the dining facilities, porta johns, registration, transmitter impound, concessions, potluck picnic grilling and myriad of other details need taking care of. Our behind the scenes folks are the best. Guys and gals, Keith and I cannot be more sincere when we say thank you, and we really couldn't have done it all these years without you! Mike Russell headed up the concessions with the help of Pam Sockow, Mike Holroyde and Peter Waters. Parking and parking directions were handled by Arthur Deane (president of Midwest), Barb and Bob Weak and Ken Sutton.
Denny Sumner and Dave Stacer handled registration and transmitter impound. Denny is pictured in the photo, but Dave jumped in an helped all of the time. Keith and I sincerely thank Denny Sumner, David Stacer, Paul and Pam Sockow, Mike Russell, Peter Waters, Dave Hares, Arthur Deane, Roger Wilfong, Jim Young, Mike Holroyde, Barb and Bob Weak, Ken Sutton and C.J. Wysocki, for all of their super help and support. There were also more members of the EFO, Ann Arbor Falcons and the Midwest RC Society who pitched in with parking and other spur of the moment jobs. Thanks to you folks as well! Also, a special thanks goes out to the Midwest RC Society for allowing us to use their field and flying time for the majority of our Mid-Am meets. You guys and gals are the very best! Many folks attending the Mid-Am know Dave as THE MAN manning the grill at the Saturday evening potluck. For more than 20 years heÕs filled this extremely important position. Besides cooking the steaks and sautŽing the onions, he has been the organizer of the potluck and chief wrangler to see that everything was there for our guests. This year he was ably assisted by Pam Sockow. Thanks again Dave for another special year at the traditional Saturday evening potluck. Also, a huge thanks to Pam for pitching in after working a full day in the concession stand with her arm in a sling! There are all kinds of flying vehicles that take to the air at the Mid-Am.  A look east on the flight line early in the day as Pete Foss carries his Hyperion Chipmunk back to his pit area after another successful flight.  Chris True readies his BVM Electra EDF for another great flight. A 10S LiPo powers this plane. It has a super flight envelope from extremely fast to unbelievably slow. It is the best EDF sport model I've ever seen. 
Bret Becker photo More of Chris True's EDFs  Keith Shaw's Fokker D-VIII and Martin Irvine's Nieuport. 
James Maughan photo Mark Rittinger's Shockwave. 
Bret Becker photo Jim Young's B-29 made another appearance at the Mid-Am this year. Still looking great and flying well. 
Denny Sumner photo Don Belfort's Luscombe ready for takeoff.
Dave Grife with Riley. The Mid-Am is a very 'dog friendly' meet. Pete and Carolynn Foss and Greg and Lori Cardillo also had their dogs camping with them this year. Since I just mentioned Carolyn and Lori, I should also note that they are pilots and fly at the Mid-Am as well. Thanks for bringing your husbands ladies! 
Bret Becker photo Jim Young's Wedell-Williams. Besides being beautiful, it flies very well. Jim kits this plane, as well as many others, under the name T&J Models. 
James Maughan photo Keith Shaw flying at the noontime demo. 
James Maughan photo Richard Utkan, EFO vice-president since its inception, checks out the planes on the flight line early Saturday morning. 
Bret Becker photo Bret Becker's Electrolyte with Jim Young's new MiG-17. 
Denny Sumner photo Jim Ryan doing what this event is all about, sharing information. 
Denny Sumner photo Ken Myers, Denny Sumner and Mark Rittinger pitting together. 
John Kauk photo Jim Young's MiG-17 on a flyby at the 2014 Mid-Am. You're Invited!
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2157728
July 19 - Saturday Flint Aero RC Club All Electric Fly-in, No Landing Fee, Registration 8:30 a.m., Flying 9 - 4, Food & Beverages available, Location: 2039 Sheridan Rd., (M-13), zip code 48449, just south of Corunna Rd. (M-21), 10 Miles west of Flint, US-23/75 exit 118 and 2 miles north of I-69 exit 123. AMA membership required to fly. July 20 - Sunday, PMAC All Electric Fly, 10 - 4, PMAC flying field, 9480 White Lake Rd., White Lake, MI 48386 July 26 & 27 9:00 a.m. start, WOW has become one of Southeast Michigan's premier ALL ELECTRIC FLY-IN'S. If you're into electric flying, this is the event to be at! All your friends and fellow electric flyers will be there, and so should you.
RCCD's Annual Electric Fly-In has grown leaps and bounds over the years, boasting:
a large number of pilots
an awesome flying site
great food
50/50 raffles
plane raffle
vendors
and a ton of prizes donated by local and national sponsors
Scott Pavlock - RCCD member & Castle Creations representative - and Contest Director Mike Pavlock invite you to a day of fun, filled with electric flying, friends, and plenty of prizes to take home!
Saturday, August 16, 2014 11 a.m. Until 3 PM Indoor RC and Free Flight Flying August 16 NATIONAL MODEL AVIATION DAY CELEBRATION to benefit the WOUNDED WARRIOR PROJECT, Ultimate Soccer Arenas, Pontiac, MI, Noon - 4 p.m., open indoor RC & free flight flying, seminars, youngster programs, contests, pilot prizes, product demos, sponsored by MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION, contact JOE HASS 248-321-7934 August 23 C.A.R.D.S. of Lansing, MI, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Spectators Welcome!, Landing Fees: $15 (includes Pilot Pizza & Soda ) Marv Thomson/CD 517 802 7675 or email
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To Reach Ken Myers, you can land mail to the address at the top of the page. My E-mail address is: KMyersEFO@theampeer.org